Change of Heart Read Online Free PDF

words, he felt that his future had been decided. He knew where he was going and how he was going to get there. And for the first time in his life, Eli had a hero.

     
    “And then what?” Chelsea asked.
    “He sent the copies of the letterheads—you’ve seen them—I wrote to thank him and he wrote back. And we became friends.”
    Part of Chelsea wanted to scream that he had betrayed her by not telling her of this. Two years! He had kept this from her for two whole years. But she’d learned that it was no good berating Eli. He kept secrets if he wanted to and seemed to think nothing of it.
    “So you want your mother to marry this man? Why did you just come up with this idea now?” She meant her words to be rather spiteful, to get him back for hiding something so interesting from her, but she knew the answer as soon as she asked. Until now Eli had wanted his beloved mother to himself. Her eyes widened. If Eli was willing to turn his mother over to the care of this man, he must . . .
    “Do you really and truly like him?”
    “He is like a father to me,” Eli said softly.
    “Have you told him about me?”
    The way Eli said “Of course” mollified her temper somewhat. “Okay, so how do we get them together? Where is this cabin of his?” She didn’t have to ask how they would get his mother up there. All they had to do was write her a letter on Montgomery-Taggert stationery and offer her a nursing job.
    “I don’t know,” Eli answered, “but I’m sure we can figure it out.”
    Three weeks later, Chelsea was ready to give up. “Eli,” she said in exasperation, “you have to give up. We can’t find him.”
    Eli set his mouth tighter, his head propped in his hands in despair. They’d spent three weeks sending faxes and writing letters to people, hinting that they needed to know where Frank Taggert was. Either people didn’t know or they weren’t telling.
    “I don’t know what else we can do,” Chelsea said. “It’s getting closer to Christmas and it’s getting colder in the mountains. He’ll leave soon, and she won’t get to meet him.”
    The first week she’d asked him why he didn’t just introduce his mother to Mr. Taggert, and Eli had looked at her as though she were crazy. “They will be polite to each other because of me, but what can they have in common unless they meet on equal ground? Have you learned nothing from my mother’s books? The rich duke meets the governess in a place where they are forced to be together.”
    But they had tried everything and still couldn’t get his mother together with Mr. Taggert. “There is one thing we haven’t tried yet,” Chelsea said.
    Eli didn’t take his head out of his hands. “There is nothing. I’ve thought of everything.”
    “We haven’t tried the truth.”
    Turning, Eli looked at her. “What truth?”
    “My parents were nearly dying for my sister to get married. My mother said my sister was losing her chances because she was getting old. She was nearly thirty. So if this Mr. Taggert is forty, maybe his family is dying to get him married too.”
    Eli gave her a completely puzzled look.
    “Let’s make an appointment with one of his brothers and tell him we have a wife for Mr. Taggert and see if he will help us.”
    When Eli didn’t respond, Chelsea frowned. “It’s worth a try, isn’t it? Come on, stop moping and tell me the name of one of his brothers here in Denver.”
    “Michael,” Eli said. “Michael Taggert.”
    “Okay, let’s make an appointment with him and tell him what’s going on.”
    After a moment’s hesitation, Eli turned to his keyboard. “Yes, let’s try.”

     
    Michael Taggert looked up from his desk to see his secretary, Kathy, at the door wearing a mischievous grin.
    “Remember the letter you received from Mr. Elijah J. Harcourt requesting a meeting today?”
    Frowning, Mike gave a curt nod. In thirty minutes, he was to meet his wife for lunch, and from the look on Kathy’s face there might be some