Buckeye Dreams (57 page)

“This is my first Christmas with a tree,” he said.

She kept her eyes focused on adjusting a string of beads. “Really?”

“Yes, Granddad wasn’t quite sure of them. But I had stockings, growing up.” Instead of getting another ornament, he continued looking at her. “Has your family always done this?”

“Yes, I think the first one was”—her hands stilled—“the year they adopted me.”

Peter glanced behind him. The rest of the family was busy on the other side of the tree. He lifted Anne’s chin, forcing her to look at him. “I meant what I said out in the stable, Anne, all of it. He doesn’t matter. I love you.”

Her eyes darted away from his, and she opened her mouth to say something, but her uncle’s voice stopped her.

“Well, I think that looks wonderful,” he said.

They all stepped back to look at it. Anne carefully moved away from Peter and stood next to her brother, who smiled down at her and squeezed her shoulders.

Millie cocked her head. “I think I see a bare spot.”

“Whether you do or not, it doesn’t really matter,” her pa said with a smile. “We’re out of decorations.” He nudged his brother good-naturedly. “You and your big, fancy trees.”

Dr. Kirby chuckled. “Yes, well why don’t we all sit down?”

Everyone took a seat. Peter found himself next to Anne on the sofa. She twisted her hands in her lap.

Mrs. Werner was the only one who hadn’t taken a seat. “I’ll be going to see about dinner,” she said.

“Let me help you,” Anne said quickly and started to rise.

“No, lass, you stay with your family. It’ll be ready shortly, Dr. Kirby.”

Mrs. Kirby looked at her brother-in-law. “Where are Rebecca and Joseph, Daniel? I thought they would be here.”

“They’ll be here tomorrow. In fact, I have good news from both of them.” He rose from his seat, picked up the picture of his children on the mantel, and smiled down at it. Looking at his brother, he said, “I’m sorry to beat you to this, Jonah, but Rebecca wrote to tell me that I should be a grandfather in the spring.”

Amid exclamations of happiness, Jonah joined his brother at the mantel and hugged him. Peter glanced at Anne; her smile was strained. His heart ached for her. He fervently hoped the professor’s crazy plan worked. Even if it took him his whole life, he was determined to make sure that look never crossed Anne’s face again. Dr. Kirby spoke, and Peter turned his attention to him.

“As for my news about Joseph—” He took a deep, steadying breath. “As you know, after Katherine passed he felt it would be too hard to stay and attend college here in Ohio.” The professor’s beard bristled as he pressed his lips together. “But it seems he misses his mother even more keenly living so far away from home. He has decided to attend The Ohio State University, starting next term.”

Peter offered his congratulations along with everyone else, but even over the noise, he heard a sigh beside him. He set his jaw.
You’ll be here to see him, Anne. With me standing right at your side
. The merriment died down, and Dr. Kirby looked at him. If Peter had been nervous and unsure of this before, he wasn’t now.

“I have more good news,” the professor said. “It concerns a young man whom it has been my pleasure to know for the past several months.” Peter felt uncomfortable as Dr. Kirby looked him straight in the eye. “He introduced himself to me as Peter Ward, but I have discovered his real name is Peter Tobias McCord.”

Peter felt as if a horse had kicked him in the gut. In a daze, he looked around at them. Dr. Kirby, his brother, and his sister-in-law appeared calm, but the others looked confused, Anne most of all. The mantel clock struck the hour, and a carriage pulled up outside. Silently, the professor left the room. He returned, bringing someone with him. Peter’s jaw dropped, and he stood.

“Jimmy!” he exclaimed.

H
ello, sir.” The valet smiled and crossed the parlor to shake Peter’s hand. “Actually my name is James Brooks.” He glanced at the professor. “I’m a Pinkerton agent.”

“What?” Peter exclaimed. “Who were you working for? My uncle?”

Dr. Kirby laid his hand on Peter’s shoulder and urged him to sit. “Just listen to him.”

Peter looked at the professor as he sat down. “You’ve heard this, then?”

“Yes. All of it.”

Peter pressed his lips together and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “I never wanted anyone to know,” he said angrily. “It was all in the past.”

“I had to know who you were for reasons that you don’t understand yet. Please hear Mr. Brooks out.”

Peter sighed and looked at James.

“Your grandfather hired the agency,” James said calmly, “to watch over you.”

“To watch over me? Why?”

“He’d been getting death threats.”

Peter frowned and stared at James. “He never told me.”

“He didn’t want to worry you. The threats began years ago, while you were at Princeton, but he never took them seriously until one of them mentioned you. That’s when he called us in. He knew you’d never agree to have a bodyguard around all the time, so that’s why I posed as your valet.”

“He didn’t ask for anyone for himself?”

“No, you were his main concern.”

“Then his illness—” Peter began.

“Unfortunately, the threats were not unfounded,” James replied heavily.

Peter worked his jaw. “Who?” he asked, although in his heart, he already knew.

“Your uncle, with the help of your cousin Edward, slowly poisoned him. They also changed his will. Mr. Jamison, your grandfather’s lawyer, helped with that.” James pulled out some documents from his suit and handed them to Peter. “I found your grandfather’s real will. Your uncle, your cousin, and Mr. Jamison have been arrested.”

Peter slowly opened the will. It was the exact opposite of the document his uncle had shown him in May. As Granddad had always said, he left Peter nearly everything. An annuity had been set up for Uncle Randall and his family. He understood what had motivated Uncle Randall and Edward. They’d wanted the entire McCord fortune, not a yearly stipend. But what had motivated Mr. Jamison? Granddad had trusted him explicitly. Letty came to mind, and he looked at James. “How does Letty Jamison fit in to all this?”

A scowl crossed James’s face. “It seems she did get herself in the family way, but your cousin Edward was responsible. Mr. Jamison took the matter to your uncle, who agreed to have Edward marry her, if the attorney changed your grandfather’s will.”

“But once he’d done it, Edward refused to marry her,” Peter said.

“Mr. Jamison threatened to reveal the whole thing unless they provided a husband for his daughter. So they took advantage of your way with the ladies, hoping to trap you into marrying her.” James grinned. “You leaving before the wedding complicated their plans, but I’m glad you got away.”

Peter looked down, wishing James hadn’t put it quite like that. What must Anne think of him now?

“What happened to Miss Jamison?” Mrs. Kirby asked.

“After Mr. McCord left, his uncle paid Mr. Jamison to keep quiet, and she was sent away. The child came early, stillborn.”

“The poor girl,” Mrs. Kirby murmured.

James shrugged. “At least, she didn’t get ahold of these.” He handed a velvet box to Peter.

“You found them.” He opened the box to look at his mother’s pearl necklace. He sighed with relief.

“Yes, sir, with the note you left me.” He reached into his pocket. “I also managed to track down these.” He pulled out mother-of-pearl cuff links. “Your trail ended at the pawn shop where I found them.”

“That’s the last time I bet on a sure thing,” Peter said, taking them. He glanced at Dr. Kirby, shame-faced.

“That’s who you used to be, Peter. Not who you are now.” He nodded to James. “Please give him the letter, Mr. Brooks.”

Peter looked up at them. “What letter?”

“Your grandfather left a letter for you, sir, to be read when the will was read.” James retrieved an envelope from a pocket inside his coat and handed it to him.

“Peter,” Dr. Kirby said quietly. “I know this seems like an intrusion, but it’s important that you read it out loud.”

Peter hesitated, but seeing the sincere entreaty on the professor’s face, unfolded the letter and cleared his throat.

A second sheet of paper listed the address of the Kirby farm in Delaware. Peter let them both fall to the floor as he lifted incredulous eyes to the professor, who now stood beside his brother in front of the mantel. “This is why you had to find out who I was?” he asked.

The professor nodded. “Toby was our brother,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “When Jonah and I left to fight the war, he was supposed to have stayed behind at the farm to help Ma run the farm. But he always was a headstrong young man. I guess the call to serve wouldn’t leave him alone, and he ran off and joined up. Why he went clear to Pennsylvania, I guess we’ll never know.”

Peter stood up and walked over to them. “But what made you think I was his son?”

“Your eyes,” the professor replied. “You woke up and looked at me with those eyes of yours.”

Confused, Peter looked from him to his brother. Both of them gazed steadily at him, and that was when he saw it—two sets of eyes exactly like his own, as green as a spring meadow.

“I wasn’t positive until I finally got you to shave that beard of yours,” Dr. Kirby said.

“You look just like him,” Mr. Kirby added.

The two embraced him, and Peter felt awestruck that of all the people he could have come across during his days of wandering, the Lord led him to his own family and restored him to them. Dr. Kirby—Uncle Daniel—pulled away and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “There is one more thing you’re forgetting,” he said, nodding toward where Anne sat on the sofa.

Peter started then looked at Jonah. He smiled. “It’s not like you’re related by blood,” he said quietly.

Swallowing, he looked at Anne. She stared at him with saucer-like eyes. Spying the velvet box that contained his mother’s pearls lying on the sofa next to her, he picked them up and sat down facing her. He opened the box, revealing the pearls.

“These belonged to my mother,” Peter said. “I’d be very happy if you wore them on our wedding day.”

He saw the shock in her eyes for only a moment before she fled the room.

Anne shut herself in the sitting room. The news of Peter’s wealth and his true identity had been startling enough, but his proposal left her completely undone. Ever since they’d kissed, she’d fought between running straight into Peter’s arms and telling him everything to leaving in the middle of the night. She shook her head, trying to clear it, and as she did so, the doors to the sitting room opened and Peter walked in. He shut them and flashed her one of his most roguish smiles.