Noelle

“Never mind, Mrs. Dunn. I’ll see who’s there.”

“Not you, Noelle. It is not fitting…”

The admonition in his grandmother’s soft voice trailed off as her instructions were apparently ignored. He got a glimpse of thick auburn hair in an upswept hairdo before the door opened and a lovely, oval face with thick-lashed green eyes looked up at him inquiringly.

His blue eyes narrowed so that even their color wasn’t revealed under the brim of his hat. His gaze swept over the woman, who was wearing a simple white blouse with a high, lacy neck and a dark skirt that reached to her ankles.

“What do you want?” she asked in a voice that, while pleasant, reeked of South Texas backcountry and contained a belligerence that immediately raised the hair at Jared’s nape.

He removed his hat out of inborn courtesy, leaning heavily on the cane. “I would like to see Mrs. Dunn,” he said coolly.

“It’s much too late for visitors,” she informed him. “You’ll have to come calling another time.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “My, aren’t you arrogant for a servant, madam,” he said, with biting sarcasm.

She flushed. “I’m no servant. I’m a member of the family.”

“Like hell you are!” he returned abruptly. His eyes were glittery now, steady, unblinking—dangerous.

She was taken aback by those eyes, as well as the curse, which was at such variance with the deep, soft tone of his voice. No gentleman used such language in a lady’s presence!

“Sir, whoever you are—” she began haughtily.

“Andrew should have made you aware of my identity,” he continued coldly. “Especially since I pay the bills here. Where’s my grandmother?”

Belatedly she realized to whom she was speaking. Andrew had mentioned his stepbrother, of course. He hadn’t mentioned that the man was Satan in a business suit. He was very good-looking, despite those gray hairs at his temples, but he was tall and intimidating, and his eyes were like blue steel…in a face about that yielding.

“You didn’t present your card,” she said, defending herself as she quickly opened the door for him.

“I hardly felt the need in my own house,” he returned irritably. His leg hurt and he was worn out.

She saw the cane then and noticed the taut lines around his thin mouth. “Oh…you’re crippled,” she blurted out.

Both eyebrows went up. “The delicacy of your observation leaves me speechless,” he said, with biting sarcasm.

She did blush then, partially from bad temper. He was tall, and she had to look a long way up to see his face. She didn’t like him at all, she decided, and she’d been foolish to feel sorry for him. Probably he’d gotten that bad leg kicking lame dogs…

“Mrs. Dunn is in the drawing room,” she said, and slammed the door.

“My valise is still outside,” he pointed out.

“Well, it can let itself in,” she informed him, and swept past him toward the drawing room.

He followed her, momentarily bereft of speech. For an indigent relative, the woman took a lot upon herself.

“Jared!” the little woman on the sofa exclaimed brightly, diverting him, and held her face up to be kissed. “My dear, what an excellent surprise! Are you passing through, or have you come to stay for a while?”

He looked at the auburn-haired woman across from him as he spoke to his grandmother. “Oh, I’ve come home,” he said, watching the expression change in the younger woman’s green eyes. “I decided that I needed a change of scene.”

“Well, I’m delighted to have you,” Mrs. Dunn said. “And I’m sure Andrew will be. He’s away for the week, on business, you know. He does sales work for a local brickmaking concern. He’s been in Galveston lately to take orders. That’s where he found our lovely Noelle.”

He glanced at the young woman. She was younger than he’d thought at first—probably not yet out of her teens.

“This is my grandson Jared, Noelle. And Jared, this is Andrew’s young cousin, Noelle Brown.”

Jared looked at her without speaking. “How did he chance to discover the relationship?” he asked finally.

“A mutual acquaintance pointed it out,” Noelle said. She clasped her hands together tightly at her waist.

“An observant one, no doubt, as you certainly share no surface traits with my stepbrother, who is blond and dark-eyed.”

“His mother was auburn-haired,” Mrs. Dunn pointed out, “and his mother’s people were Browns from Galveston. Naturally when he made mention of it, an acquaintance there told him of Noelle’s existence, and her sad plight.”

“I see.”

“Dear boy, what has happened to you?” she asked, nodding toward the cane.

He leaned on the cane a little heavily. “A slight accident.”

“Only that?” Noelle asked sweetly. “What a relief to know that you weren’t slammed in the leg with a fence post, sir.”

He cocked his head and stared at her pointedly. “You’re very plainspoken, Miss Brown.”

“I’ve had to be,” she replied. “I had four brothers, sir—none of whom ever made allowances for my lack of muscle.”

“Don’t expect me to make allowances for your youth,” he countered in a dangerously soft tone.

Her eyes went to the gray hair at his temples. “You may also expect that I’ll make none for your age.”

One dark eyebrow lifted. “My age?”

“Well, you’re quite old.”

He had to choke back a retort. Probably to a girl in her teens, he did seem elderly. He ignored her latest sally and turned back to his grandmother. “How have you been?” he asked, and his tone changed so drastically that Noelle was surprised.

Mrs. Dunn smiled warmly at him. “Quite well, my boy, for a lady of my years. And you look prosperous as well.”

“New York has been good to me.”

She looked at the leg. “Not altogether, apparently.”

He smiled. “This happened in New Mexico Territory. An accident.”

“Surely you weren’t thrown from a horse,” she began, such an accident being the first sort to occur to her.

Noelle looked at him as if she expected that a man in such an expensive suit, an attorney, moreover, who lived in a huge eastern city, wouldn’t know which end of a horse to get on.

“Horses are dangerous,” Jared replied, deliberately evasive. He was enjoying their young houseguest’s evident opinion of him. He could almost see the words in her green eyes: milksop; dude; layabout; dandy…