The Enchanted Land Read Free Page A

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 closenesswith 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 them had lived together all winter long, they would qualify for an annulment. He hoped not.

Chapter Two
    “M ORGAN , Morgan!” Uncle Horace’s voice reached them in the garden.
    “I must go in, or he will send every person in the ballroom to find me.” She turned to Seth with questioning eyes, reluctant to go without a firm agreement between them.
    He understood her hesitancy and said, “I accept your offer. You said you were to leave day after tomorrow?”
    “Yes.”
    “There are arrangements to be made. I will come for you tomorrow, but it may be late in the day.” As he took her arm and they returned to the ballroom, Morgan begged him to keep their arrangement a secret. She feared her Uncle Horace would take her away if he knew.
    As they returned, Morgan noticed a few faces turned toward them.
    Cynthia moved quickly to them. “Why, Seth, you are such a dear to make Morgan feel