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What Maureen didn’t know was that when it came to money, Jarod had the backing of the Kendall Mills fortune. If it was a matter of needing legal counsel, his brother Drew was a big New York City lawyer. Randall Smoot and his ilk would be way out of the Kendalls’ league.
“Sydney?”
The second she heard Jarod’s voice, she ran over to the conference room where he’d just emerged with a man of middle age.
“Darling? This is Jack Armstrong, the company attorney from Chicago. Jack, this is my fiancée Sydney Taylor.”
“How do you do?” She shook hands with him. “I understand someone is trying to get
Jarod removed from his job.”
“I’m sorry to say it’s true. Forgive me for keeping him this long, but it was necessary in order to prepare a preliminary report.”
“I understand. If you need a character witness, I’m number one on a list at least 900 people long.” That took up most of the town of Cannon.
The other man’s mouth curved. “That’s the way it should be. I’ll see myself out, Jarod.”
“Are you really in trouble?” she cried when he pulled her in the other room and shut the doors.
“First I need this—”
So saying, he swept Sydney into his arms. She sought blindly for his mouth, trying to infuse all the love, all the passion she felt for him in a kiss that would take away the sting.
“You make it all worth it,” he confessed after relinquishing her lips.
She studied his features, looking for signs of distress. “Do they really have a case?”
“If a group of people decide to railroad you, and they get enough money behind them, then they have a case.”
“Because you can’t take this particular job if you’ve been an ex-priest? If that were true, Maureen wouldn’t have hired you.”
His lips twitched. “No. There wouldn’t be such a disclaimer. But if they decide that a man of the cloth who has broken his vows isn’t the best role model to counsel other people in trouble, that’s where the gray area comes in.”
“Steve Carr spoke to me after class. He said the Smoot girl has been spreading rumors.”
In an instant, his face became an impenetrable mask. His hands curled into fists. “We’re not even married yet, and already your job is being jeopardized because of me.”
She pressed a lingering kiss to his lips. “If you think I care one jot for what people think, then you don’t know the real me.”
To her immense relief, his body finally relaxed and they clung for a long time.
“I thought we had an appointment with the pastor.”
“We did, but I changed it until tonight when I found out Jack was flying in. The hard part of this is realizing Maureen’s job is on the line.”
Sydney smiled up at him. “Because she showed how brilliant she was to have hired you?”
His expression grew solemn. “I love you, but I don’t want my loving to cause you this kind of hurt.”
“Didn’t you hear anything I said? I’m not hurt. I’m angry at people’s bigotry. I always have been. It started in my own home where my parents couldn’t see beyond the perimeter of their world.
“Of course I love home, but when I look back, I know the reason I ever entertained the thought of being a stewardess was so I could see what the world was like beyond the North Dakota prairie.
“I studied English literature in college because it broadened my understanding of people, fictional or real.
“Provincial types like the Smoots need to be confronted so they’ll wake up and take a look at themselves instead of judging everyone else by their shallow, narrow standard of acceptance.
“It’s sickening. Really sickening.”
