Miranda Lee - Marriage At A Price

When William had dared make some critical comment himself about the girl’s recklessness, Hilary had levelled a steely gaze his way.

‘Would you have said that if she’d been a boy?’ she’d challenged. ‘No! You’d have praised a boy’s horsemanship, marvelled at his nerve, been impressed by his courage. My daughter needs those qualities in even greater quantities than any boy if she is to take over from me when I’m gone. The world of horse-breeding is a man’s world, William. Courtney needs a loose rein to become the sort of woman who can survive in such a world. There’s no room for sissies around here. As my heir, she will need more than a man’s name. She will need a man’s spirit. A man’s strength. A man’s ego. I aim to make sure she acquires all three.’

And you did a good job, Hilary, William thought now. The girl certainly has courage. And character, for want of a better word. But will she have enough to get out of the spot you left her in?

William gave it to Courtney straight, as requested.

Courtney listened to the very very bad news. Not only had her mum borrowed to buy Goldplated, as she’d feared, but to buy Four-Leaf Clover as well. And that horse had cost a small fortune! Worse, it turned out Four-Leaf Clover had not been insured, so when he’d died, the loss had been total and none of the original loan repaid.

‘Your mother didn’t believe in insuring anything against death,’ the accountant informed Courtney, ‘and I could never persuade her otherwise. As you know, she carried no life insurance herself.’

Courtney nodded. ‘Yes, I know,’ she said, a lump forming in her throat as the reality of her mother’s death washed over her again.

Hilary’s heart attack had come as such a shock to everyone, despite her being seventy last birthday. She’d always seemed so strong…

Courtney frowned. Had this escalating debt been a contributing factor in her mother’s coronary? Had she been worried sick about the loan?

She’d never said a word. But then, she wouldn’t have. She’d have been too proud to admit to being so foolish.

Thinking of her mother again brought a lump to Courtney’s throat and a stinging to her eyes. She coughed, blinked, then gathered herself. Her mother had always hated her to cry. Tears achieve nothing, girl. Get out and do something to fix whatever’s bothering you. Don’t sit there blubbering and feeling sorry for yourself!

‘Exactly how much money do I owe?’ she asked brusquely.

The way Bill cleared his throat before answering was not a good sign. ‘Er…three million dollars, give or take a thousand or two.’

Three million!

Courtney struggled to hide her shock. And, somehow, she managed.

‘Never let the bastards know what you’re thinking and feeling,’ Hilary had told her more than once. ‘Let your guard down, and they’ll take advantage of you.’

The bastards, Courtney knew, were all men. And whilst she had not grown up to be the rabid man-hater her mother had been, she was learning to appreciate, firsthand, where her mother had been coming from when she’d lectured her daughter over the predatory nature of the male sex.

The month since the funeral had been an education, all right. She couldn’t count the men who’d come out of the woodwork since she’d inherited Crosswinds, smarmily flattering her and asking if there was any way they could help, now that she was all alone in the world, poor little thing.

Courtney’s thoughts turned wry. They wouldn’t come sniffing around if they knew this poor little thing was three million dollars in debt!

Pity she couldn’t tell them.

Pride, however, would keep her silent on the subject. Pride and loyalty to her mother. Hilary had spent a lifetime earning the respect of her peers in the horse-breeding world. No way would she let them laugh at her now, especially the men.

But what on earth was she going to do?

‘I know it’s a lot of money,’ Bill said gently. ‘I did try to advise your mother not to borrow any more, but she simply wouldn’t listen to me.’

Courtney nodded. She understood exactly how stubborn her mother had been, and was determined not to do the same. Bill might be getting on in years but he was an intelligent man, with an old-fashioned integrity she both admired and respected. He would never try to take advantage of her, or give her bad advice. He wasn’t one of the bastards. Courtney liked him enormously.

‘Is the bank calling in the loan, Bill? Is that it?’

‘No. They’ve been amazingly patient, and suspiciously generous in lending your mother more money, possibly because she had such excellent collateral against any loan. They can’t lose, no matter what. Let’s face it, Courtney, Crosswinds is worth a lot more than three million.’

Courtney felt the first stirrings of real alarm. ‘Are you saying Crosswinds is at risk here? That one day I might have to sell up?’

‘If things keep going the way they’re going, and you don’t try to stem the rising tide of this loan, then I’m afraid such an occurrence will be inevitable. The bank will do it for you.’

Courtney just sat there, staring at him.

How could she bear to live without Crosswinds? The house. The horses. The land. It was all she knew and loved. It was her lifeblood. She would die without it.

Real pity for the girl swept through William. He hated having to do this so soon after her mother’s death, but such things couldn’t wait. A loan as large as this grew every day, especially now that interest rates were on the rise again. That loan was like the sword of Damocles, swaying over Courtney’s head.

‘If you want my opinion,’ he said firmly, ‘then you should sell some of the horses. And quickly. You have some very valuable brood mares at Crosswinds.’

A scathing look crossed the girl’s face.

‘Sell the brood mares? Are you mad? Do you know how long it took my mother and her family before her to breed up such stock? The brood mares are the backbone of Crosswinds. They are invaluable. I’d sell myself before I sold a single one of them!’

William smothered a sigh. Oh, yes. She was a chip off the old block all right. That was exactly what Hilary had said when he’d suggested the same thing a few days before her heart attack, right down to the bit about selling herself first.

He’d refrained from telling Hilary she was hardly a saleable commodity.

But her daughter was a different matter. As William’s male gaze roved over the girl before him, a startling picture popped into his mind, that of a bound and naked Courtney standing proudly on some white slave trader’s auction block, her magnificent black hair spread out over her bared shoulders, her beautiful brown eyes blazing defiance at the lust-filled bidders leering up at her.

What a price she would command! He could well imagine some billionaire sheikh paying a king’s ransom to install Courtney Cross in his harem.

Did such things happen these days? he speculated. Possibly. But not here, in Australia.

Still, it did give William the germ of an idea…

Courtney got hold of her temper with difficulty. But, truly, Bill didn’t know what he was talking about. He might know money, but he knew nothing about horses.

‘How long do you think I’ve got?’ she demanded to know. ‘How long before the bank starts jumping up and down? One year? Two? Dare I hope for three?’

William suspected the bank in question might carry such a mortgage indefinitely—till it would take more than a miracle for Courtney to extricate herself from debt. In the end, they’d foreclose, and Crosswinds would be sold off, including Courtney’s precious brood mares. The trouble was, in such a fire sale, nothing brought its true value. If Courtney wasn’t careful, she’d not only lose Crosswinds, but there wouldn’t be anything left over for her to live on. She’d be penniless.