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Erika blushed and felt slightly peeved at their reference to her sneaking out of the house. They made it sound as if she was nothing but a child. She most definitely was not. However, at twenty years of age, she had yet to see the world. Her grandfather had travelled three continents by the time he was her age. Erika’s furthest endeavors were yesterday’s excursion into the backwoods of Ontario.
At any rate, most of those escapes were to visit with Ryan and had been rightly justified. Her heart could not bear to part from the man she loved.
Thinking of which, she reminded herself that she had to persuade her grandfather from visiting the Colby farm, and in doing so, not destroy her only chance at true happiness.
“Perhaps you would care to keep me company today, Grandfather. It has been so long since we spent an entire day together.”
He reached for the morning paper. “I’m afraid my schedule for the day is already full. As we speak, I am running late for a conference with the board of directors at Langley Hall.”
Her spirits rose. “So you will be in meetings all day?”
“I’m afraid so,” he told her.
“In town?”
Dipping his chin to look at her over the rim of his glasses, he said, “With your disappearance yesterday, my appointments were postponed. I’ll have a lot of catching up to do today.”
She decided to ignore the guilt his words created and focus instead on the relief she felt that he wouldn’t have time to visit the Colby’s farm as he had threatened. “Perhaps another day.”
“Not likely,” he said, and picked up his coffee mug. “We are behind schedule down at the construction site for the resort. Insufficient manpower has delayed the clearing of the flats on the southern plateau and it has taken twice as long to erect the framework than we projected. I am going to be putting in overtime with this delay for the next couple of months.”
Admittedly, this disclosure startled Erika. Never before had any of her grandfather’s projects faltered from running smoothly. For some reason she thought of what Jay Colby had said the other night at the Spring Festival Dance. He claimed her grandfather was upset due to Jay refusing to become one of his hired hands down on the building site.
Then giving a silent chuckle, she thought herself foolish. Where it was true Jay Colby was by far the largest and strongest man in town, he was after all, only one man. Simply because he refused to help wouldn’t necessarily mean this put a wrench in her grandfather’s plan. Though Jay had made that foolish comment regarding every man’s ability to contribute something of value, Erika wasn’t ignorant enough to think Jay Colby possessed that much power.
She looked up and across the table. “Grandfather, do you know Angus Layman and his wife, Mathilda Layman?”
“Yes, unfortunately,” he said, and then peered at her over the rim of his glasses. “I suppose you met them yesterday?”
She nodded. “They were very cordial.”
He snapped his morning paper and turned his eyes back to it. “Perhaps, but they possess unethical business behavior. I accepted their mortgage application several years ago and they have been negligent in their repayments ever since.”
Erika lifted her napkin and took extra effort in straightening it over her lap. “Their living situation is dreadful.”
“That would not surprise me. They are extremely ill bred individuals. It is in your best interest to stay away from vagrants such as them. Jay Colby should never have taken you to them.”
She hadn’t meant it that way at all. Chewing her bottom lip, she wondered anot
her tactic on how to approach the subject. “They weren’t really all that brass. I think they’ve met with some hardships and—”
”Stop right there,” he declared, holding up his hand. “I can see that Mr. Colby has been feeding you a lot of nonsense. He is unqualified to trouble himself in the affairs of the Layman’s and myself. I have dealt with the situation accordingly and, as I told him, it is best Mr. Colby remains out of matters that are of no concern to him.”
She supposed her grandfather was right on that matter. It really was no business of Jay Colby’s. Gerald Snowden was a compassionate and well-admired gentleman before he was a businessman. He would not take the Layman’s farm and leave them homeless in the middle of winter.
“Of course, Grandfather.”
He didn’t appear to seem as if he heard her, as he became engrossed in an article in the paper. She wondered if perhaps she had insulted him by implying that he may not have treated the Layman’s with sensitivity. Deciding to try and lighten the atmosphere, she planted a bright smile on her face and said, “I was thinking this room could do for a spring change?”
“Hmm?”
“I thought it would brighten things up in here, if we did some redecorating.”
“I think it looks fine the way it is.”
“Oh, but Grandfather, wouldn’t this room look lovely in bright spring colors first thing in the morning?”
“I suppose.”
