A Perfect Forever (Leap of Love Series, Book 1)

by Paige Powers

  He finally got a good idea of what she did every day and the places she frequented. It did not seem that she would be uprooting herself any time soon. Ben knew that he should contact his client, Jonathan Montgomery Smith, and let him know that he should come to San Francisco.

  He made his way to the telegram office to send word. His message was simple.

  Found her. Come west to San Francisco.

  *

  Ben knew that he had to wait the time out for Jonathan to arrive in San Francisco. His client was a bit like dynamite, ready to explode at any time. When Jonathan Smith burst into the Pinkerton office, he was wide-eyed and disheveled. Ben and his boss held their hands on their guns in fear that a madman had just entered the room.

  Jonathan recounted a story about finding out that his father was a wealthy man, but not being able to go after the man due to an unfortunate fatal carriage accident that killed both the man he claimed was his father and the man's wife. Jonathan had the idea that the man had a daughter who had moved west to California, and he needed to track her down in order to discuss what he thought was his impending fortune.

  Ben had not been living in Boston for long, so he was not aware of all of the city folk that his boss, who was born and raised in Boston, knew. Just being in Boston was a new experience for the farm boy from South Carolina. He had only been there for a few weeks before he got the Smith job.

  And now here he was in San Francisco, waiting for his client to arrive in town. The only thing Ben wanted was for Jonathan not to mess everything up. The man seemed like he had a penchant for being a wild card, and that was certainly not what was needed in this case. There would be no way that they could find out all of the information needed to close the case if his client was to arrive and throw away weeks of surveillance based on his emotions.

  The day that Ben agreed to take the case, he thought that he should have Jonathan sign an additional provision in the contract that Jonathan would not make any moves until Ben gave the say so. But he did not do it, because Jonathan had promised that once he found the woman he thought to be his sister, he would not cause any harm to her. That he just wanted to meet the woman who was family and that he wanted to talk one on one with her about the inheritance that he felt was rightfully his.

  Ben's boss had done a background check on Jonathan Smith. He found that he came from humble beginnings, and that the only family he had to speak of was his mother, who was never too far away. Most people in the community considered Jonathan Montgomery Smith and his mother, Ella Smith to be good, quiet people. Ms. Smith was a seamstress, and Jonathan had been an errand boy since the age of twelve.

  Since finding out that Mr. William Smith, a man from an extremely wealthy family, was possibly his father, Jonathan had been wandering about town, in and out of pubs. He was found in a mud puddle a few days the week before, so completely intoxicated that it was embarrassing.

  When Ben was assigned Jonathan's case, he was not expecting to get much more out of it but a trip across the country and a bit of sightseeing that he would not have otherwise been able to do.

  Instead, he was here in San Francisco, swooning over one Amelia Smith. The very woman who was the subject of the case.

  Ben did not want to rock any boats or make any incorrect assumptions, but he just knew that if he had the chance to meet Miss Amelia Smith, it would change their lives forever.

  Chapter 6

  With every passing state, Jonathan's anger fueled more. The train passed through Colorado and Utah and finally crossed over into California. The only thing he had to do to pass the time was read the newspaper and play a game of cards here and there. An occasional conversation with a fellow traveler broke the monotony of the ride.

  But nothing actually took Jonathan's mind off of the task at hand. From the moment he received word from Ben that Amelia Smith had been located, Jonathan had been so full of emotion. From relief that she had been found, to extreme exasperation that his mother had not bothered to tell him that the man who had been involved in his conception only lived a few miles away.

  The one thing that he could not figure out was why his mother felt the need to let them live so modestly when they could have had a much more comfortable life. Even if they were hidden away somewhere, if William Smith had been claimed as his father, Jonathan was convinced that his life would be completely different.

  The other thing he did not understand was why William Smith did not recognize the timeline. A woman that you claimed you loved is sent away and comes back years later with a young child that she says was fathered by someone else while she was away. It did not make any sense that he would not calculate what happened and put it all together. Jonathan wondered if maybe the man did know, and he wondered if William came back to his mother and asked her if the child she had borne was his.

  It was possible that something like that had happened. And maybe his mother had rejected William for rejecting her. Or maybe Jonathan's grandmother made sure to keep William Smith at arm's length from his mother.

  Or it was just quite possible that William Smith had no regard for his mother at all. Maybe his decision to move on and marry someone else said everything that needed to be said. There was no reason that William Smith could not have married Jonathan's mother. The woman he married was not of a higher social status and her family background did not offer anything that William needed to cement his status. So Jonathan had no clue why William chose Lulu over his mother.

  None of that mattered anymore though. William Smith was gone now and his mother was not into courting or marrying at this point. The only thing that really bothered Jonathan was that his mother had never married. She was such a wonderful woman. She was the one who nurtured him and soothed him as a child. She had been there every step of the way. There was no way that she deserved to be treated the way she had been treated.

  So that was all the more reason why Jonathan had to avenge the situation. William Smith had practically robbed his mother of the opportunity to marry and be truly happy. She had always said that Jonathan was the reason she was happy, but to Jonathan, there always seemed to be something missing. So now he knew what it was. It was the fact that his mother had not only loved a man who did not truly love her, but she had loved a man that left her to care for and raise a young child on her own and had not even offered any financial support.

  He needed to make this right. For himself and for his mother's sake.

  *

  Jonathan stood on the platform. He had finally arrived in San Francisco, and he wanted to immediately descend upon the city and get to the task at hand. But he needed to first check into a hotel and clean up. It would be nice to get something to eat as well. He asked for the closest hotel, and was directed to one that was about two blocks away on Seville Avenue.

  The walk there did him some good because it gave him a moment to stretch his legs and move about. San Francisco was very welcoming. The people were polite and they seemed to move at a much slower rate than in Boston. It was strange to be in a new city. Jonathan had never been too far outside of Boston and he wished that he could truly enjoy the adventure of the trip.

  He wanted to ask around about Amelia, the woman who was his sister. But the last thing that he wanted to do was come to a new city and start bringing attention to himself. Especially before he got a chance to meet Amelia first.

  Jonathan decided that he would not ask around, and instead he would meet up with Ben Abbott, the Pinkerton detective he had hired. He really did not have the money to hire a Pinkerton, but this was the kind of thing that he had to invest in. There would be no way that he could have found his sister on his own, and here Ben came to San Francisco and found her within a week. That made the money he had to use out of his mother's secret savings stash well worth it.

  Besides, once he tapped into his inheritance, he would be able to pay his mother back plus some extra.

  For some reason, the meal that he ate on the train was the best that he had ever had. The anx
iety mixed with anger that he had felt on the train was no longer filling him from the pit of his stomach. Jonathan was ready to do the thing that would change his life. He wanted nothing more than to look Amelia in the face and blow her mind with the fact that she had a brother. A brother who was willing to come forward and tell her about the negligence of the very father that raised her and had not bothered with him.

  He wondered how she would take it. He wondered what she looked like. And most importantly, he wondered what his father looked like. Did he have the same color eyes and the same color hair? What kind of man was he? He could not base his entire idea of the man on how he had treated his mother. Jonathan wanted to know more about the man who had come from a wealthy family but had still been a businessman.

  Jonathan could not decide whether or not he wanted a relationship with his sister, Amelia. He certainly did not want to be seen as their father's bastard child, although that is what he was. He wanted Amelia to take him seriously, and to consider him family. There was a slim chance that things would happen that way. He shook his head. There was no way that this woman, this rich woman, would just welcome him into her family with open arms.

  The chances of that happening were almost nonexistent.

  And there was an even slimmer chance that she would willingly hand over any portion of the Smith fortune.

  *

  When Jonathan walked into the pub, he saw Ben Abbott sitting down to a meal. He was starving himself, and thought that dinner would be a good time to go over what Ben had found out while on surveillance.

  "Ben Abbott." Jonathan stood before Ben, who looked up from his meal, seemingly aggravated.

  A look of recognition came across his face, and he shoved the fork full of food in his mouth. Wiping his lips with a napkin, he stood up and threw his hand out to meet Jonathan's.

  "Jonathan Smith. Good to see you have arrived in one piece. Have a seat here and join me."

  Ben beckoned the barmaid over to them.

  "He'll have what I had," Ben commanded.

  "All right, coming right up," the girl replied, with a wink and a shift of her hips.

  "So tell me everything that you know so far, Abbott."

  Ben began recounting everything that he had learned about Amelia. The fact that she owned the finishing school, and the fact that she was courting a man named Alfred Sharp who was an accountant for a local grocery store chain. Jonathan was waiting to hear more.

  "That's it?"

  Ben shrugged. "Yes. What else did you expect?"

  "I don't know. Maybe she frequents evening social gatherings with other rich women. Or she spends her day shopping at all of the stores and boutiques. I was not expecting some do-gooder who does nothing out of the ordinary with her day."

  The barmaid brought Jonathan's food, slid it onto the table in front of him, and walked away.

  Before saying anything else, Jonathan dug in.

  "Well, unfortunately, I think most people are not that interesting. And even though she is rich, she still has problems as well."

  "What problems could a woman as rich as Amelia Smith possibly have?" Jonathan asked through a mouthful of potatoes.

  "Mr. Alfred Sharp."

  "The fiancé?"

  Ben nodded.

  "What could possibly be the issue with the fiancé?" Jonathan questioned.

  "I'm not sure he is who he claims to be. He may not be the right person for Amelia."

  Jonathan raised an eyebrow at Ben's comment. "What would that have to do with you, Abbott?"

  Ben shook his head. "Nothing, actually. It's just that I came to find Amelia Smith for you and I guess when you find out about a person, you may discover more than you bargained for."

  Jonathan shrugged. "I guess so. But now, all you have to do is give me the addresses and all of her information. I will go see her myself."

  "You, my friend are free to do what you please. But I suggest you take me with you. I would hate for you to show up at a woman's doorstep, fuming with anger, claiming to be her half-brother all the way from Boston. If she called the law on you, there would be no one else to back you up or prove that you are not insane."

  Banging his utensil against the plate, Jonathan clenched his jaw. He hated to admit that Ben could be right.

  "All right, Abbott. You may have a point. According to her schedule, what would be a good time to go and meet with her? I would like to get this over with as soon as possible."

  Ben sighed and leaned back in his chair, sucking something out of his teeth. "I suppose going first thing in the morning would be best. Let's say around eight a.m."

  "Perfect. Where should we meet?"

  "Almond Avenue. We will be about two blocks over from the school. We can be there in the morning before her students arrive."

  Ben stood up and bid Jonathan good night. Jonathan sat there a little longer, letting the magnitude of the situation settle in. He just hoped that tomorrow would work out the way he needed and wanted it to.

  *

  Jonathan was already on the street where Ms. Amelia's Finishing School was located. It was nestled into a small block on the left side of the square. The street was lined with trees, and the school was landscaped with flowers and a small water statue in the front. A rounded drive for carriages finished the landscape, and Jonathan knew that this was the kind of place where only the elite belong.

  He had gotten the directions from someone at the hotel, and he decided not to wait on Ben. He did not want Ben to talk him out of going to meet Amelia. Nothing was going to stop him from getting what his family deserved.

  Before he knocked on the door of the finishing school, Jonathan looked up and down the street. He did not see Ben coming at all. As a matter of fact, the street was quiet. As he walked up the front steps, he heard a carriage coming down the avenue. Jonathan paused for a moment as the carriage approached. He was happy to see that Ben was not in the carriage.

  There was a woman inside. She was immediately striking, with a mass of brown hair piled atop her head in a bun. She looked effortless and yet so well put together.

  "Can I help you?" the woman asked as she stepped out of the carriage.

  "Possibly, my lady." Jonathan reached over to hold her hand as she stepped down.

  "Thank you so much, kind Sir."

  The woman stood there and stared at him, waiting for a response.

  He had not truly thought about how he would introduce himself when he arrived. The only thing that he thought of was the moment when he would reveal that he was her brother, and he would let her know that he was owed a part of their father's inheritance. Instead, he stood there dumbfounded.

  Then he realized he did not even know if the woman standing before him was Amelia Smith.

  "I am looking for the head mistress of the school. I am new in town and thought maybe I could gain employment doing odd jobs for her."

  The woman regarded him, waiting a moment before she spoke.

  "Why would you come here looking for work, specifically?" she inquired.

  "I've been here in town a few days and I hear tell the head mistress hails from Boston as I do. I thought maybe she would have compassion in her heart for a fellow Bostonian."

  "Follow me inside, kind Sir. I may be able to assist you."

  Jonathan held the front door for her and followed her inside. The layout was beautiful, and suddenly Jonathan felt a tinge of jealousy. He was in a daze as he looked around at the surroundings and he did not hear when the woman was speaking to him.

  "Sir? I'm assuming you did not hear me."

  "I am so sorry."

  "It is all right. I simply asked you your name."

  He was shocked by how polite she was, especially because he was a complete stranger.

  "Jonathan." He paused for a moment, trying to decide whether or not he should reveal his true identity.

  Looking around, this seemed as good a time as any.

  "My name is Jonathan Montgomery Smith."

  He st
ared her in the eyes, waiting for her response.

  "Jonathan Montgomery Smith, you say?"

  "Yes," he replied with a nod.

  "I've been waiting for you to show up." She turned around and began to walk out of the room where they were standing. Jonathan was not sure whether or not he should follow her. He waited for a moment and when she did not immediately return, he walked back to peek into the next room.

  He found her pouring a drink.

  "Would you like one?"

  Jonathan wanted to say no at first, but he went ahead and accepted. She poured him some of the amber liquid, and then handed him the glass.

  They both consumed the alcohol before anyone spoke.

  Amelia set her glass down. "So I assume there is no formal introduction needed on my part. Why is it that you made up a lie on why you came here? You could have just explained who you were truthfully."

  Jonathan cocked his head to the side, trying to figure out what Amelia had just told him.

  "So you already know who I am?"

  She nodded. "I do. My father's lawyer informed me you had come to visit him."

  Jonathan did not want to respond. He should have known that McGill would inform her of his visit. It only fueled his frustration.

  "That's fine. It only makes us skip the pleasantries. We should really get down to the reason why I'm here."

  Amelia looked Jonathan up and down. Crossing her arms, she stood there for a moment, stoic.

  "Yes, Jonathan Montgomery Smith. Let's get down to the reason why you are here."

  Jonathan paced around the room, trying to figure out a way to begin the discussion.

  "We need to discuss my inheritance."

  Amelia threw her head back and laughed. "You cannot be serious. What do you mean, ‘your inheritance’?"

  The way she stood there, arms crossed, smirk on her face, was starting to make Jonathan even angrier.

  "I mean, my father is William Smith. You and I are related."