Chosen: Gowns & Crowns, Book 7
Page 23
When the man started speaking, however, Win found his feet rooted to the ground.
“It’s come to my attention that there has been a certain misapprehension within the Masters clan that my own family has allowed to perpetuate over these past one hundred and fifty years, a misapprehension that caused a pain I never, ever realized. I’d like to set the matter straight, tonight.”
“Kit.” Win’s voice was low, guarded, but infused with meaning. If Wellingford knew what was good for him, he’d stop now.
“No, no! I’ve begun and you need to know this. And I need to tell you.” Kit said. “If…if you’ll let me, of course.” His face now bore an expression of naked pleading, and Win’s gaze shot to the rolling cameras.
So this was how it would be, he thought. Then Marguerite squeezed his arms, and he remembered all she’d said to him. Suddenly, whatever Kit had to say, mattered…less.
He nodded, and Kit drew in a huge breath, as if he’d only get one chance to say everything he wanted to share. Then he plunged on.
“The Masters are a very old family in these parts—not as old as some, by any means, but their influence goes all the back to before the Civil War. And in that war there was a young man who’d gone away to Europe to study to be a doctor. He never finished his studies, and, as the story goes, he came back in the midst of the war and plied his trade without credentials, working in POW camps and Union garrisons, accepting Union soldiers at his home, and then charging his own Confederate neighbors for services in the waning days of the conflict.”
Win expected more reproachful glances, but the crowd here tonight merely listened, rapt but not especially angry. Then again, these were some of the oldest families in Summerland County. They’d probably known this story from the cradle.
“That’s the story that everyone knows. Dr. James Masters eventually left the area in the wake of Sherman’s March, and by the time he returned to Charleston, he was a businessman, no longer a doctor. And a wealthy businessman at that. He restored the family home, commissioned the land to be re-plowed and the pastures re-fenced, and took his rightful place in Southern society, building upon his fortunes, yes…but that’s not all he built.”
At this point, Kit drew a small, leather-bound volume from his breast pocket, and brandished it high. Win frowned. He didn’t recognize the thing at all, but it certainly looked old.
“My family, as you know, has had our hands literally in the stories of this glorious county since we first came to the Lowcountry, serving as town criers and newspapermen and authors and gossips. And…well, not to put too fine a point on it, but we are also unrepentant thieves.”
That elicited several chuckles and a few outright laughs, particularly from Marguerite who clearly had heard this line before. Kit plunged on. “If there was a speech or a diary or a hand-written anything, we nicked it, if we could. One of our favorite pieces of history to secret away were the journals and letters of the families we so admire, those of you here who’ve made this county what it is. And one of those journals—this journal, in fact—belonged to none other than Dr. James Masters.”
Win made to move, but Marguerite tightened her hold on him, forcing him to stay still.
Kit, as if sensing his time was short, rushed on. “Masters shares two things I want to make very clear to those assembled tonight. The first, was that he hated—hated the fact that he had been pressed into service without being fully trained, that he’d allowed himself to work in squalid conditions on men with horrifying wounds, when he didn’t know if he was helping or harming them. It wore deeply on his soul. So deeply, that when his neighbors pleaded with him late in the war to care for their own wounded, he refused them and refused them again, until the first neighbor showed up with a thousand dollars and his son, begging James to use the money however he wanted, if only he’d do something for his wounded child.
“To that, James couldn’t say no. And more came, with more money, and James took it all but never spent it, at least, not at first. Instead, as he writes in this journal, he invested it. That was, after all, the family business.” Kit smiled, but his gaze turned to Win’s now, his voice rising. “And when James returned to Charleston some years later, he may have no longer been a doctor…but he quietly, anonymously, and most generously supported those who were.”
Marguerite stilled in Win’s arms, but Win could barely breathe.
“The Bonne Coeur Hospital in Charleston, South Carolina opened its doors in 1880 as a teaching hospital to ensure the newly graduated doctors and nurses of our beloved city were as well prepared as possible to care for the sick and wounded. It was established by an anonymous trust, its benefactor never known. It stayed in operation for another fifty years, before being consolidated into a larger hospital. James Masters himself never breathed a word of it—to anyone, not even his family, it would seem. He merely recorded it in his own, personal journal…” Kit laid the journal against his breast. “Which my great, great, ah, maybe great grandfather then, well…stole.”
Win could only stare as the crowd burst into laughter and applause, all of them turning to Win seemingly as one.
Kit shouted the last of the story over the crowd, something about confirming the tale with hospital historical records, but Win couldn’t hear him anymore. He looked down at Marguerite with wide eyes, realizing belatedly he was shaking. She held his gaze with the same strength that she held his hands, and, he realized, that she now held his heart.
“How—how did you know? About James?” he began, but she stepped up on her toes, brushing his lips with the briefest of kisses before settling back and giving him her most radiant smile.
“I didn’t,” said. “I only knew you, Win.” She turned him gently to the crowd, standing close beside him. “And that, for now and forever, was more than enough.”
~~~
Wedded
This fall, get ready to pack your bags for a beach vacation never to be forgotten, as a royal wedding comes to the shores of Garronia. It’s celebration time for the whole country…with one notable exception. Grace Floros, newest member of the legendary Floros family wedding planners, has been awarded the coveted task to plan and execute the most beautiful, magical, extraordinary ceremony to ever grace the steps of the royal palace. Only trouble is, Grace has yet to complete the most important requirement necessary, according to Floros family lore, to ensure that this royal wedding will be a success. She’s never fallen in love.
Coming in Fall, 2017!
About Jennifer Chance
Jennifer Chance is the award-winning author of the New Adult/Contemporary Romance Rule Breakers and Gowns & Crowns series. A lover of books, romance, and happily-ever-afters, she lives and writes in Ohio. She’s also urban fantasy author Jenn Stark, whose Immortal Vegas series is now available; and YA author Jennifer McGowan, whose Elizabethan spy series Maids of Honor is also available. She really, truly, loves to write.
When she’s not at work on her newest book, you can find her online at http://www.jenniferchance.com/, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/authorJenniferChance and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Jenn_Chance.