Silk and Stone (39 page)

I won’t give her back to a ravenmocker
.

Chapter
            Seventeen
 

D
on’t tell them. Please, don’t tell them
. Each time Sam looked at her
sister
she saw that plea in her eyes. The dilemma made Sam sick at her stomach. Wrapped in blankets, she and Charlotte sat on the hearth of the Raincrows’ fireplace, but the seductive heat of the fire couldn’t penetrate the cold anxiety in Sam’s muscles.

Jake’s mother hovered over them with maternal alarm, dabbing at their damp hair with a towel. His father stood by a window, watching with a grim, puzzled expression, and Ellie Raincrow hunched on the edge of a chair she’d pulled near the hearth, her long legs and loafers tucked behind the chair’s legs, her quiet green eyes boring into them. Jake, melted snow puddling beneath his hiking boots onto a colorful rug, roamed the big, comfortably shabby living room like a caged tiger, and each time he
passed near Sam he managed to brush the fingers of one hand over her shoulder, a gesture of concern that made her chest ache with a tangle of emotions she couldn’t risk.

She and Charlotte had landed in the middle of a well-meaning and inescapable clan. A mother, a doctor, a doctor-in-training, and Jake—whose mission in life was to find lost souls, whether they wanted to be found or not. Four people imbued with innate compassion and a long-simmering contempt for Aunt Alex. People who would fight her on Charlotte’s behalf if Sam told them the truth.

But the Raincrows couldn’t do anything about it. They didn’t know Aunt Alex the way Sam did. Aunt Alex wasn’t just manipulative, she was ruthless. Sam couldn’t let them be hurt.

“Please, just take us to the bus station at Stecoe Gap,” Sam said again. “No one ever has to know we were here. Just help us get that far, before it’s too late.”

“I told you that’s not an option,” Jake said gruffly. She met his apologetic but angry gaze. Sam fought for control and said as calmly as she could, “Then Charlotte and I will end up back at Highview, and there won’t be a thing you can do to stop it.” Charlotte moaned and Sam quickly put a reassuring arm around her. Her head rising with weary defiance, Sam added softly, “The next time we leave, I won’t make any mistakes.”

Jake flinched.

Mrs. Raincrow wrung the towel between her hands and dropped to the hearth beside her. “You don’t have to explain to
me
that you felt trapped by your aunt, and you were unhappy.” She glanced at Jake sadly, then back at Sam. “But something god-awful must have happened to make you take this chance. Can’t you trust us enough to tell us why you ran?”

Before Sam could answer, Charlotte blurted out, “Aunt Alex … she told me I had to let my second holes grow together.” Charlotte nodded wildly, as if that strange excuse were indisputably sufficient. Sam’s heart sank.

“What second holes?” Ellie asked, arching a black brow. “I don’t recall my professors discussing extra holes in anatomy class.”

“Earrings.” Charlotte’s face turned bright pink. She pointed at the two pairs of flamboyant silver stars swinging from her ears. “She said too many earrings look trashy. But Mom never thought so. She said I had
panache.
”

“Charlotte,” Sam whispered in warning.

Dr. Raincrow cleared his throat. “Somehow, I doubt Sam would have taken you on the lam just to preserve your fashion style.”

Charlotte stared at the floor and chewed her lip. Sam pulled her closer sympathetically. “What difference does it make why we left?” Sam asked everyone hoarsely. She couldn’t keep from looking at Jake. He had halted his circuit of the room near the center, and gazed down at her with an agonized expression. “Maybe I lost my nerve,” she told him. “I was afraid I’d become what Aunt Alex wanted me to become. Just like her. Someone you’d hate.” Slowly, Jake shook his head. She looked away, her throat aching. “So I took the cowardly way out. I ran. Something I was raised to never do. My dad was killed trying to bring a coward back.”

“That dog won’t hunt,” Jake said. “You’d have hung on and fought no matter how bad it was for
you
. I know you left for Charlotte’s sake. You’ve got to tell me why.”

“Will everyone stop talking about me as if I’m an undercooked omelet?” Charlotte cried. She turned toward Sam, defeat clouding her eyes. “It was all my fault. I’ll say anything she wants me to say. But you can’t go back with me. You stole from her, Sammie.”

Everyone but Jake stared at Sam in shock. Mrs. Raincrow stiffened. “What?” She looked at Jake reproachfully. “Did you know about this?”

“No,” Sam interjected.

“Yes,” he said. Sam slumped. She wanted to shake him. She wanted to kiss him. “I know she took a piece of Alexandra’s jewelry,” he continued. “She needed something she could sell. But stealing from a thief isn’t stealing.”

“I agree,” Ellie said darkly.

Sam reached into her skirt pocket. She pulled Aunt Alex’s necklace and pendant out. “I doubt she’ll look at the situation the way y’all do.”

Mrs. Raincrow held out a hand. “May I?”

“Don’t touch it,” Ellie and Jake said in unison. Their mother gave them a startled look. They traded an uncomfortable gaze. “Anything that belongs to Alexandra is bad luck,” Jake explained, frowning.

“Including Charlotte and me,” Sam added. She dejectedly placed the necklace on her palm. Mrs. Raincrow grimaced. “A whore’s prize.” That remark reduced everyone to silence. She dropped the necklace on the hearth and wiped her hands on her trousers. “We’ll bury it in the backyard. Alexandra may insist you took it, but she won’t have any proof.”

Sam stared at her hopefully. Ellie suddenly moved to the hearth beside Charlotte. Sam swiveled to watch. Her eyes strangely intent, Jake’s sister took one of Charlotte’s hands between both of hers. Charlotte seemed hypnotized; she looked at Ellie with wary awe. The eerie concentration on Ellie’s face grew more intense. Slowly, she ran a hand up Charlotte’s right arm, probing. Her eyes narrowed. Surprise and disgust curled her mouth into a grimace. The unfathomable look in her eyes sent shivers down Sam’s spine. Sam suddenly recalled what Dr. Raincrow had said about Ellie’s intuition. Her breath stalled.
No, no
, she protested silently, and reached over to pull Charlotte’s arm out of Ellie’s grasp.

“You had bruises,” Ellie said, staring into Charlotte’s dazed face. “Your hands—this hand, I mean—is still a little sore. Your arm too.”

Charlotte made a frightened sound and drew back from her. “I tripped on a rug. Fell down.”

“I wonder if … someone knocked you down.” Now Ellie’s eyes were clear and sharp, prying into Charlotte’s. Charlotte trembled. Sam waited with breathless dread. She wanted Charlotte to talk, but wouldn’t force her. Charlotte pivoted desperately and looked at Sam. “Sammie, what should I do?” Her voice was ragged. “Do you want me to—”

“I promised you,” Sam said. “It’s up to you.”

“I
think,
” Ellie continued, “you’re afraid of someone there. Hmmm. Alexandra? Maybe, but she tends to get what she wants without beating people up. Orrin? No, he relies on charm. But Tim”—her eyes glittered—“Tim nearly twisted my arm off once.”

Something in that confession broke through Charlotte’s humiliation. She looked at Sam wearily. “Tell them what happened. I get sick just thinking about it.” She put her face in her hands and hunched over.

Her heart in her throat, Sam stared into space and quietly explained what Tim had done and how Aunt Alex had reacted when she heard. When she finished she looked at Jake apologetically. Fury and sorrow gleamed in his eyes. The same expression was on the others’ faces as well. Even Dr. Raincrow had a deadly poise about him. “This is grounds for legal intervention,” he said. “It’s child abuse.”

Sarah Raincrow seemed on the brink of violence. She pounded one leg with her fist. “We’ll get a lawyer.”

“I don’t need a lawyer,” Jake said. “I need to get my hands on Tim.”

Sam jumped up and ran to him. “That’s exactly what I was afraid of. Don’t you understand? Any of you?” She wound a hand in his shirt but turned to look at the others frantically. “I’ve thought through the options over and over. What if I go to the authorities and insist my sister has been mauled by our own cousin? What if the social services bigwigs drag their feet and worry about humiliating the lieutenant-governor—so they refuse to believe Charlotte? What if they
do
believe her and take her away? Put her in a foster home or—oh, God—some state institution for teenagers?”

“Marry me,” Jake said. “And we’ll … we’ll
adopt
Charlotte.”

Her hand convulsed in his shirt. She curled her fingers into the material and against the hard wall of his chest, a quick, adoring caress. But she looked up at him sadly. “It doesn’t work that way.”

He shuddered. “Then it’s settled. We’ll disappear and take Charlotte with us.” Sam’s gasp echoed the small cries of astonishment from his family, and Charlotte. His expression was set. “I’m good at finding people. I can be just as good at not being found.”

For the first time, tears slid down Sam’s face. “I can’t let you do that. I’m not going to turn you into a … an outlaw who’s accused of kidnapping my sister. Because that’s probably what Aunt Alex would have you charged with if we were caught.”

He took her by the shoulders. “I’m telling you we
won’t
get caught. You don’t want Charlotte to go back to Alexandra’s. Nothing is more important to you than that.”

“Doing what’s good for you is as important.”

“Then do what I’m asking. Because the only thing that can hurt me is losing you.”

Sam strangled on the terrible choice—Charlotte’s safety versus Jake’s. One loyalty against the other. He saw the torment in her face and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her and holding her in a desperate, compelling embrace.

Charlotte was suddenly beside them, crying. Sam reached for her, but she stepped back and looked at everyone frantically. “I’m going to throw up. Where’s the bathroom?”

“Down the hall, on the left,” Mrs. Raincrow said, shoving her hands through her hair and rising quickly.

“I’ll go with you,” Sam said, easing out of Jake’s arms.

Charlotte shook her head and cupped a hand over her mouth. “No. I can do
one
thing by myself.” She ran from the room. Sam hurried to the doorway and watched her disappear into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. Sam turned shakily. Jake’s solid presence behind her—his hands on her arms, his determination to risk his own reputation for hers—slid through her veins like fire.

The unresolved argument strained his parents’ faces; Ellie looked calmer, but not happier. “You don’t want
him to do this,” Sam said. “And if I hadn’t loved him since I was a little girl, I wouldn’t care about anyone’s future but mine and my sister’s. But I
do
love him, and that’s why I won’t make Mrs. Big Stick’s warning come true. I won’t tear this family apart.”

Jake’s fingers tightened slowly on her arms. “Clara came to see you?”

“Yes. She says I’m bad luck. I didn’t want to believe her, but I do.” She faced Jake. “It’s enough that you want to go with us. I’ll never forget that.”

“Listen to me. I won’t let anyone take you back to Alexandra, and I won’t let you try to run without me. If you try to leave with Charlotte again, I’ll only follow you. I’ve always found you, and I always will. Sorry, but you’re stuck with me.”

She made a garbled sound filled with anger and love and terrible conflict. Jake drew her against him and held her tightly again. She grasped his hands and shut her eyes, trying to think of some other way. Seconds dragged in silent grief.

“You’ll need money,” Dr. Raincrow said.

Her mouth open, Sam whipped around and stared at him. He was looking at Mrs. Raincrow, who swallowed hard and rubbed a hand over her eyes, then nodded. Ellie, her face a mask of worried contemplation, nodded too. “Let me drive up to town. I’ll use my instant teller card. I can get a couple of hundred dollars tonight. When I get back to school on Monday, I’ll clean out my account at the bank in Durham. If you and Mom withdraw a large amount of money from your bank in town, people will talk.” She looked at Jake. “Call me in a few days. I’ll send you the money.”

Sam was speechless. His family loved him enough to be part of this deception. To risk everything—to be ruined if Aunt Alex learned they’d aided the plan. “No,” she said desperately, pleading. “No, please—”

“I took care of it,” Charlotte said. She had returned while no one noticed. Misery crumpled her expression, but she seemed strangely proud. Her eyes darted to Jake. “I guess I never knew how much you love my sister, and
how much she loves you. I can’t mess up your life. Aunt Alex would kill you, and then where would Sammie be? She’s never even looked at another guy.”

Sam could barely breathe. “What did you do?”

“I lied about having to go the bathroom. I saw a phone on the table in the hall, Sammie.” Her voice was ragged. “I called the sheriff’s office and told them where we are.”