Marsden (Wilkerson Dynasty Book 1)

by Kathi S. Barton

  “Hush up about that, and let me get in bed with you. Tonight we cling to each other. The rest, I hope, will work itself out.”

  As soon as he stripped down to his skin, he got into his bed with her. When she wrapped herself around him, Mars couldn’t believe the comfort that he got from her. It was like being wrapped up in a warm security blanket that he’d only just discovered.

  Chapter 6

  Clayton was trying to relax when he was told that he had a phone call—from his son. Clayton nearly reached for it when Eita came into the room with him. He wanted to talk to North, but he also didn’t want to do it in front of his wife. He looked at his butler.

  “Could you have the gentleman call me back, Jamison? Or better yet, tell him that I’ll call him later. Perhaps we can meet for lunch if there are no other plans today.” He looked at his wife, and when she shook her head, he told him to make those plans for around the calling hours today. When they were alone, he asked Eita if she was going to the funeral home tonight.

  “Of course. Why wouldn’t I? So that Marsden can talk about me and put me down? No, I won’t allow him to do that to the Wilkerson name. Speaking of which, are you working on having his last name stripped of him? I don’t care if he goes by nothing but Marsden, but I want you to make him change it.” Clayton asked her why she wanted that done. “Because, as I have said to you several times over the years, he’s not worthy of the Wilkerson name. I should have suggested it years ago. Well?”

  “I’m not going to do that, Eita. He’s a grown man, and I don’t even think it could be done legally.” She asked him what they could do about it, even if it wasn’t legal. “Nothing. As I said, I’m not even going to look into it. It’s ludicrous to think that he’d even want that.”

  “All right. If you don’t want to do it, I’ll find someone that will. I think that Hank has a law degree. I know that Penelope will be able to make him do it. I guess I’m losing my touch around you, aren’t I?” He told her that he didn’t know what she was talking about. “Never mind. I came to tell you that we’re leaving here in an hour to go to the funeral home. I want to pick out the arrangements that my friends sent to Holly. Why they’d do that is beyond me, but then they were probably trying to impress me by doing it. There isn’t any point in Marsden taking them. He’ll just kill them off.”

  When she left him, Clayton put his hands on his head and held it. He’d never noticed that Eita was this hateful before. Or perhaps he’d never wanted to notice it before now. Looking down at the notes he’d been making on things that he wanted to have looked into, he was finding more and more things that Eita and the other women had been doing. And that his father had been helping them before he died.

  Jamison came in after Eita left his office and closed the door behind him. He looked nervous like he was terrified that something was going to happen to him with whatever information he had. Clayton asked him if he was all right.

  “Yes, sir. Your son, he told me to tell you that he’s not able to meet you for lunch, as it would take much too long for the two of you to speak. He said, should you really wish to speak to him freely, then to meet him at the condo behind Marsden’s home.” Nodding, he asked if there was an address. “I have it, sir. If you don’t mind me asking, will you be all right? I mean, we all heard that you had taken ill last night.”

  “I’m fine. Thank you for asking. I’m under too much stress, I was told. Would you please see if you can get me an appointment with my physician for Monday? I was told by the doctor that looked me over last night that I needed to make an appointment.” Jamison said it would be his pleasure. But he didn’t leave. Thinking about what else he wanted to say to him, Clayton thought of something. “I don’t want Eita to know of the doctor’s appointment, nor the meeting with North, if you’d not tell her. I’m looking into a few things that are bothering me about her.”

  The man looked so relieved that Clayton was sure that there was more to this than just not telling his wife. “Sir, I’m sorry to have to say this to you, but the staff, sir, they’re going to leave you soon. Nearly all the outdoor staff has already left, sir. And a great many of the indoor staff as well.” He asked him if he knew why. “I’m sure that I don’t know, sir. I just wanted to let you know in the event you went looking for a driver today. It seems that he was terminated.”

  “My wife.” Jamison didn’t so much as blink when he said that to him. “Get in touch with him, please, and tell him that if he’ll come back and work only for me, I’ll make sure that he gets a bonus for whatever happened between himself and my wife. Also, I know that this is asking a lot of you and the other members of the staff, but I’d like for you to have them make a list of incidents that have been going on here with Mrs. Wilkerson.”

  “Sir? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Nodding, he watched the other man stand there for several seconds before he looked up from the floor he’d been staring at. “If she were to find out, sir, all of us would be harmed by it. I don’t want anyone to get into trouble, either.”

  “You tell them to do so when they can, and if they will do this for me, each of them will get a bonus for their trouble. I’m not sure how often Mrs. Wilkerson goes into the kitchen or the other areas that are your domain, but I’ll think of something to keep her away. Does that work better, you think?” Nodding, he looked around the room then back at him. “What do you need from me, Jamison? I’m serious when I tell you that I’m looking into as much as I can find. Things around here have gotten out of hand, and I don’t want it to continue.”

  “Neither do we, sir.” He looked at him again. Jamison seemed to have gotten some kind of message that made him look stronger. “Your son has moved out of the house. Closed his checking accounts, as well as told us that if we wished to come and work for him that his parents—you included, I’m afraid—will not be welcome in the home that he is making for himself.”

  “When did he tell you this? With the call today?” Jamison told him when he’d arrived here this week. “He’s been here since Holly died, then. I didn’t know that.”

  “Yes, sir. We’ve all been moving the others—the other sons of your brothers—we’ve been moving their things out of the houses at their request. Nothing that doesn’t belong to them, but things that they wished to have.” Clayton asked him if he’d had any trouble with that so far. “Not yet, sir, but we’re always on the lookout for it.”

  “The other wives, they’re giving you here at this house a hard time as well, I take it.” He told him what was going on. “Why would they do that? Why would they change out the staff from each home every season? That doesn’t make any sense to me. Does it you, Jamison?”

  “It gives them each, I believe, the opportunity to find out what is being done in each household so that there’s never one wife ahead of the others.” He asked if any of them were. “Yes, sir. Your wife seems to be ahead all the time. But that doesn’t seem to bother them. I do believe that they’re afraid of Mrs. Wilkerson.”

  “With good reason, I would imagine.” Again, not a single movement to indicate that what he’d said was not true. Clayton tried to think about how he could keep his staff and the staffs at his brothers’ homes safe from his wife, as well as the others. “I have an idea, Jamison. I want to give it a little more thought, but I swear to you, none of you will be fired from here. None of you, do you understand?”

  “Yes, sir. I understand.” When he started to turn away, Jamison turned to look back at him. With a few seconds of hesitation, he spoke to him again. “I will help you, Mr. Wilkerson, so long as what you’re telling me will happen. I have worked in this house for a great many years, and I will continue to do so. But I will not be hurt again by your wife or those others.”

  When he left him this time, Clayton sat back in his chair. There was more going on here than he’d ever imagined possible. Or, for that matter, ever thought about happening. His brothers might not be
any more aware of it than he had been. But now that he knew, he knew that he had to do something. Especially if it was just with Eita.

  Getting up and going into the main hall, he looked around and realized that something should have been done about this house when they’d moved in right after his father had died. It was the same throughout the house, and he wondered why he’d not noticed it before. It was as if the house was some sort of monument to the old man.

  Clayton had never thought of his father as a tyrant. He’d had his days when he’d be a real bastard, but he never thought of him as a monster. The thing with Holly bothered him on so many levels that he just couldn’t make his mind work it out.

  Eita had told him that she and the other women had gone to his father. He wondered what sort of things had been said to him to do such a thing. Did he really believe that Holly was a whore and that she’d been sleeping around? Or did he know about the kidnapping and eventual rape? He wanted to believe that he hadn’t, but things about it, such as the newspaper not printing anything about it, bothered him.

  His brothers hadn’t been able to attend last evening. He was sure that their wives had told them just what Eita had told him. That no one would be there and that Marsden had planned everything so that it wouldn’t be convenient for any of them to be there. Other things were beginning to come to light too. Like the fact that the women had all been there dressed in a very inappropriate color for a funeral.

  Josiah had called him very early this morning and asked him about it, much earlier than he thought that Christa might have been up and going. Josiah had heard from his wife that Clayton had a little food poisoning, and wanted to make sure he was all right. Why would they lie about something like that? Clayton wondered.

  “I thought that I was dying.” Josiah told him that he was sorry. “No need for that. But here is what I believe we need to do. Are you going to be at the funeral home?”

  “I wasn’t planning on it. Christa told me that there wasn’t any reason for it. That barely anyone showed up last night, and there was a pitiful amount of flowers to show that anyone cared about Holly. Why?” He told him about the hundreds of flowers, as well as the hundred or more people there to pay their respects. “Really? Maybe Christa left before they arrived. I don’t know how she could have missed that many people or arrangements, do you?”

  “She didn’t miss anything, Josiah. She was there for as long as I was. There is something that I need to talk to you about. All of you. Not our wives.” Josiah didn’t comment, but he could almost hear him thinking. “Did you know that when Holly was said to have been in Europe, that she had been kidnapped and raped for over a week?”

  “No. No, that can’t be right. We would have been told about that. Surely someone would have come to us about it.” Clayton didn’t wait for Josiah to come to terms with what he’d said, but continued by telling him what Eita had told him that night. About all of the women getting together to go to their father. “Clayton, do you hear what you’re saying? You’re saying that our wives, all of them, conspired to have Holly murdered? That just can’t be right.”

  “Not only is it right, but I have more information that I need to make you all aware of. Like the fact that Booker, and all of our sons, have been home since the day that Holly was in the accident. That they’ve been staying with Marsden since they got home.” Josiah asked him why they’d not come home. “North told me that he was never stepping foot in this house again. Because of his mother. And as much as I hate to admit this to anyone, I think he has good reason not to want to.”

  There was a pause in their conversation. Clayton could hear voices then. It sounded like Christa was telling him that she was going out for a while. Josiah asked her if she was going to the funeral home. Clayton could hear her answer.

  “Why no. I told you last night that it was hardly worth my time to go there. There was one little vase of flowers at the head of the casket, and Marsden, since he didn’t allow us to take care of the arrangements, had messed everything up. Including the obit in the paper. Not that I think anyone would have shown up anyway. I’m going out, Josiah. Is there anything else? I swear to you, you can pick the most inconvenient times to want to have a conversation with me.” Josiah told her to have a good time.

  “I’ll meet with you at any time, Clayton. Just let me know where and when.” He told him to go to the funeral home, he’d be there. “Yes, I like that idea as well. Are you calling the rest of them? My wife is gone now, as you heard. I can make the calls if you’d like.”

  “Thank you. That would be wonderful. I’m going with Eita because I’m going to have a conversation with the funeral director today sometime. I’m going to find out just what is going on at that end. I have a list of things here that I’m going to take care of as well.” He thought about his brothers’ staffs taking out things that belonged to their sons, and decided that it required more of a face to face conversation. “I’ll see you there soon. Just please tell the others that we didn’t talk. We just thought that it would look better if we were to come to the funeral of our only sister.”

  “Good. I can do that. I might have something to add to this too. I’ve just been sitting here thinking of a few other things that didn’t seem right.” Josiah paused, and he could hear him blow his nose. “Clayton, how sure are you about Holly? How positive are you that Father was aware of her being raped? And that our own wives knew about it?”

  “Eita told me last night that she had arranged for Holly to be kidnapped, Josiah. She didn’t even think there was anything wrong with what she’d done. That’s how positive I am about this.”

  He’d stayed in his office for the rest of the night last night, doing research on Holly and Marsden. Finding things out about her personal life, what little she had, along with what she’d done for a living. It hadn’t been easy—there were gaps in her life still that he was trying to figure out. Clayton thought that his wife and the others, they had a great deal to answer for.

  When Eita came down the stairs, he decided that this was just about as good a time as ever to start getting answers. Starting with the dress that she had on. It was another bright red one, and her heels, equally red, were covered in sequins.

  “Do you really think what you’re wearing is appropriate for a death in the family, Eita? I mean, the shoes alone are screaming that you don’t care what others think about you.” She smiled at him and told him that she didn’t. She never had. “Would you go up and change for me, please? This is my sister, you know.”

  “Yes, I’m well aware that Holly was your sister, Clayton. But she was nothing to me. Less than nothing. And no, I’m not going to change. The rest of us women have coordinated our clothing again today in a show of solidarity.” He asked her what sort of protest she was making at a funeral. “That, in the event you’ve not gotten this, we’re not going to be supporting that bastard child of your sister’s. Nor are we going to allow him to take our good name to the gutter along with him and that whore. He’ll have to learn that what I say goes, or he’ll be finding himself lying right next to his mother.”

  She walked out ahead of him to the car. Clayton was still standing there, thinking about what she’d just said to him when the horn on the car started to beep continuously. Christ, this was getting worse every minute, he thought. How the hell, he kept asking himself, had he missed so much going on in his own home?

  ~*~

  Mars had arrived well before the rest of them. With the help of Abby, he’d gotten all the cards put back on the flower arrangements, and had, with the help of Lance, gotten all the other flowers that came in today put away and photographed as well. When he heard someone speaking, he looked up to see Clayton and Eita coming into the funeral home. It sounded as if they were arguing about something. No doubt about him.

  “Mars? That’s what the others call you, isn’t it?” He said that it was, taking the hand that was offered to him from his uncle.
“I like that so much better. I’m going to start calling you that as well if you don’t mind.”

  “No, you will not, Clayton. I told you that it’s a nickname, and I will not allow you to call him that. What are you doing here, Marsden? I didn’t think you’d be here this early. It’s why I am, so I could have a moment alone without you hovering around me.” He told her that it was his mom, in the event that she’d forgotten that. “There are going to be some changes made as soon as this is over. You’re going to do as I say, and you’ll not give me any shit about it. First thing is that you’re going to move away. Apparently, I can’t make you change your last name, but I can certainly make you move away. What sort of money would it take to have you move to another country? Tell me. And it had better not be something extravagant. I have to pay for this bullshit of a funeral that you’ve arranged, and I won’t be put on the spot about having you moved away.”

  “I’m not going anywhere, Eita.” She told him that she was Aunt Eita to him. “No, not anymore. And if you preach at me about having respect for you, you can forget that too. I will respect you when you have some for me. Since we both know that isn’t going to happen, you’re nothing to me, but Eita. Wife of my uncle.”

  “You fucking shit.” When she drew back her hand to no doubt hit him, Clayton grabbed it before Mars could. “Did you hear the way he’s talking to me? And you’re going to allow it by not letting me put him in his place? Clayton Wilkerson, there are going to be changes made about you too when we get home. I will not allow you to treat me worse than you do him. Don’t you see? He’s going to drag us down with him. And I won’t have it.”

  “Since I’m beginning to see a lot of things, Eita, you’ll not touch Mars again. Any of the children, for that matter.” She glared at Clayton, her eyes like pinpoints of laser aimed at him. “Either behave yourself or go home. At this point, I could care less what you do. But I’m here for my nephew. And for my sister. I might have missed out on a great deal, but this I will not miss.”