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alienating the man at the head of the whole food chain."
"He doesn't know about you," he began.
Her eyes flashed. "And you're not to tell him," she returned firmly. "I mean it! I
will not have my past paraded out again. I came down here to get away from reporters
and movie producers, and that's what I'm going to do. I've had my hair cut, bought
new clothes, gotten contact lenses. I've done everything I can think of so I won't
be recognized. I'm not going to have it all dragged up again. It's been six years,"
she added miserably. "Why can't people just leave it alone?"
"The newsman was just following a lead," he said gently. "One of the men who
attacked you was arrested for drunk driving and someone connected the name to your
mother's case. His father is some high city official in Houston. It was inevitable
that the press would dig up his son's involvement in your mother's case in an
election year."
"Yes, I know, and that's what prompted the producer to think it would make a
great TV movie of the week." She ground her teeth together. "That's just what we all
need. And I thought it was all over. How silly of me," she said in a defeated tone.
"I wish I were rich and famous," she added. "Then maybe I could buy myself some
peace and privacy." She glanced up where the tall man sat silently watch-
DIANA PALMER
15
ing the herding below. "I made some stupid remarks to your cousin, too, not knowing
who he really was. I guess he'll be down in personnel first thing Monday to have me
fired."
"Over my dead body," he said. "I may be only a lowly cousin, but I do own stock
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Palmer, Diana - Long Tall Texans 21 - Matt Caldwell - Texas Tycoon
in the corporation. If he fires you, I'll fight for you."
"Would you really, for me?" she asked solemnly.
He ruffled her short blond hair. "You're my pal," he said. "I've had a pretty bad
blow of my own. I don't want to get serious about anybody ever again. But I like
having you around."
She smiled sadly. "I'm glad you can act that way about me. I can't really bear to
be..." She swallowed. "I don't like men close to me, in any physical way. The
therapist said I might be able to change that someday, with the right man. I don't
know. It's been so long..."
"Don't sit and worry," he said. "Come on. I'll take you back to town and buy you
a nice vanilla ice-cream cone. How's that?"
She smiled at him. "Thanks, Ed."
He shrugged. "Just another example of my sterling character." He glanced up toward
the rise and away again. "He's just not himself today," he said. "Let's go."
Matt Caldwell watched his visitors bounce away on their respective horses with a
resentment and fury he hadn't experienced in years. The little blond icicle had made
him feel like a lecher. As if she could have
16 MATT CALDWELL: TEXAS TYCOON
appealed to him, a man who had movie stars chasing after him! He let out a rough
sigh and pulled a much-used cigar from his pocket and stuck it in his teeth. He
didn't light it. He was trying to give up the bad habit, but it was slow going. This
cigar had been just recently the target of his secretary's newest weapon in her
campaign to save him from nicotine. The end was still damp, in fact, despite the
fact that he'd only arrived here from his office in town about an hour ago. He took
it out of his mouth with a sigh, eyed it sadly and put it away. He'd threatened to
fire her and she'd threatened to quit. She was a nice woman, married with two cute
little kids. He couldn't let her leave him. Better the cigar than good help, he
decided.
He let his eyes turn again toward the couple growing smaller in the distance. What
an odd girlfriend Ed had latched onto this time. Of course, she'd let Ed touch her.
She'd flinched away from Matt as if he was contagious. The more he thought about it,
the madder he got. He turned his horse toward the bawling cattle in the distance.
Working might take the edge off his temper.
Ed took Leslie to her small apartment at a local boardinghouse and left her at the
front door with an apology.
"You don't think he'll fire me?" she asked in a plaintive tone.
He shook his head. "No," he assured her. "I've
DIANA PALMER
17
already told you that I won't let him. Now stop worrying. Okay?"
She managed a smile. "Thanks again, Ed." He shrugged. "No problem. See you Monday."
She watched him get into his sports car and roar away before she went inside to her
lonely room at the top corner of the house, facing the street. She'd made an enemy
today, without meaning to. She hoped it wasn't going to adversely affect her life.
There was no going back now.
Monday morning, Leslie was at her desk five minutes early in an attempt to make a
good impression. She liked Connie and Jackie, the other two women who shared
administrative duties for the vice president of marketing and research. Leslie's job
was more routine. She kept up with the various shipments of cattle from one location
to another, and maintained the herd records. It was exacting, but she had a head for
figures and she enjoyed it.
Her immediate boss was Ed, so it was really a peachy job. They had an entire
building in downtown Jacobsville, a beautiful old Victorian mansion, which Matt had
painstakingly renovated to use as his corporation's headquarters. There were two
floors of offices, and a canteen for coffee breaks where the kitchen and dining room
once had been.
Matt wasn't in his office much of the time. He did a lot of traveling, because
aside from his business interests, he sat on boards of directors of other busi-
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Palmer, Diana - Long Tall Texans 21 - Matt Caldwell - Texas Tycoon
18 MATT CALDWELL: TEXAS TYCOON
nesses and even on the board of trustees of at least one college. He had business
meetings in all sorts of places. Once he'd even gone to South America to see about
investing in a growing cattle market there, but he'd come home angry and
disillusioned when he saw the slash and burn method of pasture, creation that had
already killed a substantial portion of rain forest. He wanted no part of that, so
he turned to Australia instead and bought another huge ranching tract in the
Northern Territory there.
Ed told her about these fascinating exploits, and Leslie listened with her eyes
wide. It was a world she'd never known. She and her mother, at the best of times,
had been poor before the tragedy that separated them. Now, even with Leslie's job
and the good salary she made, it still meant budgeting to the bone so that she could
afford even a taxi to work and pay rent on the small apartment where she lived.
There wasn't much left over for travel. She envied Matt being able to get on a
plane his own private jet, in fact and go anywhere in the world he liked. It was a
glimpse inside a world she'd never know.
"I guess he goes out a lot," she murmured once when Ed had told her that his
cousin was away in New York for a cattlemen's banquet.
 With women?'' Ed chuckled.  He beats them off with a stick. Matt's one of the
most hunted bachelors in south Texas, but he never seems to get serious about any [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]