ShadowsintheMist (5 page)

He released me and turned his back. I inched away, rubbing a
spot where a bruise was already forming.

“I had nothing to do with Leo’s will,” he said, once more a
study of calm indifference. “He didn’t want me involved in his personal
affairs. It was just as much a shock to me as it was to you. He had a different
law firm draw up the will and handle his domestic accounts. If you don’t
believe me, you can ask Colin. Or better yet, ask darling David.”

He paused, then chuckled. “Speaking of David, I read in one
of those cheap society columns that you and he are no longer an item. What a
pity!”

I felt my cheeks burn and before he could say any more, I
stumbled from the room.

* * * * *

“I see he’s told you.”

Giles was waiting at the bottom of the steps that led to the
beach. He was dressed in running shorts and a warm-up jacket and looked as if
he’d already done his workout. The sun was sunk deep into the lake, so only a
sliver remained glowing like a red ruby chip over blue velvet. The air was
already cooler and I shivered.

“He’s told me,” I said, my voice dull.

“Let’s talk.”

He took my elbow and steered me down the beach. We were both
silent for a long time. I knew he was waiting for me to speak.

“How is it that I’m the last to know?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t think anyone meant to exclude you. You
were away and Colin found out from some source connected with the law firm
holding Leo’s will. We all thought it was heartless of him to check on such a
thing right after finding Leo dead but well…you know Colin.

“Grant followed it up and I’d say he wasn’t too pleased with
what he found. I think he wanted to make sure it was all valid before putting
any additional burden on you.”

I added one more resentment to the list I was accumulating
against Grant Fenton. Giles rubbed his chin.

“You know, Suzanna, your father was my very good friend. I’ve
known him since long before you were born. I’m sure you must be feeling a great
deal of anger toward him right now but I think I can almost understand why he
did what he did.”

I listened, feeling little more than apathy.

“He wasn’t always so ruthless. You must appreciate what it
did to him to watch his whole family die of an influenza epidemic just because
they couldn’t afford a doctor. He was very young then and grew up blaming
himself and the society he lived in—the rich getting richer and the poor… Well…”

I knew the story already. Leo’s family had migrated from
Greece for a better life when Leo was only a baby. After their tragic death,
Leo worked hard as a manual laborer on the Chicago docks for a small company
owned by a fellow Greek immigrant named Dimitri Agropolis. Using his wits and
charm, he was able to manipulate his way up the ladder and eventually managed
to snatch the ultimate prize, Agropolis’ only daughter, Carmen. Colin was born
a short nine months after their wedding. Six months later, Dimitri died of a
stroke, leaving Leo the business.

There were rumors Leo engaged in dealings with the mob in
those early years. No one knew for sure but the company certainly prospered
under his boundless ambition and soon he took over three other struggling
shipping firms and combined them all to create Dirkston Shipping. Later, when
the company grew and sprouted subsidiaries, the conglomerate was renamed
Dirkston Enterprises.

Carmen turned a blind eye to most of Leo’s dealings. I
suspected this was out of self-preservation. She realized her marriage was a
mistake but pride and a certain amount of greed kept her from abandoning it.
Instead, she turned her frustrated affections on Colin, smothering him with
attention.

Beacon was a dream long before it became a reality. Colin
was two years old before the architects were hired and construction begun. The
construction took almost three years.

It was assumed Leo fell in love with my mother, Anna Kempton,
Colin’s governess, right under Carmen’s nose. I still find it hard to believe
my father could be capable of such cruelty to his wife but Giles assured me
Carmen was indiscreet in her own illicit affairs long before Leo strayed.

The day they were to move to Beacon, there was a vicious
argument. At the end of it, Carmen lay at the bottom of the stairs, her neck
broken. There was speculation Leo pushed her but he maintained she lost her
footing and fell. A cursory investigation proved little and the incident was
deemed an accident. Soon after, Leo, Colin and Anna moved into Beacon, where,
after a barely discreet interval, Anna and Leo were quietly married. I was born
a year later and became Leo’s pet.

“Your mother, Suzanna, was very good for Leo,” Giles continued.
“She was a delicate, shy little thing who depended on him for everything. Leo
loved her like no one else. I think it was she who helped him find a heart.
Before Anna, he was a cold and ruthless person.” He glanced at me, noting my
frown. “No, I don’t believe he killed her. If Carmen was going to push him to
the point of murder, it would’ve happened long before then.”

He grimaced, then bent over to pick up a smooth, pearly
stone, turning it over between his fingers. “I witnessed a few of her tantrums.
She could be malicious, even using Colin as leverage against him.”

“What do you mean?”

Giles tossed the stone out into the surf. “It’s not
important. I just wanted you to know your father changed after he found Anna
and he never lost that goodness. When your mother died, I thought he’d go to
pieces.”

“I remember,” I murmured.

It was a silly accident. Mother was never the superb
equestrian Leo was. They went out riding together one morning while I stayed
behind under Martha’s supervision. I was playing in the sand on the beach,
building my own scale model of Beacon, when I looked up to see Leo carrying my
mother’s limp body in his arms. I remember he was crying and I knew she was
dead. It was a painful memory.

I loved my mother but her love for Leo was so intense there
was little room for anyone else. I missed her when she was gone but grieved for
Leo even more. He began to drink and Giles, the only person he allowed near,
sat with him for hours, afraid to leave him alone. It was arranged that Colin
and I should attend boarding schools. What else could be done? Leo was
certainly unable to take up our rearing on his own in his state of mind.

“I think the only thing that saved your father in the end,
Suzanna, was the realization you still needed him. The fact that you were a
part of Anna and a product of their love for each other became his lifeline and
gave him the will to go on.”

I winced, remembering the naked hurt in Leo’s eyes when I
turned down his offer to help with my writing career.

“This will is a product of Leo’s need to secure your future
and what he thought would ensure your happiness,” Giles continued.

“How could he possibly believe that forcing me to marry
Grant would make me happy?” I demanded. “Especially when he knew Grant and I
barely get along as it is. I wonder if he understood me at all, or if I was
just another pawn in his game?” Grant’s words, spoken from my lips! It grated
to believe they could be true.

I didn’t want to believe that Leo could be so heartless but
there was no other way to describe it. Deep down, I sensed there was a Leo
Dirkston I never knew—an entity quite different from the father figure he
presented to me. Someone who’d accept help from criminals or take over small
businesses with no thought for the struggling individuals he was ruining. Worst
of all, someone who could, without scruples, use a woman’s love as a stepping
stone to power.

Giles touched my arm with sympathy. “I know it’s hard for
you to understand but just remember, Leo loved you more than anything on this
earth. In his day, marriages were arranged as a matter of course and children
were content to have the decision taken out of their hands. He would never do
anything he thought might hurt you. He did what he felt was best for you.”

I didn’t reply. Nothing anyone could say would diminish my
sense of betrayal and disillusionment.

“Don’t try to solve anything right now, my dear. You’re
tired and I’m sure things will look clearer in the morning. Let’s go back now.
It’s getting late.”

I said goodbye to him on the beach and thanked him for
trying to help. “You’re right about one thing,” I admitted. “I am tired.”

He nodded. “Just keep in mind that Leo might’ve been
stubborn, selfish and bullheaded but he rarely made rash decisions. Perhaps you
shouldn’t be too quick to denounce this arrangement.”

I gritted my teeth. Marry Grant? The idea was preposterous!
It seemed ridiculous that Giles, of all people, should encourage it. He was
David’s father, for heaven’s sake and only a few short weeks ago my prospective
father-in-law.

To avoid further discussion, however, I said I’d consider
the matter. This seemed to satisfy him and he patted my hand affectionately and
jogged off down the sandy expanse toward Spindrift.

I stood briefly at the base of the steep rise of log steps
that led up from the beach and savored the crisp, early-autumn air, heavy with
the tang of decomposing seaweed and fish, wet sand and spray. There was no use
brooding tonight. My mind was too weary to tackle much of anything.

I turned and began to climb, remembering each step as if I
were ten years old again. Now, however, my legs felt heavy and the energy that
once saw me fly up and down with agility deserted me. I vowed to try to get
back into shape.

When I reached the top of the ridge, I glanced back over my
shoulder at the darkening sky. The moon was already rising despite the fading
glow of sunset. It hovered like a slim ivory pendant above the lighthouse, cold
and distant, yet exquisite. I sighed. How I longed to be able to stand aside
and view the whole sordid situation without bias or emotion. I was too
involved—too close—to see it as simple, the way Giles seemed able to do.

I trudged up the narrow path that wound through the rippling
razor grass and tangled, low-growing shrubs at the top of the cliff. Short,
delicate catkins raised their furry golden heads and danced in the breeze. The
shifting sand gave way to a darker, harder earth where briar bushes had taken
root and intertwined to form a formidable barrier along the base of the iron
fence, marking the rear boundary of Beacon’s rolling grounds.

Grasshoppers and crickets whirred and chirruped from their
prickly hideouts, their voices rising in a unified crescendo over the clacking
reeds and the mournful shriek of a gull. The wind lifted my hair and brushed my
temple. I stood with my hand on the gate, loath to enter the structured world
beyond. But, it was no use balking and with grim conviction, I pushed through
and strode across a vast expanse of meticulously manicured lawns to the rear
gardens.

As with everything at Beacon, these gardens were magnificent
though strangely out of place with their distinctly European flavor. Gravel
walkways edged in brick meandered and criss-crossed, lined on both sides by
blocked and trimmed evergreen hedges rising to almost six feet and serving as a
windbreak against the raw weather that swept in off the lake. At corners where
the paths intersected, the hedges were clipped into spheres at the top to
resemble corner-posts. Leo had imported a topiary expert from Rome to sculpt
them and I was grateful that in this one area he hadn’t gone overboard.

The paths themselves met in miniature roundabouts—circling
flowerbeds thick with marigolds, asters, zinnias, lavender and roses. The
flowers were updated at the start of each season so, except during the frigid
winter months, there were blooms all year. Grotesque porcelain gnomes squatted
here and there below ivory birdbaths and somewhere nearer the house, a
miniature statue of Apollo posed above a small round lily pond where Leo’s cat,
King Kong, loved to idle away the afternoons batting at goldfish.

Leo had painstakingly imported truckloads of dark loamy
earth from further inland to enrich the otherwise sandy soil and an army of
landscape artists from all over the world were given free rein in designing it.
Now the grounds were tended by Rudy Coleman, a reclusive spindle of a man who
lived above the old stables.

Rudy was hired as stableman when Leo purchased his first
prized stallion. The stables were to the east of the main estate, on the edge
of the forest, with a good acre of untended pastureland between them and the
main house. After Anna’s accident, Leo sold all the horses and refused to
acknowledge the existence of the stables. Rudy, however, remained and became
our permanent gardener and general maintenance man, showing a surprising
aptitude for both.

I followed the paths, knowing well the way through the
puzzle of greenery. It hadn’t always been so and I could remember wandering,
teary-eyed, for what seemed hours before being rescued by Martha. Now I
wandered absently, knowing the gazebo lay just ahead. It stood in the center of
Leo’s lavish garden, a miniature Gothic temple with a domed roof and six slim
ivory pillars. I mounted the steps, sat down on one of the stone benches that
joined the pillars and pulled my knees up to my chin, allowing my thoughts to
wander.

It was cool and dark. A circle of mock orange and lilac
crowned the grassy knoll surrounding the building and cast clenched shadows
across the cold floor. The winds were strong, still balmy and heavy with the
excesses of honeyed pollen and overripe fruit and the thick, cloying smell of
full-blown roses.

I leaned my head back against the stone and gazed over the
hedges toward the darkening horizon. Grant’s face filled my mind and I
wondered, before closing my eyes, what marriage to such a man would be like.

Chapter Three

My care is like my shadow in the sun,

Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it,