The Moon and the Stars by Constance O'Banyon

Author:Constance O'Banyon
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781428517240
Publisher: Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.

Chapter Sixteen

Tears gathered in her eyes. “My poor father—how he must be suffering.” She did not want Louis to hear, so she lowered her voice and said in desperation, “You must understand that I have to go home as soon as possible. If for no other reason than to take care of him. My father has no family to speak of, just distant cousins in New York, whom he hardly knows. I’m all he has.”

Wade became silent and turned away. It stabbed him deeply to see tears in her eyes. She was not the kind of woman who used tears as a weapon like some women he had known; if she cried it was because she felt something deeply. “Perhaps you would like for me to send him a telegram and let him know that you are all right.”

She shook her head. “No. You can’t do that. Brace might find—” She frowned and shook her head. “Of course, you have probably already informed Brace that you were bringing me here, so he knows where I am.”

He turned to her so quickly it took her by surprise. “Do you really believe that?”

She caught the gruffness in his tone and raised her chin to a higher level. “It’s what he hired you for, isn’t it? You have been very clear about your intent.”

He now knew the reason she had never contacted her father: She was afraid she would endanger him if Brace found out about it. The one thing Wade had not wanted to do was upset her and make her cry. “Let me tell you about my house. It is just outside the city. It is rather large with some wrought-iron grillwork. I think you will like the gardens.”

She tried to concentrate on what he was telling her, but her mind kept taking her back to her father. “How was he when you saw him?”

He knew she was not going to let it go until she got some answers. “Since I did not know him previous to our conversation, I would be hard-pressed to judge how he was.”

“Did he look well to you?”

He had sworn to himself that he would never be untruthful with her. “I thought he looked frail.”

She lowered her head for a moment while she composed herself. “He was well the last time I saw him. Of course, that was three years ago.”

“I know that. He told me.”

It was too painful to talk of her father, so she switched the subject. “I suppose you have many servants?”

Wade was more than happy to talk about something else. “Actually, no. I do not like a lot of people around the house. There is Mary—I told you about her. She is the cook and housekeeper. She has two ladies who help her with the cleaning, but they go home at night. There is Louis, of course, and two gardeners. Of those three men, only Louis lives on the grounds. His place is above the carriage house.”

“And what about Jonathan?”

“So,” he said, crossing his legs and resting his hand on his boot, “Dolly told you about him, too.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.