Secrets (5 page)

“Here, have one of these raspberry tarts,” Althea said, holding out the plate. “The young man who works for me has a stand of raspberry bushes somewhere about the place. Perhaps you could bring the young lady over here sometime and pick them,” Althea said to Cassie.

Cassie took another tart, but Dana didn't. “Skylar?” Cassie asked. “I don't think she'd like to—Oh, sorry, you meant Elsbeth.”

“Skylar. That's David Beaumont's daughter's name, isn't it?”

At even the thought of Skylar and the rapidly approaching end of her time with Jeff and Thomas and dear little Elsbeth, Cassie's eyes teared up. “Yes, that's her name,” she said softly. “I think she'll soon be Elsbeth's mother.”

Althea looked from one woman to the other, Cassie with her head down, staring at her half-eaten tart on the pretty porcelain plate, and Dana sitting ramrod straight, with all emotion erased from her face, as though she dared anyone to know what was really inside her. “Men are fools, aren't they?” Althea said, putting down her teacup. “I am the only thing other than the theater that Kenneth Ridgeway has ever loved, but he'd die before he admitted that. So what does he do but come here every six weeks and put on a grand performance in order to get money from me. The poor dear doesn't have a cent.”

“He probably thinks his performance is worth your money,” Dana said.

“I'm sure he does,” Althea answered. “In fact—”

She broke off when the door was loudly pushed open and in came a divinely handsome young man. He had a beautiful face, dark blond hair that looked as though the breeze had just ruffled it, and he wore jeans and a knit shirt that showed off his well-sculpted body.

“You were
shot
at?” the young man said in anger, glaring down at Althea. “How did he get through? Rosalie said it was your ex-husband again.”

“Brent, dear, I'll talk to you later, but I'm sure it was just a prop pistol, not real at all. And these two young ladies saved me.”

He ignored the women on the opposite couch. “Those so-called prop pistols can kill!”

“He isn't going to harm me,” Althea said, smiling up at the beautiful young man. “I have the money and I've made sure he knows that my will does not include him. If I die, the money will stop. He'd have to go out and earn a living.” She gave a delicate shudder.

“I've met him and I know the old ham is nearly blind and that he's too vain to wear glasses. He could shoot you without even seeing you.”

Cassie couldn't help herself as she gave a giggle at that image.

The young man turned on her, his face full of anger. “You think this is funny?” He didn't give her time to answer. “You're the one who trespasses all the time. And you!” he said, turning his icy blue eyes to Dana. “I've seen all of you down there. Don't you realize that this is private property? Miss Fairmont has paid for the privacy that comes with this place. She doesn't need you and your entourage sneaking onto her private beach.”

“That's enough, Brent,” Althea said. Her stage-trained voice was quiet but it probably could have been heard above a hurricane.

Immediately, the young man straightened up and looked back at Althea. “I apologize. It's just that when Rosalie told me what happened, I was worried. Did you know he was coming? Is that why you sent me out today?”

Reaching out, she patted his hand, which was clenched in a fist at his side. “We'll talk about this later. Right now, I have guests.” Her voice was purring, placating, soothing.

Cassie and Dana looked from one to the other, then back again.

With a smile, Althea introduced him to Cassie and Dana. His name was Brent Goodwin and Althea described him as a gardener, but added that he also “looked out” for her. “Go on, now,” Althea said. “I'll talk to you later. I had Rosalie bake that lemon cake you like so much. Go and have some.”

After a mumbled “Nice to meet you” Brent left the room and closed the door behind him.

“I think we should leave,” Dana said stiffly. “And I can assure you that we won't trespass again.”

Althea gave a laugh. “If you don't continue to use the beach, I'll nominate Skylar Beaumont to be president of the social activities committee for Hamilton Hundred.”

It took Cassie and Dana a full minute to realize she was kidding. They laughed politely.

“That young man seemed adamant that we stay away, and he's right. It is your private property,” Dana said.

“Let me handle him.” Althea's green eyes twinkled, then she looked at Cassie. “Actually, I've been wanting to talk to you. I've heard nothing but good about you, about how you run Jefferson's household. I've heard that you look after his father as well as his daughter.”

“It's a pleasure,” Cassie said hesitantly. It was disconcerting to have this very famous woman know so much about her.

Smiling, Dana looked at Althea. “Cassie is very good at her job. It will be a shame when she has to leave, but I'm sure she'll get another job right away.”

Althea turned unsmiling eyes on Dana. “And if Jefferson marries the very rich Skylar Beaumont, that would leave a place for a mother for pretty little Elsbeth, wouldn't it? I hear you practically adopted the child after Lillian Ames died.”

Dana's face turned red, but she said nothing. She just kept her back rigid.

Cassie looked at Dana in wonder as she began to understand some things. “You want Elsbeth.”

“Absolutely not,” Dana said. “Roger and I plan to have our own children.” She looked straight ahead, avoiding the eyes of both women.

“That's neither here nor there,” Althea said, looking at Cassie. “My point is that if Jefferson marries Skylar, you're going to need a job. I wonder if I could persuade you to work for me as a sort of social secretary and a researcher.”

“I don't know,” Cassie said slowly. The truth was that she couldn't actually imagine a time when she wasn't living with Elsbeth and Jeff and Thomas. To go from living with them to being at the beck and call of this woman…She just couldn't conceive of it. “I'll have to think about it.”

“Of course. But remember that if you work here you'll be near the child.” Althea leaned forward. “Or is it Jefferson who you want to be near?”

Cassie also leaned forward. “If he was interested in me, he wouldn't be marrying Skylar, now would he?”

Althea laughed. “You've got some backbone, don't you?”

Dana started to say something, but suddenly there were noises from behind the door that led into the main part of the house. When a man's voice sounded, Althea listened, then stood up. Moments before, she'd been nearly helpless, an old woman in distress, but she stood up with the energy of a woman a third her age.

“I apologize, but I have something I must take care of,” she said quickly, then went to the door that led out to the veranda and opened it. “Perhaps you wouldn't mind going out this way.”

“Of course,” Dana murmured and went to the door, Cassie beside her.

“Could I presume to ask that you tell no one of this?” Althea said.

“You know how gossip is in this place. I wouldn't want the tabloids writing something about Kenneth.”

“We won't tell anyone,” Cassie said. “It'll be our secret. We'll—”

She broke off because Althea nearly shoved her out the door, Dana in front of her, and shut the door firmly behind them. In the next second, they heard muffled voices, but when they turned to look, the curtains had already been drawn.

“Well,” Dana said as they walked through the garden and back toward the little beach.

“Yes, well,” Cassie said. Had Dana been her friend, she would have suggested that they go to the club for lunch and talk about what had just happened. But Dana wasn't a friend, so she didn't. “I'm glad we were around to help,” Cassie said at last, but then she looked at the beach with longing. Never again would she feel that she could use the beach, and she and Elsbeth were going to miss it. “Well, uh…” Cassie wasn't sure what to say to Dana. She'd learned a lot in the last hour, and none of it was particularly good.

“Yes,” was all Dana said, then they parted at the end of the garden, each of them going in opposite directions to their houses that flanked the Fairmont mansion.

But when Cassie got home—no, correction, to Jeff's house—she couldn't bear being in the house alone, so she went downtown to the farmers' market. When people first moved to Williamsburg they were shocked that “downtown” meant Colonial Williamsburg. They assumed that the beautiful, restored city of eighteenth-century houses was for tourists and that the residents had somewhere else to do their shopping. There were lots of stores in Williamsburg, even an outlet mall that could make one dizzy with the variety and quality of goods for sale, but where was the downtown? The confusion between tourist and resident led to the building of New Town, a pristine, modern—but Colonial-looking—town not far from William and Mary College. New Town was a place where people could get a haircut or sit at a sidewalk café to eat. There was a to-die-for bookstore, and the courthouse, and a huge movie theater. And all of it was beautiful.

But the farmers' market, with vendors from all over eastern Virginia, was still held in the exquisite Colonial Williamsburg. Cassie parked the MINI Cooper in the lot near the cemetery, walked to the booths, and browsed through stands selling herbs in pots, seafood caught that morning, and homemade jams. She purchased bags full of goods, making three trips to the car to put her purchases inside. Cassie believed in supporting local merchants and growers, so she bought as much as she could from people who grew their own.

After she finished shopping, she drove back to Hamilton Hundred and put the food in the refrigerator.

Through all her activities, her mind was only half on her tasks. She kept thinking about meeting Althea Fairmont and all that had been said. When she was away from the presence of the famous woman, Cassie could think more clearly. And the more she thought, the more confused she became. It seemed that Miss Fairmont knew an extraordinary amount about both her and Dana Craig. Had Althea really guessed, on the spur of the moment, that Dana wanted Elsbeth? Jeff had said that he owed a lot to Dana for taking care of Elsbeth after his wife died, but Cassie had never thought about how Dana must have felt when the child was taken away from her.

And Cassie had been the one to take the child. Jeff had hired three other nannies before Cassie, but Thomas said they were all incompetent and lazy—which meant that Dana had Elsbeth most of the time during the week.

It was when Cassie was hired that things changed. She paused as she pulled the scallops out of the bag. Who had hired the three nannies that were so incompetent? she wondered. Instantly, she knew without a doubt that it was the let-me-take-care-of-that-for-you Dana. Cassie could almost hear her asking Jeff to let her help him find a nanny. She could imagine Dana saying that she felt “responsible” for the bad nannies, so she'd make up for it by taking over little Elsbeth.

But Cassie had foiled her. Cassie had nearly thrown herself at Jeff. But then, hadn't she been throwing herself at him for years? Not that it had done any good, but she'd done it. She'd come to Williamsburg because she knew he was here. She got a job at Elsbeth's nursery school because she knew that Jeff's daughter went there. And she was the one who'd called Jeff several times to tell him that the nanny had screwed up yet again.

It was Cassie who'd been there the day when Jeff arrived to pick up his daughter. It said on Elsbeth's card that Dana Craig was to be called if there were any problems, but Cassie ignored that and called Jeff's cell number. He'd arrived right away. But then, Cassie had made it sound like an emergency.

She'd listened to him complain that this was the third nanny he would have to fire and he couldn't understand why he couldn't find competent child care. When he paused, Cassie said she'd love to have the job. She said that she never got to know the children in the nursery school and it was too much to take care of so many. She'd love to work with just one child. Jeff asked her when she could start.

She gave a week's notice to the school and moved into Jeff's lovely house the day after.

Did I mess up Dana's plans? she wondered.

More importantly, was Elsbeth the reason Dana was pushing to get Skylar and Jeff married? Skylar looked at Elsbeth as though she were an annoying insect that she wished would go away. Cassie was sure that Skylar would love to turn Elsbeth over to Dana.

Cassie took a pot of basil out of its bag and went outside to plant it in the raised brick beds that Thomas had had made for the herb garden. She went to the little shed to get a hand shovel and, with her mind elsewhere, began to replace the basil that she'd cut down to the stems.

Wasn't it odd that Althea Fairmont had figured this out, but Cassie, who was involved in it, hadn't? And wasn't it strange that Althea had asked Cassie if she was after Jeff? She'd lived in his house for a year, and only in the first few weeks had people at the club made little innuendos about them. But they'd soon stopped. But here was Althea bringing it all up again. It was almost as though she knew things that other people didn't.

Or was being told some rather hurtful gossip, Cassie thought. Who in the world was her spy? Had she not been with Dana today, Cassie would have thought it was her. But Dana had been as surprised as she had been. So who in their tight little community was sitting down with Althea Fairmont and spreading what could be considered malicious gossip? Gossip that could cause a lot of problems if it was spread around. What if someone told Jeff that his nanny was “after him”? Cassie was sure he'd laugh about it, but he'd look at her differently.

But then, what did it matter how Jeff looked at her, since Cassie was going to be thrown out of his house soon?