Chapter Two – Julius

Catherine was here. Julius hadn’t seen her for so long, he often woke in the middle of the night, cold sweat covering his skin, his mind convinced she’d never been real. That the woman he’d seen, in the arms of another man, with her belly swollen with the child she carried, had been a dream.

Yet here she was. Catherine.

“Mr. Harrison?” Beverly’s voice broke into his thoughts. “If you have a table free, Cath and I were going to stay for afternoon tea.”

“Tea?” He blinked a couple of times, as he tried to process any information other than Catherine was here.

“Yes. Cath is staying with Liam, and I thought I’d treat her. Since she’ll soon be my mother-in-law.” Beverly walked past Julius and joined Cath. “I’m trying to make a good impression.”

“Of course.” Julius snapped to attention, drawing on his experience to help him cope. Normally unflappable, Julius Harrison prided himself on his professionalism. But then, Catherine was not part of his professional life. She was personal. Very personal. “Follow me, please, ladies.”

He fixed a smile on his face and ushered them into the dining room, which served afternoon tea between the hours of two and four. Tourists flocked here in the summer months. After a morning hiking in the mountains, what better way to relax and unwind than with tea and delicious cakes and sandwiches?

Julius smiled. He’d pitched that line to so many guests. When he added in a smile, and a twinkle of his eye, the thought was irresistibly planted in people’s minds. Julius had a knack for persuading people it was exactly what they needed. Would he be so lucky with Catherine? Not that he wanted to persuade her to order afternoon tea; he did want to persuade her that he was something she should not resist.

However, as he meandered through the tables set out in the dining room, he mentally slapped himself across the face. Hadn’t he heard Beverly’s words? Catherine was here to visit her son for the wedding. His mind dragged up the image of Cath, over thirty years ago, her belly swollen, the arm of her fiancé around her shoulders as they rushed into the town hall to get married.

He did not want to cause her pain by trying to seduce her away from her husband.

Julius half turned, his gaze dropping down to Catherine’s left hand. Her wedding ring was gone. His mood shifted, his heart racing as he considered this new possibility. However, he then recalled learning that Liam was an eagle shifter. Which meant Catherine had been bound to another, not just by marriage but by fate. This made no sense. Was he truly cursed? He’d never heard of a person having two bonded mates.

“Mr. Harrison.” Beverly’s voice once again interrupted his thoughts, and he turned to face her.

“Yes,” he said, his tone hard.

“Could we sit in a window seat?” Beverly asked, frowning at Julius’s attitude.

“Of course. My apologies, I forgot myself for a moment.” He forced the smile back onto his face, and turned ninety degrees to head toward a table near the window with the best view of the mountains. “Here?”

“Perfect,” Catherine said, giving him a shy smile, brighter than the sun in the sky on a summer’s day. He stared at her for a moment, his heart racing, then he snapped back to attention and pulled a chair out for his mate.

She wasn’t his mate, he reminded himself.

Yes, she is, his bear insisted.

She belongs to another, Julius replied.

His bear fell silent. They truly were cursed if she was another man’s mate.

“Let this be my treat,” Julius said as he handed them the afternoon menu. “For the safe delivery of the anchovies.”

“No, we can pay,” Catherine said quickly.

“I insist.” His eyes flashed, he would more than insist, he would demand! He coughed, that was no way to treat their mate. But his whole world had tipped on its axis, and he didn’t know what to do, or how to act. His mind was a whirl of confusing thoughts. This was not how it was supposed to be.

Yet it was the knowledge he had lived with for years. Fate had somehow decided to have its wicked way with him.

“Thanks, Mr. Harrison,” Beverly said, her expression sharp as she looked from Julius to Catherine. She was an astute young woman, and he was certain she had picked up on the tension in the air.

“Julius, please.” He nodded. “I will send someone over to take your order, when you are ready.”

“Why don’t you join us?” Beverly pulled a chair out and patted the seat. “We could do with some male company, couldn’t we, Cath?”

Catherine looked up from her menu, her eyes wide. “Of course.” She did not look certain, and Julius knew he should leave them alone. He had so much to do. But the temptation was too great.

“If you insist.”

“We do,” Beverly answered quickly, her eyes flashing with mischief as she glanced over her menu at Cath.

Julius summoned a waitress to take their order, ignoring the questioning look on the young woman’s face. As a hotel owner, he never sat down with guests, preferring to keep his distance. It was safer that way. Julius wasn’t the kind of man who allowed himself to get close to people. His heart was firmly closed off to love.

Until now.

He frowned as he cast an appraising look over Catherine. She was just as beautiful as the first time he’d seen her; the years had been kind to the woman he had never forgotten. Yes, she had a few wrinkles, and when she swept her hair back from her shoulders, the sunlight through the window caught the silvery strands of hair that blended into the golden blonde. But Julius didn’t see these as flaws, he saw them as signs of experience, of a life lived.

“Julius.” His name on Cath’s lips was as soft as summer rain, and just as revitalizing, as if he had lived in drought for the whole of his life. “Can you tell me about the hotel?”

“What do you want to know?” Julius asked as the waitress returned with their order. “Thank you, Sian.”

“You’re welcome. Is there anything else I can get for you?” Sian asked, looking speculatively from her boss to the two ladies seated either side of him. He could imagine the talk in the kitchens. This was as rare an occurrence as snow in July.

“No, I think we have everything,” Cath replied, looking at the sandwiches and cakes. “It’s all perfect, thank you.”

“Thanks,” Beverly also replied. “This looks amazing.”

“What did you want to ask, Catherine?” Julius savored her name, earning a questioning look from both Cath and Beverly.

“About the history of the hotel. It looks old. Or is it a new building made to look old?” Catherine asked.

“The hotel was built two hundred years ago as a family home. But the family fortune dwindled, and the house fell into disrepair. Finally, around thirty years ago, the family decided to sell what was left of the once-magnificent building.”

“And you bought it?” Catherine asked.

“I did. I needed a project, something to distract me.” He sighed as he stared out of the window, remembering the day he set eyes on the house. It was broken, in the same way that he was broken, his heart forever torn in two by the sight of his mate, belly swollen, walking down the aisle to be joined with another man.

“Distract you from what?” Beverly leaned forward, listening intently. “You always seem so together, as if you knew exactly what you wanted in life.”

Julius nodded. “You are correct, I have always known what I wanted. But knowing what you want, and getting what you want, are two entirely different things.”

“Now I’m intrigued.” Beverly picked up her cup and sipped her tea, while next to him, Catherine sat entranced as he spoke, her food hardly touched.

“The house is said to carry a curse, and I, too, believed I was cursed. We seemed to be a good match.” He looked up at the ornate ceiling of the dining room. “This is where the family would have dined together. The story goes that it was in this very room that news of the merchant ships carrying a rich cargo had sunk in a storm. As I heard it, the captain of the ship was the eldest son and heir to the fortune. But he had gotten himself into some trouble at the last port and a witch had cursed him and everything he touched.”

“Really!” Beverly’s eyes gleamed, while Catherine was filled with sympathy for the plight of the family.

“That’s terrible,” Catherine said. “And so began the family’s fall?”

Julius nodded. “The facts are real. I researched them locally when I moved here. The father had a stroke on hearing the news, and the second son had no business sense. He had neither the skill nor the wherewithal to rebuild the family’s fortune. He made bad investments until there was barely enough for the family to afford to live in the house, let alone keep it in good repair.”

“It must have cost you a small fortune to renovate the house and turn it into a hotel.” Catherine picked up her tea and sipped it, while keeping her eyes on Julius.

“I made my fortune on the stock market when I was young and thought I knew everything.” He smiled sadly. “Then one day, I realized that my life would be hollow and empty if I did not fill it with something.”

“And your mate? You said she was lost to you.” Beverly asked. Julius managed to swallow his mouthful of tea before he sprayed it across the table.

“She was.” He would make a good politician. He’d evaded the question without actually lying. Beverly, however, narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing him as she bit into one of the small sandwiches. But if she had any further questions, she kept them to herself.

Julius allowed himself a couple of stolen glances at Catherine, and shifted the conversation to Bear Creek and the businesses Beverly and her fiancé Liam ran. They were a hard-working couple, and he admired that.

Catherine spoke about her son with pride, and as they finished their tea and he watched his mate walk out of his life once more, he was struck by how unfair fate was. Liam should be Julius’s son. Instead, Catherine had borne another man’s child.

The question that presented itself was whether that man was truly her mate. Because after this second chance meeting, Julius knew beyond a doubt that Catherine was his mate.

So, was Catherine’s first husband an opportunistic liar, or was fate perhaps not as infallible as shifters presumed? He was determined to find out.