A Stranger's Wife

by Maggie Osborne

  “Dearest, your sweet nature and tender heart are things I adore about you. But everything is different now. Westin has proved what he is. A murderer. And now I’m able to provide for Sara and the girls.”

  “Your wife is an invalid, Marshall. Your daughters are still children. Your family needs you.”

  “Miriam, darling, we’ve discussed this over and over. It’s regrettable that others will suffer on our account, but we cannot live without each other. Don’t we deserve to be happy? Why should we be the ones to suffer?”

  Now she saw how to end this in a way that Marshall would believe and that would remove him as a threat to Quinn. This would be her gift to Quinn, although he would never know of it. And it was also a gift to Miriam, who had been badly used.

  Jerking her hands out of his, she stood and stared down at him. “You are contemptible,” she said in a low, shaking voice. Her tone carried the utter conviction of her emotions.

  “I came here today to tell you that I’ve finally seen through you. You jilted me ten years ago. And now you’re prepared to treat your wife and daughters in the same shabby, cowardly, and contemptible manner you treated me.” If she could have been Lily in this situation, the air would have turned blue with the words she would have chosen. “You don’t love me. You didn’t seek me out. The Van Heusens found you and paid you to seduce me.”

  It was an informed guess, and when she saw his expression and the dull red flush that climbed his jaw, she knew she had guessed correctly.

  “How did you . . . ? I can explain that. It isn’t what it appears, I—”

  “How much are the Van Heusens paying you now, Marshall? How long would you stay with me in Chicago? Until after the election? Once Quinn was defeated, would you have left me? If you can justify abandoning an invalid wife and three daughters, it wouldn’t be too difficult for you to justify ruining my life, then walking away.”

  “Miriam, for God’s sake! What’s come over you? We love each other. We had a child together.”

  “Susan is a tragedy I will regret for the rest of my days. I made a terrible mistake, Marshall. I was unhappy in my marriage, so I convinced myself that I still loved you. But the man I thought I loved doesn’t exist. That man would never accept payment to make love to a vulnerable woman. The man I thought I loved would never turn his back on his own children or abandon them. I thank heaven that I have come to my senses and see you for the scum that you are.”

  He stared in anger and astonishment. “I don’t recognize you. I’ve never seen you like this.”

  “Leave me alone. If you contact me again, I’ll tell Quinn. I won’t beg him to spare you. I want nothing to do with you, Marshall. I don’t want to see you, talk to you, have any further contact with you. And I can promise that I will never think of you again.”

  “Miriam!”

  “You are despicable!”

  Turning in a swirl of skirts, she set off down the gravel path secure in the knowledge that he would not follow. She had seen unpardonable offense in his light-colored eyes, and a flash of fear when she threatened him with Quinn. She had made it clear by tone and expression that she considered him an amoral bastard.

  Miriam’s sad affair was finally over. Lily’s only regret was that Miriam herself had never recognized that she loved a man who existed only in her imagination.

  Lily hurried around the curve with her head down, so intent on her thoughts that she didn’t see the man waiting on the path until Paul clamped a hand on her arm and spun her to face him.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing!” he snarled, his voice shaking with fury.

  Chapter 20

  Paul practically flung her inside the carriage she had earlier seen approaching on the road.

  “You followed me,” Lily accused him, pulling herself up on the seat and shoving her skirts down. Her face was white with resentment. Months had passed since a man had handled her so roughly.

  “I’ve had you followed since you called on Helene Van Heusen. And with good reason.”

  “Where is Morely?”

  “By now Quinn has received my message. I doubt very much that you’ll see Morely again.” Paul’s voice was cold enough to ice her blood. He stared at her, stony with hostility as the carriage wheels spun then lurched forward. “I don’t know what your game is, Lily, but it ends here and now.”

  “Damn it, Paul. Whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong.” She would talk to Quinn about Morely. Morely shouldn’t lose his post on her account.

  “I’m thinking you’ve found a better offer,” he said in a voice raspy with rage. “I’m thinking you’ve joined forces with the Van Heusens, and you’ve negotiated a deal. What are they paying you to resume the affair with Oliver? Do they know you aren’t Miriam, or do they believe it’s Miriam who’s willing to ruin Quinn?”

  For a moment Lily was speechless. Shock widened her eyes and her hands began to shake. “My God! You can’t believe that!” Speaking rapidly and earnestly, she explained how Marshall had approached her outside the cloak room at the ball, his notes, and why she had decided to meet him today. “And I succeeded. It’s over. Marshall Oliver will not be a problem in the future.”

  “First, I was a member of the committee who drew up the guest list for the duke’s ball. Marshall Oliver’s name was not on the list.”

  “Are you saying . . . Paul, Marshall was there! So were the Van Heusens.”

  “The list was compiled by a bipartisan committee, so of course the Van Heusens received an invitation, but Oliver did not. He was not at the ball, and he did not approach you outside the cloak room. That’s a clumsy lie, Lily. Second, when I almost stumbled into you and your lover, you were wrapped in each other’s arms. That was no farewell scene.”

  “My lover? Paul, he believed I was Miriam! He embraced me, then we talked. Did you hear what I said to him?”

  “You can be damned sure I wanted to, but I didn’t have to hear the words. I saw enough to understand you were picking up where Miriam left off.”

  “If you’d been closer, you would have heard me tell him that he’s despicable. You would have heard me end the affair and make certain Marshall knows it’s ended! He won’t pursue Miriam any farther. That’s the truth!”

  “Why should I believe anything you say?” Paul’s face twisted. “You’ve been lying so long that you wouldn’t recognize the truth if it spit on your skirts.”

  “Would you?” Tears of frustration scalded the back of her eyes. “You’re so steeped in lies and half-truths that you can’t recognize the truth when you hear it!”

  He fell silent, studying her with hard flat eyes. “For the sake of discussion let us pretend for a moment that it happened exactly as you claim. Oliver wanted a meeting, and you agreed. Why, Lily? And don’t give me that nonsense about ending the affair. The affair ended the day Miriam confessed her pregnancy.”

  “No it didn’t. The boy I met on the path knew Miriam had had a child. He either saw her with Marshall while she was in a state of advanced pregnancy, or he saw them together after Susan’s birth. I believe Miriam loved Marshall, and she was too weak to resist his persistence. She may have genuinely intended to end the liaison, but Marshall continued to pursue her, and she continued to see him.”

  “I don’t give a damn what you believe. What I care about is Quinn and winning this election. And I’m not going to let you destroy everything we’ve worked for. You’re finished, Lily. You’ve become a problem.”

  The ice in her blood congealed. She heard the unmistakable threat shaking his voice, read it in his stony expression. “This isn’t fair, Paul.” Wetting her lips, she cleared her throat and tried to speak above a whisper. “I beg you, please don’t send me back to Yuma. I don’t deserve that.”

  “If I could send you back to the hellhole where I found you, I’d do it right now,” he snarled. “I’m angry enough to throw you out of this carriage in front of the sheriff’s office and order him to shackle you and take you back to Arizona.”
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  Bewilderment vied with the anguish draining the blood from her face. “What do you mean, if you could? The provisional pardon—”

  “There’s no such thing as a provisional pardon. Believe me, right now I wish there were,” he hissed at her. “There’s a pardon. Period.”

  “You son of a bitch!” Stunned, she fell backward on the seat as if he had shot her. “You made me believe I had no choices at all. And all the time, it was a goddamned lie. I could have said no and walked away. I could have gone home to Rose right then! Does Quinn know this?”

  But she remembered him saying that he regretted forcing her to impersonate Miriam. That he had done things that were hard to live with. Of course he knew.

  The lies and deceit had begun ten minutes after she met him. What had he called them? Necessary lies. Necessary lies that wrapped around her like invisible chains. Had he told her the truth about anything? Anything at all?

  Numbed by the discovery of how badly she’d been deceived, Lily fell silent, focusing dulled eyes on the countryside. All this time she could have been with Rose. A cold weight settled on her shoulders.

  * * *

  Quinn opened the door as Paul was dismissing his carriage in front of the mansion. “I’ve given the servants the rest of the day off and instructed them not to return until tomorrow.” He stared at Lily as if he’d never seen her before.

  If he had cleared the house of servants, then they could speak freely. What Lily burned to express freely was her fury and devastation at being tricked into impersonating Miriam. But first, she had to dispose of the Marshall Oliver misunderstanding. “I can explain why I met Marshall today.”

  “You’ll have that opportunity,” he snapped, glaring at her hand on his sleeve until she removed it. The lines had deepened beside his mouth and set in granite. He must have looked this coldly furious and betrayed when he learned of Miriam’s affair. Now it was Lily coming home after meeting Marshall Oliver. At this moment, Lily wished she had never heard of Miriam’s lover.

  Instead of choosing the informality of the family parlor, Quinn went directly to the library. It was a dark, chilly room, a masculine room designed for meetings rather than comfort. Lily dropped her cloak over the back of a chair and went to the window in time to watch the first snowflakes tumble out of a flinty twilight sky. The days were short now, and full darkness would descend in another thirty minutes. It was going to be a cold night.

  Quinn placed three glasses and a decanter of brandy on the table, but none of them moved to pour a drink. “I doubt there is any explanation you could offer that I can accept,” he said, his slate eyes hard. “But what in the hell did you think you were doing?”

  Standing away from them beside the window, feeling the cold air leaking around the panes and chilling her back, she spoke for twenty minutes. To their credit, neither man interrupted. They sat at the table, watching with expressions as unyielding as the marble tiles beneath her boots.

  “Quinn, I did this for you,” she finished, her eyes pleading for understanding. She hated his hard, closed expression. “I ended it with Marshall once and for all.”

  Standing slowly, he placed his palms on the table and leaned forward. “What you did was dangerous and stupid, Lily. How do you know this wasn’t a trap? Are you absolutely certain there was no journalist hidden in the willows listening to you admit to an affair? Did you and Marshall talk about Susan? Did either of you refer to the circumstances of Susan’s birth? Were things said that would create a front-page scandal? Think about what the two of you said to each other and picture how your conversation will read in print.”

  She gaped at him. It hadn’t occurred to her that Marshall, or more likely the Van Heusens, would alert a reporter and conceal him nearby to eavesdrop. At once she understood that she should have considered this possibility. “I don’t think there was anyone else present,” she stammered.

  “But you don’t know for certain.”

  “Marshall didn’t know that I would come today,” she said, thinking out loud and wringing her hands. Now that she understood the possible repercussions of today’s impulse, she genuinely regretted having gone to the City Ditch. Morely had lost his post, and Quinn could lose the election. “If Marshall or the Van Heusens intended the meeting as a trap, surely they would have set it up immediately after the ball. But Quinn, I didn’t go to the ditch then. Or the week after. So, I don’t think—”

  “That’s right, Lily,” Paul said sharply, his voice heavy with censure and disgust. “You didn’t think.”

  Tears sprang into her eyes. “Please believe me. I wouldn’t do anything to—”

  But Quinn cut her off with a slashing gesture and turned to Paul. “I owe you an apology. You were right about following her. I was wrong.”

  When she heard his tone, her heart sank. Nothing she said would make him see what she’d done as anything but a betrayal.

  Then Paul related what he had seen and how he interpreted it. Lily writhed inside. Surely Quinn would not believe that she’d fallen in with the Van Heusens. He couldn’t believe that. But he listened to Paul as intently as he had listened to her. Her heart silently pleaded, imploring him to remember that she loved him and would never knowingly damage him.

  But why would he trust that she loved him or that she wouldn’t try to destroy him? From the very beginning everything about their relationship had been a lie or a deception.

  Paul finished by staring at her. “I know she lied about Oliver being at the hotel the night of the ball. Someone would have seen him. On reflection, I don’t know if she’s lying about what happened between her and Oliver at the ditch. Maybe—maybe—it happened the way she says and for the reasons she claims. Maybe it didn’t. I do know we can’t trust her. Instead of a solution, she’s become a problem.”

  It was dark now. Light from the wall sconces and the lamps did not reach the corners of the room. For several minutes after Paul stopped speaking, the only sound was the ticking of the mantel clock and the soft hiss of snow against the windowpanes. The sound of Quinn’s heels pacing across the marble floor.

  Anger exploded in Lily’s chest and grew. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She’d been trying to help. When she thought about Paul saying that she couldn’t be trusted her hands shook with fury.

  “There was never a provisional pardon, and you knew it,” she said to Quinn, her voice husky with injury and reproach. “How do either of you dare speak of trust? You’ve used me and lied to me from the minute we met! Did you tell me anything that wasn’t a lie? Anything at all?” She threw out her hands. “When this is over, will there be a home for Rose and me? Or was that a lie, too? Can I believe anything you’ve said?”

  “Don’t try to turn the tables. This is about you.” Quinn stopped pacing and looked down the length of the long library table. “I don’t believe you’ve joined forces with my political enemies,” he said after a long moment, his voice frigid. “But you have consistently disobeyed my instructions, and you might well have destroyed everything I’ve worked for by doing so.”

  “I didn’t—”

  “If Marshall Oliver was at the ball as you say, then it’s because Helene Van Heusen arranged it. You didn’t stop Helene’s involvement by calling on her after I ordered you not to. We’ll know soon if a journalist was present during your meeting with Oliver. His article will make the front pages. And my campaign will be over.”

  “I truly believe Marshall and I were alone!”

  “I hope you’re right, Lily. But eventually there will be a witness to any trysts with Oliver.”

  “There won’t be any further meetings!”

  “This one shouldn’t have happened,” Quinn snapped, his eyes blazing cold fire. “When Oliver approached you, you should have informed me immediately. No one asked you to inject yourself into this situation. We never wanted you involved with Marshall Oliver. You should have told me, then Paul and I could have handled the problem!”

  “Like you handled the Callihan proble
m?” she asked sharply, throwing the accusation at him.

  Paul sat up straight, and his shoulders stiffened. “What are you implying?”

  “I’m not as blind as you think I am!” Lifting her skirts, she ran out of the library and bolted up the staircase, stumbling in the darkness. When she reached her bedroom, she slammed the door and leaned against it, fighting the sting of tears and a confusing mix of emotions.

  Quinn was furious, and after he’d pointed out the possibility of a trap, she understood why he would be. But she’d only been trying to help.

  And learning there was no such thing as a provisional pardon had jolted her badly and made her furious. At the same time, she understood why they’d deceived her. Finding a dead ringer for Miriam must have seemed like a godsend, a solution to an enormous problem. And they had to make certain that Lily would agree to the impersonation.

  Rubbing her temples, she paced across the chilly, dark room. With the servants gone, no fire had been laid in her bedroom grate, the lamps were not lit. Worse, knowing that she, Quinn, and Paul were the only people in the house made her acutely aware of the mansion’s massive size and the myriad of dark, silent rooms.

  She considered lighting a fire, but she was too upset, too drained from the day’s events. Dropping into a chair next to the window, she gazed outside at the blackness beyond the falling snow and wrung her hands in her lap. Could the meeting with Marshall have been a trap? Was someone listening to everything they had said?

  Casting back in her mind, she tried to reconstruct the conversation, examining every word for damaging content. And God help her, if a third party had been listening, the conversation would indeed be destructive to Quinn. Marshall had revealed that Susan was his daughter. He’d revealed that he and Miriam had discussed eloping.

  Moreover, he had repeatedly stated that Quinn was a murderer. There hadn’t been a hint of doubt in his voice or expression. Marshall Oliver believed that Quinn had murdered his daughter and had attempted to murder Miriam.