Fortune's Woman / A Fortune Wedding: Fortune's Woman

It was such a ridiculous thing to say that Ross had no idea how to answer her grief-induced ravings.

“I’m here for Josh,” he repeated. “Whatever you might think about my sister right now, and whatever the circumstances of Lloyd’s death, Josh has lost his father. He asked me to come with him today and I couldn’t let him down.”

Though he had let him down, Ross thought. And he had let his sister down, over and over. He hadn’t been able to get Frannie out of her lousy marriage. He had tried, dozens of times, until he finally gave up. But maybe he hadn’t tried hard enough.

“I want you to leave. Right now.” Jillian’s features reddened and she looked on the verge of some apoplectic attack.

“We’re just leaving, Grandmother,” Josh assured her and Ross was proud of his nephew for his calm, sympathetic manner.

At that moment, Lloyd’s father stepped up and slipped a supporting arm around his wife’s shoulders. “That’s not necessary. You don’t have to leave, Joshua. Come along, Jillian. The Scofields were looking for you a moment ago.”

Cordell gave Ross a quick, apologetic look, then steered his distraught wife away from them. Ross watched after him, his brow furrowed. He hadn’t seen Lloyd’s father in a few months but the man looked as if he had aged a decade or more. His features were lined and worn and he looked utterly exhausted.

Was all that from Lloyd’s death? he wondered. He knew the Fredericks had always doted on their only son and of course his death was bound to hit them hard, but he hadn’t expected Cordell to look so devastated.

Maybe Lloyd’s death wasn’t the only reason the man seemed to have aged overnight. Ross had been hearing rumors even before Lloyd’s death that not all was rosy with the Fredericks’ financial picture. He had heard a few whispers around town that Cordell and Lloyd had been late on some payments and had completely stopped making others.

It wouldn’t have surprised him at all to learn that Lloyd had been the one keeping Fredericks Financial afloat. Maybe Cordell was terrified the whole leaky ship would sink now that his son was dead.

He made a mental note to add a little digging into their financial records to the parallel investigation he had started conducting into Lloyd’s death.

“Follow the money” had always been a pretty good creed when he’d been a cop and he saw no reason for this situation to be any different.

“Sorry about that, Uncle Ross,” Josh said when they finally stepped outside into the warm afternoon, along with others who seemed eager to escape the oppressive funeral chapel. “Grandmother is…distraught.”

Poor Josh had a bum deal when it came to grandparents. On the one side, he had Lloyd’s stiff society parents. On the other, he had Cindy. She was no better a grandmother than she’d been a mother, alternating between bouts of spoiling her grandson outrageously with flamboyant gifts she couldn’t afford, followed by long periods of time when she would ignore him completely.

“Don’t worry about it,” Ross assured him. “Jillian’s reaction is completely understandable.”

“It’s not. She knows my mom. She’s known her for eighteen years, since she married my dad. Grandmother has to know Mom would never kill him.”

“It’s a rough time right now for everyone, Josh.”

“I don’t care how upset she is. My mom is innocent! And then to imply that you were involved, as well. That’s just crazy.”

Ross sighed but before he could answer, he was surprised to see Julie Osterman slip outside through the doors of the chapel and head in their direction.

She wore a conservative blue jacket and skirt with a silky white shirt and had pulled her hair back into a loose updo, and she looked soft and lovely in the sunshine.

His heart had no business jumping around in his chest just at the sight of her. Ross scowled. It didn’t seem right that she should be the single bright spot in what had been a dismal day.

How did she have such a calming presence about her? he wondered. Even some of Josh’s tension seemed to ease out of him when she slipped her arm through his and gave a comforting squeeze.

“Hi, Ms. O.”

She smiled at him, though it appeared rather solemn. “Hi, Josh. I was hoping to get a chance to talk to you.”

“Oh?”

She studied him for a long moment. “I have a dilemma here. Maybe you can help me out. I promised myself I wasn’t going to ask you something clichéd like how you’re holding up. But then, if I don’t ask, how am I supposed to find out how you’re doing?”

Josh smiled, the first one Ross had seen on his features all day. “Go ahead and ask. I don’t mind.”

“All right. How are you doing, under the circumstances?”

He shrugged. “Okay, I guess. Under the circumstances.”

“It was a lovely memorial service, as far as these things go.”

“I guess.” Josh looked down at the asphalt of the parking lot.

“When do you go back to school?” she asked.

“Tomorrow. I’ve got finals next week and I can’t really miss any more school if I want to graduate with my class. Uncle Ross thinks I should study for finals at home.”

He and Ross had argued about it several times, in fact. It was just about the only point of contention between them over the last five days.

“I just think he should take as much time as he needs,” Ross said. “If he doesn’t feel ready, he can probably take a few more days, as long as he gets the assignments from his teachers. There’s also the scandal factor. Everybody’s going to be talking about a murder at the Spring Fling and I want to make sure he’s mentally prepared for that before he goes back to school.”

“What do you think, Ms. O.?” Josh asked.

Ross could tell she didn’t want to be dragged into the middle of things but Julie only smiled at both of them. “There are arguments to be made for both sides. But I think that you’re the only one who can truly know when you’re ready. As long as you feel prepared to handle whatever might come along, I’m sure returning to school tomorrow will be fine.”

“I think I am,” Josh answered. “But I won’t know until I’m there, will I?”

Julie opened her mouth to answer but one of Lloyd’s elderly aunts approached them before she could say anything.

“Joshua? I’ve been looking all over for you,” she said. “You’re not leaving already, are you?”

Josh slanted a look at Ross. “In a minute.”

“You can’t leave yet. Your great-grandmother is here. She specifically wanted to see you.”

Josh looked less than thrilled about being forced to talk with more Fredericks relatives but he nodded and allowed himself to be led away by the other woman, leaving Ross alone with Julie.

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” he said after a moment.

He didn’t add that if he had seen her earlier, it might have made the whole thing a little easier to endure.

She made a face. “I decided I would probably regret it if I didn’t come to pay my respects. I know Jillian casually from some committees we’ve served on together and it seemed the polite thing to do, for her sake alone. But more than that, I wanted to come for Josh. It seemed…right, especially as I feel a little as if I were involved, since you and I were on the scene so quickly after it happened and I was with Josh for those few hours afterward.”

“Makes sense. It was nice of you to come.”

She studied him for a long moment. “Forgive me if I’m wrong, but I get the impression you’re not very thrilled to be here.”

His laugh was rough and humorless. “Is it that obvious? I can’t wait to leave. We were just on our way out. And just so you don’t think I’m rushing him away, Josh is as eager to get out of here as I am.”

She frowned. “How is he really doing?”