Reluctant Heir
Page 18
John swirled the brandy in his glass and stared at the amber liquid. “Yes, Amilee. I thought he would never forgive me for taking her off to war. But he’s different now.”
“So, that’s it? Mother was his daughter. That’s why he cared so much about me.”
“And about me. We’re all he has left.”
“General Soutine is your grandfather as well,” Nash said. “How wonderful.”
“So that is the debt,” Chandler said. “You took Amilee but gave him Gerard.”
General Soutine entered at that moment. Juliet went to lead him into the room and find him a chair, though Conde had to help him.
“Not much good comes of war. I think we can all agree on that but I am relieved to restore them to their home in spite of all they have lost. Is that brandy? I am permitted by my doctor to have a tot, just one.”
Gerard moved to comply with his request. “Yes we have lost much though Mother is what I miss the most but I do have a family. For that I must thank you though you went at it in a roundabout fashion.”
“It was all up to General Cochran. I had hoped that he had mellowed with the years as I have and put away anger and thoughts of vengeance. I see I am right.”
General Cochran smiled. “A great deal of my reformation you can lay at Gerard’s door.”
“Mine as well.” Soutine smiled at Gerard. “But if you had sent him back to me, if you had not accepted him, Gerard would have become my heir, not yours. Well, I have made him my heir anyway.”
“Heir to what?” Gerard asked blankly.
The major laughed. “Have you been thinking that squalid lodging in Paris is all he has?”
“It’s not squalid but since I went back over to the royalists before this last battle my chateau was restored to me with sheep, horses, cattle and a hedge maze.”
Gerard felt his jaw drop. “A hedge maze where a young mother played with her son.”
“While she recuperated from a fever,” Soutine said, “just before her husband, an Englishman, came to reclaim her and their son.”
“I still blame myself for her death,” John said.
“No, you needed them with you,” Soutine said. “You were a family.”
“I often ask myself if Amilee would have lived longer at your estate than with the army train.”
Soutine leaned back in his chair. “Impossible to say. But she loved you and would have been desolate without you.”
“I have two grandfathers then to berate me. My cup runneth over, I think.”
“If only John had brought you here before,” General Cochran said. ”I begged him to send you home in letter after letter.”
All faces turned toward him.
“I know,” he said. “There never were any letters. Helen wrote them but never sent them. She has answered for her treachery in this.”
General Soutine sighed. “Let us dwell no more on the past but discuss the future. Since Gerard will be my heir as well as yours what is he to do for now?”
“I’m not sure. What do you think of his ambition to become a surgeon?”
“I think it’s a crack-brained idea,” Soutine said.
“On that we can agree.”
Juliet looked from one to the other. “But it’s what he wants above all things.”
Gerard took her hand. “Not above all things but it is what I am suited for with my war experience. What if Chandler helps manage the French holding? I fancy that is where I saw the merino sheep. Father can help with Old Stand except the mill and grain fields, which must fall to Claude and Nash who are the only ones who understand that business. Though I would like to see such a mill built in France as well. Now that Father is back I see no obstacle to my loping off to school, that is, if Juliet doesn’t mind living in London for a while.”
John laughed. “Give them an inch. I never heard a general divide up the work so neatly but we are not yet ready to hand over the reins so go to your school, whichever one you chose but you must make a round of visits several times a year.”
“And we may marry now?” Juliet asked.
“Don’t ask me,” said Chandler.
“Nor I.” Soutine smiled at them.
The major nodded. “I see no impediment.”
Juliet clasped Gerard’s hands.
General Cochran nodded. “Then you have my blessing as well.”
Gerard smiled and took Juliet in his arms, sure at last that they would never be parted no matter where their paths led, sure that her courage would carry them through any emergency where his might falter and sure that his most important job was loving her.
About the Author
Barbara Miller teaches in the Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill University. She has published mysteries, young adult novels and historical romances, including one nominated for a Rita. She lives on a farm with her husband and a pack of unruly dogs.
Barbara welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Print Books by Barbara Miller
A Cotillion Country Christmas anthology
Christmas Kisses anthology
Governess for a Week
Music Master
Reluctant Heir
Two Hearts
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
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Reluctant Heir
ISBN 9781419924095
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Reluctant Heir Copyright © 2009 Barbara Miller
Edited by Helen Woodall
Cover art by Lissa Waitley
Electronic book publication October 2009
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