Grayson Brothers Series Boxed Set (4 books in 1) (28 page)

Although the board members expressed sincere sympathy over the loss of Amelia’s father, they filled her ears with a lengthy diatribe about the necessity and importance of proper conduct. They roundly chastised her for putting her reputation, and theirs, at risk. But after reviewing the rules of her contract and the circumstances of her misconduct with painstaking thoroughness, they allowed her to return to her position.

Instead of feeling relieved, Amelia was weary. She barely had the energy to visit her mother each evening, and for almost two weeks she spent her time huddled alone in her apartment, hating her life, missing her father with a desperation that frightened her, and cursing Kyle Grayson for buying the mill.

He’d delivered a bank draft to her mother that morning and the amount of his offer was blatantly commensurate with his aversion to marriage. Kyle had made it very clear he wasn’t interested in Amelia or her indirect proposal. Why she had even mentioned her mother’s idea about using the mill as a dowry Amelia couldn’t say, but she wished she had never opened her mouth. Kyle’s horrified expression had been a painful blow to her dignity.

Mortified that she might cross paths with him, Amelia glanced over her shoulder several times during her mile walk to town. It was the only bit of freedom the board allowed her. She dreaded meeting anyone, hearing sympathetic comments from neighbors and friends about her father’s passing, or facing the stares of curious gossips. She didn’t want to display her heartache for anyone, sympathetic or otherwise. She wanted to stay home and lick her wounds in private, but she had promised her mother she would take Kyle’s draft and pay off the mortgage on the house. So Amelia swallowed her apprehension and entered the bank.

The unexpected sight of Richard Cameron strolling through the lobby leached every ounce of strength from her body. Her parasol clattered to the floor and her heart jerked so hard she clapped a hand over the cramp in her chest.

Richard swept up her parasol and smiled. “A pleasure to see you again, Miss Drake.”

“What are you doing here?” she asked in breathless shock.

“I’m a partner in the bank now.”

If the muscles in her legs hadn’t gone lax, she would have rushed back outside, but it was all she could do to remain standing while several patrons, including two school board members, Clara and Art Bortwick, turned to see what the commotion was about. That Richard was here, now, while her reputation was already under so much speculation was too much to bear.

“You’re white as wool, Miss Drake.” He pointed toward a corner office with the tip of her parasol. “Come sit down a moment.”

“I’ll wait for a teller.”

“Nonsense.” He caught her elbow and tugged her forward. “I’m honored to help a friend.”

To deny him would cause a scene she couldn’t afford, so Amelia followed him into his office. He gave the door a nudge to close it, but she caught the edge of it to keep it open a few inches.

He glanced at her with a question in his eyes, but she ignored him. The Bortwicks were watching her through the six-inch opening in the doorway. They would flay her alive if she spent time alone with a man, especially if she was flaunting her breach of propriety in a public facility.

Richard gave her the parasol. “I’m sincerely sorry about your father. I just returned from Philadelphia and heard the news this morning. If there is anything I can do to help you and your mother, I would consider it a privilege to do so.”

Amelia clutched her parasol and wondered how long her heart could endure the thunderous beating. So many years she’d dreamed of this moment, of Richard dashing back into town to beg her forgiveness and rescue her from going mad in her self-induced solitary confinement. But her girlhood lover wasn’t on his knees begging her for anything. He was standing with his hip cocked, as arrogant and self-assured as ever.

She inched closer to the door. “Why are you in the banking business? I thought you had a law practice in Philadelphia.”

“I didn’t care for the legal profession.” Richard nodded toward the empty chair. “Sit down. I won’t bite.”

Yes he would. If he was inclined, Richard would nibble and tease and seduce her until he ripped out another chunk of her heart. No matter how much she’d once adored him, or how intimately he was looking at her now, she refused to succumb to his charm. She wasn’t the same naive girl who had melted the minute he smiled at her. She was just a little off balance and breathless from the shock of seeing him here. That’s all.

Richard accepted the draft she handed him then sat in his oversized chair. He looked at the note and his eyebrows shot up. “Did the Graysons owe your father money?”

“They bought Papa’s mill.”

Richard’s face turned ashen and he gaped at her. “Are they insane?”

“I beg your pardon?” she asked, offended.

“I... I’m sorry.” Richard looked at the draft and shook his head. “I’m just shocked that Kyle would make an investment like this. Pardon my candor, but your father’s mill is in terrible financial shape.”

“It is?”

He glanced up in surprise. “You don’t know about this?”

Amelia’s stomach did a slow, sickening roll and she shook her head.

His expression filled with sympathy and he stood up. “I’m terribly sorry, but your father’s finances aren’t in the best of shape. I would have broken this more gently had I known you weren’t aware of it.”

“There must be a mistake. My father was a smart businessman.”

He sighed and picked up a folder from his desk. “There are several outstanding mortgages tied to his business. His personal account is empty, so those liens will remain against the mill.” He held out a thick folder. “Our bank files are confidential, but you’re welcome to look through your father’s accounts if you feel the need.”

Amelia took the folder and flipped through the papers, her eyes seeking confirmation of the truth while her heart prayed Richard was mistaken. Slowly, as she scanned her father’s records, her body grew weak and she sagged against his desk. From what she could understand of the documents, her father appeared to be broke. All her mother could depend on was Amelia’s pathetic monthly teacher’s salary that simply couldn’t support them. They had nothing left but a house that her mother would lose if Kyle tried to back out of buying the mill, which he would certainly do the minute he learned about the liens.

Amelia’s hands shook as she handed the folder back to Richard. “What am I going to do?”

“I don’t know, but I’m willing to help you figure out a solution to the problem.”

That he was sincere was apparent, but Amelia couldn’t think past the disaster crashing upon her. “How on earth can I manage all of this on a teacher’s salary?”

Richard dropped the folder on the desk then bracketed her shoulders with his warm palms. “I know things ended badly with us, but I would like to see you again. Let me help you. I’ll come by this evening and we’ll resolve this together.”

Torn between kicking him for breaking her heart, and falling into his arms to weep out her problems, Amelia willed herself not to move, not to make a spectacle of herself again. Long ago she’d promised herself she would never again beg a man for anything, but she hadn’t known how tempting it would be in a crisis.

She eyed Richard, wanting to believe he was sincere, but afraid to trust him. For three tense seconds their gazes locked then he smiled that half-smile that had cost Amelia her virginity. “I’ve missed you.”

Oh, dear.

“I can help you, Amelia,” he said, using her given name in that same seductive tone of voice he’d used to steal her virginity. “And you can help me.”

Her stomach dropped and she held her breath. Maybe she wasn’t seventeen years old, but Richard had the power to make her feel that way—naive and desperate.

“We’re both lonely.” He touched a finger to her cheek. “Don’t deny it. I know how you’ve been living. I’m alone, too. Let’s become companions.”

“Companions?” She glanced toward the door and saw the Bortwicks pretending to be reviewing a paper with the loan officer, but she knew they were purposely observing everything that was happening between her and Richard. She moved back a step. “Have you forgotten that you walked out on me when I could have been in trouble? That was inconsiderate and cowardly. How do you expect me to be your companion when I despise you?”

His laugh echoed through the office and Amelia cringed. She knew the Bortwicks would be glaring at her by now, but she didn’t have the courage to turn around and confirm her fear.

“We had something special once, didn’t we?”

“Apparently not.”

“I wasn’t ready to marry.”

“You should have told me that before you ruined me.”

“I didn’t ruin you. Forget the past, Amelia. I have. And I’ve forgiven you.”

“For what?” she blurted, too incensed to control the increasing level of her voice. “For giving you the only thing that was ever truly mine? For letting you destroy my life?”

Richard glanced toward the lobby and nudged the door closed in the face of the Bortwicks’ shocked stares. Amelia lunged for the brass handle, but he caught her elbow and swung her into his arms. “We both got hurt. Why not forget it and start over?”

She stared at him, wanting to believe that he was sincere, that the spark in his eye was love instead of lust.

“We were young, Amelia. I needed to go back to college. I told you from the beginning that I was going back to school.”

He had, but she had believed their romance would change his mind. She’d thought he would stay and take a job at her father’s lumberyard or go into the banking business with his own father. She’d thought they would marry and begin a family, but she’d been wrong. Richard had no interest in working a sawmill or riding on his father’s success. He’d craved the big city and the sort of life she knew nothing about. Why he’d come back now she didn’t know, but she was certain it wasn’t for her.

She glanced at the folder on his desk and realized she was caught up in salving old wounds instead of trying to prevent the present financial disaster facing herself and her mother. Suddenly exhausted, she leaned against the desk and looked Richard in the eye. “Our past is inconsequential at this point. My mother is destitute and I have no idea how I’m going to support her.”

“My offer of help was sincere.” Richard cupped her jaw. “I want you,” he said quietly. “Don’t look so shocked. We’re adults, Amelia. I can see that we’re both bored out of our minds. You need money. I want a companion. If you’re willing, we can have a private, intimate relationship and offer each other something that no one else needs to know about.”

Although they were behind closed doors, her jaw dropped at his audacity.

He took advantage of her shock and kissed her.

The heat of his mouth, the sweep of his tongue, jolted her. Her mouth remembered his as if only yesterday they were lovers, but her heart remembered Richard’s betrayal and she pushed him away.

“I meant that as a compliment,” he said. “A private relationship could serve both of us.”

“Does that private relationship include marriage, Richard?”

“No.”

“How chivalrous of you.” She tried to push past him, but he caught her arms and held her immobile.

“This isn’t an issue of integrity, nor does it have anything to do with our past. It’s about need and desire. Plain and simple. We’re two adults who need each other, and you know it.”

Amelia stared at him, wondering how on earth she could be tempted by his outrageous proposition when he was so obviously a rat and when it went against every fiber of what she considered honest and decent. Maybe it was only desperation she felt. Maybe her fear over her father’s dire financial situation was tempting her to accept Richard’s offer. Or maybe it was a more pathetic reason. Maybe it was simply because she was dying inside and was hungry for any scrap of human affection tossed her way.

Kyle gripped Tom Drake’s business register in his hands, unable to believe he’d just made the biggest mistake of his life.

Tom Drake was broke.

Everything of value at Tom’s mill had been mortgaged to the bank: the buildings, the timber, even the horses. Not only was Kyle out the money Tom owed him for the timber he’d bought, but Kyle had just used every cent in his and his brothers’ joint business account to purchase a mill teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. He may as well have thrown their money into the boiler stove.

A sickening rush of heat filled Kyle’s chest as he flattened his sweaty palms on Tom’s desktop and looked up at his brothers. None of them could take on this avalanche of debt. It would bury their sawmill and jeopardize the livelihood of each one of them.

Panic pushed its way up his throat and one thought kept circling Kyle’s mind. Did Amelia know about her father’s debt? And if she did, why hadn’t she told him?

He glanced down at the slanted writing in Tom’s journal knowing that the need to ease his guilt and fulfill his promise to Tom had driven him to act in haste. He shouldn’t have let his sympathy for Amelia overshadow his instincts. He shouldn’t have put so much faith in Tom and believed him incapable of getting himself into a financial crisis. He should have researched his investment before giving Victoria a bank draft. He should have looked beyond Amelia’s melancholy eyes and found out more about her father’s business.

Boyd paced the floor and eyed Kyle with disgust. “You said this would be a good investment, but this lumberyard is a disaster!”

Judging by Radford’s and Duke’s matching expressions they had discovered the same horrid mess in the folders they’d been leafing through. Radford pushed the drawer closed with his elbow. “What could have caused Tom to get himself into this kind of trouble?” he asked, his voice filled with concern rather than the condemnation reflected in Boyd’s comments.

Kyle had no idea. In a million years, he wouldn’t have believed Tom would ever be desperate enough to mortgage his mill. That’s what Kyle got for trusting someone. He should have learned his lesson when his own brother betrayed him.

Boyd scoffed in disgust. “You should have
known
what type of investment you were making, Kyle. You’ve drilled that lesson into my head every day for the last five years. All you’ve been harping about lately is that a tavern is a bad investment.” Boyd stopped in front of the desk and shoved his dark hair off his forehead, his gaze boring into Kyle’s. “At least the alehouse I want to buy has the potential for making a profit. This pathetic deal you made is going to ruin us.”

Boyd spoke the truth, but all Kyle could think about was how he would tell Amelia about her father’s debt. Or how he would manage to control his anger if she’d known about it and let him walk into a deal with the potential to destroy him.

Unable to look at his brothers, he fixed his gaze outside the window. If Amelia had given him the mill free of charge, he still doubted his ability to turn it around.

“How deep are we in?” Duke asked, leaning against the knotty-pine wall slats, casually folding his arms over his chest as though unconcerned over the potential downfall of their business.

Kyle stood up, needing to be at eye level with his brothers when he told them he’d just tied their mill to a sinking stone in an ocean of debt. “I invested everything in our account.”

Boyd’s expression flattened and he stared at Kyle. “What do you mean everything?” His jaw muscles flexed. “Be specific.”

“I used all of our money, Boyd. Every cent.”

“You’d better mean less my twenty-five percent because I told you I want out.”

Getting pressured by Boyd while he was trying to think his way through the catastrophe snapped Kyle’s patience. “Well, I’m sorry, but you’re in this with the rest of us.”

Boyd flung his arm out to encompass Duke and Radford. “The four of us own the mill. Who gave you the right to make decisions for us?”

White-hot anger surged through Kyle. He clenched his fists around Tom’s register. “You gave me permission! Each time you left the burden of making a decision on my shoulders. A burden I didn’t want that I’ve carried alone for five years. Every time we had a problem, you and Duke left me to handle it. As for Radford,” Kyle said, glancing at his older brother, “he was too busy with his own burdens to worry about ours.”

“I worried,” Radford said, though his voice held no malice.

Kyle tossed the register on the desk, regretting his outburst. For years Radford had been tormented by his nightmares of the war. His inability to control his violent outbursts not only shamed him but nearly destroyed their family. Radford had gone through hell trying to work through his trauma, and Kyle was glad to see his brother learning to escape his memories and be happy again. “That wasn’t meant as an insult, Radford.”

“You two have already covered this ground,” Boyd said, forcing their attention back to the problem at hand. “Give me my cut of the mill and you’re free to do whatever you want with this calamity.”

“I’m not mortgaging our mill to finance a stench-filled tavern so you can drink yourself into oblivion each night.”

“Well, I’m not going to be imprisoned by your ambition, Kyle!”

“Then act like a man and use your head for once. You have as much responsibility to our mill as the rest of us. It’s time you realize that and stop drowning your brain in ale every night. You’re turning into a drunk.”

Boyd dove forward, his fist arcing toward Kyle’s face.

Duke and Radford snagged his arms and hauled him back.

Boyd yanked his arms free, but they kept him reined. “Kyle had no right to do this. He knew I wanted out. He tied up our money on purpose.”

He spoke the truth, but Kyle refused to let his brother drink away the tiny inheritance he’d patiently nursed into a respectable amount of money.

“I made an investment I thought to be sound,” Kyle said, hoping he could batter his point through Boyd’s anger. “If you’ll settle down and give me some time to think, I might find a way to make this work.”

“Why waste the time? Just tell Miss Drake the deal’s off.”

Kyle looked at Radford and Duke and knew they agreed with Boyd. It would be the easiest way to solve their problem. And if she’d duped him, turnabout was fair play. Still, the thought of dumping the burden back in her lap only fed Kyle’s guilt. Whether she’d intentionally misled him about the debt or not, he’d promised to take care of her and Victoria. Since they would never accept his charity, buying Tom’s lumberyard was the only way to fulfill his commitment to Tom. Still, he had his brothers’ welfare to think about.

Boyd jerked against his brothers’ hands. “Let go.”

“All right, but quit acting like an ass.”

“An ass?” Boyd pulled free and glared at Duke. “Am I wrong because I want to make my own choices and live my own life instead of walking in the shadows of you three? I’m tired of being known as the sheriff’s brother, or the brother of the most respected businessman in town, or worse yet, the brother of a war hero,” he said, flinging his hand out toward Radford, whose expression registered surprise then insult. “If all I can amount to is a drunk then I’m going to own the tavern and be the best drunk in town.”

Duke lifted a brow. “It’s been a long time since I’ve thrashed you. If you embarrass Mom with your carousing and drinking, I’ll make it a priority to do so.”

A fire flared in Boyd’s eyes as he sized up Duke’s thick arms then he tossed his head back with a laugh, acting like his usual mischievous self. “That would be quite a row, now wouldn’t it?”

“It’d be a dumb move on your part, but go ahead if you like.”

Kyle slammed his fist on the desk. “Use your fat heads for something more than punching bags, will you? We’ve got a problem to solve.”

“We?” Boyd turned to Kyle. “You made the problem. You solve it.” He pulled open the door then turned back. “One month, Kyle. I want my money in four weeks. Not a day more.”

Kyle ground his teeth as the door slammed. “What do you two want to do?” he asked, knowing he would respect their decision regardless of its effect on Amelia or his own conscience.

Radford shrugged. “Common sense tells me to side with Boyd.”

Duke pushed away from the wall. “I agree, but you’ve always done a good job of managing our business. I’ll trust your judgment.”

Kyle had no idea what he would do, but he knew one thing for certain. He was going to visit Amelia Drake and find out what she knew about her father’s debt.