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very reason of her anticipated reaction to Anne.
    He calmed himself and granted her a nod. “Good for you. I applaud, as well, the thought you put into your proposal.”
    “But you’re going to reject it.” She was withering before his eyes.
    “I didn’t say that. The situation is…complicated.”
    “By her,” she accused. “That woman.”
    “Be careful, Judith.” He mourned the loss of the small girl who thought Daddy could do no wrong.
    He tried again. “Honey, what is it that you have against a good woman? Do you think I’m being disloyal to your mother, is that it?” He’d always been faithful to Isabel and mourned her passing. Judith’s actions were those of a child, not a grown woman.
    “She’s after your money, Daddy. Can’t you see it?”
    “You know nothing about her,” he said through a clenched jaw.
    “She and her daughters are fighting to hang on, but it’s a losing battle.”
    “I wouldn’t count her out. All of New Orleans did after Remy died, but she kept everything going.” Through sheer will and guts, he might have added.
    “She won’t, not this time.” She paused for a beat. “Unless you charge to her rescue.”
    The very image of himself on a white charger, with Anne as the maiden passively awaiting salvation, made him grin.
    “How can you laugh about this? New Orleans is full of women who want you for your money, none more than Anne Marchand.”
    “Enough.”
    And as if she understood that she’d gone too far, she subsided. He fought his temper back under control. “I choose not to take offense that you obviously see nothing a woman could want in me but my money—”
    “Daddy, I didn’t mean—”
    He held up a hand. “I’ll overlook that you’ve decided I’m too old or feeble or whatever to have sound reasoning.”
    She opened her mouth but fell silent at a curt shake of his head.
    “But what I will not tolerate is your assumption that Anne Marchand is some evil person with nefarious designs on me or—” here he had to smile “—that she would ever, in a million years, consent to anyone usurping her authority or treating her as if she were weak. I assure you she is not, just as she has no designs on my money.” He paused. Took a deep breath for patience. Then one more.
    “Leave your proposal with me. I’ll study it.”
    “It makes sense. You know it does. As a businessman.” Her inference was clear—that he wasn’t thinking that way now.
    She was right; he couldn’t deny it. Once he would have been leading the charge.
    But it was Anne’s hotel they were talking about.
    Anne’s heart.
    All his daughter’s questions were on target, her points apt. She was his child, his only child…and she opposed the woman he wanted in his life.
    William was not a man accustomed to feeling powerless, yet at this moment he was caught between the daughter he loved and the woman who, each day, occupied more of his attention.
    “I’m going to have to ask you to trust me in this matter, Judith. To give me time to consider if there is any compromise that could work.” He didn’t want to have to remind her that he had the final authority. He’d been trying very hard to help her build a future and regain her self-confidence.
    But the balance was too delicate. He didn’t like what he was seeing going on at the Hotel Marchand, and he couldn’t shake the sense that Anne was in danger. He couldn’t risk having her informed that he was behind any offers and seeing her back away from him. He’d never be able to protect her then.
    “And I’m also going to ask for your word that you will not be a party to Anne learning of any of this. There are forces at work that you don’t understand.”
    When she looked wounded that he would need to ask for her promise, he didn’t explain because he didn’t want her mixed up in whatever was going on. “How about you and Anne and I have dinner sometime in the next week or so? That way you can determine for yourself what she’s