The Cowboy and the Princess by Myrna Mackenzie Page B

right. Tell me what you know already and I’ll fill in the blanks.” Then he sat down beside her and waited.
     
    There were inches separating him from Delfyne, but Owen instantly became aware of her nearness and of his error in sitting next to her. Tension filled his body, but he couldn’t back down. They were both caught up in this impossible situation. It wasn’t fair that she should be kept in the dark.
    Besides, he was too attracted to her. If he told her what kind of man he really was, it would be one more barrier between them. He needed barriers. As many as he could manage.
    “I know a little. A very little. I know you had a wife who didn’t want to ranch. I know you had a child who died. And I know that you didn’t want me here.”
    “Because a woman like you doesn’t belong in a place like this.”
    “If it’s such an awful place, why do you stay?”
    He shook his head. “It’s not an awful place. I love it, and for me it’s the only place, but it’s not where a woman like you is meant to be.”
    She stared at him. “A woman like me? Because I’m a princess?”
    “Even if you weren’t. This is a beautiful land, but at times it’s harsh and demanding. The winters can be brutal. A ranch is like a mistress who eats up all of a man’s time, even when that man has money.”
    “Did you deny her your time?”
    “I left her alone too much, yes.”
    “That was bad.”
    In other circumstances her simple statement might have brought a smile to his face, but not this time. “It was. She was a woman who needed things. Light and company and fun and adoration and a much bigger world than this.”
    “And yet she married you.”
    “I think she thought we could compromise, that there would be more than there is. I thought so, too. At least I’m sure I gave her that impression, and she thought—because I have money—she thought I was a different kind of man than I actually am.”
    “Did you take her out on dates or things like that?”
    “I took her on trips, but trips are short. They’re not day-to-day. This is.” He held his hands out and nodded toward the window and the empty expanses. “But I have to give her credit. She kept trying to get me to change, and I almost considered trying it her way and living somewhere else for a while, just to make her happy. Then James died. We buried him here, and she knew I’d never leave then. She thought I blamed her.”
    Delfyne looked up at him with big, dark eyes. “Did you?”
    “Yes. I was on a business trip, and she was angry because I was on the road while she was stuck here in a place she hated. After she put James to bed, she called a friend, a former boyfriend, and because she felt guilty about that she went outside to talk so that she wouldn’t be cheating in the same house where her baby was sleeping. So, neither of us was there when it happened. My son died in his bed alone, and though the doctors told us that there was no way we could have known or stopped it from happening, I blamed her. I blamed myself just as much. I blamed God and everyone and everything that came near me. My little boy died in the dark alone, so I put him in the groundon the land that my father and grandfather had made their own and I promised him that I’d never leave him alone again.
    “I think it was even harder for her to be here then, living with the pain. She couldn’t stay. I couldn’t go. I think I would have gone insane and drunk myself to death if Andreus hadn’t put his own life on hold and showed up to order me around until I was able to get a handle on things myself. So…that’s how you came to be here.”
    “It’s a hard story,” she said simply.
    “And not one I tell often.”
    She nodded solemnly. “Thank you for explaining to me. I understand more now. I see why Andreus chose this place and you.”
    “Because I owed him.”
    “No. Because you live with guilt because you think you failed to protect. So you won’t let that happen again.