Newport: A Novel Read Online Free PDF

pour me one while you’re at it.”
    “My God!” Nicholas exploded. “This isn’t a damn garden party!”
    “Well, it’s meant to be, you newt,” Bennett Chapman said. “It’s not my fault you and your sister decided to intrude. I didn’t invite you.”
    Nicholas took a step toward Adrian. “Mr. de la Noye, I implore you.”
    Adrian concentrated on the steady stream of coffee flowing frompot to cup. “Although there are many who would insist otherwise, willingly entering into the state of matrimony is not de facto proof of insanity. Your father’s decision to marry is not necessarily the product of a deranged mind.”
    “Damn.” Bennett Chapman stared up at the sky. “So they’ve decided I’m cuckoo, have they?”
    Nicholas ignored him. “Oh, it is in this case, I assure you. If I could speak with you and Mr. Reid privately . . .”
    Adrian passed the coffee cup to Bennett Chapman. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. Your father is my client, not you. Coffee, Miss Walsh?” Their eyes locked. Adrian quirked an eyebrow, a silent question that Jim suspected had absolutely nothing to do with coffee.
    Miss Walsh turned away to study the sea. “No, thank you,” she said.
    “Oh, Nicky, who cares about privacy?” Chloe’s hand flopped over the side of her chair. “Do you think this little gold digger deserves it? Go ahead and ask Pop the question. Just do it.”
    A muscle twitched at one side of Nicholas’s mouth. “All right, although it doesn’t sit well to expose the family’s warts in public. Father, suppose you tell these gentlemen exactly why you’ve asked Miss Walsh to marry you.”
    Jim fumbled the cup and saucer Adrian had just handed him. The elder Mr. Chapman was a little too comfortable spewing the unvarnished truth. One could only hope he would apply some tact to his answer.
    But Bennett Chapman seemed to change before their eyes. Instead of the fiercely outspoken man who’d rolled himself out onto the terrace, a dreamy man settled back in the wheelchair, eyes glistening with tears.
    “Why, Nicky,” he said in a soft voice. “I explained all this to both you and Chloe when I telephoned to announce our engagement. I thought you understood.”
    “Explain it once again.”
    Bennett Chapman cradled his cup in both hands. His expression, so fearsome only a second before, took on the defenseless cast of a child. “Your mother wishes it,” he mumbled into his drink.
    Chloe’s pale skin flamed pink. Nicholas’s fingertips whitened against her shoulder.
    Jim took a quick swig of coffee as the missing puzzle piece of information clicked into place. No wonder the younger Chapmans were so prickly. Nobody in society wanted to admit to the stain of divorce in the family. Even Adrian had stiffened, although Jim couldn’t imagine that this was information he didn’t already know.
    “I’m sorry.” Adrian’s tone was gentle. “But, Mr. Chapman, could you repeat that for me?”
    Bennett Chapman raised brimming eyes to meet Adrian’s question.
    “Of course I’ll repeat it, Mr. de la Noye. I’m not ashamed. Elizabeth—my first wife—told me to marry Miss Walsh. She not only endorses this union, but blesses it. And, as I am to marry Miss Walsh, it is only fitting that I amend my will to reflect her importance in my life. Elizabeth feels very strongly about that as well.”
    Adrian set his coffee cup down onto the table. His stare landed hard on Catharine Walsh, as insistent and unavoidable as a guiding hand to the chin. Lesser men had faltered under this wordless inquisition, but Miss Walsh met it full on, locking her gaze in his until the two seemed intertwined. A breath of wind gusted betweenthem, raising the hair on their heads and sending Miss Walsh’s skirt swirling against her legs.
    “You needn’t waste your time in confrontation, Mr. de la Noye.” Nicholas Chapman’s voice broke the standoff. “She’ll admit to nothing. But I’m sure she knows as well as you do that Mother