She Was Forced to Marry a Poor Rancher — Not Knowing He Owned Half the Valley
Chapter 6
Their marriage remained strange.
They shared a house.
They ate together.
They rode together.
But they did not touch.
Thomas slept in his study.
Margaret in the upstairs bedroom.
Still, something changed.
He began asking her opinion.
She began helping with the household accounts.
She learned that Thomas paid his workers fairly.
That he provided grain to struggling families during winter.
That widows could collect firewood from his northern forest without payment.
That no child on his land went hungry.
He was wealthy.
But he did not live like the wealthy men of Bellmere.
One afternoon, Margaret asked:
“Why do you hide your wealth?”
Thomas looked up from a ledger.
“Because wealth attracts people.”
“People like my uncle.”
“People like him.”
“Are you lonely?”
He smiled faintly.
“Sometimes.”
“Why not marry someone before me?”
“I considered it.”
Margaret’s heart tightened unexpectedly.
“Who?”
“No one.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It is the truth.”
She looked down.
“Do you regret marrying me?”
Thomas’s answer came immediately.
“No.”
She looked at him.
“Even though I was forced?”
“Especially because you were.”
“Why?”
“Because I want you to choose me one day.”
Margaret could not speak.
Thomas returned to his papers.
But she could no longer concentrate on hers.
