“I don’t know a damned one of them.”
“But Roman, I—”
“Look, Theodosia, it doesn’t matter how many of them you know. By the time I’ve got the money to buy the stallions, you’ll be up to your neck in Brazilian beetle spit.”
“Roman, if you would only allow me to explain about my father’s business—” She broke off suddenly when thunder rumbled in the distance.
Aware of her fear of storms, Roman quickly crossed to her pallet and sat down beside her. “It’s not going to rain. Not here, anyway. You won’t be seeing any lightning. I promise.”
She couldn’t suppress a small shiver.
“How come you’re so afraid of lightning?” He moved her hair away from her face so he could see her eyes.
“My parents were killed by lightning when I was five.”
Shock almost knocked Roman to the ground. He’d never dreamed her dread of lightning was connected to something so terrible. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“I want to.” She gave him a soft smile when he put his arms around her shoulders and pulled her close. “Chancellor and Genevieve,” she began quietly. “Those were my parents’ names. The day they died, we were picnicking. While I gathered flowers into a basket, they watched from beneath a large tree. The sky became suddenly dark as a storm blew over the area, and Father called that it was time for us to return home. Just as I started toward the tree, lightning struck it. Mother and Father died instantly. I’ve been terrified of lightning ever since and have found no way of ridding myself of the fear.”
Roman took her hand and thought about how horrible it must have been for a five-year-old to watch her parents die so suddenly and by such stunning means. “I’m sorry that happened to you, Theodosia.”
A flood of affection washed through her as she listened to the sincerity in his deep voice. She squeezed his hand in gratitude.
“What happened after the accident?” Roman probed gently, surprised by his own intense interest.
“I was devastated, of course, and very frightened about what would happen to me without my parents. But Upton and Lillian traveled to New York and took me back to Boston with them. They raised me as if I were their own daughter, Roman, lavishing upon me everything they had to give, most especially their love. If not for their kindness, I would not have recovered from the terrible ordeal of watching Mother and Father die.
“As I’ve told you once before,” she continued, “I am deeply indebted to them, and that is one of the reasons why I have resolved to give them a child.”
“One of the reasons?”
“Guilt is another. You see, Lillian and Upton wanted to devote all their time to me while I was small, and so they postponed having children of their own. When they began trying to start a family, Lillian had great difficulty conceiving, and then she suffered four miscarriages. Her physicians have said that she should have begun a family long before she began to try. If she could possibly manage to carry a child past the first three months, her chances of delivering a healthy infant are significantly higher, but unfortunately she does not seem capable of remaining with child for longer than seven or eight weeks.”
“And you think it’s your fault.”
Theodosia let go of his hand, picked up a stick, and drew circles in the soft dirt beside his boots. “It ismyfault, Roman, and the sole way I can ease Lillian’s heartache is to bear a child for her. A baby of her own flesh and blood would mean the world to Lillian, and I am the only person who can make her dream come true.”
For a while, Roman said nothing but only watched her draw in the dirt. “I understand that you want to do something nice for your sister, but isn’t having a baby for her taking it a bit too far? I mean, people just don’t do that kind of thing, Theodosia.”
His question and statement filled every corner of her mind. In only a few moments a startling, yet sad realization came to her.
“When you truly love someone, Roman, no sacrifice is too great to make.”
He made no reply to her revelation; she offered no further comment.
In the warm quiet, Theodosia pondered the fact that Roman had never known real love…
…and Roman wondered what such unselfish love felt like.
Chapter Twelve
Pulling aside the curtains thatdraped one of the windows in the lobby of the Red Wolf hotel, Roman watched the newspaper boy pass out Theodosia’s fliers on the street outside. The lad distributed the freshly printed circulars to young and old alike, but no matter the age of the man who received one, he saw, not a single one of them failed to cast a glance toward the second floor of the hotel.
Roman hoped Theodosia wasn’t dressing for supper in front of an open window, but he suspected she probably was. She didn’t have enough sense not to.
He glared at the crowd of men outside for a moment longer, then snatched the curtain closed. As soon as the dark of night fell to hide their activities, the whole slew of randy bastards would come slithering into the hotel like hungry snakes after a chick. And why wouldn’t they?
There wasn’t a man alive who would willingly turn down the chance to receive a hundred dollars in gold for sleeping with a woman as beautiful as Theodosia.
