Myrna Mackenzie - Much Ado About Matchmaking

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Epilogue

Gilbert Messmer frowned as he put down the copy of Much Ado About Nothing he had finished reading and looked out the window to where his niece, Emmaline Carstairs, was gathering herbs from the garden. Tomorrow would mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the day his dying sister, Danielle, had asked him to care for Emmaline as his own, so, why was he worrying about Emma’s fate now?

At twenty-nine, she was already grown up. But something had happened lately that had made him wonder if he had really kept his promise to Danielle as well as he should have.

“Of course I did. I fed Emma, I clothed her, I gave her a place to stay and I cared about her.”

Gilbert grimaced. Did you really? Ever since his wife had died giving birth to his daughter Holly soon after Emma had arrived, he had been a different man, divorced from much of life, married to his business.

He’d been a good businessman, but hiding from his grief at losing his wife, he’d given most of what little affection he had left to Holly. What had been left for Emma, and why was he worrying about that now?

“You know why,” he whispered. It was because Holly had fallen in love and gotten engaged to one of his two new business associates, and she was blissfully happy. Her excitement reminded him of how deeply he had loved his wife, of how he and Lila had once laughed every day.

Watching his daughter come alive with love had been a gift, pulling him from the fog he had lived in for years.

While Holly awakened each morning these days with stars in her eyes, here was Emmaline quietly laboring in his garden as she so often did. For the first time ever, Gilbert wondered if she actually liked working in the garden.

He had never asked. Instead he’d just allowed her to take care of necessary tasks here at the Messmer’s mansion and at his hotel. She always seemed to be working or taking classes related to her work. Had she ever felt the kind of joy that Holly was feeling? If Danielle’s spirit visited him today could he tell her that he had done all he could for her child?

No, but what could he do now?

“Something. I promise you, Danielle, that I’ll make amends.” But how?

Gilbert glanced down at his book. “Maybe Shakespeare would have had some good ideas about what a penitent and neglectful uncle should do to make sure his niece is happy,” Gilbert muttered. Shakespeare certainly seemed to have a fascination with the human condition.

Gilbert stared at the gilt lettering on the cover. He loved the comedic tale he had just finished for the tenth time. Shakespeare had filled the pages with romantic heroes returning from war, a young couple in the throes of new love, a dastardly villain, another couple who couldn’t keep from verbally sparring with one another, and of course, lots of matchmaking.

“Hmm,” he said and looked out the window again.

Emmaline glanced up just then and gave him a small, sunny smile, waving at him before returning to her task.

She really did resemble her mother with that dark hair and those solemn gray eyes. “Twenty-five years,” he whispered. “How selfish you’ve been, Gilbert. How blind.”

But now his eyes were opening, and he would begin again if it wasn’t too late. All he needed was a plan. All he needed was to start doing what he hadn’t done for years—placing his daughter’s and niece’s needs first. Before business.

How to begin? What to do? What would make Emmaline happy?

“Maybe…” he mumbled. Maybe if Emmaline found the same kind of happiness that had set Holly aglow these days…

Foolish, desperate thought. Emmaline had made it clear she didn’t want to marry. He didn’t even know why.

Still, Holly hadn’t planned to marry yet, either, and now that she was engaged, she was ecstatically happy.

It could happen to Emmaline.

Maybe it could happen to Emmaline. But how when she was so determined never to look for love?

Gilbert picked up his book. He lovingly rubbed his thumb over the dark green leather. Fanning the pages, he breathed in the scent of the paper and remembered the fates of the characters. The matchmaking…

“No. This is Shakespeare. It’s fiction,” he told himself.

But Emmaline toiled on, alone. She would be more alone still once Holly was gone. And if there was a chance that she could have a happily ever after, that he could redeem himself for the mistakes he’d made with her over the years?

Gilbert sighed. “If only I could find the right man…surely there must be one man made for Emmaline.”

The thought sank in. It took hold and filled him with hope and impulsive joy. Suddenly Gilbert wanted to laugh and kick up his heels. He felt younger than he had in decades.

If there was a perfect man for Emmaline, he intended to find him. He was pretty sure he might know one who would do, someone that Emma had already met, a former military man just like one of the heroes in the play. And when he did, he would take a page from William Shakespeare’s tale. If there was the slightest chance that Emmaline could find love, then he was going to make it happen.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Emma? You don’t look well.”

“No, really. I’m fine.” Emmaline clutched her book tightly and hoped her cousin Holly wouldn’t notice how rigid her body had gone at the announcement. In truth, she didn’t feel at all well. Panic was setting in fast at Holly’s announcement.

She placed the research book she had been studying on a nearby table. “Are you absolutely sure Chris is bringing Ryan Benedict with him? To stay here?” Emmaline asked.

Holly’s eyes lit up when Emmaline said Christopher’s name.

“I’m totally sure,” Holly said with a laugh. “Ryan and Chris are business partners. Why wouldn’t he stay here?”

Because I don’t want to see him, Emmaline thought . Because the last time I saw him we shared the most casual of kisses, and I—well, I don’t even want to think about my embarrassing reaction to the man. She had been flustered, like some virginal woman from a bygone era who had considered it a sin to even think of kissing a man. Thank goodness her family knew she didn’t want a husband. Otherwise, they might have thought she was actually interested in Ryan.

“I’m not saying Ryan shouldn’t stay here,” Emma said. It’s just that Chris is coming because you’re engaged and planning your wedding, but Mr. Benedict’s reasons are related to business with Uncle Gilbert’s hotel chain. I thought perhaps he’d stay at the hotel.”

Holly rolled her eyes. “Don’t be silly, Em. Ryan is Chris’s best friend, so of course, Dad invited him to stay. He made a special point of asking him. Why? Don’t you like him?”

Careful, Em, Emmaline warned herself. She turned what she hoped was a placid smile on her younger cousin. “How can I dislike him? Except for that brief meeting a few weeks ago, I’ve barely even met Ryan Benedict.”

Holly frowned at her cousin. “But I know you, Em. You’re trying too hard. There is something wrong, isn’t there?”

Against her will the memory of that meeting forced itself into Emmaline’s memory. Her uncle had called her into the living room to drink a toast to the business partnership his company had just entered into with Chris and Ryan’s company. The first person she had seen had been Ryan. With that dark hair, lean GQ looks and military bearing that was still with him years after he had left the service. He had turned those navy-blue eyes on her, and her breath had caught, a fact that had irritated her to no end.

She was not the kind of woman who allowed herself to be swayed by a man’s looks or magnetism, having learned all too well how dangerous that kind of thing could be.

Then Holly and Chris had announced their engagement, the result of a courtship that had begun two months ago when Holly had gone to St. Louis with Gilbert to check out C&R Technologies and had met Chris. Holly had spent a lot of time in St. Louis since then. Emma and barely seen her and had only met Chris once or twice. Not that it mattered.

Suddenly Chris had shaken Uncle Gilbert’s hand, pounded him on the back and hugged him, and then everyone in the room was kissing and hugging. Emmaline, who had never been a very physical kind of person, had found herself standing next to Ryan, looking up at him as he gave her a wicked grin. “May I, Ms. Carstairs?” he had said. His voice had been low and husky and dangerous, as if he was inviting her to remove all of her clothing rather than to share in Holly and Chris’s celebration. In the next second, while she was getting her bearings and without waiting for her to answer, he had lightly placed his lips on her cheek. Idiot that she was, awkward with this very physical man, she had jerked, turned and just for a second his mouth had brushed against the corner of her lips.

The room and all its occupants had fallen away. Her skin burned. She’d wanted to…she didn’t know what she had wanted to do, but it surely involved placing her hands on him, having him place his hands on her. Rational thought had proven impossible.

Later she had reminded herself that it had been a celebratory kiss, no more. A meaningless gesture of the kind that people took part in every day. But that was later.

In the brief time when Ryan Benedict was touching her lips, accident though it may have been, heat had rushed through, her breathing had gone rough and shallow, her mind had gone blank. She had the horrifying suspicion that she might have actually swayed toward him, maybe—please, no—even placed a hand awkwardly on his chest.

For half a second after he stopped touching her, a crazy thought had gone through her head. He would make beautiful babies, and she wanted a baby.

Immediately reality had stepped in. What on earth was she thinking? After all these years of fighting to keep her emotions in a jar, she was not going to allow herself to act girlish and irresponsible now.

She had already done that. At a hotelier’s convention several years ago she’d met, dated and fallen for a man who claimed to want her, but who had really wanted her to help him with Uncle Gilbert’s business for his company. So…hadn’t she learned about men who pretended to care but didn’t? Hadn’t her mother been betrayed by her weakness for Emmaline’s faithless father? Emma wasn’t going to make those kinds of mistakes. If she wanted a baby, there were ways. Pursuing a man, especially one like Ryan who probably had women lining up to sleep with him, wasn’t one of the ways.

“Em?”

Emmaline realized that her fists were clenched and she was gritting her teeth. She looked at her cousin. “I’m sorry, Holly. What?” she asked, as casually as possible.

“Are you really okay? I just suggested that you might not like Ryan, and you practically disappeared on me. It’s not—that is, I saw him kiss you and the way you looked afterwards—”

Emmaline quickly shook her head. “That was nothing.”

Holly looked unconvinced. “Em…”

“Holly,” Emma managed to say. “Don’t even go there. You know that I gave up the hunt for the right man the way other women give up wearing their hair in pigtails. I’m beyond that stage of my life and I’m happy about it, so you don’t have to worry about me, okay?”

“You sound like you’re ancient.”

Emmaline managed a laugh. “Where men are concerned I am. But seriously, I’m sorry if I zoned out on you. There’s so much going on now that we’ve decided to renovate the hotel. I’ve been…brainstorming new decorating ideas,” she said, pointing to the book her uncle had unexpectedly given her the other day.