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Jakes couldn’t hide his surprise. “So long?”
“Yes. He’s like family in a way,” Portia explained, and the shy smile she sent Kent made his heart rear like a pleased stallion.
Regan said, “He calls her Duchess.”
Ada blinked with shock. In response, Regan smiled innocently his way and proved to Kent once again why he found her such a joy. Ada seemed to be evaluating him from an entirely different place now. Yes, you old biddy, I am a threat to your plans for your perfect son.
She asked, “May I ask why?”
“No,” Kent replied.
Rhine coughed to hide his laugh. Kent ignored the smoke pouring from Ada’s ears and went back to his meal. She’d already labeled him unsuitable, so he might as well live up to it. She’d probably tumble out of her chair were he to boast of having attended Howard Medical School and that his father, like her son, was a doctor, but he wasn’t ashamed of the path he’d chosen for his life, nor the man it had helped him become.
One of the maids came in and spoke quietly to Rhine, who nodded and stood. “Excuse me. Someone’s here to speak with me. I’ll be back shortly.”
After his departure, the meal continued, but when shouting drifted in, Eddy shot Kent a look of concern. He stood and left the room.
He found Rhine and a big overweight man standing by the door that led out to the grounds. The man’s face was red with anger and his eyes narrowed. His blue shirt was wet with sweat but whether it stemmed from the heat or his fury, Kent couldn’t tell.
The stranger barked, “I will take you to court, Fontaine!”
Rhine always in control, shrugged. “Do whatever you feel necessary, but the deed was legally signed and recorded, and the bank draft deposited.”
Kent guessed the man to be Missy Landry’s husband. “Everything okay, Rhine?”
The man looked Kent up and down.
“Name’s Randolph,” he said by way of introduction.
Landry didn’t respond.
“Mr.Landry is upset that his wife signed over the deed to her father’s ranch.”
“She had no right!”
Rhine pointed out. “The land was left to her in the will Blanchard drew up ten years ago, and she had a representative there to advise during our transaction.”
“He said you bulldozed her.”
“He’s lying.”
“I want that land back!”
“Does Missy claim I pressured her?”
Landry’s jaw tightened even more before he admitted, “I don’t know where she’s at.”
“Ah. If it’s any help, she said she was going to join you in St.Louis, but according to my bank notice, the draft was deposited in a bank in Chicago.”
“That bitch!”
Kent asked, “Have you heard about the murder of Farley and Buck?”
“I don’t know nothing about it.”
“So you have heard?”
He didn’t answer.
