Double Dealing (2013) (15 page)

Jed chuckled. “Somehow, I don’t see my mother sitting still while Pop is kidnapped by a beautiful young woman.”

He smothered a laugh, as the other man said, “More’s the pity. Your father took great pride in the care he gave to these grounds.”

“Well, I was forced to specialize in holly trees around here,” Jed said, bending down on one knee and pressing his hand into the wet soil. “But I can tell you this ground is still much too wet. This area should be rebedded immediately to help with the drying process. Unfortunately, the water has to dissipate from underneath, so it all depends on how the subsoil will handle it. You could dig down about a foot and add a gravel layer, if necessary. I suggest you wait until March or so, after the spring thaw, to see how the ground is then.”

“It is a shame that this has happened,” Burrows said, as he bent down to pick away some muddy broken leaves. ‘The meadowsweet was planted nearly two hundred years ago by the original owner, Samuel Barkeley, and supposedly came
from Elizabeth the First’s own gardens. She favored this above all fragrances for her rooms.”

“There was wild sienna, too, and pineapple sage,” Jed said, remembering the old yellowed drawings of the garden his father had once showed him. “This side is the fragrance side.” He turned and pointed to the opposite ‘leaf’ of the fleur-de-lis. “And that’s the culinary side. The top ‘leaf’ is the medicinal section.”

“Your memory is excellent, sir,” Burrows said, nodding his head. “Miss Rachel will be happy to know that there is some hope here. I’ll advise the gardening service of your recommendations.”

Jed smiled. “Tell you what, since I’m here, I’ll reshape the bed for you. If it’s enough, then you can replant next spring. Fortunately, you have enough of the same plants left on either side of the damaged area to divide and propagate. They could use a little thinning, too; they’re too wild-looking. This time next year, you’ll never know the bed had been damaged.”

Burrows nearly beamed in pleasure. “Thank you, sir. This is most kind of you. Most kind. As a small measure of payment, I shall prepare shirred eggs and blueberry muffins for breakfast.”

“You sure know how to feed a kidnap victim,” Jed replied, grinning. “Does the little shed behind the garage still house the gardening things?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then I’ll get started.”

He waited until Burrows was back in the house before walking slowly around the rest of the herb garden. Unfortunately, volunteering to fix the garden
was hardly the help Rae needed from him, he realized, but it helped him avoid something else.

Although he’d told her the situation wasn’t hopeless, and it wasn’t, he knew he wasn’t ready to accept that the answer to the alternate site wasn’t to be found in the reports. They’d been sorted every which way and still nothing promising had turned up. The answer lay elsewhere, but that meant leaving the estate and Rae. It was the last thing he wanted to do. He hated the thought of not seeing her for days, not making love with her and waking up to find her sleeping next to him. He found such immense satisfaction in that. A day without her presence would be unbearable.

Jed stopped in his tracks. His jaw dropped in astonishment as he realized why being with Rae was more important than a job.

He was in love with her.

It was why he’d been fighting for her, risking his career to keep the home she loved. It explained his obvious behavior. It was so damned obvious now.

He started laughing, as he thought of the butler’s words. Burrows had known all along. Hell, he thought in amusement, while remembering his own reasoning that it had been the house causing his obvious behavior. How wrong could a person be? Then he remembered something else and his mirth faded.

Glancing up at Rae’s bedroom window, he wondered if her behavior had been as obvious as his. Burrows
had
included her in his observation. The man might not have a green thumb for gardening, but Jed doubted the butler was often wrong in
his judgment of people. Rae probably hadn’t recognized her own symptoms yet.

Maybe he ought to tell her.…

Jed grinned to himself, deciding to wait until she realized it herself.

He couldn’t wait to see the expression on her face when she did.

Rae tugged her robe tighter around her and sighed, as she watched Jed from her bedroom window.

What, she wondered, was she going to do with him? He was supposed to be fixing up a new site for the marina complex, and instead, he was fixing up the herb garden.

The better question, she decided, was what she was going to do with herself. She’d always been a fairly sensible woman. Well, at least until Jed had reentered her life, she amended with a wry smile. Since then, she’d been in a state of confusion.

Yesterday morning, she’d been too angry to think rationally. Now that she was calmer, she realized Henry Morrison’s words were just that—words. She honestly couldn’t say that they were true. It was just that she’d been vulnerable to the jolt Morrison delivered.

If only she were more sure of Jed, she thought. Their relationship was so fragile that it had seemed
easier to believe the worst of him. There were times when he was still the Jed she remembered so well, and times when he seemed like a total stranger. She imagined there were moments when he had found her completely different from the girl he’d known. They had both grown up, and she had fallen in love. She just needed reassurance that she wasn’t misplacing her heart.

Silently, she admitted that she had to give him a chance—she had to trust him. She knew love and trust were intertwined; she couldn’t offer one without offering the other. Their relationship was so new and fragile that it could also be easily shattered. She
had
to believe that Jed hadn’t lied to her about searching for a new complex site. She
had
to believe Henry Morrison was wrong about Jed. She
had
to have faith in him … and in her heart.

But what the hell was he doing in the damn garden?

“Ah! You are up, miss. Good morning.”

Rae turned around as Burrows entered the bedroom. He carried a fully loaded coffee tray. Setting it down on the walnut table next to the window, he poured her a cup and offered it to her.

“You’re spoiling me,” she said, as she accepted it and took a reviving sip of the steaming black brew.

He nearly smiled. “Thank you, miss. It’s agreeable to know that I am performing my duties well.”

She chuckled.

“Mr. Jed has offered to repair some of the damage
in the herb garden,” he went on, “and if I may say so, I am relieved. He has more knowledge of what’s needed than that …” His lips tightened for a moment. “That so-called gardening service.”

“So I noticed,” she said dryly, while pointing out of the window.

“You don’t sound happy, miss.”

“Believe me, Burrows, I’m thrilled down to my toes.”

The butler drew himself up and glared at her. “You should be thankful for Mr. Jed’s able assistance.”

She felt her cheeks heating at the deserved reprimand. “I’m sorry. It’s just that … I don’t know if his behavior is as obvious as mine.”

“So he has told you about my observation,” Burrows said.

“He thinks the house is possessed and making everyone act crazy,” she said, turning back to look out the window.

She heard a suspicious snort that reminded her of suppressed laughter, and she turned around again. Burrows’s face was red, and his jaw was tensed in an obvious attempt to keep from venting his amusement. Helplessly, she began to giggle.

“He’s something, isn’t he?” she asked, shaking her head.

“Yes, miss, he is, and if I may say so, very well suited to you.”

Her mirth instantly subsided, and she set the coffee cup on the table and returned her gaze to the window. “I know he’s well-suited, Burrows.”

“That is what you are not happy with, isn’t it, miss?”

“I’m … unsure.”

“If it were a choice between this estate and Mr. Jed, which would you choose?”

For a long minute, she watched Jed set boards around the damaged section. Finally she smiled sadly and said, “I’d like to think I have a choice to make, Burrows.”

Four hours later, Rae found herself being hustled into Jed’s BMW sports car.

“Are you crazy?” she asked, after he had tossed a hamper full of food in the back and had settled into the driver’s seat. “It’s barely fifty out here, and you want to have a picnic lunch in the park?”

The car roared to life, and he nearly shouted over the engine’s whine, “Sounds great to me.”

“I’ll remind you of that later, when your buns are frozen.”

He laughed. “You can always warm them up.”

“Sex maniac,” she muttered, shaking her head.

“What?”

“Never mind.” She waved a hand. “Lead on, Waters. At least we won’t have to worry about ants.”

Lapsing into silence, she decided he had one heck of a work schedule. He’d spent the entire morning on the garden, and now was taking an afternoon picnic. It was disheartening to know that he wasn’t even making a pretense of looking for a new site.

Pushing the thought away, she reminded herself about giving him a chance. It wasn’t fair to condemn him on circumstantial evidence. She vowed not to allow her doubts to interfere any longer, and she would start right now by enjoying the picnic lunch. Suppressing a groan, she admitted she might not be a candidate for Resident Eccentric, but Jed certainly was.

It was a short drive over the bridge to the park, and after finding a suitable spot under the trees, they started eating the lunch Burrows had packed.

“Still think it’s too cold?” Jed asked later as they lounged on a thick horse blanket and nibbled at the remains of their meal.

“I’m wearing a heating pad under my jeans,” she replied, before popping a cracker into her mouth.

He chuckled, then sipped his glass of wine. The air was brisker than he had thought. Still, there was a beautiful pink glow in Rae’s cheeks. “At least we didn’t have to bother chilling the wine.”

“Or the caviar. No crowds either.”

“Do people use this park much in the summer?” he asked, curious. The park was deserted again, as it had been when they came with the boys. Of course, it was October.

“I don’t think so. At least I’ve never seen more than a dozen people here at any one time.” She grinned. “It seems like the Barkeley Club uses it more than anyone else.”

Jed grinned in return. “Still looking for that treasure, right?”

She leaned back on her elbows and laughed. “I have the feeling they’ll never give up now.”

With hooded eyes, he admired the slender line of her thighs and the tilt of her breasts under the jacket she wore. A deep satisfaction ran through him at the thought that he could touch her at any time, and she would respond. Her happiness mattered very much to him, and he would do everything in his power to give her what she wanted.

He resisted the sudden urge to tell her what Burrows had actually meant. She deserved the time to discover it on her own.

He finished his wine, then stood up and held out a hand to her. “Come on. We can clean up later. Let’s take a walk around.”

Smiling, she accepted his offer, and he helped her to her feet. They walked hand in hand along the paths through the dense woods by the riverbank.

“Both of us should be working,” Rae finally said, as they stopped to untangle several strands of her hair from a low tree branch.

“Do you want to go back?”

She chuckled. “No. I just thought I’d point out the obvious.”

“A lunch break never hurt anyone. You hibernated in that library all morning.”

“That’s my busiest time, between the clients calling and Wall Street opening. Just before closing it gets hectic again.”

“I promise to have you back by three.”

They strolled along for a few more moments, before she said, “I was surprised to see you working in the garden this morning.”

“Burrows was upset about the damage, so I thought I’d help out. It’s been years since I’ve done that kind of work, but I’ve got to admit I enjoyed it.” He glanced at her. “Why?”

She shrugged. “Just surprised.”

“I hear the implied reprimand, Madam,” he said, patting her cheek. “I’ll have you know I’m working very hard on finding another site. Can’t you tell?”

“You are bad, Jed,” she said, shaking her head.

He grinned at her. “Yeah, I know. But you like it.”

“Wise guy,” she murmured.

Chuckling, he shifted his gaze to the quiet grounds of the park. He hadn’t actually lied. While he’d been working in the garden, he’d found his eyes straying more and more to the wooded area on the other side of the river. A crazy idea had occurred to him, and he’d decided to at least take a look about the park. A picnic with Rae seemed the perfect way to do so. In fact, anywhere with her was the perfect way to spend a day. Or night …

Nearly tripping over a tree root reminded him to concentrate on what he knew about the park, which wasn’t much. It hadn’t been in the site reports, and he had to admit that was a bad sign. Unfortunately, he couldn’t remember whether the park had even been looked at by the company. Maybe someone had only given it a cursory check. After all, the Barkeley estate had seemed like a sure thing.

Jed frowned to himself, as they continued their stroll. He’d been hoping to see some homes within
the boundaries, which would have meant the park was zoned for residential buildings. There weren’t any. He didn’t even know whether the park was a federal, state, or county one, and that would make a big difference. There were probably other obstacles to consider too. Still, if they could be solved, the park would be perfect for the marina complex. It had all the qualities of the estate plus one more. He couldn’t think of a grander view than the elegant grounds of the Barkeley home.

Absently pulling a leaf from a leggy growth of bush, he wondered if he should tell her about his idea. Not yet, he thought. After all, the park was only a nebulous possibility at the moment. He would make several calls after they returned to the house.

“Jed!” Rae suddenly exclaimed, breaking into his thoughts. “Are you holding what I think you’re holding?”