She straightened and twisted her spine, rubbing the abused muscles that ached from two hours of hoeing. There was nothing beautiful about this urban bit of pasture, but she was proud of her efforts to improve it. There would be no sense of satisfaction if she hired someone else to do the work.
“I enjoy the challenge,” she said. “Growing things and tending them has always been a hobby for me.”
“They say Marie Antoinette milked cows as a hobby,” Patrick said. “Rich people have strange hobbies.”
“All rich people had better find a challenge in life, or their mind will shrivel,” she said. “We can afford to be idle, and that can turn dangerous.”
Liam wasn’t impressed. “I’ve been working six days a week since I left school at thirteen. I’d like the chance to suffer from these diseases of the idle rich.”
For once Liam didn’t sound angry or jeering, just a little . . . teasing? There was a glint of humor in his expression, and with relief she realized that, yes, he was teasing her. So was Patrick. The two of them rocked in tandem on the porch swing with stacks of books and newspapers beside them, but there were so many things Liam needed to learn that couldn’t be found in books. Liam had no understanding of the seductive dangers that came from a life of vast wealth, but they were real, and she had a duty to warn him.
Gwen swiped at a gnat swirling near her face. “Do you have anyone special back home? A girl?”
“Nope. Why?”
The gentle creak of the porch swing continued as she contemplated the best way to frame her response. “You are a handsome man of marriageable age,” she pointed out. “Soon you will possess a fortune. Plenty of women will find that very attractive.”
“So you think the fortune hunters will be out to get me?”
“I know they’ll be out to get you.”
Liam shrugged and continued the rock of the swing. “Don’t worry. I’m too smart to fall for that sort of girl.”
How much should she tell him? Discussing her marriage to Jasper wasn’t easy. Patrick already knew some of the details, but not everything. No matter how embarrassing it was, if sharing her story could help Liam avoid the mistakes she’d made, it would be worth it.
“I thought I was smart too,” she said. “I was eighteen when I fell in love with my husband. Jasper was a biology professor at the college, and I thought he was the most brilliant scientist on earth.”
She’d been flattered when he showed interest in her. The difference in their backgrounds didn’t matter. Neither did the fact that she was an heiress and he a college professor fifteen years her senior.
The creak of the porch swing slowed, and she suddenly had the full attention of both men. Discussing her deepest humiliation wasn’t easy, but she wanted them to know.
“Jasper published his research in prestigious journals and traveled all over the world to speak at conferences. He was our most celebrated professor. He earned a respectable salary and had no vices like gambling or drink. What I didn’t understand was his ambition. He wanted to start his own academic journal and host his own conferences.”
She leaned over to tug a few more weeds—anything rather than look at Patrick as she recounted these painful memories. “He married me for my money,” she continued. “My father warned me that Jasper’s ambition outpaced his resources, but I didn’t care. I was honored that he wanted me to be his wife. I had no idea there was another woman in his life. Vivian was always the woman of his heart, and on the day Jasper married me, he betrayed us both.”
Talking about this exhausted her, and the gentle compassion on Patrick’s face was painful to see. She wandered to the fence to lean her forearms on the top rail.
“Jasper was clever in keeping Vivian nearby. He got her hired at the college to teach music, and I welcomed her into my home. I had no idea who she was to him, even after she became pregnant. Many people on campus thought she should be fired, especially after she refused to name the father of her child. It split the campus down the middle, but several professors rallied in her support. Jasper and I both did.” A bitter laugh rose inside her. How naïve she had been. She’d helped Vivian furnish a nursery and scolded the faculty wives who wanted to ostracize her.
“I eventually learned the nature of her relationship with Jasper,” she said. “I tried so hard to win him back from her. I bought curling tongs so I could style my hair like her. I bought cosmetics and painted my face, just as she always did. The last straw was when I found out he bought a house for her and their child, and that was where he’d been spending countless hours when I thought he was working late at the laboratory. I broke down and went running to my father for counsel.”
The day she told her father about the affair was the only time she saw him roar in anger, throwing a vase across the room and vowing to cut Jasper out of his will. Her father had a heart attack a few days later and died before the end of the week.
She raised pained eyes to Liam. “Everything got worse after he died because the affair became public knowledge on campus. Vivian announced she would leave town, and Jasper panicked. He went running to her, but she wouldn’t let him inside her house. He planted himself on her front porch, refusing to leave. It was February, and he spent the entire night there. He had pneumonia the following morning.”
To this day it was hard to believe how quickly her life had unraveled. She tried to nurse Jasper through the illness, but she wasn’t who he needed. None of the physicians who examined him offered any hope, so in those final few days, Gwen left her home and allowed Vivian and Mimi to move in.
Patrick looked dumbstruck, and she rushed to explain. “Despite all his flaws, I still cared for Jasper, and it was the only gift I could give him.”
“What happened to the other woman?” Liam asked.
“She’s still at the college.”
Liam shot to his feet. “You shouldn’t have to put up with that. Tell me who she is, and I’ll go clear her out.”
Liam’s brute gallantry broke the tension. Imagining how he might unceremoniously dump Vivian off campus caused laughter to bubble up, but she soon sobered.
“I learned plenty from the sorry affair. After trying to make myself over into someone else to win Jasper’s affection, I gave up and vowed to be true to myself.” She held out her arms, facing them. Strands of hair escaped the messy bun at her nape. She was grubby from working outdoors and without a hint of cosmetics. “This is who I am. This is the real me.”
“It’s exactly how God made you,” Patrick said with gentle affection. “You’re beautiful. You look like something out of the Garden of Eden.”
His words were a balm to her battered spirit. Trying to make herself prettier for Jasper had been humiliating and futile, but the gentle heat in Patrick’s eyes blasted that inadequacy to pieces.
“You’re pretty enough,” Liam conceded. “Except for that floaty dress you’re wearing. It makes you look like you’ve got a pea in the pod.”
She threw a clump of pigweed at him, and he caught it with a grin. For a moment Liam had been the protective older brother she’d always longed for. It had been nice for the ten seconds it lasted.
She stooped to pick up the hoe. “I’m telling you my sorry tale so you don’t walk down the same path. Fortune hunters are everywhere. They can be hard to spot. Many people tried to warn me about Jasper because when an impoverished college professor marries an heiress, tongues wag. Jasper created a respected scientific journal, but jealous people claimed it was only because I paid for it.”