And yet...he was still Lucas. And, in some ways, she still felt as though she knew him very well.
She reminded herself that she’d once thought she’d known him better than anyone else in the world. And yet he’d hurt her in a way she’d been totally unprepared to handle.
She’d been so damned young.
When Lucas turned off the main road and onto the country lane that led to McBride land, Rachel frowned. This was the road that ended at the bluffs. Why was Lucas driving this way?
If he thought they were going to indulge in the old-fashioned “parking” they’d spent so much time here doing as teenagers, then she intended to firmly let him know that wasn’t going to happen. Tonight, or ever again. Or, at least, she hoped that’s what she’d find the willpower to say to him, she thought, remembering just how exciting and delicious those interludes had once been.
He stopped the car at the gate that prevented them from driving all the way to the end of the lane. “I didn’t know this gate was here.”
“I’ve climbed over it twice now,” Rachel confessed.
“My father must have installed it. He was never particularly encouraging to visitors, anyway.”
“For some reason, there was a steady stream of sightseers to the bluffs after you left. You’d be surprised how many people wanted to see the place where my brother died.” She heard the undertone of bitterness in her voice, but couldn’t seem to do anything about it.
Lucas looked straight ahead, through the rainsplattered windshield. “You’d think people would have better things to do with their time.”
“Yes.” Rachel twisted her fingers in her lap, remembering the inquisitive looks. The whispers. The blatantly intrusive questions.
“There are a couple of things I want to ask you, Rachel. I’m not sure how to begin.”
His hesitation seemed uncharacteristic. She gripped her hands more tightly together. “Just ask.”
“How much did Roger talk to you in the days before he died?”
Watching Lucas as closely as she could in the darkness, Rachel chose her words carefully. “Roger and I never talked much. You knew we weren’t particularly close. We tended to argue, because he wanted to tell me what to do and I didn’t like it when he did.”
“Did he say anything about your father’s disappearance?”
“That was something that was never mentioned in my house,” Rachel answered flatly, wondering where Lucas’s questions were leading. “My mother became hysterical every time she heard my father’s name. Roger and I learned very young to avoid speaking of him.”
“Roger never said anything to you about finding a gold bracelet?”
Rachel was growing more confused with each question. “No. Why?”
Instead of answering, Lucas asked yet another question. “Did Roger say anything to you about your involvement with me?”
Rachel froze. “Roger didn’t know I was seeing you. I made very sure he never found out. He’d have been furious if he knew. He hated you.”
“He made that very clear when he told me he would kill me if I ever saw you again.”
Rachel couldn’t say anything for several minutes. “Roger found out about us?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“He came to me the day after you and I last saw each other. He told me then to stay away from you.”
“He didn’t say anything to me. I thought he was acting even surlier than usual, but... why didn’t he say anything?”
“He probably thought you’d be even more determined to see me if he tried to forbid you. So he came to me, instead, hoping to scare me off.”
“He didn’t know you very well, did he?”
“He didn’t know me at all. He knew only that I was a McBride. And that’s all he cared to know.”