No Holding Back

About the Author

ISABEL SHARPE was not born pen in hand like so many of her fellow writers. After she quit work in 1994 to stay home with her first-born son and nearly went out of her mind, she started writing. After more than twenty novels—along with another son—Isabel is more than happy with her choice these days. She loves hearing from readers. Write to her at www. IsabelSharpe.com.

No Holding Back
Isabel Sharpe

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MILLS & BOON

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To Lori H, for being there every day to whine to

Table of Contents

Cover

About the Author

Title Page

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Epilogue

Copyright

Chapter One

“SO THERE I WAS IN PARIS at one of the greatest restaurants in the world, and stomach flu picks that night to turn on me, between the pigeon aux olives and the baba au rhum.”

“Oh, no. Imagine that.” Hannah O’Reilly swallowed another mouthful of tepid champagne and glanced desperately behind the large pallid lump named Frank who’d inflicted himself on this portion of her evening. At a New Year’s Eve party in an ostentatious mansion outside of her home city of Philadelphia, wearing one of those dresses saved all year for parties like this, she should be dancing wildly with a hot stranger. If she wanted boredom, she could have stayed home.

A waiter wafted by with a tray of tidbits. Hannah grabbed one, not sure what was in it, but assuming it cost more than her daily food allowance. Gerard Banks, owner of both this house and the newspaper that employed her, The Philadelphia Sentinel, threw a fancy New Year’s Eve party every year for his staff, friends and family. Hannah didn’t know which category this guy Frank belonged in, staff, friend or family, but she wished he’d bludgeon someone else with his stories. She was here for a healthy serving of hedonism.

“Another time, in London, I ate an oyster and felt movement between my teeth.” He mimicked checking in his large mouth and pretended to hold something up. “Turned out to be a worm. Never ate oysters after that.”

“I don’t blame you.” She laid her hand on his jacket sleeve to cushion the rejection. “You know…I think I’d like a refill on my champagne. It was great talking to you.”

“Sure.” He sighed and lifted his soda in a resigned toast. “Happy New Year.”

“Same to you, Frank.” She escaped, breathing a guilty sigh of relief, maneuvered between a chatting couple and a chartreuse settee, set her glass on a table full of similar empties next to the stone hearth and went searching for a champagne-bearing waiter. Then she was going to find some wild single hottie and flirt her head off. Because she was determined that this new year would launch a fabulous new chapter of her life. Careerwise, familywise and manwise. Out of the rut, into the rutting.

Bingo. Tuxedoed waiter ten paces ahead, carrying a tray of fizzing delight. She dodged between a ficus and a ceramic statue of a leopard. With any luck she could cut him off on the other side of the orange suede couch, and—

“Hannah, how’s the year winding down for you?” Tragically, her boss, Lester Wanefield, neither wild nor single nor with an extra glass of champagne, stepped into the few remaining feet between her and her next dose of bubbly. “Hey, now don’t you do good things for red sequins.”

“Oh. Thanks.” She loved how she looked in this dress, but enticing her boss made her wish she’d worn sackcloth.

“Great party, huh?”

“Mmm, yeah.” If she could keep herself from thinking the money should be used for something more worthy. Like charity or education or disease research or Hannah’s bank account.

She kept her eye on the waiter. This could still work. If he moved a few feet to his right and glanced her way…

“I’ve been thinking about your next assignment. Not for your Lowbrow column, but a feature story. Maybe start it on the front page.”

Lester had her full attention then—all rotund, gray-bearded, bespectacled, five-foot-six-inches of him. Now that she’d been at the paper over a year, she’d been pestering him—well, hinting first, suggesting second, pestering third—for more substantial assignments than the powder-puff stories he’d been tossing at her and burying in the back sections. “That would be fabulous, Lester. You know, I’ve actually been researching a story. There’s a little-known side effect of the drug Penz—”

“A story about boobs.”

If she punched him in his large stomach, would he squeal like the pig he was? “Boobs.”

“Women who’ve had boob jobs, to be precise. How does having a bigger rack alter their dating habits, their sex lives, their ability to attract men and does it change the type of men they score with?”

“How…interesting.” He had to be kidding. “But I was actually hoping to do—”

“We’ll call it ‘Rack of Glam.’ And I want lots of pictures.” He leered at a well-endowed woman strutting past. “Lots of pictures.”

“I’d rather—”

“I know you would, O’Reilly. But you don’t get your ‘rathers’ in this business until you’ve been around a lot longer than you have.”

“So you’ve said.” Ad nauseam. “But I—”

“No butts.” He gave her bare shoulder a condescending squeeze and winked. “Just boobs.”

Ew.

She approximated a smile, knowing further argument would only cement his opposition. But grrrrrr. How much girly news could a nongirly woman stand? Girly dress tonight aside.

She needed to find a story on her own, something bigger and sexier than the drug side effects, something so compelling that even Pig Lester couldn’t turn it down. A huge scoop with enough popular appeal to hook him, but enough substance to further her career and get her on such sound financial footing that if her parents’ lives imploded again she could be the one they could depend on.

Like…

Like…

Yeah. Like that.

She blew out a breath and spotted another waiter, wished her boss a Happy New Year that she barely managed to keep from sounding like Damn You and Your Family to Hell, and followed, determined to score more alcohol, this time to numb the frustration. A story about boobs. Whoopee. The year ended in approximately fifteen minutes and as far as she was concerned, good riddance. Landing what she thought would be her dream job hadn’t worked out. Again. Her last boyfriend hadn’t worked out. Again. Her determination to lose ten pounds hadn’t worked out. Again. Twenty-nine years old and she thought she’d be set for life by thirty.

At least circumstances had miraculously turned around for Mom and Dad. Though fat lot of help she’d been able to be.

The waiter stopped to serve an evening-gowned trio. This was her chance.

“Hannah.” Her closest work-friend, business reporter Daphne Baldwin, snagged her hand and dragged her into the library. “You have to meet this person…Dee-Dee something. Royco or Rosmer or Rrrrrr…I forget. But you have to meet her.”

“Why?” Hannah glanced wistfully at the top of the retreating waiter’s head, his tantalizing tray just visible above the crush of people. So close, and yet…

“Because, she’s…wait.” Daphne searched the room and frowned. “She was just here.”

“Where’s Paul?”

Daphne made a face. “He wouldn’t come. Said he didn’t see why he should get dressed up in uncomfortable clothes and hang around people he didn’t know and didn’t want to know, when he could stay home and be comfortable drinking without having to worry about driving drunk.”

He had a point, though Hannah wouldn’t dare admit it out loud. There were times she felt Daphne’s mellower half would be happier with a woman who matched his nonenergy, and that Daphne needed more of a live wire, but Daphne insisted he was her life’s ballast. Hannah thought he was more her life’s punching bag. “So you’re a wild single tonight. He better watch out.”

“I don’t know, Hannah, he’s been acting weird lately. Doesn’t want to do anything with me.”

“You mean he no longer jumps to do everything you want to do?”

“Ha ha ha.” Daphne continued to scan the crowd, unperturbed by Hannah’s bull’s-eye zinger. “I’m serious. He’s been distant and…I don’t know, unresponsive. Like there’s something really bugging him, but he won’t tell me.”

“Do you think he’s cheating?”

“What?” Daphne’s horror was immediate, and so impressive that nearby heads turned.

Oops. Where was the Reverse button on this conversation? Obviously Hannah had struck a nerve, and it wasn’t her place to torture her friend by planting suspicions. “No, no, I don’t think he is, I just…Isn’t that what you always suspect when—”

“Paul would never cheat. He doesn’t have the time. Or the initiative.”

Oof. As much as Hannah loved Daphne, sometimes she thought Paul should cheat, just to stop her from taking him for granted. “Something at work?”

“He’d tell me that. It’s probably a midlife crisis. Men get those all the time, don’t they? Serves them right for not being slaves to hormones every month like we are.” She frowned and plunked her hands onto her enviably trim hips. “Now where the heck is that woman?”

“Why do I need to meet this person?” Hannah sighed, queasy over her friend’s relationship attitudes and feeling generally cranky. She didn’t want to make small talk with any strangers, not even Mr. Hot-Wild-Single-Whoever. The dress was wasted. The night was wasted. The year was wasted. Her life was on its way to being wasted. Only she wasn’t wasted because the damn waiters were avoiding her.

Fine. She’d ring in the New Year, butt-kiss Gerard for spending gazillions on people he underpaid, and get home to the city before the predicted ice storm hit. Too bad about her fantasy of spending the night enraptured with a new love, but probably just as well. It was always the same tired story. She fell for men like stemware during an earthquake, then when they sensed the depth of her passion and excitement and hope for the future, they abruptly moved on. No matter how hard she tried to act indifferent, men could always tell. Maybe she should make a resolution tonight to avoid the gender altogether.

“Come on.” Daphne dragged her out of the library into another room, some sort of study, then another huge garish living room, as if the front living area the size of Hannah’s entire apartment wasn’t enough. “Don’t see her here, either. Let’s go back.”

“Ooh, wait.” Hannah caught a glimpse of Rory, the VP of advertising whom she had a minicrush on, standing alone, looking a little lost. At the office Rory barely acknowledged her in her usual attire of jeans and baggy sweaters. Should she test her slinky red-sequined minidress out on him and see if he—

Argh! What was she, some kind of addict? Ten seconds and she’d already forgotten her resolution. Men bad, Hannah. Alone good. Alone safe.

Alone, boring and predictable.

“Let’s try this way.”

Hannah dug in her feet before Daphne could continue bulldozing. “Would you mind telling me what is so thrilling about this person?”

“Oh. Right. Duh.” Daphne thwacked her forehead, making her fabulous brown curls bounce. “She’s close to Jack Brattle.”

Zip. Hannah’s gaze left Rory’s tall form at light speed and fixed on her friend. “Jack Brattle?”

“Knew that’d get your attention.”

“Where is she?” Hannah grabbed Daphne’s rock-muscled arm, not even indulging her usual envy for Daphne’s discipline in the gym. “Find her. An interview with Jack Brattle could get me—”

“I know, I know, world renown and riches galore. Why do you think I wanted you to meet her?” Daphne pulled Hannah—or was Hannah now pulling Daphne?—toward the house’s huge foyer into which spilled a staircase worthy of Scarlett O’Hara’s Tara. And at this staircase, oh happy day, Daphne proceeded to point. “There she is.”

And there she was, a little-black-dress-clad platinum-blond bombshell cliché, sauntering down the steps on requisite spike heels. A perfect candidate for Lester’s “Rack of Glam” article.

“I’m sorry, is there a Pamela Anderson look-alike contest tonight?”

“Shh.” Daphne positioned herself at the bottom of the staircase. “Hi, Dee-Dee.”

“Hey.” Dee-Dee reached them, shook back her mane of peroxide and flicked a glance at Hannah. “Cool dress.”

“Thanks. Thank you.” Hannah gave her best ingratiating grin. “I love yours, too.”

“This is Hannah O’Reilly. She works with me at the Sentinel.”

“Yeah?” Another shake of overcooked hair.

“She writes the Lowbrow column.”

“Oh!” Something approaching life quivered in her too-taut face. “I love your column! You’re always fighting with that guy who writes the Highbrow column, D. G. Jackson. Too funny!”

“Yes!” Hannah gritted her teeth. Way too funny. Mr. Jackson took malicious delight in thumbing his nose at her column, which extolled the virtues of inexpensive food and entertainment around the city of brotherly love, while his dwelt on places and things no normal person could afford and no sane person would waste that much money on. She’d responded to one particularly degrading remark by sending him a case of Grey Poupon and blogging about it. He’d reciprocated with cans of spray-cheese. Word got out, and now both their editors were fanning the flames…all in the name of circulation and buzz.

Circulation and buzz. Yeah, superdeedooper. What about the news? She wanted to write news.

“So…what does this D.G. guy look like?” Dee-Dee tipped her head and started playing girlishly with a fried strand, making Hannah want to tell her D.G. could be Liberace’s surviving twin. “His articles are so charming and funny and classy all at the same time.”

“I’ve actually never met him.” Hannah smiled, aching to change the subject to Jack Brattle—where was he, how soon could she meet him? “But maybe I can arrange to set you up sometime for lunch.”

“Oooh, I’d love that. I have this feeling about him…” She giggled. “Would you really do that for me?”

“Sure, no problem.” Hannah hadn’t been serious, but it didn’t hurt to promise one favor right before she asked for another. And maybe she could work a date with the grievously tacky Dee-Dee into another joke on Mr. Highbrow. “So…Daphne tells me you’re best buddies with Jack Brattle.”

“Oh.” Blink-blink of false eyelashes. “I don’t know about best buddies. I shouldn’t even have told—”

“Friends, though?”

“Well.” She looked uneasily between Hannah and Daphne. “I’ve…met him.”

Hannah sent Daphne a sidelong glance. Met was a far cry from close to. “When was this?”

“Oh, a while back.” She gestured vaguely. “I’m really not supposed to tell. It just sort of slipped out.”

And thank God for that. Jack Brattle had kept himself out of the public eye as effectively as his late gazillionaire father had kept himself in it, which meant the absence of a Brattle in the news left that much bigger a hole.

An interview with Harold Brattle’s son and heir…Or, given that Dee-Dee was full of hot air as well as silicone, even snippets of inside information on Jack’s whereabouts, his habits, tastes, sexual preference…Any reporter would give up major organs for that scoop.

Many had tried, none had succeeded. Not since the disappearance of Howard Hughes had a missing person generated this much mystery and excitement. Yet by all accounts Jack Brattle continued to run his father’s empire while remaining invisible. From time to time people claimed to have encountered him—like people kept seeing Elvis—but the sightings always turned out to be hoaxes or misidentification.

“Whatever you can tell me would be great. I’ll handle it all very discreetly. No one will ever be able to trace anything back to you.”

“Oh gosh. I’m so not supposed to.”

“I know.” She laid a sympathetic hand on Dee-Dee’s soft arm, wanting to pinch her. “I completely understand. I’ve put you in a really tough position.”

“Well…” Dee-Dee bit her bee-stung lip. “I do know where he lives. A guy I met once took me by his house. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell you that.”

“Really?” Hannah’s droopy spirits perked up. Rumors had been flying that Jack owned property in the area, but his cover had been scrupulously complete. Or at least he hadn’t walked down any local streets with a giant name tag on. “You are amazing, wow.”

“In West Chester.” Apparently now that Dee-Dee had started, the confession had gotten easier. “My friend said he’s abroad until spring, but the house is not that far from here.”

Hannah’s reporter lust started rising. Around them the chatter intensified as enormous flat-screen TVs in several rooms flickered on, and crowds gathered to watch midnight approach.

“Can you tell me how to get there?”

“Well…yeah. I could. But he’s away. And I’m really not supposed to.”

“Simple curiosity on my part. I wouldn’t try to go in or bother anyone. Just drive past. No one would ever know I’d been by.” She smiled her most innocent smile, shrugging as if it didn’t matter all that much if Dee-Dee spilled or not. Please. Please. Please.

“Well…okay. You got paper or anything?”

“I have a BlackBerry.” She nearly gasped out her relief, fishing the life-organizing electronic device out of her adorable dress-matching red-sequined bag as fast as she could before Dee-Dee changed what there was of her mind. “So what does he look like?”

“Oh, he’s…” Dee-Dee gestured expansively and raised her eyes to the ceiling. “You know.”

“Ah. Yes.” Hannah’s heart sank even as she opened a new memo, ready to write down directions. Dee-Dee definitely hadn’t met him. Probably didn’t even know which house was his. This would turn out to be another attention-grabbing hoax. She better prepare herself for the disappointment right now. And yet, on the crazy minuscule chance this could be legit…“So where does he live?”

She poised her fingers over the tiny keyboard and waited. Several minutes later, she’d written down Dee-Dee’s directions, which consisted mostly of phrases like “turn left at that big stone thing” and “stay on the road even when it looks like you shouldn’t.”

A miracle if she found it. And an even bigger one if there was anything to find.

Excitement swelled in the room. Someone started a countdown from sixty seconds. Hannah slipped the BlackBerry back into her evening bag, then snagged—finally—a second glass of the slightly sour champagne from a passing waiter and turned to face the screen, counting along with everyone else.

As soon as midnight came and went she’d find Gerard, thank him for a wonderful evening and set out on her hunt for the wild and elusive Jack Brattle, heir to his father’s real estate fortune which could, of course, given that Dee-Dee didn’t seem qualified for Mensa, be nothing but a wild-goose chase.

She lifted her glass as the shouting started. Five, four, three, two, one…

Or…she could scoop every other reporter in the country and make this a really phenomenal start to the rest of her life.

Chapter Two

HANNAH PRESSED HER FOOT gingerly on the accelerator, peering through the windshield into a curtain of sleet, bouncing tzap-tzap off the glass and tinkling on the roof of her beloved bright red Mazda, which she’d named Matilda. Hannah considered herself a very persistent investigator, but even she was questioning how smart it was to be out here so late in this mess with no one around. Pennsylvania’s gentle rolling countryside surrounded her car. Despite the beauty of the fields, forests and sloping hills, she did not want to slide off the road and end up spending the night in any of them.

Amazingly, Dee-Dee’s directions had held up so far, which fueled her determination to keep going. Hannah had found “the stone thing” and she even recognized the “amazing tree.” The woman might not radiate brainpower, but, whether or not Hannah found the Jack Brattle pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, Dee-Dee obviously had a sharp eye and a killer memory. All Hannah had to do now was turn down a driveway where the gates were “kind of creepy and jail-like.” Not to mention, “not very visible from the road unless you were looking.”

She was looking; she just wasn’t seeing.

The sleet fell harder. A driveway crept by; Hannah peered toward it. No gates.

“Come on, Jack’s house.” At this point, she just wanted to see the damn thing, mark the address so her BlackBerry could find it again, and come back when the weather wasn’t intent on killing her. Of course hindsight was now sitting on her shoulder whispering that she would have done a lot better to come back later in the first place.

Next driveway. No gates. Phooey. Properties weren’t exactly close together out here in Billionaireland. Everyone needed his own private stable, pool, tennis court, golf course…all the basic necessities of survival.

Her BlackBerry rang. She dragged it from her bag, which she’d flung onto the passenger’s seat, and glanced at the screen. Dad, calling to wish her Happy New Year. If she didn’t answer, he’d worry. She eased Matilda over to the side of the road and turned on her flashers.

“Happy New Year, Dad.”

“Happy New Year to you, sweetheart.” His rough slow voice crackled over the tenuous connection. “Why don’t I hear party noise, you didn’t go? Or do fancy parties not make noise?”

“I left after midnight. Wanted to get home before the weather turned bad.”

“Is it bad now? I haven’t looked outside in a while.”

“Uuh, no. Not bad yet.” The tinkles of ice crystals on her roof turned to sharp taps. In the white beam of her headlights pea-sized balls bounced and rolled on the asphalt. Hail to the chief. “The roads are fine.”

“Okay. But call me when you get home. The storm is supposed to come on fierce.”

Tell me about it. “I’m…seconds away, Dad. In fact, turning on my street now. How’s Mom?”

“Better, still better. Always better, thank God. I don’t know what we would have done without Susie.”

“She’s a blessing, for sure.”

“Mom even fed herself part of her dinner tonight. I made lasagna.”

“Good for her! Her favorite. That’s wonderful.” She smiled, ashamed of herself for not being grateful enough as the clock ticked toward midnight for the few good events of the past year. Dad’s latest employer, The Broadway Symphony, on the brink of collapse, had been saved by a generous donor who wiped out the orchestra’s debt and allowed her father to keep the first job he’d ever held down this long—going on five years now. And Susie, a nursing angel of mercy, had showed up at their door, highly recommended by Mom’s doctor, offering to help out with Mom’s rehabilitation right there in their home for practically slave wages, saying she needed the experience.

Before those miracles, Hannah had gone through agonizing feelings of helplessness with her own bank account in no shape to help. Prey to addiction and poverty, her parents hadn’t done much to give her a secure childhood, but especially now that they’d climbed out of the pit, she wanted them to have a secure retirement. “Tell Mom I love her and that I know this year will have her back to her old self. I’ll call tomorrow.”

“I’ll tell her. I hope it’s a good year for you, too, Hannah-Banana.” He coughed to clear his throat—a legacy of lifelong smoking. “Maybe a nice young man will come along.”

“Maybe.” She rolled her eyes. Yeah, maybe. Maybe he’d even stick around longer than a few weeks or a month. And maybe cancer would start curing itself and global warming spontaneously reverse.

“You take care of yourself. Drive safely.”

“I will. Love you, Dad.” She ended the call with another pang of guilt as the sleet continued to bombard Matilda, collecting on the roads at an alarming rate. This was crazy. If anything happened to her, what would it do to her poor father who’d already had his relatively new sobriety and stability threatened with her way-too-young mom’s shocking stroke and his livelihood nearly yanked out from under him?

Hannah was being selfish. She should turn around now and crawl home, give up this crazy quest until the weather was better.

Except she’d already come this far…And it was Jack Brattle. What if someone else in the business had overheard Dee-Dee? What if Hannah lost this huge long shot at a scoop? What if? What if? What if?

She put Matilda in gear and moved slowly forward, wheels crunching ice. A flash of lightning made her jump and hold on to a wince while waiting for the expected thunder. Thun-dersnow. Whee. This only added to the fun.

Next driveway…No gates.

The wind started whipping in earnest, sending Matilda into a shimmy. Hannah narrowly avoided a largish branch on the road. Snow mixed with the sleet to reduce visibility further.

Oh goody.

Next driveway. She had to turn in and focus her headlights to see…

Gates! Creepy dark jail-like ones! Eureka. She’d found it. Or found something.

Out came her trusty BlackBerry. She called up the GPS system and noted her location. Bingo. Adrenaline rushed out to party. She had Jack Brattle’s address. 523 Hilltop Lane, West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Tomorrow she’d come back to—

More lightning. Close. A mere beat later thunder cracked the sky over her car. Wind gusted.

Hannah went rigid in her seat. The gate had opened a crack, then swung back. She swore it had. Matilda inched forward, Hannah peering through the torrential snow-sleet.

There. There it went again. Unlocked? It certainly looked that way. And, according to Dee-Dee, who seemed to be on the up-and-up since her directions had panned out so far, Jack Brattle wasn’t in residence. Hmm…

Wait, what was she thinking? He must have a full staff living on the estate and security up the wazoo. If she even crossed the property line she’d probably be surrounded by guard dogs and torn to shreds.

But maybe before they quite devoured her, she could get a glimpse of the house. After all, by now she had the perfect excuse. A lone disoriented traveler, lost on her way back from a party and…Help! Where was she? Could she depend on the kindness of strangers until the worst of the storm passed?

And by the way, while she waited, could she whip out her BlackBerry, take pictures of every room in the house and interview everyone old enough to speak?

They’d go for it. Sure they would.

Now. The gates. She fumbled under her seat for the umbrella she kept in the car. Of course it wasn’t there. Where had she lost this one? Who knew?

No umbrella. And since she’d been to a party she was wearing her couple-times-a-year wool coat and not her everyday water-resistant parka with hood. Not to mention open-toed heels instead of warm fleece-lined boots.

Oof.

But okay, for Jack Brattle…

She dashed out of the car, whistling “This Could Be the Start of Something Big,” one arm up to keep from being pelted, which accomplished pretty much nothing. But oh joy, it was worth every thwacking and stinging and drenching moment because, hot damn, the gate was really and truly unlocked!

Not only that, the hinges were beautifully oiled, so the huge structure moved soundlessly and easily with one good shove. Was breaking and entering meant to be or what?

Back in the car, giggling with cold and nervous excitement and residual champagne, she applied her wet foot to Matilda’s accelerator and then…

She, reporter Hannah O’Reilly, gained admittance to what she was starting to dare believe was Jack Brattle’s estate, and got thwacked, stung and drenched pushing the gate nearly closed behind her.

Woohoo!

The long driveway curved through a wooded area thick with tall evergreens that blocked out the worst of the assault. A good thing because otherwise, given the current visibility, she could easily have ended up bumper to bark at some point.

Two or three tensely expectant minutes later—no attack dogs yet—the trees gave way to a large grassy lawn already frosted white. Matilda slid gracefully sideways on the last turn; Hannah reduced her speed, heart thumping even harder than it had been. She definitely did not want to get stuck here.

Another gust of wind rocked the car and sent snow flying nearly horizontal. Hannah pined briefly for her cozy—the politically correct term for tiny—apartment, for sitting safely in bed with her warming blanket heating the sheets, a good book in her hand, a hot mug of tea on her nightstand.

But then…no Jack Brattle scoop. After years of an unsatisfying career fund-raising while writing too-often rejected magazine articles and pieces for her neighborhood paper on the side, she’d managed to land a job in journalism, which she’d wanted since she was a kid and had written and produced her own paper: Hannah’s Daily News, circulation, approximately four, including herself; number of issues: twenty. She still had them somewhere.

Another flash of lightning, a clap of thunder. The sleet rattled her roof in earnest now—could it really hail during a snowstorm?