“Keep your mouth shut!” Kate ordered Teddy.
“Please,” Willa added.
Teddy was looking at Kate. “Only if you let me in on what’s going on.”
“Not on your life.”
“I’ll flirt so hard with Jack he won’t be able to resist. I have a bikini...” She held out her hand, cupped tightly, meaning the suit would fit into her palm. “And I’ll sneak into his room at night. Naked.”
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“I hate you,” Kate said.
With a smile, they turned to greet the oncoming Pack, while Willa stayed back, her head down. But in this case, she was concealing a smile.
* * *
Kate and Jack were with Sara in her bedroom. It was late but they knew they wouldn’t be able to sleep. Sara was looking at photos on the screen of her camera. Kate was stretched out beside her, and Jack was in a chair.
“I’m exhausted,” Kate said. “Too much food.”
“Too many people,” Jack said.
“Too much of everything.” Sara turned her camera off and leaned back on a pillow. “I hated tonight.”
“Me too,” Kate said. “I wanted Willa to tell Byon to get it himself. Whatever he wanted, he expected adoring Willa to get it for him.”
“And she did,” Jack said.
“They handled the news of Nadine having Sean’s child well,” Sara said.
“You mean no one gave a flying crap,” Jack said. “Clive snorted in a nasty way, as though it was all dirty.”
“Sort of is,” Kate said. “Nadine was lying to them all, sneaking around. She hated the horses but loved the rider.”
“I think whatever Sean was doing in the cemetery had something to do with Nadine,” Sara said. “Do we know when she told him about the child?”
“No.” Jack told them what Mr. Howland had said about Sean and Nadine planning to run away together that night. “But Sean never showed up.”
“What a horrible night that was!” Kate said. “They were supposed to be celebrating, but Clive dumped Willa and—”
“And Sean left pregnant Nadine alone.” Sara looked at Jack. “How was Mr. Howland when you took his food up?”
“Great. Watching The Terminator. I wanted to stay with him. He must know a lot about cars.”
Sara and Kate exchanged looks. Jack’s father and grandfather and great-grandfather had been car people. Jack had spent much of his life covered in grease.”
“And that night Nicky was in a very bad mood,” Kate said. “He had to have been to tell Willa off like that.”
“Willa has a temper,” Sara said. “All the toughness she has now has always been there. If Sean laughed at her and told her she was better off without them... She could have smashed him.”
“Or shot him,” Jack said. “We don’t know how he was killed.”
“There’s more hate here than I originally thought,” Sara said.
“But hate’s what drives a murder, isn’t it?” Kate sat up.
“No one seems to know that Sean is dead,” Sara said.