Rescuing the Heiress. Valerie Hansen

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      “I don’t believe I have ever seen so many women gathered in one place before. There must be thousands.”

      Tess tensed. “Wait. How will you find us again if we go inside without you?”

      “I could probably spot you in the crowd by your pr… By your hair,” Michael said.

      “You were going to say pretty, weren’t you?” She smiled, amused by the way his cheeks grew more ruddy.

      “It would be wrong of me to mention such things, Miss Clark.”

      That made her laugh softly. “But I would find it delightful if you did. Does that embarrass you, Michael?”

      “Of course not.”

      He brought the buggy to a halt, then quickly helped her alight. “I’ll find you.”

      She knew that her eyes must be twinkling, because she was keenly amused when she shouted back, “And how will you do that, sir?”

      Michael paused just long enough to lean down from his perch. “By your beautiful, dark red hair.” Then he flicked the reins and the horse took off.

      VALERIE HANSEN

      was thirty when she awoke to the presence of the Lord in her life and turned to Jesus. In the years that followed she worked with young children, both in church and secular environments. She also raised a family of her own and played foster mother to a wide assortment of furred and feathered critters.

      Married to her high school sweetheart since age seventeen, she now lives in an old farmhouse she and her husband renovated with their own hands. She loves to hike the wooded hills behind the house and reflect on the marvelous turn her life has taken. Not only is she privileged to reside among the loving, accepting folks in the breathtakingly beautiful Ozark mountains of Arkansas, she also gets to share her personal faith by telling the stories of her heart for all of Steeple Hill’s Love Inspired lines.

      Life doesn’t get much better than that!

      Rescuing the Heiress

      Valerie Hansen

      

www.millsandboon.co.uk

      Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life…with your right hand you save me, Lord.

      —Psalms 138:7

      My husband was a firefighter, my son still is and my daughter also volunteered before she went into nursing.

      The men and women in the fire service put their whole hearts into their work and no amount of praise or thanks for their efforts will ever be enough.

      Contents

      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

      Chapter Fourteen

      Chapter Fifteen

      Chapter Sixteen

      Chapter Seventeen

      Chapter Eighteen

      Chapter Nineteen

      Chapter Twenty

      Chapter Twenty-One

      Epilogue

      Letter to Reader

      Questions for Discussion

      Chapter One

      1906, San Francisco

      “We can’t ask Michael to do it. What would your father say if he found out?”

      Tess Clark squared her shoulders, lifted her chin and smiled at the personal maid who had also become her friend and confidante. “Of course we can, Annie dear. Father would much rather we be escorted to the meeting by a gentleman than venture out unaccompanied, especially after dark. Besides, your mother’s planning to attend, isn’t she?”

      “She said she might. But she lives down by the pavilion. She’s used to being out and about in that neighborhood after dark.” The slim young woman shivered. “It’s no place for a society girl like you.”

      “Humph.” Tess shook her head, making her dainty pearl earbobs swing. “Just because my family lives on Nob Hill doesn’t mean I’m that different from other people. I want to support the cause of women’s rights as much as you do.” She pressed her lips into a thin line. “Maybe more so.”

      “But…”

      Adamant, Tess stood firm. “No arguments. We’re going to the meeting. I intend to hear Maud Younger speak before she goes back to New York, and we may never have a better opportunity.”

      “You’re not afraid of what your father will do when he finds out?”

      “I didn’t say that,” Tess admitted wryly. “Father can be very forceful at times. He’d certainly be irate if we made the journey alone. That’s why we need a strapping escort like Michael Mahoney.”

      Annie covered her mouth with her hand and snickered. “And handsome, too.”

      Tess couldn’t argue. She’d have had to be wearing blinders to have missed noticing how the family cook’s son had matured, especially since he’d reached his mid-twenties. Truth to tell, Tess had done more than notice. She had dreamed of what her life might be like if she were a mere domestic like Annie rather than the daughter of wealthy banker Gerald Bell Clark. She might sometimes choose to view herself as a middle-class resident of the City by the Bay but that didn’t mean she would be accepted as such by anyone who knew who she really was.

      “I just had a thought,” Tess said, eyeing her boon companion and beginning to smile. “I think it would be wise if we both attend the lecture incognito. I still have a few of my mother’s old hats and wraps. It’ll be like playing dress-up when we were children.”

      Annie rolled her blue eyes, eyes that matched Tess’s as if they were trueborn sisters. “To listen to your papa talk, you’d think we were still babes instead of eighteen. Why, we’re nearly old maids.”

      That made Tess laugh. “Hardly, dear. But I do see your point. Papa probably sees us as children because he’s so prone to dwell on the past. He never talks about it but I don’t think he’s ever truly recovered from Mama’s passing.”

      “I miss her, too,” Annie said. “She was a lovely lady.”

      “And one who would want to march right along with us, arm in arm, if she were still alive,” Tess said with conviction.

      “March? Oh, dear. We aren’t going to have to do that, are we? I mean, what will people say if we’re seen as part of an unruly mob? Susan B. Anthony was arrested!”

      “And she stood up for her rights just the same,” Tess said with a lift of her chin. “According to the literature I’ve read, she never has paid the fines the courts levied.”

      “That’s all well and good for a crusader like her. What about me? If your father finds out I went with you, he might fire me. You know my mother can’t do enough sewing and mending to support me and herself. She barely gets by with what I manage to add to her income. If I lost this job…”

      “You won’t,”