The Bride's Choice. Sara Orwig

He crossed the room with the easy stride of a person in peak physical condition. His thick black hair waved slightly from his forehead, and Juliana had to concede he was ap- pealing. Her thoughts shifted to her departed friend El- nora, the hopeless romantic.

      Juliana sat up and then finally stood. “I’m all right now,” she announced, hoping her voice sounded cool and in control. “Elnora’s bequest was a shock.” As she re- turned to her chair, she tried to ignore Caleb Duncan’s steady gaze.

      Gladys and Stoddard were giving them curious glances as if Juliana and Caleb were strange specimens that had just crawled out of a test tube.

      “I’m sorry. I’ve never done that before.” She settled on the forest-green wing chair and crossed her legs, catching Caleb looking at them.

      Cal studied her, remembering the picture he’d seen of her in the paper only two months ago, after she had fended off a bank robber at the point of a pistol. She had been shot in the shoulder, but had retained her money. And even though the would-be robber had escaped, he had not gotten any money from anyone, thanks to Juliana Aldrich. She had to love money more than life.

      Mason glanced at each of them, pausing when he looked into Juliana’s eyes. “Ready?” he asked. When she nodded, he returned to the will.

      “If Caleb and Juliana marry, it is my hope they will live at Green Oaks in order that Snookums may continue to dwell in the only home he knows,” Mason read in an im- passive voice. “This marriage must take place within the next six months from the day of the reading of the will. The marriage of Caleb and Juliana must last one year or every- thing bequeathed to them reverts to my estate. After one year the estate is theirs to do with as they see fit, whether they remain married or they divorce. During the one-year period, Caleb John Duncan will be the trustee in charge of dispensing the money.”

      Juliana’s mind stopped following Willard Mason as he continued reading about a trust fund, the stocks, the bonds, the real-estate holdings, the certificates of deposit. She lis- tened, but she was stunned, in shock over Elnora’s stipula- tion that they marry. Of all the ridiculous, unreasonable assumptions, yet Juliana knew all too well how whimsical and romantic Elnora had been. Elnora would have thought such a thing possible and a delightful arrangement for two people she loved. Even if the two people were all but total strangers. And from the looks Caleb Duncan had been giv- ing her, it was clear that he despised her on sight. His anger had to be caused by the will. She raised her chin. She had no desire to marry him, either, not for any amount of money.

      Once again came the tiny nagging thought of how she had to scrimp and save for the boys and what she could do for them if she had more money, but she pushed the thought out of mind and tried to pay attention to Mason.

      The lawyer was still listing Elnora’s assets and Juliana drew a deep breath, trying not to give one second’s thought to what might have been. But her thoughts quickly drifted again to the marriage provision and for a moment Wil- lard’s voice faded away. The sound of the lawyer’s clearing his throat brought her back to the present.

      He smoothed the will and continued, “In the event my beloved friends decide against marriage—after giving this due thought—six months from the reading of this will, Green Oaks and its contents are to become a home for cats. Snookums will abide at Green Oaks and a board of three veterinarians are to oversee the running of the house. It is my wish that Ridley Westview actually oversee the running of Green Oaks as a haven for homeless kitties.”

      Cal listened in angry silence. A real cat house. All of El- nora’s money was going to go to that dim-witted ball of fluff, Snookums, and a bunch of stray cats. There was enough money in the Siever estate to build homes for all the cats in Texas. Cal’s stomach knotted as he thought about his need for money and what he could do with a sum like that. Instead it was going to cats. No wonder Elnora had sought out another lawyer!

      Willard Mason finally finished reading the will and looked up. “I’ve scheduled our appointment with Judge Dooley in two days at ten o’clock in the morning. If all of you will meet here at my office, we’ll go down to the court- house together. Any questions?”

      He answered Gladys’s and Stoddard’s questions, made arrangements for Gladys to continue caring for Snookums temporarily and gave each person a copy of Elnora’s will. Caleb Duncan placed his in his briefcase, snapping the case shut as Willard said, “Also, Elnora asked me to give this envelope to you, Cal. As you can see by the instructions on the front, it is her wish that you do not open the envelope until a year from today.”

      Cal accepted the envelope, opened his briefcase once more while Willard Mason told the two servants goodbye. At the door, he turned to shake hands with Caleb, glancing from him to Juliana. “You two will have some decisions to make, but you have several months in which to decide what you want to do.”

      Cal looked at him, his expression tight. “I think we know—”

      “Wait,” Mason cautioned, interrupting him. “You’re to give this thought. Elnora made me promise that I would not take an answer from either of you right away. She wanted both of you to give her bequest thought. This is a sizable estate, and she felt you could both do a great deal of good with the money.”

      Juliana saw Caleb Duncan’s eyebrows arch and a glacial look come to his eyes. When his gaze shifted to her, she felt physically buffeted by his silent smoldering anger.

      “Give it thought,” Mason repeated. “I’ll see you here Wednesday morning.”

      He held open his office door and Juliana went ahead. They crossed the anteroom, passing the receptionist’s desk, and then stepped into a hallway.

      Caleb closed the door behind them and faced her. She stared back at him, feeling as if she were going into battle. She could feel tension spark the air between them. “You tried to talk Elnora out of this, didn’t you?”

      “Of course I did,” he admitted tersely. “We never got down to exact details—like leaving all of it to cats.”

      “At least you’re honest. But I don’t know why you’re so angry with me. I knew nothing about her intentions.”

      His eyes narrowed only the slightest fraction and a mus- cle worked in his jaw, otherwise she wouldn’t have known he had any reaction to her question.

      “I think Elnora used poor judgment,” he snapped, pushing open his coat and resting his hands on his hips.

      The air seemed to crackle around them, and his dark eyes tugged at Juliana’s senses. She wanted to shake him, and realized no man had ever stirred that kind of reaction in her before. “What you think isn’t what’s important,” she re- minded him.

      “No, unfortunately.”

      “I’m a total stranger to you, so don’t take your anger out on me.”

      “First of all, I think she should have left that money to medical research, to children who need help, to the chil- dren’s hospital, to all sorts of worthy causes,” he answered in a clipped tone as if he was fighting to control himself. “There’s enough money in her estate to establish houses for stray animals all over the Southwest. To pour all of that into one home here in Colby for stray cats is absurd.”

      Juliana was inclined to agree with him, but she wasn’t about to tell him.

      “That doesn’t have anything to do with why your fury is directed at me,” she said scathingly. There had to be more, she thought. There had to be something more personal that made him look as if he would like to send her into perma- nent orbit in outer space.

      His dark eyes bored into hers as he spoke. “I wonder when you worked for her if you didn’t play on her vulner- ability just so she would do something like this. She’s been trying to get me to ask you out since—”

      “What!” Juliana interrupted. She took a step closer to him. “Listen, you, I didn’t work on Elnora to try to in- herit. Besides, I’d always assumed she and Lawrence had had their wills drawn up years earlier. I’ve just seen her on brief visits the last