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Rescuing the Heiress
Valerie Hansen
Indulge your fantasies of delicious Regency Rakes, fierce Viking warriors and rugged Highlanders. Be swept away into a world of intense passion, lavish settings and romance that burns brightly through the centuriesValerie Hansen's basic nature is to see the humorous side of life and enjoy every day to the fullest.She's always loved stories about people who have successfully met life's challenges and gone on to find happiness, so writing joyful love stories is a perfect outlet for her. Her personal life sounds a lot like a romance novel. She married her high school sweetheart and they raised two great kids before leaving California to pursue their dreams of a rural lifestyle in the Arkansas Ozarks.That relocation has also given her work a new, more spiritual focus than ever before. Valerie had gone to Sunday school as a child and attended church off and on as an adult, but didn't really understand what was missing in her spiritual life until daily problems drove her to seek answers from a closer relationship with Jesus Christ. What a surprise! And what a difference in outlook. In the years that followed, she was continually amazed at the extraordinary opportunities that came her way. She still is.Valerie has always loved to write. That, and the strong conviction that this is what she was meant to do, led her to Steeple Hill and the Love Inspired series. Besides extensive research, she has plenty of interesting experiences to draw upon when creating stories: She's been a veterinary assistant, teacher's aide, volunteer fire department dispatcher, Emergency Medical Technician, bank worker, professional artist, store clerk, bookkeeper, 4-H leader, Sunday school teacher, gospel singer/songwriter, winning quiz show contestant, dog trainer, college extension-class instructor, and antique restorer. She's built dulcimers and a psaltery, laid bricks and tile, designed stained-glass windows, roofed a house, decorated store windows for the holidays, helped pour cement, raised fancy guinea pigs and finches, driven a long-haul moving van, and was once the proud owner of 23 Newfoundland dogs at one time. Her advice? Don't try that at home!Valerie and her husband now live on an 80-acre farm in northern Arkansas. She loves to hike the rocky, wooded hills behind the picturesque old house they renovated, watch for the wildlife so abundant in the area and think up new ideas for her books. She's always been a dreamer, a romantic who invented happier endings for books and movies that didn't already end on a lighthearted note. She was an adult before she realized that everybody didn't automatically do the same thing!Valerie Hansen can be reached at: P. O. Box 13, Glencoe, AR 72539-0013. Or via e-mail at: val@valeriehansen. com.
“I don’t believe I have ever seen so many women gathered in one place before. There must be thousands.”
Tess tensed. “Wait. How will you find us again if we go inside without you?”
“I could probably spot you in the crowd by your pr… By your hair,” Michael said.
“You were going to say pretty, weren’t you?” She smiled, amused by the way his cheeks grew more ruddy.
“It would be wrong of me to mention such things, Miss Clark.”
That made her laugh softly. “But I would find it delightful if you did. Does that embarrass you, Michael?”
“Of course not.”
He brought the buggy to a halt, then quickly helped her alight. “I’ll find you.”
She knew that her eyes must be twinkling, because she was keenly amused when she shouted back, “And how will you do that, sir?”
Michael paused just long enough to lean down from his perch. “By your beautiful, dark red hair.” Then he flicked the reins and the horse took off.
VALERIE HANSEN
was thirty when she awoke to the presence of the Lord in her life and turned to Jesus. In the years that followed she worked with young children, both in church and secular environments. She also raised a family of her own and played foster mother to a wide assortment of furred and feathered critters.
Married to her high school sweetheart since age seventeen, she now lives in an old farmhouse she and her husband renovated with their own hands. She loves to hike the wooded hills behind the house and reflect on the marvelous turn her life has taken. Not only is she privileged to reside among the loving, accepting folks in the breathtakingly beautiful Ozark mountains of Arkansas, she also gets to share her personal faith by telling the stories of her heart for all of Steeple Hill’s Love Inspired lines.
Life doesn’t get much better than that!
Rescuing the Heiress
Valerie Hansen
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life…with your right hand you save me, Lord.
—Psalms 138:7
My husband was a firefighter, my son still is and my daughter also volunteered before she went into nursing.
The men and women in the fire service put their whole hearts into their work and no amount of praise or thanks for their efforts will ever be enough.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Epilogue
Letter to Reader
Questions for Discussion
Chapter One
1906, San Francisco
“We can’t ask Michael to do it. What would your father say if he found out?”
Tess Clark squared her shoulders, lifted her chin and smiled at the personal maid who had also become her friend and confidante. “Of course we can, Annie dear. Father would much rather we be escorted to the meeting by a gentleman than venture out unaccompanied, especially after dark. Besides, your mother’s planning to attend, isn’t she?”
“She said she might. But she lives down by the pavilion. She’s used to being out and about in that neighborhood after dark.” The slim young woman shivered. “It’s no place for a society girl like you.”
“Humph.” Tess shook her head, making her dainty pearl earbobs swing. “Just because my family lives on Nob Hill doesn’t mean I’m that different from other people. I want to support the cause of women’s rights as much as you do.” She pressed her lips into a thin line. “Maybe more so.”
“But…”
Adamant, Tess stood firm. “No arguments. We’re going to the meeting. I intend to hear Maud Younger speak before she goes back to New York, and we may never have a better opportunity.”
“You’re not afraid of what your father will do when he finds out?”
“I didn’t say that,” Tess admitted wryly. “Father can be very forceful at times. He’d certainly be irate if we made the journey alone. That’s why we need a strapping escort like Michael Mahoney.”
Annie covered her mouth with her hand and snickered. “And handsome, too.”
Tess couldn’t argue. She’d have had to be wearing blinders to have missed noticing how the family cook’s son had matured, especially since he’d reached his mid-twenties. Truth to tell, Tess had done more than notice. She had dreamed of what her life might be like if she were a mere domestic like Annie rather than the daughter of wealthy banker Gerald Bell Clark. She might sometimes choose to view herself as a middle-class resident of the City by the Bay but that didn’t mean she would be accepted as such by anyone who knew who she really was.
“I just had a thought,” Tess said, eyeing her boon companion and beginning to smile. “I think it would be wise if we both attend the lecture incognito. I still have a few of my mother’s old hats and wraps. It’ll be like playing dress-up when we were children.”
Annie rolled her blue eyes, eyes that matched Tess’s as if they were trueborn sisters. “To listen to your papa talk, you’d think we were still babes instead of eighteen. Why, we’re nearly old maids.”
That made Tess laugh. “Hardly, dear. But I do see your point. Papa probably sees us as children because he’s so prone to dwell on the past. He never talks about it but I don’t think he’s ever truly recovered from Mama’s passing.”
“I miss her, too,” Annie said. “She was a lovely lady.”
“And one who would want to march right along with us, arm in arm, if she were still alive,” Tess said with conviction.
“March? Oh, dear. We aren’t going to have to do that, are we? I mean, what will people say if we’re seen as part of an unruly mob? Susan B. Anthony was arrested!”
“And she stood up for her rights just the same,” Tess said with a lift of her chin. “According to the literature I’ve read, she never has paid the fines the courts levied.”
“That’s all well and good for a crusader like her. What about me? If your father finds out I went with you, he might fire me. You know my mother can’t do enough sewing and mending to support me and herself. She barely gets by with what I manage to add to her income. If I lost this job…”
“You won’t,” Tess assured her.
“You can’t be sure of that.”
“I know that my father is a fair man. And he does love me—in his own way—so he’ll listen if I find it necessary to defend you. I think sometimes that he’s afraid to show much affection, perhaps because of Mama.”
“You do resemble her. Same dark red hair, same sky-blue eyes, fair skin and sweet smile.”
Tess began to blush. “Thank you. I always thought she was beautiful.”
“So are you,” Annie insisted. “The only real difference I can see is that you’re so terribly stubborn and willful.”
“That I get from my father,” Tess said with a quiet chuckle, “and glad of it. Otherwise, how could I possibly hope to stand up to him, express my wishes and actually prevail?”
“When have you done that?”
“Well…” Tess’s cheeks warmed even more. “I shall. Someday. When I have a cause, a reason that I feel warrants such boldness.”
“Like woman suffrage, you mean?”
Tess sobered. “Yes. That’s exactly what I mean. Now, go find Michael and tell him what we need. Look in the kitchen. It’s Friday so he should be visiting his mother.”
“You keep track of his schedule?”
“Of course not. I just happened to remember that he has every other Friday afternoon free, that’s all, and I don’t believe I noticed him being here last week.” She looked away, taking a moment to compose herself and hoping Annie wouldn’t press her for a better explanation.
“Come with me?”
Tess arched a slim eyebrow. “You’re not afraid of him, are you?”
“No, I just get this funny, fluttery feeling in my stomach when I see him and I can hardly speak, let alone be convincing. It’s as if my tongue is tied.”
Unfortunately, Tess knew exactly what Annie meant. Between the mischievous twinkle in the man’s dark eyes and his hint of an Irish brogue, he was truly captivating. “All right. We’ll both go. He might be more likely to agree to accompany us if I asked him.”
“Of course. He won’t want to jeopardize his mother’s job by refusing.”
It bothered Tess to hear that rationale. She had hoped to persuade the attractive, twenty-four-year-old fireman to do her bidding by simply appealing to his gallantry. The suggestion that her family’s importance, both at home on the Clark estate and in the city proper, might be a stronger influence was disheartening.
It was also true.
Michael Mahoney had come straight from work, shedding his brass-buttoned, dark wool uniform jacket and leather-beaked cap as soon as he entered the overly warm kitchen of the Clark estate.
He gave his mother a peck on the cheek, took a deep breath and sighed loudly for her benefit. “Mmm, something smells heavenly.”
Clearly pleased, Mary grinned and chuckled. “Of course it does.”
“Will you be wanting more apples peeled?” he asked, starting to turn back his shirt cuffs while eyeing a sugar-and-cinnamon-topped bowl of already prepared fruit. “I’ll be glad to help, especially if I get to taste one of those pies you’re making.” He pulled a stool up to the table and sat down.
Hands dusted with flour, Mary was rolling circles of crust at the opposite end of the work-worn oak surface. “That’s no job for an important man like you, Michael.” She used the back of her wrist to brush a wispy curl away from her damp forehead. “You have a career now. You don’t need to be helpin’ me.”
“Clark should have hired you a kitchen maid long ago,” Michael said flatly. “With all his money you’d think he’d be glad to lighten your burdens.”
“I’ve had a few girls here. None lasted. They were too lazy. ’Twas easier for me to just jump in and do their chores than to wait.”
“Still, I think I should have a talk with him.”
“Don’t you dare. I’d be mortified.”
“Why?”
“Because Mr. Clark is a good man and a fine boss. I wouldn’t want him thinkin’ I wasn’t grateful. He gave me a raise in salary you know.”
“Over a year ago or longer. If Mrs. Clark was still in the household you’d have gotten more than just the one.”
