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openly affronted, and Whitney could feel her face turning redder by the minute as this oh-so-proper maid stood there staring at her less than impeccably packed suitcase.
    “It’s my job to get you unpacked,” Darcy said, and then turned away and continued what she was doing.
    Whitney decided it was far easier to just let the woman do the work and not argue. So she stepped into the adjoining bathroom and felt as if she’d died and gone to heaven.
    The bathtub against the back wall was big enough to swim in, and it had a window beside it with a view of the snowy rolling hills that seemed to stretch for miles. Maybe, just maybe, she could relax with a nice hot bath.
    She turned on the tap, then took her time brushing her teeth and putting her hair up. The tub filled with amazing speed, and, after she added fragrant bath beads to the water, she sank down and let her worries melt away.
    Somewhere in the distance she heard a knock on the door and a voice saying something or other, but she just didn’t care. The knocking became more insistent, and that’s when she shot awake.
    “Dinner will be served at eight on the dot. Don’t be late. Mr. Liam doesn’t like to be kept waiting,” Darcy called out through the closed door.
    “Okay, we’ll be on time,” Whitney replied in an equally loud voice. She was willing to say anything to make the maid go away.
    This tub and the relaxation it offered might be the only thing in the monstrous mansion that let her keep her sanity.

Chapter Six
    T hey’re late,” Liam grumbled, and he looked at his father with evident impatience. He was a busy man, dammit.
    “Son, they’ve had a long journey and could very easily have lost their way in this behemoth of a house,” Frederick said with a smile, which further irritated his son. The maid had been right, he didn’t like to be kept waiting. His time was valuable and he’d expect the guests they’d invited to appreciate that.
    “Maybe asking them here was a bad idea. If they have such a lack of manners as to make their host hold dinner for them, perhaps we should have left them on the other side of the country,” Liam said. “I’d never thought of Oregon and hillbillies together, but I’m considering doing so now.” He turned to one of the staffers standing by and asked him to search for the missing trio. Before the man could leave, there was a ruckus outside the dining hall.
    “Weren’t you the one who insisted on inviting them?” Frederick asked pointedly, but Liam ignored that remark.
    Frederick and Liam turned toward the open double doors and watched as Whitney went racing by, quickly followed by a laughing Brayden and Ally. The chaos obviously amused Liam’s father. It most assuredly didn’t amuse Liam.
    “Ah, they are a fresh wind blowing through these cold walls. Don’t you agree?” Frederick said with a chuckle.
    “That’s nothing but unnecessary noise, Father.”
    “It sounds as if our guests have arrived,” Mr. Smotter said.
    Liam sent him a withering stare, which wiped the smile from the man’s face. What in the world was going on that his father’s butler would be making a joke about the barbarous behavior of these houseguests?
    Liam winced when the three new people finally stepped into the formal dining room. He looked toward the staff members, but they refused to make eye contact with him. They weren’t supposed to, in any case. Liam wondered if no one had told Whitney or the children to dress more appropriately for dinner.
    He and his father were both wearing exquisitely tailored dark suits, silk ties, and starched white shirts, as was expected when having guests. No, their clothes weren’t on the level of a tuxedo — this wasn’t that sort of an occasion — but they were sternly elegant. The most the two men dressed down for any meal was to don a fresh business suit. Even at picnics …
    The little girl was wearing a summer dress, and the boy had on jeans and an oversized sweatshirt. Heck,