A Compromising Affair (The Harringtons) Read online

  A Compromising Affair

  A Compromising Affair

  GWYNNE FORSTER

  Dear Reader,

  I hope you have enjoyed the first four books featuring the Harrington family. Over the years, many of you wrote urging me to write another story about this engaging family, and so the saga continues. The first story, Once in a Lifetime, introduced the three brothers and featured Telford, the eldest Harrington. Following Telford’s romance, After the Loving profiled the story of fiery and stubborn Russ Harrington, the middle brother, whose sizzling but often rocky relationship ended in wedded bliss. The third story, Love Me or Leave Me, featured strikingly handsome yet enigmatic Drake, the youngest of the three brothers, who was serious-minded and devoted to his family and the woman he loved.

  In Love Me Tonight, Judson Phillips, a man searching for his biological parents, discovers that he is related to the Harrington clan and finally finds the family and loving kinship he’s always longed for. In this novel, A Compromising Affair, the Harringtons embrace Ambassador Scott Galloway, Judson’s best friend, whose difficult relationship with Denise Miller engages the entire family in an effort to bring the two together. I hope you have an opportunity to read all the books in the Harringtons series.

  I enjoy receiving mail, so please email me at [email protected]. If you’d like to reach me by postal mail, contact me at P.O. Box 45, New York, NY 10044, and if you would like a reply, please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope. For more information, please contact my agent, Pattie Steel-Perkins, Steel-Perkins Literary Agency, email [email protected].

  Warmest regards,

  Gwynne Forster

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  To the memory of Walter Zacharius, founder of

  Kensington Publishing, whose foresight helped publish

  the first line of African-American romances. I shall always

  remember him with gratitude and affection.

  I am indebted to all of the wonderful people who’ve

  helped me in any way as I’ve breezed through life almost

  undeterred. To my dear mother, who taught me how to

  handle the few hard knocks that came my way; to my

  beloved husband, who fills my life with joy; and to my

  Heavenly Father, who gave me wonderful talents and

  many opportunities in which to use them.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Prologue

  Scott Galloway had one cardinal rule: he was never late. He abhorred tardiness. But owing to exceptional circumstances, he arrived at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport with only forty minutes to spare before he needed to fasten his seat belt on flight DL7777. His secretary had already checked him in, so he made a dash for security, and then suddenly stopped.

  He didn’t have a second to spare, but as he hurried through the terminal he noticed an old woman sitting beside two pieces of luggage. He couldn’t leave without finding out whether she needed help.

  “Are you alone, ma’am?” he asked her, glancing at his watch.

  “Son, I’ve been sitting here in this airport for forty-five minutes. The taxi driver brought my bags inside and left me, and I’m still here.”

  The air rushed out of him as he thought about the possibility of missing his flight. There was no way he was going to arrive late for his first assignment as an ambassador. But he thought of his beloved grandmother back in Baltimore and her insistence upon driving alone wherever she went.

  “I’ll be back in a minute, ma’am.” He found an airport security officer. “I’m about to miss my flight,” he told the man, “but a woman sitting over there needs help.”

  “What’s your flight number?” the man asked. Scott told him. “Come with me.” They went to where the old woman sat with her bags. “Do you know your flight number, ma’am?”

  “Flight DL7777. I get off in Copenhagen.”

  “Both of you come with me.” The security officer got a wheelchair for the woman, checked her in, gave her a ticket, rushed her through security and got both of them to the gate minutes before the door to the aircraft closed.

  Scott took his seat in first class, nearly out of breath but with the satisfaction one gets from having done a good deed. He enjoyed a pleasant flight and conversation with his seatmate, a Dane en route to Copenhagen, until sleep overcame him. The next morning the plane made its scheduled landing in Copenhagen, Denmark, and passengers began to disembark. He walked to the plane’s exit door along with his seatmate and waited until he saw the elderly woman.

  “There you are,” she said with a smile that reflected her delight in seeing him. “Give me your card, please.” She looked at it, and her eyes widened. “An ambassador? And you almost missed the flight helping me.”

  “We both made it, ma’am. I wouldn’t have felt right leaving you there.” He turned to the man who had been his seatmate. “Will you see that she gets a taxi?” He reached in his pocket for money to pay for the taxi.

  “No, please,” the Danish man said. “It will be my pleasure to see that she gets home safely.”

  Scott bade them goodbye and went back to his seat as the plane resumed the next leg of the flight. Late that day, he finally arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania—a city with a dreary, baroque facade—for the first time. When he stepped off the plane, the first secretary of the embassy greeted him.

  “Welcome, Mr. Ambassador, and welcome to Lithuania. We have been awaiting you with great anticipation.”

  “Thank you.” Scott shook his head. Mr. Ambassador, he thought. He had worked long and hard for the title, and he loved the sound of it. But as he looked around at the difference between what he saw and what he had left behind in the States, he wondered what his two-year tour would mean, personally and professionally.

  Several days later, he received a personal letter, and the backward-slanted handwriting on the envelope puzzled him. He opened it and read:

  Dear Ambassador Galloway,

  Thank you for coming to my rescue in Reagan National Airport and for introducing me to Lars Erickson, who lives about eight blocks from me. He took me home. I think it may be time I stopped traveling around the world by myself. But I wanted to see the States, and I’m so glad I went there.

  My trip could have ended badly, but for you. However, what you did for me wasn’t a surprise, because you are a charitable man. I knew you would come along, so I wasn’t afraid. You’ll do well in Lithuania, though you won’t like the place very much.

  Your happiness is in the States. You’ve already seen her, but your interest was elsewhere, and you didn’t notice. Besides, you were a little peeved. She’s very near to your older brother. I’m not a fortune-teller. I see. And I am never wrong. So enjoy your work in Vilnius and then go back home. Your happiness is there.

  Yours,

  Helga Wilander

  P.S. You do like horses, don’t you?

  Scott read the letter several times. If she were a seer, why didn’t she know that he didn’t have an older brother? He was the eldest son. He decided to write and ask her.

  Dear Mrs. Wilander,

  I was glad to hear from you and to know that you arrived home safely. I liked what you said about my future, but I don’t have an older brother, unless there’s something that I don’t know about? If you get a notion to travel again soon, why not visit me here in Viln
ius?

  Yours,

  Scott Galloway

  Six days later, Scott looked through his incoming mail and saw Helga’s unusual scrawl. He slit open the envelope and read:

  Dear Scott,

  I knew you’d answer, but I hadn’t thought I’d get your letter so soon. Of course I know you don’t have an older blood brother, Scott. But you have an older buddy with whom you are closer than most blood brothers, and you have been since you were five or six years old. Trust me, Scott. You’ll find her near your brother. Maybe when I get the urge to travel again, I’ll pay you a visit.

  Your friend,

  Helga

  Scott folded the letter and put it in his wallet. All the women around his friend Judson, who he had to admit was like an older brother, were married. And Heather, Judson’s fiancée, didn’t have a sister or any close female friends that he knew of. In fact, he was Heather’s best buddy.

  “Nobody can accurately predict the future,” he said to himself. “And that includes Helga Wilander.” With a dismissive shrug, he flicked on his desk lamp and settled down to the business of being a United States ambassador.

  Chapter 1

  Two years later…

  Scott Galloway stared out of his office window into the cold sunlight of a June morning in Vilnius, Lithuania, a small country situated between Belarus and the Baltic Sea. Two years in the diplomatic outpost had gone by far more quickly than he had anticipated. He had made a difference in the lives of the people working at the embassy and in the quality of diplomatic relationships between the United States and Lithuania. But for the past two years, his personal life had been on hold.

  He zipped up his leather toiletries case, put it and his laptop in his small carry-on bag and paused for a moment. He slowly perused his office and the photo of him that hung alongside those of the U.S. president and the secretary of state, which brought a smile to his face. Then, he shrugged and headed out the door and down the corridor to the exit, where the embassy staff had lined up to tell him goodbye.

  “We’ll miss you, sir,” one of the embassy officers said. “You made this place come alive.”

  He didn’t give the statement much credence. If he had brought life to the place, it must certainly have been dead a long time before he got there. “Thank you, Aggie. You’ve been of immense help.” Although the comment lacked veracity, it was bound to inflate her already oversize ego. But the next ambassador would have to deal with her.

  “I hate to see you go, sir,” an older man, a native of Vilnius, said to him. “They said I was too old to work and they were going to fire me. I don’t know what I’ll do now.”

  “I left a letter recommending you to the next ambassador, so don’t worry. You’re one of the best workers here.” He patted the man on the shoulder and was about to depart, when the elderly janitor, Misha, pressed something into Scott’s hand. “It’s from my mother. She’s a hundred and one. Since you came, it was the first time she’d tasted caviar in forty years. She gave me this to give to you.”

  Deeply touched, he thanked the man. “Give your mother my love and my humble thanks.”

  A young-looking man ran toward him, seemingly out of breath. “This just came, sir.” He handed Scott a letter marked personal. He recognized the handwriting of Helga Wilander, the woman he’d befriended en route to Lithuania when he’d first arrived. He put the letter inside the breast pocket of his suit jacket, waved to the staff, got into the waiting limousine and headed for the airport. His first tour as United States ambassador was behind him. He exhaled a long breath, sat back and contemplated what he imagined was his future.

  Remembering the envelope that Misha had given him, he opened it and gasped when he saw the six-by-eight-inch Russian icon of Mary, painted on silver and set in an old hammered silver frame. He looked at it for a long time, put it back in the envelope, wrote the old man’s name on the envelope and put it in his briefcase. It was probably the most valuable object that Misha owned, and Scott vowed to write and thank him as soon as he was settled into his new job.

  An airport attendant ushered him into the VIP lounge, where a waiter immediately placed a tray with coffee and assorted sweets in front of him. He would have appreciated fruit, any kind of fruit, since that was the one thing that was hard to find during the long winter months in Vilnius. The embassy got fruit from the States for special occasions, but only rarely. He couldn’t wait to sink his teeth into some blueberries. The woman who sat facing him in the lounge smiled, and asked if he would like company.

  “No, thank you,” he said, not sure why such a good-looking and seemingly wealthy woman would be on the make in an international airport. Just the place to find a wealthy man, to make a seemingly innocent connection or to engage in covert espionage, he thought.

  He gave the woman his most rakish smile, and when she didn’t back off, he said, “Nothing would be more enjoyable, but I have to hand in this report immediately after I land, so I’ll be working for the next ten hours solid.”

  She pursed her lips in what appeared to be a pout. “Not even time out for an itsy-bitsy drink?”

  He let a grin float over his face. “A guy’s got to work if he wants to eat. Thanks, I’m going to get started on this work.”

  If she hadn’t pouted, he might have thought he’d misread her, but he hadn’t. She was a plant, though he couldn’t imagine why. He opened his laptop and got to work. Later, when she didn’t board the plane in either first or business class, he knew he’d been right in his assessment. His experiences over the past two years had been a great teacher, reinforcing his conviction that you couldn’t accept women at their word, sometimes not even at their behavior and definitely not based on looks. Nowadays, sultry smiles, perfectly shaped bosoms and swinging hips barely got his attention.

  He smiled to himself, though he was not amused. The last time he’d misjudged a woman’s intentions, she had handed him one of the most painful lessons of his life. He’d fallen for a girl his freshman year in college, only to learn that she was very different than what she seemed—especially after she was arrested and expelled from school. But he quickly got over her. However, Louise Fiske was a different story.

  For months, she’d sworn that he was the only man for her. But when he needed her, she’d let him down with a resounding thud. After agreeing to accompany him to a fraternity social where he was to receive a prestigious award in his senior year, she inexplicably disappeared. Concerned for her safety, he ended up missing the awards ceremony. How was he to know that she’d been leading him on, and was secretly dating another guy? Now, years later, he remembered those lessons and swore that he’d never make those mistakes again, and he’d kept that promise.

  A heavyset middle-aged man took the seat beside him in first class, whispered a prayer and almost immediately took out some photographs from his briefcase. A smile covered his face as he gazed at the pictures.

  Scott hadn’t planned to initiate a conversation with the stranger, but curiosity prompted him. “Your family?” he asked the man.

  “Yes. For the past year, I’ve been working as a construction engineer in Vilnius. I couldn’t leave the job, so I’ve never seen my infant son. I can’t wait to get home. I have twin daughters, too,” the man went on as if the floodgates had opened up. “They’re my life. We thought we couldn’t have any more children due to my wife’s age—she was thirty-five when we married, which is usually not good news if you want to start a family. But this little fellow is healthy, and I thank God all the time.” The man shook his head as if amazed by the miracle of it. He handed Scott the photograph.

  “I resisted getting married, but I’m happier than I ever thought I’d be. You got kids?”

  Scott stared at the photograph and handed it back to the man. “Not that I know of. I’ve been so busy with my career that I’ve let some important areas of my life slide. But when I get home, I’m going to put first things first.”

  “You’re right. I said I’d make my first million b
efore I was thirty-five, and I put living on hold,” the man said.

  “Money is necessary, but it won’t buy any of the things that make me happy. Go for it,” the man said. “Life is short.”

  Scott could no longer bear to look at the expression of pure joy on the man’s face as he gazed at the pictures of his three children. Scott took pride in his accomplishments, since he was by any measure a success. But he needed more, a different kind of fulfillment. For two years, he had retired every evening to his personal quarters, taken off the diplomatic mask and settled into a loneliness that he couldn’t escape. Sure, he was satisfied with the choices he’d made, but not with the sacrifices.

  He lifted his glass to his seatmate. “Thanks. Here’s to a good life.”

  The man took a sip after the toast, but a quizzical expression soon spread across his face. “I appreciate your goodwill, but why did you thank me?” the man asked.

  Scott savored the glass of wine, held the glass up and drained it. “The people I meet in my line of work are chasing something—dreams, money, status, promotions, women, whatever,” he said. “But you stuck with your values, found what you need and recognized it when you got it. That’s rare. I hope to do the same.”

  Ten hours later, when the plane landed at Reagan National Airport, Scott had decided he was going to give himself one year in which to settle down and start a family. He realized it was a tall order, but he also knew that his bosses wouldn’t give him more than a year between overseas assignments. He had no intention of spending another year wearing Brooks Brothers suits with shoes that shone like glass, working five, and sometimes seven, days a week, making certain that his face bore just the right expression as he carefully watched every word he uttered, only to be rewarded with lonely, celibate nights.