Chapter 25
Iris came by looking for you,” Isobel said when Alana came down the next day for breakfast. “I think she’s in Peg’s office.”
Alana wolfed down a scone and headed down to the office, but neither Peg nor Iris was there.
“She’s down at the cottage,” one of the student volunteers said. “I guess Mr. Hartman upset the crazy old lady.”
“She’s not crazy,” Alana shot back, surprised at her harsh tone. The volunteer couldn’t have been more than fifteen. All older people probably seemed crazy to him.
Alana ran down the path to the cabin. Already it had a homey, lived-in appearance. Pots of herbs graced the front porch and curtains hung at the newly installed double-pane windows. Peg and Gustavo and their crew had worked fast to welcome Iris. Oddly, Iris fit into the ranch community as though she’d been there all along.
“I heard Mr. Hartman ruffled some feathers,” Alana said to Iris as she opened the door.
“Maybe not as many as I did. Come in, Alana. It’s time we had that talk.”
Alana smiled. She suspected Iris had cast the same spell over Zav that she cast over everyone else at the ranch.
She motioned Alana to a chair next to a table set for tea. The flower arrangement at the center of the table would’ve won a prize in any photo contest. Iris sat and folded her hands in her lap.
But as Iris’s story unfolded, Alana’s smile dropped away and she leaned forward, elbows on the table, chin propped in her hands, and stared wide-eyed at the other woman.
“So you see,” Iris said, winding up her tale, “I had no idea if Zav would welcome me back. I’d been away for fifteen years. Our father disowned me after I married Sam. He wasn’t a bad man, just irresponsible. But he was a fine artist until drink put him in the ground. I guess I underestimated what he meant to me. I know I underestimated the paralyzing power of grief. After a few years of floating around, of living on the edge and working as temporary help in gardens in Europe and back East, all I had the strength for was coming home.”
Iris poured the tea with steady hands. As she took the cup that Iris passed her, Alana’s hands were less than steady.
Good lord, Iris was Zav’s sister. And she’d been living a soap opera, with all the attendant drama and passion and sorrow.
“I was working up to seeing Zav. If you hadn’t come along, that might have taken years.”
“But he’s your brother.”
Alana still had trouble believing that. She wondered how Zav had taken the shock of seeing his sister rather than the stranger he’d been expecting. But maybe Iris was a stranger to him. Alana caught her breath; and maybe Iris wasn’t even an Iris. Zav hadn’t blinked when Alana had mentioned her name to him, so maybe she was using an alias.
“Blood doesn’t always make a bond or hold one when two people are so different. The Zav I saw today is a much mellower man than the judgmental one who had no sympathy for my troubles years ago. I suspect your grandmother had a hand in that mellowing process.”
“She’s had a hand in more than you know,” Alana said.
What Iris said made her think about Simon and Damien, made her want to spend more time with her brothers, get to know what they loved and what they dreamed about.
“But Zav hasn’t lost all his former pesky qualities,” Iris added, her spunk showing. “I’ll have you know that not more than ten minutes went by before that brother of mine tried to tell me how to make my formula for the men’s fragrance I’m developing. And how to build drying racks for the herbs. And that he didn’t like my newly adopted name. The man’s got lots of opinions.”
“Lucky for me that most of them are spot on.” Alana laughed, glad to see the lightness enter into Iris’s eyes, and the lines of worry relax out of her face. Years seemed to have dropped away from her in just a few days.
“More tea?” Iris asked.
“I have to head back,” Alana said. “I need to make final arrangements for the party to celebrate the windmill.”
Iris quirked a brow. “I thought you were going to Paris.”
Everybody on the ranch seemed to know she was headed to the Versailles gala. A couple of the interns had asked if they could come along and carry her baggage. But from the look on Iris’s face, she wasn’t impressed.
“After. I changed my flight.”
“When you get back I want to thank you properly,” Iris said. “For all this. I plan on paying rent for this place.” She leaned closer to Alana. “I can’t move in with Zav. He thinks he wants me to, but it’d be a matter of days before he’d regret it. Me too.”
“I’d like you to stay here. And don’t think I’m just being kind—I have ulterior motives,” Alana told her. “I want you to help us develop the body care line. I tried the lotion you sent up to the house with Isobel; it’s fantastic. So I don’t think paying rent will be a problem. Peg’s thrilled with the oils you showed her yesterday, and she wants you to head up the fragrance team.”
Iris’s eyes widened as she took in the news, but a frown creased her face.
“You don’t need anything from Paris for the body care line,” Iris said. “I can work with what’s in this county. I even know a source for tuberose. You have everything you need right here.”
She said it with such emphasis that Alana knew she wasn’t talking about tuberoses. Rumors that Alana planned an extended stay in France were obviously circulating. But she didn’t want to discuss her plans with Iris, no matter how much everyone had taken to the woman. The truth was, Alana didn’t know her own feelings. So much had happened in such a short time.
“That little Sophie told me that she didn’t believe in fairies anymore,” Iris said, watching Alana closely. When Alana didn’t reply, she added, “Turns out that she made her strongest wish that you would be her stepmother and since it didn’t come true, she didn’t believe in fairies. Or in wishing.”
Great. She’d lost her heart to Matt and now hearing Iris tell her what Sophie had said ripped into her soul.
“I have to go now,” Alana said as pangs of remorse and sadness started to tighten her throat. “If you change your mind about wanting anything from the perfumery in Paris, let me know.”
“I won’t be changing my mind,” Iris said, crossing her arms and pressing her lips into an emphatic line. “But you might consider changing yours.”