Chapter 1

May 2014 London

"Hi sweetheart how you doing?"

"Ready for you to come home."

"I know honey. I'll be home tomorrow and then no trips for a while. Are you and Anwen being good for your Aunt Victoria?"

"Dad, we're thirteen, not six!" He could picture his daughter Jessamy rolling her eyes as she answered. He knew what was coming next,

"So why can't we just stay at home anyway. It's not like we can't take care of ourselves."

"I don't know ... I just have this vision of you and your sister running amok at home, having a wild party drinking all the booze, driving the Rolls around town, picking up boys ... You know like in that John Hughes' movie 'Sixteen Candles.'"

"Dad, that film is so old it's probably on TCM by now ... and last time I checked we had an Acura SUV in the garage."

"Oh yeah. Well then I would worry ... so let's leave it at that for now okay?"

"Well okay, you're the dad." He could hear the smile in her voice.

"So is Victoria around?"

"She's right here. See you tomorrow dad. I love you."

"I love you too sweetheart, and give my love to Anwen."

"Hi William, how's London. Meet any hot chicks?"

"Victoria, I thought that was your job to fix me up, I didn't know I was supposed to be working on the 'hot chicks' department on my own!" He laughed.

"There has got to be at least one woman in London who might be interested!" It was her turn to laugh.

"Well let's see ... I've been here five days and so far no luck and time is running out – I'm on the plane home in the morning."

"Well, how about this, instead of wasting your time sleeping tonight, why don't you get out there and look. I mean what time's it there?

"Oh, a little after ten-thirty."

"The night is still young!" she laughed.

Changing the subject he asked, "How are the girls doing?"

"Good as gold as always. But they do miss you."

"I know. I miss them too... "Well, that's all from this side of the pond." He gave a dramatic sigh and continued, "Guess I'll take your advice and spend the next several hours looking for a woman who wants to trade exciting London, and a life of clubs and parties for being a soccer mom in Lake Forest Illinois."

Your girls don't play soccer."

"What? When did that happen?"

She laughed. "See you tomorrow William. I love you, despite the fact you thwart my good intentions at every turn."

William Fitzhugh (Fitz) Jamison smiled as he ended the call to his sister. Just eighteen months apart they had always been close. After three days as a guest speaker at a medical conference, and then two days of meetings at various hospitals in and around London to discuss a new procedure he had developed to treat pediatric head trauma, what he wanted was to grab a few hours sleep before heading back to Chicago in the morning.

He thought about Victoria's suggestion he go out tonight looking for women. She was always trying. He did love his sister though and she did mean well. He'd been a widower for five years and was just now getting to the point where he could walk into their house after a day or a night at the hospital and not automatically want to call out to Naomi to tell her he was home.

He'd just returned from dinner with a number of his professional friends from the UK. The food and wine and company had been very pleasant and intellectually stimulating, but at this point he just wanted to get home to his girls. In his mind he spent too much time away from them, even though he usually cleared his calendar to make it to all of their sporting events. They were just growing up too fast and he didn't want to miss a moment of it.

Were it not for the dinner he'd be in the air over the Atlantic right now. He was happy enough he hadn't been hosting and picking up the tab for the dozen or so people who attended, but he knew a reciprocal dinner would be on his dime one of these days in Chicago.

As soon as good manners allowed he had said his farewells, declining an invitation to extend the evening at an exclusive London club, and escaped to his hotel. According to Victoria he should have joined them, but somehow he doubted he would find the new love of his life at some club, exclusive or not. He really wasn't sure he wanted a new love of his life anyway. The loss of Naomi to cancer had devastated him.

He set his phone on the desk and turned his attention to his schedule for tomorrow. He grabbed the room service menu and ordered the 'Full American Breakfast' to be delivered by six in the morning. The Queen Anne was a boutique hotel which catered to a high-end clientele, and they really knew how to prepare breakfasts. Despite a well-regarded chef in the restaurant downstairs, that was the only meal he'd ever eaten there. Lunches and dinners were always out someplace and ran the gamut from the rubber chicken at the conference to upscale restaurants with colleagues, to a local pub near some neighborhood children's clinic.

Fortunately he didn't have to do it often because these trips from Chicago, across the pond to London, or across the country to Seattle or San Francisco got old in a hurry. 'Across the Pond'- that phrase was certainly a misnomer, probably invented by someone in the travel business, who actually never had to travel. It made the trip sound like a pleasant excursion across some small body of water. The reality was something quite different - like getting up at zero dark thirty, fighting congestion getting to O'Hare, being hassled at security, despite his frequent flyer 'trusted traveler' identity, then being stuck in a large metal tube for hours on end, even in business class or first class, and then the crowds at Heathrow, even when someone wasn't on strike. And then a couple of days later he'd do it all over again, just in reverse.

He wondered how his friend and attorney, David Ryan dealt with the constant back and forth to Dublin. Well actually he did know, Fitz had attended David's wedding to Teresa Flaherty last year. She was a gem and they were now expecting their first child.

He had also known David's ex, Keri for more than twenty years and he thought she was beautiful, smart and focused. He'd liked her a lot and they seemed happy. She had gone out of her way to welcome him and Naomi to their home on numerous occasions, and he was most grateful especially when he was a struggling med student. And it was Keri who Naomi turned to for advice when one, or both of their girls, was having problems. It was a shame they'd split up, although it appeared that it was Keri who split them up. Naomi would have been devastated. They had become close friends and David and Keri were Godparents to his daughters. A shame.

Fitz opened his door to hang the menu on the handle when he heard loud voices from down the hallway. He stepped out and first saw a tall, very attractive twenty-something with dark red hair. She was wearing a black cocktail dress that hugged her slim body perfectly and came just to her knees. Her long legs were amazing and her wavy shoulder-length hair framed high cheekbones and a pert nose.

He almost laughed as he imagined asking the beautiful young woman if she'd like to audition for the part of soccer mom in Lake Forest. Smiling, he shook his head.

He was a forty-two year old widower with twin teen daughters and she was most likely fifteen years his junior or more. He didn't have time for romantic entanglements anyway. Naomi's picture was still the first thing he saw when he powered up his phone. He still regretted all the time his schooling and practice had stolen from their time together. The girls, blonde like their mother were now thirteen and he devoted all his free time to them and their activities, although of late even they were getting less than subtle in their hints that he should have some kind of a social life. He was sure those hints were aided and abetted by Victoria.

"William." She was one of the few who actually called him anything but 'Fitz.' "It's time you had a woman in your life again." Like tonight on the phone, they'd had that conversation many times over the last couple of years and so a stream of young lovelies would parade through Victoria's home at Thanksgiving, backyard cookouts, or any other social event she could organize and drag him to.

The girls spent a lot of time with their aunt and uncle and three cousins who lived only about a half-hour away. But he wasn't ready. Anytime he saw an attractive woman and his thoughts wandered in that direction he'd feel guilty – guilty of betraying Naomi's memory.

So he didn't date, and he had lost the art of flirting if he ever had it, and responded to many invitations from the medical center staff – primarily female, who wanted to fix him up or present themselves as the next Mrs. Fitz Jamison, with a smile and a plea for understanding that his surgery schedule and his girls kept him too busy for most outside social activities. Of course he couldn't avoid Victoria's blatant attempts to 'fix him up.'

And he was dismayed to discover he was still grist for the rumor mill at the medical center. He just accepted it and was a nice to everyone as he could be but still tried to keep his surgeon's aloofness. It was hard to do since he was working on sick children. As a parent his heart went out to the kids and their families, especially to those families when the best of medical science couldn't save their child.

Lost in thought he somehow found himself in the hallway heading in the direction of the striking red head. For the first time he concentrated on the man who appeared to have her pinned to her hotel room door. She was not literally pinned there, but the man in the expensive gray suit facing her was definitely well into her personal space as she pressed her back against the door. She had her bare arms crossed across her chest and was shaking her head, obviously telling him what he didn't want to hear.

His face was red and his posture threatening. It was interesting that he had to look up at her. In heels she was probably close to six feet tall. Her nemesis on the other hand, was short with dark hair, and reminded Fitz of Joe Pesci, at least the odious character Pesci played in 'Goodfellas.' As he approached her he heard American accents. Was this just a case of a dinner date gone wrong with misunderstandings about how the evening would end? Maybe he should just turn around and go back to his room.

As he got closer his gaze turned back to her. She really was lovely and the fire in her deep blue eyes was very real, but it was her lips that suddenly drew his attention – they were soft looking and seemed perfectly formed. Kissable? Most definitely. Angelina Jolie would be envious. He shook away those thoughts again. He really didn't have the time or inclination to have a woman in his life.

He did decide since he was almost on top of them already – although neither had apparently noticed him yet, he would see if she needed help. Fitz was a sucker for anyone in distress, dogs, cats, kids and now apparently damsels.

"Excuse me miss, is this man bothering you?" he heard himself say in a very upper class 'BBC' accent.

That wasn't hard since his mother came from the UK and he'd listened to her accent all his life. In fact it had proven a definite advantage as an amateur thespian during his awkward high school years, and was a way to get girls to pay attention to him. Why he was using this bit of deception on the two arguing Americans he didn't quite know, perhaps it seemed right in light of the wine he'd consumed with dinner.

Both parties turned to look at him. For a second he got lost in those eyes. On closer examination they were violet. She did look awfully young.

He was jolted from his trance by the man's loud drunken command, "Buzz off fucker!" and a stare that was meant to intimidate.

Considering Fitz was two inches over six feet and a tri-athlete and, grew up in a tough neighborhood in south Chicago, with a middle name like Fitzhugh, thanks to his mother's ancestry, he had learned to handle himself in a fight. Also during what he liked to describe to others as his 'misguided youth, ' he had spent four hard years as a medical corpsman with the Marines. Considering all of that, plus the man facing him was drunk, his demand and shift to a fighting stance was ludicrous. Fitz stifled a grin, and out of the corner of his eye he thought he also detected a smirk from the mystery woman.

Cassandra Wallace was having a wonderful day which capped a wonderful week in London. Now on the eve of her departure for home, to her disgust she'd finally been cornered, by Tom Greeley Jr., partner at the law firm where she worked. She'd been pretty successful all week staying away from him, but the law of averages was probably against her. The week in London at a conference had been a dream come true - a city she'd wanted to visit since her childhood.

Tom Greeley Jr. or "Greedy," as he was called by others behind his back was a junior partner in the large law firm in Chicago where she had worked the past five years since her graduation from Northwestern School of Law. He was an obnoxious, overeducated aspiring lothario, and an all-around dickhead. No woman at the firm felt safe one-on-one with the guy, especially any woman who was younger and subordinate. Cassandra didn't know about his success rate, but she knew that he had driven two of her brilliant classmates to join the fairly new David Ryan firm at a lower salary rather than put up with his bullshit. So how did he make partner early and why was such a pig still with the firm? Easy answer – he brought in boatloads of money. He was a mergers and acquisitions guru and had put together deals thought impossible by others. Rainmaking that lined the partners' pockets trumped most kinds of misconduct and Tom Greeley knew it. And now he was after Cassandra.

Originally she and another woman from the firm had been slated to attend the conference – a conference on international business practices. Cassandra had come to specialize in international trade and markets, although so far her practice dealt mostly with trade between the US and Canada, but she and her firm, 'Stevens and Broach, ' had hoped to do more. At the last minute the woman who was going was replaced by Greely. Cassandra wondered about that at first, but since she'd had no chance to talk to her before departure she eventually put it out of her mind. It did make her a little uncomfortable that Greely would be attending the same conference but since they were in different divisions of the firm she hoped that he would spend his time in different sessions. That proved to be mostly true and each day at lunch she'd make sure she was at a table filled with new acquaintances.

Tonight was hardly different and she'd been invited to dine with new friends. The problem was as she came into the lobby on her way to the elevators she had to pass the pub in the hotel. Just as she did so a drunk Tom Greely stepped out and slid his oily way into the empty elevator with her. She tried her best to ignore him after a brief acknowledgement as he got on but he seemed oblivious to the cold shoulder she was giving him. When he got off the elevator on her floor she began to worry. He wasn't staying on her floor she knew, and when he followed her down the hall she saw trouble brewing.

Finally she stopped in front of her door, key in hand ready to try to get in the door, but unfortunately he was too quick – maybe not as drunk as she thought and he grabbed the key from her.

She simply looked at him, hoping her stare would turn him to stone, but he ignored her look and said,

"Just a little nightcap Cassandra and you'll get you key back." He said it with a leer.

She almost laughed since if this was the best he could do he was pathetic. Did he have any luck with this gambit? Then she saw the malevolent look in his eyes and suddenly she was afraid. Maybe the rumors around the firm were true that he'd been blacklisted from the top escort agencies in Chicago because he was violent with the escorts.

One thing was for sure, she was not going into the room with him and if he tried to force her she'd fight him and scream. She also realized her rejection of him would cost her her job when they got back to Chicago. That fear was certainly what he was counting on.

"Look Greely, you're drunk and there's no way in hell I'm inviting you into my room."

He moved closer, her back was now pressed against the door. She was ashamed that she was trembling.