CHAPTER NINE
Claudia~
At first, she thought it was Dominic Rutherford standing on her doorstep. She was about to slam the door in his arrogant face when he spoke. The voice was different. Deeper. More resonant. It set her every nerve vibrating. Just in case, she raised her psychic shield. But she left the door open.
“Are you Claudia Peterson?” The Dominic look-alike moved forward as he spoke. He was on a cane and she took an automatic step backward to give him space.
His tall, broad-shouldered frame was the same as Dominic’s. He had the same thick golden-blond hair and the same patrician features. But he was considerably thicker through the chest, shoulders, and arms – as though he worked out harder. Despite his limp, he carried himself like a soldier.
“Yes, I’m Claudia Peterson.” Why was she whispering?
He didn’t seem to notice. His golden eyes looked around the shabby lighthouse keeper’s cottage with real interest. She remembered that her landlady, Robin Fairchild, had sold it to one of the Rutherfords. Presumably this was her new landlord. He held out a huge hand and she slipped hers into it.
Despite her shield, she felt a frisson pass between them as they shook.
“I’m Ryan Rutherford. We need to talk.” He handed her an envelope. Peeled off his jacket and hung it on her hook without asking.
She did not need this now. “I have sixty days from serving of notice to quit,” she said without opening it.
“Huh?”
She glanced down. The buff-colored envelope was over-sized and very official looking. MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE was typed across it. Absolutely not an eviction notice. “What the heck is this?”
“Open it.” His voice was friendly, but it was an order.
It was easier to do as Ryan asked than start a fight. The envelope wasn’t even sealed. The flap was only folded over. She took out the large sheet of paper inside and smoothed out the folds. “What on earth?”
“I was ruder,” he said conversationally. “May I sit down? We need to talk.”
Her throat felt suddenly tight. She nodded. He sat in the armchair, using his good leg to balance. She perched on the edge of the couch. “Where did you get this?” she asked.
“My grandfather gave it to me a few days ago. He got it from Robin Fairchild.”
She believed him. The psychic prints on the paper were Robin’s all right. “Is it legal?” she asked.
“It’s a forgery,” he said mildly. “You and I have never met. Remember?”
Well, of course she knew she wasn’t married to Ryan Rutherford. She wasn’t married to anyone! She sneaked another look at the marriage certificate. Ryan James Rutherford.
“If Mayor Robin created this, you’ll never be able to prove it was a fake,” she told him gloomily. Not unless Claudia was to unbind the spell. But before she did that, she had better think long and hard. Unbinding was unpredictable. Unbinding magic set by as powerful a fairy as Robin was actively dangerous.
Claudia eyed him over the frail barrier of the certificate. The shield protecting her also prevented her intuition from getting a sense of him. Couldn’t be helped. But if ever she needed to be able to read another person, now was the time.
Ryan Rutherford had to be a close relative of Dominic’s. And just as rich. He was wearing the same type of casual, hand-tailored clothes that Dominic favored. Clothes that looked simple yet were incredibly expensive. His crisp cotton shirt lay across his shoulders without a wrinkle. Yet his khaki pants hung wrong on the right side. Probably meant his injury was recent. Hmm.
“Apparently the council is getting ready to kick you off the island. You and your cub.” Ryan’s voice was calm, but there was that easy authority again. This man was used to giving orders.
“My son,” she emphasized the word. Cub, indeed! “And I have come to the notice of the Council, but it hasn’t actually come to a vote,” she pointed out.
“No? I’m in time then. Anyway, I gather the mayor and her deputy intend to use their copy of that certificate to prevent you from being voted off. Which is where I come in.”
That was news to her. She tried to get a feel for this Rutherford. He didn’t look like the sort of guy who allowed himself to be married off to a stranger. He looked like the I’m-in-charge alpha male type. The my-way-or-the-highway type. Like Dominic. It was a chilling thought.
“You’re taking this pretty lightly.” Whereas she felt as if her head might burst with the effort of staying calm.
He smiled crookedly. “I threw my hissy fit back in Seattle.”
She returned his smile, as he had no doubt intended. The concept of this big dominant male throwing a tantrum was comical. He was looking around with that interested expression again.
“It’s a rental,” she found herself explaining. “Came furnished.”
His smile transformed his rather grim features. He really was as handsome as his kinsman. “I was looking for the cu-kid.”
“Jimmy’s playing in the backyard. I’m not sure I want him to meet you.”
He raised both golden brows, leaned back in his chair and thrust his long lean legs into the room, claiming the space as his own, despite his injury. “Looks to me as though Sully and Robin have us both over a barrel. It’s not just that piece of paper. Hell, last I heard, divorce was still a thing in Oregon, so it’s not like they can force us to stay married.”
“Go on. What’s the stick they’re using on you?”
“If young James Mitchell doesn’t get a Rutherford daddy pronto, the Council will void our title to all the Rutherford property on this island.”
She felt her eyes grow round. “Can they do that?”
“Apparently.”
She tried to focus enough to remember her West Haven history. “But didn’t your people buy it after the Haverstocks were evicted?”
He snorted. “Evicted.” He rolled the word carefully in his mouth and spat it out. “That would be sorcerer talk for killed, right?”
“Were they killed?”
“You betcha, sweetcheeks. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here. Nor me. And, yes, after we hunters cleaned up that nest of vicious psychopaths, we bought our land from the Mystic Bay Town Council – at full market value. And, yes, to this day we hold the land at their discretion.”
“Oh. So what happens if I scupper the deal?”
He looked blank. So he wasn’t a sailor.
“Sink this scheme,” she clarified.
“I know what scupper means, Claudia. But it doesn’t arise. You and I are married. For better or worse, Mrs. Rutherford. Until death do us part.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“If necessary. I figured I’d save the threats for when I ran out of better ideas. I’m here to make all your dreams come true, Claudia. Tell me what you want most in the world and I’ll see what I can do.”
“World peace?”
He smiled his charmer’s smile again. Just a quick flash, as if he were genuinely amused. “I’ll admit that I had more material bribes in mind.”
“Aren’t we getting a little ahead of ourselves?” she countered. “I want to know why your name is on this certificate.”
He shrugged. An easy glide of big muscles under his light blue sports shirt. He took a smaller envelope out of his breast pocket and handed it to her. “I think so it matches this one.”
Her hands shook as she opened the envelope imprinted with the name of the Oregon State Registry. It contained Jimmy’s birth certificate. But where she had deliberately left his father’s name blank, Ryan James Rutherford had been filled in. Her son’s last name was registered as Rutherford instead of Peterson.
She rose and went to the old writing desk and rummaged through the file box where she kept her papers. Jimmy’s file was thin. Just his immunization records and his birth certificate. She pulled them both out. His birth certificate matched the copy Ryan had given her. Robin certainly was thorough.
“But why you?” She peeked out the window into the yard. Jimmy was on all fours, playing some complex game among the raspberry canes. She returned to the couch. “That still doesn’t explain why they picked you out of all the Rutherfords.”
“Your boy’s one of us.” He opened his arms wide, flaunting that broad chest at her. Despite her shield her stomach clenched tight and an excited throbbing began deep inside her.
“I’m the last bachelor in my cohort. Or I was. I seem to have been married for four years.” His tone was dryly amused. “That could be why they settled on me, or it could be a bunch of other stuff.”
“Like what?”
“Like your naming the boy James.”
“My grandfather Golightly is named James. My mother’s father.”
“I see. Well, James is my middle name. And then there’s the date of Jimmy’s birth. Nine months after Adam’s wedding. I was his best man. And I understand you were playing chambermaid at the inn that weekend.”
Claudia nodded. “With so many guests staying there for the wedding, Robin needed the extra help. I was home on vacation, so I lent a hand. I don’t remember you.”
“I stayed with my parents in their cottage. But I was at the inn for the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. And to clinch matters, the boy is a cougar and he has the Rutherford Y chromosome.”
She was on her feet, fists clenched, stuttering with wrath and anxiety. “A-a-and y-y-you kn-kn-know this h-h-how?”
“Sit down before you fall down.” He was standing before her and easing her back onto the couch. She could feel him through her shield as a pleasant humming through her whole body. “That’s better.” He went back to the armchair, limping worse without his cane. This time he was clumsier when he sat down.
“No one had permission to take Jimmy’s DNA,” she insisted fiercely.
“You’re holding a forged marriage certificate, and a forged birth certificate, and you’re up in arms about a little spit or snot?” Ryan shook his head. Not a golden hair budged. It wouldn’t dare. “Anyway, in case you’re interested, the lab compared my grandfather’s DNA with Jimmy’s. He’s definitely one of us.”
“But not yours,” she shot back.
“Absolutely, he’s mine. You have the paper to prove it.” His voice was still amused.
But there was nothing funny about this situation. “Don’t you want to know who the father really is?”
Big white teeth flashed. “Which of my brothers or cousins do you want me to have to kill?”