Remembered by Moonlight Read Online Free

straightening. Aloof, unapproachable, and slightly dangerous. He could do that.
    The restaurant’s interior was quiet and empty. They were immediately greeted by a little man with a nervous smile.
    “Mr. Savoie. A pleasure to see you again.” Hardly. “This way, please.”
    They were hustled to the back where double doors opened into an opulent banquet room filled with milling, politely chattering Who’s Who. But it was a rough-looking man in a clerical collar who came forward with hands extended.
    “Max!” he called out in a gentle voice at odds with the meaty hands and battered features of a former brawler. He clasped Max’s forearms to pull him into a fond embrace. A sense of calm immediately settled. Max remembered Father Michael Furness, caretaker of St. Bart’s parish church, from his frequent visits to the Institute, but nothing before then. Nothing except the feeling of peace the man exuded.
    “I’m getting my feet wet in the social scene,” Max murmured, stepping back to a neutral distance.
    Furness nodded his approval. “Good for you. Is Charlotte with you?” He glanced behind him expectantly for the other half of the whole he couldn’t recall.
    “She had work this morning.”
    “It’s always work with her.” He looped a companionable arm through Max’s. “Come on. Noreen will be glad to see you.”
    As he moved through the crowd at the father’s side with Giles trailing behind them, Max felt it. An uneasy ripple of alarm. With each recognizing gaze, that aura of discomfort increased until the scent of fear was palpable. Not a bad guy? What did these people know that Giles overlooked? Obviously, they didn’t know all that he was. That left what he had or was thought to have done in that past yawning like a grave of bad deeds not buried or forgotten. An image surfaced unexpectedly.
    Pitchforks and torches?
    Then an elegant blonde socialite spotted him, and a smile bloomed upon her cruelly scarred face. Even before Furness said, “Noreen, look who’s here,” Max knew her. Not any details of their relationship, but the wounded heart of it.
    “Mr. Savoie, I’m so pleased you could make it.” She took his hand between hers, and Max was overcome by whatever it was that they’d shared. Grief, guilt, loss, all twisting up into a silent lament. Her daughter’s death. If not by his hand, as Giles assured him, why did he feel so shaken and to blame?
    “This was something I didn’t want to miss,” he told her quietly. Gratitude shone in her eyes making him glad he hadn’t.
    “Thank you. If it hadn’t been for you and Father Mike, I don’t know how I could have gotten through—” She caught herself and forced a determined smile that bespoke her tremendous inner strength. “Enough of that. This is about the future, not the past, and I so appreciate your involvement. I hope you don’t mind that Father Mike shared some of your story with me so I could better understand how much this project means to you personally. I wish you’d reconsider a position on the Board.”
    Max offered a smooth smile. “I think my participation is best served behind the scenes.”
    She pressed his hand tightly. “I plan to convince you otherwise. New blood is just what these stuffy events need.”
    Not the kind he purportedly had on his hands. Still, Max was moved to add, “Perhaps we’ll discuss it again someday.”
    “Soon.” She glanced over his shoulder and a complex expression clouded her face as they were joined by a distinguished looking gentleman with a mane of white hair and a movie star smile. A shark’s smile befitting a politician who’d just as soon cut off his manicured hand as offer it to Max.
    “Mr. Savoie, I hadn’t expected to see you here.”
    Surprise! A cold animosity growled through Max as he accepted the extended greeting with a quick shake. He recognized the statesman from the abundance of recent press he’d received, but Max wasn’t moved by those glowing reports. This was a