The Enchanted Land Read online

  Seth knew Cynthia considered Morgan no temptation. Certainly the girl knew it too. She wasn’t pretty—or was she? He wondered how she would look with her long pale hair loose, cascading across her shoulders and down her back, with no clothes on.

  Seth assured Cynthia that he would very much like to dance with Morgan. Doubt crossed Cynthia’s face, but only for a moment.

  “But would you please introduce us first?” he said.

  The introduction completed. Morgan extended her hand and found it totally engulfed by his. His hand was warm, the palm calloused and hard.

  “I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Miss Wakefield.” His eyes smiled. He showed much more interest in her than he had a few minutes before. He turned to Cynthia. “Please excuse us. A waltz has begun, and I am interested in knowing how Miss Wakefield came by a first name like Morgan.” He led Morgan to the dance floor. She could feel the warmth of his body through his coat sleeve.

  He took her in his arms and they began to dance. She was glad now that Aunt Lacey had arranged for her dancing lessons. She wanted to glide, to enjoy herself, but she remembered the job that had to be done.

  “Mr. Colter, I heard it mentioned that you have a place in New Mexico.”

  He paused before answering. What game was she playing? “Yes, I do … a small cattle ranch.”

  How to go on? How do you lead up to asking a total stranger to marry you? “My father lived in New Mexico for a number of years. I was born there.” When he didn’t reply, she said, “His name was Charles Wakefield.”

  He tilted his head. “I’ve heard of your father. A very wealthy man, with a large spread just south of Albuquerque.”

  She looked straight into his eyes and said it plainly. “Yes, a very wealthy man.”

  He laughed aloud. He thought he saw her game. He knew her father had died within the year. She probably was an heiress. Since she couldn’t flirt with looks, like Cynthia, she was going to dangle her money as bait. It was incredible what a woman would do to get a husband.

  Morgan took a deep breath. “I shall be honest, Mr. Colter. I’d like to make a business deal with you. As you say, my father was a very wealthy man. And now he has left that money to me, on a condition.

  “In compliance with that condition,” she continued, “I’d like to offer you a job. It would be no more than a job,” she emphasized. “The job would last one year, you would not have to leave your ranch in New Mexico, and I would pay you twenty-five thousand dollars for your services during that year.”

  He was about to speak when the music stopped. They both looked up to see Cynthia rapidly making her way toward them. She doesn’t waste any time, thought Morgan.

  “Miss Wakefield,” he said, taking her arm, “your job interests me. Shall we go somewhere where we can talk?”

  Much to Cynthia’s chagrin, Seth led Morgan away. Of course, he couldn’t have seen me coming or he would never have turned his back, thought Cynthia. Yet there was just a seed of doubt.

  “Cynthia! What a lovely dress!” someone called. Cynthia turned to accept the compliment and missed seeing Seth lead Morgan into the garden.

  Morgan and Seth sat side by side on a stone bench under a copse of trees.

  “Now, Miss Wakefield, just what is this job that is so important that you are willing to pay twenty-five thousand dollars for it?” He leaned against a tree, and smiled a half-smile.

  Morgan thought quickly. She sensed that if she burst out that the job was to marry her and live with her for one year, he would leave. No, she must explain it all from the beginning and gradually lead up to his part in her life.

  She looked at her hands and took a deep breath. “Mr. Colter, this is an unusual story, and before I tell you of the job, I must explain some of its background.

  “I have said that I was born in New Mexico. My mother and father lived there, together, for two years, including the year after I was born. My mother hated the heat and the dryness and the lack of comfort. She had been accustomed to much better in her father’s house here in Kentucky.

  “She left him, took me, and returned to her home. I lived alone with my mother, in the country, until I was sixteen. Then she passed away. For the past two years I have lived with my aunt and uncle here in Louisville.” Morgan felt the anger rise in her as she arrived at this point in her story. She rose and stood by the bougainvillea vine at the corner of the bench.

  Without looking at him, she continued. “My life was peaceful until six months ago. I had planned to live with my aunt and uncle until such time as my uncle gave his consent for my return to Trahern House, the home of my childhood. I must digress a moment and tell you, Mr. Colter,” she met his eyes, “that I do not feel at ease around large numbers of people. My major goal in life has been to live alone at Trahern House. You must understand that.”

  Seth recalled his home in the mountains of New Mexico, the isolation of it, the peace of it. “I do understand that,” he said.

  Morgan sensed that he did.

  “Please continue, Miss Wakefield. You were saying that everything changed six months ago?”

  “Six months ago my father died. He left his money to me, but with a stipulation, which is what puts me here at this exact moment.”

  “Come now, Miss Wakefield, you do not flatter me. I trust that our friend, Cynthia, would not find being here with me so distasteful.”

  Morgan stiffened. “I am not at all like Cynthia Ferguson. If I had my wish, I would be at home at Trahern House.”

  “I am sorry. I did not wish to arouse your hostility. I am still waiting for my part in this.”

  “My father had always wanted my mother to send me to New Mexico, but she refused. So my father decided to see to it that I went to New Mexico after his death.” She paused to draw a breath, and looked directly at Seth. “If I am to collect my inheritance, I must marry a man and live with him in New Mexico for one year.”

  She watched him intently. But in the dim light, she could see no change in his expression.

  “I must do this before I am twenty-five years old or else everything goes to my uncle.” Her voice changed. “And of course my uncle is planning everything in his power to keep me from marrying. You can see the way I am forced to dress. In two days, he plans to take my aunt and me to Europe for an extended trip. My bags are already packed.”

  She sat back down on the bench, feeling spent. She did not like having to pour out her troubles to a stranger. She could not look at Seth.

  There was a long pause. Morgan began to feel that she had lost.

  Finally, he spoke. “Well, then … am I to be the man who fulfills your father’s wish?”

  Her head came up. “I offer you a business deal, sir. I will pay you twenty-five thousand dollars for the use of your name and for a year’s room and board in your house in New Mexico.”

  He said quietly, “What do you plan to do at the end of the year? How do you plan to dissolve the marriage?”

  Once Morgan had heard her Aunt Lacey and some friends gossiping about an elopement that had been annulled. “It will be annulled.”

  “Annulled?”

  She could hear the amusement in his voice and wasn’t sure that he understood. “Yes. Annulled—as the elopement of Kevin and Alice Fulton was annulled last spring.”

  He laughed aloud, actually more of a snort than a laugh. “Oh, I see. I believe that brief marriage was annulled on the grounds of lack of consummation. Are those the grounds you would choose for the annulment?”

  Morgan was not sure about the meaning of the word, but she had heard whispers. She wanted no closeness with this or any other man. She wanted to be free to return to Trahern House at the end of the year. “Yes,” she answered him, meeting his eyes, “this will be a marriage in name only.”

  Seth looked at her charming, honest face, bathed in moonlight, and smiled to himself. He thought about the isolation of his house in the New Mexico mountains and the coldness of the winters. He wondered whether, after the two of