Deception

by Carolyn Haines

  “She’s a beauty,” Elvie Adams said softly. “It’s going to be a pleasure to work with this little filly.”

  “We’ll both enjoy it,” Connor agreed.

  “Connor, I thought you might be down here admiring the newest little Sumner.” Clay came up behind her and kissed the back of her neck.

  “You two try to behave,” Elvie said. She was smiling, but her face was still touched with sadness over Richard’s death. “I’ve got to run down that rascal old Henry and talk to him about some more fencing.”

  Clay waited until Elvie had left the barn, then he turned Connor to face him. His kiss was gentle, questioning.

  As always, Connor responded to his touch, but her smile was troubled. “I have to decide soon. Elvie’s here now, and she’ll be wonderful for your horses and the children. I feel like I’m in limbo. Not really alive.”

  “You know what I want,” Clay answered. “If the barn holds too many unpleasant memories, we’ll tear it down and build another, anywhere on the property you say.”

  Connor shook her head. “It’s a bitter irony that Renata is now no longer afraid of the barn, but I dislike it.”

  “If Renata hadn’t come down here to use the phone and call the police, we might all be dead.”

  “She’s a brave little girl. It must have been horrible, with Richard still …” She choked.

  “I heard from Harlan this morning.” Clay put his arm around Connor’s shoulders and led her out into the April sunshine. Oaklawn was a fairy land of dogwoods, azaleas, and wisteria.

  “How is New Zealand?” There was bitterness in Connor’s voice.

  “He’s adjusting. He told me everything at last. When Melanie told him she was pregnant and asked him what to do, he told her I’d be furious, that she had to get rid of the baby before I found out. He coerced Melanie into getting the abortion and told her it was what I wanted. When she started to give him trouble, he had her put into Green Briar, and then she fell. Harlan really believed she was dead. She was in a coma when Willene smuggled her out of that place. No one has been able to figure out how she did it, exactly, but the hospital was only too willing to put it down as a death. Death is easier to explain than a coma patient who disappears.”

  “Why?” Connor asked. “Why did he go on pretending to you that she was alive?”

  “He was spending the money I sent to her. It wasn’t a large sum, but Harlan had gotten into some trouble. Running up gambling debts, writing illegal prescriptions. Now I understand why he was so adamant that I run for the Senate seat. He thought my influence could save him.”

  “Do you think he knew the difference between the truth and his lies?”

  “Maybe at one time. You don’t know the pressures that were put on him when we were growing up. He always thought he was never good enough no matter what he did.” Clay shook his head. “I feel sorry for Harlan. By the way, he sent the negatives of the photos. He was desperate to make you leave Oaklawn. Anyway, I should get them in a few days and you can destroy them.”

  “He’s an extremely sick man.” Connor shuddered.

  “He is, but he’s still my brother.”

  “It’s Willene I feel sorry for. Will she ever get out of Green Briar?”

  “Someday. The shock of all that Melanie did will eventually lift. She couldn’t have stopped Melanie, but Willene still has the guilt. One day maybe she’ll be able to overcome that.”

  Connor pointed toward the pecan orchard, vibrant with the new green leaves of spring. “Let’s walk.”

  They were almost to the woods before she spoke again. “Renata came to my room last night and asked me to stay. Danny came right after her. It’s a blessing that he was drugged and slept through all that.”

  “Yes, he was the lucky one. Renata is sorry about everything that happened. Melanie used her, and I think she understands that. Danny is sick at the thought that you’ll be leaving us.”

  “It makes me sick, too. I just don’t know if I can stay. I doubted you, Clay. I believed you might be trying to kill

  “Trust is delicate, Connor. Given the circumstances, I can see where you didn’t know what to believe. You saw someone trying to hurt you and no one would believe you. We acted as if you were insane.”

  “I wondered about that myself at times.”

  “That’s the guilt that I have to live with, Connor. I doubted your word and I risked your life because of it.”

  “We both made a terrible mistake.” Connor couldn’t look at him. She focused on the dancing green leaves of the pecans. Oaklawn was just as beautiful as Willene had promised it would be.

  “The important thing is that we found out the truth. You can trust me, and you can trust yourself. Neither of us did anything wrong. We shouldn’t have to pay for what others have done. I shouldn’t have to pay by losing you.” He turned her to face him. “I couldn’t bear it.”

  “If I stay, you’ll give up the campaign. You’ll change, and then you’ll resent me for it. You’re afraid to leave me alone and you can’t live your life trying to keep me from being frightened again.”

  “If I have you, I don’t care about the Senate seat. I don’t. I wanted it because I was trained to want it, and because wanting that filled a void in my life. Given a choice, I’d much rather have you and my children.”

  All morning long, Connor had thought about this moment. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t cry. She’d spent days crying after Richard’s funeral, days crying at the thought of Melanie and Willene and the whole tragic mess. Talla’s death had been reopened, and it was determined that she’d been murdered. The bruises on her throat had been obvious. Only the influence of the Sumner name, pushed along by Harlan, had hidden the truth.

  She looked at Clay and saw the hope in his eyes. “Cleo’s foal isn’t really old enough to travel yet.”

  “So you’ll stay at least a bit longer?” Clay brushed the hair from her face with his old tender gesture.

  “A bit longer. But I have to make up my mind soon. I can’t continue drifting along, not really your wife and not really the person I was before.”

  “Stay another month. You don’t have to decide right now.”

  Connor’s smile was slow. “At the end of May, I’ll have fulfilled the nine months I agreed to stay at Oaklawn.”

  Clay’s eyes widened. “That’s right. You have a contract. You have to stay.”

  Connor saw that he was deadly serious. “That contract is invalid. I’m your wife. That does away with any prior contract.”

  “Wrong.”

  “But Clay …”

  He kissed her cheeks and laughed out loud. “I love you, Connor Tremaine Sumner. In another four weeks, I’ll have you convinced of it. I have four whole weeks to devote myself to showing you how much I want you to stay with me. Come with me.”

  Connor tried to drag her feet, but Clay’s enthusiasm and superior strength won out. When they could see the patio, Connor did finally balk. “What’s going on?”

  Men were moving in and out of the house, carrying rectangular objects out to a truck. Sally was standing, arms akimbo, giving orders as if she’d been born to do it. She’d taken over Willene’s job and shown surprising skill at cooking and management. Even her interest in Jeff had waned with her new responsibilities.

  “It’s the movers.”

  “I know you want me to ask what movers.”

  “It was Sally’s idea. I’d like to take credit for it, but she really thought of it, and I agreed. They’re taking out all of the mirrors and paintings.”

  The significance wasn’t lost on Connor. Talla’s mirrors. She watched as four more were marched out of the house and into the waiting truck. Looking closer, she could see a grin of satisfaction on Sally’s face.

  Clay picked up her hand and held it. “Sally said from the very first that you disliked the hallway, with all those dark paintings and those mirrors.”

  “They were a bit overpowering.” She didn’t bother to mention that Sally dislik
ed them even more than she did. But it would be good to have them gone. Until she knew where she wanted to go with her life and her marriage, she’d moved back to her old suite of rooms on the second floor. Even knowing that Oaklawn had been freed of its ghosts, she found the mirrors eerie. Each time she looked in one she expected to see Melanie, hammer or knife held aloft, ready to attack.

  Clay had sealed off the secret passageway from the third floor, but he could not remove the memories Connor retained.

  “Oaklawn will be a house without mirrors. A house with no reflection,” she mused.

  “No, just a house with no past. Only the present will be allowed at Oaklawn, except, of course, the past we build together.”

  “Clay, I …”

  “Come on to the front.”

  It was useless to resist, so she followed him around the house and up the front steps onto the porch. He pulled her to a window. “Look, what do you see?”

  She leaned into the glass, looking into the living room. It was as perfectly furnished as it had always been. “I see a beautiful room.”

  “Look closer.” Connor did. There was nothing to see.

  Clay tapped the window glass lightly. “Look there.”

  In the clear glass, Connor’s own reflection came back to her. Clay was beside her.

  “See, there you are, inside looking out. That’s where you belong, Connor. At Oaklawn, looking out over your home and your family. With me.” He took her hand and led her through the front door.

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