Sighing, I looked at him. I wanted to share a bit more about my past and my parents, but how much? With a soft smile, I said, “You’re so lucky you grew up in a normal house with loving parents. My mother and father were always so worried about what other people thought, that our house always looked like it was a show home. Nothing could ever be out of place or heads would roll. I wasn’t even allowed to have friends over to play.”
He frowned. “Did you go to their houses to play?”
I shrugged. “Sometimes. But they had to be approved by my father.”
“The kids?” he asked in a surprised voice.
Shaking my head, I replied, “No, the parents.” I stood. “Enough of my depressing life. I should go unpack before those dresses wrinkle any more.”
Ladd pushed off the doorframe and walked over to me. He cupped my face in his hands and leaned down to brush a soft kiss over my lips. He drew back and rested his forehead against mine.
“I love you, Viv. With my entire heart and soul. You know that, right?”
My hands lifted to his arms, and I squeezed them. “I know, and I love you, too, Ladd. So very much.”
He reached for my hand, and we made our way out of his room and down the hall to the guest bedroom. When he opened the door, I drew in a sharp breath.
The first thing I saw was the large picture window with a view of the mountains in the distance.
“Oh wow!” I said, walking straight to the window. “Look at that view.”
“This part of the house faces east, so if you feel like waking up early, you can get an amazing view of the sunrise. Mom took the previous windows out and had this bigger window put in just because of the view.”
“That was smart of her.”
Turning, I took in the room itself. “Your mother sure knows how to make a guest feel like they’re at a five-star hotel. Ladd, this room is amazing!”
Against the opposite wall from the window was a queen-size bed with a beautiful antique four-poster frame and a canopy. The fabric on the canopy was a pale blue and yellow that draped down each poster. It was fringed with beautiful silver beading.
“That bed is…I don’t even have words for it.”
“The bed came from Scotland. My great-grandmother, Sarah, was from Scotland, and her family brought it overwith them when they came to America. She lived in Boston before marrying my great-grandfather, and they moved to Colorado to establish the cattle ranch. The fabric isn’t original, but Mom found a piece of it up in the attic, along with the bed, and had it reproduced.”
I slowly shook my head. “I feel like I’ve stepped back in time. Are all the pieces in this room from Sarah?”
“They are. Once Sarah passed away, my great-grandfather, Lawrence, had most of her things moved into the attic. My grandfather Flint and Grandmother Lilith never brought it back down. My mother found it all shortly after marrying Dad. By then, Flint had passed away and it was only my grandmother living here with my father, so after they got married, they, of course, moved into this house. Then my grandmother eventually moved to her cabin. Anyway, after Mom moved in, she asked if she could bring the furniture down and make up a guest bedroom. It was probably a good thing my grandfather never did find it.”
“Why is that?” I asked as I walked over to an old writing desk. On the parallel wall was a beautiful chest of drawers. All of the furniture was of the same wood and the same finish.
“He would have sold it if he thought he could get any money for it.”
I frowned. “That’s terrible. These were his mother’s things.”
Ladd shrugged. “He didn’t care. He sold off most of the items that belonged to his mother, or at least the ones that my great-grandfather had left here in the house. Sarah came from a very wealthy family, and some of her descendants still live in Boston. When she agreed to move out west with Lawrence, she wanted to bring her things with her. From whatI’ve heard, her father spent a lot of money back then to send it all on the train, then by horse and carriage to the ranch.”
“Is there anything else left of hers?”
“Mom has some items scattered throughout the house, but she said there are travel trunks up in the attic that belonged to Sarah. She’s gone through some of them, but others she hasn’t touched. My grandmother thinks that some of the travel trunks were never even unpacked. Most likely just loaded up here into the attic.”
I grinned. “That would be so fun to go through them and see what’s up there.”
“I’ll let her know you’d like to do that.”
“No!” I gasped. “She’ll think I’m being nosy.”
He laughed. “She won’t, and it’ll be a good excuse for her to finally go through everything up there. We used to play up in the attic as kids, and there’sa lotof shit up there.”
I walked over to my small suitcase and was about to pick it up and put it on the bed when Ladd beat me to it.
