Hidden in a Whisper

by Tracie Peterson

  “You, however, are selfish and self-motivated. You choose the path that will give you the most satisfaction. There is nothing of goodness in you. The woman I marry will love God and will seek to conduct herself in a Christian manner for all of her days. Rachel is that woman.

  Not some devious little harlot who has no remorse for her actions.”

  Ivy took a sharp breath, taken aback. She thought of her parents and the servants who perished in the fire. She thought of her aunt’s crumpled form at the bottom of the stairs. She even thought for the briefest moment of Rachel’s stunned and pain-filled expression. It wasn’t that she had set out to inflict pain … not really. She simply wanted what was important to her. No one could possibly understand that she’d never intended for anyone to die in the fire. Neither would they believe her if she said she was sorry. And she was sorry. At least where her parents were concerned.

  “I’ve done what I had to do,” Ivy finally said. “You don’t belong with someone like Rachel. She’s much too common and plain. I can be much more to you. I can attend church as you wish, and I can be the docile wife you desire. In the years to come, you’ll see that this was the wisest thing and you’ll thank me for saving you.”

  “In the years to come, I will look back on this time as my darkest hours—those hours spent without Rachel.” Braeden narrowed his eyes. “I don’t suppose you have any idea of her whereabouts.”

  Ivy smiled. “If I did, do you think I would ruin all that I’ve planned and tell you?”

  Braeden clenched his teeth and a rumble from deep in his throat sounded very much like a suppressed growl. Ivy refused to be concerned by it, however.

  “We can marry tomorrow,” she said firmly. “I’ll talk to the preacher after I leave here.”

  Slamming his fists down on the desk, Braeden raged. “I won’t marry you tomorrow or any day. I don’t love you, Miss Brooks. I love Rachel Taylor. You are nothing to me but trouble. You have deeply wounded the woman I love, and while I shall forgive you, I won’t ever forget.”

  Deeply shaken, Ivy fought hard to remain stoic. “You will learn to love me. I’m beautiful, and I’m sure we will find ways to—” “Your outward appearance may be pleasing, but inside you are frightfully hideous,” Braeden interrupted. “Marriage is about more than physical attraction. It’s about commitment.”

  “We could be committed to each other.”

  “Maybe you could be committed to an asylum,” Braeden said sarcastically. “I’ll ruin you if you refuse me.”

  Braeden shook his head. “Don’t you understand? Without Rachel, none of this matters. Ruin me. Take my job. Turn them all against me. It doesn’t matter, because you don’t matter. Not to me, anyway.”

  Ivy suddenly realized he meant what he said. He found her abhorrent. No one had ever treated her in such a manner. She felt sick inside, unable to shake off the sense of dread. If she couldn’t have him by choice, she’d take him by force. She could do this. She only had to think her plans through in a clear and concise manner. “You’ll be condemned,” she muttered.

  “Not by those who matter. Not by Rachel, and not by God.”

  “You’re already condemned by Rachel,” Ivy retorted. She had to make him see the truth of the situation. “As for God, who knows what He thinks?”

  “He hates lies,” Braeden countered.

  Ivy shook her head. “He understands why I did what I did.”

  “Yes, you’re right. He does. He knows your motives and He knows exactly why and what you have done,” Braeden replied ominously.

  Ivy got to her feet, feeling rather unnerved by Braeden’s certainty regarding God. “Don’t think to threaten me, Braeden Parker. Everyone in that dining room this morning perceives you as a ruthless molester of helpless young women. If you don’t marry me, you’ll be stripped of everything, including your reputation and self-worth.”

  Braeden smiled and seemed to calm in the wake of their harshly spoken words. “You can’t destroy my self-worth, Miss Brooks. God has given me a sense of self-worth through His love for me. I find my identity in Him—not in this place, this job.”

  “I thought you found all of that through Miss Taylor,” Ivy said snidely. She was confused by his calm and thought feverishly for something more to say. She was losing him—losing her chance for a new start.

  “Rachel gives from her heart. She loves me and I love her,” Braeden replied. “But even if Rachel were gone for good, I would still find my hope and my future in God. That’s something you can’t understand, Miss Brooks. And it’s something I can’t explain. So go say what you will. Tell all the lies you think will serve your cause. But you won’t win me over, and you won’t be my consolation in Rachel’s absence.”

  Braeden got up and walked around his desk. Ivy felt threatened by the action, even though he was much calmer than when she’d first come into his office. She backed up a step, but still he came forward.

  “I want you out of my office. Now.”

  She backed up to the door and shook her head. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You don’t know what might happen. What has already happened.”

  Braeden eyed her seriously. “If you know something about Rachel, you’d better tell me.”

  Ivy realized the power she could hold and felt a bit of her confidence return. “You weren’t the only man to love Rachel,” she said, standing her ground. “Rachel will seek protection and safety with someone she can trust. After what happened last night, you can’t possibly believe that she would come to you.”

  “Where is she, Ivy?” he asked, moving in even closer.

  Ivy felt excitement course through her body. She held the answers and now controlled the outcome. Even though she’d have to lie, she could weave a web of deceit that would permanently put an end to Braeden’s illusions that Rachel loved him.

  “I’m not the one to ask,” she finally told him. “Rachel’s been spending a great deal of time with Mr. Worthington, as you probably already know. She finds solace with him—comfort and maybe even that love you speak of so freely. Reg is really a wonderful man, and he is fiercely protective of Rachel. You can’t deny the way he watched over her last night, and he left right after she did.”

  Ivy toyed with the doorknob. “If Rachel wanted you to know where she was, Braeden, she would have told you by now. She hasn’t left Morita; she’s merely taking refuge where you cannot harm her.”

  Turning the knob, Ivy was surprised when Braeden’s hand slammed down on top of hers. “I mean it, Ivy. If you know where she is, tell me.” He pressed down hard on her hand as if to emphasize the threat.

  Ivy refused to be frightened, however. “Half-truths and rumors destroyed your lives long ago. I heard her telling this to Reg,” she lied, for in fact she had overhead Rachel explaining the matter to Braeden. “So take this as you like,” Ivy said, opening the door in spite of the pressure to her hand. “Rachel won’t be turning to you this time around. She has someone else who is only too happy to fill in where you left off. If you don’t believe me, just ask Reginald how he feels about Rachel.”

  She smiled and walked through the door, coming face-to-face with a very put-out Mr. Wilson. Turning, she saw the discomfort in Braeden’s expression and couldn’t help but play on his fears. “Oh, and you might also ask him why he’s not been overly worried or eager to go chasing about the countryside looking for Rachel. Seems to me that, given his feelings for her, if he thought she were really missing he’d move heaven and earth to find her.” She saw the look in Braeden’s eyes and knew she’d hit her mark. Striving to drive in the final blow, she shrugged nonchalantly. “I’ve no doubt she’s safe, Braeden. Reg wouldn’t let harm come to her.”

  TWENTY-FIVE

  THE NEXT MORNING Reginald had just completed explaining to his staff the process for stripping the meat from a lobster shell when a bleary-eyed Braeden Parker came into the kitchen. In spite of his exhaustion, he looked like a man with a determined purpose, and Reg had little doubt he was the
re to confront him about Rachel.

  “You must collect all of the meat from the shells,” Reg told his assistants. “But leave the brain for later. We will mix that with soft butter and add to the mixture later. Be very careful, as we will need every bit of lobster we can lay our hands on.” The shipment of fresh lobsters had been shorted by thirty of the little beasts, and Reginald knew he would have to perform a minor miracle to make the food stretch for the huge banquet and party planned that night. Tonight would be the final celebration of the grand opening, and besides the banquet, there were refreshments for the formal ball that was to be given later that night.

  “Mr. Worthington, I would like a moment of your time,” Braeden said, coming to stand directly in front of the chef.

  Reginald looked up and nodded. “Very well. Shall we go to the storage room or perhaps your office?”

  “Given that the dining room is already full to capacity,” Braeden began, “I suggest we stay here or step outside. I really don’t want to have to walk through that crowd again.”

  “As you wish,” Reginald replied. “Since the morning temperatures are rather cool, let us move to the storage room, where we might have less interference.”

  Braeden followed after him, and Reginald couldn’t help but wonder how he would handle the big man if he decided to turn loose with a bout of temper. If Parker chose to use his fists instead of his mouth, Reg knew he’d be in trouble. Still, Parker seemed capable of controlling his anger—at least up until now. Perhaps he was worried over 239 nothing.

  But upon meeting Braeden’s harsh glare, Reg wondered if he’d done something very stupid by isolating himself with Casa Grande’s comanager. Backing up against the delivery conveyor, Reg felt his pulse quicken. The man’s eyes positively burned with a fire that suggested he would stop at nothing—nothing at all, in order to learn the truth.

  “I want some answers and I want them now,” Braeden said in a nononsense sort of fashion.

  “I will tell you whatever I can,” Reg replied calmly.

  “Do you know where Rachel is?”

  Reg raised a questioning brow. “Why would you ask me that? I already spoke to you on the matter the other night. I’m the one who suggested a search party.”

  “I’m asking you because Ivy Brooks implied that you are hiding Rachel away from me, that Rachel sought her solace with you, and that my searches will prove futile.”

  Reg smiled. So that conniving little idiot had put Parker on him, after all. She’d implied to know things about Reg’s activities at Casa Grande, and while he had no idea what she actually knew, he wasn’t about to allow her the upper hand. “Parker, I care a great deal about Rachel, but Ivy Brooks means her nothing but harm. She would tell you anything in order to get you on her side. She set her sights on winning you over, and Rachel was an interference in her plans. Knowing Ivy even as little as I do, I realize she would do or say whatever she had to in order to eliminate her competition.”

  “What is your point?”

  “I’m saying that Ivy has the ability to accomplish pretty much whatever she wants. As you guessed, she planned that little seduction scene at the Needlemeier mansion. She told me her plans.”

  “She told you the truth and you lied? You let everyone out there believe me to have harmed her—destroyed her reputation. Why?”

  “Because I love Rachel,” he replied simply. “And I knew so long as Rachel was deceived into believing you deserved her love, she would go on believing in you and loving you.”

  “Why, I ought to—” “Tut, tut, Mr. Parker,” Reg said, pressing hard against the rollers on the conveyor belt as Braeden advanced. “If you refuse to contain your temper, I will not continue to explain.”

  Braeden’s face contorted in anger, but he held back and nodded.

  “Then explain.”

  Reg nodded. “Ivy told me of her desire to have you for her husband, and given the fact that I wanted very much for Rachel to think of me as a prospect for her lifelong mate, I agreed to help her with her arrangement. But I also did it out of fear for Rachel.”

  “Fear for Rachel? I don’t understand.”

  “Ivy will stop at no length to harm Rachel. If she can’t scare her off and force Rachel to leave on her own accord, I feared Ivy might actually try to eliminate the dear woman.”

  “Why would you say that? Do you have reason to believe Ivy would do physical harm to Rachel?”

  “Not only do I think she would, I know she would. I know about the rattlesnake.” Braeden paled and Reg nodded. “That’s right—the one Gwen told you about. Ivy planted it there. Well, not exactly Ivy.

  She paid to have it done and then hid the man in her room after he hit Mr. O’Donnell over the head. She simply slipped him out her window and no one was the wiser for her actions.”

  “No one but you,” Braeden said flatly. “If you knew about this, why didn’t you go to the proper authorities?”

  Reginald smiled. “Because it gave me power over Miss Brooks.

  And, as you have witnessed her vengeance and her conniving ways, I believe you understand what it might mean to hold at least a marginal amount of influence over that young woman.”

  “That snake could have killed whomever opened the drawer,” Braeden said angrily.

  “Yes, but I knew it was somewhere in the office, and when you all left to help Mr. O’Donnell, I planned to take the matter into my own hands.”

  “Only you didn’t have to because Gwen Carson handled the situation.” “Yes,” Reg said, nodding. “Quite a woman there.”

  “Yes, she is quite a woman, and she wouldn’t have deserved to have been bitten by that snake either. You should have come forward before it went that far.”

  “Until I saw the situation being arranged and followed the man, I had no real idea as to what he was about. But that aside, you must understand that I went along with Ivy for Rachel’s sake. I couldn’t have another attempt on her life. She’s too precious. I think even you would have to admit that protecting her was far more important than worrying about your reputation. Ivy told me that if I didn’t help her, she would see to it that Rachel suffered. I didn’t want to see Rachel in further danger.”

  “But she may be in danger at this very minute,” Braeden said, eyeing Reg suspiciously. “That is, unless you know otherwise. In which case, I demand to know the truth.”

  Reg crossed his arms and tried his best to appear completely at ease. “Mr. Parker, I do not trust you, neither do I like you. You epitomize that typical American male mentality of taking what you want and worrying about the consequences at a later time. If in fact you have to suffer those consequences at all. But my feelings are unimportant. I believe, however, that after spending time with me, Rachel has come to see the difference in how men of proper breeding conduct themselves. I believe she cherishes the more gentile nature she finds in me, and I doubt very much that she cares for you anymore. Especially given your indiscretions with Ivy Brooks.”

  “Did she tell you that?”

  “She didn’t have to say it with words—her face told me everything I needed to know. I believe it told you the truth as well. I saw the exchange between you two. You know she believes the worst. You know she believes you to have taken up a dalliance with Miss Brooks. And because her trust was fixed on such fragile ground with you, you 241 must also realize that such a blow would surely destroy any remaining love she held for you.”

  Braeden took two steps forward and stopped directly in front of Reginald. “If you know where she is,” he said in a low, menacing voice, “you’d be wise to tell me.”

  “I don’t know where she is,” Reginald replied. “I wish I did. I certainly wouldn’t be here if I had the opportunity to take her away from this mess. I have abhorred this place from the moment I arrived and had very nearly made up my mind to go back to New York when I met Rachel. I only stayed because of her. I only stay now because of her.”

  Braeden shook his head. “She loves me. I know she still loves
me.”

  “Then you are a fool, Mr. Parker.” Reg moved to the side and slipped past Braeden while he appeared to contemplate that final statement. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a party to prepare for.”

  “If you love her so much, then why aren’t you out there looking for her instead of sitting here planning for a party?” Braeden suddenly asked. “I think you know where she is, and because you know her to be safe and out of danger, you are merely going about your business.”

  Reg turned at the door. “Think what you like, Mr. Parker. But remember this, I am a man with connections. I needn’t do my own dirty work when there are so many people desperate for a job. I might not be out looking for her, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t hired others to be doing just that. Just ask around. Ask Tomas. He went with you yesterday, but today he’s already gone, working for me. He was, in fact, under my pay yesterday. So don’t judge my appearance here to be a sign of indifference. I know I am hardly cut out for the physical demands of searching the wilderness for Rachel, but I would never stand by idly while she’s missing.”

  With that, he left Parker to consider his words. It irritated him that the man would question him when it came to Rachel, but he quickly dismissed it. Even more irritating was Ivy Brooks. He couldn’t help but wonder what she might mean to his plans. He had a job to do, and the last thing he needed was the interference of that child.

  Still, by sharing what he knew with Braeden, he had turned the tables on Ivy Brooks. He had explained his participation in her little charade, and Braeden couldn’t argue that he had been perfectly justified in the choices he’d made. Smiling to himself, Reg felt a deep sense of satisfaction. Now, if only he could convince Rachel that Braeden’s loyalty lay elsewhere.