His Queen of Hearts

Her eyes widened when he removed the shiny domed lids of several individual plates piled high with a variety of different foods. “I’m not a big breakfast eater,” she began, her gaze on the offerings, “but this looks too good to pass up. Where did you get it? Is this a hotel?”

“Of sorts,” he answered, handing her a cloth napkin.

She looked up to stare at him, surprise and a touch of fear evident in her eyes. He smiled and added two more fresh strawberries to her plate, then sat on the corner of the sofa near her. He wasn’t quite ready to reveal her whereabouts. Until he could discover how much she knew about J.R., he’d keep the information to himself. When he was certain she wasn’t involved in his stepbrother’s nefarious activities, he’d answer her questions. The less personal ones, at least.

“Relax and enjoy your breakfast,” he told her, crossing one foot over the other knee and leaning back to watch.

“Aren’t you going to eat, too?”

“A little late in the day for breakfast for most people, don’t you think?”

She placed her plate on the table in front of her, sighing, and looked up at him. “There you go again. A question for a question. I’m beginning to think you don’t want to tell me anything. Am I right?”

“I’ll answer your questions and maybe show you around when you’re finished. How’s that?”

Shrugging, she picked up her plate again and took a bite of fresh cantaloupe. While she was busy with her food, he studied her. As inquisitive as she was, he wondered how J.R. had managed to con her, if indeed he had. It was entirely possible that she was embroiled in the man’s schemes. But she didn’t strike Dev as the devious type.

He weighed the possibilities. Her angelic face and air of innocence might be an asset J.R. could put to good use. The man had fooled almost everyone with his false tales and easy-on-the-eyes appearance. But for a woman who’d left her intended at the altar, Dev wasn’t ready to believe she wasn’t involved in anything or even knew that the man she’d nearly married was nothing more than a thief.

“You don’t seem too concerned for a bride who just jilted her groom,” he pointed out.

The strawberry in her hand stopped at her open lips. She closed her mouth and returned the fruit to her plate, hanging her head, her shoulders drooping. When she looked up at him again, her eyes brimmed with tears and pink tinged her pale cheeks. If she was acting, she was one of the best he’d ever seen. But J.R. would find the best. Still, Dev had to quell the sympathy he suddenly felt for her.

“I made a…mistake,” she said, ducking her head again.

“You mean you had to marry him?” His gaze slid down her body, wondering if she might be carrying the child of his sworn enemy.

“Mercy goodness! It isn’t what you’re thinking,” she cried, her cheeks deepening to a rosy red. “We never…He didn’t—”

“You aren’t pregnant,” he finished for her, ignoring his slight feeling of relief. “Then why was it a mistake?”

Pushing the plate of food away, she leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes. “This is very embarrassing,” she said in a soft voice he had to strain to hear.

Had she been duped and was now too ashamed to admit she had been involved in anything that might be illegal? But he wasn’t ready to trust her. Maybe she was playing on his sympathies, and he wasn’t going to fall for it if she was. He wasn’t sure what he could say to get her to open up to him, but he tried with, “You can tell me. I’m a good listener.”

She shook her head, and a tear trickled slowly down her cheek.

“I promise not to judge you,” he coaxed.

For a moment she didn’t move, except to sink her teeth into her bottom lip and nod.

“He hurt you?” Dev asked when she didn’t say anything.

“No, he never laid a hand on me. He was always a gentleman.”

“I mean…emotionally,” he tried.

She blew out a breath. “You mean because of Prissy.”

“Prissy?”

“My maid of honor. Prissy is supposed to be my best friend.”

“Then you are in love with him?” Somewhere deep inside, Dev almost hoped she would say she wasn’t. And he didn’t like thinking that. But if she wasn’t, he didn’t want to learn that this young woman was on the wrong side of the law.

Her chin lifted and her lower lip quivered. “I suppose it won’t sound very good if I say I thought I was.”

He smothered the slight stab of disappointment he felt. Yesterday, when he’d helped her leave the church, his only thought had been that she might give him some information about J.R. After all, the wedding wasn’t going to take place, and he had lost his chance to corner the man. But because she felt she had nowhere to go, he didn’t see any reason not to take advantage of the situation and use her to lure J.R. here on his own turf. It would be even better to confront him here. The bride might have taken offense to the groom being led away by police on their honeymoon. Especially now that he had met Carly.

But he found himself losing his perspective and wanting to help her out of whatever trouble she was in. Maybe he could still help her and nail J.R., too, but he’d have to have the full story before he could do it. And he had to keep his plans for the casino and J.R. uppermost in his mind. Getting sidetracked because of a pretty woman wasn’t like him. He wasn’t about to take that chance now, when he was so close.

“Tell me what the two of you were involved in.”

She stared at him, her eyes wide. “Involved in? We were getting married. That’s the only kind of involvement we had. And why were you at my wedding? Are you a friend of James? Or maybe family?”

Dev nearly laughed out loud. Family? No. Friend? Far from it. They had known each other since birth and had been enemies even before that. Four generations, to be exact. “I’ve known him a long time,” he answered, unwilling to say more until he was sure that she wasn’t involved in something unlawful.

And something in the “was” about loving J.R. still bothered him. “If you knew about his…uh, unfaithfulness before the wedding, why didn’t you just call it off then?”

Placing her hands in her lap, she linked them tightly together and lowered her head. “I don’t know. Janelle, one of my bridesmaids, phoned me the morning before to tell me the news. I was so confused and hadn’t had much sleep. I didn’t really know what to do until the last minute.” She looked up at him and sighed. “There had been signs, but I ignored them.”

“What signs?”

“Well, for one thing, he was impatient about the wedding date. He wanted to get married sooner than I had chosen. We finally convinced him that anything sooner would mean a shoddy wedding, and Mama wouldn’t stand for that. Then he started acting strange as the wedding drew closer.”

“In what way?”

“He…hovered, wanting to spend every second with me. He would get upset if we hit a snag in the wedding plans. He stopped caring about the wedding plans after a while, when he had been very involved in them in the beginning.” She sighed, and her eyes filled with tears again. “I should’ve done something then. At least asked him what the problem was. But I excused it as pre-wedding jitters and continued with the wedding plans.” She paused for a moment, looking down at her hands, still clenched in her lap. “But it’s obvious there was something going on with Prissy, even then. Maybe he swept her off her feet like he had me. I don’t know. And then there was Mama and Oak Hill Grove.”

He shook his head, trying to make sense of it. “Oak Hill Grove is your home?”

She breathed a long sigh. “Yes. You see, it’s been in the Charpentier family for years. It was passed down from my great-great-grandfather Charpentier to his son, to his son, and then to Mama when she married, because she has no brothers. But it’s so old, and expenses and taxes have been so high and—” she lowered her head and shook it “—and Mama isn’t very good with money. She went through what little bit Daddy left her, years ago.”

Stunned, Dev stared at her. “You were marrying him for his money?”

He heard her sniff before she looked at him. “No, not at all. In fact, Mama and I made plans when we knew I would be getting married and moving into my own home. She would sell Oak Hill Grove, pay off the debts and move to a nice apartment.”

Remembering what J.R. had done to others and nearly done to his oldest brother’s wife before they married, Dev asked the only thing on his mind. “Was there oil on the land?”

“Oil? Why, no. We had it surveyed two years ago. Mama was hoping there might be. It would’ve been the answer to our prayers. But there isn’t. Why do you ask?”

This was his chance to tell her how J.R. was no good, but he hesitated. “An answer to your difficulties maybe?”

“It would have been,” she agreed with another sniff. “No one knows how bad things have become for us. Mama insisted that we always put up a good front. Even the cousins don’t have any idea. Somehow, we’ve been able to fool everyone.”

“And James didn’t know this, either?”

“Oh, mercy, no! I never breathed a word to him. Why would I? There was no reason to. We had everything worked out. Our financial problems would be solved and still be our secret.”