Family Merger - By Leigh Greenwood Page 0,79

interested in you."

He stood and pulled her to her feet. "We can imagine we're in a plane by ourselves winging our way to some exotic spot."

"I don't dare," Kathryn said with a chuckle, "for fear I'll disgrace myself with you on the fireplace rug."

Ron couldn't wait to talk to Kathryn. For one thing, it had been more than thirty-six hours since he'd seen her. For another, he had several pieces of very interesting news to share with her.

He had spent the better part of last evening with Arthur's family. He'd ended up being impressed that such an intelligent, responsible and honorable boy had come out of that household. Apparently they had been furious until they realized the father of the girl he got pregnant was very rich. After that they started putting pressure on him to get married. Arthur had made it clear neither he nor Cynthia loved each other, that they had no intention of complicating their lives any more than they already had. It hadn't taken Ron long to convince them he had no intention of giving any future son-in-law free access to his money, or a substantial bank account of his own. He expected Cynthia's husband to support her.

But maybe of more interest to Kathryn was that the largest bank in North Carolina had decided to embark on a series of mergers over the next several years, and they wanted Ron's firm to handle all of them. That meant he would be able to work in Charlotte and any trips out of town could be short.

He also had a new project he wanted to discuss with her, one he'd only thought of yesterday.

There was a van he didn't recognize in the driveway when he reached the house. He hardly paid any attention to that until Mrs. Collias answered the door instead of Kathryn.

"Her sister's here," Mrs. Collias said. Ron couldn't tell if she was angry or disapproving, but something had the woman's nose out of joint.

"Will she be here long?" Ron asked.

"However long, it'll be too long," Mrs. Collias said. "Do you want me to call your daughter? She's finished her studies for today."

"Sure."

Ron was unhappy when Cynthia entered the parlor looking just as upset as Mrs. Collias.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"That woman is here again."

"What woman?"

"Miss Roper's sister."

"The one who had the baby?" He realized too late he might have divulged privileged information.

"She's got three horrible kids, and she comes here begging for money."

"How do you know?"

"Julia told me. She's been here the longest and was here when that woman came the last time. She's been putting the squeeze on Miss Roper ever since she opened this place."

"Kathryn doesn't strike me as the kind of person you can successfully put the squeeze on."

"That's just it. Her sister makes her feel guilty."

"How can she do that?"

"Julia listened at the door the last time. She says that Elizabeth - that's her sister's name - makes her feel guilty because Elizabeth always had to stand alone."

"That's nonsense. Kathryn's relationship with her parents was ruined because of what happened to Elizabeth."

"Then she brings in the fact that their aunt left this house and all her money to Kathryn."

"So?"

"So Elizabeth makes Kathryn feel guilty and she gives her money."

"Why does she need money?"

"She says her husband doesn't earn enough money to give the kids all the things they need. What they need is a year's tuition to obedience school."

"How do you know so much about her kids?"

"Her sister came one day when you were in Geneva. She talked Miss Roper out of some tickets to some really important reception downtown. Elizabeth said her husband needed to make the contacts for his business. She went through Miss Roper's closets and took her best gown, the one Miss Roper had bought especially for the reception and hadn't even worn yet. She said since Miss Roper wasn't going to the party, she wouldn't need it."

Ron wanted to go straight to where Elizabeth had Kathryn cornered and throw her out of the house. But he knew the relationship between Kathryn and her sister was none of his business. He was certain Kathryn would be angry if he interfered. If she felt guilty about what had happened, she probably didn't want him to know what was going on. He told himself to focus on Cynthia.

"I've been talking to Arthur and his family," he said, firmly pushing Kathryn's sister out of his mind. "He wants to help with the baby."

"He doesn't have any money."

"We can work around that."

Cynthia