Читать книгу The Housekeeper's Daughter - Christine Flynn, Christine Flynn, Mary J. Forbes - Страница 9

T hey said he needed a wife. A woman of breeding who wouldn’t mind spending her evenings alone or entertaining on a moment’s notice. A special woman who could withstand the scrutiny of his family, the press and his constituents. According to the polls, men who were settled projected a better image and more easily gained the public’s trust.

A frown furrowed Gabe Kendrick’s broad brow as he stood at the arched bedroom window, his hands in the pockets of his khaki slacks, his broad shoulders straight beneath his white polo shirt. As a senator in Virginia’s General Assembly, he was well aware that political decisions could often be cold and calculated. But adding “find a wife” to his list of things to do hadn’t been the advice he’d expected from his father and his uncle Charles when he’d arrived at the family estate last night.

Offhand, he couldn’t think of any woman he’d want to spend the weekend with, much less the rest of his life.

The thought deepened the furrows. Last night’s discussion had been a long-range planning session, one of those discussions that went beyond immediate needs to set smaller goals on the way to a larger one. He already had an excellent reputation. He had money. And heaven knew he had name recognition. From the moment his mother had relinquished her claim to the throne of the kingdom of Luzandria to marry his father thirty-five years ago, the Kendrick name had been a household word.

His father, now retired, had been a young senator himself at the time. Not much older than Gabe’s own thirty-three years. His mother was one of the most photographed women in the world. He, his brother and both of their sisters had grown up on the covers of magazines. Press and paparazzi followed them nearly everywhere.

Name recognition, he definitely had.

All he needed was the perfect woman. He just had no intention of addressing the wife issue now. He had no time for a relationship. He would have even less after he announced his candidacy for governor. He barely had time for his own family as it was.

The thought had him glancing at his watch and wincing at the time. He was supposed to be joining them for breakfast at that very moment.

He loved his family. The good-natured competition between them energized him, and he hadn’t seen certain aunts, uncles and cousins in months. He was even looking forward to a little rough and tumble with his young second cousins out on the manicured lawn. But, having arrived late last night from Richmond, then being up until two in the morning with his father and uncle, he wanted nothing more than a little peace before he joined the myriad relatives gathered below.

Always mindful of what others expected of him, he prepared to abandon the view of magnificent gardens beyond the leaded glass. Peace would have to wait.

Or so he was thinking when he caught sight of a small, slender figure moving from behind the gazebo. The family’s young groundskeeper moved methodically as she tended the wide flower border, reaching to snag a weed, pinch a dead bloom.

He couldn’t help the smile that erased his fatigue. His mother never had been able to get Addie Lowe into a uniform. With the exception of the stable master, every other member of the Kendrick estate’s staff wore a uniform appropriate to his or her position. Bentley, the mechanic and chauffeur, wore tan in the summer and black in winter. The maids wore black dresses with white collars and aprons. The cook wore white. Gardeners wore tan jumpsuits.

Except for Addie.

The jumpsuits his mother preferred were apparently sized for men and didn’t come small enough for her. As quiet and unassuming as the youngest staff member tended to be, she managed to blend in even in her usual chambray and denim. But Gabe thought it appropriate that she had escaped having to conform. He’d always thought her spirit too gentle to box in.

He hadn’t even realized he’d been looking for her until he’d seen her.

He crossed the room, his footsteps soundless on the antique-gold rug and opened the door to the long, door-lined east wing. The other doors along the wide burgundy carpeted hallway were closed, hiding the unmade beds the maids would tackle now that everyone was up and moving.

The entire Kendrick clan had descended on the 125-acre estate in Camelot, Virginia, for the social event of the year. Gabe’s youngest sister, Tess, was marrying Bradley Michael Ashworth III tomorrow on the north lawn. According to the schedule of events he’d found waiting for him on his pillow last night, rehearsal was at three o’clock this afternoon. The rehearsal dinner was at a restaurant in town at six-thirty that evening. Breakfast had started fifteen minutes ago.

The tantalizing aroma of coffee drew him down the steps of the double, carved and curving staircase that embraced the marble foyer. The scent mingled with the fragrance of an enormous bouquet on the round glass table centered in the echoing space before he pushed through a small door beneath the stairs. By using the butler’s door, he could avoid the breakfast room.

Voices drifted toward him as he moved through the halls at the back of the house. The servants’ areas were separate from the family’s, but he was close to the breakfast room here. The clink of fine silver on china underscored animated conversation as he stepped into the brightly lit kitchen.

“Gabriel Kendrick.”

His name held a blend of surprise and pleasure as the pleasantly plump Olivia Schilling turned from her sauce on the eight-burner stove. That stove was in the middle of the huge, white-tiled center island. Copper pots hung from the high ceiling above it. Fresh herbs lined the long, multipaned window over the triple stainless steel sink.

Grinning, he buzzed a kiss over her cheek. “How’s my favorite chef?”

The Kendricks’ cook of twenty-five years smelled of soap and vanilla, just as she always had. And, just as she always had, she replied, “She’s just dandy,” and smiled back.

Olivia’s short, ruthlessly permed salt-and-pepper hair didn’t budge as she turned back to her task. A white apron, pristine except for a streak of egg yolk, protected a starched white blouse and black skirt. Her white running shoes sported a defiant slash of neon green.

“We heard you might be late rising this morning,” she informed him, referring to herself and the young maid backing through a swinging door with a silver tray of pastries. “I was just thinking I should set aside a tray for you. What do you need over there?”

“Not a thing,” he replied, heading for the coffeemaker under a long line of white birch and glass cabinets. “I just want some coffee.”

“Isn’t there any in the other room?” she asked, glancing toward the still-swinging door. “Hold on and I’ll have Marie refill the service.”

“I haven’t been in the other room. I’m avoiding it. Marie is new,” he observed, as much to avoid making excuses for why he wasn’t joining his family as to acknowledge new staff. “Is she permanent or just here for the weekend?”

“Permanent. She replaced Sheryl.”

“Sheryl.” He repeated her name flatly, trying to remember if he’d met her. “Didn’t Mom just hire her?”

“Three months ago. I swear we’ve gone through one after another since Rita retired.”

“So why did she quit?” Gabe asked, filling a thick ceramic mug his mom would never have allowed on any of her tables.

“She didn’t. Mrs. Lowe fired her,” she said, speaking of the head housekeeper. “She caught her snooping through a guest’s handbag and let her go on the spot.” Lifting her wooden spoon from the pot, she touched her finger to the thick sauce clinging to it. Frowning when she tasted it, she reached for a lemon. “She and your mom hired Marie a few weeks ago.”

The door swung back open. “She’s doing a fine job, too,” Rose Lowe announced, her voice low. “I just hope she works out. With the social season beginning, there will be teas, dinners and parties, and it’s so much easier to work with people familiar with the way we do things here.

“Hello, Gabe,” she continued, offering him a polite smile on her way to the paper towels.

The head housekeeper wore the same style of black dress as the maid, only without the white collar and apron. In the thirty-some years Addie’s mother had worked for the family, Gabe had rarely seen anything on her reed-thin body with much color to it. The past several years, she’d even worn black to the employees’ Christmas party.

The overhead lights caught hints of platinum in her dark and tidy bun as she ripped off a dozen sheets of towling. He had known Mrs. Lowe most of his life, too. But the incredibly efficient, fifty-something matron maintained a formal reserve around family that Olivia often did not.

“Now that you’re up,” she continued, folding the sheets as she retraced her steps, “we can set out fresh eggs Benedict. Olivia, we need more sausages, too. Young Trevor reached across the sideboard and knocked the pitcher of orange juice into the chafing dish. Miss Amber added milk.”

Trevor was his cousin Nathan’s youngest son. If he remembered correctly, Trevor had just started school. Amber was younger and belonged to his cousin Sydney.

He had a few other young second cousins in there, too. No doubt the twenty-some adults gathered around the table were reminding them all of their manners right about now.

“Don’t set out anything on my account.” Pulling his mug from beneath the tap on the industrial-size coffeepot, he headed past the pine table where house staff shared their meals. With the touch of chaos going on in the other room, no one would even miss him. “I’m just passing through.”

Olivia visibly stifled the urge to tell him he needed to eat. Mrs. Lowe said nothing. Her mouth just pinched the way it inevitably did when he spoke. He had no idea why that was. But, more often than not, she tended to regard him with that faint but distinct disapproval.

Too accustomed to the look to think anything in particular of it now, he excused himself with a nod. “Ladies,” he said, and headed for the back door.

“If you run into Addie out there,” he heard Olivia call, “ask her about her news.”

“What kind of news?”

“Let her tell you.”

“He doesn’t need to take Addie from her work,” he heard Mrs. Lowe insist.

“She can work while they talk.”

“She doesn’t need the distraction.”

“Oh, lighten up, Rose,” Olivia insisted right back. “It’ll take all of a minute.”

“Will do,” he called back, intending to talk to Addie, anyway, and let the door bump to a close on their debate.

Taking a sip of Olivia’s wonderfully strong coffee, he stepped into the late-September sunshine. The spicy scent of petunias drifted on the warming morning air. Huge pots of the thick white blooms lined the sprawling verandah with its wicker tables and lounging chairs. The lawn spread like a thick emerald carpet past the reflecting pond and formal gardens lush with color.

Addie would have been responsible for all of it, he thought, crossing the freshly swept boards to step onto the lawn.

His long stride, normally so purposeful, began to slow as it tended to do whenever he entered the immaculate gardens or the pathways in the woods beyond. Often when he came home, no one was there other than his parents. In the summer, when his parents left for their house in the Hamptons, there was only staff present. Addie’s father, who had been the groundskeeper until he’d passed away five years ago, had been the one person he had always looked forward to seeing there.

He still missed the guy. The seclusion of the estate was Gabe’s refuge when he faced decisions or needed to work a problem through. It always had been. During breaks from college and as a young man getting his feet wet in local politics, he had spent hours talking—and listening—to Tom Lowe. While the older man had tended the grounds, Gabe had followed him around the property soaking up his earthy, plain-spoken wisdom, pestering him with questions, challenging him and being challenged. Addie had been there, too, a small shadow trailing after her adored father. Because they lived in such different worlds, the man who had once owned his own farm had provided a down-to-earth candor that his own father and his uncle could not. No Kendrick knew what it was like to earn a living from the land, to suffer the whims of nature or have nothing but wit, grit and common sense to fall back on.

His mother’s side of the family might be royalty, but his father’s side had always been rich.

Taking another sip of much-needed caffeine, he watched Addie where she crouched by a border thick with golden-yellow chrysanthemums. Without looking behind her, she dropped dead blooms in the galvanized bucket by her knee and reached out again to check for anything faded. In the bright sunshine, her short brown hair gleamed with hints of ruby and topaz. Her shoulders and hips were as slender as a young girl’s.

There was a fragility about her that seemed entirely too feminine for the denim she wore, and the work she did. A pair of clippers hung from the narrow waist of her slim jeans. The sleeves of the blue chambray shirt tucked into them were rolled up to expose her tanned and slender arms.

As if sensing his presence, or maybe realizing she was being stared at, she glanced over her shoulder. Genuine pleasure lit her delicate features. Her darkly lashed brown eyes glowed with welcome.

“I’m glad to see you’re surviving my mother.” Liking the way her smile always made him feel, he raised his mug to her. “I can only imagine how obsessed she’s been about the grounds.”

From a distance came the throaty hum of a riding lawn mower. One of the two part-time men she supervised was mowing the lawns lining the long front drive.

“I won’t mind at all when this is over,” she quietly confessed, checking her watch as if gauging the man’s progress. “I’m already behind on fall pruning because we need everything full and green for tomorrow. I just hope no one looks underneath some of these bushes and plants,” she murmured. “I’ve had to fill in with pots from the nursery.”

Still kneeling, she pushed aside her bangs with the back of her hand. “I’m surprised to see you here so early. I wouldn’t have thought you’d arrive until time for the rehearsal.” The soft smile in her eyes turned to curiosity. “Did you come early to meet with your uncle Charles?”

There were times when Gabe felt she knew him as well as her father once had. Tom Lowe had been the first to recognize that he hated being idle, unless it was on his own terms. He had to be doing, seeking, accomplishing. He gave a hundred percent to whatever he needed to do once he got wherever he needed to be, but he scheduled himself so tightly that he was never ahead of schedule without a purpose.

“We met for a while last night. It’s time to bring a professional strategist on board,” he confided, wondering if Addie didn’t actually know him even better. Tom used to warn him about burning out if he didn’t learn to pace himself. Addie seemed to understand that he thrived on that pace. “Dad thinks one of the lawyers in Charles’s firm might be just who we need. I’ll meet with him in a couple of weeks to talk about my campaign.”

Rising, she moved with her pail to the next section of flowers, her eyes on her work, her attention on him. “Is he here, or in Washington?”

“Washington. I thought I was aggressive,” he admitted, moving with her, “but this guy’s got even me beat. He told Charles he thinks we should start positioning for the presidency at the start of my term as governor.”

A wrinkled leaf hit the bucket, along with a handful of browning blossoms. “What do you think?”

“It sounded good to me.”

“Shouldn’t you win the election as governor first?”

He could always count on Addie’s practicality to keep his ego in check.

“I suppose it might help,” he conceded, thinking it wouldn’t have killed her to offer just a little stroke of confidence.

“Might,” she echoed with a little smile. “You always are getting ahead of yourself.”

“I think of it more as planning ahead.”

She lifted one shoulder in a faint shrug.

“What?” he asked, knowing there was something she wasn’t saying.

“Oh, I don’t know,” she mused, curiously touching a potato bug and watching it roll into a ball. “I was just thinking that you don’t seem happy unless you’re dreaming huge. There’s nothing wrong with that,” she qualified, sounding as practical and pragmatic as her father might have, “so long as you don’t overlook what needs to be done in the meantime.”

The reminder gave him pause. He did tend to set big goals. And he did sometimes fail to notice obvious details in his preoccupation to reach them. But last night’s talks had been heady stuff. Rumor had it that he was a shoo-in for his party for governor. The other major party couldn’t even find a candidate willing to run because no one wanted to lose to Virginia’s favorite son. He had his detractors, of course, people who believed he would be nothing without his family’s money or name. But he would push himself as hard as necessary to prove himself worthy of people’s faith in him. Pushing himself was what he did best.

In the meantime, however, there were things that needed to be done. For one, he apparently needed to find himself a wife.

The thought had him frowning into his cup. Years ago he would have asked her father what he thought of that idea. Now he considered picking Addie’s brain about that particular obligation.

He didn’t know if she had learned from her dad as he had, or if she’d simply inherited his knack for knowing the right thing to do. But in the years since her father’s death, she had proved herself to be as uncannily wise as her dad and surprisingly insightful where Gabe’s aspirations and obligations were concerned.

He valued her insight, her honesty and the fact that he could trust her with anything. He just didn’t want to think about duty or his campaign just then. He hadn’t been home for a month. He’d rather just enjoy her undemanding company.

“Olivia said you have some news. Did you finish your research?”

Addie’s expert eye swept the border as she moved along.

“Not yet. But I did call the president of the local historical society about what I found. She had no idea there’d been a public garden on that old property,” she said, a hint of excitement sneaking into her tone. “She asked me to send her copies of what I had and offered to help get the project funded when my research is complete.”

Addie had been working for years to graduate from college. While doing research for a botany class last winter, she had discovered a forgotten set of plans for an historic garden. The last time he’d been home, she had just located the property it had once occupied in Camelot.

“Funding a restoration can take forever,” he warned.

“I’m learning that,” she admitted, looking more excited, trying not to be. “But once the property gets an historical designation, the garden itself will be a piece of cake. I have copies of the old plans and the list of all the plants. There’s reference to a water trough I still need to research, but we have nearly all of the plants right here on this property. Dad found them years ago when he laid out the colonial garden for your mother.”

“Mom’s going to let you dig them up?”

“Heavens, no,” she murmured, still checking for anything wilted. “I asked if I could take cuttings. I’ve already started cultivating them.”

Drawn by her enthusiasm, impressed by her thoroughness, Gabe felt himself smiling once more. “It sounds as if you have it all figured out.”

“Except for the paperwork,” she conceded, less enthused about that detail. “But that’s what Mrs. Dewhurst said she’d help me with. She’s the president of the historical society.”

He knew the woman. Helene Dewhurst was an old money social maven who kept her manicured claws in everything. “Will you get class credit if she helps?”

“This isn’t for school. I’m doing it because of Dad. For him, actually,” she confided. “You know how he loved growing the old hybrids we don’t see anymore. And you know he felt knowledge was to be shared.”

Her father had loved anything with a history to it. He had also thrived on sharing in infinite detail whatever he could learn about whatever he discovered. Her father had instilled her deep respect for anything old and venerable, along with her love of the soil and the miracles that grew from it. He had also taught her more than Gabe figured any female truly wanted to know about the origins of every professional football team in New England.

Her gentle voice grew softer. “I think he’d like knowing his work helped restore something people could enjoy.”

The softness in her tone was echoed in her smile. He should have known there was more to her excitement than something that would serve only her own purpose. She always seemed most animated thinking of someone else.

“How close are you to finishing your research?”

The handle of her pail landed on the rim with a metallic clink when she moved it again. “I hope to have everything together before I go back to school.”

That would be in January. “See if you can get it finished before that and give it to me. I’ll fast-track it for you.”

Addie’s eyes lit when she looked back up at him, past the heavy mug in his hand, past his broad chest and broader shoulders.

“You’d do that?”

“Of course I would.”

Addie swallowed a bubble of elation over what Gabe was offering. She had been raised to be realistic. There wasn’t an impractical bone in her body. And heaven knew she was always sensible. The help of Mrs. Dewhurst had already confirmed her hope that the project had merit, but with Gabe’s influence, she actually had a shot at seeing it completed before she turned as ancient as the pines by the lake.

“I’ll get it to you as soon as I can.”

“Let my secretary know when it’s coming. She’ll watch for it.”

“I will,” she said, adding her thanks, watching him smile.

The shape of his mouth was blatantly sensual, the line of his jaw strong and as determined as the man himself. His eyes were the gray of old pewter, his dark hair thick and meticulously cut.

He was a beautiful man. He was also tall, powerful, incredibly wealthy, and he had captured the interest of every female in the country with a Cinderella fantasy. His integrity and intelligence had earned him the respect of his friends and constituents, and the envy of his opposition. Addie knew all of that. But she thought of him only as her friend. Not that she would ever share that with anyone. She had grown up fully aware of her station. Like her mother and the father she still missed, she was just an employee of the Kendricks. And staff was expected to remain on the periphery and be as unobtrusive as possible.

Addie had never found being inconspicuous a problem. She was barely five foot three, as skinny as a sapling and about as shapely, and looked more like a girl than a twenty-five-year-old woman. She’d even flunked the assertiveness test she’d found in her friend Ina’s Cosmo. As with the group of four manicured, pedicured and coiffured women approaching Gabe now, people tended to look right past her.

“The gardens are fabulous, Aunt Katherine,” she heard one of the young ladies say. “The wedding is going to be wonderful.”

“You’re a dear, Sydney,” Gabe’s golden-blond and elegant mother replied to her niece. Wearing a cream silk blouse and taupe silk slacks, Katherine Theresa Sophia of Luzandria, now a Kendrick, looked as regal as the queen she could have been, had she not married Gabe’s father. Her two daughters and her niece looked just like her, fair, polished and utterly refined.

“I just hope the weather holds,” Mrs. Kendrick continued. “We have the tent on the west lawn for dinner, but I’d hate to have to move the ceremony inside. I don’t know why we didn’t use the cathedral downtown.”

“Because I wanted to be married at home,” the glowing bride-to-be reminded her mother. “And we won’t have to move anything inside. There’s not a cloud in the sky, and the weather report is for clear. Everything will be fine.”

“‘Fine’ isn’t good enough.” Mrs. Kendrick smiled at Gabe as he turned toward her. “We want perfect. Good morning, dear,” she said, greeting him with an affectionate peck on the cheek. “We missed you at breakfast. Your uncle Charles wants you to meet him at the stables to go riding.”

Sydney, wearing crisp white linen, waved toward the house. “And the kids want you to play soccer out front with them.”

“Oh, they can’t play out there,” Mrs. Kendrick said. “The rental people will be arriving with the tent any minute to set it up. It would be best if they played down by the tennis courts.”

“Do you want me to take them riding?” Gabe offered.

“No!” the three younger women chimed in unison.

“We don’t want anything broken,” his little sister, Tess, explained. “Knowing you and Uncle Charles, you’d have them out there jumping logs or hedges. A trip to the emergency room is not on the schedule.”

“Weddings are finely tuned events,” Sydney informed him.

“What she means, brother dear,” chimed in his other sister, Ashley, as she and another female cousin joined them, “is that you have no idea what goes into the planning of an occasion like this. Your people could take notes.”

Silently moving another twenty feet away, Addie continued her task of inspecting the area where cocktails would be served following the ceremony and before dinner. Since the white gazebo would hold the bar, she worked her way through the profusion of red petunias bordering its base.

No one seemed to notice her as she all but disappeared behind the elegant white structure to crouch by the flowers. Just as no one had seemed to recognize that it was she and her men who had babied and nurtured every leaf and blade of grass on the palatial grounds. Any compliments about the grounds were meant for Mrs. Kendrick. Not for her. She was only the means to an end.

“So who’s going to enter this madness next?” Sydney wanted to know. “Is anyone involved with someone they’re not telling us about?”

“Not that I know of,” replied the lovely, rather reserved Ashley. “And certainly not me. I haven’t had a date in months, so that puts me at the back of the line.”

“What about Cord? Is he seeing anyone since that model sued him?”

Ashley sent her tactless cousin a subtle, shushing glance. “I think my brother is laying low after that paternity suit. He’s coming to the wedding alone.”

“I just pray he stays out of trouble for a while,” Mrs. Kendrick murmured. Her second son garnered more publicity in some years than the entire family combined. “We’ve had enough sensationalism for this year.”

“What about you, Gabe?” the nosy Sydney ventured, undaunted. “Do you have a lady friend you’re hiding from us?”

“Are you kidding?” The bride gave a little laugh. “The way the press has been digging around to find out if and when he’s going to announce, they’d have come up with anything he was hiding by now. There’s no woman. Trust me.”

From the corner of her eye, Addie saw a good-natured smile deepen the lines bracketing Gabe’s mouth. “I think I hear a horse calling,” he muttered. “I’m out of here.”

“Coward,” Ashley whispered.

“Smart,” he countered, backing away.

He caught Addie’s glance as he did, his gray eyes laughing. But he’d no sooner given her a discreet wink to indicate he would see her later, than a look of recognition swept his sister’s flawlessly made up face.

“I know someone here who’s getting married,” Ashley announced. “Our groundskeeper,” she said, stopping Gabe dead in his tracks. “I just heard it from our cook yesterday.” Genuinely pleased, she shifted her attention toward the gazebo. She craned her neck, laying her hand delicately over her pearls. “Addie,” she called. “Congratulations on your engagement.”

Every one of the beautifully dressed women smiled at where she knelt in her serviceable denim and grass-stained boots.

With his back to everyone but her, the smile in Gabe’s eyes died completely.

“My congratulations, too,” Mrs. Kendrick added, sounding as sincere as she looked. “Your mother told me you haven’t set a date yet, and I know we’ll speak later, but I want you to know now that we’re going to miss you here.”

Addie wasn’t accustomed to being the center of attention. More familiar with being nearly invisible in a group like this, she’d been caught completely off guard at being included in it. Even for a few moments. That had to be the reason she felt as if her cheeks were flaming.

The only thing she could think to say was “Thank you,” before the women all turned their focus back to each other. She couldn’t think of anything to do, either, except jerk her self-conscious glance from Gabe’s when she realized it had caught on his once more.

Her cheeks were actually cool to her touch when she brushed the back of her hand over one and bent her head to her task once more. Yet, as she heard the women talking now about weddings past as they moved to where the ceremony itself would take place, she couldn’t shake the feeling that Gabe had been caught off guard, too.

She just had no idea what to make of the way his brow had pinched as he walked away and headed for the stables.