Page 17 of Spilling the Tea

“Yeah, I’ll be there, Chance, but I need to say something.”

Chance rolled his eyes. “Say what?”

“This Dr. Zoey Pritchard must have really gotten next to you for you to be so eager to turn her over to me. Good night.”

Chance frowned when he heard the distinct sound of a click in his ear.

Chapter Five

The next day, Chance dialed his great-grandmother’s number. She answered on the first ring. “Good morning, Chancellor.”

“Good morning, Mama Laverne. I hope you slept well last night.”

“I did. What about you?”

There was no way he would tell her thoughts of a certain woman had invaded his sleep. “Yes, I did. I need to ask you something.”

“Alright.”

“Did you know the family that used to live at this ranch?”

“Yes, I knew the Johnstones. I didn’t get to know them that well since they moved in while I was doing missionary work in Haiti.”

Chance nodded. “What about the people who lived here before the Johnstones? The Martins?”

When she didn’t answer immediately, he figured she was thinking, trying to recall. “Yes. The Martins owned the ranch but didn’t live there except during the summer months. Joshua and Arabella Martin were college professors at Howard University in Washington, DC.”

“If they weren’t here to run the ranch, why didn’t they sell it?”

There was another pause, and he figured Mama Laverne was trying to recollect her thoughts again. After all, that was a long time ago. “I understand that Arabella’s grandfather, Kurt Satterfield, stipulated in his will that the property could not be sold until the third generation after his death. When the Martins weren’t in residence, they hired good people to run things.”

“I see.”

“Chancellor, why are you asking me these questions?”

He didn’t want to tell Mama Laverne Zoey’s story, especially the part about her memory loss. He preferred that she tell that to his great-grandmother herself. “I got a visitor yesterday saying she was the Martins’ granddaughter.”

“You believe her?”

“Yes, I believe her.” He then told Mama Laverne about the framed portrait in his attic. “The resemblance is simply amazing.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. Arabella favored her mother, and the women had striking features.”

“Did you know Arabella?”

“Yes. She was an only child and a very striking woman.”

So is her granddaughter, he thought, deciding to keep that opinion to himself. “Arabella’s granddaughter’s name is Dr. Zoey Pritchard.”

“What’s her reason for being in Houston?” his great-­grandmother asked.

“She is trying to get as much information as possible about her mother’s side of the family. She doesn’t remember them, and her parents were killed in a car accident almost twenty years ago when she was a child. She was with them and was the lone survivor.”

He heard his great-grandmother gasp. “I’m sorry to hear that. I didn’t know. I’d heard the ranch had been sold and assumed the daughter, who I recall was named Michelle, no longer wanted to keep it since the three-generation mandate in her great-great-grandfather’s will had ended. I wished I had kept up with her. The last time I saw Michelle was at her parents’ funeral.”

Chancellor lifted a brow. “The Martins died at the same time?”

“Yes, from Legionnaires’ disease. There was an outbreak at an educational conference they attended somewhere in the Midwest. They caught it and died within days.”

---