Love and Arson

by Woods, Karen

  Lyn put down her coffee cup, carefully. “You feel God is calling you to religious life?”

  “I don’t know if He’s calling or not. I’m in a period of active listening. I have no commitments to anyone, and no debt. I thought He was calling during my senior year of college, and then I fell unwisely in love, right after graduation, and my plans to enter the convent went by the wayside. Now, I’m listening again.”

  “Sometimes, young women think they’ve fallen into paradise, only to discover they’ve gotten involved with the snake,” Lyn allowed.

  Dani sighed. “That’s a good way of putting it.”

  Her stepmother nodded, “You could clearly use a nap. Let me show you up to your suite. I'll have lunch sent up for you.”

  Dani smiled. “Frankly, Mrs...er...Lyn, I'd rather just see my father. But, I'm told that he's not at home?”

  Lyn shook her head, again, as she picked up her cup and sipped the dark brew. “Harry's out of town, today, on business. I don't expect him home until around six. You are going to be quite a surprise for him. Do you know that?”

  Dani sipped her coffee. “I can well imagine. He’s not the only one who’s experiencing surprise in this situation.”

  “No. I imagine you’re feeling quite disoriented lately. Come along,” her stepmother urged, in a kind voice, putting down her own coffee cup on the table, once more. “I'll show you your rooms.”

  “I really hadn't planned on staying here.”

  “Oh, nonsense. We have more bedrooms than we will ever need. Unless, of course, they are eventually filled with grandchildren,” Lyn replied. “Trust me, it's not in the least an imposition to have you here. It’s a joy.”

  “Grandchildren? Do you and my father have children?”

  Lyn hesitated for just a second too long. Dani didn’t know what to make of that barely recognizable response lag. But she knew it was significant.

  “I was widowed before I married your father. I have two grown children, from my previous marriage, Jason and Elizabeth. Beth, my daughter, has a three year old son, Jaime,” Lyn stated. “Beth and Jaime moved back home last year after her husband died. Jase actually lives in town, but we keep rooms for him here as well. Harry’s had your suite standing ready since the day he received your note.”

  “Okay. If you are certain you want me to stay here,” Dani finally agreed, “I'll go get my things.”

  “Harry’s quite eager to meet you, as you can imagine.”

  Dani wished she could believe that. “I’ve had a moment or two’s anxiety about that myself.”

  “I’ll bet. Dinner is at eight. We assemble here for drinks at seven,” Lyn said as she rose from the chair. “Don't worry about dressing. We do, but...”

  “You’ll need to define ‘dressing for dinner’. That can mean many things. Are we talking cocktail dress, or something more?”

  “It's only family, tonight, so it’s black tie. We always dress for dinner at home. Your father looks so wonderful in his dinner jacket, I like to enjoy the view across the table at him. It’s a small indulgence we give ourselves. I know it must seem strange to you. But every family has their quirks. This is one of ours.”

  Only a family dinner. Black tie. Merciful God, what have I gotten myself into?

  “I won't come down to dinner in jeans,” Dani replied.

  Lyn smiled. “You're a Devlin to the bone. Aren't you?”

  “Mother, rest her soul, always said so.”

  Lyn's smile became sad. “I was so sorry to hear about Nancy's death. As odd as it may sound to you, I liked her.”

  “Most people did. Thank you.”

  Lyn looked at her watch. “Sissy will have to show you to your room. I didn’t realize time had gotten so far away from me. I'm sorry I won't be home this afternoon to entertain you. I've a committee luncheon I expect to last well into the afternoon. Then it's my afternoon to pick up Jaime. I'm taking him to get his first pony.”

  “No problem. I can't expect you to rearrange your life on my account,” Dani answered. “Getting a pony is a big event in the life of a boy.”

  “Yes,” Lyn answered with a smile. Then her face became a mask of concern. “Are you certain you will be happy to be left alone? I know it has to be strange to you.”

  “I could really use the nap,” Dani answered. “Thank you for your concern.”

  Her stepmother sighed. Lyn's forehead wrinkled into a frown. She looked at her watch again and sighed. “I swear, I’d be late for my own funeral.”

  “Not necessarily a bad thing. At least, it’s better than rushing it.”

  Lyn laughed. “Oh, definitely. I'm just sorry I must leave you to your own devices this afternoon.”

  “No problem. Have a good time at your committee meeting.”

  Lyn smiled, making her a truly beautiful woman. “Oh, I rather doubt it. We're planning our late fall fundraiser for charity. It's always the same event, a subscription ball and silent auction to benefit the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate. Last year, we raised enough money to build three houses from this one evening. This year, we’re aiming to clear enough to build four houses during the next year. But, we always have the same discussion, have had for the last five years, every time we plan this event. I'm about ready to list the points, assign each a number, hand out copies, and let people reference the arguments by number. It would cut way down on the time we spend in the meetings.”

  In spite of herself, Dani was coming to like this woman who shared her father's life. “I was on the board of the Habitat affiliate back home. I’ll be glad to help anyway I can while I’m here.”

  Lyn smiled. “Thank you. I’ll take you up on that. But for now, I really need to be running.”

  Sissy returned to the room. “Yes, you do. Your car’s been brought around, Missus Devlin.”

  “Thank you, Sissy. Please show Dani to her suite.”

  “Would you like some lunch, before you go up?” the housekeeper asked after Lyn left.

  Dani shook her head. “No. Frankly, I could use a nap more than a meal.”

  “Move your car around to the back. The eighth bay of the garage has been set aside for you. This is the opener for that door,” Sissy said, bringing the control from her apron pocket. “I’ll help you in with your bags and show you to your rooms. While you are getting ready to take a nap, I'll bring you up a sandwich.”

  “Don't go to the trouble, please. I'm not really hungry.”

  “Are you sure? It’s really not any trouble for me to bring you up some lunch.”

  “I’m sure. A shower and a nap sound like a good idea to me. I’m not really hungry. I’ll go get my things,” Dani said.

  “Want some help with your bags? I can certainly carry those in for you.”

  “I only have three bags I’ll bring in. I’m leaving my tools and other things in the car for now. I can manage my bags myself. I’ll go park the car.”

  “Come in the kitchen door from the garage and I’ll show you up to your rooms.”

  * * *

  “Sissy,” Jase Wilton asked in clear consternation as he stepped into the kitchen about twelve thirty, “what is that antique red convertible doing sitting in the garage?”

  “Miss Mary Danielle has finally arrived,” Sissy told him. “That’s her car.”

  Jase rolled his eyes. “Damn! This is all I need today.”

  “She’s a sweet girl,” Sissy defended. “You be nice.”

  “I thought you had better sense than to be taken in by a con woman after everything you’ve been through in your life, Sissy! I suppose you installed her in the rooms Harry set aside for her?”

  “Of course. It’s what Harry wanted.”

  Jase shook his head. “This is all I need to make my day complete.”

  “A problem with the mare?”

  Jase sighed. “No. It was dicey, the foal was breach. But things look okay now.”

  “Praise God for small miracles.”

  “I’m going up to see that woman.”<
br />
  “Leave Miss Dani alone. She hasn’t been here an hour. You let her rest. You hear me?”

  “I hear you, Sissy.”

  He saw the housekeeper roll her eyes, then smile.

  “Go clean yourself up, Jason. You smell like a stable.”

  Chapter Three

  Dani unpacked her meager belongings. She laid her cameras and laptop computer on the desk in the sitting room. Following the written instructions she’d found on the desk for connecting to the local area network in the house, she checked her email. She still had no word from anyone about a job. But, she didn’t expect to hear quite yet, anyway.

  A few minutes later, she had put away her clothes in the closet and in two of the dresser drawers. Her cheap clothes didn’t belong in this elegant house any more than she did. Hanging her only formal dress in the bathroom so the travel wrinkles would steam out when she took a shower seemed like a good idea.

  She stepped into the large shower in her bathroom. The shower stall was larger than the entire bathroom in the tiny house where she had been raised. Multiple nozzles sprayed her with pulsating water from three directions and several levels. Luxury! She began to think she just might be able to get some sleep, after all.

  Looking through the glass shower door at the dress hanging on the back of the door. If it hadn’t been at the drycleaners when the fire happened, she wouldn’t have still had it, either. The dress wasn’t much by the standards of high fashion, she supposed. But it would do for dinner just as it had sufficed for chaperoning school dances. The Regency lines of the black taffeta overlaid with organza dress were simple; high waist, cleavage, slim skirt, and cap sleeves.

  Dani decided she’d wear her Great-grandmother O’Brien’s pearls. She wouldn’t have still had them either, if they hadn’t been in her safe deposit box down at the bank.

  After finishing her shower, Dani wrapped one o f the plush bath sheets around her, sarong style before she unbraided and carefully combed out her hair, wondering for the thousandth time why she didn’t have it cut into a more practical length. She had no answer other than she liked keeping it long. She’d have to braid it before she took a nap, but for now, she’d just let it hang a bit.

  She stopped dead as she returned to her bedroom. Standing there in profile, looking into her closet, was a tall, very dirty, dark haired man. Threads of silver were just starting to show in his hair. He had the strong face of any of Michelangelo’s models. Her gaze slid down his blue chambray shirt and jeans down to his well-worn boots. Here and there, under a spotty coat of stable muck, faded denim showed. The man stood about six foot two. Yet, he seemed much larger.

  His build could be called athletic; broad shoulders, narrow waist, and well muscled. She’d bet he had hard muscles in places where mos t men didn’t even know they had muscles. She hadn’t seen such a well-developed physique since her undergraduate life studies course. He wore an air of power, as though he was well used to giving orders and being unquestioningly obeyed.

  The bulge at the small of his back told her he carried a pistol at his waist. Who was he? And why was he rummaging through her things? More importantly, why was an armed man in her bedroom?

  Her own pistol was under her bed pillows. It might as well been on the moon at the moment, for all the chance she had of getting to it, particularly if he drew his weapon.

  He turned his head to look at her. A shiver of fear went down Dani’s spine as she saw the open antagonism in his piercing blue eyes.

  She doubted there were many people who would fail to back away under the fierce look he was giving her. Dani wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of seeing her buckle under as a result of his quelling glare. She lifted her chin and met his eyes boldly, as if to tell him she was every bit as good as he. If the man wanted a fight, she was just in the mood to give him one, whether he was armed or not.

  “Find anything interesting?” she demanded.

  His lips quirked into a sardonic half-smile. “After seeing the state of the art electronics, your computer and cameras, this is not what I expected to find. Not what I expected to find at all.”

  “I’d hate to hazard a guess as to what you expected. I don’t have much worth stealing apart from my professional tools. Sorry to disappoint you.”

  “As though I’d be interested in your clothes. Speaking of clothes, put some on, woman. We have to talk.”

  “You want to tell me just who you are?” she demanded. “Before I scream the house down?”

  He laughed, but it was a most unpleasant sound. “I’m Jase Wilton.”

  “Lyn’s son?”

  “And you’re Mary Danielle…” he paused. “Devlin. So, now that we’ve identified ourselves, get some clothes on.”

  “You know, I swear I locked both doors.”

  “There are such things as master keys.”

  “And no such thing in this house as privacy, obviously. I’ll remember that.”

  He took a step towards her.

  Dani automatically assumed a defensive posture. “Not even one step closer!”

  “Listen, woman, I’ve just seen my favorite mare through a breech delivery. I’m in no mood to play games.”

  “I’ll meet you downstairs in ten minutes. We can talk then,” she offered with a touch of panic in her voice. She cringed mentally when she heard it. Letting him know he made her nervous wouldn’t be wise.

  He nodded. “Make it twenty. I need a shower.”

  “Yes, you do, desperately.”

  Dani watched as he left the room and the suite. After locking the sitting room door, she grabbed the chair from the sitting room’s desk and propped it under the doorknob. Master keys, indeed!

  She returned to her bedroom, locked the door and put her motion sensitive door alarm on the doorknob before she quickly pulled on underclothes followed by jeans and a t-shirt. He had been through her closet. There was no sense in letting him think she had dressed up for him, especially since the first item on her agenda was to wring his—she hoped— freshly washed, neck.

  * * *

  “Thought you were going to nap,” Sissy said as Dani found her way to the kitchen.

  “Shower woke me up. Can I fix myself some lunch?”

  “Absolutely not. Tell me what you want. I’ll fix it.”

  “Don’t go to any trouble. A sandwich would be fine.”

  “Chicken salad?” Sissy asked.

  Before she could answer, Jase walked into the room. He wore a dark blue summer weight silk blend business suit that fit too well to have been anything except custom tailored. His shirt was fine linen and his tie was silk. The price of his handmade shoes alone could have kept a family of four in groceries for six months.

  Dani wasn’t prepared for the longing she felt to touch him. This is crazy, she mentally chided herself. You don’t even know him. And what you know about him, you don’t like. So, why are you drawn to him? Insanity?!

  “Mary Danielle, I see you’re prompt, at least,” Jase acknowledged without warmth. “Sissy, how about some food?”

  Sissy offered, “I could pack up a basket and the two of you could go out to the gazebo and have a relaxing lunch. It’s beautiful outside. Shame to stay inside.”

  “No. Thanks, anyway, Sissy,” Dani refused.

  “I have to go into the office in a little while,” Jase said.

  Sissy shrugged before she sat out the bowl of chicken salad and a tray of cut up raw vegetables on the counter beside the refrigerator, then she pulled a tray of dinner rolls from the warmer and placed the rolls in a napkin lined serving basket. “You know where the plates and things are, Jason. I have to go supervise the cleaning crew.”

  After gathering tableware, Jase instructed, “Bring the food and come with me.”

  An informal breakfast room adjoined the kitchen. They sat across that table from one another with the food between them.

  She felt his eyes on her as she bowed her head, crossed herself, and prayed in silence before taking her food. When s
he looked up at him, he was wearing a mocking half smile.

  “What?” she demanded.

  “You don’t have to pretend piety for my sake.”

  “I never pretend anything, for anyone’s sake.” She took a serving of the chicken salad and a warm roll. “I am precisely as you see me. No more, no less.”

  Jase stated in a neutral tone, “Not everyone could meet the guests at her wedding with the news the ceremony is off and keep her composure enough to invite them to the dinner dance as a celebration of her recent escape from a terrible mistake, saying the party had already been paid for and it would be a sin to waste it.”

  She felt her face grow warm. Her appetite, only marginal to begin with, was now completely gone. “Seems you have done some research on me.”

  “Thoroughly,” Jase answered before he took a bite of the salad.

  She forced herself to take a bite. She wasn’t about to let him know how deeply he was upsetting her. The chicken salad looked very good; too bad it tasted like sawdust to her at the moment.

  “I know everything that can be known about Mary Danielle Devlin,” Jase added.

  Dani laughed, hoping that her nervousness wasn’t showing too badly, but fearing that it was. “That’s good. I’m not at all certain that I do. Care to loan me a copy of the report? I might find it interesting reading.”

  “No, I don’t think that you would,” he continued. “You didn’t know anything about Edward Hastings’ illegal activities until the police arrested him at the church, just an hour before your scheduled wedding?”

  “No, I didn’t know.” She forced herself to continue eating. Dani had the strong feeling he wasn’t above searching out a weakness and exploiting it for all it was worth. She wasn’t about to give him any sign he had hit a very painful area.

  “I don’t understand how you could have possibly failed to know. You worked with him, lived with him.”

  “Worked for him, part time while in grad school,” Dani corrected. “But I never saw any evidence suggestive of criminal behavior. If I had, I would have turned him in.”

  “Sure you would have,” Jase agreed with more than a tinge of disbelief coloring his tone. “That would have been killing the goose who laid the golden eggs.”