Authors: Brenda Minton
If her own aunt and uncle hadn't recognized her, then it wasn't likely that anyone except those closest to her would, at least not in her present condition. She saw no reason, then, for anyone to equate Simone Guilland with Lyla Worthâno one, that was, except her sister and mother. Those two alone might recognize her, so she would just have to keep her distance from everyone connected to either of them. That included the kind, charming and debonair Professor Morgan Chatam, even if he was her faculty adviser and she had to take his class.
It was a pity that she couldn't take Professor Chatam's course online again, but school policy made that difficult because she'd dropped it before without explanation. That hadn't seemed important at the time, given the severity of the circumstances. Once she'd understood that she was moving to Buffalo Creek and would have access to the BCBC campus, she'd simply accepted that she would take the course in person. She hadn't known then, of course, what she knew now. Still, all she could do was keep her distance and let Carissa live her life without worrying about her foolish baby sister.
Her decision to remain incognito made, Simone sat in the back of the class on Wednesday and tried to blend in with the eager young students around her.
She needn't have bothered. Professor Chatam's warm, cinnamon-brown gaze nailed her the moment he strode into the room. He wore that tweed jacket with the suede elbow patches about which he'd teased her, but he immediately shrugged out of it and slung it over the back of his desk chair, rolling up the sleeves of the tan pinpoint shirt that he wore with a brown tie and brown slacks. His hair seemed lighter than she'd remembered, a medium golden-brown with glints of silver, brushed straight back from the slight widow's peak in the center of his high forehead. He took a pair of gold, half-frame reading glasses from a pocket and slid them onto his nose. Suddenly, the cleft in his chin seemed more pronounced, more compelling.
Before, at the party, he'd appeared engaging, urbane, a tad dangerous and undeniably attractive. Now he had a commanding air about him. At once authoritative and yet affable, he looked devastatingly handsome. Every girl on campus probably had a crush on him. Simone ducked her head.
Thankfully, he wasted no time in getting down to business. She'd admired his easy, informative style on his recorded lectures, but that paled in comparison to his classroom persona. Morgan Chatam, professor, held a class of seventy students rapt, imparting knowledge with such facility and precision that it became obvious he had been born for this. He didn't just lecture, he engaged, using banter as well as media to get his points, facts and ideas across. At times, everyone seemed to be talking at once, yet he never lost control of the lecture hall, not for an instant, and he seemed aware of what everyone was doing all the time.
His memory proved phenomenalâthat or he'd done some research on her since he'd seen her last. It would be flattering to think that it was the latter, so she didn't dare, not that he gave her time.
“Ms. Guilland had an interesting observation on that point,” he said when the subject turned to a particular discussion item. Then he accurately quoted what she had written in an online chat. At the same time, he invited her to elucidate with a gesture of his hand. She cleared her throat and voiced her thoughts. Nodding, he moved on. She tried not to feel pleased when the students around her glanced her way with something akin to admiration, scribbling furiously as if her thoughts were important.
He hailed her as she followed the throng to the door at the end of class. Unlike other professors, he'd arranged his lecture hall so that the students filed past his lectern. “Simone, how are you feeling?”
“Great. Just great.”
“No more fainting?”
“No. I'm fine.”
“Stay that way.”
“I plan to.”
Parked on the corner of his desk, he flashed that suave smile at her and nodded. She turned away, wishing that her heart wasn't beating just a little faster than it ought to and that so many others weren't following the brief conversation with such avid curiosity. The last thing she needed was speculation about her and a man, any man, but especially a Chatam. She'd had enough trouble with men in her lifetime. What she needed now was to forget that the male of the species existed. Moreover, she had to keep her distance from the Chatams and anyone else with a connection to her sister and family. All she wanted, all that was left to her, was to finish her education and make a difference in this world.
The chaplain at the hospital in Baton Rouge had told her that she had a destiny to fulfill in Christ, and she believed it with all her heart. Why else would He spare her life when all hope had seemed lost? Perhaps when He was done punishing her for past mistakes, He would make His purpose known to her. Until then, she would just have to bear up under the pain of her father's death and the losses she had dealt herself with her own foolish, selfish behavior.
* * *
Anyone who knew Morgan Chatam well would list observation and a keen intelligence among his key virtues, so when Friday showed the opposite of marked improvement in Simone Guilland's condition, he noticed. Her carefully applied cosmetics no longer fooled him in the least, and the neat tailoring of her cotton slacks and matching print blouse failed to disguise the fragility of the slight form that he had so effortlessly carried in his arms only days earlier. As before, she chose a seat in the rear of the room, and as before, he let her know that she was on his radar. This obviously irritated her, and that wore his much-vaunted patience surprisingly thin, so he decided to take a direct approach, asking her to stay after class.
She didn't like it one bit. Those gray eyes stormed as she stood quietly before his desk. He let her stew a moment before dropping his glasses onto the desk blotter and leaning back in his chair to peg her with a level gaze.
“What's wrong?”
“Don't ask me. You're the one who seems to have a problem.”
She was a cheeky miss, not at all impressed by his consequence. He heaved a silent sigh, toying idly with the glasses.
“Are we going to play games, or are we going to be adults about this?”
That pointed little chin ratcheted up a notch. He might have smiled if the impulse to do so hadn't alarmed him so. As it was, the beauty of those plump lips and that stubby little nose and those enormous gray eyes troubled him at the strangest times. He couldn't afford to be enamored of her chin as well, not to mention her streak of stubborn independence.
“Adults mind their own business, Professor Chatam.”
“Which, as your adviser, is exactly what I'm doing, Ms. Guilland. There is something wrong with you, and I mean to find out what it is.”
He wanted Simone Guilland's problems, whatever they were, solved; otherwise, he feared she would give him no peace.
She stared him straight in the eye, as immutable as the Sphinx, neither confirming nor denying, simply giving away nothing. He tried a different tack.
“Simone, I'm not your enemy. You have no reason to fear me.”
Yes, I do.
Though unspoken, he saw it clearly in her eyes and on her face just before she turned and headed swiftly to the door.
There she paused and glanced back, softly saying, “Thank you, but I'm as fine as I can be.”
As fine as I can be.
Morgan gnashed his teeth. Well, that was just not good enough.
Chapter Three
R
ising, Morgan gathered his things and walked through the building to his department suite. His administrative assistant, Vicki Marble, sat at her desk downloading online syllabi to see who had completed the week's reading and first assignment, due by midnight. They did everything electronically these days, which cut paperwork in half and quadrupled computer time.
“Hey, Morg.”
“Vic. What are the girls doing this weekend?”
“Shopping for prom dresses.”
“All three of them?”
“All three of them.”
“Give my condolences to Dwight. He's a better man than me. Three teenaged daughters.” He gave a shudder just to see Vicki laugh. Redheaded, freckle-faced and as plain as a mud fence, she seemed to have been born good-natured and laughing, as well as efficient and organized. Her husband and astonishingly beautiful daughters adored her. “Speaking of Dwight,” he said, “I need a favor.”
“Name it.”
Dwight Marble worked in the provost's office, handling admissions. Morgan explained what he needed then went into his office, closed the door and sat down at his desktop computer. Quickly, he brought up Simone's complete file.
She was older than he'd assumedâtwenty-six as of the twentieth of this past August. She had completed her undergraduate workâall but his classâin Colorado and via remote study in Baton Rouge. Her next of kin was listed as Laverne Davenport Worth, whose address was in Fort Worth. The name Worth struck a chord with him, given that Hilda and Chester Worth comprised two-thirds of the staff at Chatam House. The name was fairly common in the area, however, and he'd never heard any mention of a Laverne, so he discounted any connection, especially when he read that the Guilland family, of Baton Rouge, had paid Simone's tuition in full, for the entire course of her graduate degree, via an unusual trust account.
Morgan sat back in his chair with a thump. He had seen scholarships and endowments of every variety, but he'd never seen anything like this. What on earth was going on here? He decided that he'd be eating breakfast at the Campus Gate Coffee House, where Simone worked, bright and early the next morning, and at some point he was going to have a frank discussion with Simone Guilland.
How much he looked forward to that breakfast at the Campus Gate Coffee House troubled Morgan all that evening. He told himself that he was just doing his duty by pigeonholing Simone Guilland, but he couldn't quite convince himself. He'd gone to greater lengths for other students. Why, he'd driven one young man all the way to California and enjoyed a delightful summer respite with his aunt Dorinda Latimer and her family while he was at it. Still, he'd never lain awake in the night picturing another student's face or remembering how his heart had quivered with the flutter of her eyelashes as she'd regained consciousness after he'd carried her limp body in his arms.
He was quite put out with himself by the time he tucked his newspaper under his arm and slid into the Beemer around nine the next morning. He'd meant to be up and about earlier, but his restlessness had made for a late night. Besides, by his estimation, the coffee shop shouldn't be too busy on a Saturday morning.
Wrong. The place was popping when he arrived, so much so that he had to park around the corner and walk nearly a block. All of the al fresco tables were taken, he noted as he pushed his way inside and caught the eye of the owner and manager, Frank Upton. He'd hoped to have a quiet word with the fellow. Instead, he got a nod and a point in the direction of a tiny table at the end of the bakery counter where Frank usually did his paperwork.
“Be glad to visit if you have a minute.”
“Sure. If I have a minute.”
Shaking his head, Morgan walked over to the table. A cup of steaming-hot black coffee and a small cruet of cold cream laced with cinnamon appeared almost as soon as he sat down. He smiled at the waitress, Frank's wife, Loretta.
“Simone will be over to take your order in a moment.”
“She's here, then?”
“Simone? Yes. You know her?”
“She's one of my students. Tell me, is she all right?”
Loretta shrugged her ample shoulders. “I assume so. She's a quiet one, never complains. Gets right to work. Stays busy. She's awfully tired at the end of her shift, but that's not surprising, a little thing like her.”
“I hope that's all it is,” Morgan muttered, opening his newspaper.
Loretta went off to manage the coffee counter, and presently Simone showed up, clad in blue jeans, a bright orange T-shirt and a yellow apron.
“Professor Chatam.” She produced an order pad from an apron pocket. “What can I get you?”
“I'll have one of those crusty cinnamon muffins and a couple hard-boiled eggs.”
“Coming right up.”
She swept off, returning moments later with a gargantuan muffin and two peeled eggs in a bowl.
“Loretta says the coffee is on the house,” she said, slapping down the ticket.
“It always is,” he told her with a smile, hoping to engage her in a moment's conversation, but she was off again before he could explain that he and Frank had been friends since high school.
He drank his cup down and signaled for a refill, which she promptly delivered, then she was off again, her slender arms laden with trays bearing plates filled with food. Morgan tried to read his newspaper, but he couldn't help being aware of her as she zipped around the room, which became even more crowded as the hour wore on. Morgan ate his eggs and his muffin and read his newspaper, but Frank didn't find a moment to leave the till or Simone a minute to chat.
Just at the point of giving up, Morgan folded his paper and drained his cup for the final time when he heard a crash and an exclamation. His heart leaping, he somehow knew what had happened. He didn't remember getting to his feet or crossing the room; he would never understand how he knew where to look for her among all the tables and people, but suddenly he knelt beside Simone's crumpled form. Like a puppet whose strings had been cut, she lay sprawled and bent, her joints at odd angles. Her dark, chestnut-brown eyelashes curled thick and long against the pale orbs of her cheeks. She had a delicate, wounded look, her short hair wisping about her face.
“Simone,” Morgan whispered, his heart in his throat, but she didn't so much as flutter an eyelid. “Call an ambulance,” he instructed in a loud voice. Then he pulled out his own phone and dialed Brooks Leland, his best friend and the finest physician he knew.
As the phone rang, he prayed.
Let her be okay. Please, Lord, let her be okay.
After insisting that the good doctor leave a patient to speak to him, Morgan filled Brooks in on what he knew of Simone's physical situation, which wasn't much. Then he badgered Brooks into meeting him at the emergency room. By the time he'd convinced the doctor to abandon the patients waiting to keep their appointments and walk across the street to the hospital, the ambulance had arrived and Simone was rousing. Morgan forbade her from so much as sitting up then waved over the emergency medical personnel.
It seemed to him that they took their precious time getting the story, checking her vitals and loading her into the ambulance, but eventually Morgan found himself following the ambulance to the hospital in his car. No sooner did they arrive, however, than Brooks Leland threw Morgan out of the examining room. Not only that, he refused to discuss the first thing about the case with Morgan, citing HIPAA laws. Morgan couldn't believe it.
“I called the ambulance! Well, I had it called. I've been with her twice when this happened.”
“Doesn't matter. You're not family. You're out.”
Horrified and angry, Morgan called Simone's next of kin after getting the number from the college. The number turned out to be a place called Pleasant Acres, a retirement home or perhaps even a nursing home, from the sound of it. But they weren't giving out any information, either. All they would tell him was that Laverne Worth couldn't come to the telephone. Morgan decided against leaving a message at that time, hung up and paced the waiting area until Brooks deigned to summon him.
A few years younger and a couple inches taller than Morgan, Brooks wore lab coat and stethoscope, white tie and tails or blue jeans and boots with the same easy aplomb. Shocking silver temples and eyes the color of Spanish gold set off his dark, wavy hair. Fit, unfailingly pleasant and hardworking, Brooks was a hard man to hate, as Morgan well knew.
“What is going on?” Morgan demanded, relieved to see Simone sitting up on the gurney, color once more returned to her cheeks.
She looked away, leaving explanations to Brooks. Morgan parked his hands at his waist, waiting. The doctor leaned against the tiny counter behind him, crossed his legs at the ankle and folded his arms.
“We've reached an agreement, Ms. Guilland and I. She needs rest, good nutrition and time.”
“She'll get it,” Morgan promised, just as if he had a right to do so.
Brooks smiled and looked down at his toes. “She needs to take a
minimum
of two weeks off work.”
“I did not agree to that,” Simone stated calmly, shaking her head. “I have rent to pay.”
Morgan ignored her, saying, “She'll move in with my aunties.”
“No!” Simone erupted. Both men ignored her, for she couldn't possibly understand how often the Chatam sisters took in needy guests.
Brooks nodded, saying, “That did occur to me. And when I say a minimum of two weeks, I do mean that as a bare minimum. Four or six weeks would be better.”
Simone shifted on the gurney. “I cannot possiblyâ”
“She's been working at the Campus Gate,” Morgan told Brooks. “I'll speak to Frank and Loretta as soon as I get her settled at Chatam House.”
“You'll do no such thing,” Simone insisted. “I can't possibly quit my job and move in with your aunts.”
“You can,” Morgan told her firmly, “and you will if you want to stay in school.”
Those storm-gray eyes blazed fire at him, but Morgan just turned his attention back to Brooks. “Her condition won't prevent her from attending classes and mastering her studies, will it?”
Brooks shook his head. “No. She can manage school, if she takes care of herself.”
Morgan felt a rush of relief, but it was short-lived as he realized that something was, indeed, wrong with her. He moved to the side of her bed and took her hand in his. “Can't you trust me now with whatever is ailing you?”
She tilted her lovely head, but then her gaze fell away and she reclaimed her hand. “I keep telling you, I'm fine. I just need time.”
Morgan folded his arms. “All right, have it your way, but you're coming with me to Chatam House, and that's final.”
“It really is the best solution,” Brooks put in.
“Not for me,” she argued hotly.
“Yes, for you,” Morgan assured her. “My aunties have taken in many strangers in far more troubling circumstances, believe me.”
“You don't understand,” Simone told them. “I cannot go to Chatam House.”
“It's Chatam House or the hospital,” Brooks said bluntly. “Look, you'll have plenty of privacy, excellent food and all the time you need to regain your strength. What more could you ask for?” He pulled a prescription pad from the pocket of his lab coat and went on briskly. “Now then, I'm going to write you a couple scrips. One, the blue pills, I've already given you, and you'll start to feel the effects soon. You'll only need those for a few days. They'll help you rest. The other we've already discussed.” He began scribbling away on the pad.
Simone groaned as if she bore the weight of the world on her slender shoulders. It was all Morgan could do not to gather her into his arms and croon words of reassurance, but BCBC had strict policies about the conduct of professors and students, particularly when it came to professors
with
their students. If she moved into Chatam House, though, the aunties could take care of her, and he could relax.
Maybe then he could get her off his mind once and for all.
* * *
The waiflike creature her nephew Morgan ushered into the front parlor had intrigued Hypatia Chatam from the first moment she'd seen him cradling the young woman in his arms nearly a week earlier. She appeared exhausted if not actually ill and quite achingly beautiful.
“Take this chair,” Morgan said to her, all but bullying the child onto the gold-on-gold-striped seat of the occasional chair before the fireplace. Except, of course, she was no child, this Simone Guilland, but a woman, however slight and fragile, and Morgan, unless Hypatia missed her guess, was quite struck by her. Interesting. And worrisome.
Morgan was a confirmed bachelor and had been since his former fiancée had broken their engagement and married his best friend. Hypatia mentally cataloged all the ways that Simone Guilland differed from Brigitte Squires Leland. Brigitte had appeared fit and wholesome, a tall, lithe, shapely woman with long blond hair and cornflower-blue eyes. A nurse, Brigitte had laughed readily, bantering with Morgan and Brooks like one of the boys but remaining very much a lady. She'd been a woman who seemed to know her own mind and heart. What a pity she'd broken off her engagement to Morgan and married Brooks.
Hypatia had thought for sure that would be the end of a lifelong friendship, but Brigitte's death just over two years later had brought Morgan and Brooks together again. To Hypatia's knowledge, neither of them had been seriously involved with another woman since. Now here stood Morgan, hovering over delicate, dainty, big-eyed Simone as if he'd protect her from the whole wide world.
“Magnolia, dear, would you ask for the tea tray?” Hypatia said, deciding that a bit of sustenance would do them all good with lunch still some time away. Despite giving her a sour look, Magnolia went off as asked. Their sister Odelia had accompanied her husband, Kent, on a visit to his great-grandbaby and their great-niece, Marie Ella, the daughter of Kent's granddaughter Ellie and her husband, Asher Chatam, their nephew. They weren't expected until after the normal luncheon hour, so the sisters had agreed to hold back the midday meal. Hypatia made small talk with Morgan until Magnolia returned to take a seat on the settee across the piecrust table from her.