The C.E.O.'s Unplanned Proposal by Karen Toller Whittenburg

Author:Karen Toller Whittenburg
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Katie stepped into the large corner bedroom, thinking even Alice in Wonderland might have felt a little overwhelmed. The room, like the rest of the house, was gracious, luxuriously elegant and oversized, with ceilings so high even an NBA star would have to have a tall ladder to change a lightbulb. It was as lovely a bedroom as any Katie had ever slept in and easily ten times the size of the cubbyhole of a room she’d occupied during the eleven years she lived with her grandparents in Oklahoma. “Wow,” she said. “You could billet a whole Boy Scout troop in here.”

“There’s a great view of the gardens from this room.” Adam set her duffel and two bulging shopping bags on the floor. “And a pleasant cross-breeze in the evenings at this time of year.”

Katie walked to the window and looked out in an effort to hide the fact that she was as nervous and excited as a half-grown pup on a visit to a tree farm. Over the past twenty-four hours, she’d had long talks with herself and a couple of brief conversations with Ilsa Fairchild. By the time Benson arrived in the Rolls-Royce, Katie had her shoulders squared, her chin up and a can-do attitude tucked securely in her heart’s pocket. She’d been fine with the whole party-planning, see-what-life-is-like-inside-the-manor adventure…right up until the moment Adam had made a proprietary snatch of her duffel bag and staked some kind of claim by declaring to the butler and Ruth, the housekeeper, that he would personally escort her to her room. Which he’d done. “It is a beautiful view,” she said.

“When I was a boy, my grandmother would plan camp-outs in different rooms of the house. I think she wanted to be sure we knew our way around and wouldn’t get lost in our own home. This room was always one of her favorite campsites.”

“No campfires allowed, I take it?”

“We’re pretty careful with fires around here. The original Hall was built in 1834, but burned in 1870. It was promptly rebuilt, and burned again in 1915. When the house was rebuilt then, the fire retardant features were the best money could buy. Needless to say, they’ve been updated many times since. No point in taking chances.”

“What did you do on the camp-outs with your grandmother?”

His smile went soft with memory and caught at her heartstrings. “Learned about family history, the responsibilities of being born a Braddock, the duty of stewardship. Of course, I didn’t know that at the time. Grandmother was a wonderful storyteller and I thought we were only having fun.”

“You and your brothers?”

“Just me, at first. Then Bryce arrived and joined us on the in-house excursions. By the time Peter came to live with us, though, I was long past the point of enjoying a camp-out.”

“Peter wasn’t born here?” she asked, surprised.

“My father was the last Braddock to be born here at the Hall. I was born in Boston, while my parents were students at Harvard. Bryce was born in Dublin, Peter in California.

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