Love and Triumph: The Coltrane Saga, Book 8 (3 page)

Marilee felt her cheeks blazing and could not resist snapping, “Please don’t worry about me. I promise I won’t be a burden to this family, no matter what the future holds.”

An awkward silence descended like a giant, invisible shroud. Everyone exchanged uncomfortable glances, then Jade quickly changed the subject. “I think it’s time we got back to matters at hand, like proposing a few little intimate toasts together, before half of Spain arrives for the wedding.” Her trailing laugh was forced, tense.

“Here, here!” Colt boomed his approval, got to his feet, and lifted his glass of champagne to Travis. “A toast to my son on his wedding day, with the good wish that he will forever be as happy in his marriage as his father and grandfather before him.”

The toasting passed to Jade, Kit, Kurt, finally to Marilee; by then she was feeling as bubbly as the champagne. “To Travis,” she said boldly, tipsily, “whom I’ve loved like family, even though he wasn’t…”

Jade decided it was time to end the breakfast. Everyone began to file out of the room, but she called to Marilee just as she got to the door. “I’ll be leaving for Kit’s house in half an hour, and I’d like for you to ride with me. Can you be ready?”

Marilee glanced at her watch and asked, “Why so early? We’ve lots of time.”

Jade gave her a secret smile “You’ll see. Just be ready.”

Marilee nodded, continued on her way.

“What is wrong with her?” Colt demanded, exasperated. “I have to admit I’m getting a little bit sick of feeling like I’m walking on eggs every time she’s around.”

“Well, I’m going to see if I can talk her into going to Switzerland. She really needs to go,” Jade said.

“Maybe you’d like to go with her, get away for a while,” Colt suggested.

“I’ve thought about it. It might take my mind off worrying about Travis going into the war and you getting involved.”

He swore under his breath. “How did you find out? Did Valerie tell you?”

She touched his cheek with her fingertips.

“I didn’t know for a fact, but I could feel it, so please, let’s not pretend any longer.”

“I just wanted to get through the wedding. This is supposed to be a happy time, and I didn’t want to have any more shadows than we’ve already got.”

Quietly, lovingly, she said, “Coltranes have always used shadows as a shield against the painful glare of reality. I intend to remember that.”

He kissed her gratefully and whispered, “Thanks for reminding me of the family philosophy.”

“You taught me, remember?” She smiled. “Now let’s go see our son properly married, and then maybe we can sneak away from yet another reception and take a second honeymoon.”

He grinned. “Honey, that sounds great, but I don’t think the first one ever ended.”

Chapter Four

Marilee sat next to Kit on the plush leather seats in the rear of the new Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. They wore fashionable ankle-length dust coats, with wide-brimmed hats and veils covering their faces. As Jade settled behind the steering wheel in front, they exchanged uncomfortable glances.

Jade sensed their apprehension. “You needn’t be so nervous. I’ve had driving lessons.”

“The car was only delivered last week,” Kit reminded her. “How many lessons have you had?”

“It’s a simple car to drive. Really. It has a four-speed gearbox with direct third and overdrive on fourth.”

“I know. I know. I’ve heard Daddy go on and on about this model.” She rolled her eyes at Marilee and whispered, “And with a horsepower of forty-eight giving it a top speed of over a hundred kilometers, I’d prefer to have the horses pulling me!”

Jade pretended to be angry. “Much more talk like that and you’ll walk home, young lady.” Suddenly they were thrown forward, then backward, as she made a quick, jerking start, finally easing out into the driveway and heading for the open road.

Kit said to Marilee, “When Mother drives, Kurt and I don’t ride together with her. We’re afraid of leaving the children orphans.”

They burst into laughter, but Jade ignored them.

Marilee settled back to enjoy the ride. It was a gorgeous day for a wedding, with a peacock-blue sky shared by billowing clouds that would periodically offer relief from a brazen sun.

Marveling at the landscape, she became lost in her own imagination. How easy it was to think of Spain as Europe’s lady of mystery, dressed in black velvet and holding a red rose…eager suitors crossing her courtyard. Yes, she mused dreamily, Lady Spain was the eternal enchantress.

Suddenly Kit urged, “Tell me about Rudolf!”

Marilee shrugged. “I guess you could say he’s handsome, charming, polite, well-bred. Very talented. He’s studying to be a concert pianist. His family lived in Vienna before the war but fled to Switzerland.”

“Do you love him?”

Jade was aghast. “Kit! Don’t be so nosy!”

Kit ignored her and pressed on. “Well, do you?”

Marilee stared at her for a few seconds, then, with candor and honesty, asked, “How am I supposed to know?”

Kit started to laughed but realized Marilee was quite serious. “A girl just knows,” she said. “Like when you’re saving a rare and special bottle of wine, and you wonder when the occasion will come when you want to open it, and when it does, somehow you just know it and realize that was why you were saving it.

“It’s the same with love. You just
know
,”
she repeated emphatically.

Marilee laughed. “That sounds very romantic, but I don’t think you were quite that sure about Kurt. I remember, when you first met him, you couldn’t stand him.”

“That’s right. You loathed him, as I recall,” Jade teased.

“We had personal problems,” Kit said defensively. “I won his precious horse in a race and didn’t know he was stolen, remember? Kurt wanted him back, but I felt like he was mine. Of course, now I’m happier than I ever thought I could be, and so will you be when you meet the right man.”

“Maybe she already has,” Jade was quick to suggest.

“He’s Austrian, and you’re half Russian. Does that ever cause any dissent?” Kit asked. “After all, when the Russians attacked in Galicia last year, they killed over a million Austrians and took nearly half a million prisoners. Your father is an officer in the Czar’s brigade, or was, before Nicholas abdicated, and he was also a top-ranking adviser. Does Rudolf know all that?”

Marilee nodded. “It’s never caused any problems. Actually, he seems fascinated with my Russian heritage and asks a lot of questions, but there’s not much I can tell him—only things Daddy has told me through the years.”

“I wish we knew where he was,” Kit murmured. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Since Christmas. I think he’s either with Nicholas or working underground. Either way, I keep telling myself he’s all right. He
has
to be,” she added vehemently.

Determined that the day was not to be shadowed, Jade cheerily agreed. “Of course he’s fine. Drakar is brave, courageous, and resourceful, and no matter why he’s out of touch, he can take care of himself.”

They reached a fork in the road. The curve to the left went to the rear of the Tanner property, where the servants’ compound was located, as well as service buildings and barns. Jade started to turn toward the right, where the road disappeared within a grove of orange trees.

“No!” Kit cried, leaning forward to point to the service road. “That way! I have a surprise you can’t see till time for the wedding procession. I had to make Valerie promise not to go on the front lawn, and I’m determined you all aren’t going to see it, either.”

Jade nodded, willing to cooperate.

They passed the cattle pens and barns, then came to the elaborate stables and training rings for the prize Hispanos. “There’s Pegasus,” Kit said proudly, pointing to a magnificent horse lazily grazing in the distance. “He’s sired four beautiful colts so far.”

Passing through the servants’ compound, Marilee was once again dazzled by it all and wanted to know, “Just how many people does it take to keep this place running?”

Kit thought a moment, then replied, “I think around fifty altogether. Kurt has a secretary who keeps all the records, so I’m not sure, exactly. I know I have about twenty servants in the house, but not all at once, of course. They work in shifts. Then there are the stablehands and the horse trainers.”

“And that doesn’t even include the vaqueros, who live on a different section of the ranch,” Jade put in. “They’ve got their own little village a few miles away.”

“Well, it’s necessary,” Kit explained. “After all, Kurt has enlarged his operations. He has about fifty thousand head of cattle, plus he’s raising bulls for three major arenas, and now we have the Hispanos. The vineyard is also growing, and he said we’ll probably need to build some cottages for those workers in the next few years.”

Marilee laughed. “And I thought Daniberry was a palace. Compared to your, castle, it’s hardly a cottage.”

Jade slowed as they approached the massive structure, and Kit said thoughtfully, “You know, I never wanted anything this colossal, but it seemed so important to Kurt to build it for us that I went along. I was amazed how fast he did it, too, but then he kept the construction workers going twenty-four hours a day.”

“Four stories.” Jade shook her head in wonder. “Sixty rooms. An indoor swimming pool. A solarium that goes through all the floors. And
I
thought the Czar’s Winter Palace was sumptuous!”

The outer yards were splendid to behold, with gardens of wisteria and roses and jasmine and honeysuckle, and exotic plants from the Orient and Central America. There was even a pagoda with charming tinkling bells, and a magnificent statuary.

“It was Kurt’s dream,” Kit said almost wistfully. “I was content with my little farmhouse, but if it makes him happy, it makes me happy.”

“And me, too, dear,” Jade was quick to declare, “even though I do think he went a little overboard.”

Marilee agreed but did not say so. After all, her father had done the same for her mother, built her a dream palace. Would Rudolf do the same for her? She doubted it…doubted his family had that kind of money, did not think she would ever want something so grandiose, anyway.

Admitting that, even if only to herself, was always surprising, because she had never known anything except wealth. Yet she had never felt it a prerequisite to happiness. Once, she’d said as much to Jade and was promptly told that should she find herself poor, she would surely change her mind.

Jade drove into the courtyard and stopped before the back entrance, a canopy-covered breezeway, where a footman was waiting to open the doors for them and park the car in one of the nearby garages.

Kit led the way up the marble steps. A uniformed butler greeted them. Marilee smiled to herself, thinking how the back entrance was as grand as the front entrance of most fine homes.

“This is new,” Marilee marveled as Kit ushered them onto a small elevator. “When did you add this?”

“We have two. One in the foyer for us, and this one for servants. Kurt had them installed a few months ago in preparation for the wedding, because tonight we’re going to have to use not only the ballroom on the main floor but the one up on the third, as well, and he felt it would just be too much for the guests to climb up and down so many stairs, not to mention the servants with all the food and wine.”

They got off the elevator on the second floor, where Kit said she’d prepared dressing rooms for them. Carasia had seen to it that all the clothes they would need had been brought, as well as accessories. They would be changing several times during the festivities. First there would be the wedding, then attire for whatever activity they chose for the afternoon, and finally, elaborate dress for the dinner and reception that night.

The room given to Jade was like a jewelry box, all gilt paneling and beveled mirrors, with an electrified chandelier of ruby and gilt. Fresh flowers had been placed in vases everywhere, the air perfumed with their sweetness.

“If you need anything, just ring.” Kit pointed to the velvet bell cord by the door, then motioned Marilee to go with her.

“Don’t forget to ask Valerie to come here for tea in about a half hour,” Jade said, reminding Kit of an earlier request, then nodded to Marilee. “I’d like you to be here, too. This is why I asked you to drive over early with me.”

Marilee did not have time to wonder why her aunt wanted to take time for tea with so much going on, because Kit grabbed her arm and laughingly urged her to hurry along, and she was smiling as though she knew a wonderful secret.

Finally Kit paused before a closed door and said, lavender eyes twinkling with mischief, “I’ve got a surprise for you. I worried for a while that maybe you’d be angry, but after seeing how you were so daring as to cut your hair this morning, I feel better about it and think maybe you’re ready for a real change in your life.”

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and stepped aside.

Hesitantly, but curiously, Marilee looked into the room and was astonished at the sight before her.

Everywhere she looked there were gowns and dresses of all colors and fabrics and designs. Why, she had never seen so many outfits at one time, not even in a dress shop.

Slowly, she walked around to stare at the wardrobe laid out on the bed, across the chairs, hanging from drapery rods and picture frames—everywhere!