Amanda_A Contemporary Retelling of Emma Read online

  © 2006 by Debra White Smith

  Published by Bethany House Publishers

  11400 Hampshire Avenue South

  Bloomington, Minnesota 55438

  www.bethanyhouse.com

  Bethany House Publishers is a division of

  Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan

  www.bakerpublishinggroup.com

  Bethany House edition published 2018

  Previously published by Harvest House Publishers.

  Ebook edition created 2018

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

  ISBN 978-1-4934-1389-8

  Cover design by Connie Gabbert

  Author is represented by Alive Literary Agency

  Dedicated to my wonderful friends, the MacFarlanes.

  Thanks for loving me the way I am and for being our very own “family.”

  You’re the GREATEST!

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Cast

  A Note from the Author

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

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  34

  35

  36

  37

  About the Author

  Back Ads

  Back Cover

  Cast

  Amanda Wood Priebe: Based upon Emma Woodhouse from Jane Austen’s Emma. Amanda is a witty young heiress of both the Wood and Priebe fortunes. She declares herself wholly devoted to her father and “married” to their prosperous tourist company.

  Angie Townsend West: Based upon Anne Taylor. Amanda’s former governess, Angie has just married banker Wayne West. Even though her new marriage takes her from the Priebe household, she and Amanda are still the greatest of friends.

  Bev Knighton: Based upon Isabella Knightley. Amanda’s sister, Bev, is happily married to Gordon Knighton. She and Gordon live in Brisbane, Australia, where they are raising their four children.

  Betty Cates: Based upon Hetty Bates. The housekeeper at Wood-Priebe International Travel, Betty is a scatterbrained clean freak who never stops talking.

  Franklyn West: Based upon Frank Churchill. Son of Wayne West and stepson of Angie Townsend West, Franklyn is the charming newcomer to Highland. His mysterious smile, good looks, and glib remarks attract the attention of many females—including Amanda.

  Haley Schmitz: Based upon Harriet Smith. Amanda’s dowdy secretary, Haley, comes from humble origins and puts ultimate faith in Amanda’s judgment.

  Harold Priebe: Based upon Henry Woodhouse. Amanda’s father and a widower, Harold is the owner of the Wood-Priebe International Travel Agency chain.

  Gordon Knighton: Based upon John Knightley. The brother of Nate Knighton, Gordon is married to Amanda’s sister, Bev, and is one of two vice presidents of Knighton’s Department Stores.

  Janet French: Based upon Jane Fairfax. Betty Cates’s adopted niece, Janet usually turns heads in every crowd. An elegant young lady of Asian descent, Janet’s good looks and grace could drive even the most accomplished female into a fit of envy.

  Mason Eldridge: Based upon Philip Elton. Mason is the minister of music at Highland Metropolitan Church of Tasmania. While his claims indicate his only ambition in life is to be a man of the cloth, his expensive tastes say he’s after a wife with money.

  Nathanial “Nate” Knighton: Based upon George Knightley. Nate is the brother of Gordon Knighton. Nate, ten years older than Amanda, has watched her grow up. He’s the other vice president of Knighton’s Department Stores.

  Roger Miller: Based upon Robert Martin. Roger comes from a hardworking family who owns a dairy farm outside Highland, Tasmania. He is a man of high integrity and good character.

  Wayne West: Based upon Mr. Weston. Wayne is Angie Townsend West’s new husband.

  A Note from the Author

  Tasmania, Australia, is a major tourist attraction for all of Australia as well as much of the world, and not without reason. The beauty of its beaches and mountains leaves residents and tourists alike breathless. However, if you look on a map of Tasmania, you’ll find Highland, Australia, exists as a suburb of Hobart only in the author’s imagination . . . and yours.

  One

  “Oh, hello, Roger!” Haley Schmitz’s voice floated through her ajar office door.

  Amanda Wood Priebe lifted her fingers off the computer keyboard, scowled at her secretary’s door, and waited for the rest of the conversation. Haley has been seeing that brown-haired baboon for six months. What she sees in the dairy farmer is anybody’s guess, she thought. She had subtly hinted that Haley could do better, but the secretary never wavered in her fixation. Now the guy was calling her at work.

  Haley’s soft laugh preceded gentle words. Amanda strained to catch the gist of the conversation but failed. Roger had been out of town for five days, and he’d called Haley every day. What an average Tasmanian farmer needed to go out of town for was a mystery. But absence was making Haley’s heart grow fonder.

  This is moving to the desperate zone, Amanda told herself and decided to break her staunch rule of never eavesdropping unless absolutely necessary. In the last three months, Amanda could count on one hand the number of times eavesdropping had been necessary—that is, if she counted all five fingers two or three times.

  Amanda slipped her feet out of her backless heels and scurried across the wool rug until her toes met the cool tile that stretched into Haley’s office. She hovered beside the open door and tried to catch her secretary’s every syllable.

  “I miss you, too, Roger.” Haley’s rich, Australian coo deepened Amanda’s frown.

  I’ve got to get her settled with someone else, Amanda thought, before she makes the biggest mistake of her life. Amanda glanced around. The painting of a herd of zebras on the west wall came from her trip to South Africa. The miniature sculpture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa commanding the corner reminded her of the trip to Italy. Even the woolen rug, in hues of teal and sapphire blue, was a souvenir shipped back from Asia. All trips had been essential research for the Wood-Priebe International Travel Agency. Wood-Priebe International never recommended a hotel or restaurant that a staff member hadn’t experienced personally.

  Haley traveled with Amanda on every excursion. Her office told its own story—right down to the ever-burning ocean breeze candles that scented the office complex and forever whispered of the trip to the Bahamas. The thought of her kindhearted friend of three years marrying some farmer and being trapped in a cow paddock when she could be exploring the world made Amanda want to scream.

  She deserves better! Amanda thought and decided Haley must be taking whatever she thought she could get. Haley had spent half her childhood in foster homes, and Amanda susp
ected her background had conditioned her to believe no one really wanted her. Amanda crossed her arms, tapped her toes, and decided to take this situation into her own hands. She mentally went through a list of single men who attended her church. None of them seemed a good fit for Haley; none were good enough.

  Amanda pulled a package of spearmint gum from her blazer pocket, thoughtfully unwrapped a piece, and inserted it between her teeth. As the strong mint stung her tongue, she thought of the new music minister at Highland Metropolitan Church. Mason Eldridge had a touch of class. He’d traveled extensively. And he seemed broad-minded enough not to harness his wife into a monotonous existence on one continent.

  Furiously, Amanda chomped at the gum. If Haley is so bent upon finding a husband, Mason will be so much better than that baboon.

  But Haley needed to attract Mason first. Presently, there was absolutely no chance of that. The gum popped. Amanda had hinted for months that Haley should update her wardrobe, get a new hairstyle, and learn how to apply some makeup. Despite the encouragement, the twenty-four-year-old secretary arrived daily looking like she always did: drab, tired, and about as stylish as a soggy newspaper. Haley would never attract the likes of Mason Eldridge without a major makeover.

  The travel agency CEO touched her shoulder-length hair. This humidity was causing her typically carefree red ringlets to become a sea of horrifying frizz, and she mentally noted that she was due for a trip to the salon. Suddenly, with a calculating smile, Amanda decided that the best way to get Haley to update her look was to make her believe her boss needed advice on her own makeover.

  An hour ago, Amanda had left a voice mail with Mason about the choir schedule she’d volunteered to put together. She had yet to complete the schedule, even though she was supposed to have emailed it to Mason yesterday. Perhaps when he returned her call, she could begin the first stage of her plan.

  A light tap preceded the hallway door’s opening and Nate Knighton’s cheerful voice. “Hello in here!”

  Amanda jumped from her post near the other door and pretended to straighten the gold-framed mirror she’d purchased on her last visit to her aunt and uncle’s home in America.

  “Hello, Nate,” Amanda replied. As his footsteps neared, she wondered how one man could always catch her so off guard at the most inopportune moments.

  Nate’s reflection appeared behind her in the mirror. As usual, her lifelong friend was clad in a fashionable business suit with a red tie and white shirt. Last week Amanda decided the guy had to have the largest collection of red ties in all of Tasmania. The irony was that he was a vice president at his family-owned Knighton’s Department Stores. The national store chain featured a menswear section large enough to furnish all of Australia with any color ties they chose.

  Amanda feigned the most innocent expression she could muster and wondered why Nate couldn’t act like a civilized businessman and make use of the telephone or email.

  “Eavesdropping again?” Nate whispered and nodded toward Haley’s office.

  Haley’s hopeful tones underscored Nate’s suspicions. “Thanks, Roger. And I’m counting the days until you get home. G’day,” she purred, and her phone’s thunk on the desk as she set it down accompanied the squeak of her rolling chair.

  Amanda widened her eyes and naïvely observed Nate. “Are you talking to me?” she whispered and laid a graceful hand across her chest.

  Nate’s dark brows quirked, and he eyed her bare feet.

  Amanda curled her toes.

  One side of his mouth inched upward, and a dimple formed in his cheek. The gleam in his dark eyes reminded Amanda of the year she’d left Tasmania for college in America. Her aunt’s invitation of free room and board during all four years of college had been too good to turn down. So Amanda had applied for Princeton Business School and was accepted. She had spent nearly every summer of her childhood in New Jersey with her mom’s sister, so the venture was far from unfamiliar.

  Nate had driven her to the airport as he’d done since she was twelve and he was twenty-two. The last thing he’d said before she walked through security was, “You’re not a kid anymore. I’m not sure American men are ready for an Australian Amazon like you. Stay out of trouble, you hear?” His brown eyes had been just as full of devilry that day as today; so had the dimple.

  Amanda was all of six foot two, and that made her only half an inch shorter than Nathaniel Knighton. She gazed into the mirror and didn’t flinch from his cheerful mockery.

  “Whatever you’re up to this time, I say it’s best to leave it be,” Nate whispered. “Haley’s her own woman. Let her make her own choices.”

  “I’ll be glad when you get married and have a dozen kids,” Amanda mumbled. “Then maybe you’ll be so busy you can take your own advice and do very well to keep your nose out of my business.”

  “Humph!” Nate said, and Amanda didn’t remember one of his “humphs” being so filled with twisted humor. “Then who’d keep you in line, m’dear?”

  “Maybe I don’t need to be kept in line!” Amanda stepped toward Haley’s office door. She snapped it shut, smoothed her hand along the side of her knit skirt, and walked toward her desk.

  “Tsk, tsk. Let’s don’t be so testy.”

  “What are you here for, anyway?” Snapping away at her gum, Amanda paused behind the desk piled with paperwork and slipped her feet back into her shoes. She glanced at the big-faced, crystal-studded wristwatch her father had declared obnoxiously ostentatious when she bought it two weeks ago. Nate had agreed. Amanda couldn’t have cared less. She liked the sparkle and the large size. Normal-sized jewelry got lost on her towering frame.

  The watch said her daily lunch meeting with Nate wasn’t for another two hours.

  As if reading her thought, Nate said, “I’m not going to be able to do lunch today. I’ve got another meeting that’s come up. I can’t get out of it.”

  “Oh, really?” Amanda asked. “Why didn’t you just call?”

  “I was next door at the bank,” he replied. “It was easier to drop by.”

  When she returned home from college three years ago, their occasional lunch had grown to once a week, then to daily. Amanda hadn’t bothered to analyze the pattern and had no plans to start. There was always something more pressing than examining her friendship with good ol’ Nate . . . like planning her attack on Haley. Since Nate was canceling lunch, she would be free to take Haley to Knighton’s Department Store. The two of them could spend the afternoon working on Amanda’s—and Haley’s—new look.

  Nate narrowed his eyes and observed Amanda like an elder brother who’s gotten too bossy for his own good. “Don’t act so sad!” he teased.

  “About what?” Amanda asked and picked up the silver-plated pen lying atop a stack of travel agendas she was on the verge of finishing for the only three clients she handled herself—the big boys, as Haley referred to them. Other than these three clients, Amanda’s job consisted of overseeing the other twelve satellite travel agencies and personally investigating all new resorts, hotels, and restaurants. She eased her fingers to the end of the cool pen, flipped it, and slid her fingers to the bottom again.

  “I just canceled our lunch date . . . er . . . meeting,” Nate explained without a blink. “Aren’t you the least bit disappointed?”

  “Oh—you mean that I won’t get to look at the great and mighty you over my Caesar salad?”

  This time Nate responded with a two-dimple smile.

  “I have to admit,” Amanda continued, “you do look unusually handsome in your suit today.” She reached across the desk and straightened his tie. “And I’m so surprised to see you coming out of your rut and wearing a red tie.” She touched her hand to his face as any affectionate sister would.

  When she lowered her hand, Nate chuckled and sat sideways on her desk’s edge. “You know me, I’d never get into a rut.” He nudged a pile of papers to create more sitting space and examined her messy desk.

  “Of course not,” Amanda said and figured the
ir daily lunches were simply another rut Nate had fallen into. There were few men on the planet more methodical than he.

  “I’d stake all of Knighton’s stock that this paperwork has been here since Noah,” he teased.

  “I know exactly what’s here.” Amanda laid her flattened palms on top of the mound. “And how long it’s been here.”

  “It looks like your desk is pregnant or something,” he added with a wicked laugh.

  Amanda narrowed her eyes. “Do you have fever with these fits?”

  Nate laughed out loud. “One day, Amanda, one day,” he mused, “I’m going to have the last word. Just wait.” He stood and pulled the tangled paper mass back to its former position.

  “Don’t hold your breath,” she shot back.

  “Since I can’t do lunch today, let’s go to dinner tonight,” he said. “I’m not sure I’ll make it through the weekend without my Friday Amanda fix.”

  Amanda sighed. “I can understand your predicament. I really don’t know how you survived when I was in college.” She fluttered her eyelashes.

  “I barely struggled through,” Nate responded. “Just barely.” He lifted his hand and measured a few centimeters from forefinger to thumb.

  “Okay, let’s meet at O’Brien’s by Knighton’s at six. Work for you?”

  “Works.”

  She toyed with the neck of her short-sleeved sweater and eyed the framed wedding photo sitting on the edge of her desk. Her former governess, Angie Townsend, and her new husband, Wayne West, posed at their wedding reception three months ago. That day the happily married couple had profusely thanked her for being their matchmaker.

  In Amanda’s mind, she superimposed the images of Haley and Mason Eldridge upon the gleeful bride and groom. At Angie and Wayne’s wedding, Amanda had wondered who her next match would be. She didn’t have to wonder another day.

  “Haley will be with me. Is that okay?”

  Nate crossed his arms. “Does Haley know about whatever you’re planning?”

  “No, but—”

  “Does she have a choice?”