Courted by Trouble: A Courting Romance (In Hyacinth Book 3) (8 page)

“That was rather badly put,” Dora said quietly, squeezing Stephanie’s hand. “You realize what this means?”

“My mom wasn’t my mom,” Stephanie whispered. And that was when it hit her. Grabbing the previous scrapbook, she turned to the wedding photo and saw what her mind had tried to point out before. The woman she had thought was her mother was actually her aunt. Looking at the photo it was so obvious. Her mother had had a mole on her chin. Jeanie Alverson did as well. Jessica did not. Putting the book down, she stared at the one in Dora’s hands.

Chris held her as Dora turned the page. There was only one last news-clipping before the rest of the book was empty. The headline made her shake her head.
Stephanie Trundle And Jeanie Alverson Are Missing
. “Two days before Major Trundle returned from being a prisoner of war, little Stephanie Trundle went missing,” Dora read quietly. “It is feared that her aunt, Jeanie Alverson who has lately shown signs of severe depression, has taken her and run for some unknown reason. Major Trundle and Jeanie’s father, Garrison Alverson, plead for her to return the little girl.”

Hiccupping, Stephanie’s body trembled, the shaking getting worse every second. “My entire life’s a sham!”

Gathering her up in his arms, Chris pulled her close. “Everything’s going to be all right,” he murmured as she burst into tears. She couldn’t believe it. The woman she had always thought was her mother was, in fact, her aunt.

“Why!” she screamed, slamming her fists against his immoveable arms. “Why did she lie to me?” Huge sobs erupted from her throat and she wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on. “I’m not me,” she cried.

“Of course you are,” Chris said quietly. “Sweetheart, you’re still Stephanie.”

“But everything I thought I knew was a lie. My mother wasn’t my mother and my father wasn’t my father.” As Dora went to put the scrapbook back into the box, an envelope fell out. Picking it up, Dora handed it to her. “You open it,” Stephanie sniffled.

The envelope contained her birth certificate, something she had never seen before. “Wait. Stephanie! By this, you’re a year younger than we thought.”

“What?”

“You’re not twenty. You’re nineteen.” Dora flipped through the pages of the scrapbook to her birth announcement and the date corroborated it.

Her mother had even lied about her age? Shaking her head, Stephanie leaned against the man who held her tightly. “This is insane.”

For several days, Stephanie didn’t do much. She couldn’t. Her entire body was in shock. Christopher did all of his work by phone so he could stay with her during the day and she mostly just sat staring at the photo albums, more and more turning to the news clippings about Taylor Trundle, her biological father. On day five, Chris forced her to wake up out of the numbness that she felt. Of course, he did it rather sharply with a hard slap to her rear.

“Chris!”

“Enough, Stephanie,” he said firmly. The love in his eyes made her lips quiver. She didn’t want to cry again. “What do you want to do?”

“About what?”

“You wondered who your father was. You now know. What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know. Why did Jeanie take me from them? Why did she leave my brother? Why did she pass herself off as my mom? None of this makes sense, Chris.”

“Maybe you need to find out from them.”

Startled, she gazed into his loving eyes. “Them?”

“Your father, grandparents. Your brother. You have blood relatives, sweetheart. Your only way to find answers, if you need them, is to contact them.”

“But what if they’re bad people?” Her fear was that her mother… aunt had taken her from them because her father was a bad man.

“Like you said, why would she leave your brother if they were? Plus, you have me, Steph. I won’t let them harm you.” Wrapping her arms around him, she held tight. Chris was the most stable person she had ever met. Maybe with his help she could figure this out.

The plane banked, making its descent. Stephanie gazed out the window at the forest below them. Missoula, Montana. She had never heard of it until a few weeks back and now she was about to land and meet the man who was her father. Chris had done a lot of the legwork. A friend of his who was a PI had run a check on the Alversons and on Taylor Trundle and they came up clean. No problems except for the stuff she had already seen.

Dora, who had quickly caught up with all the work on the inn, had everything firmly in hand so that Chris could accompany her. “Don’t worry,” she teased him before they left. “I’ll have all the rooms in pink wallpaper and have turned your kitchen upside down by the time you get back.”

Squeezing her hand, Chris kissed her cheek. “You doing okay?”

“I have no idea.”

Chuckling, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Everything’s going to be fine, sweetheart. Jerod contacted a friend of his who lives here. He’s going to meet us at the airport. Turns out he knows your father.” Trembling, she nodded. Was she ready to do this? It was only weeks ago that who she thought she was was blown apart. Stephanie just hoped the shocks were over. She couldn’t take many more surprises.

John Durrant was a nice man. He shook her hand, holding it between his own. “You look like your mother,” he commented as he put their suitcases in the bed of his truck.

Laughing, but mainly from nerves, she blurted out, “My mother or my aunt?” Chris’s hold on her hand tightened and she leaned on him.

John’s eyes softened. “I know this must be difficult. Come on. Let’s get you to the hotel.” They got into his truck and he started off. “I’ve talked with Taylor and Bryant. They’re both relieved you’re alive and well, of course, are excited to see you. But they also understand this is difficult for you. Your grandparents are looking forward to seeing you as well.” He told her a little about what to expect. “Taylor was crippled in the skirmish he was in. Came back with only one leg. He uses a prosthetic. Bryant just graduated from college a year back. He and his fiancée Carrie are getting married in August. They have a little girl named Samantha.”

She was an aunt. And she knew enough about the rest of the world to know that a baby out of wedlock wasn’t as shocking as it would be in Hyacinth. John dropped them off at their hotel so they could rest and gear up to meet her father and brother. Stephanie didn’t want to be alone and Chris was matter of fact about, “What they don’t know in Hyacinth won’t hurt them.” So instead of two rooms, they shared one.

After taking a long shower to get rid of the airplane stench, she changed into one of her own creations as it helped her to feel like herself. “You look good,” he told her before they left the room. John had planned it so that they met in a private dining room of a local restaurant. As the two of them followed the hostess through the rows of tables and chairs, Stephanie’s heart beat faster and faster. “Everything’s going to be okay,” Chris encouraged in her ear. “If you need a stress reliever, just imagine all the fun Dory’s having at my expense back home.”

Huffing out a laugh that didn’t hold much humor but showed she was grateful for the attempt, she nodded.

“They are through that door right there,” the hostess told them, pointing to a large wooden door.

“Thanks.”

Chris tightened his hold on her hand and opened the door, pulling her through behind him. The private room was large, probably meant more for large business lunches than strange family reunions. There were several people in the room, two sets of elderly couples, a woman a few years older than she was holding a baby in her arms, a man who looked like the male version of Stephanie, and a man in his early forties who stood up at their entrance. Even with Chris in front of her, his eyes locked on hers and she felt a pang as she looked into them. This man was Taylor Trundle. He was older than in the photos she had seen, but just like so many men, he had gotten better looking as he aged.

“Stephanie?” he said in a voice that was slightly hoarse

“Hi.” She knew it was a stupid word, but she had no idea what to say.

He took a step forward and Chris held up a hand to stall him. “She’s not ready yet.”

“Of course. I’m sorry. I’ve been waiting nineteen years to see you and you didn’t even know I existed until recently. Let me introduce everyone.” Everyone consisted of her brother, future sister-in-law, niece, and grandparents. It was amazing how much her mother’s mother looked like her. Stephanie assumed that would be how she would look when she was in her sixties. At least that was something to look forward to. The woman was still beautiful.

The weekend went much better than she had hoped. Whenever she started to feel overwhelmed, Chris stepped in, but otherwise let her feel her way. While strangers, Stephanie did make friends with her brother and his fiancée and started a friendship with her father. That would take some time to build into anything else. At brunch Sunday morning before they flew out, she got up the courage to ask the question she wanted to know. “Why did she take me?”

“I don’t think we’ll ever know,” her grandmother Sadie said sadly. “She never left a note. Jeanie began to act strange when we found out Taylor was alive. She kept you with her constantly. The day we found out he would be home soon, you disappeared. At first we were sure she would bring you back. But she never did.”

“We hired private investigators,” Taylor added, “but somehow Jeanie was able to disappear entirely. She didn’t leave a trace.”

“I think,” Stephanie said, hazarding a guess, “it’s because you were looking for Jeanie Alverson. She passed herself off as Jessica Avery. And she told people I was a year older than I was.”

* * * * *

“Did it help?” Chris asked softly on the ride home. As Hyacinth came closer, she had dozed for the most part.

“I think so. I’ll always wonder why, I suppose, but maybe it doesn’t need to matter. And while they’re technically my relatives, my real family’s in Hyacinth.” That was one thing that came to her as she had said goodbye to her new family. She may come to love them at some point, but the people who truly loved her and whom she loved in return weren’t biologically related. Christopher, Dora, Cami, the Covingtons, people who had stayed with her and helped her ride the tempest the last two years had been for her. They were the people who truly mattered.

He squeezed her hand. “I love you, you know.”

Looking over at him, she smiled. “I know. I love you, too.”

Before they were even out of the car, the front door open and Dora pelted out into them. “Welcome home!” she squealed.

A wonderful meal waited for them and as they ate, Chris teased her. “So, is the inn still standing?”

She beamed. “It’s not just standing, most of the rooms are finished and we have our first reservations.”

Slightly startled, he stared at her in awe. “Well done, Dory.”

Her answering grin just made Stephanie melt. Leaning on her boyfriend, she closed her eyes. Home. This was home.

“Oh, we’ve been invited over to the Covingtons for dinner on Thursday,” Dora said as they did the dishes.

“Good,” Stephanie yawned. “Cami should be back from her barf-a-thon.”

“Her what?” Chris choked, putting the dishes away.

“Jerod took her roller coaster riding.”

“Oh, right. Roller coasters are fun.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Ah. Come on,” he teased. “Tall hills, rushing down at sixty miles per hour…”

“Turning upside down,” Dora said.

“Throwing up,” Stephanie added with a giggle.

When he left, she had a hard time letting him go. Even though they had stayed fully clothed, she had slept in his arms every night they were in Montana and she was going to miss that. “I’ll miss you,” she whispered.

“Me too,” he murmured into her hair. Looking up he added, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Miss Dora.”

“Definitely.”

After the door shut, Dora opened her arms and hugged Stephanie. “I’m so happy for you.”

“Why? Because I found my family?”

“No. Because you’re happy. Chris has settled you down, not in a bad way,” she rushed on to say. “But as long as I’ve known you, it always felt like you were searching for something. Since he started courting you, it’s like you found what you were looking for.”

* * * * *

Dinner at the Covingtons was loud and fun. Everyone was in a celebratory mood, it seemed. “Dora! Stephie!” Cami squealed as the three of them walked in the door. She ran into Stephanie’s arms and held her tight. “I’m so glad you came.”

“How were the roller coasters?” Stephanie teased as Chris greeted his uncle and Cami turned and hugged Dora.

“Wonderful. We had so much fun. There was one that went into a corkscrew and we hung from the rail so it felt like we were flying through the air. We rode that one ten times.”

“You’re crazy, you know that, right?”

Charlotte announced dinner and they went in to the dining room, the jovial mood practically bouncing off the walls. Stephanie was pretty sure there had to be an announcement coming. She wondered if Cami was pregnant and kept her eyes on her friend as her husband pulled out her chair for her and then sat down next to her. Drake sat next to his mom and Stephanie took a seat next to him with Chris at her side. Dora sat next to Chris which put her at the end of the table, but nobody commented. Dora had always been the shyest of them and she didn’t know Jerod well.

“How’s the B&B coming?” Drake asked once they started to eat.

“Fantastic,” Chris said enthusiastically. “We’re not only set to open on time, but we already have reservations because my amazing partner is on top of her game.”

“Who’s your partner?”

“I am,” Dora said with a small smile.

“You’re already taking reservations?” Jerod enquired. “My sister’s coming out for Labor Day weekend. If you aren’t full, I’d love to have her there as she’ll refuse to stay at the house.”

“Aunt Kimmie’s coming?” Chris said in surprise. “Great.”

“Why won’t she stay with you?” Stephanie inquired, hoping Cami’s sister-in-law wasn’t the kind of trouble Chris’s grandmother was.

“She’s afraid to be a bother,” both Jerod and Chris said at the same time.

“The last thing Kimmie would want,” Jerod added while shaking his head, “would be to put Cami out in anyway. No matter how many times my lovely wife assures her she would love to have her come and stay.”

Conversation flowed through dinner and as the plates were removed and a deep chocolate cake was delivered to the table, Stephanie hummed in interest. Charlotte made the best cake.

When Alex cleared his throat, she turned in his direction as his wife cut pieces and handed them out. “We want to thank everyone for coming tonight. There are two amazing things happening. One was planned from two weeks ago, the other we just found out about.”

“What’s been planned for two weeks?” Cami asked quickly.

“You’ll find out soon,” he told her. “Jerod, she still needs patience.” His son-in-law just smiled. “We consider Stephanie and Dora family, which is why we are happy everyone could be here for this.” Alex sat down and Stephanie wondered what was about to happen. There was a buzz in the air and as Jerod looked over at Chris, she followed his gaze only to find her boyfriend looking straight at her.

“Stephanie, when I moved to Hyacinth, I wasn’t sure what I was doing to be honest. Jerod told me about the town and values and I will admit that’s what attracted me. However, I never expected to run into a red-haired beauty so quickly. Or to fall for her.” Standing up, Chris pushed his chair back and knelt down. “Sweetheart, I love you and want more than anything for you to be my wife. Will you marry me?”

Nodding even while unable to speak, Stephanie watched him pull a small box out of his pocket. “I can’t afford the ring you richly deserve,” he said quietly. “One day, I will.” He slid the thin gold band over her finger and she gazed down at the emerald on it.

“I love it,” she whispered. It was unique, just like she was. “And I love you.” He kissed her softly and as he pulled back, she caught Dora’s eye. Her friend was crying. “You too?” she said, taking the handkerchief he handed her to wipe her face.

“Are you kidding?” Dora said, sniffling. “All my friends are happy. I couldn’t be any happier.”

As he pulled his chair back to the table, Chris wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek. She beamed and as Jerod cleared his throat, everyone turned their attention to him.

“Congratulations,” he said with a smile. “May you two have as much joy and happiness as Cami and I have.”

“Here! Here!” Drake agreed, eating a big piece of cake.

“I asked Chris if it was all right if we shared our news as well. I didn’t want to take away from your engagement but he felt it was perfect. Cami and I found out on Monday that we’re expecting a baby.”

Now Stephanie truly understood why there was so much excitement. An engagement and a baby announcement. As she looked over at Dora, all she saw was happiness on her friend’s face, but in that moment, Stephanie sent up a little prayer. “Please, God, help Dora find her Mr. Right.”