Kaitlin had never in her life seen anything quite so magnificent as the Harper castle. And it truly was a castle. Made of weathered limestone, it had had both chimneys and turrets. It was three full stories. And there looked to be what she could only imagine was an extensive attic network beneath the steep-pitched roofs.
Inside, wood panels gleamed, while ornate, suspended chandeliers bounced light into every nook and cranny. It was furnished throughout with antiques. Rich draperies hung from high valences and thick carpets muted footfalls and gave a welcoming warmth to the cavernous rooms.
Each of three wings had a showpiece staircase that wound up through the three stories and beyond. The biggest staircase began on the main floor in the entry rotunda. From the rotunda, Zach had shown them through the great hall, a beautiful library, plus drawing and dining rooms. The kitchen was fitted with modern appliances, but stayed true to its roots through wood and stonework and the gleaming array of antique copper pots and implements hanging from ceiling racks.
Last night, Kaitlin and Lindsay had each been appointed a guest suite on the second floor. Zach’s suite was on the third, while Sadie had converted the old servants’ quarters to a private bedroom, bath and sitting room on the main floor. Zach told them that the bathrooms had been added in the early 1900s and updated every few decades since.
Five staff members lived in the castle year-round: a groundskeeper, maintenance man, a cook and two personal maids to Sadie. Although the workload had obviously eased since Sadie’s death, Kaitlin learned Zach kept them all on. They seemed very welcoming of company.
“Did you ever get lost in here?” Kaitlin asked Zach in the morning, as he showed her through a passageway that led to the north wing. Lindsay had left right after breakfast to swim in the pool at the Gilby house and, Kaitlin suspected, to flirt with Dylan.
“I must have as a little kid,” he told her, pushing open the door that led to the pale blue sitting room that had belonged to Sadie. “But I don’t ever remember being lost.”
Kaitlin stepped inside the pretty room and gazed around with interest. “Can I get your cell phone number in case I have to call for help?”
“Sure,” he answered easily from the doorway. “But you can orient yourself by the staircases. The carpets are blue in the main wing, burgundy in the north and gold in the east.”
Sadie’s sitting room housed a pale purple settee, several ornately carved tables and armchairs and a china cabinet with an amazing array of figurines, while a grand piano stood on a raised dais in the corner.
The morning sunshine streamed in through many narrow windows. Some were made of stained glass, and Kaitlin felt as if she should tiptoe through the hush.
She ran her fingers across the rich fabric coverings and the smooth wood surfaces, wandering toward the piano. “How old are these things?”
“I haven’t a clue,” said Zach.
She touched middle C, and the tone reverberated through the room.
“Sadie used to play,” he told her. “Ginny still does sometimes.”
“I learned ‘Ode to Joy’ on the clarinet in high school.” That about summed up Kaitlin’s musical experience.
She made her way to a china cabinet, peering through the glass to see figurines of cats and horses and several dozen exquisitely painted teacups. “Do you think she’d mind me looking around like this?”
“She’s the reason you’re here,” he replied.
Kaitlin suddenly realized Zach was still standing in the doorway. She turned in time to catch a strange expression on his face.
“Something wrong?” she asked, glancing behind her, suddenly self-conscious. Perhaps he didn’t want her snooping through this room after all.
“Nothing.” His response was definitely short.
“Zach?” She moved closer, confused.
He blinked a couple of times, drew a deep breath. Then he braced his hand on the door frame.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I haven’t come in here.” He paused. “Not since…”
Kaitlin’s chest squeezed around her heart. “Since your grandmother died?”
He nodded in answer.
“We can leave.” She moved briskly toward the door, feeling guilty for having done something that obviously upset him.
He shaped his lips in a smile and stepped decisively into the room, stopping her forward progress. “No. Sadie put my wife in her will. It’s right that you should learn about her.”
For the first time, it occurred to Kaitlin that in addition to being blindsided by the news of their Vegas marriage, Zach had likely been blindsided by the will itself.
“You didn’t expect your wife to inherit, did you?” she asked, watching him closely.
He paused, gazing frankly into Kaitlin’s eyes. “That would be an understatement.”
“Was Sadie angry with you?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“Maybe you didn’t visit her enough.”
He shook his head and moved farther into the room.
Kaitlin pivoted to watch as he walked toward the windows. “Seriously. Would she have liked you to come home more often?”
“I’m sure she would have.”
“Well, maybe that’s-”
“She left you a few hundred million because I didn’t show up here enough?” He turned back to face her, folding his arms over his chest.
Kaitlin took a step back, blinking in shock. “Dollars?”
“It wasn’t like I never came home,” Zach defended.
“Okay, I’m going to forget you said that.” Kaitlin knew Harper International was a very big company, but hundreds of millions? All those zeros were going to make her hyperventilate.
“She did want me to get married,” Zach admitted, half musing to himself.
But Kaitlin’s mind was still on the hundreds of millions of dollars. It was a massive, overwhelming responsibility. How on earth did Zach handle it?
He swept his arm, gesturing around the room. “As you can probably tell, the Harper family history was important to Sadie.”
“The responsibility would freak me out,” Kaitlin confessed.
“The family history?”
“The millions, billions, whatever, corporation.”
“I thought we were talking about my grandmother.”
Right. Kaitlin pushed the company’s value to the back of her mind. It was a moot point anyway. Her involvement would be short-lived.
“What did you do to make her mad?” she asked again, knowing there had to be more than he was letting on. Zach was right, Sadie wouldn’t have cut him out of her will because he didn’t visit often enough.
His lips thinned as he drew an exasperated sigh. “She wasn’t mad.”
Kaitlin crossed her arms over her own chest, cocking her head and peering dubiously up at him.
“Fine,” he finally conceded. “She was impatient for me to have children. My best guess is that she was trying to speed things up by bribing potential wives.”
“That would do it,” said Kaitlin with conviction, admiring Sadie’s moxie. She could only imagine the lineup that would have formed around the block if Zach had been single and word got out about the will.
“I’m not sure I want the kind of woman who’s attracted by money,” he stated.
“She was obviously trying,” Kaitlin said, defending Sadie’s actions. “It was
He rolled his eyes heavenward.
