by BETH KERY
“I agree,” Dave said. “But after the two guys got caught last year and started mouthing off, things have changed. This year, they’re discouraging any Camp Wildwood forays. I think Kehoe started that rumor about Bang being booby-trapped with an alarm, just to deter Camp Duranders from getting into any more trouble. I’m going to be having a talk with my kids about it this afternoon, but I’m not sure it’ll make much difference. Apparently, the Gold Team is known for being the most strategic and successful at Bang acquisitions.”
“You must be so proud,” Thad said drolly.
“His kids must think so,” Alice defended Dave, who did look a little proud talking about his team. “Matt, Terrance, and Justin sounded completely envious, and were not happy the Red Team had never won the honor.”
“If you want to call going to jail an honor,” Kuvi said, popping a fry in her mouth.
“Since no charges were ever brought, I think that’s exactly what my kids think. It takes some balls to do it. I just need to convince them there’s no honor in being a rude jerk. So what do you guys think about the Alumni Dinner tonight?” Dave asked quietly, glancing casually from side to side to assure himself no Durand managers were hovering nearby. “Think we should be nervous about being put under the microscope by the Old-Boy Network?”
“As long as we’re using oxymorons, there’ll be some Old Girls there as well. And some that aren’t so old,” Kuvi said, giving Dave a pointed glance. He shrugged a concession. Kuvi grinned at him. “I don’t think it’ll be so bad,” Kuvi continued. “I’m getting the impression Durand executives who were counselors here have a serious nostalgia factor going on about Camp Durand. Look at this Bang example. They’ll probably be more interested in telling us stories of the good ol’ days than anything else. I’m not too worried about it.”
“What about you, Alice? Up for another shindig at the big house?” Dave asked, using his fork to shovel up the last of his salad. Since he was otherwise occupied, he didn’t notice both Kuvi and Thad cast anxious glances at her. Why did everyone think she was such a basket case?
Because you’ve kind of been acting like one lately.
“I’d rather go to the dentist. It’s just something I have to do. What are you wearing tonight, Kuvi?” Alice asked, her offhand, casual manner discouraging further unsolicited concern on either Thad or Kuvi’s part. Alice was worried enough on her own about playing the stranger in Dylan’s home tonight . . .
. . . About playing the stranger in a house where supposedly she’d once lived and been loved.
EIGHT
“You look beautiful tonight, Alice.”
Alice blinked in surprise and turned.
“Sidney. I hadn’t realized you’d be here tonight,” she said, sounding both flustered and pleased when the psychiatrist leaned down to kiss her briefly on the cheek.
“I’m way too old to be a Camp Durand alumnus myself, but I’ve been advising alumni for years, given my place on the board.”
Alice smiled. “Well the man who advises the top men and women definitely deserves a place of honor.”
She hadn’t seen Sidney since the day Dylan had broken the news to her about Addie Durand. It seemed a little surreal—and embarrassing—staring into Sidney’s handsome lined face and kind gray eyes now. She’d fainted in front of him. Plus, seeing Sidney standing there in the glamorous setting of the Durand grand dining room emphasized the reality of the day Dylan had broken the news to her about Addie’s kidnapping. The vision of the psychiatrist seemed to collapse her two separate worlds, creating an internal jarring sensation for Alice.
Sidney smiled at her and nodded cordially to another gray-haired man who was passing with a bejeweled woman on his arm. He put his hand on her elbow and smoothly maneuvered her to an unoccupied part of the room.
“I’ve told a few people in passing that I knew your father from my Navy days in order to explain my familiarity with you,” Sidney said very quietly, the volume of his voice kept lower than the general buzz of the chat of the cocktail party. “It was Dylan’s idea. I hope you don’t mind. It’s not a lie, after all.”
Again, that strange crashing sensation in her spirit. Alice cleared her throat and fingered the rope of pearls Dylan had given her. She found the sensation of the smooth cool globes running across her skin reassuring somehow.
“I’m sorry. Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that,” Sidney said, his gaze sharp on her face.
“No, of course not,” she assured. “So . . . you really served in the military with Alan Durand?”
“Yes. We met while we were both stationed at a naval base in Guam. I was his commanding officer there for a year and a half. Such a good man. Full of energy and purpose. Incredibly innovative, a born risk taker. You would have liked him.”
“I understand he liked to travel quite a bit.”
“Alan was a gypsy at heart,” Sidney said with a fond smile. “Only Lynn could have ever hoped to settle him down.”
“And Addie,” Alice said very quietly.
Sidney nodded. His stare on her was intent, but not cautious like Dylan’s often was. It was a little comforting, to know that the psychiatrist didn’t believe she was going to go over the edge at any moment.
“Although, Addie only came to Alan and Lynn thirteen years after they found each other. They wanted to start a family right away, but they couldn’t conceive. All the years of trying with no result nearly crushed Lynn . . . and Alan, in turn. He felt so helpless watching her suffer. She longed to be a mother. For a period of time, she became a shadow of herself. I worried their mutual grief would pry them apart.”
“Oh. That’s terrible.”
“It all came out all right, in the end,” Sidney assured with a smile. “After years of being undecided, they eventually resolved to adopt. They’d begun the process when Lynn discovered she was pregnant. That’s the way of these things sometimes. Once an alternative decision is made, some of the stress goes, and voilà. The couple finds themselves pregnant.”
“They must have been so happy,” she said numbly. She was determinedly trying to ignore a rising rush of air in her ears. But she was curious, too—
“They were ecstatic. I’ve never seen two people so transported. They truly believed they’d been granted a miracle. That sense of being blessed never lessened. It only grew, every day Addie was with them.”
And then it all came crashing down on them one horrible day.
A tremor of emotion went through her. What those poor people must have experienced on the day their daughter was kidnapped. How their panic and fear must have mounted in the ensuing days and weeks. Years. The grief must have been crushing.
“Excuse me,” she said to a passing waiter, who paused. She placed the half-full wineglass she’d been clutching on his tray. “Thank you,” she murmured before he continued on his way.
Her gaze strayed past Sidney’s shoulder, her eyes unerringly finding the tall formidable figure in a black suit across the room holding court among a small circle of three women and two men. She hadn’t spoken to Dylan all evening, and wasn’t sure she wanted to even attempt it with so many curious people at the dinner. Alice swore eyes had been tracking her movements all night. In the next second, she’d accuse herself of being paranoid. She wasn’t being observed, at least not any more so than any of the other counselors who were vying for permanent positions at Durand Enterprises.
Even though Alice knew she shouldn’t be obvious in her glances at Dylan, her eyes just seemed to move in his direction of their own accord. He pulled at her attention like a magnet.
Maybe it was unfair to say that he was holding court at that moment, because that would have implied an attempt or eagerness on his part to be the center of attention to a circle of avid listeners. Alice couldn’t hear what he said, but she recognized his manner; that absolute yet muted sense of confidence. Dylan’s power was such that he never needed to bluster or grandstand.
Even given his focus on his listeners, his gaze sudden
ly fixed unerringly on her from across the room. Was it her imagination, or did she see something flicker into his eyes? A question? A concern?
“I hope I haven’t upset you with talk about Alan and Lynn,” Sidney said, interrupting her thoughts and nodding in the direction of the departing waiter and her wineglass.
“No, of course not. I’m a little hungry, that’s all. The wine was getting to me on an empty stomach.”
“Yes, I can imagine the physical exercise you get every day at camp would lead to a healthy appetite,” Sidney said, smiling.
“Nothing like chasing after teenagers to increase your metabolism.”
Sidney chuckled. “You know, it would be understandable if the topic of the Durands did leave you unsettled. But I’m not sure it’s advisable to avoid it entirely forever.”
Alice was a little startled that he’d returned to the topic of the Durands. “Yes, I think you’re right. But just because I agree with you doesn’t change the way I feel when I hear about the Durands,” Alice said pointedly. Sidney nodded, and she thought he’d understood her. She was telling him she still felt no personal connection to the child Sidney and Dylan claimed she—Alice—once was. It struck her with a sagging feeling that she was trying awfully hard to convince other people of that fact lately.
“It’s sometimes hard to speak of these matters in the mundane world, where there are so many things to distract us. I’d like to extend an invitation to you to come and see me at my office in Morgantown, anytime you like. I’ll find a slot for you, even if I’m booked. It might be nice for you to have a little distraction-free space to explore things. Or I could refer you to a good local therapist.”
Alice blinked. “Oh . . . I don’t think that’ll be necessary, but thanks for offering it.”
“Think about it,” Sidney said, his gray eyes soft, but compelling. “You have a lot of things to come to terms with in your life, and twice as many things that might get in the way of your focus.”
He glanced around the large dining room. Did his gaze land on Dylan?
Alice didn’t respond, because she wasn’t sure how to. The spell of Sidney’s somberness broke when he glanced around. “Ah, good. They’re calling for us to be seated.”
He placed his hand gently on her back and urged her to the candlelit tables.
THE dining room Alice had wandered into on her first visit to the house had undergone a transformation. The entire wood-paneled far wall had been moved back to expose an additional area, doubling the square feet and expanding the already spacious dining room into a ballroom of sorts. The long formal dining table had been removed. A dozen or more large circular tables dressed with white cloths and silver candelabra had been put in its place.
There were name cards at the place settings. She was less than thrilled about being seated next to a venerable-looking Durand Alumni named Jason Stalwalter, but glad to see Thad appear on the other side of her. Sort of glad, anyway. Yes, what happened in the woods yesterday was still leaving her prickly. But Thad was a friend, after all, despite all of the other . . . stuff. She couldn’t help but feeling comforted by his familiar face.
“I bribed Dave to switch seats with me,” Thad leaned over and whispered directly next to her ear after introductions were made and there was a rustle as they all settled in their assigned seats. “Stalwalter is the northeastern region’s vice president of marketing and sales. I’ve been trying to meet him all night.”
Alice wilted a little at this. She hadn’t been very proactive about networking and putting herself forward tonight. Alice despised the idea of promoting herself. If only she possessed Thad’s, Kuvi’s, or Brooke’s breeding and polish, that social ease that came from interacting with movers and shakers since first crawling out of the cradle. That was a large part of what the Durand Alumni Dinner was about: getting your face and qualifications in front of some of the most influential Durand managers and supervisors in the world.
“Oh, we should have switched places,” Alice whispered to Thad. As she spoke, the image of Brooke Seifert’s anxious face suddenly came into focus in the crowd. Brooke sat two tables away. It bizarrely struck Alice that they were dressed alike; Brooke also wore black with pearls tonight. Alice wasn’t sure how she felt about the fact that she could pass as one of Brooke’s peers.
Her gaze flickered and stuck on Sebastian Kehoe’s face. He sat at the same table as Brooke, and he, too, was staring at Alice. She blinked in momentary indignation. Was he staring at her breasts? No . . . Kehoe frowned as he looked at the pearls she wore.
Unsettled by the brief observation, she forced herself to focus again on Thad. “Maybe it’s not too late for us to switch places—”
“Alice.”
She started in surprise at the sound of the brisk, booming voice and turned in her seat. Jason Stalwalter was regarding her with benevolent warmth as a waiter set a highball glass on the table in front of him.
“I’ve heard rave reviews about you from our CEO. We’ve completely revamped our VitaThirst campaign on a nationwide basis, thanks to you. I think Mr. Fall would patent that brain of yours if he had a chance.”
“What?” Alice asked stupidly. For a few seconds, she couldn’t draw breath. Was Dylan crazy, talking Alice up in front of other Durand executives? Her gaze shot to the head table, where Dylan sat. She wasn’t surprised to see his dark eyes pinning her, but then his gaze flickered to the man on the right of him and they began talking. Alice was left hanging in confusion.
“I . . . uh, I’m not sure what you mean,” she said awkwardly, uncomfortably aware of Thad leaning forward and listening to the exchange.
Upon her arrival at Castle Durand, Dylan had requested that she have a look at some Durand annual and quarterly reports. He was aware that Alice was a trendspotter, that she possessed an ability to absorb large amounts of data and statistics and quickly break them down into meaningful trends, spot anomalies, and even predict outcomes. Alice had gladly jumped at the chance to lose herself once again in the comfortable world of numbers.
Was that why Dylan asked me to look at the reports? Because he realized it would calm any disorientation I might be having, coming to the castle?
The thought only increased her unease.
Stalwalter smiled knowingly at her fumbling. “Modest in addition to being brilliant, I see. Don’t tell me that Mr. Fall didn’t tell you how much he appreciated the analysis you did on the VitaThirst campaign,” he said, grinning and taking a swig of his drink. “I have my eye on you, Alice Reed. I expect very good things.”
Alice glanced aside and noticed Thad’s stunned expression as he stared at her.
“They weren’t recommendations, really. I just looked at the reports and mentioned my thoughts on them,” Alice assured. Her head was swimming. Why hadn’t Dylan told her he’d made such sweeping decisions based on ideas she’d murmured to him in bed one night after making love?
“I didn’t mean to embarrass you,” Stalwalter said, leaning toward her and speaking more kindly. “Just know that Dylan Fall is quite taken with your unique skills, and it’s not easy to impress him. That’s nothing to be embarrassed about. You should be proud.”
Alice took a nervous sip of her ice water, willing her scalding cheeks to cool. Stalwalter’s words had mortified her. Was he insinuating he knew Dylan and her were lovers? Are those the skills to which he referred?
No, surely not, the voice of rationality said, dimming her panic. Dylan would never expose her in such a way.
She glanced at Thad, who wore a part-puzzled, part-concerned expression. Stalwalter might not have drawn the conclusion that Dylan was insinuating she was his personal plaything.
But she had a sinking sensation that Thad had.
“ALICE, can I talk to you? Privately?” Thad added pointedly in a tense whisper.
The dinner was over. Dessert and coffee were being cleared following a short speech by Mary Spear, the Durand vice president of international operations. Alice nodded reluctantly. Even thou
gh she was dreading what Thad was going to say, it was best just to get it over with. She needed to assure Thad that whatever he was suspecting about Dylan being untrustworthy wasn’t true.
Sure . . . Alice had been having her doubts about their relationship, but that was about her issues with intimacy, wasn’t it? Other people shouldn’t mistrust Dylan.
Thad sprung up and immediately pulled her chair back when she started to stand. He took her hand and swept her in front of him. Against Alice’s intentions, their shared actions appeared graceful, a natural action between a familiar couple. She glanced furtively at the head table. Dylan was listening to the man on the left of him, but his gazed tracked her.
Great.
She sighed in mounting frustration and led Thad out of the dining room. Lots of people had gotten up at this point. They were stretching their legs with a stroll on the terrace or in the gardens, milling around in groups talking, and using the restrooms. Not wanting to be overheard, Alice led Thad to the hushed, empty grand foyer. Alice caught a brief glimpse of herself in a gilt mirror as she turned to face Thad. The magnificent crystal chandelier blazed with light tonight, revealing some of the emerging red highlights in her hair.
“What is it?” she asked him, unable to stop herself from sounding short. Her arms folded above her waist in a defensive gesture.
“We never got to finish our conversation yesterday in the woods.”
“I think we did. I heard you saying that you don’t think Dylan is trustworthy. That’s your opinion.”
“Don’t you want to know why I think that?”
“You misunderstood about Stalwalter in there, Thad,” she said, pointing to the dining room.
“You looked as surprised as I did when Stalwalter started going on about stuff Fall had told him about you!”
“I was surprised, but how does Fall using my input for the VitaThirst campaign make him untrustworthy? He obviously gave me credit for it.” Although it might have been nice if he’d told me he was bragging about me to Durand bigwigs.
