The Heiress (32 page)

Jack blinked. “You were spying on them?”

“Observing those around me, the way any good reporter does.”

Jack’s expression became stony with resolve. “I don’t know why Tom was talking to Iris.”

“Sure about that?” Bucky was pretty certain Jack did know.

“Furthermore, it’s none of my business or yours,” Jack continued sternly.

Bucky tilted his head at Jack in silent speculation. “I’m sure that’s what you’d like me to think, but the evidence here says otherwise. Bottom line, I’ve never known the Templetons and the Deveraux to be at all friendly. If they ever were, it was long before I was born. So why were Tom and Iris suddenly meeting clandestinely? What could they possibly have been talking about that was so important to both of them and upsetting, to boot? Thus far anyway, I can only come up with one explanation. You work for Tom and you’re married to Iris’s sister, Daisy. So the only connection between Tom and Iris is you and, by default, Daisy. So if Tom went to see Iris about something upsetting, it was likely about you and Daisy.”

Jack flexed his shoulders, smoke all but coming out of his head.

“Then, of course, this tale of woe gets even stranger because if what you’re telling me is accurate—” Bucky ignored the danger signs and continued theorizing bluntly “—on the heels of that meeting, your place is broken into last night.”

“Which gives you more motive than anyone else, since you’re the only one snooping around in our business, in hunt of a juicy story that just isn’t there,” Jack pointed out.

“Except,” Bucky corrected, “I didn’t
have
anything to do with said break-in. Because I was at three society parties and two benefits last night taking pictures and getting quotes for this morning’s story. If you want to check it out, I’ll give you the names and numbers of the hosts.”

Jack seemed to be trying to decide if he could trust Bucky. Finally, he grimaced and said, “Look, I don’t know what your plans are, Jerome, but I don’t think either of us should say anything to Daisy about her father fooling around. She’s had a rough time of it lately, being in the hospital and all.”

Normally, Bucky would have said it was a mistake to keep anything from Daisy—she didn’t like being kept in the dark. About anything. But in this case he couldn’t help but agree with Jack Granger.

Whatever female problem Daisy had suffered had been rough on her. All Bucky had to do was look at her to know she was still getting over it.

“I agree,” Bucky said quietly. News of the uptight Richard’s debauchery would devastate Daisy and she’d already been hurt enough. So Daisy wouldn’t hear it from him, Bucky promised silently. But if Richard did
make that fatal misstep, got caught with his pants down and the sordid story got out, all bets were off.

J
ACK KNEW
he had to keep Daisy away from Richard Templeton’s mistress, and the first chance he got, he took steps to do just that. “You’re sure it was the same woman?” Daisy asked after Jack had filled her in on the parts of his conversation with the nosy reporter that Jack thought Daisy should know. Finished with work for the day, she picked up her camera bags and headed out to the parking lot.

Jack shifted Daisy’s load from her arms to his. “Bucky had a couple photos of her from a social event he was covering. There was no doubt it was the same woman.”

Daisy paused as Jack opened up the back of the SUV. “And she went to see Iris at the shop.”

Jack nodded, glad he had given Daisy a ride to work that morning on his way to the Deveraux-Heyward Shipping offices.

“What about?” Daisy persisted, seeming to sense something more was up than what he was currently telling her.

Jack shrugged, and revealed as much of the truth as he could while still sheltering his wife from any unnecessary ugliness. “Bucky didn’t know,” Jack reiterated calmly. “He just said the meeting between the two was tense. Anyway, if the woman comes near you again, I think you should stay away from her. Just let me handle her.”

Daisy hopped up on the back so she was sitting in the cargo area beneath the raised hood. She looked pretty and sort of summery in a pair of cropped red slacks and a red-and-white bandanna print blouse that
bared her shoulders and fell just above her navel. Her wavy blond hair had been caught up in a clasp on the back of her head to keep it out of her face while she worked. And her face and shoulders held the blush of sun because they had done part of the day’s taping outdoors. Daisy clamped her hands on either side of her and swung her legs back and forth over the end of the SUV. “So what am I supposed to do if I see this mystery woman trying to approach me again, Jack—send out an SOS?”

“Yes.” Jack parted her knees and stepped between her legs. He wrapped his arms around her hips and waist and tugged her closer, until the insides of her thighs were pressed against his sides, exactly the way they had been last night when they were making love. “That’s exactly what you are supposed to do,” Jack told her firmly but lovingly. He paused to give her a long, thorough kiss designed to make up for all the hours they had spent apart. Drawing back only because of where they were, he gently touched her face. “Because like it or not, you are now connected to Grace and the breakup of her marriage, and she’s celebrity enough to be fodder for the tabloids. Information like that, along with the proof that was stolen from our place last night, could fetch a lot of money on the open market.”

Jack didn’t want to see any of the parties involved exposed to such devastating hurt.

“Did you tell Harlan Decker any of this?” Daisy asked.

Jack nodded calmly, even as he pushed his guilt—for keeping anything from Daisy—away. “I told him everything.” Including the parts Jack had kept from Daisy. “He’s going to see what he can do to figure out
who this woman is.” And he was going to do so by tailing Richard Templeton. “But it may take a few days before we know anything.”

Hopefully, once they did get an identity on the woman, Jack would be able to take steps, legal or otherwise, to prevent this entire situation from blowing up in their faces. And protect his wife in the bargain. Because this was something Jack never wanted Daisy to know.

D
AISY KNEW
that although Jack was trying to play it cool, deep inside he was still edgy about the previous night’s break-in. She was, too. Especially since it looked as if Bucky Jerome was not responsible for the theft of Daisy’s private information.

Which was why, like it or not, she was going to have to involve her family. Connor was out of the country on business—he was in Aruba with a group of big-time investors, vacationing and trying to put together some big consortium for a new ultraluxurious resort on the Atlantic. Details of which were top secret. She didn’t want to go to her father—she was not up to a lecture from him. She didn’t want to upset her mother—Charlotte would worry too much if she knew Daisy and Jack had walked in on a burglary in progress. So that left Iris, who, as it turned out, was involved in this mess anyway.

“I’m going to have to tell Iris so she’ll be forewarned, too,” Daisy told Jack as she climbed into the passenger seat beside him. Daisy pulled her cell phone out of her bag and punched in a number. “Hopefully, she hasn’t already gone to a dinner party or something.”

Iris’s maid, Consuela, answered on the second ring. “This is Daisy. I’m looking for my sister,” Daisy said.

“She’s out at Rosewood doing inventory, Daisy. She said she would be late getting home.”

“How late?”

“Ten or 11:00 p.m.”

“Thanks.” Daisy hung up and told Jack.

“You want to go out there?” he said.

Daisy noted he didn’t look particularly eager. In truth, neither was she. “I think we’d better,” she said reluctantly. If the family was about to be blackmailed about Daisy’s birth and Iris’s pregnancy, Iris needed to be warned as soon as possible. And Daisy sensed it was a conversation best had in person. Besides, she wanted to see the look in Iris’s eyes when they talked about the mysterious woman. This time Daisy wanted to know for sure that her birth mother wasn’t keeping anything vital from her.

Not surprisingly, Daisy and Jack were quiet on the ride to Rosewood. As always, Daisy was loathing any foray onto the property where the single most traumatic experience of her life had occurred. But maybe it was good she was going there again, Daisy told herself firmly. Maybe if she went there enough—with Jack at her side—she would be able to desensitize herself to the sprawling estate. And finally put those nightmares about the dark and dank cellar, which Daisy knew had long since been remodeled, behind her. It was worth a try anyway, since Daisy imagined Jack was as tired of losing sleep over her bad dreams as she was.

“I’m looking for my sister, Iris,” Daisy told the security guard at the gate when she arrived.

The uniformed guard gave them a welcoming smile. “Ms. Templeton-Hayes is in the main house. A wine
shipment was delivered earlier today and she’s doing an inventory in the wine cellar.”

Daisy was disappointed to learn that the inventory taking place was in the main house instead of the auction barns. “Great,” Daisy grumbled dispiritedly after the guard waved them through.

Jack slanted her a curious look as he parked in front of the house.

“I just hate that cellar,” Daisy explained. “I got locked in one of the rooms down there during a Halloween party when I was six.”

Daisy drew a deep, bolstering breath. “I know it’s foolish, but I’m always afraid I’m going to get locked in one of the rooms downstairs again. They supposedly completely redid the cellar a few years ago, but when I dream about it I always remember the way it was when I was a kid,” Daisy said as she used her key to let them into the mansion. “It was really creepy. Kind of dark and musty and cold and it had this old mildew smell.” Doing her best to shake off the unpleasant memories Daisy led the way back to the kitchen and into the huge butler’s pantry. At the rear of the large room, filled with stainless-steel racks and shelves, was the door to the cellar. As Daisy neared it, a wave of nausea hit her, followed swiftly by an answering unsteadiness in her knees. Here they went again.

“You don’t have to go down there if you don’t want to,” Jack said.

“No, I want to go.” Daisy swallowed hard. She was being ridiculous. With Jack next to her, and Iris already down there, there wasn’t a possibility in the world she was going to get trapped in one of the rooms. She was not going to be a baby about this. Deliberately, Daisy shook off her unease. Trembling slightly, she forced
herself to go through the open door and into the brightly lit basement.

The warped splintering staircase Daisy recalled had been replaced, the concrete walls covered in the same elegant rose brick that was on the exterior of the mansion. It looked as if the concrete floor had been redone, too, and painted a pretty, dark gray, she noted as she descended the stairs. There were rows of canned goods, cleaning supplies, fresh linens on neatly arranged shelves. Beyond that, a long hall and another series of doors. As Daisy started in the direction she guessed the wine cellar was located, she felt sick again. Almost dizzy with a combination of panic and—revulsion. This time, Jack caught her arm and brought her close. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he asked again, “Are you remembering anything else?”

“No.” But it was right there, playing on the edges of her memory.

Daisy gulped as footsteps came around the corner. Iris was dressed in business clothes and had a PalmPilot in her hand. It was clear from the look on her face she had overheard what they were saying. “What’s going on?” she asked, warily.

“Daisy’s been having nightmares about the time she got locked in a room down here.”

Knowing she needed to sit down, Daisy groped her way to a low bench that ran along one wall and sank onto it.

Iris looked at Jack as if they were the only two grown-ups in the room, then turned back to Daisy. “Why would you be having nightmares about that now? It happened years ago.”

“I don’t know.” Daisy was getting tired of explaining her weird behavior when it came to this place, and
her fuzzy, unpleasant memories of it. She shuddered and rubbed her arms to ward off the chill that had descended upon her. “I guess getting trapped down here really scared me. And that fear is still there, buried in my psyche, or something.” Because it keeps resurfacing.

“In Daisy’s dream, there’s a faceless, nameless person in a costume or a mask or something.” Jack looked to Iris for an explanation.

Iris looked at Daisy, really concerned now. “Who is it?” she asked.

Had there been some sort of abuse, or attempted abuse? Did Iris know about it?

“I don’t know,” Daisy shrugged and explained how the person in her dreams kept telling her to be quiet or he’d have to hurt her. Daisy rubbed at the tension building in her temples. “It’s all sort of vague and weird and scary.” Although, since she had been married to Jack, the dreams had become more distinct. It was almost as if it was safe to remember now that she was married.

“Well, nothing like that happened,” Iris said, looking piqued at all the talk about something that had happened so very long ago. “I was with Mother when we found you. You were absolutely hysterical, but you were also quite alone and unharmed. Mother did scold you, of course. We had a vermin problem here that October and we didn’t want any of you children playing down here during the Halloween party, period. And you and the other children knew the basement was off-limits, which is why I think you probably came down here to hide, because you knew you wouldn’t be found by any of the other children. And hence, would win the game.”

That sounded about right, Daisy thought. She had always liked to win. Although after that episode she had never played hide-and-seek again. And never liked closed, locked, dark, cold, musty spaces, either.

“How long was Daisy down here?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know.” Iris shrugged. “Maybe fifteen or twenty minutes. A group of kids were playing hide-and-seek and it took that long for us to determine you were missing.”

“Were any of the grown-ups in costume that evening?” Jack continued his interrogation on Daisy’s behalf.