His Wedding. Muriel Jensen

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СКАЧАТЬ Duchess was the largest tree in the vintage section of the apple orchard. The trees in that area had been a gift from Thomas Jefferson to the early owners of the property. Campbell watched over the entire orchard with great care but devoted particular attention to the old trees.

      China had spent almost a month working with him while waiting for Chloe to come home from Paris so that China could take the DNA test to prove she was Abigail Abbott. Killian and Sawyer had been convinced of her honesty, but Campbell had suspected that she was lying.

      Killian’s decision that China work on the estate with Campbell in the interim had been intended to help them get acquainted, but they’d disliked each other and warred continually.

      Then the DNA test had proved that she wasn’t an Abbott. China had come to Shepherd’s Knoll in the first place because of a box she’d found in the attic of their adoptive father’s home after he’d died. The sisters had been cleaning out the house to put it on the market and found two cardboard storage boxes hidden in the eaves. One had China’s name on the lid and the other Janet’s.

      China’s had contained clippings of the Abbott toddler’s kidnap, a pair of rompers made by Abbott Mills and a homemade rag doll.

      Janet’s had held a birth certificate and several other things that had led her on a search to Canada while China had come to Losthampton.

      When it became clear that China wasn’t Abby, everyone wondered why her box had been filled with clippings about Abby’s abduction. Then Campbell suggested that perhaps the lids of the boxes had been accidentally switched at some point, during one of the times the Grant family had moved, and that the contents might actually be clues to Janet’s family.

      China had sent for Janet and her DNA test had proved that Abigail Abbott was finally home. It also allowed the antagonism that had existed between Campbell and China to turn to attraction, since they weren’t related after all and, eventually, to love. Janet was thrilled to have found her family but envied the look in her sister’s eyes.

      “The orchard’s coming along nicely. It’s a waiting game at this point. We won’t harvest until sometime in October. We’re even going to get to go on our honeymoon.”

      Janet was fascinated by her sister’s adaptation to life at Shepherd’s Knoll. For a woman who’d made a living running a shopping service for other people, who loved going from store to store, mall to mall, checking the Internet for new products and following sales, she’d settled with remarkable ease into this bucolic life.

      “How lucky are we that we both belong here?” Janet asked her seriously as they walked down the corridor. “I’m not sure I could have stayed if you’d had to go.” They’d made a deal, when each had set off on her search for her family, that whatever happened, they would remain sisters.

      “You’re Chloe’s daughter, the little sister the guys have missed so much. I wouldn’t have let you leave them again.” They stopped at China’s bedroom door. “But, had some writer created this story out of his imagination, it couldn’t have worked out more perfectly for us. Now not only are we sisters, but we’re going to be sisters-in-law. And double aunts to each other’s children!”

      China was apparently giddy over Janet’s success with Brian. “I don’t think there’s any such thing,” Janet laughed.

      “Well, there should be.”

      “We are blessed. Are you finished work already?”

      “No. But I saw you coming home and wanted to know what happened. I also wanted you to try on the dress for my wedding. You can wear the one we got for me when I was supposed to be a bridesmaid for Sawyer and Sophie.”

      “Ah, yes. In the simpler days before you and Campbell made it a double wedding.” Janet started slowly backward toward her room at the end of the hall. “Okay. I’ll shower quickly and wash my hair again. Brian didn’t have any conditioner,” she added as an aside. “Give me fifteen minutes.”

      Janet had Sawyer’s old room on the northwest corner of the second floor. It had a view of the gardens and, in the distance, the hedges that separated Shepherd’s Knoll from its neighbor.

      The room was painted a subtle oyster color, and Chloe had redecorated it as a guest room, added a pink-and-white quilt and pink-flowered curtains. Janet had placed a few photographs around and, before leaving California, had shipped home some things she didn’t want to put in storage. They would arrive in a couple of days.

      She’d inherited an old maple hope chest that had been her adoptive mother’s, and China had been willed a Boston rocker that had been their paternal grandmother’s.

      Janet thought wistfully of the Grants and wondered what they would have thought of the upscale lifestyle their daughters had become part of. They’d been happy, middle-class people. She was sure they’d had no idea who their adopted daughter really was. She wondered, as she often had since the DNA test had come back positive, how she’d gotten from here as a toddler to the doctor in Paloma who’d placed her with the Grants.

      She shook off a stab of sadness and tried to accept that this was a mystery she might never be able to solve.

      In the shower, Janet’s thoughts turned to Brian. He was right that his position as bastard son of the scandalous Susannah would always be a tagline for the press. She felt a little guilty for manipulating him into a position where the subject was bound to come up again—in print.

      But while he knew the Abbotts would always welcome him, she doubted that he understood how little they cared about that information resurfacing during the wedding.

      So in reality, she told herself while working a rich conditioner through her short hair, she was performing a service for him. He had to see it happen, to be a part of their happiest times, to realize how much he was loved anyway.

      Thus far, his life had been grim. China had told her that when Susannah Stewart had died in London shortly after Brian was born, the chauffeur she’d run off with had called Corbin Girard to tell him about his motherless son. But Girard had been out of the country and his wife, Frances, had taken the call.

      Frances, a scrupulous woman, had sent for the baby, and when Corbin had arrived home insisted they raise the boy. Corbin had hated Brian for reminding him of the mistake he was unable to escape. And while Frances loved Brian, he reminded her every day of her husband’s faithlessness. Brian claimed to have been confused as a child by the sadness in her eyes when she looked at him.

      He was in desperate need of a large dose of good cheer. Preparations for a double wedding would certainly provide that.

      She wrapped a towel around herself and left the bathroom, to find Chloe placing a large crystal bowl of white roses on a crocheted doily on top of the old mahogany highboy in the corner. She turned to smile at Janet, her heart in her eyes as it always was when she looked at her.

      “I thought you might like these,” Chloe said with a soft smile. She was petite, with short gray hair in a smooth style and a still-beautiful face with smile lines and artfully applied makeup. She wore the outfit Janet had brought her from the Joshua Burke outlet in L.A. Chloe usually wore gauzy, loose-fitting gowns around the house, and tailored suits when she went out. But Janet had fallen in love with the soft pink cropped pants and cropped jacket she’d known would flatter her mother’s still-slender figure.

      “Thank you. They’re exquisite. And that looks wonderful on you.” The color pinked her cheeks and brightened СКАЧАТЬ