kid who usually worked in the shop on Saturdays, was getting ready for her prom. Saturday was usually a very busy day. Why hadn't she told Ryan to turn his car around and go home? Well, he would just have to amuse himself until she closed at four. Should she take him out to dinner?
Irritated at being caught unawares, Ashley yanked on pair of white silk briefs and then pulled up her pink silk slacks. Her bra and a cream silk shirt followed. Slipping her feet into a pair of custom-made burgundy leather loafers, she finished the rest of her coffee and hurried downstairs to the small breakfast room, seating herself at the round table with its single place setting. She picked up the glass of cranberry juice and sipped it. Almost immediately Byrnes was at her side with a hot plate of cheesy scrambled eggs, three sausage links, and a whole- wheat English muffin.
'Get a cuppa for you and the missus,' Ashley said, 'and come join me while I eat. I have something very important to tell you both.' Picking up her fork, she dug into the eggs enthusiastically as she waited for them.
Byrnes retreated into the kitchens. 'She wants us to sit with her while she eats. She says she's got something important to tell us,' he told his wife.
Martha Byrnes poured two cups of coffee and handed one to her husband; then they reentered the little breakfast room off of the kitchen, sitting down at the small table with Ashley. They looked at her expectantly.
She had almost finished her eggs, and two of the sausages were gone from her plate. Now, as she spread some homemade marmalade on a half a muffin, she said frankly, 'I'm getting married. But this time there will be no difficulties. The groom isn't gay. He won't go to Las Vegas before the wedding, and he isn't a con man. Joe Pietro d'Angelo has a lawyer cousin in the city who has a client with the same problem I do-an inheritance with a big string attached. He has to marry before he's forty or lose it all. We are a match made in heaven,' Ashley said with a wry smile.
'Would he be the gentleman who came home with you yesterday, Miss Ashley?' Byrnes asked.
'Yep. One and the same. Ryan Finbar Mulcahy. He built up his dad's business in the city, made the guy rich, rich, rich, and then the old guy turns around and writes a will that says if Ryan isn't married by the time he's forty he loses it all. Nice, huh?'
'No worse than what your grandpa did to you, missy,' Martha Byrnes said tartly. 'Giving in to that hussy Lila Peabody! Well, it's a truth that there's no fool like an old fool. It wasn't enough for the shameless creature that your grandpa left her a goodly sum for services rendered, and I can only shudder to imagine what they could have been, and at his age too!' She huffed indignantly.
Ashley giggled. Never one to dissemble, Martha Byrnes had strong opinions.
'Mrs. Byrnes,' her husband said warningly.
'Oh, it's all right,' Ashley told him. 'I agree with Martha. But you remember how Grandfather always thought a good woman needed a good man. After the first two unfortunate incidences with fiances I honestly think he believed I wasn't trying hard enough. Putting that provision in the will soothed Lila, whose company he did enjoy, and it gave him comfort to know that I would marry to preserve what I had built.'
'He's amenable to a prenuptial agreement?' Martha Byrnes wanted to know.
'Absolutely!' Ashley assured them. 'Ryan and I will marry just to meet the terms of these two wills. In a few years we'll go our separate ways with our own possessions intact, and no one gets hurt in the process. I wanted you both to know because he'll be here shortly, and as soon as he arrives I have to go to the shop. He's a really nice guy. While he's hanging out here today waiting for me to get home, answer any questions he may have. Although he's keeping his apartment in town, he'll be making the hall his legal residence. We've got to start thinking about redoing Grandfather's old rooms for us.'
'This isn't for public knowledge, I take it,' Byrnes said quietly.
'No, it isn't. We've scheduled the wedding for August twenty-fifth. It's going to be very low-key. No more than ten or twelve people for dinner. We're doing it here, because he's Roman Catholic, and we don't want a church wedding to louse up his life after we're divorced. Actually I think it's better that way. No fuss. No muss. The flowers can come from the gardens.'
'I'll tell Tony we're having a dinner party on that date, so he will be certain to have the right flowers on hand,' Byrnes said. 'You know how the flowers tend to go in August, so he'll need to nurse certain blooms along.'
Ashley took the last bite of her English muffin, and then swallowed down the rest of her cranberry juice. She stood up from the table. 'I'd better get ready to leave as soon as he gets here,' she said, and walked from the breakfast room. 'Well, if that don't beat all,' Martha Byrnes said softly. 'She's making an arranged marriage, Martin. It's a real shame she can't be allowed to fall in love like any other girl, but then, Miss Ashley isn't just any girl, is she?'
'No,' he agreed, 'she isn't.'
'Well, if the lawyers have checked this young man out, then I suppose it's all right,' Martha replied with a sigh. 'Still, it makes me sad. I wonder what he's like.'
'We'll know soon enough,' her husband said. Then he stood up and straightened his tie. 'I hear a car coming up the drive. That will be our guest, Martha. Run up to Mrs. Kramer and make certain the Washington bedroom is ready for him.' Brynes hurried out to get the front door, peeping through the sidelights to see a vintage Jag pull up. Its driver climbed out, reaching behind him for a small overnight bag. Byrnes flung wide the front door. 'Good morning, Mr. Mulcahy. I'll take your bag for you. You'll find Miss Ashley out on the porch. Can you find your way, sir?'
'Yes, thanks,' Ryan said. Having a butler, or whatever Byrnes was, was going to take some getting used to, he decided as he made his way to the porch.
'Good morning, Ryan.' Ashley came forward to greet him. 'I can only stay with you a minute. My help at the shop is nonexistent today, and Saturday is always busy.' And then to her surprise he reached out, drew her forward, and kissed her on both of her cheeks. 'Oh, my,' Ashley exclaimed as he set her back. 'That was very…'
'Italian,' he supplied the word for her with a smile. 'I thought we had best get used to some form of kissing, since we're getting married.'
'Yes,' she agreed, thoughtful. 'You'll have to kiss me on the lips at the wedding, won't you? People might talk otherwise. Well, kissing is a harmless enough sport.'
'You've done a lot of it?' he asked.
'Again I remind you of my age,' Ashley said.
'I like kissing,' he allowed, his brown eyes twinkling.
'I've got to go,' Ashley told him. The conversation was beginning to make her a little uncomfortable. Their relationship was a business one, and people in business didn't-or at least shouldn't-get intimate. 'Byrnes will take care of you. I'll be home a little after four. He'll answer any questions you may have about the house.' She managed to get past him. 'Have a good day, Ryan.' And she hurried off.
He made himself comfortable on the porch looking out at the blue bay sparkling in the bright June morning. He had made her nervous. Despite her misadventures she was obviously a very proper lady. Interesting. She was past thirty, a businesswoman, and had, in her own words, some small experience with men, but she was basically shy. Was it the situation in which they found themselves? Or was Ashley good at what she did, but clueless where relationships were concerned? He was one to talk, Ryan thought wryly. A discreet cough caused him to look up and find Byrnes standing there.
'Mrs. Byrnes thought that you had probably not had breakfast before you departed town this morning, sir. She's prepared you a small repast. If you will follow me to the breakfast room I'll bring it to you.'
'Why, that's most kind,' Ryan said, standing up and trailing after Byrnes. A breakfast room, no less, he thought as he entered the small room with its cheerful bright yellow-and-white striped walls. He allowed Byrnes to seat him, and then smiled as a plump woman appeared to put a plate before him. This, he concluded, was Mrs. Byrnes. 'Thank you, ma'am,' he said. 'It looks most delicious.'
'I gave you some of my fresh-baked blueberry muffins,' she replied.
He looked up at her with a smile. 'They smell wonderful, Mrs. Byrnes, but there was no need to go to such trouble for me. I would have been happy with a bowl of Apple Jacks,' Ryan told her.
'Not in this house!' Martha Byrnes said emphatically. 'In my kitchen we cook. Breakfast, sometimes lunch, and always dinner. Now, you eat up while it's hot.'
He grinned at her and obeyed her directive. It was almost like having Angelina around, he thought. And then he
