Gray snorted and almost cut himself. She didn’t understand him; they were polar opposites. He saw plants as a commodity upon which he’d built an empire and resurrected a family fortune. She liked plants because . . . well, simply because she was one of those curious people who liked everything. Her naiveté was appalling. Fresh off the farm and with the wide-eyed innocence to prove it. He had no intention of letting her take so much as a leaf off his property.

At least not yet.

A knock on the door broke his concentration. He swiped the remaining soap from his face and answered it. Luke stepped inside, already dressed for dinner in a formal coat and starched collar.

“I wanted to pass on some family news,” he said casually.

Gray stiffened. This sort of statement was usually prelude to something bad. “What’s going on?” he asked tightly.

“Your baby sister has gotten herself a job,” Luke said.

It was hard to believe. If Caroline had run off with a foreign aristocrat or squandered a fortune to buy the Hope Diamond, he could believe it. But found a job?

“What sort of job?” he asked skeptically.

“Brace yourself. She will be working at the White House as social secretary for the first lady.”

“What in the world is a social secretary?”

Luke sauntered toward the bedroom window, casually propping a shoulder against the molding. “Apparently Mrs. McKinley is a notorious recluse. She doesn’t like mingling with the public, is homesick for Ohio, and needs someone to help her navigate the DC social whirl. Caroline will be good at that.”

Gray tossed down the towel and reached for a shirt, jerking it on with stiff motions. “I don’t like President McKinley,” he said tersely. “She shouldn’t have anything to do with him or his administration.”

“Is that the best you can say? All these years you’ve been nagging us to lead responsible lives, and now Caroline has a plum position, one of the best in the city. Do you need to immediately lunge for the fly in the ointment to criticize her?”

“You consider the Spanish-American War a fly in the ointment? Thousands of Americans died. Our government barged into places we have no business being.”

“Oh, that’s rich,” Luke said sarcastically. “You criticize the president for conquering Cuba, but you want me to go down there to capitalize on the results of the war.”

It was a ridiculous accusation, and Gray wasn’t about to accept it. “I do business with nations all over the world by setting up mutually beneficial trade alliances. I don’t sign contracts while pointing a gun at anyone. The United States shouldn’t be in the business of collecting colonies, and that’s precisely what President McKinley has done.”