Thurston House by Danielle Steel

Author:Danielle Steel [Steel, Danielle]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-56700-0
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-10-18T13:00:00+00:00

22

When Sabrina went back to her office the next day, there was an eerie quiet sound about the mines. The loss of three hundred and twenty-two men was making itself felt, and at midmorning, she rang the mine bell, and made an announcement about closing down the two smaller mines. She reassigned all the men to the largest network of shafts in the biggest mine, and told them just exactly what she expected of them. There was suddenly a harshness about her that hadn’t been there before, and they saw something different in her eyes than they had the day before. One of the men mentioned it as they went back to work, and the others shrugged. Like the men who still ran her father’s vineyard, they didn’t give a damn what went on in her head, as long as she kept paying their salaries on time. That was why they had stayed, not for love of her, or out of devotion to her old man. They figured they didn’t owe her a damn thing, they needed the work, and they made a good wage working for her. The rest they didn’t really care about, although when word reached them that Dan Richfield had quit too, they began to worry about that.

“Do you think she knows what she’s doing up there?”

“Can she sign a check?”

“I guess.” The men grinned.

“Then I’ll stay. She pays better than John Harte, at least her old man did.” And there had been no mention of a decrease in pay. In fact, she was planning to give them all a raise the next week. Her father had been planning to that spring, and she could afford to now, with two thirds of the men gone. She had to concentrate her efforts on recruiting more men now, and she was making some notes on that, that afternoon, when her office door slammed and she looked up to see John Harte stride across the room. She looked up at him, but she didn’t move, and she didn’t smile when he reached her desk.

“Unless you’re here to buy quicksilver from me, Mr. Harte, you’re wasting your time, and mine.”

“That’s one of the things I like about you.” He did not seem put off as he looked down at her. “There’s something very warm and welcoming, I knew it the first time we met.” In spite of herself she smiled and moved back in her chair, waving to a chair on the other side of her desk.

“I’m sorry, it’s been a rough couple of days. Sit down.”

“Thank you.” He did, and pulled a cigar from his suede coat, and she suddenly remembered the Indian girl. She wondered if he still lived with her, not that it mattered to her. But the pretty little Indian squaw had struck in her mind. There was something so delicate and sensual about her, it was an odd insight into this rugged, almost gruff, man. “I hear you’ve had an interesting week. Mind if I smoke?” It was an afterthought.

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