by Tina Leonard
“He’s the same as always, hon. Maybe a bit pale, but he doesn’t look near as bad as he did when he was at death’s door a few months ago.”
That was when she’d over heard the conversation between Alexander and his son, which had prompted her leaving. Shutting that out of her mind, she touched the pearls at her throat, Alex’s gift to her. Somehow, she felt Sabrina’s spirit was present in the church with the rest of her family. Daphne knew Sabrina had to be very proud of her son, and her husband, and her newborn grand daughters.
Alexander looked handsome, leaning on his cane and wearing a black suit. Alex was a younger version of his father, looking very much like the strong, active man they’d watched riding his horse across the pastures on the movie screen the other night.
Danita and Cos looked the way they always did, gently worn, homespun and happy. Cos had his arm around Danita, and she clung tightly to his other arm.
The babies looked like fairy princesses in their gowns. Every time Daphne thought about the trouble Alexander had gone through to get these most special gifts, tears pressured her eyes. He should have been at home resting. Instead, he’d searched for gifts that would please her heart and showcase the very way she intended to raise her children—unique in their individuality.
She was touched in a way she couldn’t have imagined.
They responded to the questions the minister asked and repeated the vows. Danielle Con stance and Sabrina Caroline wailed when they left their parents’ arms to be held by the minister, but Alexis Abigail only stared patiently at the adult faces looking at her. After the holy water had been placed on her head, her grand father swiftly handed his cane to Sinclair and rescued her, tucking her safely into his arms. Alexis gave him a smile, her very first. The sun streamed through the stunning stained-glass windows of the church the first Banning family had attended, and Daphne felt blessed. All the old heart aches, all the ill feelings, were washed away.
She closed her eyes and prayed this magical moment would last forever.
IT WAS not to be. In the night, Alexander Banning Senior slipped away, his fingers clutching a picture of his wife and himself on the day they’d brought their baby home to Green Forks.
Alex.
THE LOSS of his father was some thing Alex had expected. In fact, the birth of his girls had given his father some thing to live for, making a recovery that had surprised even the physicians. So he was able to lay his father to rest with a true sense of contentment mixed with wistful sadness. No one knew better than he that his father had finally become a happy man before he died. Alex owed that knowledge to Daphne.
Unfortunately, his wife was shattered by Alexander’s passing. It was as if some thing unsaid between the two of them had gone to the grave with Alexander. Daphne returned to her cozy apartment one after noon, nearly driving Alex mad with worry that she wouldn’t return.
When she did, she had a beautiful stained-glass frame she’d fashioned in her studio. The frame had three red and pink hearts, lovely and ephemeral jewel tones in the glass. Each heart held a picture of a baby, as well as a lock of hair and a snip of lace from each baby’s christening gown. This frame Daphne quietly slipped into the coffin with Alexander.
His father, Alex knew, would have loved the gift. He tried to comfort Daphne the best he knew how, but she re treated into a shell of formality he couldn’t penetrate.
Best for now, he decided, to let her grieve in peace. Daphne was a woman of strong, deep feelings. He appreciated her mourning his father. No doubt hormones still had control over her body, and caring for three babies was a super human demand. Everything emotional seemed pinpoint sharp to her. The worst thing, as far as Daphne was concerned, was that Alexander had died three days before Alex’s and Daphne’s anniversary. His wife paced at night like a wraith who couldn’t find peace. He began to grow extremely concerned for her health.
He wondered if the answer was to get her out of the house for a while. Alex took her for a long drive, but she fretted the whole time to get back to her babies. He sighed as his wife re treated into her quarters and decided not to press her further. Tomorrow was a big day. Daphne would have her two-weeks-after-delivery checkup, which he couldn’t help but think was a good thing. He intended to mention to the physician how much strain his wife was under.
The other event of the day would be the reading of the will. Alex was ready to get past the solicitor’s visit.
Then they would have an elaborate candlelight dinner at home, since Daphne wasn’t com fort able leaving the babies for long. This way he could celebrate their anniversary with his wife in a relaxed yet romantic way. He intended to tell her tomorrow night, in case there was any way she could have missed his feelings, how very much he loved her and wanted her to stay with him at Green Forks.
All in all, tomorrow, momentous as it was, promised to be a day of putting things to rest and starting anew.
The doorbell chimed deep and low in the hallway. Alex re treated to the safety of a room, not in the mood for a condolence visit. neighbors had come from all over town bearing gifts of food and sympathy. He was grateful for their efforts, but right now his mind was too tangled up over Daphne to make social conversation.
“Sinclair, you old bag of bones, you haven’t changed much in twenty years, have you?”
Alex cocked his head at the shrill, garrulous tone. His butler murmured some thing in response.
“Get my bags, and Phillip’s, and be quick about it,” the authoritative voice commanded.
Visitors? Alex wondered. He didn’t know anyone had been invited. Perhaps Alexander had contacted these people before he died and for got ten to mention it to him. Striding out to meet the unexpected guests, he stared at the staggering amount of luggage on the pavement.
Whoever this woman with the towering, un fashionable hat and her tall, soft-looking com pan ion were, they planned on staying a long time.
Chapter Nine
Alex met them on the top step of the porch, his brows lowered. “I’m Alex Banning. I apologize, but you have me at a disadvantage.” He looked the woman over. She instantly puffed like a peacock.
Daphne walked to her husband’s side, intending to help Alex meet his surprise guests. The woman gave her a disdainful once-over, dismissing her as un important. Daphne stiffened at the obvious dislike in her eyes.
“I’m your aunt, Beatrice Banning Carlton,” she announced loudly. “This is your cousin, Phillip. And this is his wife, Gloria.”
A tall, obviously pregnant brunette, looking a little green, got out of the car. Daphne surmised she hadn’t enjoyed the trip from wherever they’d come. So recently pregnant herself, she felt sorry for the woman’s plight.
“I don’t have an Aunt Beatrice.” Alex’s voice was stern.
“Oh, yes, you do.” Aunt Beatrice gave Alex a poke in the chest with a short digit. “And I’m her.”
His gaze swept disdainfully to the offending finger. It was promptly removed, but Aunt Beatrice’s face pinched like she’d swallowed fermented apple cider.
“My father never mentioned you.”
“Of course he didn’t. He had his reasons.”
“I’m sure you are mistaken, madam. There has been only one child born to each Banning family—until now,” he said with a glance at Daphne. “This has been the case for several generations.”
The tense ness in Alex radiated to Daphne. She put her hand on his upper arm to show her support, feeling his tightly bunched muscle. Obviously this woman was an imposter, an ambulance chaser of the worst kind. She was sorry Alex had to deal with this un pleas ant ness while his grief was still fresh. His face looked as though it had been carved from stone.
By contrast, Phillip appeared gleeful, while Gloria’s gaze roamed every inch of the magnificent mansion. She had completely lost her greenish tinge, the sight of the Banning property seemingly reviving her greatly.
“Even if you were remotely connected to my father in some way,” Alex stated harshly, “he passed
away a few days ago. You’ve just missed his funeral.”
“Oh, I know all about that,” she said airily. “It’s rude to keep your aunt standing in the driveway like we’re not family, Alex. Move out of the way so Sinclair can see to my bags. We’ve had a long journey from Philly and we’re pooped.”
Daphne’s jaw dropped as Aunt Beatrice didn’t offer even a word of condolence to Alex. Staring at her wrinkled, triumphant face, intuition hit Daphne.
It was an ambush. Alex and Green Forks were under attack.
“What do you know about this?” Alex whispered to Sinclair, who had picked up the suit cases as he had been bid. Alex held Daphne’s hand tightly as they walked down the long entry hall. “Is she really my father’s sister?”
“I’m afraid so,” Sinclair murmured. He met Alex’s gaze apologetically.
“Why don’t I know about her?” Alex demanded.
“I’m sorry, sir. It’s not for me to say.” The butler’s expression was worried.
“I’ll have Nelly show you to your rooms,” Alex said over his shoulder to the group staring at the sculptures adorning the entry hall. He pressed an intercom button, which brought Nelly within moments. In a low tone, he said, “Please show our guests to some quarters, Nelly. As far away from my father’s, and Daphne’s, as possible, please.”
“How about the wing that never got renovated, sir?”
“Very good.” He stepped back so his un welcome visitors could pass.
“Be quick with our luggage, Sinclair,” Aunt Beatrice said as she swept by. “I will need to change for dinner.”
“She acts like this is a palace.” Perplexed, Alex watched his newfound aunt make a grand exit. “She’s going to be surprised when she learns that this is a working ranch, not Windsor Castle.”
Sinclair cleared his throat. “I believe she perceives herself to be from the upper crust of society, sir. I’d better get these bags up to her.”
“Wait.” Alex stopped Sinclair. “If my father didn’t want me to know about her, obviously they weren’t close. Why is she here?”
“Because he’s gone,” Sinclair said simply.
Daphne felt her husband’s hand tighten in hers. “Fine. But why didn’t she attend the funeral?”
“Oh, she won’t be interested in grieving,” Sinclair said softly. “I imagine she’s after her, um—” He swallowed his words, looking sorrowed that he’d over stepped his place by starting to offer an unflattering judgment.
Alex stared hard at his butler. “Did you call and tell her Dad had died?”
“No, sir. That would not have been my place.”
“Then the family lawyer did.”
“I’m sure that was the case.” Sinclair’s eyelids lowered slowly as he turned to his work. “I hear the beldam calling from her lair,” he said under his breath. “I’d best get the dolly for all they’ve brought.”
Sinclair hurried off. Alex stared after him. “I don’t understand,” he muttered. “Why didn’t Dad tell me?”
Daphne curled her fingers into his. “He must have had his reasons.”
“Yeah, but it feels all wrong. He had to have known they’d show up on his doorstep wanting whatever they thought they could get.” Alex stared at her, his eyes puzzled. “I can’t think of one single reason my father wouldn’t tell me about a sister, especially if he did leave her some thing. He had to have known how extraordinarily un com fort able it would be to have her show up without warning.”
Daphne ran her fingertips along his brow, trying to smooth his frown. “I’m sure he acted for the best,” she soothed. “I never knew your father to act without reason. He was hot-tempered, but he was also a strategist. He spent a lot of hours up in his room plotting.”
Alex smiled. “Are you saying he was a manipulative old man?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’m saying that he loved you with his whole heart. If he didn’t tell you there was an Aunt Beatrice, he must have had a darn good reason.”
ALEX WAS on the phone with the family lawyer when Daphne found her way to Alexander’s old quarters after checking on the babies. Alex had legal documents laid out in front of him on the desk where his father had once sat.
“So you did call them, then.”
Daphne winced at her husband’s authoritative tone.
“And she is truly my father’s sister?”
He ran a hand down the back of his neck, nodding at Daphne as she hovered in the doorway. He pointed to the old rocking chair. Daphne sat, somehow glad Alex didn’t mind her listening in on his conversation.
She’d like to be with him if he needed her.
“You could have at least let me know there was such a relative,” Alex stated. “If Sinclair hadn’t vouched for her, I would have directed the whole family to hit the road.”
He listened for a moment. Daphne hovered on the seat edge.
“Well, can you at least tell me what they think they’re getting of my father’s? The way they’re acting—and by the amount of luggage they’ve got—they seem to think they’re staying a while.”
After a suspended moment, he said, “Fine. Get yourself over here by two o’clock today.” He hung up and stood to push the intercom.
“Yes?” Sinclair’s voice asked.
“Will you tell our guests that the family solicitor will arrive at two o’clock to discuss my father’s will?”
“Yes, sir.”
Alex took his finger off the intercom and leaned forward, palms on the desk. Daphne watched him anxiously.
“I have a real bad feeling about this.”
“I’m starting to get one myself,” she said, trying to sound light. Her heart went out to him. How badly he must feel! Yet she didn’t dare put her arms around him and hold him the way she wanted to. Tomorrow was their anniversary, and the time she’d agreed to stay in this house would be over. “I’m so sorry about everything,” she murmured. “What a nasty shock.”
“Yeah.” He swiveled to face her and leaned against the desk in a pose that was anything but relaxed. His anguished eyes spoke of the pain he suffered. “Why didn’t he tell me, Daph?”
Their eyes locked. “I don’t know,” she whispered uncertainly. Silent communication passed between them, but it was garbled and un read able. She didn’t know what to say to him.
“I keep asking myself why. Why? I thought we were close. I mean, we weren’t for a long time. I had my rebellious stage like most other teenagers. But we worked it out. Some people never do, you know?” His mouth flattened in an unhappy line. “But my dad, Daph, my dad was my…best friend.” The first tears she’d seen him shed since his father died brightened his eyes. “I never needed a best friend because I had him. Then I met you, and for the first time in my life, I had two.”
She couldn’t help herself. She flew out of the chair and threw her arms around his neck. “Oh, Alex! I am so sorry! So very sorry!”
He put his head in the crook of her neck, his forehead resting on her shoulder, and shuddered with heart break. Daphne blinked back tears of her own, holding on to him for all she was worth. “How can I help you, Alex?” she whispered. “How can I make you feel better?”
“Just be with me,” he murmured after a moment. He took a fortifying breath of air. “I need you, Daph.”
She held him tighter but made no reply. Now wasn’t the time to hold back from him. Right now he had to deal with Aunt Beatrice, Phillip and Gloria, and learn what secret Alexander Banning had been hiding.
In the meantime, she meant to have a talk with Alexander. It was past time.
LEAVING ALEX to look over his father’s papers, Daphne walked from the room. How could they have known Alexander would die so suddenly? There was so much she’d wanted to talk to him about. She had wanted to know, in her heart, that whatever had been worrying him the day she’d over heard his conversation with Alex was water under the bridge. It seemed imperative that she explain there would be no more children. By his heart felt gift of christening gowns to
the babies, Daphne knew he loved them.
But he’d expected more.
She felt like an imposter, a fake.
Walking in front of the portraits in the long, winding hall, she stopped in front of Alexander’s. “I want to talk to you.”
His grim, aristocratic eyebrows furrowed at her. Eyes of blue stone stared into her soul. A slit of a mouth gave the impression that he had disdained the artist’s attempt to capture his spirit on canvas. Wild black hair was tousled, as if he’d just come in off a horse. It was the image of a younger Alexander, a stubborn, determined rock in the landscape of Green Forks Ranch.
“I love your son,” she told the portrait. “No matter how much I wish I could give him what you thought you were getting when you bought those rangy cows from my father, you ended up getting the short end of the stick.” She took a deep breath as he stared at her. “I suppose I should laugh myself silly that, after your disgraceful conduct at the dinner table the other night when you accused my father of swindling you, you can now actually consider yourself cheated.”
Daphne ignored the chills running up and down her arms and continued. “I know you can hear me. So I’m going to tell you now what I should have told you before.” She drew a deep, shaking breath. “I can’t have any more children. Those three little grand daughters are all I have to give this family.”
He watched her relentlessly.
“There won’t be a boy, Alexander. So your well-thought-out plan didn’t work. Oh, I know what you thought you were buying. My mom had six sons, and you thought my genes might bear you just one. But what you don’t know is that I didn’t marry your son because he was a Banning or because of his money. I was probably more content being poor and on my own in my little apartment than I am now. So that’s where we stand. I love your son. But I didn’t produce the heir I was expected to, and I don’t know if I can stay with Alex because of it.”