Blue Willow

by Deborah Smith

  Lily took a deep breath. The inevitable sank into her bones. There was no way around it. “I’m going to find Joe,” she said, and walked out.

  By the time she reached the street, Aunt Maude and Little Sis caught up with her. Big Sis tottered on the porch, rapping her cane on the snowy railing, while she glared at the slick porch steps. “I’m not about to be left behind!” she called.

  Lily jerked the truck’s door open. Little Sis grabbed her arm. “Let’s wait. Maybe Hopewell just hasn’t made up his mind yet. Oh, that fool, that dear old fool—”

  “Don’t you dare leave,” Aunt Maude commanded, pushing all her considerable girth between Lily and the cab. “We’ll go call the sheriff back and get him to take care of it.”

  “You call him,” Lily told her. “But I can’t stay here and do nothing.”

  Aunt Maude leveled a hard gaze at her. “You’re avoiding the thing you don’t want to do. You’ve got to go to Artemas and tell him about his brother. It’ll come out sooner or later, Lily. Don’t let him find out from somebody else.”

  Lily made a sound of fury and despair. “I can’t give up. I’m not going to throw away everything he loves on the chance that Joe Estes can’t be kept from talking.”

  Little Sis tugged at her fiercely. “You can’t reason with Joe! You’ve got nothing to bribe him with either.”

  “Yes, I have.” Lily stuck out her left hand, fingers splayed. The diamonds and sapphires in Grandmother Colebrook’s magnificent ring glittered in the light of a street lamp. Lily choked at the ethereal promise, the gift that represented so much sacrifice and devotion. But it was an empty symbol unless it saved them.

  Her teeth clenched, she said softly, “If this is enough to make him keep his mouth shut and leave town, then I’ll give it to him without a backward glance.”

  Maude asked darkly, “And if it’s not enough?”

  Lily met her eyes. “One way or another, I’m going to stop Joe.”

  The flash of headlights turning down the street made them all freeze. Little Sis shielded her eyes and cried. “It’s Hopewell’s old truck! It’s him! Thank God!”

  She broke away and ran to the truck as it slid to a stop in the slush along the curb. But as she put her hands on the door handle the door swung open, almost knocking her down.

  Joe leaped out and snatched her by one arm. Little Sis gasped in pain as he wrenched it behind her back. Lily shoved past Aunt Maude, reaching into the cab of her truck and slamming the seat forward. She had her hands on the shotgun when Joe yelled, “I’ll kill her! Get out of that truck, or I’ll blow her damned brains out!”

  Lily halted, her fingers tingling on the shotgun’s stock. Beside her, Aunt Maude was cursing and shaking the truck’s open door with both hands, her rage and fear trapped into futile gestures.

  Joe had the muzzle of a pistol jammed into the hollow below Little Sis’s ear. He glanced at Big Sis on the porch and yelled, “You keep still, too, old lady!” His deadly gaze flicked back to Lily and Aunt Maude. “I need a little help with something I gotta do. Looks like I’ll get more than I expected. I ain’t leaving any of you bitches here to call and warn everybody.”

  He jerked his head toward his truck. “Come on. All of you. I mean it. I’ll pull this trigger. Come on.”

  Little Sis struggled and twisted toward the house. “Run!” she yelled to Big Sis. “Call the sheriff!”

  Joe shook her and gave a harsh shout of laughter. “Why don’t you tell her to throw down her cane and sprint like a rabbit?” His mouth curled sarcastically. “Old lady,” he yelled to Big Sis, “you hobble this way as fast as you can, ’cause if you don’t, I’ll kill, everybody and come after you next.”

  “Dead’s dead,” Big Sis retorted, but her voice shook. “If you’re going to shoot anyway, what difference does it make where you do it?”

  “I don’t want to kill none of you. Y’all can get out of this alive, but you better do what I say. We’ve got a little trip to take.”

  Lily moved slowly around Aunt Maude, her hands knotted by her sides. “I’ll go with you. You don’t need the others.”

  “Hell, yes, I do. You always was crazy. You’d just as soon drive us both into a tree, if it was just you and me.” He dragged Little Sis toward his father’s truck. “Get in.” He shoved her into the cab and kept the pistol pointed at her. “Come on, Lily. Goddammit. You other two get in the back.”

  Big Sis held the railing of the porch steps and descended with choppy, fast steps. Aunt Maude walked forward helplessly. Lily stood in the middle of the street, trying to form a plan, seeing nothing but the lethal set of Joe’s flat, thin lips. “Where’s your father?” she asked.

  Joe’s eyes flickered without regret. “Don’t talk to me about my old man, you thievin’ cunt. You made him think you was more important to him than me. He got what he deserved. Everybody’s gonna get what they deserve tonight.”

  Hopewell plowed his old Chevy into the curb in front of Maude’s house. He staggered through the empty rooms, disoriented, his head full of pain, the scent of dried blood rising from his lips, his vision blurring. He kept trying to remember what Joe had said at the last. Where had Joe gone?

  When he saw the phone on the floor, he sank to one knee, dizzy, fighting to remain conscious. Images refused to form a complete picture. The door of Lily’s truck, standing open! The door of Maude’s house too. The empty rooms. The phone.

  He grabbed it and tried to focus on the console. Call the sheriff. But the blackness stained his sight again.

  “Hello?” someone called from the front hall. A man’s voice, deep and solemn, unfamiliar. “Is anyone there?”

  “Here! Here,” Hopewell gasped. “Help me.” He sagged, turned limply toward the parlor door, and squinted. A tall, dark-haired man appeared in the door—angel or devil, a stranger in clothes like the men’s magazines said rich people wore when they relaxed. The man came to him, limping a little, a long cloth coat flinging back from the bad leg, bending over him, grasping his chin. Hopewell recoiled. James Colebrook.

  “What’s going on here? I came to see Lily.” Colebrook stared at his face. “You’re Hopewell Estes, aren’t you? Who did this to you?”

  Hopewell swayed and threw up a hand to ward him off. “Hurt her. You’ll hurt her. Hurt me. Afraid—”

  Colebrook hurriedly pulled him to his feet and held him steady with a brutal grip. “Talk to me. Where are Lily and the others?”

  He was the enemy. Hopewell couldn’t trust him. But what if—what if Joe had been here? I’m going to kill me an important man. Hopewell moaned. “Joe’s took ’em, somehow! And I know where he’s gone! He’s gone to kill your brother!”

  “Stop the truck.” Joe’s voice cut through Lily’s frayed concentration. She stepped on the brake. Beside her, Little Sis shivered. Joe sat on the far side of the seat, with the gun jabbed into Little Sis’s side.

  They were on the road to the estate. Nothing but snow-drenched forest stretched ahead and behind, a ghostly tunnel. Joe cranked the window down and yelled over his shoulder, “Get out.”

  Lily glanced back into the bed, where Aunt Maude struggled to help Big Sis slide toward the lowered tailgate. She met Joe’s cruel stare behind Little Sis’s head. “They ain’t gonna cause any trouble out here in the middle of nowhere,” he said lightly. “You can thank me for lettin’ ’em go.”

  “They’ll freeze. I’m giving them my jacket,” Lily told him. Her hard tone sullied Joe’s control. Watching him tensely, she shrugged her quilted jacket off, opened her door, and held it out. Aunt Maude, breathing heavily, helped Big Sis along the truck’s side. “We’ll be all right,” she said, taking the jacket. “Dear God, do whatever he says, Lily.”

  “Until you get the upper edge,” Big Sis interjected, craning her head to look in the dark cab. “Then kill him. Kill him and spit on his dead face.” Her voice broke. “Sissy, Sissy, I love you,” she called.

  “We’ll have a fine story to tell around the fire, when this is do
ne,” Little Sis answered, staring straight ahead, afraid even to turn her head toward them.

  Joe grunted. “Let’s go. Shut the damned door.”

  Lily gave Aunt Maude and Big Sis a shamed look. Aunt Maude patted her arm. “Go on. You can’t do any different.”

  Lily closed the door and drove on slowly, stalling for time. “Why are we going this way?”

  “I got business down here.”

  “You had business at my place earlier today, didn’t you?”

  He laughed softly, the sound creeping over her skin. “You know, they came right up to me. They was as tame as pets.”

  She gripped the steering wheel until her hands ached. “I expect you knew how to get in and out through the woods without any of the estate’s guards catching you on my road.”

  “Hell, yes. I hunted those woods for years.” He laughed again. “Shot me a nosy little shit of a girl once too. Grew dope in the hollows. Had it good.” His laugh became a low hiss. “Until Artemas Colebrook found out. Goddamn him. I been cheated out of my rights. Cheated by him. Cheated by my old man too, ’cause he turned on me for your sake. And for yours,” Joe added, leaning toward Little Sis and whispering the words near her face.

  “Where is Hopewell?” Little Sis asked, her voice small and strained.

  “He was gonna take me to the sheriff. Held a gun on me. Didn’t have the guts to use it.”

  “What did you do to him?”

  “I beat the shit out of him.”

  Little Sis moaned. Lily saw the distant glow of the lamps at the estate’s gatehouse, a faint light around a bend in the road. Joe saw it, too, and leaned back. “Now, you listen to me good, Lily When we get to the gate, you better damned sure make certain we get past the guard without him suspectin’ nothing.”

  It was the bleakest moment, a flash of resistance so overwhelming that Lily stomped on the brake. “No.”

  She heard the ugly, muffled click of the pistol’s hammer. “I’ll do it,” Joe said softly. “Don’t push me.”

  “Tell me why we’re going to Blue Willow.”

  “If you don’t shut up and go on, I’ll kill both of you and still find a way to get in. At least this way, you give your man a chance to see me coming. Maybe he can even make things right—talk his way out of trouble. The other way, I just slip up in the woods and wait for him to step outside, and I put a bullet in him.”

  Lily pressed the gas pedal again. The truck crept along. She was screaming inside, working on the cold numbness of battle, alert and ready, and she forced herself to think rather than feel.

  Little Sis blurted, “Your quarrel’s not with Artemas! It’s with his brother, James! It was James who got your hopes up!”

  Lily bit her tongue. Could she protect Artemas by turning Joe’s revenge toward James? James had brought this terrible situation down on them. James should be the one to pay, not Artemas. And finally, she knew she had no choice. She would save Artemas any way she could.

  “Yes, it was James,” she agreed. “Artemas’s brother is the one you want to confront. He’s the son of a bitch who schemed without any consideration for you or me. He held out all sorts of fantastic promises to you, when he knew the whole thing would fall apart as soon as the truth came out. He didn’t care if you got caught in the middle. It doesn’t matter to him that your dreams and hopes are ruined because of your father’s change of heart. There’s no point in you hating Artemas. It’s James you want. But James isn’t even here. He’s … in New York. He left for New York tonight.”

  Little Sis gasped at the lie but added dully, “That’s right. You should go to New York and find that bastard.”

  “Ladies, ladies,” Joe said, giving the word a filthy lilt. “Colebrooks are thick with each other. Hurt one, you hurt ’em all. And I’m gonna make ’em all hurt.”

  They were at the gate. Lily looked at the neat little stone house and tall iron willows with despair. Joe said softly, “You get us in, or there’ll be blood everywhere.”

  “I’ll have to give the guard the names of my guests. It’s a rule. He’ll be suspicious if I argue.” That was another lie. She had the same privileges as Artemas or his family members. The guard would never question her. But he would, as a matter of routine, call the house and alert Mr. Upton to open the front doors. And Mr. Upton would relay her arrival to Artemas.

  “You think of something safe to tell him,” Joe warned.

  She rolled down her window as the guard walked out. Lupa bounded out with him and leaped up, planting her paws on the truck’s door, her tail wagging wildly. The guard raised his brows at Lily’s unfamiliar vehicle but said politely, “Hello, Mrs. Porter.” Seeing Little Sis, he brightened and said, “Why, and hello to you, Sissy. I’ve been reading that book on psychokinesis you sold me, but I still can’t bend any spoons by looking at them.”

  “Mind over matter is a capricious thing,” Little Sis replied grimly. “It takes faith.”

  He laughed. “At least I can open these gates for you.” He fumbled with the remote control on his belt.

  Lily stifled a flash of panic. If she blurted out information he hadn’t requested, Joe would immediately suspect her motives. Lupa whined and scratched the truck’s door, accustomed to being invited wherever Lily went. Lily’s breath rattled in her throat. “Lupa! Stop clawing the finish off Mr. Halfman’s truck.”

  Halfman. The name of the specter from her family’s past, mysterious, a harbinger of doom. It came to her as if the evil had always been waiting at the edge of her mind to destroy her dreams, as it had destroyed Elspeth MacKenzie’s future with the immigrant English china artisan she had loved so dearly, the man whose name and legacy had finally come full circle in Artemas. Halfman had returned.

  “Mr. Halfman, I’m sorry about this damned dog,” Lily continued. She put an arm out and shoved Lupa down. Lupa’s tail drooped. Lily glared at the guard. “I thought I told you to keep her inside the gatehouse. If she gets run over, I’ll have your job. I’ve warned you before. You never listen.”

  He blinked in astonishment, because she’d never spoken to him with anything less than courtesy or asked him to keep Lupa before. “Ma’am?”

  “Now she’s put scratches in Mr. Halfman’s door. Just open the damned gates and get her out of the way.”

  He grabbed Lupa’s ruff and backed off. The gates slid open with slow grace. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Porter!” He glanced at Joe. “I apologize, Mr. Halfman.”

  Lily scowled at him. “You’ll be even sorrier after I tell Mr. Colebrook how incompetent you are.”

  “Mrs. Porter, you’re mistaken. I’m sorry!”

  “Sorry doesn’t cut it.” She gunned the engine and drove up the paved lane into the woods. Her pulse hammered in her throat. Please, God, let him be so upset he tells Mr. Upton every detail And let Mr. Upton tell Artemas.

  The estate’s forest closed in around them.

  Artemas kept the sleek black phone to his ear and paced in front of the doors to the loggia. “Could you try again, operator?”

  “Sir, the line is out of order or the phone has been left off the receiver. I can’t get through.”

  He told himself it meant nothing, but not being able to call Maude’s house stirred a sense of foreboding he couldn’t shake. James must be there by now, talking with Lily. Artemas couldn’t ignore the protective instincts of a lifetime. Tonight, burdened with so much evidence that those instincts had failed him with Elizabeth, Julia, and James, he was more determined than ever.

  He wouldn’t risk failing Lily too. He’d go to Maude’s, check on the situation, but discreetly attempt to appear casual about it. Lily wouldn’t be fooled, but she’d understand.

  Frowning, he thanked the operator and cut the connection, then strode out of the gallery. He went to the entrance hall, intent on telling Mr. Upton to have a car brought around to the front.

  “Artemas?” He turned at the soft sound of Alise’s voice. She came down the grand staircase, floating, it seemed, in a pale silk robe that
reflected just a hint of color from the Tiffany skylight at the dome of the entrance hall. It was a lovely sight, as if she were moving through a rainbow, and her gentleness only made him angrier at James.

  She halted at the landing, looking puzzled. “I woke from my nap and called downstairs to find James. Mr. LaMieux said he’s gone into town.”

  “I’m sorry, I thought you knew. He’s gone to see Lily, at her aunt’s house.”

  The barely concealed tension in his voice alerted her. Alise raised a hand to her throat. Her eyes darkened with distress. “Is everything all right?”

  “I assume he told you what he’d been planning to do to Lily.”

  She shut her eyes, then looked at Artemas with a sheen of tears in them. “Yes. When he called me in London yesterday.” She stepped forward quickly, holding her hands out in supplication. “I know how horrible it must have sounded to you. But he’s changed so much. If you could have lived with him, with his confusion and pain, the way I have for nearly two years, and then heard the difference in his voice yesterday, and then today, today, after I arrived, when we”—she hesitated, her reluctance to disclose James’s private moments apparent in her eyes—“oh, Artemas, he’s very different from before.”

  Artemas couldn’t bring himself to tell her that his fury and disappointment seemed endless right now. “He’s gone to apologize to Lily. His scheming may have ruined her business relationship with Mr. Estes permanently—and worse, her chances of recovering her family property someday. A great deal will depend on how Lily feels about that.”

  “I understand, but please, give him a chance.”

  “I’ve told him he’s not welcome here at the estate for now. He’ll be leaving for Atlanta tonight.”

  “Oh, Artemas, no!”

  “You’re a much-loved part of this family, and you’ve done nothing wrong. You may stay if you wish.”

  “I’d never do that, without James.” She clutched the ornate wooden balustrade with both hands and gave him a beseeching look. “All these years—ever since I was a little girl who tagged along after James—I’ve always seen how strong the bond was between you. I won’t believe it’s broken.”