FORD WAS SITTING at his desk the next morning, struggling to make sense out of a mound of Lakefield’s neglected paperwork, when his family showed up.
And showed up, and showed up—three carriages worth of them.
He’d known, of course, when he’d ordered Colin and Amy not to visit or bring the rest of the family, they were going to ignore him. But that didn’t mean he had to be happy about it. Especially on a day like this.
Lucky for him, most of them stayed outside while his twin, Kendra, came into the study, wearing an all-too-cheerful yellow gown.
“We’re here!” she announced, as though they’d sent notice ahead.
“I deduced as much when I heard the children shrieking.” All seven of the precious angels. For the first time in weeks, he was pleased with the sorry state of his garden—at least there was little they could do to harm it.
Kendra stopped beside his chair, her dark red hair glimmering in the too-bright sun that streamed through the window at his back.
He scowled up at her. “Who invited you?”
She leaned down to give him a hug. “I’ve missed you, too.”
“Right,” he grunted without rising.
Backing off, she went to find a seat. He’d piled ledgers on the only extra chair, so she perched on the old iron chest he’d never managed to open.
“How was Scotland?” he asked her grudgingly.
“Beautiful. Hamish is in good health, and Niall has done wonders with Duncraven.” He’d never met these people—her husband’s family—but felt he knew them from her lively descriptions over the years. “And Cait’s family is well, too. Cameron and Clarice had another baby.”
“That’s good.” And no surprise. Everyone connected to the Chases seemed to have plenty of babies. Assuming it would be the same for him, he thought amidst another round of shrieks that perhaps Violet’s refusal had been for the best.
“Well.” Kendra crossed her legs, the foot on top swinging up and down with its red-heeled shoe. “We’ve come to meet Violet, so enough of the pleasantries.”
“Have I been pleasant?” Ford wondered.
Her green eyes flashed with all-too-familiar annoyance. “What’s wrong with you, anyway?”
“Besides the fact that the woman I love won’t agree to marry me?”
“Colin said you were over Tabitha,” she said, frowning, and then, “Oh. Oh! It’s this Violet, then, isn’t it? Od’s fish, I cannot believe you admitted that. Ford Chase in love, and ready to marry?” The annoyance faded from her eyes as they filled with compassion instead. “Why on earth won’t she have you?”
“Look around,” he said, gesturing toward the peeling walls. “I believe you’ll begin to get the picture.”
“Well.” Now her eyes filled with outrage. “If she values gold above love, then she doesn’t deserve you, anyway.”
“It’s not like that,” he said with a long-suffering sigh. “She’s more interested in books than material comforts. But she has money of her own, and she’s convinced herself no man would want her save to have it. I’m afraid the condition of this place has done nothing to reassure her my motives are otherwise.”
When Kendra came to hug him this time, he rose and let her wrap him in her arms.
“Poor Ford. You’ve always managed to get everything you’ve wanted before, haven’t you?”
Torn between taking comfort and bristling at his sister’s patronizing view of him, he opted for the comfort. “I guess so,” he mumbled into her flower-scented hair.
“Where is she?” Kendra demanded, pulling back. “I’ll talk to her and explain that your intentions are sterling. The sort of fellow you are—”
“She’s busy today,” he said quickly. The last thing he needed was his family poking their noses in—which was exactly why he hadn’t wanted them here. Violet’s family might be unconventional, but his was mad as a cell full of Bedlam inmates.
Violet was already dubious about the prospect of marrying him. One glimpse of the family she’d be marrying into, and her answer would change to an unequivocal no.
“Are you sure?” Kendra asked. “We’ve come all this way—”
“I’m positive.” He plopped back onto his chair, willing to discuss anything to get off the subject of Violet. “Sit down and catch me up on the gossip.”
She wandered back to sit on the chest. “Cait is with child again.”
“What took her so long?” he asked dryly. Jason and Caithren had two boys already. “And you?”
“Oh, two girls are enough.”
“Trick isn’t wanting an heir?”
“If one comes along, he wouldn’t mind, I suppose…” The faint blush on her cheeks told him she and her husband, Patrick, were trying to conceive. She looked down, her fingers tracing the decorative metal strips on the chest. “You know,” she said, also a master at changing the subject, “this chest has always reminded me of the treasure chest Trick and I found and brought to King Charles. Every time I see this one, I wonder what might be in it.”
“I’ve always wondered that myself.”
Her head whipped up. “You don’t know?”
He shrugged. “It came with the place, and there’s no key for the lock, and—”
“I’ll have Trick open it, you fool. Let me go get the others.” Before he could respond, she’d shot out the door.
While he waited for the invasion, he leaned his elbows on the desk and dropped his head into his hands, shutting his eyes against all the paper. Bills, letters, a notice from his mortgage holder that a payment was overdue. If only he had enough money to settle it all, get a fresh start…
He would have to see how Rand was coming along with the translation. But even if Secrets of the Emerald Tablet did hold the key to making gold, it could take months or possibly years to get the formula to work…
He jerked upright, staring at the chest across the room. He’d always assumed it wouldn’t have been left here if it contained anything valuable, but what if Kendra were on to something? The chest she and her husband had found for King Charles had been filled with precious metal and jewels, and for all Ford knew, this one could be stuffed to the brim with gold.
The solution to his problems might have been sitting here all along: the means to pay the debts, the proof to convince Violet he didn’t need her for her inheritance.
His heart was racing by the time the family trooped in. Colin led the regiment with Amy, who was holding their baby son Aidan in her arms. Ford’s oldest brother, Jason, followed behind with his wife, Caithren. Kendra brought up the rear, her husband, Patrick—or Trick, as they all called him—by her side with their one-year-old girl.
Their remaining collective five offspring burst in after them, racing around Ford’s desk, hanging on his back, climbing on the chairs and the iron chest.
Whatever had made him think he might want one of these wild creatures? Then Jewel climbed up on his lap in greeting, and as she pressed a damp kiss to his cheek, he suddenly remembered why.
“Here it is,” Kendra said, leading her tall, golden-haired husband to the chest. She plucked her nephew Hugh off of it and plopped him on his feet.
The boy looked up. “Can you open it, Uncle Trick?”
Trick grinned, displaying a front tooth with a slightly chipped corner. “I wasn’t a smuggler in my prior life for nothing, you know.” Handing his baby daughter to his wife, he pulled out his knife and dropped to one knee to get to work.
While his brother-in-law probed the heavy lock, Ford rose and set Jewel down, taking her hand as he walked closer. As though the chest were a magnet attracting metal shavings, everyone else drifted near and gathered around, until they were all hanging over it in anticipation. An expectant quiet descended on the room. Even the children stopped playing.
Ford’s heart hammered against his ribs. This could be the answer—
A rusty click shattered the silence. Trick twisted the old padlock from the hasp.
Ford moved in, holding his breath as he stooped to raise the iron lid.
As one, the family exhaled.
Jewel tugged on Ford’s breeches. “It’s empty, Uncle Ford.”
“I can see that.”
It would have been such a nice, neat solution. But he’d always known there was nothing of value in that chest. Otherwise, he’d have hacked off the lock years ago.
He might be desperate, but he wasn’t stupid.
Kendra reached to touch his arm. “I’m sorry.”
At that, Colin sighed. “Were you expecting this to solve all your money problems?”
Ford’s jaw tensed. “What makes you think I have money problems?” He let the heavy lid close with a slam.
A rotting wooden panel detached itself from the wall and tumbled to their feet.
Followed by a sprinkle of plaster.
Colin shot Ford a sarcastic look.
Jason lifted a squirming niece off the trunk and set her back on the floor. ”You’re always looking for the easy way out, Ford.” The compassion in his brother’s voice didn’t cut the sting of his words for Ford. “One of these days, you’re going to have to give in and face your responsibilities.”
Ford raked his hands through his hair. Would his family forever see him this way? In the past few weeks, he’d proved himself capable of caring for a child. He’d completed his first significant scientific achievement. He’d fallen in love and wanted to get married. Hadn’t he changed?
“Who invited you here to pick on me?”
“We need no invitation. We’re family. Do you ask for an invitation before coming to Cainewood?”
“That’s different. I live there.”
“Do you?” Jason raised a brow. Maybe he sensed the changes in Ford, after all.
And Ford wondered: where did he live? At the Chase town house in London? Or the big castle at Cainewood? Or here?
He wanted to live here, he realized. Not in bustling London near the Royal Society and all his friends, not at his brother’s castle with his family. Here, in the staid countryside. With Violet.
Criminy, love changed things more than he’d thought possible.
Amy and Cait exchanged a sympathetic glance. “Ford—” they started together.
“Milord, do you not think you should have left for Lady Violet’s celebration already?” Hilda bustled into the room, a steaming pie in her hands. “I’ve made a tart for you to bring. Cherry, the young viscount’s favorite.”
“A celebration?” Kendra’s eyes lit. “What is it for?”
“Her birthday,” Ford said shortly. “And none of you are invited.”
“But Uncle Ford.” Jewel turned her little face up, her eyes pleading. “Mama promised I can see Rowan.”
In the face of an argument like that, there was no hope in fighting this battle. Already, he had lost.