by Renee Ryan
“I appreciate the invitation,” he said at last. “But I must decline.”
He did not expand on his reasons.
A brief battle of wills ensued, but Mrs. Singletary gave in graciously after only a few seconds. “I suppose we will have to try for another time.”
He smiled. Or maybe he didn’t. Fanny wasn’t sure what that twist of his lips meant. “Indeed we will,” he said.
“Well, now.” The widow clapped her hands together. “Shall we begin our tour of this lovely ballroom?”
Before anyone could respond, she linked her arm with Fanny’s. “You will show me around, Miss Mitchell, seeing as the majority of the preparations have fallen upon your capable shoulders.”
The widow all but dragged Fanny deeper into the ballroom, leaving Jonathon and Philomena together. Convenient.
At least neither of them seemed overly pleased to be in the other’s company. Fanny found far more comfort in their mutual uneasiness than she should.
Did Jonathon have any idea what his business partner was plotting? Would it matter if he did? It was a well-known fact that once the widow set her sights on a particular match, there was no changing her mind.
Perhaps Fanny should warn him. Or…perhaps not. She was merely his employee. He’d made it painfully clear there would be nothing more than business between them. She had no claims on him, and she certainly wasn’t interested in him romantically.
That was, at any rate, her official stand on the matter.
*
Jonathon had heard his share of disturbing tales concerning Mrs. Singletary’s penchant for matchmaking. He’d dismissed them out of hand. Beatrix Singletary was eccentric to be sure, but he’d never found cause to think her the meddling sort.
Until now.
The woman was actually pushing her companion on him, and she wasn’t even attempting to be subtle. When next he had Mrs. Singletary’s ear, he would inform her that her efforts were wasted on him.
Jonathon would never marry, nor father any children. He came from bad blood, from a long line of selfish men who’d destroyed the women in their lives.
He would not perpetuate the cycle. His newest project would become his legacy, a tangible way to help women rather than hurt them.
He clasped his hands behind his back and looked up at the ceiling, then across the ballroom, over to the doors leading to the terrace, anywhere but at the pretty young woman standing beside him.
Miss Ferguson was likable enough. She was perfectly suitable—for some other man.
“Mr. Hawkins, I apologize for my employer.” Philomena shifted uncomfortably beside him. “She means well, I’m sure. But when Mrs. Singletary gets an idea in her head, she can be unrelenting in her desire to see it through to the end.”
Pleased by the young woman’s directness, Jonathon decided to be equally forthright in return. “Tenacity is an admirable trait. However, in this instance, Mrs. Singletary will be disappointed if she continues to push you and me together.”
Relief filled the young woman’s gaze. “I concur completely. You and I would never suit. A match between us would be the very worst of bad ideas.”
Jonathon offered a sardonic tilt of his lips.
Her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh, Mr. Hawkins, please forgive my wayward tongue. I did not mean to insult you.”
“I’m not offended, Miss Ferguson. I find your candor refreshing.”
“Praise the Lord.” She sighed. Then, clearly eager to move away from their discussion as quickly as possible, she looked out across the ballroom.
Jonathon followed the direction of her gaze and felt his gut take a slow, curling roll. Fanny was working her charms on Mrs. Singletary, directing the widow through the ballroom. Even dressed simply in a black, high-collared dress, Fanny exuded grace and elegance. Rather than detract, the lack of color in her clothing emphasized her natural beauty.
He watched, fascinated, as she pointed to the chandelier he’d had recently installed. Beneath the glow of a thousand flickering electric lights, her blue-green eyes sparkled with pleasure.
Jonathon blinked, unable to tear his gaze free of all that joy, all that beauty. He’d spent too many years surrounded by ugliness not to appreciate the way she’d scooped her silky blond curls in some sort of fancy twist atop her head. A few errant strands tumbled free, framing her exquisite oval face.
Fanny Mitchell was one of the Lord’s greatest works of art.
She captivated him. In truth, she’d intrigued him from their first meeting. If any woman could entice him to reconsider his opinion on marriage, it would be Fanny Mitchell.
And yet, because he admired her so much, liked her even, she was the last woman he would consider pursuing romantically.
She’d become indispensable to him. Here, at the hotel. Her personal touches were everywhere. From the elegant yet inviting furniture in the lobby, to the specialty chocolates hand-delivered to the rooms each evening, to the list of Denver attractions provided to each guest at checkin.
As if sensing his gaze on her, she shot him a wink from over her shoulder. His mind emptied of all thought.
Footsteps sounded from the outer hallway, heralding someone’s approach. Jonathon jerked his attention toward the doorway.
His assistant, Burke Galloway, hastened into the ballroom, a scowl on his face. Recognizing the look, Jonathon addressed Miss Ferguson directly. “Will you excuse me a moment?”
“Of course.”
He approached his assistant, a tall, lean young man with dark hair and startling, pale blue eyes. “Is there a problem?”
Burke’s mouth pressed into a grim line. “Joshua Greene is here to see you. I put him in your private office.”
Everything in him went cold. “Which Joshua Greene, father or son?”
Neither man was welcome in the hotel.
“Son.” Burke spoke in a hushed, hurried tone. “He refuses to leave the premises until he’s spoken with you personally.”
What business did his half brother have with him? Jaw tight, Jonathon returned to Miss Ferguson.
“I must bid you good-day, but I leave you in capable hands.” He motioned Burke over. “Miss Ferguson, this is Mr. Galloway. Burke, please show the young woman around the ballroom while I address this other matter.”
Burke’s eyes filled with quiet appreciation. “With pleasure, sir.”
Jonathon adopted a clipped, purposeful pace. He caught Fanny’s eye before exiting the ballroom. She gave him a brief nod. The gesture confirmed that he’d left Mrs. Singletary in capable hands, as well.
Whatever he discovered during his meeting with Josh Greene, Jonathon knew one thing for certain. He had good men and women in his employ, people far more faithful to him than the father and half brother who’d dismissed him the one time he’d reached out for their help.
He’d come a long way since those dark, hopeless days of surviving alone on the backstreets of Denver by any means possible. He was a success in his own right now, on his own terms. He owed his family nothing.
After a final nod in Fanny’s direction, Jonathon headed out of the ballroom, prepared for the confrontation ahead.
Chapter Two
Jonathon stood near the door, feet spread, hands clasped behind his back. He’d held the position for some time now, waiting for his half brother to stop pacing and state his business.
At seven years his senior, and their father’s sole legitimate heir, Josh had been given all the advantages of a privileged birthright, including an education from the finest schools in the country. Yet the man had nothing to show for his life, other than a string of gambling debts and a miserable marriage.
Always the outward picture of propriety, Josh wore one of his hand-tailored suits. The tall, leanly muscled build, the dark, windswept hair and classically handsome features fooled many.
But Jonathon knew the truth. The outer trappings did not match the inner man.
Like recognizes like, he thought, a harsh reminder of the things he’
d done to drag himself out of poverty. Though his choices had been about survival, at least at first, he would still have much to answer for when he faced the Lord. Sobering thought.
His brother finally paused, turned and studied him intently. Jonathon matched the rude regard with unflinching patience, a strategy he often adopted to ferret out a business opponent’s underlying agenda.
Far stronger men than his brother had buckled under the calculated silence. Josh proved no more immune to the tactic than others before him.
“I need money,” he blurted out.
With slow, deliberate movements, Jonathon unclasped his hands and balanced evenly on both feet. The irony of the situation was almost laughable.
I need money. Those were the exact same words Jonathon had uttered to his father twenty years ago in a final, desperate attempt to save his dying mother’s life.
Resentment flared.
Jonathon struggled to contain the emotion, reminding himself he was no longer that helpless boy facing an uncertain future. He had power and wealth now.
He answered to no one but God.
“How much did you lose at the faro tables this time?”
Josh’s mouth went flat. “I don’t need the money for a gambling debt, I need it for—”
He broke off midsentence. His gaze darted around the room, landing nowhere in particular. “Do you mind if I sit?”
Not wanting to extend this conversation longer than necessary, Jonathon frowned at the request.
Without waiting for a response, Josh sat.
After settling in one of the wingback chairs facing away from the door, he rubbed an unsteady hand across his face. “Lily is with child.”
Every muscle in Jonathon’s back coiled and tightened. “Your wife’s name is Amanda.”
The other man sighed heavily. “Lily is my mistress.”
Jonathon went very still. The son had followed in the father’s footsteps. Inevitable, he supposed.
And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him…
Throat tight, Jonathon tried to empty his mind, but a distant memory shimmered to life. His mother, sitting in a tattered dress falling apart at the seams, tears running down her cheeks as she anxiously waited for the tall, distinguished man to return as he’d promised.
Even in her darkest days, when money had been scarce and she’d been forced to turn to prostitution to feed them both, Amelia Hawkins had continued hoping her lover would finally leave his wife.
That day had never come.
Jonathon had been too young back then, barely five, to remember much about the man whose visits had stopped so abruptly and left his mother in permanent despair. Only later, when he’d been sixteen, had he discovered that the venerable Judge Joshua Greene had been his mother’s paramour. And Jonathon’s father.
Josh’s voice cut into his thoughts. “I need money to set Lily up in a small house of her own. I’ll repay you, of course, when I’m able.”
A spurt of anger ignited in Jonathon’s chest. He moved to a spot behind his desk. Rather than sit, he remained standing, mostly to prove to himself he was still in control of his emotions. “Why come to me? Why not go to your father?”
Josh shook his head. “I can’t. He warned me Lily would try to trap me with a child.”
Trap him with a child? Jonathon had the presence of mind to pull out his chair before his legs collapsed beneath him. As if in a dream, he was transported back in time, to the terrifying nights he’d been banished to the alleyway behind the brothel.
Blinking rapidly, he heard his brother speaking, explaining his desire to keep his secret from his family. A part of Jonathon listened, taking it all in. The other part was unable to forget that he and this man shared the same blood. They came from the same, contemptible father.
He surfaced at the word mistake. “What did you say?”
“Father will never forgive me for making the same mistake he did.”
Mistake. Jonathon had been Joshua Greene’s greatest mistake. That’s what the good, upstanding judge had told him on their first meeting.
“I’m not like Father. I won’t turn my back on Lily. I won’t let her fall into…” Josh glanced down. “You know.”
“Do I?”
His brother’s head snapped back up. “I should have known you wouldn’t make this easy for me.”
“And yet you came to me, anyway.”
“All right, I’ll say it.” He rolled his shoulders as if trying to dislodge a heavy weight. “I don’t want Lily to become a prostitute like…like your…mother.”
Jonathon barely contained his rage. “And you think that makes you a good man?”
“It makes me better than our father.”
Jonathon cleared his expression of all emotion. Inside, he burned. He briefly glanced at the small picture on his desk of his mother as a young woman. He knew a moment of pain, and the hollow feeling of remembered sorrow he’d tucked inside a dark corner of his soul.
Amelia Hawkins hadn’t turned to prostitution lightly. She’d held out as long as she could, but had finally admitted defeat and taken a position in Mattie Silks’s brothel. Jonathon had been seven at the time. The infamous madam had only agreed to take him in, as well, with the understanding that the customers must never find out about his existence.
Whenever his mother “entertained” he’d been locked outside, no matter the weather, left to run the streets. Out of necessity, he’d learned to take care of himself. He’d become a master at picking pockets and winning fights.
He would have continued down a similar path the rest of his life had it not been for Laney O’Connor, now Laney Dupree. She’d offered Jonathon a home at Charity House. She’d built the orphanage for kids like him, kids who weren’t really orphans, whose mothers worked in brothels.
Jonathon shuddered, thinking of the things he’d done to survive prior to Laney’s rescue, and the things he’d done after leaving Charity House to make his fortune.
Could God forgive so much sin? A preacher friend of his said yes. Like waves crashing to shore, the Lord’s forgiveness was infinite and never ending. Jonathon had his doubts. The world was rarely fair.
And now, another woman had been lied to and compromised. Left to her own resources, she could very well travel the same path as Jonathon’s mother. Joshua Greene’s despicable legacy would live on into the next generation, and possibly the next. A never ending cycle.
Was it any wonder Jonathon never wanted to marry? Never wanted to bear children?
“I’ll give you the money.”
Saying nothing more, he opened the safe nestled beneath his desk, and pulled out a bundle of neatly stacked bills. The amount was more than enough to purchase a small, comfortable home for Josh’s mistress and her innocent, unborn child.
Once the money was in his brother’s hands, Jonathon rose. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a hotel to run.”
“Of course.”
In silence, he escorted his brother to the exit. “I bid you good-day.”
Josh started to speak.
Jonathon shut the door on his words with a resounding click. For several moments, he stared straight ahead, his gut roiling. In the unnatural stillness, he made a silent promise to himself. No woman would suffer because of his selfish actions.
The cycle of sin that ran in his family ended with him.
*
With their walk-through complete, Fanny escorted Mrs. Singletary and her companion back to the main lobby of the hotel. As they entered the skinny hallway leading out of the ballroom, Philomena fell back a step. The move put her directly beside Burke Galloway. Their footsteps slowed to match one another’s, and their voices mingled in hushed tones.
Fanny wondered if the widow noticed the two were so obviously attracted to each other. She looked over at Mrs. Singletary, but the sight of Jonathon’s office distracted her.
He rarely shut his door. The fact that he’d done so today warned Fanny something wasn’t quite
right. A terrible foreboding slipped through her.
Mrs. Singletary glanced at the closed door as well, a delicate frown knitting her brow. “It would appear Mr. Hawkins is still occupied with whatever concern called him away.”
“I believe you are correct.” Fanny’s heart beat faster. She fought a sudden urge to go to Jonathon, to make sure he was all right.
But that would be overstepping her bounds. She continued leading Mrs. Singletary and the others down the hallway.
Once they were in the main lobby, Mrs. Singletary dug inside her sizable reticule and pulled out a stack of papers.
She handed them to Fanny. “Since it appears Mr. Hawkins will not be available for our meeting today, I am entrusting you with my final guest list for the ball.”
Fanny scanned the top page, not really expecting any surprises. But when her gaze landed on a particular set of guests, her breath hitched in her throat. Judge and Mrs. Joshua Greene.
Joshua. Greene.
The man wasn’t welcome in the Hotel Dupree. Short of exposing Jonathon’s personal connection to the prominent judge, Fanny could say nothing to Mrs. Singletary.
She coerced air into her lungs, and adopted a breezy, nonchalant tone. “I will deliver your list to Mr. Hawkins as soon as possible. If he has any questions or concerns I’m certain he will contact you at once.”
“That will be fine.” Mrs. Singletary’s gaze narrowed over her companion conversing softly with Mr. Galloway.
The widow sniffed in mild disapproval. Philomena didn’t appear to notice her employer’s reaction. She was entirely too absorbed in whatever Burke had pointed out to her in the lobby.
“Mr. Galloway, do come here.” The widow spoke in a fast, impatient tone. “And you, as well, Philomena.”
The two walked over as a single unit and faced Mrs. Singletary shoulder to shoulder.
Philomena spoke for them both. “Yes, Mrs. Singletary?”
The widow’s gaze bounced between the two, a look of vexation in her eyes. “Mr. Galloway, would you please see that my carriage and driver are waiting for me out front?”
