First Impressions

by Jude Deveraux

  She had no way of knowing until she’d actually worked with him, but she thought that maybe she and Remi were going to get along well after all. Her worry had been that he’d want to interfere in the designing. What she needed were some strong young men and some machines, not budding designers. “I don’t know about you, but don’t you just love that tractor over there?”

  He grinned at her. “Looks good to me. If you can get ol’ man Granville to part with the money, that’s more than I can do.”

  “Maybe he can’t afford it,” she said softly, remembering the evil that McBride had put into her head.

  “He can afford it,” Remi said. “He could buy everything on this lot with what’s in his checking account. Remember when Compaq computers was going bust? He bought a lot of their stock then. When they came out with a new computer that outsold everything on the market, he sold his stock. He made millions. Multimillions. He can afford anything. He just thinks that I’m a lower class than he is, that’s all. I’m an embarrassment to him.”

  Frowning, Eden turned to look back at Brad. He was standing beside McBride, and they were talking earnestly. She wondered what lies McBride was telling him. They were two very handsome men. Brad was an inch or two shorter, but he was built more powerfully, with a thick, broad chest that tapered down to a small waist and trim hips. McBride was leaner, darker. Brad had gray hair that made him look distinguished. You could see that he was a man of importance. McBride had dark hair and eyebrows, and he looked as though he’d be at home in a sports car with a model beside him. Two very different men.

  She looked back at Remi. When she was his age, she too was disgusted at the unfairness of parents. When she was twenty-five, she’d had a boyfriend who was from a rich, educated family. He was sweet and kind and she’d liked him a lot—until she met his family. They’d quizzed her relentlessly, and she’d failed with every answer she gave. After that, it had only been a matter of time before the boy quit calling. At the time, Eden had hated the injustice of it all. The parents hadn’t judged her on herself but on where she’d come from and what had happened to her to make her a mother at eighteen years old.

  But as Melissa had grown up and started dating, Eden had changed. She’d wanted the best of the best for her daughter. When Melissa had dated a boy who rode a motorcycle and had tattoos, Eden had been nearly hysterical. Melissa had accused her of being a snob and a bigot.

  Now, looking at Remi, she could see his side and Brad’s. Brad had wanted what he thought was the best for his daughter, but she’d married a man who—Eden smiled to herself. “Made her bones rattle.” That’s what a coworker had said once, that she wanted a man who “made her bones rattle.”

  “Can you work that tractor?” Eden asked Remi.

  He gave her a look that said, Just try me.

  Coming toward them was a salesman, and Eden asked if Remi could test-drive the tractor, which had a front-end loader and what looked to be a half a dozen attachments sitting beside it. She glanced back at Brad and McBride. They were now talking in a relaxed, friendly manner. Their earlier animosity seemed to have gone, and they now had smiles on their faces. They looked as though they were planning to do something together. Play golf?

  The salesman got the key to the tractor, and minutes later Remi was in the seat, giving a demonstration of what he could do. He knew the controls on the tractor as though he’d invented the machine. If he was half as good in other aspects of landscaping as he was on the tractor, she knew they weren’t going to have a problem.

  When Eden glanced at Brad, she saw that he’d given a cursory look at his son-in-law, but he seemed to be mostly interested in whatever he and McBride were discussing.

  Suddenly, Brad looked at his watch, and an expression of panic crossed his face. He turned to Eden. “I have to go. The big meeting with the buyers is today. You’ll go with me, won’t you?”

  It was all Eden could do to not look at McBride for permission. But the truth was that she wanted to do most anything in the world rather than go back to the house she loved so much. Visions of the secretary sprawled across the hall floor, and the snakes in her bedroom, ran across her mind. Part of her knew she should return to Farrington Manor and start going through those manuscripts piled in a corner in her bedroom. She needed to start on them for her publishing house’s sake, but she also needed to start looking for anything she could find out about that spy who had eaten her name. Just the thought of it made her stomach turn. It was one thing to watch such things on CSI, but quite another to think that your name had been found inside a man’s stomach. She was sure it was irresponsible of her, but right now she couldn’t bear the thought of going back home.

  Keeping her head turned so she couldn’t see McBride, she smiled at Brad. “I’d love to go. Maybe I could get something to eat while you’re in your meeting,” she said.

  Behind her, Jared said, “Me too. I’m starving. Maybe we’ll see you after the meeting.” Again, he put his arm possessively around Eden’s shoulders.

  Brad frowned slightly as he looked from one to the other. “It’s the BIG EVENT, all capitals. Home buyers are flying in from all over the U.S., and we’re meeting at the clubhouse. I shouldn’t have left everything this morning for the others to take care of, but my daughter insisted.” Pausing, he glanced at Remi, as though to say that if anything bad happened it would be his fault. Taking Eden’s hand, Brad gently pulled her in an attempt to get her away from Jared.

  But Jared didn’t release his hold easily.

  “I’d love to go with you,” Eden said, forcibly pulling away from McBride and heading toward Brad’s car.

  As Brad got into the driver’s seat, Jared took Eden’s arm. “I don’t want you around a lot of people,” he said quietly. “Until this is sorted out, you need to be isolated.”

  “Isolated with you?” she asked, giving him a cold smile. “Mr. McBride, I’m beginning to wonder if your interest in me is purely professional. Perhaps you have other things in mind.”

  At that Jared stiffened and dropped his hold on her arm. “I’ll have you know, Ms. Palmer, that I—”

  He broke off when she quickly opened the passenger door and got into Brad’s car. Jared slid into the backseat just as Remi took the seat beside him. For a moment Brad looked askance at Eden, but all she could do was shrug. She had an idea that if she said she didn’t want McBride to go with them, he’d tell Brad the truth. And what would happen if it were found out that she was being investigated by the FBI? Or that men had broken into her house last night and searched it?

  She gave Brad a weak smile as he started the engine.

  Ten minutes later, he turned onto a wide road with a discreet sign that said QUEEN ANNE and nothing else. There were no words that shouted the number of houses being built, or that they offered water views and docking for boats. There was nothing but a small sign that by its very plainness declared elegance and wealth.

  They drove through trees that had been saved from the builders’ bulldozers, then had been pruned to be neat and tidy. To the right and left of them was empty land, with several trees, all of them of old growth. Someone had gone through the land, marked the best trees, then had the undergrowth cleared.

  “Later in the spring, these meadows will start sprouting wildflowers. It all looks very natural, but it took years of work.”

  “Yes,” Eden said, “get rid of the weeds first, then plant the wildflowers and nurture them until they take over.”

  “Exactly,” Brad said, smiling at her.

  As she looked out at both sides of the road, she saw no buildings anywhere. “So when do you start building?”

  “What a compliment! Actually, we’ve sold eighty-two percent of the houses, and nearly sixty of them have been completed or at least started.”

  Eden twisted in her seat. “Where are they?”

  At that moment, Brad drove over a little hill, and when they got to the top, he stopped the car. Below them was Arundel Sound, the huge body of water that conn
ected the many freshwater lakes and rivers in the area to the ocean. The sound was part saltwater and part freshwater, and was great for boating and fishing. Between them and the sound was an enormous building, partly hidden by old-growth trees. Behind it was a parking lot, also nearly hidden. To the right and left of this building were houses facing the water.

  “Beautiful,” Eden said and meant it. Next to unspoiled wilderness, this was the best. It looked as though every big old tree that had been on the site had been preserved. Every subdivision of new houses that Eden had ever seen had started with land being bulldozed flat. Empty land was easier for the builders to get their trucks and machines onto. No one had to be careful with a backhoe when digging foundations if there were no trees in the way. No one had to think about concrete hurting roots. No one had to worry about harming anything if it was just barren land.

  “Either you have an environment-loving builder or he hates you,” she said.

  “Both,” Brad said, smiling at her. “By the end, though, it was hate. I even kept some natural shrubs, and to do that I had to have wooden barriers put around the plants. I wasn’t popular.”

  “No, I can’t imagine that you were.” She raised her hand to indicate the coastline. “But it was worth it. So how many awards have you received for this?”

  “A few,” he said modestly, but Eden could see that he was pleased.

  He parked in a space marked FOR THE DIRECTOR, and they got out of the car.

  Jared caught her arm. “Stay near me,” he said softly. “I don’t want you out of my sight for even an instant.”

  All she could do was nod as Brad turned to her. “I’m sorry if I won’t be able to spend much time with you today, but there is going to be a lot of people here. Do you mind if I introduce you?”

  “No, of course not,” she said, moving away from McBride and leaving him to follow beside Remi.

  Once they were inside the building, she paused and looked about. Had she been told in advance about this she would have imagined one of those modern buildings with windows that almost reached heaven. The room would have dwarfed human beings by its size and grandeur. Rather like a cathedral that was meant to awe the occupants.

  But this building wasn’t like that. If she hadn’t seen from the outside that it was huge, she wouldn’t have known it from the inside. True, they were in a two-story lobby with huge windows that looked out to the sound with its picturesque sailboats, but the room didn’t dwarf her or the furnishings—which, by the way, didn’t look like the usual public building furniture. There was a mixture of chairs and couches and tables that looked as though someone’s attic had been cleaned out. Standing in front of the windows, she looked at the furniture and knew without a doubt that not one piece of it was new. True, the couches had been reupholstered, but there was no mistaking the look of age. On the walls were pictures and framed pieces of fabric, and here and there was a quilt. There wasn’t a single reproduction anywhere, and as a result the room had a cozy feel that made it welcoming and personal.

  “Who did this?” she asked, and Brad knew what she meant.

  “There wasn’t an auction in North Carolina or southern Virginia that we didn’t attend over the course of two years. By ‘us’ I mean my daughter and my assistant, Minnie. You’ll meet her. She has the fastest auction hand in three states.” Brad leaned toward Eden. “Want to know the truth? We started going to country auctions as a way to save money. We always planned to buy the couches and chairs new, then add a few old things as decoration. But Minnie found an old couch that she loved, had her friend’s husband reupholster it, and that was that. Do you like the result?”

  “Very much.”

  Smiling, Brad took her arm in his and squeezed it.

  It made her feel good that he was pleased with her. Actually, the more she saw of him, the more she liked him. She glanced over her shoulder at McBride to see if he was impressed by the building, but he was looking about as though he was searching out hiding places. Remi had disappeared through a door as soon as they’d entered.

  “Shall we go?” Brad asked just as a door at the end of a hall opened.

  “There you are,” said a young man, his face showing his obvious worry. “We thought maybe you’d run away and left us.” Turning, he looked at Eden. “You must be Eden Palmer of Farrington Manor,” he said, extending his hand. “I’m Drake Haughton, and I work with Brad on his project.”

  “He’s being modest,” Brad said. “He’s the architect.”

  “I merely draw whatever Brad envisions.”

  Smiling, Eden took the young man’s hand. He was nice-looking in a pleasant way, rather like a young missionary. She had an idea that this was the type of man Brad had wanted his daughter to marry. That she’d instead married a man who was good on a tractor must have been a disappointment. But Eden liked Remi. Maybe he didn’t have the last names that were so important in Arundel, but he seemed like a good guy. At least his daughter didn’t marry someone like Stuart, Eden thought as she followed Brad and Drake into the next room, Jared just a step behind her.

  They entered a room that again was of a scale that could have been intimidating, but the use of refurbished furniture brought it down to a human size. Through a wide doorway to the right was a large room filled with well-dressed people. They were milling about and munching on tidbits passed by waitpersons dressed in white and black.

  “If you’ll excuse me,” Brad said, and his entire demeanor changed from laughing and warm to…well, laughing and warm. But the new version was like that of a salesman. He walked into the room full of people, smiling, his hand extended.

  “Ah, Brad the salesman,” Drake said, smiling at Brad’s back, then he turned to Eden and looked at her again. “So you’re the one.”

  Eden wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Was she pleased that the gossip of Arundel was already matching her with Brad? Or was she annoyed that she was assumed to be a done deal?

  Before she could reply, Jared cleared his throat, and Drake looked up at him, puzzled as to who he was. When he figured it out, he looked Jared up and down as though to ascertain his wounds. “The man looking for the circuit box,” he said, extending his hand to shake.

  “Jared McBride.” He shook Drake’s smaller, whiter, softer hand. “I take it you’re of one of the ‘families’ of Arundel.”

  “That I am. Cursed with three last names. Shall I tell you my middle name?”

  “No,” Jared said, and for a moment Eden saw a frown cross Drake’s handsome face. She knew that in that instant Jared had been cataloged and dismissed. “Mannerless Yankee” she could almost hear McBride being described as.

  For a moment, the three of them seemed to have nothing to say to one another. Or at least Eden and Drake had nothing to say. McBride was still looking about the room and at the people through the doorway.

  “Don’t let us keep you,” Eden said. She could tell that Drake was waiting for her to explain why she was there with her rude neighbor, the man she’d put in the hospital. But Eden couldn’t imagine repeating the story about McBride being her cousin, so she said nothing.

  “Yes, Brad is to speak in a few minutes, then we’ll have lunch. You’re staying for lunch, aren’t you?”

  “She’s doing the landscaping for all the houses,” Jared said, looking at Drake with his eyes narrowed.

  “Landscaping? But I thought you were…” He broke off, obviously having no idea what to say. “Yes, of course. Landscaping. I’ll talk to Brad. Will you be all right here alone?”

  “She’s always all right when she’s with me,” Jared said.

  Before he could put his arm around her shoulders for the third time that morning, Eden sidestepped him and reassured Drake that she’d be fine. When he was gone, she turned on McBride. “Where were you raised that you could be so vile to that young man? You were insufferable!”

  “I hate snobs, and he was the pinnacle of snobbery. Right up there on the crest. Top of the garbage heap.”

  “Yo
u don’t know that. He seemed quite nice. He—”

  “ ‘Shall I tell you my middle name?’ ” Jared mocked. “Who says ‘shall’ nowadays?”

  “Certainly not any of the writers in the manuscripts that I’m given to edit. Are you jealous of that young man because he has an education? Is that something you never had? Please don’t tell me that you quit school in the tenth grade so you could be an—”

  She broke off at a look from McBride. He was so paranoid that he probably thought the entire clubhouse had been bugged and someone was dying to find out that he was an FBI agent. She threw up her hands in exasperation. “It’s no use trying to talk to you.” She lowered her voice. “I’m sick of people like you thinking that everyone who has an education and knows how to use a napkin is a snob. I wish my daughter had married someone like Drake Haughton instead of that useless man she did marry, and I bet that Brad wishes his daughter had married someone like Drake too.”

  “So what’s wrong with the Cajun kid? I’ve never seen anybody handle a tractor the way he did. He moved that dirt around so there wasn’t a crumb of it left behind. He could scoop out the ashes in a fireplace and not hurt the living room rug. But now you’re telling me that that’s not worth anything. No, a man needs to have lots of last names and—”

  “For your information, I happen to like Remi. I have nothing whatever against him.”

  “Then it’s just Granville who thinks he’s above somebody who drives a tractor. He’d rather his daughter marry a prissy little—”

  “Hello,” said a voice behind Eden before she could answer McBride. She turned to see a young woman, not much taller than she was, with lots of crinkly red hair and blue eyes that were dancing with delight. “I hope I didn’t interrupt anything. I’m Minton Norfleet, Minnie to everybody, and I’m Braddon’s right-hand man.”

  Through this entire speech, Minnie’s eyes had never left Jared. At first, he was looking only at Eden, but when Minnie kept staring at him, he drew his eyes away and looked at Minnie.