Choices of the Heart

by Daniels, Julia

  His pulse pounded, although he didn’t know why. They already had seen the enormous list of property Ronnie and Daisy had accumulated. Why it should make him edgy now, he couldn’t understand. It was just a recitation, really, but being here in Chicago made it all seem real. Chloe took his hand in hers, perhaps sensing the inner turmoil he was experiencing.

  They sat in stoic silence as the man recited an expansive list of property that was left to them in trust for Bobby. For each item of significance, Mr. Jones handed them a photograph that fit the description. After about fifteen straight minutes, as the pictures and descriptions started to form a pile, Reese excused himself. He was having trouble breathing.

  Chloe stood to follow him, but he put a hand up to stop her.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  He went outside, hoping to clear his head and stop the pounding of his heart. He was too young to have a heart attack, but lordy, if that wasn’t what it felt like was happening.

  Chloe had to be right. His brother had been involved in something seedy. Profitable but sleazy. A person who comes from nothing doesn’t suddenly end up where Ronnie had…not by legal means and hard work, anyway.

  Reese plopped heavily onto a bench near the attorney’s office and reached for his pack of smokes. Chloe would be mad if she knew he’d kept them, but he didn’t care. This was too much to take.

  Three homes, a lake cottage, two boats, four automobiles and a whole slew of racehorses in Tennessee. What in the blazes did Ronnie need four vehicles for? The man didn’t even like horses, yet he’d owned a farm full of them.

  If he wanted to own a farm, why didn’t he send the money back to Nebraska where Reese and their father could have used it? Ronnie had the whole world—and then some—here in Chicago. No wonder he never came home, never contacted them.

  Reese leaned back on the bench and studied the people strolling by, visiting with each other, carrying packages. He felt cramped between the tall buildings, trapped even—like an ant about to be trodden upon by someone’s boot heel.

  He took a deep draw off the cigarette and then exhaled. What would he and Chloe do with all these belongings? He laughed, thinking he’d just told her she couldn’t have a dress when Ronnie and Daisy had so much money at their disposal, they wouldn’t have even missed a hundred dollar bill much less a twenty.

  ~*~

  “Hey, you.” Chloe stepped out the doors of the office building and dodged people on her way toward him. “You said you quit,” she scolded, pointing to the cigarette between his fingers. “You told me you threw them all away.”

  “Yeah, well….” He threw the butt on the ground and stamped it out.

  “Are you unwell?” His face was grey, the color of patients at the hospital just after surgery.

  “I’m not quite right,” he agreed.

  “Was your heart beating fast, and did it feel like you would pass out?” She sat next to him on the bench.

  “How did you know?”

  “I felt the same way. Not this instant, but when the attorneys in Broken Bow read off the list.” She took his hand. “I think it is panic. Simple panic. Worry and a feeling of being overwhelmed.”

  “Sounds about right.” He leaned forward and rested his head in his hands.

  “Let’s get this ugliness over with, shall we?”

  She stood and held out her hands to him. He took them and let her pull him up from the bench.

  “The attorney wants to give us a motor tour of the properties,” she continued. “We have some decisions to make, things to sort through.”

  “He was a bootlegger,” Reese said quietly, loud enough only for her ears, as they reentered the office building. “I didn’t believe it, even after all that money fell out of the envelopes, but now I have no doubt. He couldn’t have earned all that through legal means.”

  She put her arm around his waist as they walked inside the attorney’s main lobby. Mr. Jones was standing at the reception desk, waiting for them.

  “We can head out this way. My auto is parked in back.”

  He guided them through a back door of the building hidden behind the reception area. He helped Chloe into the front seat of his shiny, new-looking, personal touring car. Reese climbed in back.

  As they drove through town, Chloe tried to get Reese involved in the conversation, but he remained stoic, staring through the windows at the landscape that was so very different from where they came from. Even Lincoln, where Chloe had lived for the past three years, was just a tiny speck of a city compared to Chicago.

  “Wow,” she breathed, staring out the window onto Lake Michigan.

  “Amazing, isn’t it?” Jones asked. “It’s rather cloudy today, so you can’t see the whole effect of it, of course. On a sunny day, it’s quite amazing. You’ll have a nice view of it from your sister’s home. Well, your home…”

  Her home? My word, it was all theirs now. She glanced over her shoulder at Reese, bothered by his silence. They didn’t have the privacy to talk freely, and she was itching to know what was going on in his head.

  The road wound and curved up a small hill and wound some more. Trees were abundant along the lake, and car drivers waved as they passed. The attorney kept rambling, much as a tour guide might, and she tried to insert appropriate comments as they bumped along. She looked back at Reese again, but nothing had changed.

  He was shocked, Chloe knew, much the same as she was. But, for Reese, Ronnie had hung the moon. Being involved in illegal dealings tarnished his brother’s memory. Not only had Reese lost his brother and best friend but also his hero.

  “Here we are.” The attorney pulled into a long, tree-lined driveway and parked the car. He climbed out and unlocked the iron gate, slowly pushing one side open enough for the car to fit through. He climbed back in and pulled the auto through the gates. He kept going up the driveway, didn’t even bother to shut the gate behind them.

  Chloe looked around. From the road, a person wouldn’t know there was a home back there. But as they drove farther up the driveway, an enormous brick home came into view. “Oh, my word! This is where they lived?”

  “Yes, this was their main residence. There is the main house.” He pointed at the building Chloe was staring at. “Off to the left is a two-bedroom guest house. It matches the main house in construction, just smaller. There’s a carriage house and a garage out behind. The lake can be seen from the whole east side of the house through a wall of windows. It’s breathtaking. I imagine you will love it, Mrs. Lloyd.”

  Chloe turned to Reese. He met her eyes and winked. She smiled at him and felt a little better. What if they hadn’t gone through this together? She couldn’t have done this alone, and she doubted he would have made it, either.

  Mr. Jones pulled up to the front door of the house and cut the engine. For what seemed like an eternity, Chloe just stared at the buildings. Mansions she had seen in fancy magazines paled in comparison to what her sister had lived in. Amazing.

  Reese opened her car door, and yet she still looked straight ahead. How did Daisy function in such a grand place? It seemed so different from anything they had ever shared together. Chloe couldn’t even imagine her sister there, walking on the grounds.

  “Are you all right?” Reese asked quietly, holding out his hand to her.

  She looked up and smiled with a bob of her head. “Fine. Just overwhelmed, I think.”

  She took his hand and let him help her out. She weaved her arm through his, and after shutting the car door they walked to the front entrance.

  “This house was built in 1883. The original home was destroyed in the devastating Great Chicago fire of 1871.” The lawyer unlocked the door and stepped inside the grand entry. “All the furnishings came with the place when the late Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd were given it.”

  “Given it?” Reese asked as he removed his hat and suit jacket.

  “Yes.” The attorney nodded. “It was a gift from his…um…employer. But it was fully titled in the name of Ronald Lloyd, so n
ow it is his son’s.”

  Chloe wandered off on her own through the main hall, looking at the portraits. She didn’t recognize anyone. Had the pictures been included in the house as well? It would be odd to walk the halls of your own home, looking at people you had no connection to. She laughed. Maybe Daisy made up names for the dour-looking people. That’s what Chloe would have done, created an instant family and even made up interesting stories to tell her guests. She laughed again.

  The dining room was off the main hall. She counted fifty chairs seated at the table, and a sparkly glass chandelier the size of a motorcar hung in the center of the ceiling. Hutches sat on each wall, filled with china and glassware. What a far cry from the cramped room Chloe and Daisy had eaten in each morning.

  She walked through a narrow hallway and into a spotless, clutter-free kitchen. It was smaller than she would have guessed. To the far side was a small table set right into a bay window. Was that what they called a breakfast room?

  She felt as if she’d fallen through some magic hole and wound up in a world that she didn’t even recognize.

  “They had five full-time employees here. A cook, a maid, a nanny for the boy, and Mr. Lloyd had a personal assistant. There was also a gardener who kept up the grounds. They have all agreed to help you should you have questions.”

  Mr. Jones stopped just behind her, and then Reese came in the room.

  “Will you stay, do you think?”

  “No.” Reese bit off the word like a clap of thunder. “We’ll have you sell it as soon as possible. Along with all their belongings.”

  “But Reese—” Chloe started, only to be cut off.

  “I’ll let you two discuss it. You need not decide today.”

  “Is this where they were murdered?”

  Reese amazed Chloe with the question. She’d been wondering the same thing the whole time they’d been inside.

  “No. They were weekending at their cottage north of here, right on Lake Michigan.” The lawyer made a point of looking at his watch. “Shall I come back in a few hours and pick you up, and take you back to your hotel? I’ll be happy to take you to the other properties tomorrow, but I have a meeting soon and can’t do it now. You’ll have some time now to look around, maybe see if there is anything of interest to you? Whatever you want to keep, I can arrange to have sent to Nebraska for you.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Jones.” Chloe took Reese’s hand, hoping it would erase the scowl from his face. It didn’t.

  “We’ll be ready when you return,” Reese told him.

  Jones tipped his hat and saw himself out, leaving them a little dazed in a world neither understood.

  He led her through the breakfast room, through another hallway, and they ended up in what looked like a library. The front door shut, and they were alone, free to search the house at will.

  Would they find anything that would remind them of Ronnie and Daisy?

  Chapter Twelve

  “Oh, my goodness!” Chloe swept into the largest bedroom she’d ever seen. It was almost the size of a whole wing of the hospital where she worked.

  Built-in cabinets, stuffed with oddities in all shapes and colors of the rainbow, completely covered one wall. The other had heavy draperies hanging from the ceiling, puddling elegantly on the floor. Chloe walked toward them, curious not only about the feel of the fabric but also what could be seen on the other side.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Reese swore from behind her.

  The sight before them was amazing. The house was situated on the edge of a cliff, and just beyond the windows was an incredible view of Lake Michigan.

  She slid open the glass door and stepped out onto the small balcony. A breeze fluttered the hair at her nape. Reese stood behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders, one of the first intimate contacts they’d shared since getting married. Two days since the wedding and they’d barely touched each other.

  She leaned her head back against his shoulder. “I could see falling in love with this view and never wanting to leave.”

  “Should we stay here?” He moved his hands to her waist and folded them against her stomach, pulling her back against him. He bent down and kissed her neck softly, tickling her ear with his nose and breath.

  “It would be a world apart from all we’ve known, that’s for certain.” She moved her neck slightly, catching a look at his eyes. “Could you even imagine?”

  Images of the fancy parties Daisy may have hosted, the ones Reese and Chloe could have if they decided to stay, filtered through her mind. Maids dressed in black and white uniforms, serving a formal dinner at the grand table downstairs. Riding in a yacht out on Lake Michigan, the wind whipping through her hair. She held a chuckle, imagining Reese at the helm of a boat.

  “I could, yes.” He turned her in his arms. “I have even imagined just while we stood here the luxuries we could enjoy. But deep down inside, I don’t think either of us would like it for very long. It’s not us. It wasn’t them.”

  He bent his head and kissed her again, this time on the lips. Chloe reached her hands around his shoulders, then up the back of his neck and tangled her fingers in the soft, curly hair at his nape to draw his face closer. Their middles met, and she was amazed at his fast reaction to her touch.

  He pulled back with a sassy smile and took her hand, guiding her into the bedroom. “Go have a look in the wardrobes. I reckon your sister had some fancy dresses you might like to take back with us. Might just have to grab some of Ronnie’s swanky suits. They’d want us to have them. Ronnie never was one to tolerate waste.”

  She turned back to him and grabbed his collar. Stepping up on her tiptoes, she kissed him and then backed away and did as he suggested. She walked through one closet room, surprised not only at the sheer number of dresses and shoes but the way they were organized. All the colors were hung together. The shoes were arranged from low heel to high. Formal gowns were in garment bags for protection. Dozens of fur coats hung at the back. Through the closet, she was able to access a washroom she’d expect to see in the White House.

  Daisy had the indoor plumbing she’d always craved! She didn’t have just the basic water closet and standard tub, either. The toilet was gold-plated, or dare Chloe wonder, all gold? The bathtub was huge, made of granite or some shiny type of stone, gilded in gold and large enough to fit several people. Thick bath towels hung from hooks on the polished tile walls.

  “Wow.” She shook her head and backed out of the room. “Reese,” she called. “You gotta see this.”

  “Where are you?” His voice was close.

  “In the bathroom, back here.”

  “Here you are.” He smiled and walked by her into the bathroom. His whistle of appreciation made her laugh.

  “Amazing, huh?” Chloe came up behind him and peered over his shoulder.

  “Makes our house seem like a hovel.”

  “Hardly a hovel, sweetheart. Your folks would never believe this, Reese. I can hardly believe it, and I’m living it.” She walked into the opposite closet, where Ronnie’s suits were hanging. “I say we pack them all and have ’em sent to the farm,” Chloe told Reese when they met in the bedroom again. “If they don’t fit me, your mother might enjoy them. Ronnie was about your size, maybe a little fuller here.” She rubbed his waist. “We ought to look in Bobby’s room, too, see if there are toys and things he might like.”

  She started to walk out the door, and he grabbed her arm.

  “Wait a minute. I want to show you something else.”

  She followed the direction his finger was pointing, toward an open cabinet, and her mouth fell open. Filmy, sheer, lacy garments hung from hooks next to fur-hemmed, see-through satin negligees in all colors. Chloe backed up with a nervous laugh. Had Daisy paraded around for Ronnie in these getups? High heels with fluffy pink and black trim rested on the bottom of the cabinet.

  “Oh, my!” She felt herself flush. She’d never imagined such things.

  “Try them on,” Reese whispered in he
r ear.

  “I couldn’t.” She stepped back farther and bumped into him.

  “Come on, Chloe Anne.” He unfastened the buttons on her shoulder, exposing her skin to the cool breeze still coming in from the balcony door. “Don’t you think it’s time we consummated this marriage? We couldn’t on the train here, but nothing is preventing it now.” His lips found her neck again, as his hands untied the sash at her waist. “I don’t intend to be celibate for the rest of my life. Especially with such a gorgeous wife.”

  “It will be hard to give Bobby brothers and sisters if you choose to remain celibate.” She wrapped her arms around his waist. “But here, Reese?” Excitement raced through her. He hadn’t tried to make love to her, had barely touched her since the day in the hay, and that day he’d pulled away, too, before making love to her. “What if Mr. Jones comes back too soon?”

  “What if he does?” Reese chuckled. “It’s our house now. We can do whatever the hell we want to do here.” He went to work unbuttoning her dress and then slid it off her shoulders. “Right now, I want to touch you, Mrs. Lloyd. My beautiful, beautiful wife.”

  She stepped free of her dress, her silky chemise hugging her curves. She spread her arms outward and said, “Touch at will, my darling.”

  He tipped up her chin and tenderly kissed her nose. “I’ve missed you so much, Chloe. I’ve missed your laughter and your smile. I’ve missed your lips and your voice. I’ve missed that special spot on your neck and most of all your friendship. And I’ve missed holding you in my arms and feeling your skin next to mine.”

  “Oh, Reese,” she sighed. “I missed you, too. So much.” She moved forward. She pulled his suit coat off and tossed it over a chair. His tie was quickly disposed of, and then she unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it from his waistband, anxious to feel his skin against her again.

  “Put one of those fancy things on for me,” he whispered.

  “You just took off my clothes.”

  Her lips kissed his shoulders, while her hands worked the clasp of his belt and opened his trousers. He let her slip the pants off his narrow waist, pushing them farther down his hips and his thighs until she heard them hit the floor.