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“I’m impressed,” Reed said after the server had departed. “How did you learn to speak French so well?”
“I love languages. I also speak Spanish and Italian. I got top marks in my A levels.” Seeming surprised that she’d said so much she dropped her eyes. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to brag.”
Reed laughed. “Brag away. I can see you’ll be a real asset to me when I’m ready to set up the rest of my European operations.” There was so much he wanted to know about her but he would go slowly, allowing her to grow more comfortable with him before he plied her with questions.
They dined on marinated olives followed by sole limande and coq au vin with rice pilaf and Jerusalem artichoke.
“Mmm, delicious,” Golden said, looking around the elegantly decorated room. “I’ve never dined in a place as fancy as this before.”
Reed cocked his head, his curiosity getting the better of him. “And yet you seem the kind of person who should patronize places like this one. Who are you, Golden Browne?”
She raised her eyebrows, obviously surprised by his question. “What do you mean?”
Leaning forward, he looked directly into her wide amber eyes. “You confuse me,” he said honestly. “I saw you as a poor, struggling girl trying to make ends meet but then your home tells me a different story, the story of a family that’s well-off. So which is the real Golden Browne?”
She paused as if thinking about her answer then she spoke. “Both, I guess. And neither.”
Reed’s brows crinkled at her answer. She’d just succeeded in confusing him even more. “Meaning?”
“Meaning, my family is fairly wealthy, as you guessed.” She drew in her breath then expelled it softly. “But I’m not.”
As far as he was concerned that wasn’t an answer that made any sense. “And how is that?”
She shook her head. “It’s a long story. I’m not sure I want to bore you with it.”
“Bore me.” He sat back in his chair, folding his arms comfortably across his chest, making it clear he was prepared to wait.
When she saw there was no escaping it, Golden sighed. “All right, I’ll tell you but it’s a deathly dull story. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Reed didn’t say a word.
After a few seconds of silence Golden began. “My father, Jefferson Browne, made a lot of money from his dairy farm in Georgia but he always wanted to move back to England which is where he was born so, when I was fourteen, he sold the farm and took my mother and me with him to Tunbridge Wells. That’s where we settled first until he bought the house we now live in.” She paused and her eyes took on a faraway look. “That was the happiest year of my life. Father’s whole personality changed. He’d been really miserable back in Atlanta but in England he mellowed. I guess it was because he’d reached retirement age and he wanted to be back with his friends from his early days.”
“Retirement age?” Reed could not help breaking in. That came as a shock to him. She was so young. He’d expected her father to be in his forties, fifties at most.
She smiled. “I know it sounds strange but my father was forty-nine when I was born and my mother was only twenty so by the time we moved to England he was already sixty-five years old.” Then a shadow crossed her face. “He was so happy being around old friends, playing cricket and drinking at the pub, but it only lasted one year. When I was fifteen he had a heart attack and I lost him. I was at school. I never even got the chance to say goodbye.”
For a moment she looked close to tears but then she blinked and drew in a deep breath. “When my father died it was like my mum was totally lost. He’d taken care of everything, you see, and Mother is not the kind of person who likes to be in charge. I think that’s why she remarried so quickly, just a year after my father died.” She laughed softly but in her eyes was a sadness Reed could not comprehend. “And just like with my dad she made sure to find a man old enough to be her father. Except that Dunstan Manchester is nothing like my father was. He’s bossy and manipulative and a real beast. He controls my mother and now he wants to control me.” She frowned and her lips formed into a stubborn pout. “But I won’t let him.”
This was not the story Reed had expected. “I’m sorry to hear this,” he said, his voice solemn, now realizing that there was a lot more to Golden than he’d thought. Behind the shyness was a determination that this man, Manchester, could not shake. He admired that.
“And that’s why you see me living in such a nice house but looking like the poor field mouse.”
Reed tightened his lips, stifling a wry smile. He wouldn’t have put it quite that way but she was nothing if not brutally frank.
“He’s taken control of everything,” she continued, “including the money my father left for Mother and he’s determined that I should have as little of it as possible. That’s why I have to make my own living. I refuse to go to him, begging for money that’s rightfully mine.” By the time she stopped speaking Golden’s breathing had quickened and her eyes flashed with an anger Reed had never witnessed in her before.
Obviously she was unhappy in her own home, all because of this man who had appointed himself her guardian and banker, to boot. “Why don’t you just leave?” he asked. He knew that would not solve all her problems but it would be the first step. At the very least, she would not have to see the man every day.
But Golden’s next words surprised him.
“I can’t,” she said, her voice a tearful whisper. “Not without my Mother.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
It took a moment for Golden to collect herself. Why, oh why had she told Reed all of that? Now he must think her a perfect wimp, living in a home where she was being bullied every day. How could he understand that she had no choice, that if she left Dunstan would have won both the battle and the war?
The real problem, though, was the fact that her mother would never leave that man. Even though he was sixty-one and she was only forty-two, still so beautiful she could have her pick of men, she clung to this one like he was her world. She did nothing without his approval. Sadly, although she was the one with the money, the way she gave her husband free rein she might as well not have any money at all. She certainly didn’t have the freedom to give any of it to her own daughter, not without his consent.
Golden shook her head, not wanting to spend any more of her date thinking about her depressing situation. “I’m sorry,” she said, pasting a smile on her lips, “I’m sure you’re not the least bit interested in me and my mundane problems. You’re a CEO. You have more pressing issues on your plate.”
“It’s not always about business,” he said, his face unusually serious. “Most times it’s our personal relationships that determine our happiness. Business is secondary.”
His comment gave Golden the perfect opportunity to change the subject. “Speaking of personal relationships, you know practically everything about me but I know nothing about you. What’s your family like? Do you have brothers or sisters?” Then as her thought went to family she grew wistful. “I always wished I could have a sister.”
Reed regarded her with what looked like polite interest. “I don’t have a sister but I do have two sisters-in-law. I can share them with you, if you like.”
That made her laugh. She would have taken him up on his offer if she could but how in the world was she going to do that? That could only happen if she married him.
At the thought, Golden’s eyes widened and she looked away, momentarily confused. Why did she keep thinking these outlandish thoughts? Heavens. She needed to rein herself in before her wayward thoughts made her blurt out something really stupid.
“I have two brothers, though, older than I am. They’re both back in the States.” Reed continued speaking, seeming not to notice Golden’s consternation. Thank goodness. “One of them runs a computer software business and the other does cosmetics.”
“All businessmen,” Golden said. “Your family must be so proud.”
“Yeah, well.” Reed shrugged and for the first time since she’d met him she saw his face color with embarrassment.
That made Golden smile and she suddenly felt confident enough to ask even more questions. “But are you and your brothers all about business? What about you? What do you do for fun?”
The question made his face brighten. “I golf and I swim. I also play polo on the weekends.”
“That sounds like fun.” Even though she’d lived on a farm as a young girl, Golden had never climbed onto the back of a horse in her entire life. Maybe she would put that on her list of things to do one day. “And do you go out a lot, to the pub with friends? You certainly don’t sound like someone who’d stay put at home like me.”
