It had been a difficult two weeks, and Gwen spent most of it working in the pasture. She had already pulled out the pigweed and nutsedge, but the overgrazed patches of land needed heavy raking to break up the clods before she could amend the soil and scatter new seed.

“Why don’t you hire someone to do that?” Liam called out from the porch swing set up beneath the eaves of the building. The oppressive heat had driven Liam and Patrick to have their study session outside, and Liam continually nitpicked at her efforts to restore the pasture.

She straightened and twisted her spine, rubbing the abused muscles that ached from two hours of hoeing. There was nothing beautiful about this urban bit of pasture, but she was proud of her efforts to improve it. There would be no sense of satisfaction if she hired someone else to do the work.

“I enjoy the challenge,” she said. “Growing things and tending them has always been a hobby for me.”

“They say Marie Antoinette milked cows as a hobby,” Patrick said. “Rich people have strange hobbies.”

“All rich people had better find a challenge in life, or their mind will shrivel,” she said. “We can afford to be idle, and that can turn dangerous.”

Liam wasn’t impressed. “I’ve been working six days a week since I left school at thirteen. I’d like the chance to suffer from these diseases of the idle rich.”

For once Liam didn’t sound angry or jeering, just a little . . . teasing? There was a glint of humor in his expression, and with relief she realized that, yes, he was teasing her. So was Patrick. The two of them rocked in tandem on the porch swing with stacks of books and newspapers beside them, but there were so many things Liam needed to learn that couldn’t be found in books. Liam had no understanding of the seductive dangers that came from a life of vast wealth, but they were real, and she had a duty to warn him.

Gwen swiped at a gnat swirling near her face. “Do you have anyone special back home? A girl?”

“Nope. Why?”

The gentle creak of the porch swing continued as she contemplated the best way to frame her response. “You are a handsome man of marriageable age,” she pointed out. “Soon you will possess a fortune. Plenty of women will find that very attractive.”

“So you think the fortune hunters will be out to get me?”

“I know they’ll be out to get you.”

Liam shrugged and continued the rock of the swing. “Don’t worry. I’m too smart to fall for that sort of girl.”