“But not Puck.”
“No, not her. But then, she was a child who hid from her mother and ran errands for all of us.”
“And kept secrets.”
“Mmmm,” Nadine said. “She believed she knew everything but she knew less than half of it.”
“You knew the other half?”
She pushed away from the tree and looked at him. “As lovely as you are, you’re not going to coax forbidden information out of me. I’ve already told you too much.”
He leaned toward her and smoothed a strand of hair behind her ear. “Are you sure of that?”
She tilted her head as though she was about to kiss him. He didn’t move away.
But Nadine did. “You are truly wicked.” Smiling, she stood up. “I need to go see if Byon has arrived.”
Jack got up to stand in front of her. “Hoping he’ll introduce you to prospective husbands?”
“Brains and beauty. You are lethal.” She stepped away from him. “For our own good, stay away from me and don’t ask me any questions about anything.”
Jack ran his hand down his bare chest. “I’m afraid I can’t give that promise.”
Nadine made a little squealing sound, then took off at a fast pace toward the house.
Jack watched her walk away. That had felt good. It had been so long since he’d flirted with a woman that he’d doubted if he still knew how. Since he’d moved in with Sara, then Kate had arrived, he’d been Good Boy personified. No spending the night with a woman whose name he didn’t remember in the morning. No raucous evenings with his friends, chugging beer and getting too drunk to drive home. It had been a long time since someone had pointed out that he was good-for-nothing Roy Wyatt’s son.
“I have been good, good, good,” Jack muttered as he put his shirt back on. “Disgustingly good.”
He started back to the house but when he heard a piano playing, he stopped to listen. It seemed to be coming from the chapel. Turning, he went to it. The door that he’d unlocked was half-open and he could hear the music. It was one of Byon Lizmere’s songs and one of Jack’s favorites. He pushed the door open and went inside. The man at the piano looked up at him and smiled—and as Jack walked toward him, he began to sing.
* * *
After Sara left, Kate decided she’d had enough of being in a dingy attic. She went downstairs, put on walking shoes and left the house.
The gardens were so perfectly manicured that they didn’t seem real. She would have explored them but workers were everywhere. Trucks loaded with trees were arriving. Women with buckets were going in and out of the house.
And Bella was in the middle of it all.
Kate stood in the shadows and watched her directing people. She was calm but no one doubted her authority.
Like Sara, Kate thought, and started down a narrow path that led away from the noise.
At the end was a long, low brick building. There were no cars around and it was peaceful. She looked in a window and saw a roomful of old oak filing cabinets. Must be Clive’s office. She thought of Puck’s story about him and wondered if his big desk was still there.
Since the door was unlocked, she went inside and opened a file drawer. It contained old, worn file folders full of receipts back to the 1970s. Does anybody throw anything away? she wondered.
When she stepped through a wide doorway, there was the biggest, gaudiest desk she’d ever seen. It had gilded carvings of cherubs with wings, and long shapes that swirled and curved. There had to be a dozen types of wood used in the thing.
“It’s a monster, isn’t it?” a man’s deep voice said.
Kate jumped at the sound, her hand to her throat.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. Here, sit down.” He quickly rolled the big leather chair from behind the desk. “I can assure you that it’s quite comfortable.”
Kate sat down and looked up at him. He was a handsome man, half-bald in an attractive way, late forties maybe. Tall, slim, well-dressed in a pale green shirt, dark trousers and perfectly polished loafers. “You’re Clive.”
He smiled, showing nice teeth. “I am. And you must be one of the inquisitive three.”