One Heart to Win Read Online Free

Tiffany was sure that what she felt for him had to be hate. It was too strong to be anything else.
    Oh, God, she’d managed to put ice around her heart and pretend to be indifferent to her father’s rejection. Now all that pain was suddenly back, welling in her chest, and she felt likethe little girl standing at the door again, staring at an empty coach.
    “I’m sorry,” she said to her mother. “I was actually hoping you could give me a reason not to hate my father and you haven’t done that. I’ll go to Montana to honor the commitment you made, but I don’t want to see him any more than you do.”
    She wasn’t shouting it this time, which warned her mother it wasn’t just an emotional statement, she actually meant it. And she added, “Callahan can court me from town, can’t he? I don’t actually have to stay at Papa’s ranch, do I?”
    “And how will it look to the Callahans if you’re at war with your father? Not exactly reassuring that the feud will come to an end, is it?”
    “Fine,” Tiffany grumbled ungraciously. “I’ll tolerate him.”
    Rose actually burst out laughing. “Baby, you’ll be gracious and polite. You’ve been raised to be a lady. Now we’re changing the damn subject,” she added, quite unladylike herself. “Eat your fish. It’s probably the last you’ll be having for a while. Cattlemen eat beef and nothing else.”
    Tiffany nodded, but she wasn’t used to feeling so frustrated. Despite everything her mother had just said, she still didn’t know why her parents had separated. But if her mother wouldn’t tell her, maybe her father would. . . .

Chapter Three

    “A ND I WAS SO sure I could get used to traveling,” Anna huffed indignantly on Tiffany’s behalf. “Your mama should have warned us that fancy Pullman car she rented wouldn’t be coming with us on the last leg of the trip.”
    Tiffany grinned at her maid across the table in the dining car. “Mama spoiled us with the Pullman car. This is how most people travel across the country.”
    Anna Weston had been Tiffany’s maid for four years now. Blond, brown-eyed, she was only five years older than Tiffany, though her cherubic looks made people think she was much younger. Despite being only twenty-three, Anna had more accomplishments under her belt than most women who had to work for a living. In addition to her being well read and having beautiful penmanship, one of her brothers had taught her how to lay wallpaper seamlessly, her father had taught her how to build and repair furniture, and her mother had taught her to play four different musical instruments. The agency that had placed Anna with the Warrens had gotten her two other job offers:one as a governess and another as a teacher. So Anna had her choice of employment.
    Tiffany didn’t know that until after Anna had come to work for them. She didn’t know either that Anna had almost turned down the job because Tiffany had made her laugh during the interview. It wasn’t that Anna didn’t have a sense of humor, only that she did not think it appropriate to reveal it to her employer. But Anna was practical, too. In the end, she accepted the job in the Warren household because it paid much more than the other two choices she’d had at the time. But the maid prided herself on being strictly professional at all times, even to the point that she refused to call Tiffany anything other than Miss Tiffany. But that didn’t stop Tiffany from trying to break down Anna’s stiff formality. She saw no reason why she and Anna couldn’t be friends as well as employer and employee. Only on rare occasions did Tiffany think her efforts might be working.
    But while Anna wouldn’t call herself Tiffany’s friend and probably never would, she was fiercely loyal to Tiffany. And protective, which made her a fine chaperone. If a man even looked sideways at Tiffany, Anna gave him her hell-hath-no-fury look. And thankfully she was adventurous—well, until they left Chicago she