The Timeless Love Romance Collection

by Dianne Christner

  Cleo stopped pulling the tablecloths off her tables and gave Katie a puzzled look.

  “You know, it’s the funniest thing. This man came into the hotel, and Dinah turned three shades of white. She told me to keep working, and she headed for the kitchen.”

  “That’s odd,” Katie agreed, but her mind wasn’t entirely on what was being said. She was wondering if Clay would tell Darius where she was, and if Darius would care. “I’ll look for her in the kitchen, then.”

  When she finally found the manager, Dinah was hovering near the back door of the kitchen. She turned to Katie, and Katie privately thought she had never seen the woman look so plain. She forgot her own problems in the face of Dinah’s distress.

  “Miss Weston, are you all right?”

  “I’m fine, Katie. What did you need?”

  But Katie knew she wasn’t fine. Her voice was strained, lacking its normally authoritative tone.

  “I’d like to help with the cleaning in the dining room.”

  “Fine,” she answered distractedly.

  Katie hesitated, wanting to say more, but Dinah’s problem was really none of her business. They made a fine pair, Dinah and herself. It would be hard to say which one was more disturbed.

  Katie finally left the manager to her own thoughts and tried to purge her own with hard work. It was hours later before she realized the only thing the hard work had accomplished was to make her tired.

  Chapter 4

  Clay hunched down in the seat of the train, listening to the clacking of the wheels as the distance increased between him and the woman he loved.

  How long had he been in love with her? He wasn’t quite certain, having always considered her a pest with her adolescent crush, always following him around. By the time he realized what was happening to him, it was too late. She was already betrothed to his brother at their parents’ instigation and their intense satisfaction.

  It was his reason for what Katie called his “wanderlust.” Every time he thought he had his feelings under control, he’d come home to find out he’d only been deluding himself. He would be home a short time before he knew he had to get away again, that or do something that would affect everyone’s lives.

  This last time he had gone to Washington State to work in a lumber camp. His skills as a doctor had really been put to the test there. He had been relatively happy and content—that is, until he received the telegram two months ago telling him Katie had disappeared.

  No one would ever know the thoughts and feelings that had beset him at the news. His first thought was that she had been kidnapped, his blood turned to ice at that notion. She was, after all, the heiress to a large fortune. No one could have convinced him she would leave of her own volition.

  He had gone home to help look for her. While searching her room, he found a newspaper ad for Harvey Girls tucked beneath the clothes in her drawer. That discovery had been his first clue that she had indeed left on her own.

  When appealing to the Harvey hiring center in Kansas, he was told there was no Katie O’Neil working for the Harvey establishment. It had never occurred to him she would be using her maiden name. For the last two months, he had been traveling the Santa Fe rail system and visiting every Harvey House along the way. The El Tovar had been the last, and his hope of finding her had been almost obliterated. He had been unprepared for the feelings that flashed through him at the sight of her tired face, and even more unprepared when she had crumpled to the floor in a dead faint. Even now his heart pounded at the memory.

  He sighed, rubbing his forehead tiredly. The main crux of his dilemma had been all the deceit. All the lies Katie had told did not fit in with the picture he had formed of her in his mind. She had always been so adamantly truthful, sometimes without realizing the pain she was inflicting on others. He, for one. And she had always been a Christian light, shining in the otherwise dark world of his universe. She was forever spouting Bible verses at him. If only she knew how those verses had stayed with him wherever he had gone. Often they had kept him from succumbing to temptations he otherwise might have given in to.

  It rattled him to find that Katie would have no compunction about lying. Something just wasn’t right here. He could still see the panic in her eyes when he had lost his temper. It wasn’t just fear. It was absolute, unmitigated terror. And the storm! What on earth had happened to her to put that look on her face? He wouldn’t be able to erase that picture from his mind in a thousand lifetimes!

  Though he hated to admit it to himself, he knew the answer to his questions rested with Darius. Anger burned within him at the thought his brother might be responsible for that look on Katie’s face. He wasn’t certain he really wanted to find out the truth, because he was afraid of what he might do. Still, he had to know. Had his brother changed so much in the time he had been away? When he thought about it, he remembered little incidents in the past he had ignored, but maybe they had been clues to something Clay just hadn’t recognized at the time.

  When he finally arrived back in Philadelphia, he was tired and dispirited. The cab left him at the door to the O’Neil mansion, and he wearily climbed the steps, using his key to open the door without bothering the servants.

  His mother was just crossing the hall when he entered. Her face lit up at the sight of him.

  “Clay!” she exclaimed.

  “Hello, Mother.”

  “Well,” she replied, her look curious, “come inside and tell me where you’ve been.”

  Sighing, Clay placed an arm around her shoulders and walked back with her to the parlor. “I’ll tell you about things later, Mother. Right now I am badly in need of a bath and some sleep.” He glanced around the room. “Where is Darius?”

  His mother seated herself next to the ornate fireplace that was kept lit even in warm weather—for ambience, his mother would say. The patio doors stood open, a slightly cooling breeze ruffling the curtains. Clay seated himself on the sofa across from her.

  “Darius and your father have gone to the solicitors to see what needs to be done about Katie’s business.”

  Clay froze. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, Darius is thinking of filing for divorce on grounds of desertion.”

  Before he could answer, they heard the front door open and men’s voices in the hall. Clay rose to his feet just as the parlor door opened.

  “Clay!” His father hurried across the room and gave him a brief bear hug. “Where in the name of heaven have you been?”

  Clay looked past his father’s shoulder to Darius standing behind him. The smile Darius gave him was strained. Clay held out his hand while searching his brother’s face for some sign of the younger brother he remembered. This Darius was cold, his face a closed mask.

  “Well, if it isn’t my long-lost brother. Where have you been off roaming this time?”

  “I was looking for Katie.”

  The room went so silent it was possible to hear the snaps from the logs in the fireplace. Both men seated themselves, staring up at Clay wordlessly.

  “Did you find her?” Darius finally asked.

  “I found her.”

  Clay heard his mother’s sharp intake of breath, but his eyes were fixed on Darius. He didn’t miss the small start and the look of consternation that quickly passed over his brother’s face.

  “Alive?”

  He turned to his father. “Yes, alive.”

  His father closed his eyes, his face going pale. “Thank God!”

  Clay didn’t like Darius’s stillness or the blank look in his eyes. Darius always looked like that when he was hiding something.

  “Where is she?” Darius asked.

  “She’s asked me not to tell you.”

  “What!” The simultaneous reaction from his parents and brother was pretty much what Clay had expected, but whereas his parents were obviously distressed, Darius was downright angry. Clay glanced at each person in turn.

  “She has her reasons, and for the time being I intend to respect that
.” He fixed a steely glare on his brother. “But I need to talk to Darius alone.”

  Discomfited, Darius shrugged his shoulders. “Whatever for?”

  “You would rather discuss this in front of Father and Mother?”

  His voice held a soft threat that brought an instant reaction from his father.

  “Now wait just a minute, Clay!”

  Darius motioned him to calm down. “It’s all right, Dad. I think I know what he wants to talk about.”

  His mother had been silent after that first outburst; now she spoke up. “Can’t it wait until later, Clay? You’re dead on your feet.”

  Clay knew she was right. His brain was not functioning at full capacity, and he would need all his wits about him when he finally faced his brother.

  “You’re right. It can wait. I’m sure both Father and Darius are longing for a drink and maybe something to eat. It is past dinnertime.”

  The two men seemed less than satisfied with his words, but they put an end to further discussion. Clay gave a slight bow and left the room.

  Clay waited until the next morning when his parents had left the house before confronting his brother. Darius was the first to speak.

  “So you found Katie. And what wild story did she tell you to explain her disappearing act?”

  Once again seated across from his brother in the parlor, Clay wondered how his brother could look so cool and calm about the whole thing.

  “She didn’t tell me anything, except that she isn’t coming back.”

  Darius looked smug. “Well then, I can go ahead and file for divorce on grounds of desertion.”

  Clay felt his anger growing. “I’m more concerned with why Katie looked so terrified when I lost my temper. She looked as though I was about to beat her.”

  Grinning, Darius looked him over from head to foot. “So you lost your temper, huh? I can see why that would terrify such a small thing. You have—what’s the word I’m looking for?—developed a bit over the last few months.”

  “Keep that in mind, Darius,” Clay warned, “because I want the truth.”

  Darius didn’t miss the threat. The smug look on his face was replaced with a wary one.

  “Just exactly what does this have to do with you?” he asked belligerently.

  Trying to hang on to his composure, Clay told him, “She’s family, Darius. And I want to know what happened. What did you do that made her run away like that?”

  Darius jumped up from his seat and went to the French doors opening onto the patio. He stared moodily out at the garden that was fast drying in the warm July temperatures. He glanced over his shoulder at Clay, his look one of extreme guilt. Clay squirmed in his seat, afraid of what was coming next.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt her,” Darius told him calmly, “but I had had too much to drink.”

  Clay’s stomach tightened. Liquor was illegal in the United States; that meant only one thing. His brother had become involved with something he probably couldn’t control. He crossed one leg over the other nonchalantly, but even Darius wasn’t fooled by his relaxed attitude. Darius studied him as though he were a cobra about to strike.

  “Go on,” Clay encouraged softly.

  “I wanted an heir,” he said, watching Clay cautiously. “She was a little, let us say, reluctant about giving me one.”

  Clay felt the color drain from his face, his body frozen into immobility. “Are you saying …?

  “I’m saying,” Darius interrupted, his voice hostile, his look one of extreme guilt, “Katie refused to fulfill her role as wife, so I took what was owing to me.”

  Clay was across the room so fast his brother had no hope of evading him. Clay lifted the younger man by the front of his shirt, his fist reared back to strike.

  “Clay!”

  His father’s commanding voice scarcely stopped the forward thrust that would have sent his brother flying through the doors to the patio beyond.

  “What’s going on here?”

  Breathing hard, Clay slowly released his grip and allowed Darius to slip from his grasp. When he turned to his father, he barely had himself under control.

  Darius shook out his clothing, straightening his tie at the same time. “Clay objected to something I said, that’s all.”

  Their father looked from one to the other, his brows meeting together in a frown. “Then it’s a good thing your mother forgot her purse, isn’t it.” He glowered at Clay. “There will be no violence in my home, do you understand? If need be, your mother can suspend her trip, and we will remain at home. Whatever you have to say about Katie can just be discussed with us present.”

  It was obvious the idea held no appeal for Darius, and Clay had no intention of bringing his parents into this sordid conversation he fully intended to finish.

  “Now, Father,” Darius lied smoothly, “this has nothing to do with Katie. Just a disagreement between brothers. Clay was a little disturbed I talked you into selling our interests in the mine in California.”

  Clay’s father leveled a severe glare at him. “The mine has nothing to do with you. You haven’t been here for us to discuss business with, and decisions needed to made. If you want some say-so in how things are run, then stay around and contribute.”

  It took several minutes for Clay to get his breathing under control enough to give his father an answer.

  “I understand,” Clay agreed, impaling his brother with a look that promised retribution.

  His father contemplated them both suspiciously. “If I leave with your mother as arranged, can I be assured there will be no more threats of violence?”

  “Of course,” Darius assured him.

  “Clay?”

  Clay glared at his brother. He wasn’t one to give his word lightly, and right now he wasn’t certain he could keep to such a promise. Darius’s smug look didn’t help the situation.

  “Clay?” his father repeated.

  Clay nodded, his hands tightening into fists at his side.

  They could hear the door open and close, and then Clay’s mother was in the room.

  “James? Are we going or not?” Her eyebrows lifted slightly as she recognized the tension in the air.

  James stared at each son in turn before, satisfied, he nodded his head. “Just coming, my dear.” He picked up her purse from the table and handed it to her. He turned back to Clay, scowling a warning. “Remember.”

  After they had gone, Clay spun toward his brother. “Right now, I want nothing more than to rip you apart.”

  “I know, and I don’t blame you.”

  The words suggested understanding, and Clay directed a surprised look at his brother. “What’s gotten into you, anyway? Cheating on Katie, lying to Dad—you’re not the man I seem to remember. And where the dickens did you get the alcohol? Have you been frequenting a speakeasy?”

  Darius’s face colored. “You needn’t sound so self-righteous,” he snapped, ignoring the latter questions. “I already told you I didn’t mean for it to happen. It’s just …”

  “Just what?” Clay regarded his brother warily, struggling to be objective. Something was seriously wrong with Darius, something that was making him almost desperate. He could see it in the coiled tension of his body.

  “Did you know Katie’s father left his money in trust to Katie?”

  Clay frowned. “No, but it doesn’t surprise me. Lots of fathers do the same. So what?”

  Darius smiled without humor. Clay didn’t like the look on his face.

  “When Katie has our child, the money will be placed in my hands as trustee. I need that money, Clay.”

  Clay slowly rose to his feet, the feelings rushing through him begging for release. “That’s what this is about? You would hurt your own wife over money? What kind of animal are you?”

  Darius studied him with growing comprehension, a look of amazement crossing his features. “You’re in love with my wife! That’s it, isn’t it?”

  Clay could neither confirm nor deny it. He dropped back into the c
hair, restlessly brushing his hand through his hair.

  “Well, well, well, who would have thought?” Darius relaxed back against the cushions, recognizing the power he now held over Clay. Clay could see it in his face. “What on earth do you see in the girl?” he asked curiously. “She’s one of the drabbest women of my acquaintance.”

  Clay settled a fierce glare on him. “She’s not drab at all,” he denied hotly, ready to forget the promise he had made just moments ago to his father. “She may not be a beauty, but she’s certainly not drab. I thought you liked Katie. I even thought you were beginning to love her. You didn’t need her fortune. We have enough money of our own.”

  Darius shook his head, clicking his tongue. “Clay, Clay, you are so naive. Don’t you know, there’s never enough money. Besides, we don’t have the money; Father does. I want control of my own money.”

  Clay could hear the desperation in his brother’s voice once again, and he stood up and began pacing the floor to relieve himself of some of his pent-up anger. If he couldn’t calm himself, he wasn’t sure what he might do. “Then why Katie? Why not one of the other wealthy women of our acquaintance? You certainly had enough of them in love with you.”

  Smiling with satisfaction at the statement, Darius plucked a loose thread from his black double-breasted suit. He negligently flipped it on the floor.

  “True, but Father and Mother had settled on Katie.” He glanced up at Clay, his expression suddenly vicious. “Where is she, Clay?”

  Clay stopped pacing, feet spread apart, arms folded across his chest, eyes sparkling dangerously. “As though I would tell you. And don’t try to divorce her for desertion to get her money, or so help me, I’ll bring every one your seamy affairs into the light. I don’t know why you need this money so badly, but I intend to find out,” he threatened.

  Chapter 5

  Katie, hurry up, or we’ll be late!”

  Picking up her hat, Katie hurried from the room to join Cleo for their journey to the bottom of the canyon on mule. She had been here almost three months and had yet to make the trek, and she was looking forward to it, if a little apprehensively.