Fortune's Secret Husband. Karen Smith Rose

      Contents

       Cover

       Introduction

       Title Page

       About the Author

       Dedication

      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

       Epilogue

       Extract

       Copyright

       Chapter One

      Lucie Fortune Chesterfield was late!

      It was her own fault. She’d forgotten her phone and had to run back to the Austin, Texas, apartment she was subletting to retrieve it. In a rush now on her way out again, after disembarking from the elevator in the lobby, she stopped cold.

      Was she seeing things? Was that Chase Parker leaving the building? Not possible. Just because he still invaded her dreams—

      The doorman stood at his counter and she ran to him and pointed to the departing tall, broad-shouldered man whose Stetson was tilted at an angle she thought she recognized.

      The doorman did a double take. “Lady Lucie, I thought you’d left.”

      Irving hadn’t been at his station when she’d rushed back in for her phone. “I forgot something and had to return to my apartment. Do you know who that man is?”

      Lucie was very used to doormen and chauffeurs and pomp and circumstance. Born in England and living on the Chesterfield Estate, she was considered “almost” royalty. Her mother’s adopted father had been an earl. Her own father had been knighted. In England and the United States, her family was sometimes hounded and followed by paparazzi searching for that money shot. After the scandal her sister had become involved in, Lucie was more than aware of her actions and couldn’t just run into the street chasing a tall Texan who resembled a ghost from her foolish past, a ghost so secret not even her family had known all the details about her association with him.

      Irving, in his fifties and balding, turned red to his scalp as he reached out to the shelf under the counter and retrieved a business card.

      “I’m so sorry, Lady Lucie. I saw you the first time and assumed you’d left for the morning.”

      She’d been following a routine. Each morning after breakfast, she’d been scouting out properties for an office for the Fortune Foundation, which was planning to open a branch in Austin.

      Irv, as he preferred to be called, went on to explain further as he handed her the business card. “The gentleman gave me this and said he’d be back later.”

      Lucie read the card aloud in a low tone. “Chase Parker—” There were two numbers listed.

      At the idea of Chase being in close proximity, she felt a tremble race through her. At seventeen, she’d been on a youth trip to Scotland. And then...

      She had to forget about Chase Parker, ghost or not, and concentrate on this trip to visit her relatives in Texas. She had agreed to help the Fortune Foundation set up a branch in Austin for the benefit of children there.

      “What do you want me to do if he comes back again?” Irv asked.

      She fingered the card in her hand. What did Chase want with her now? He obviously knew she was here. Why hadn’t he called first? Should she phone him?

      No. He’d forgotten about her easily. The past was in the past. If he had a reason to see her, she’d find out soon enough what that was.

      Answering Irv’s question, she said, “If I’m in, buzz me just as you do with everyone else.”

      “As you say, Lady Lucie. There is one other thing—”

      She really had to be going, but Irv looked worried about something, so she waited.

      “That reporter’s been out there again from the news station. I saw him yesterday afternoon, but he was gone until you got back.”

      “As