Inventions of the Heart (The Lumber Baron's Daughters Book #2) , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Mary Connealy

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138 pages

English

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Her heart seeks safety. But will trouble find her even here?After her sister's marriage, Michelle Stiles is left hiding at Two Harts Ranch with the handsome but stubborn Zane Hart. She's managed to stay one step ahead of her stepfather and his devious plans, but if he finds her, she will no longer be safe.Zane has problems of his own. Having discovered a gold mine on his property, he must figure out how to harvest it without kicking off a gold rush. Michelle, educated and trained to run her father's business, wants to manage all aspects of the mine, but Zane thinks for a person so smart she can have some misguided ideas. Running the mining operation will be a dangerous job, and he can't risk putting her in harm's way.But danger finds Michelle anyway when she's suddenly attacked. If they go to the sheriff, they'll reveal her location, but if they do nothing . . . their troubles have only just begun.

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Historical romance

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	05 juillet 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781493437337
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0384€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Half Title Page
Books by Mary Connealy
F ROM B ETHANY H OUSE P UBLISHERS
T HE K INCAID B RIDES
Out of Control
In Too Deep
Over the Edge
T ROUBLE IN T EXAS
Swept Away
Fired Up
Stuck Together
W ILD AT H EART
Tried and True
Now and Forever
Fire and Ice
T HE C IMARRON L EGACY
No Way Up
Long Time Gone
Too Far Down
H IGH S IERRA S WEETHEARTS
The Accidental Guardian
The Reluctant Warrior
The Unexpected Champion
B RIDES OF H OPE M OUNTAIN
Aiming for Love
Woman of Sunlight
Her Secret Song
B ROTHERS IN A RMS
Braced for Love
A Man with a Past
Love on the Range
T HE L UMBER B ARON ’ S D AUGHTERS
The Element of Love
Inventions of the Heart
The Boden Birthright: A C IMARRON L EGACY Novella (All for Love Collection)
Meeting Her Match: A Match Made in Texas Novella
Runaway Bride: A K INCAID B RIDES and T ROUBLE IN T EXAS Novella ( With This Ring ? Collection)
The Tangled Ties That Bind: A K INCAID B RIDES Novella ( Hearts Entwined Collection)
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2022 by Mary Connealy
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Ebook edition created 2022
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-3733-7
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
This is a work of historical reconstruction; the appearances of certain historical figures are therefore inevitable. All other characters, however, are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Cover design by LOOK Design Studio
Cover photography by Aimee Christenson
Author is represented by the Natasha Kern Literary Agency.
Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.
Dedication

To my grandchildren: Elle, Isaac, Luke, Katherine, Lauren, and Adrian. The absolute lights of my life. It’s almost the weirdest kind of pure luck that the six smartest, sweetest, most beautiful children in the world ended up all being my grandchildren. What are the odds?
Contents
Cover
Half Title Page
Books by Mary Connealy
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
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About the Author
Back Ads
Back Cover
CHAPTER ONE
J ULY 1872 T WO H ARTS R ANCH D O RADA R IO , C ALIFORNIA
A T LEAST YOU KNOW YOU CAN TRUST ME.” Michelle Stiles slashed a hand about an inch from Zane Hart’s face.
They sat in his kitchen. His roof over her head. His food in her stomach. And safety thanks to him. Still, the man was so stubborn. She wanted to help, and besides, she was bored, and she knew she could do this job better than anyone else.
Zane slammed both fists down on the table, and his dark blue eyes flashed like summer lightning. “This subject is closed. Don’t you have a husband to find?”
Michelle never should’ve told him about the terms of Papa’s will. He’d been goading her about it ever since. And anyway, he shouldn’t be able to torment her so smugly about her finding a husband after he’d kissed her.
She shoved her dark curls out of her eyes and tried to overpower him with the force of her will. “I don’t need to find a husband right away. Things are better now.”
Zane glared at her, looking remarkably un-overpowered.
She thought of what a terrible job her stepfather, Edgar Beaumont, was doing running Stiles Lumber, the vast company her father had founded and raised her and her sisters to take over.
When Mama married Edgar, their lives had turned ugly. They discovered Edgar’s plot to marry his stepdaughters off to loathsome friends of his and had no choice but to run.
And because he had them virtually held prisoner in the mansion her parents had built on top of a remote mountain, the fastest way to escape had been to ride down a flume in half barrels. They’d survived the reckless escape and found a place to hide on the edge of Zane’s ranch.
And Zane was right about marriage. Each sister inherited her one-third of the company when she turned twenty-five or when she married. Now with Laura married, all Michelle needed to do was round up a husband, and she and Laura could combine their shares of the company and take controlling interest in Stiles Lumber. Jilly could be next to get married, of course, but she seemed overly resistant to the idea, and Michelle couldn’t guess why.
Their company was still in danger from Edgar. But Zane didn’t need to keep bringing it up. The fact that he was right only made it more irritating.
“At least Mama isn’t in danger anymore. And Laura is all safely married and back there with Caleb and Nick to protect her and Mama.” Michelle trembled to think of Edgar’s violent anger toward Mama when he’d found the girls gone.
They’d tried to bring Mama along, but she’d fallen and sprained her ankle, and they had no choice but to abandon her.
Michelle had hated it.
But then they met Zane and his cowhand Nick Ryder, who knew of the Stiles Lumber dynasty and had worked for them last summer.
When Nick heard Mama was in danger, he jumped on his horse and rode off to the rescue.
After that, they found gold near Purgatory, a rough settlement on Zane’s property.
“Let me run the mining operation.” There was no mining operation yet, because when Laura had found the gold and told Zane, all of them had known gold caused trouble.
No one had figured out what to do about a gold strike, so it remained a secret. Michelle wasn’t just offering to run his mining company. She was offering to create the company, work the mine, and count, ship, and sell the gold. She’d figure out security and how to protect the gold. She had no doubt in her mind she could manage it.
She wanted to do it all.
“You’re leaving,” Zane said. “I need someone permanent.”
“Let me do it until I leave. I promise to train my replacement.”
“Michelle, you know you’re going to have trouble keeping men honest. I need someone who’s not going to hesitate when they need to beat the living daylights out of one of my miners.” He glared at her in such a way as to say he doubted she’d manage that.
With some justification.
She couldn’t see herself winning a fistfight with a man half-mad with gold fever.
“That’s the other thing I’ve decided, and it’s part of letting me run things.”
Zane didn’t hammer his fists again. Instead, he laid his face straight down on the table with a sigh that sounded like his whole body was deflating. “What now?”
She stared at the crown of his head. The dark swirl of his hair seemed much happier than he was. “I’ve decided that, for now, we shouldn’t hire miners. You should hire a few trusted men as guards and just let me and Jilly mine your gold. We’ll find out soon enough if it’s a rich vein. If it goes deep, then we can’t handle that much mining. But what if that big chunk of quartz is all there is? Jilly and I can quietly mine the gold. We can transport it back here under armed guard, and word won’t get out that you found it until you’ve sold it and used the money to buy half of California. That’s your goal, right?”
“Don’t act like I’m greedy.” He was speaking straight into the tabletop. “Not when you own a whole mountain covered with trees and live in a mansion that’d make a king blush over the excess of it.”
“You’ve never seen it.” Michelle paused, then shrugged. “It’s huge, though, and beautiful. A king would be lucky to have such a nice house.”
“I’m never going to let you run my gold mine. I’m sure you’d be good at it if you didn’t have to handle a bunch of rough men who probably have gold fever and might be willing to kill you.”
Nodding, Michelle said, “Not too many lumberjacks have any dreams about running off with their pockets full of trees.”
One of her brunette curls swung loose from the bun at the back of her head, and she twisted it in her fingers thoughtfully. “I could handle it, though. I might need a gun. Can I borrow a gun, Zane?”
That lifted his head up at least. She saw him roll his eyes. “You’re admitting it’s a dangerous job. I can’t put you at risk.”
“I’m educated enough to manage. And there’s no way to get the material in here to work on my gas engine.” She gave him a narrow-eyed look. “Is there?”
Zane shook his head. “Forget the engine. We don’t need an engine on a ranch.”
“It’s not for the ranch. It’s for, well, for lots of things. But mainly it can be used in the sawmill my family owns and the trains we’re going to own. And I also have some ideas for improvement on rolling stock.”
“You’re not rolling my cows anywhere.”
Michelle blinked at him. “Um, not stock like livestock. Rolling stock like the rolling cars the train engine pulls. I want to alter them to load logs onto them more easily and make sure they’re strong enough to take the weight. And there are issues with the braking system on a long downhill slope, so I—”
“Stop talking about trains and logs and tell me what you want to manage.”
“Well, your gold mining operation, of course. But honestly, I want to manage everything. The whole world would run better if they put me in charge. Don’t you like the hot water in your back room? In the kitchen? I could turn one of your upstairs rooms into a proper bathing room with a tub, if you’d just get me a—”
“No. The hot water in the house is a wonder, and I thank you kindly for it. But I’m not letting you run my mine.”
“We’re alone for the first ti