At the imposing ranch house waited an alert, expectant LaDextra Regent. With the aid of her gold-handled, ebony cane, the eighty-one-year-old matriarch paced nervously back and forth on the mansion’s sunny gallery. A statuesque woman with a halo of shining white hair and clear blue eyes, she was wearing her signature black, high-collared, long-sleeved dress.
LaDextra Regent looked formidable, indestructible, but her aging heart kept fluttering crazily as she anticipated the arrival of her granddaughter.
If it was her granddaughter.
How was she to know if the young woman was really Anna? Anna had been only eight years old when the Apache took her. Would she look anything like she had then? Would she, LaDextra, know at once, as soon as she saw her, that the girl was Anna? Or that she wasn’t?
LaDextra suddenly frowned.
And if she was Anna, what about Brit? Would he feel threatened? Would he hate Anna? Would he hate her as well? The prospect of his hating her was too painful for LaDextra to consider. Britton Caruth was like her blood grandson, not just her stepgrandson. She loved him dearly. And Brit had been cheated enough in his life.
Orphaned at twelve, Brit had been an unruly, rebellious child who had caused her no small amount of grief. She had spent more than one sleepless night worrying about him. But from the start she had been fond of the troubled little boy. That fondness had grown as he grew, and as he began to feel that he was not in the way, that The Regent was his true home, his behavior had improved.
The devilishly handsome, twenty-eight-year-old Brit was, in LaDextra’s opinion, the same cut of wild, rugged Texan as her dear departed husband had been in his vigorous youth. Like Robert Regent, Brit was a fun-loving, fearless fellow whom men admired and women desired.
A lusty hell-raiser, Brit was a natural charmer who enjoyed fine Kentucky bourbon, an occasional fistfight and the company of beautiful women. He was also intelligent, a hard worker and, for the past four years, the respected general manager of the vast Texas spread.
And presumptive heir to The Regent.
But if the girl was actually Anna…
If Anna was really alive…The Regent rightfully belonged to her.
LaDextra stopped pacing and frowned worriedly, her weak heart fluttering alarmingly.
LaDextra’s worries of impending trouble were forgotten entirely when the young woman she hoped was Anna stepped onto the mansion’s sunny gallery.
“Land sakes alive, let me look at you,” said LaDextra, staring at the tall, slender girl before her. Her arthritic hands raised and clasping her own sun-wrinkled cheeks, her blue eyes misting with tears, LaDextra Regent felt as if time had turned backward and she was looking at her pretty daughter, Christina.
“Anna, my own Anna, welcome home!” said LaDextra. “May I hug you, child?” She didn’t wait for an answer.
Mary found herself abruptly swept up and wrapped in the long, loving arms of LaDextra Regent. Mary was surprised to find that it was not unpleasant. The firm embrace gave her a feeling of being safe, a feeling she’d never had before. It came to her, as this woman rocked her back and forth affectionately, that she had never been hugged in her life. Her own slender arms lifted and went awkwardly around the statuesque LaDextra.
It was then, standing there in the sun on the wide gallery of the huge white mansion, that Mary decided she was Anna. From that minute forward, she would think of herself as Anna. She would be Anna and she would stay there forever. She would live in splendor and ease in the imposing mansion. She’d be accepted and loved and know that, finally, she belonged.
She belonged at The Regent!
This was her home and nobody could take it away from her. Nobody.
“Why don’t we all go inside?” Will Davis suggested.
“Yes, yes of course,” LaDextra agreed, reluctantly releasing Anna, but reaching for one of her hands.
The old woman led her inside, ushered her into the spacious drawing room, and once again Anna was astonished. Awed by the grandeur of the mansion and its impressive furnishings, she was tempted to slide her hand over the lid of a gleaming grand piano that sat in front of the large front window.
The room, square in shape and gigantic, held fine furniture of a kind Anna never knew existed. There were handsome velvet sofas, silk shantung chairs and marble-topped tables, frosted-globed lamps and fresh cut flowers in fragile porcelain vases.
Above a fireplace of shiny white marble hung a huge gold-framed mirror. Matching smaller mirrors graced the walls, along with paintings that Anna assumed were priceless original works of art.
LaDextra chuckled at the look on Anna’s pretty face. She said, “I know what you’re thinking. That this house looks out of place here in west Texas.”
“No, I…” Anna began, shaking her head.
LaDextra’s blue eyes twinkled. “It does look out of place. Sit down and I’ll tell you why. I’m sure you’ve forgotten how I love to tell the tale.”
Anna took a seat in a wing chair as LaDextra gingerly lowered herself onto a velvet sofa. The attorney, Will Davis, thoughtfully disappeared, slipping into the library to have a drink of bourbon.
Rubbing the soft arm of the sofa, LaDextra said, smiling, “Child, your granny wasn’t always a wrinkled, sunburned old Texan. No sirree. I was a pampered Kentucky belle when your granddaddy met me. Robert Regent was a brash bachelor who had come to Louisville looking for blooded horses. My daddy brought him home to dinner one evening and it was love at first sight for us both. Robert said if I’d marry him and come to Texas and help him run the ranch, he would, within ten years, build me the mansion of my dreams.”
Anna smiled, nodded.
“He kept his word,” said LaDextra proudly. “I told him I wanted a fine antebellum-style Southern mansion with eight Doric columns and wide wraparound galleries. Eager to please me, Robert imported the materials and craftsmen and had this home built for me.” She laughed then, remembering, and said, “You won’t see another house like this in west Texas.”
“It’s a beautiful home,” said Anna.
“It’s your beautiful home,” said LaDextra.
At those words, Anna grew almost giddy with delight. It was all she could do to keep from laughing hysterically. She realized, with great relief, that this big, raw-boned, white-haired matriarch was more than eager to accept her as the long-lost Anna. The deception was going to be much easier than she could have dared hope.
Her future was secure.
Anna’s newfound sense of security was shattered that very evening at dinner. She, LaDextra and Will Davis had gathered in the well-appointed drawing room as the April sun was setting.
LaDextra, glancing at a gold-and-crystal clock on the marble mantel, said, “We’ll wait a few more minutes. Then we’ll go on into the dining room.”
Hungry, not used to eating at such a late hour, Anna wondered why they were to wait a few more minutes. Too soon she found out.
She blinked in confusion and apprehension when a tall, broad-shouldered, raven-haired man dressed in a spotless white linen shirt and a pair of dark, neatly pressed trousers abruptly entered the lamplit room. Flashing a dazzlingly disarming smile, he apologized for being tardy, walked straight to the sofa where LaDextra sat, leaned down and gave her forehead a quick kiss. Her face lit up like a Christmas tree.
The lean man then crossed to the attorney, shook his hand and said, “Good to see you, Will.”
Then he turned directly to her, reached for her hand and took it firmly in his.
“Welcome home to The Regent, Anna,” he said in a low, well-modulated voice, his dark eyes flashing in his tanned, handsome face.
Anna’s heart sank.
She knew in that instant that this compelling stranger did not believe her claim. Would never believe it. She had no idea who he was or what he was doing here, but she knew, instinctively, that he was going to cause her trouble.
“I’m Brit Caruth,” he said in a warm baritone, gently squeezing her hand in both of his own. “LaDextra’s no doubt told you that my father married your mother.”
“Now, Brit,” scolded LaDextra, “I didn’t want to bombard her with too much at once. She knows nothing about you. We haven’t talked about you yet.”
As if LaDextra hadn’t spoken, Brit Caruth, his dark gaze holding Anna’s, said, “So I suppose that makes me your big brother.” He paused, grinned wickedly and added, “You need anything, little sister, you just let me know.”
Caught off guard, Anna wished that Father Fitzgerald had warned her about this…this Brit Caruth. Or had he? She vaguely remembered the old priest mentioning that Anna’s mother had married a widower with a young son. But she’d never considered the unlikely possibility that the man’s son would still be at the ranch.
Anna sat stiffly throughout dinner. She had no appetite for the prime Regent beef that was cooked to tender perfection. The minute she learned that the dark man who managed the ranch for LaDextra also resided right here in the mansion, she was no longer hungry.
Dear Lord, she was to live under the same roof as Brit Caruth, whose lean, handsome face was cynically set and whose dark, flashing eyes silently told her he knew what she was up to.
Anna was horrified.
But she carefully concealed her feelings. Quickly she realized that LaDextra considered him to be a member of the family. So she sat across the table from him, pretending an ease and comfort she didn’t feel. She listened politely to the pleasant dinner conversation, nodding at the appropriate moments.
She did her best to answer the casual questions posed to her by a beaming LaDextra, the amiable Will and the skeptical Brit Caruth. Anna had no trouble with LaDextra’s and Will’s harmless questions. But she faltered when Brit quizzed her. It was not just his probing questions that unsettled her, it was also the challenging gleam in his dark eyes when he addressed her. That, and the way the flickering candlelight cast menacing shadows on his dark face, accentuating the high cheekbones and firmly chiseled features.
Anna grew so nervous she felt beads of perspiration forming at her hairline as she noted how the fabric of the white linen shirt he wore stretched so tantalizingly across the flat, hard muscles of his chest, and that the shirt’s collar was open, revealing his smooth, tanned throat. She stared, entranced, as the muscles there moved like well-oiled machinery when he drained the contents of his stemmed wineglass.
He set the empty glass down with both hands, the movement causing his shirtsleeves to pull taut over his muscular upper arms. Unable to take her eyes off those bulging biceps, Anna wondered involuntarily how it would feel to have those powerful arms around her.
Brit looked up, caught her staring at him and grinned accusingly at her. Anna shivered, quickly looked away and was greatly relieved when Brit dropped his dinner napkin on the table and pushed back his chair.
“Ladies, Will,” he said, “if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll run into town for a while.”
LaDextra smiled fondly at him. “Who is it this evening? The brunette or the redhead?”
Brit just winked at her, said nothing. Rising to his feet, he said, “Good night now, Anna. Sleep well, you hear?”
“Oh, I will, thank you,” she calmly assured him, knowing that she would not. Knowing that he knew she would not. Damn him.
Later that very evening, Anna was put to the first of many tests. She passed this initial one with flying colors, thanks to Father Fitzgerald.
Will Davis had, after a second cup of coffee served in the library, said his good-nights and gone home. Shortly after his departure, LaDextra had turned to Anna and said, “It’s been an exciting day for us all, but you must be exhausted. I’m sure you need rest. I thought you could just take your old room.”
“My old room will be fine,” Anna replied with cool confidence.
As she patiently climbed the stairs beside the slow-moving LaDextra, the older woman said, “For years I kept your room just as it was the day you—you…” She shook her white head. “Finally Brit convinced me it was time to pack away everything that belonged to you. He was right, of course, so I did. But it was painful.” She suddenly brightened and said, “The moment I heard you were coming home I had the room completely redone. I hope you’ll like it. If you don’t, we’ll simply do the whole thing over again.”
“I’m sure I will like it,” said Anna.
The two women reached the top of the stairs. Anna decisively turned right at the landing and proceeded down the silent corridor to the correct room, thanks to the intense coaching from the old priest.
LaDextra was delighted.
“Oh, child,” she said happily, “you remembered! You remembered! You are my darling Anna, I know you are. All the rest of it will come back to you in time.”
“I hope so,” said Anna.
“Now don’t you worry about a thing,” said LaDextra. “You just get yourself a good night’s rest.”
“Yes, ma’am, Mrs. Regent,” said Anna.
LaDextra laughed. “Bless your heart, you don’t know what to call me, do you, child?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Well, it’s a little too soon for you to feel comfortable calling me Grandmother, so just call me LaDextra. That’s what everybody calls me.”
“Thank you, LaDextra,” said Anna.
“Now, good night, dear. My room is down on the first floor. For the past few years, I’ve had trouble with the stairs.”
“Shall I help you down?” asked Anna.
“No, no, I can manage.” LaDextra smiled then and again put her arms around Anna and hugged her. “My sweet little Anna, you’re home and safe and all’s right with the world again.”
“Yes,” said Anna softly, “yes it is.”