“A warm welcome to all of you, my first dinner guests at Dunshill.” There was a knowing look in Tara’s dark-shining eyes as she sought out Ty.
“Dunshill?” Sally repeated in unspoken question.
“Yes. That’s what I have decided to call my new home,” Tara explained.
“After the mesa outside?” Sally asked, clearly puzzled by the choice.
But Ty had no such problem. He had made the connection immediately. But like his father, he left it to Tara to answer Sally’s question.
“Not at all,” Tara replied, a deepening of the knowing quality in her smile. “I named it after the wife of the Earl of Crawford, Lady Elaine Dunshill, who was a business partner of sorts with the first Chase Calder years and years ago.”
“For heaven’s sake,” Cat exclaimed, recognition dawning in her expression. “I had forgotten all about her.”
“I didn’t,” Tara replied and lifted her glass again. “To my guests,” she repeated the toast and took a sip of wine.
Everyone followed suit. But Sally wasn’t about to let the subject drop now that her curiosity was aroused. “If you don’t mind me asking, whatever made you decide to name your place after her?”
“That’s easy.” Tara smiled. “Ever since I began working with Ty on the auction, she has been on my mind. Lady Dunshill has become something of an inspiration to me. Therefore it seemed appropriate to name this estate after her. In a way, it’s like history repeating itself.”
“Except she never owned any Calder land,” Ty inserted the dry reminder.
“No, not to my knowledge she didn’t,” Tara conceded and swiftly directed the conversation back to its original topic. “But it still wouldn’t surprise me one bit to find out she was once a Calder.”
“That’s right. I remember when you showed me those photographs,” Cat recalled. “One was of Lady Elaine and the other was a picture of my great-great-grandmother. You were convinced they were the same person, one as a young girl and the other as a much older woman.”
“You must admit the resemblance was amazing—the same coloring, the same features, the same overall look and expression,” Tara added.
“It was a little uncanny,” Cat remembered, then divided a quick glance between Sally and Logan, suddenly realizing that neither knew what she and Tara were talking about. “Tara has this theory that my great-grandmother Madelaine Calder and Lady Elaine Dunshill were one in the same person. She based it both on their physical similarities and on an old family story. The way I heard the it,” she continued, “my great-grandmother ran away with a remittance man when Chase Benteen Calder was just a little boy.”
“What on earth is a remittance man?” Sally asked, a slight laugh in her voice.
“As I understand it, the term was usually applied to a younger, ne’er-do-well son of a wealthy European family, usually members of the aristocracy. They often paid him an allowance not to come home,” Cat explained.
It was an old story to Ty, one that had interested him little in the past, and even less now. But he remembered how excited Tara had been when she discovered the two photographs. At the time she had been thrilled by the possibility a Calder might be linked, however nefariously, to English aristocracy.
“Obviously you can see the coincidence,” Cat said. “Madelaine Calder runs off with a remittance man. Then years later, Lady Elaine Dunshill, the wife of an earl, shows up at the Triple C.” Cat lifted her hands, palms up, to indicate she wasn’t sure what it meant.
Laura started fussing in Jessy’s arms. When Jessy checked, her suspicion was confirmed. After gathering up the bulky diaper bag, she turned to Tara. “Excuse me. Is there someplace I can change Laura’s diaper?”
“Of course. Down that hallway, second door on the right.”
Tara pointed to a wide archway framed in stone that opened off the great room. After a second’s hesitation, she offered, “If you like, I can show you the way.”
But something in Tara’s expression made it obvious that she thought it unnecessary. “I’ll find it. Thanks.” Toting the diaper bag, Jessy moved toward the stone arch and the hall beyond it.
Tara immediately turned back to Ty. “I still think it would be fascinating to do a little research into Lady Dunshill’s background. I would be curious to find out who she was, before she married the Earl of Crawford, and where she was from.”
“It’s hardly important.” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug of disinterest.
“I don’t know how important it is, but there is this blank spot in your family history. What happened to the runaway Madelaine Calder? Where did she go? What did she do? When did she die? Where? Your family tree won’t be complete without that information,” Tara argued lightly.
“Actually it would be interesting to track down more information on the family,” Cat said thoughtfully. “Not just Madelaine Calder, but Grandpa’s wife Lily, too. And where was Seth Calder born? In Texas?” She glanced at her father for the answer. “Do you know?”
“I can’t recall anyone mentioning it to me,” Chase admitted. “And I was never curious enough to ask. I know he had a ranch somewhere outside of Fort Worth called the C Bar. Beyond the fact that he was buried in Fort Worth, that’s about all I know.”
“We really should document our family’s history,” Cat decided. “For the sake of future generations, if nothing else.”
“I can’t disagree with you, Cat. What do you say, Ty?” Chase cast a glance his direction, eyes twinkling. “Shall we put Cat in charge of it?”