He checked his watch, pushing back his French cuff. If he hurried, he could make the last few minutes of the meeting and still press his point.
“I’ll look into it,” he announced, smiling as he stepped away from the fireplace. “Call my secretary Monday morning with the particulars,” he instructed Mr. Monroe.
Ellie sat up straight. “Oh, but—”
“I’ll get back to you in a few days,” he went on, walking toward the door.
“Can’t you stay long enough for tea?” his sister asked pointedly.
“Sorry. I have a meeting.”
He didn’t quite make it across the impressive foyer before the quick tap of footsteps on marble warned him of pursuit. Dallas, no doubt. Slinging on his coat, Asher cast a glance upward issuing a brief, silent plea for patience.
Of his three siblings, his baby sister had always tried him most, so naturally she had been the one to follow him from the family home in Waco to Buffalo Creek, where she had earned a teaching degree at Buffalo Creek Bible College and remained to teach second grade. Intending to make short work of any confrontation, he whirled—and nearly bowled over Ellen Monroe.
She bounced off him, pinwheeling her arms to keep from falling over backward. Instinctively, he reached out to grasp her forearms and steady her. A bright smile suddenly lit her face, and electricity shot up his arms. Jolted, he snatched his hands back.
“Sorry.”
“No problem,” she said, smoothing her skirt. “I—I just wanted to…uh, thank you.”
“I haven’t done anything yet,” he pointed out, frowning.
“No, but you’re going to,” she said, “and I’m beyond grateful. But I hate for you to put yourself out over this. I know how busy you must be, and…” With a forced chuckle, she held out her arms in a broad shrug. “Well, I’m sure God will work it all out in His own good time.”
Asher blinked, irritated by his odd response to Ellie, a response he couldn’t quite characterize. “Is it not possible that God could use me to work it out?”
“Oh!” She clapped her hands to her chest just below her delicate collarbones. “I didn’t mean—”
“Because I assure you that the insurance company will seek every means to mitigate their damages,” he interrupted, “even if it’s only delaying payment as long as possi—”
“But Dallas is always saying how busy you are, and I wouldn’t want to impose.”
He sighed. “You’re not imposing. You’re taking on legal representation.” The attorney in him forced out a disclaimer. “Though, of course, I cannot guarantee that you and your grandfather will be entirely happy with the results of my actions.”
Ellie flattened her lips as if disappointed. “I’ve found people are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
Life brought all sort of disappointments, as Asher knew well, unhappy and tragic things, like death and divorce, injury, malfeasance, house fires… The list, in fact, seemed endless. But perhaps she was too young to understand the harsh realities of this life, while Asher, on the other hand, had seen far too much tragedy, animosity and downright dishonesty in the course of his practice to be so sanguine.
Recently, his cousin Chandler had been cheated of his investment in a ranch. Thankfully, all had turned out well. In short order, Chandler had married, become a father and purchased another ranch near Stephenville to the west. It had all happened, Asher mused, while Chandler and his now wife, Bethany, had been living in this very house.
Come to think of it, his cousins Kaylie and Reeves had also met their spouses while one or the other of them lived here, a fact which must surely have influenced his starry-eyed little sister to seek shelter for the Monroes in this place. Was Dallas trying to get Kent and Odelia together? And was Ellen also a part of that?
If so, shame on them.
Until a person had been disappointed in love, that person could not understand the depth of pain that accompanied such disappointment. Dallas and Ellie were still too young for that kind of experience.
Feeling sadly world-weary to the point of, well, old, Asher could have used a bit of Ellie Monroe’s youthful naïveté and enthusiasm just then. Instead, he smiled and brought the conversation to an abrupt end.
“Have a good evening, Ellie.”
He left her there, looking like the little girl she had been not so long ago, the little girl whom he, on some level that he definitely did not wish to examine too closely, needed her still to be. He pushed the image of her lovely violet eyes aside. He had no interest in romance. His one spectacular failure in that area had cured him permanently of any desire to meet, or date—let alone marry again.
Ellie sighed as the door closed behind Asher Chatam’s back. She had always sighed upon first seeing him, and today had been no exception. For as long as she’d known his sister Dallas, some six or so years now, Ellie had thought the tall, lean attorney the finest-looking man she’d ever seen. Slim-hipped and broad-shouldered, with the build of an athlete, he seemed the very epitome of the successful barrister. She had always imagined him as a champion of the downtrodden and wrongly accused, but she knew little about his business. She adored the distinguished streaks of off-white at his temples, the warm amber of his eyes and the cleft in his strong chin.
Unfortunately, when he was around, she couldn’t seem to think as clearly as usual. He made her nervous, and when she was nervous she blurted out things better left unsaid, interrupted others and often embarrassed herself. She had no reason to worry, though. He had never seemed to notice. Sadly, so far as she could tell, the man barely realized that she was alive. She was just his little sister’s best friend, after all, a kindergarten teacher of limited experience. He, no doubt, fended off much more sophisticated women on a daily basis.
Nevertheless, Ellie found this turn of events intriguing. A dedicated attorney such as Ash Chatam would pay close attention to his clients, and she yearned for him to play close attention to her. But, she reminded herself, close attention could be disastrous. She had actually pleaded with the Chatam triplets not to impose on their nephew, but her entreaties had gone unheeded. In fact, the more she’d begged them not to involve Ash, the more determined they had seemed to do so, until finally they had dispatched Chester to enlist Asher’s aid.
“He’s definitely taking the case then?”
Ellie turned to find Dallas lounging against the staircase banister. Her friend’s nonchalant pose and tone did not fool Ellie. Dallas was as concerned as Ellie herself. “Did you think he wouldn’t?”
A small sigh escaped Dallas before she made a dramatic shrug. “I told you, if the aunties ask it, you might as well consider it done.”
Ellie took a seat on the third step, smoothing her skirt neatly about her thighs. “Tell me again why you don’t want Ash involved in this,” she suggested as mildly as she could manage.
“You know perfectly well why,” Dallas said, dropping down beside Ellie so she could pitch her voice low. “He’ll have you and your grandfather out of Chatam House in no time, and the longer you’re here, the more likely it is that your
