Golden Chances (Borrowed Brides 1)

David handed Joy over to Reese and went back to the train to help Faith and Tempy with their belongings.

Reese studied the child he held. Her hair was different from her mother’s. It was blond and curly, almost white. Her nose was smaller, too, turned up at the end where Faith’s was slim and elegant. But the bone structure was essentially the same. One was pale, one was dark, like a photograph and its negative, but anyone could see the likeness.

Joy squirmed in his arms and yawned. Reese stared at her eyes. They were gray. Identical in color and shape to Faith Collins’ eyes.

Joy looked up at the stranger. She struggled to sit up and Reese shifted his arms to accommodate her wiggling. Her legs locked around his waist and she anchored her arms around his neck. A brush of moisture touched his neck. A red mitten covered her right hand, but its mate dangled across Reese’s chest from a cord sewn to the right mitten. Reese reached up and pulled her right hand from around his neck. Her thumb was red and swollen and wet.

Something tightened in his chest as he smiled at Faith Collins’s little girl. “You must be Joy.”

Joy nodded shyly. “Who are you?”

“My name is Reese.”

“Weese,” Joy repeated, then looked up at him with those solemn gray eyes. “Where’s Faith? Where’s Aunt Tempy?”

Faith stepped down from the train and hurried across the platform. She searched the crowd for several seconds before she spotted Reese Jordan holding Joy. Her heart pounded painfully in her chest and her breath seemed to catch in her throat as she hurried across the platform. She stopped in her tracks and stared at the sight.

Tempy halted behind her niece. “Faith, what is it?” She was alarmed. Faith had stopped so suddenly.

Faith didn’t answer. She stood rooted to the spot, unable or unwilling, to move. She caught her breath as Reese held a tiny red mitten by its cuff while Joy slipped her hand inside.

Tempy followed her niece’s gaze. A tall, handsome man in a black overcoat stood next to a carriage. He held Joy in his arms.

David Alexander moved to stand next to Temperance. He was followed by a porter. “There’s Reese,” he said, waving his hat to catch the other man’s attention.

“So, that’s Reese Jordan,” Tempy murmured. “Come along, Faith.” Tempy grabbed her niece’s elbow and propelled her forward along the sidewalk. “I want to meet this Mr. Jordan.” She glanced at Faith. Her niece’s cheeks were a very becoming shade of pink. Tempy frowned. Her own heart raced a tiny bit faster at the sight of him. The man was definitely a handsome scoundrel. She picked up the pace, taking longer steps, until they stood directly in front of Reese Jordan.

“There she is,” Joy announced to the man holding her. “There’s Faith and my Aunt Tempy.”

Reese looked down.

Faith looked up.

Their eyes met.

She was pale, her black dress was crushed, the front of it hopelessly wrinkled, several strands of hair hung down to her shoulders and a doll was pressed against her breast. There were purple shadows beneath her eyes, but her cheeks were a lively shade of pink, and her mouth, where she had bitten her bottom lip, was a swollen, pouting red.

Reese cleared his throat and quickly turned his attention to the other woman. She was short and slim, like her niece. There was a definite family resemblance, even her eyes were gray, like Faith’s and Joy’s, but the hair peeking out from beneath her black bonnet was a lively shade of red. He smiled at her and his body relaxed.

David made the introductions. “Miss Temperance Hamilton, may I present my cousin and employer, Mr. Reese Jordan.”

Reese shifted Joy onto his left arm and extended his right hand. “It’s a pleasure, ma’am.” Reese was surprised when the warm greeting sprang from his lips. He had been prepared to dislike Faith Collins’s aunt on sight.

“Yes,” Tempy told him, taking his offered hand, “I think it just might be, Mr. Jordan.” Her gray eyes were completely candid and Reese knew instinctively she had been equally prepared to dislike him. Tempy smiled back and unlike, Faith, who stood stiff and tense at her side, Tempy relaxed.

“Let’s get out of the cold.” David suggested, taking control of the situation. He ushered Temperance and Faith into the carriage then climbed in after them. He took Joy from Reese’s arms and waited while his cousin sat down on the seat next to him. Joy wriggled her way between the two men and leaned her head against Reese’s arm.

“Back to the hotel, Murray!” Reese shouted to his driver as the carriage rolled away from the station and onto the busy street.

They arrived at the Madison Hotel thirty minutes later. Reese had reserved the two-bedroom Vice Presidential Suite for Faith and Joy. Their dinner sat waiting to be eaten.

He had ordered a bath for Faith. A brass tub filled with water stood in the center of the dressing room. Steam danced along the surface of the water, then drifted toward the high, plaster, ceiling. A hotel maid waited in a chair next to the tub. She told Faith and Temperance she had been hired for the evening. She was to help Faith dress.

“Dress?” Faith was astonished. “For what?”

“We’re going to a New Year’s ball,” Reese Jordan said. He stood just inside the dressing room door. His back rested against the door frame, his long, legs crossed at the ankles, his arms folded over his chest.

Faith and Temperance turned in unison to stare at him. Faith sucked in her breath at his intrusion, while Tempy gasped at the sheer audacity of the man.