Guarding the Heiress
“Miss Harper,” he said as if he hadn’t expected to see her. He glanced past her, then right and left. “You came alone?”
What’d he expect? A posse? Maybe she should have brought the police chief. Maybe someone official would carry more weight with a guy like this, but she was here now, might as well see her plan through.
“I’d like to talk to you.” She waited for him to step aside, but he didn’t. He just stared at her, which irritated Eddi all the more. “Privately.”
He looked surprised, but quickly recovered. “Of course.” He stepped back. “Come in.”
Eddi glanced around the room as the door closed behind her. A seating area with a small television was arranged at one end of the room and backlit by two double windows. On the opposite side of the room a queen-size bed flanked by tables and a lovely bureau filled the space. Between a homemade quilt on the bed and lacy curtains on the windows, the place looked downright comfortable with lots of homey touches. The perfect foil for a man who looked every bit the international spy the ladies in the Club had deemed him to be.
“Please have a seat,” the man suggested with a wave of his hand toward the overstuffed chairs arranged neatly around a small table.
The bottom abruptly dropped out of Eddi’s stomach. Her knees went weak once more. The fire that had sent her barging over here died like the hot coals of a family barbecue beneath an unexpected summer rain.
She sat down with as much decorum as a rock thrown from a mountaintop.
“Would you like me to order something to drink,” he offered. “I believe iced tea, lemonade and coffee are on the room-service menu.”
She shook her head. Told herself that her sudden loss of fortitude was the unexpected news her mother had broken, but some part of her knew that it was more than that. Yes, she was startled by what her mother had told her and infuriated that this man had come here to upset her life, but there was more. It was him. Something about him put her off balance.
Okay, enough madness, she railed silently. The thought of how much this story getting out would hurt both her father and her mother rekindled the fire that had so suddenly extinguished when she came face-to-face with this enigmatic stranger.
“Who are you?” she demanded. The first sensible thing she’d said since he opened the door.
He sat down adjacent to her, only with a great deal more grace than she had shown. His khaki slacks and blue shirt, even at this hour of the afternoon, looked as fresh and wrinkle free as if they’d just been professionally laundered. Just a hint of shadow darkened his chiseled jaw. And, of course, every perfect hair was in place. All in stark contrast to her plain, slightly disheveled appearance.
“My name is Doug Cooper,” he said quietly. His voice was rich and smooth, but laced with sincerity and even what sounded like kindness. “I’m with the Colby Agency, a private investigation agency based in Chicago.”
Another jolt of confusion shattered the last of her rational thought. What in the world would a private investigation agency want with her? The answer struck as quickly as the question had. The D’Martines were wealthy. They had obviously hired someone to find her and her mother. At least that explained the gun.
“What do you want?”
The words came out just as emotionlessly as she had intended them. Her whole mind and body felt oddly numb. She wanted to rant and rave…and cry…but the energy to do so was curiously absent.
“Your mother told you about your biological father,” he suggested.
She was glad he used the term “biological father” since Harvey Harper was her father, and nothing, certainly not genetics, was going to change that. “Yes.”
Mr. Cooper nodded once and actually looked relieved. Eddi didn’t even try to figure that one out.
“Then you know that he was the heir to a vast fortune and that his murder remains unsolved.”
She had to confess to some regret…sympathy, even, for that tragedy. No one deserved to be murdered. But, other than being the sperm donor and her mother’s first love, she still didn’t understand what this had to do with her.
“What does this have to do with me, other than the obvious?” she demanded, voicing her thoughts.
Doug studied the woman seated next to him for a time before he answered her question. She had a right to know the whole truth and on her own terms, whether Thurston agreed or not. She was strong, he could see that. She wasn’t going to back down until she had the whole story. He respected that.
But, he had a job to do. His first loyalty was to his client. “Solange D’Martine, your paternal grandmother, wants to be a part of your life. You’re all that’s left of her son.”
Fury whipped across that pretty face. “It’s a fine time for her to show an interest now,” Edwinna snapped. “Where was she when my appendix had to be removed and my father missed three days’ work and the medical costs piled up? Or when my mother almost died in an automobile accident?”
Doug understood her anger. She was confused and hurt, at a number of people. She was doing the only thing she could, lashing out. “Your grandmother just recently learned of your existence.”
She made a disgusted sound. “And that’s my mother’s fault, right? I hope she also knows that my mom was only trying to protect me.”
“Mrs. D’Martine, above all others, will understand that,” Doug hastened to assure her. “That’s why I’m here.”
Edwinna narrowed the gaze that looked so damned much like her grandmother D’Martine’s. The young woman was in for a hell of a shock. The streak of white hair that highlighted her strawberry blond mane. That penetrating blue gaze. The nose…the chin. Everything. Edwinna Harper was the spitting image of her grandmother and she didn’t even know it.
“What do you mean, that’s why you’re here,” she prodded. She was no dummy. She wanted to know the whole deal. Now.
“When your grandmother learned of your existence she immediately feared that if the media found out, they would have a field day. Considering that your father’s murder was never solved, she worries that either the original kidnappers or perhaps copycats might try to do the same to you.”
Uneasiness slid through Edwinna. Doug watched her posture stiffen and her expression grow more wary. “Why would anyone do that?” Even her tone had grown smaller, more alarmed.
Once the initial shock wore off, she would be far more skeptical, far less receptive to his strategy. He had to somehow make her understand all that could be at stake here, including her life.
“The D’Martine fortune amounts to billions. We’re not talking about a paltry sum here. As the heiress to this fortune, your security becomes top priority. There are a lot of people out there who’d like to have a piece of that kind of money. When the word gets out, and trust me, it will, you’ll be a walking target.”
He’d watched her eyes go wider with each word he’d spoken. Finally, she shook her head and made a face, something between disbelief and consternation.
“Heiress?” She opened her mouth and splayed her hands as if at a loss as to what to say. “I’m no heiress. I’m just a plumber. I don’t want to be an heiress. I just want my family to be left alone.”
Doug braced his forearms on his widespread knees and leaned a little in her direction. “I’m afraid you don’t understand, Miss Harper. It’s not a matter of what you want or don’t want. You are the heiress to the D’Martine jewelry empire. It’s your birthright.”
Drawing back just in time as she rocketed from her seat, Doug watched her pace the room. He didn’t envy her this battle. The whole money thing was enough to contend with, but to suddenly know that your father wasn’t your father and that the man who was your father had been murdered…well, it was simply a lot to digest in one sitting.
She stopped abruptly and looked at him. “What about the other man? The suit?”
Doug relaxed a fraction. At least she wasn’t going to plunge into denial or run for the door…not yet anyway. “Mr. Thurston. He’s the D’Martine family attorney. His job is to inform you of your legal rights and obligations as a member of the D’Martine family.”
She looked taken aback. “Obligations? What obligations?”
Doug lifted one shoulder in a noncommittal shrug. “Your grandmother D’Martine wishes to get to know you and to familiarize you with the family business.”
She was shaking her head even before he finished. “I already have one family business to take care of. I don’t need another.”
Doug had had a feeling that this was where the sticking point would be. He pushed to his feet and tucked his hands into his pockets in hopes of keeping things casual, relaxed.
“I understand, as I’m sure Mrs. D’Martine will. However, you should consider long and hard your options. You and your family here would be financially secure for the rest of your lives.” He almost laughed at the way he’d automatically minimized the situation. But he needed her cooperative. “The reality is, Miss Harper—”
“Eddi,” she corrected.
He nodded once in acknowledgment. “Eddi. Your grandchildren’s grandchildren won’t even have to worry about money. I’m not sure you quite comprehend the complete picture. When I use the term heiress, I use it in its most literal sense. The matter is not something you can simply dismiss.”
The vulnerability in those blue eyes tugged at something deep inside him. Made him want to share his own story with her and assure her that he, of all people, understood exactly what she was going through. But he couldn’t take that chance. Wouldn’t take that chance. He’d worked too hard to separate himself from his past. He couldn’t blow it for Eddi Harper, no matter how he wanted to just now. She was strong, self-reliant, she would find her way. His only job was to keep her safe and to give her a few pointers about fitting in along the way.
“I have to talk to my father,” she said and turned toward the door. Now she would run…maybe even deny all she’d heard.
“I’ll need to go with you,” Doug insisted, reaching for his sport jacket.
A frown marred her pretty face when she looked back at him. “I need to do this alone.”
He shouldered into his jacket, concealing the gun, which made her feel lots better. “Don’t worry, I’ll give you plenty of space. But Mrs. D’Martine hired me to keep you safe and I take my work very seriously.”
The frown morphed into a look of disbelief. “You’re kidding, right?”
“I never kid about my work, Eddi.” He moved up next to her at the door. “Until further notice from my employer, I’m your personal bodyguard 24/7.”
Eddi sighed loudly, defeatedly. “Ms. Mattie was right,” she said wearily. “You are a spy.”
Chapter Three
“What is the meaning of this?”
Eddi stared at the lawyer currently blocking her path and wished him away, but it did no good. She glanced at Mr. Cooper as he came up alongside her in the corridor outside his room and prayed he had a plan to get rid of this guy. She wasn’t ready to speak to the D’Martine family’s legally appointed representative just yet. She had matters to settle with her own family first.
“Where are you going?” Thurston demanded. “Why wasn’t I informed that she—” he cut Eddi an annoyed look “—was here?”
Doug held up a hand to quiet him. Thank God, Eddi thought disparagingly. No doubt Ms. Ada was at the bottom of the stairs straining her ears to hear every single word.
“This is not the time or place,” Doug said firmly. “We’ll be back in a few hours and perhaps Miss Harper will be ready to speak with you then.”
“I beg your pardon,” Thurston protested, incensed. “As the authorized representative of your employer—”
Doug leaned slightly toward him, which forced him to look down at the man since he was a good two inches taller. “Not…now.” He stepped back and motioned for Eddi to precede him to the staircase. “I’ll call you as soon as she’s ready for a meeting.”
Eddi didn’t have to look back to know that the lawyer was not a happy camper. A smile lifted the corners of her lips. One prayer answered, she mused. Now, if the good Lord would just help her get through the rest.
“Well, that didn’t take very long,” Ada said triumphantly as the two descended the stairs. She gifted Mr. Cooper with a suspicious look. “I certainly hope all was in order.”
Before Eddi could respond, Mr. Cooper said in a voice silky with charm, “Everything is perfect, Ms. Garrett.” He paused at the door where Eddi waited. “Especially since Miss Harper has agreed to have dinner with me.”
Ada’s eyes immediately bulged and Eddi was sure she saw her ears perk. “Dinner? Oh, my. Well.” Her right hand flew to her cheek. “You two have a nice time.”
This time Eddi’s prayer went unanswered. She’d asked God to let the floor crack open and swallow her up. But it didn’t. Instead, Mr. Cooper opened the front door for her like the gentleman he was. She couldn’t stop staring at him as they strolled down the sidewalk toward the curb. He looked pleased with himself, as if he’d just managed some coup. She imagined that he believed he’d headed off any gossip related to why he was really here.
The sad thing was he’d done something far worse. He’d just set Meadowbrook’s infamous matchmakers in motion. Eddi could almost hear Ada on the telephone now putting a call through to Ella or Irene or maybe Minnie and Mattie. Eddi looked up at the overhead power and telephone lines strung along the street. News that she had a dinner “date” with the stranger in town was no doubt buzzing along that very line right this moment.
Mr. Cooper paused where the boardinghouse sidewalk intersected the one along the street. “I hope you don’t mind my taking that liberty. I felt sure you wanted to keep the real story under wraps for the moment. Feeding Ms. Garrett that misleading information should provide an acceptable cover for our real business here. A distraction, so to speak.”
It took every ounce of willpower Eddi possessed not to laugh out loud. She just wagged her head back and forth. “You have no idea.”
Doug was still a little confused by Eddi’s remark as he pulled up behind her truck in front of the Harper residence. Maybe she didn’t approve of his methods. She had called him a spy. It was possible she didn’t fully grasp why he was here. Right now she wanted to check on her mother before going to the hardware to speak to her father.
Going to the hardware store wouldn’t be necessary, it seemed. Her father sat on the front steps of his home, his head hung between hunched shoulders.
Doug blocked the memory of the hurt he’d seen in Millicent Harper’s eyes. Though Doug felt sympathetic toward his employer, this whole affair was going to change so many lives, perhaps do irreversible damage. It was almost heartless, ruthless even.
But the decision had not been his. He watched Eddi take a seat next to her dad on the top stone step. Already Doug had lost his objectivity. Empathized with her far too much…respected her more than he’d anticipated. He couldn’t say for sure what he’d expected when he read her profile, but this earnest young woman was not it.
And she was a plumber. A smile tugged the corners of his mouth upward. She wore overalls, for Pete’s sake. Overalls and sneakers and a plain old white T-shirt. The long braid of strawberry-blond hair mixed with the blue eyes and scattering of freckles across her pert little nose personified the all-American-girl look. The getup she wore lent a tom-boyish quality to the package. But the streak of white hair that blazed a narrow trail from her forehead to the tip of her braid spoke of breeding and elegance. Though Solange D’Martine didn’t wear her hair in a braid, she had the same strawberry blond tresses with that shock of sophistication. The perfect balance between the set of her eyes and the tilt of her nose, and those high-boned cheeks were exactly the same.
The father, Edouard, had had the same coloring, only his hair had been slightly darker, redder. The case file contained a picture of the father as well as the grandmother for showing to Eddi when the time was right. There were documents, all of which the attorney kept safely tucked in his leather briefcase.
Doug sighed, tired. He made no move to get out of his vehicle, but watched his principal from there. This carefree young woman had no idea how very much her life was about to change. Nothing would ever be the same again. With the kind of wealth possessed by the D’Martines came a certain level of public scrutiny. There would be no escaping it. Eddi needed to enjoy her final few days of true privacy, because as soon as the media got wind of her existence any real privacy would be a thing of the past.
“ISN’T YOUR FRIEND getting out?” her dad asked.
Eddi shook her head and refrained from correcting her father as to the friend remark. “He said he’d give me some space.”
She was really glad Mr. Cooper had stuck by his word. She needed these few moments with her father. Needed to reassure him and herself.
“So Mom’s taking this okay,” she ventured. When she’d first arrived home and found her father sitting on the front steps she’d almost panicked. The thought that something could have happened to her mother while she was selfishly demanding answers from Mr. Cooper hadn’t occurred to her. And it should have. Usually Eddi wasn’t as thoughtless as that. But today had been a little extreme all the way around.
“She’s okay,” her father said quietly. “She’s lying down now.”
Eddi nodded. “That’s good.” She bent her knees and clasped her arms around them, then braced her chin there. “You know this is all just absolutely bizarre, don’t you?”
Her father nodded. “But it’s true. Your mother and I wanted to protect you, but maybe we should have told you a long time ago.”
“I don’t want to know now,” Eddi argued. “Why would I have wanted to know before?”
Her father smiled and her heavy heart lifted just a little. “Well, now, I don’t think I could have put it any better myself. It’s a bit of a thorny patch, that’s a fact.” He rested his gaze on hers. “But we love you. We’ve always loved you. If we made a mistake, it was in the name of love.”
She hugged her father then. Hugged him with all her might. “You didn’t make a mistake.” She drew back and blinked away the confounded mist that clouded her vision. She didn’t want him to see her cry. “Don’t ever think it, not for a second. Okay?”
He nodded hesitantly. “But your grandmother Solange could have offered you much more than we have.”
Eddi laughed to keep from crying. “Now, what would I do with a jewelry empire? If it won’t stop a leak in old Mrs. Fairbanks’s toilet, what good is it?”
Her father managed a strained laugh at that. “I guess you have a point there, girlie.”
His expression turned somber once more and the silence lengthened. Eddi felt certain that he didn’t know where to take the conversation from here any more than she did. What did one say at a time like this?
“You know this isn’t going to go away just because you want it to,” he said eventually, his tone as grim as she felt at the moment.
She nodded. “I know.” She hugged her knees to her chest once more. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Well.” Her father scratched his head and considered the question for a time. “It seems to me that you owe it to yourself as well as your grandmother to get to know her.”
“I already have the best two grandmothers anyone could want,” Eddi protested. “What do I need with another?”
“Look here, girlie.” Her father looped an arm around her slumped shoulders. “You deserve better than to be a plumber the rest of your life.” He shushed her with a firm look when she would have rebutted. “Slaving away at that hardware isn’t the answer either. I want better for you same as my daddy wanted better for me. We’re scarcely hanging on to that old place anyway. It’s past time I sold out and retired.” He lifted one shoulder and let it fall. “Truth is, I’ve only hung on so I wouldn’t let you down. What do I need with that old place to fool with day in and day out? Your mother and I could take up gardening or some such.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Whatever happens, I know you’ll do the right thing.”
Knots of anxiety tangled in her stomach once more. She knew what he was doing. He wanted to give her an out. Her father loved that old hardware store and she knew it. He’d be lost without it to go to every day. Her mother hated gardening other than a pot or two of flowers. She had preferred knitting or needlepoint over gardening even before her accident.
Out of the blue, inspiration struck. A slow smile slid across Eddi’s face. Why hadn’t she thought of that already?
Eddi threw her arms around her father and hugged him again. “Dad, you’re a genius!” She shot to her feet and beamed a smile down at him. “Tell Mom I won’t be by for dinner tonight. I have something to do.”
Her father waved a goodbye as she loped out to Mr. Cooper’s SUV. “Are we still on for dinner?” she asked the handsome man watching her so steadily.
“Absolutely.” He allowed her one of those smiles that literally oozed with magnetism.
Before she melted right there on the sidewalk, she said, “Follow me to my place. I need to change.”
Three traffic lights and five turns later, she pulled into the driveway of her small cottage. The little house had once belonged to her grandmother and grandfather Harper, but since they’d relocated to the retirement home, she’d moved in. She loved the place. Even as a child she’d known that one day she wanted to live here.
The small stone cottage sat amid a cluster of shady trees with only a small patch of grass to mow out front and nothing but flagstone pavers and flower beds out back. Two tiny bedrooms and only one bath, along with a nice-size living-dining room combination and kitchen made up the interior. She even had her own little fireplace.
Exhaling a satisfied sigh at being home at last, Eddi hopped out of her truck and practically skipped up the path that led to her front door. The answer was so simple. Relief was like a soothing balm, she felt immensely better already. Before going inside, she reached in the box hanging by the door and retrieved the day’s mail. “Bills, bills, bills,” she muttered. Nothing she wanted to see tonight.
“Nice place,” Mr. Cooper commented as he moved up behind her.
Despite all that had happened and knowing that he had brought this unsettling news upon her, Eddi shivered at the sound of his voice. As smooth as satin and every bit as rich. She shook off the thought and jammed her key into the lock.
“Thank you. It belongs to my grandparents. They let me use it since they live at the retirement home now.”
See, she wanted to add, my family already takes good care of itself. We don’t need anything from the D’Martines.
She tucked her key back into her pocket and pushed open the door. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Still, she had to approach this logically. She couldn’t let emotions play into it at all. And that would be difficult. She’d always been ruled by her heart ensuring that she’d been faced with difficult before. She could handle this.
She flipped on the light and held the door for Mr. Cooper to come on inside. She found herself holding her breath as he passed then stood in the middle of the room and took in the cozy living area. Never once had she imagined how this place would look to a stranger. She’d never had a stranger over before. She tried to see the room from his eyes, with its high ceilings and thick crown moldings. Her grandfather had loved working with his hands and had detailed every square inch of woodwork in this house himself. The floors were hardwood, but thick rugs covered most of it. The furniture was worn comfortable and a vintage she couldn’t name…early fifties maybe. An interior designer or decorator she wasn’t. But line up faucets in front of her and she could name the year and the manufacturer.
“I’ll just be a moment, Mr. Cooper,” she said, breaking into his careful study of her natural habitat. “Make yourself at home.”