The Bride's Choice Read online

  “It does stretch the imagination,” she replied dryly. “Now, stay with us and we’ll look around.”

  “Juliana,” Cal said, eyeing the boys, “this is going to be their home—all of it, including the knickknacks. Just let them go.”

  The trio looked at her expectantly and she nodded. “Don’t run and be quiet.”

  “Hey, great!” Chris cried and they were gone, dashing up the stairs, Josh’s sturdy short legs trying to climb fast enough to keep up with his older brothers.

  As the children raced away, she looked at the broad curving staircase, the finely carved oak, the intricate plas- tered ceilings, and wondered if the house could withstand three lively boys. “I hope they don’t break anything.”

  “Just remember, it’s yours in two weeks.”

  “They’re not accustomed to antiques all over the house.”

  “If you want, get Gladys to pack them away until the kids are older. Or teach them to take care of the antiques.”

  “I wonder how much our lives are going to change,” she said, looking around. Cracks showed on the walls, and one corner of the hallway along the wall had a water stain. The old house needed attention, but with Elnora’s estate, there should be ample funds to make repairs.

  Cal followed her into the large, formal front parlor. “Everything is the same as it always has been as far back as I can remember.”

  She looked at the oak and marble fireplace, Louis XV gilt-wood furniture that appeared to be as old as the house, the rose antique satin drapes, the antique rosewood piano and mirrors that ran from floor to ceiling.

  “Isn’t this beautiful?” Overwhelmed, Juliana looked at two floor-to-ceiling gilt-framed mirrors and French doors leading to the porch. She turned to find Cal watching her.

  “We could have a wedding reception here,” he offered. “Keep the wedding ceremony small and then have our friends for the reception.”

  She glanced around the room, once again surprised by the generosity of a man who was going into a marriage only for money. He walked to one of the French doors, unlocked it and swung it open. Cal Duncan was an enigma to her, yet she suspected he knew almost everything about her. Why would someone so greedy be so generous? He closed and locked the door and turned to face her, reaching into his pocket. “I brought you an engagement ring,” he said qui- etly, holding out a small velvet box.

  Her heartbeat skipped and she immediately wondered why she’d had such a foolish reaction because the ring held no love or sentiment. It was one of the trappings of going through with the sham marriage, yet she was acutely self- conscious about accepting the small box from him. “Do you suppose it occurred to Elnora that we might rush into mar- riage just for the money?”

  “Of course. She knew me well. We’re doing exactly what would have pleased her.”

  “But the marriage is meaningless, and we’ll end it.”

  “If Elnora were here, she would be willing to gamble that we fall in love before we reach the end of the year.”

  “Oh!” Juliana stared at him in surprise. She hadn’t thought about Elnora’s intentions, but she knew he was right, Elnora would expect them to fall in love with each other. “I don’t think the prospects are hopeful for falling in love when you marry only for an inheritance.”

  She opened the jeweler’s box and her breath caught. The emerald-cut diamond flashed brilliantly in the morning sunlight that streamed through the windows. She looked up, wondering if she would ever understand this stranger who was far more complicated than she had first surmised. “You give me this beautiful ring, yet it holds no love. You’ll pay for the wedding, yet it is merely a ruse. You are well-fixed, yet you would marry a complete stranger with three chil- dren to get Elnora’s inheritance. I don’t understand you.”

  He shrugged and ran his finger along her cheek. “I can afford the wedding and the ring easily now. Elnora’s inher- itance is too big for anyone to pass up. Especially when it involves only a year.” He moved a step closer and placed his hands on her shoulders. “You’re an attractive woman, so that makes it very easy to go into this marriage.”

  She didn’t know whether to thank him or be aggravated. “Thank you,” she answered politely and then looked at the ring, sparkling against the dark velvet. Cal reached out to remove it from the box. He took her fingers in his and she drew a deep breath. Each touch seemed more volatile than the one before. All of them were casual, even the slight kiss of the night before, yet they increased the tension she felt when she was with him. As he slid the ring onto her finger, she looked up at him. When his gaze lowered to her mouth, her heart thudded.

  “We should be able to get along,” he said quietly, and then he turned to walk away.

  Would he always keep her off balance? She had expected him to kiss her. Wanted him to. The realization of how she had been holding her breath, of how her pulse had raced, startled her and wariness filled her. He would walk away with her heart, so she had better keep up her defenses from this moment on, she told herself. One thing she was certain about him—when the year was up, he would be gone and the marriage would be over.

  She caught up with him and they walked through doors at the south end of the room into a library lined with leather- bound books.

  “We need to buy another desk to go in here so we can both bring work home,” Cal said, running his hands along a fruitwood desk.

  “You take that one. There are probably more desks in this house and you’ll have more work to bring home than I do,” she answered, only half-interested in the house now. Her thoughts were still on him and the dazzling ring he had pre- sented her with. She glanced again at her hand and looked at the flash of fire on her finger as she raised her hand slightly.

  He strolled to the back family-room and she followed. The room was far less formal than the front living area, with chintz-covered furniture, another piano, a brick fireplace.

  “With all the boys’ activities and my work, I don’t have time for socializing, so a lot of this house, I’ll never use.”

  “You can socialize all you want now,” he said as they entered the glass-enclosed solarium that had once been part of the porch and had been closed in. An oak and two tall poplars shaded the room. For several hundred yards be- hind the house the grass was clipped, and then the rest of the grounds had been left to nature with a tangle of under- growth and tall trees. “You’ll keep your preschool?”

  “For now. I have wonderful help there, so I may turn it over to my assistant, Kathy Newton. What I’ve always wanted to do is write books about teaching children to read.”

  “Then go ahead and do it.”

  “I’m thinking about it. Right now, I’m not ready to sell the preschool. I’ve worked hard to get it established. I have people who bring their children to the school from Green- ville and Sulphur Springs.”

  “All the way here? Do they work in Colby?”

  “No,” she replied. “They drive over here because they want their children in my preschool. If you checked my background, you should know.”

  “You’re not going to forgive me for that, are you?”

  “I’m trying. I’m surprised you live in Colby instead of Dallas,” she said as they entered a small downstairs bed- room.

  “I started in Dallas and moved here. I still keep an office in Dallas and I’m there two days a week or when I have to be in court there. It’s not that bad a drive and I like living away from the city.”

  When Juliana started into the kitchen, she heard a loud meow. The boys yelled from upstairs, and she heard run- ning feet. Brushing past Cal, she hurried into the hall to see Snookums scampering along the upstairs hall and the boys chasing him.

  “There he goes!” Chris yelled.

  “Hey, guys!” she called and all three stopped.

  Chris waved his hand. “There goes the cat. We’ll never get him.”

  “Chris, don’t chase him. You’ll scare him to pieces. Leave him alone, and he’ll come to you and get to know you.”

>   “Now he’s gone,” Chris complained. He disappeared into a bedroom. Shaking her head, Juliana turned to look at the dining room and then headed toward the stairs with Cal at her side.

  “Will you move any of your furniture here?”

  “No,” he answered emphatically. “Frankly, I don’t like this old house and would be happy to sell it and move to my place.”

  “That wasn’t what Elnora wanted at all!” Juliana ex- claimed, horrified by his reply. “This is a gorgeous home.”

  He glanced over his shoulder at the entrance hall, and she remembered his ranch-style home with its western flair, a far cry from this antebellum house with its antiques and ornate furniture. His gaze returned to her. “You want to live here, don’t you?”

  “Yes. And Elnora expected us to stay here.”

  “To keep Snooks happy,” he replied dryly. “That cat will be content anywhere you open a can of cat food. If it were my decision alone, I’d tear down Green Oaks and rebuild.”

  “You wouldn’t!” Juliana was appalled, running her fin- gers along the fine-grained wood of the banister.

  “No, I won’t because you don’t want to,” he replied ca- sually, and she narrowed her eyes.

  “You promise you won’t do something like that without discussing it first.”

  His eyebrows arched. “I’ll remember it’s your house, too.”

  “I hope you remember that,” she said. “It just isn’t in you to give a direct answer when it involves committing yourself.”

  His head swung around and he gave her a level look. “I’ll discuss doing anything to the house with you. Actually, the subject is moot since you feel so strongly about living here. Anyway, I’ll be moving back to my place at the end of the year. I won’t have to live here long.”

  Chris and Josh came toward them as Cal and Juliana as- cended the stairs. “We can’t find Snookums, so we’re going outside now.”

  “Stay in the yard, Chris, and keep up with Josh.”

  Stopping on the stairs, Cal looked down as they closed the front door behind them. “You were good to take three boys to raise.”

  “I promised my sister that I would if anything ever hap- pened to her. At the time, we didn’t think anything could possibly happen.”

  They entered the elegantly decorated bedroom in the northwest corner of the house that had been Juliana’s room when she had lived with Elnora. Juliana glanced around and moved to the bed to touch it, thinking how her life had changed since she’d worked for Elnora.

  “Memories?” he asked as he stood across the bed from her and looked at her.

  “Yes.” She was suddenly aware of the intimacy of the moment, the bed between them. “The times I stayed here were the most carefree times of my life.”

  “Was this your room? Your bed?”

  “Yes,” she answered, wondering why the questions sounded so personal. She moved away, turning toward the door. As they walked from room to room, she had trouble concentrating on the house and planning the move. To her consternation, she was far more conscious of the man at her side and the gleaming diamond on her finger.

  She paused in another bedroom with a high four-poster bed. “There are so many rooms. I’ll have to decide where to put everyone. I can’t imagine a boy anywhere in this house, much less three rowdy ones.” She heard a noise and no- ticed Quin seated on the floor near the fireplace with Snookums on his lap.

  “Quinton!”

  He placed his fingers on his lips. “He likes it quiet.”

  The cat switched his tail, his eyes mere slits as he tilted his head back while Quin stroked him.

  “So there’s Snookums,” Cal stated. “Looks as happy and spoiled as ever. Looks as if the cat won’t have any dis- ruption in his life.” Cal crossed the room and knelt close to Quin and the cat.

  “You like cats?”

  “Yes, sir. We used to have one, but it was taken by someone.”

  “Do you have a pet?”

  “Not right now.”

  Juliana moved around the room, trying not to intrude on the conversation, yet curious. As she watched him quietly talking to Quin, her opinion of Cal Duncan underwent an- other subtle shift, one that she didn’t welcome. Don’t be Mr. Wonderful with the boys. Don’t become important to us.

  “I have a golden retriever named Red. I’ll bring him to live here.”

  “Will he hurt Snookums?”

  “No, he won’t hurt anything. Do you and your brothers like to canoe?”

  Quin shrugged. “I don’t know how.”

  “Well, some Saturday morning I’ll teach you and your brothers to paddle a canoe and to fish. A creek runs across the grounds here and there’s a boat dock. I have a canoe.”

  “Yes, sir,” Quin said softly.

  Juliana felt a pang at Quin’s subdued answer. Ever since the loss of his parents, Quin had been quiet and with- drawn, as if he was afraid to really show his feelings about anything. If Cal had asked Josh or Chris the same ques- tion, he would have received a resoundingly enthusiastic answer.

  Cal’s dark trousers pulled tautly over his long legs, and his coat touched the floor as he hunkered down near Quin. Snookums climbed off Quin’s lap and rubbed his chin on Cal, who stood up after a moment.

  Moving to the next bedroom, Juliana tried to decide what rooms to give the boys. “You’re good with kids,” she said when Cal entered the room.

  “He’s a nice kid. He’s charmed that fur-ball.”

  “I don’t know where I’ll put the boys.”

  “One solution might be the third floor. Make it a dor- mitory.”

  She hadn’t given any thought to the third floor. “That’s a possibility.” She went back into the hall to the door that opened onto stairs. Once upon a time, the third floor was servants’ quarters, but had been long since abandoned.

  Cal reached around her to open the door, and she en- tered a short windowless hallway and staircase to the third floor. She flipped the light switch and glanced up at the fix- ture. “No light.” She moved ahead, climbing the dusty steps. “Gladys must not clean up here any longer.” As they climbed, Juliana was half-turned, making comments to him. As she put her weight on a riser, rotting wood gave way. With a shriek, she lost her balance.

  Cal caught her, his arms going around her and steadying her. He braced his hip against the wall to keep them both from tumbling down the steps. Off balance, she clung to his shoulders, intensely aware of his strength and his arms around her.

  As he gained his balance, she was conscious of being pressed against him, her hands clinging to strong shoul- ders.

  “Sorry.”

  “Are you all right?” His face was only inches from hers and his voice had lowered a notch.

  “Yes. The wood gave way.” Aware of his hands sliding to her waist to steady her, she shifted away from him. He re- leased her, yet she was aware he still watched her. Flus- tered, she chided herself for being ridiculous. She looked at the rotten wood that was splintered.

  “I’ll get a carpenter out here and have it fixed,” he said.

  More aware of him than ever, she stepped over the splin- tered wood and watched where she walked. She climbed to the third floor, where they entered a large room. The win- dows were wide and uncovered, sunlight streaming across the dusty floor that held boxes and trunks and two old bi- cycles.

  “Chris would love it up here,” she said. “If Josh and Quin don’t want to stay here, they don’t have to. This is perfect for Chris.” She moved toward a window. “You can see downtown Colby,” she exclaimed.

  Thinking about how he’d caught her, his hands on her slender waist, the feel of her softness, Cal barely heard what she said. As Juliana explored the room, he watched the pull of the short red skirt against her hips.

  “Ready?” she asked, her eyebrows arching when she glanced at him.

  “For what?” he rejoined softly, wondering what it was about her that brought out a basic male response from him.

  “To go downstairs,
” she answered coolly, yet her cheeks became pink as she turned away. He caught up with her and paused at the head of the stairs. “Go on down. I’ll turn out the light after you’re downstairs.”

  “I can see as well as you can,” she replied, so he hit the switch and followed her down, both of them stepping over the rotten wood. He had to jam his hand into his pocket to resist the temptation to reach out and help her.

  “I want to move a few things here and I need to get the wedding planned,” she said. “I’ll go over plans with Gladys and Stoddard.” When they stepped onto the front porch, she turned to him. “It’s not too late to back out.”

  “We’re doing exactly what I want, and I hope what you want, too.”

  “We’ll be married two weeks from today,” she said, looking at the dazzling ring on her finger. “I hope the in- heritance is worth the upheaval in our lives.”

  “It will be,” he said with a quiet conviction that was an unsettling reminder of how important the money was to him.

  Five

  “You look beautiful,” Juliana’s best friend, Meg Parks, said. “Just try to smile. You’re inheriting a fortune and marrying Mr. Wonderful—”

  “You don’t know that,” Juliana mumbled, feeling as if a snowstorm had enveloped her. Her fingers were icy, and she felt stiff while she hurried through the hall to the small chapel. The long white taffeta rustled with each step and she clutched a bouquet of calla lilies.

  “He’s definitely Mr. Gorgeous Hunk!” Meg said.

  Juliana glanced at her tall, black-haired friend and bit her lip. “Meg, it’s all I can do to keep from turning around and running out the back door.”

  “No, you don’t.” They paused in the narthex and Meg’s husband, Brison, stepped forward.

  “I’m the lucky guy who gets to give the bride away. It’ll be good practice for Shauna’s wedding.”

  “She’s two,” Juliana said, smiling at him, momentarily feeling her tension ease. “You’ll forget everything you’ve learned by then.”

  Notes from the piano reached her, and Meg went down the aisle. Juliana watched her friend, who was wearing a pale blue linen dress. Juliana had intended to wear a simple short dress, but at the last moment had succumbed to buy- ing the long white dress, suspecting that with three boys, this would be the only wedding in her life. Now she wished she had gone with her first inclination and bought something simple because this marriage was a sham. This wasn’t the wedding she wanted or had dreamed about. Her gaze slid from Meg’s long black hair to Cal, and Juliana’s heart thudded.