Catching Carrie’s hand in his, Josh squeezed it. “You want me and half a dozen other men. I don’t have any money, you know that, so what else could you want?”
“A bit of Warbrooke Shipping.”
Josh opened his mouth to tell her that he didn’t know what she was talking about, but then he began to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Carrie seemed to have limitless access to money and she came from Warbrooke, Maine. He had known she was wealthy, but he’d had no idea she was that wealthy. Warbrooke Shipping’s motto, We Carry the World, was known everywhere, from China to India to the wilds of America and Australia.
“Josh, my love,” Nora purred. “I do believe you’ve been away from the stage too long. Your face is as readable as a child’s. So, you didn’t know that she was part of Warbrooke Shipping.” Smiling in triumph, Nora sat down at the table.
Josh turned to Carrie, ready to tell her what he thought of her not telling him that her family was so very, very rich, but then he smiled at her. Carrie hadn’t kept that fact a secret from him; it just hadn’t occurred to her that her wealth was of any consequence.
On impulse, he kissed her, not a kiss of passion, but a kiss of thanks, thanks to her for coming into his life. With her by his side, with a wife who had her feet so firmly on the ground that she didn’t consider “who” her family was to be of any importance, he didn’t think she’d ever allow his vanity as an actor to rule his life. Carrie would never let him forget what was really important in life.
Having no idea what Josh was thinking as he looked at her with so much love in his eyes, Carrie smiled and stepped closer to him.
“How did you find out about Warbrooke Shipping?” Josh asked Nora, stalling for time while he tried to figure out what to do. He could not, under any conditions, allow Carrie’s family to buy his freedom.
“Your dear brother Hiram. Really, Josh, you shouldn’t treat that man so badly. He has given you this darling farm.” Nora looked around the house with a sneer. “I would never have believed you could have lived this way. Tem says you cook.”
As Josh held Carrie’s hand and looked at his former wife, he wondered how he’d ever thought her beautiful. Maybe he’d been drunk. “So Hiram told you I had married into wealth.”
“Yes. It seems your little—” She looked Carrie up and down. “Your little mistress did something to displease Hiram and he investigated her.” She looked up at Josh. “Did you know that her adorable brother has spent the morning buying large pieces of Eternity?”
Josh looked at Carrie in question, but she just shrugged. “ ’Ring does that wherever he goes.”
Josh blinked a couple of times at her nonchalance, both at her acceptance of the amount of money her family had and of her brother’s buying habits. Everyone needed a hobby.
“I want fifty grand,” Nora said. “When you put fifty thousand dollars in my hands, the paper is yours.” After giving them both a smile, she left the house.
Carrie gave a sigh. “An odious woman. Really odious. I am disappointed in you for marrying someone like her.”
“That’s odd,” Josh said sarcastically. “Most second wives like the first wives. Where are you going?”
“To tell ’Ring I need fifty thousand dollars,” Carrie said.
Josh caught her arm. “Just like that? You’re going to ask your brother for that fabulous amount of money? What are you going to tell him you need it for? To purchase a divorce paper? Yesterday and this morning all you’ve talked about is how ’Ring is of such high moral character that he’ll be furious if he finds out we’re not actually married.”
“Then I won’t tell him.”
“You’ll just ask him for fifty thousand, and he’ll give it to you with no questions as to why you want it?”
“Of course. Families help each other. Money doesn’t matter. Your being married to someone else is much more important than money.”
At that Josh had to sit down at the table and put his face in his hands. He’d never met anyone with the philosophy of life that Carrie had. He wanted to rage at her that she was too naive to realize that money meant everything, that people lied, cheated, stole, and killed for money. He’d like to be able to tell her that she didn’t understand because she’d never had to earn money, had never had the responsibility of having to support herself, much less a family. But she’d left him for a mere six weeks, and during that time, she’d not only supported herself, she’d changed the economy of an entire town.
“Carrie,” he said softly. “I’ve never met people like your family. If money isn’t important to you Montgomerys, what is?”
“Oh, money is very important to us. It’s just that love is more important. Love and money in that order. We’ll give up money for love, but not love for money. But then, money isn’t usually a problem for my family. Our major talents seem to be marrying well and earning money.”
Laughing at what she’d said, he stood and hugged her. “Well, my talents lie elsewhere. And one of my talents is that I do take care of my own family. Maybe at times I don’t do it as well as I should, but I take care of them. You are not going to ask your brother for a dime. You’re not going to depend on him to get you out of this. This is my problem and I’ll solve it. Do you understand me?”
“But it would be so easy to have ’Ring write her a check. Then—”
He kissed her to silence. “Do you want to tell your brother the truth about us? That you’re carrying my child and we’re not married?”
Carrie sighed. “No, I don’t. Oh, Josh, I don’t understand it. Everyone else in my family has such easy love affairs. ’Ring says that when he and his wife met they fell in love at first sight and they had no problems at all.” She gave Josh a hurt look. “You didn’t even know that you loved me when you first saw me.”
Josh laughed. “True, I didn’t, so how about if I spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you?” Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her. “You love me, but do you trust me enough to solve our problems?”
“Of course I trust you.”