by Jana DeLeon
Carter’s heart clutched. The dried blood had been a clear indicator that the accident hadn’t happened recently, but the fact that she’d been unconscious all night was definitely cause for concern.
“It’s not the middle of the night. It’s almost 11:00 a.m. What time did you fall?”
She pushed herself up, slowly this time, and he put his hands behind her back to help her to an upright position.
“Around midnight,” she said.
He lifted a piece of her matted hair away to get a better look at her head, then blew out a breath of relief at the small gash. “It doesn’t look deep, but I need to get you to the doctor. You’ve been unconscious a long time. How did this happen?”
She stared blankly at him for a moment. “I took a shower, then left the bathroom... Oh, I remember! I heard something downstairs.”
“What did you hear?”
“It sounded like squeaky hinges from a door, then all the downstairs lights went off, but the power was still on. So I grabbed my keys and gun and was going to sneak downstairs and go get you.”
He looked down at her bare feet. “And you slipped on the landing.”
“I guess so.” She frowned. “I don’t really remember how it happened. I just remember falling over and over and then everything went black. I’m usually not that clumsy.”
“You’re not used to your surroundings and it was dark.” He made excuses, not wanting to stress her any further if it was a simple case of ill balance. “Let’s get you to the doctor.”
He rose and she started to follow, but he put a hand on her shoulder. “You don’t need to walk, especially down stairs.” He leaned over and scooped her up from the stairs.
Her eyes widened in surprise, but she wrapped her arms around him for balance and didn’t protest. Her head probably hurt more than she was willing to admit. As he stepped off the stairs, Amos walked through the front door.
The caretaker took one look at Alaina and paled. “Are you all right, miss?”
“She fell down the stairs late last night,” Carter explained as he carried her outside. Amos hurried beside him and opened his truck door. “She’s got a good crack on her head and has been unconscious all night. I’m going to take her to Doc Broussard.”
Amos nodded. “That’s good,” he said as Carter gently placed Alaina on the passenger’s seat. “You go take care of yourself, miss. I’ll watch the house.”
Carter jumped into the truck and pulled slowly away from the house, making every attempt to avoid the biggest holes on the dirt road.
“Someone was in the house with me,” Alaina said, her voice wavering. “Why is someone trying to scare me?”
Carter clenched his jaw. “I don’t know, but I’m damn well going to find out.”
* * *
DOC BROUSSARD was a silver-haired gentleman who had probably been quite a ladies’ man in his day. He charmed Alaina with his gentle touch and calm concern. Carter was the complete opposite. He stood in the corner of the room and she could practically feel the tension coming off him. Carter was definitely concerned, but it was anything but calm.
Doc Broussard lowered the X-ray he’d been studying and smiled at her. “Everything looks fine. You got a good crack, but I don’t see any swelling or blood pools.”
Her back and neck loosened a bit at his words, some of the tension releasing. “That’s great news. It worried me that I’d been unconscious for so long.”
Doc Broussard nodded. “It’s not optimal for those with a head injury to sleep, but it doesn’t appear as if there’s any damage done here. But if you start experiencing bad headaches or nausea, you need to let me know. I can schedule you an MRI in New Orleans.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“Perhaps... Well... I know it’s none of my business,” Doc Broussard said, “but maybe you shouldn’t be staying in that big house. Amos hasn’t been able to keep it up for years. The thing is probably a death trap.”
“It’s not bad,” Alaina assured him. “It’s more dirty than anything, and unfortunately, I have to stay there to meet the terms of my mother’s will—at least for two weeks.”
Doc Broussard frowned. “I’d heard the rumors about that tomfoolery. I’d hoped they were exaggerated, but apparently they’re not. You’d think William could have found a way around such nonsense.”
“He tried,” Alaina said. “He’s no happier about the situation than me or you.”
Carter coughed and Alaina glanced over at him.
“He may even be as unhappy as Carter, who’s tasked with ensuring I am in residence every day of the two weeks,” she said, trying not to smile.
Doc Broussard shot a look at Carter and grinned. “What’s wrong with you, boy? Keeping watch over a beautiful woman seems the best job in town. Or are you afraid your mother will find out the young lady got injured on your watch?”
Alaina’s smile broke through at the look of utter dismay on Carter’s face. “I really must meet your mother.”
Doc Broussard nodded. “Willamina Trahan is a force to be reckoned with. Beautiful and smart. If I was a braver man, I would ask her out, but as it is, I’ll just have to settle for a nice glass of wine and Netflix.”
“Are we done here?” Carter asked, clearly uncomfortable with the doctor’s dating comment.
“Absolutely.” Doc Broussard pulled a card from his pocket and handed it to Alaina. “If you have any questions or concerns, call me immediately. That’s my cell number and I try to keep it on me at all times.”
Alaina took the card and placed it in her pocket. “Thanks,” she said and eased off the table, careful not to jostle her slightly aching head.
“Warm water on the cut a couple of times a day,” Doc Broussard said as he walked them out. “I don’t think it needs a stitch, but if it doesn’t start healing in a day or two, come back and see me and we’ll reassess.”
“Thank you.” Alaina gave him a parting wave as she eased past Carter, who was holding the door open for her.
Carter was silent as he helped her into his truck, and the lack of conversation continued as he drove down Main Street. He looked pensive and slightly frustrated and she had to wonder if he was really so humorless that a little harmless joking put him in a foul mood.
“He’s right, you know,” Carter finally said, breaking the silence.
“About what?”
“You shouldn’t be staying in that house—at least not alone.”
Alaina shrugged, trying to maintain her cool, even though the thought of another night alone in that house was beginning to worry her already-frayed nerves. “Like I said before, no other options.”
“To staying in the house, no. But I’m going to fix the alone part.”
She shook her head. “Even if you could get him to do it, I don’t think Amos would be much protection.”
“I’m not talking about Amos. I’m talking about me.”
“Oh, no!” All sorts of potential scenes flashed through Alaina’s mind and her lack of clothing was a common theme. “I can’t ask you to do that. It’s not your responsibility. None of this is.”
“You’re not asking and I’m not offering. I’m telling you. Either I stay there until I can figure out what’s going on or I tell William to remove you from the house. You already narrowly missed a serious head injury. I’m not about to have worse on my conscience.”
One look at his set jaw and determined expression and Alaina knew it was futile to argue. If the estate attorney thought she was in imminent danger, she had no doubt he’d pull her out of the house until his concerns were alleviated.
“Wow,” she grumbled. “You really are afraid of your mother.”
He looked over at her and grinned. “Think you’re funny, don’t you?” He pressed the accelerator, but instead of turning right toward the estate, he turned left.
“Where are you going?”
“Because you want to meet my mother so badly, I figure there’s no time like the prese
nt. While you two think up a million ways to ‘fix’ my life, I’ll go check out the house.”
Alaina stared at him. “You can’t just foist me off unannounced on your mother. That’s rude, Carter. Maybe you do need fixing.”
“Rude? Are you kidding me? My mom has been dying to meet you since before you got here, and she’ll be thrilled to be the one to fuss over you in your time of need. She’s a big caretaker, my mom. Your visiting would actually be doing her a favor.”
She sighed. “Small towns are very odd.”
“You have no idea.”
* * *
WILLAMINA TRAHAN, as predicted, was thrilled to meet Alaina and horrified to hear about her fall. She immediately put her arm around Alaina’s shoulders and drew her into the kitchen where she insisted on making coffee and cutting her a piece of apple pie. The apple pie looked delicious enough that Carter was tempted to linger, but curiosity won out and he left his mother’s house and headed to the estate.
Amos’s key was still in his pocket, so gaining entry into the house was no problem. He yelled out as he walked through the front doors in case the caretaker was somewhere inside, but only silence greeted him.
He glanced at the downstairs entry lights, all of which seemed to be in fine working order now. The second thing he intended to do was look for a short, but that was only if the first thing he intended to do turned up nothing. The first thing he was going to do was try to determine how exactly Alaina had fallen.
Certainly, if she was spooked, in the dark, in an unfamiliar place, she could have lost her balance or taken a wrong step, and that was exactly what he’d told her. But he wanted to make sure another reason wasn’t behind her sudden clumsy spell. He took the stairs two steps at a time until he reached the second floor. On the landing, he crouched down to study the bottom of the newels, running his fingers lightly up the base on each side of the stairs.
His pulse spiked a bit when he felt the tiny indentions that circled near the bottom of each newel. Someone had strung wire across the steps when Alaina was showering, then turned off the entry lights to prompt her to come downstairs in the dark. He’d bet money on it. The question was who?
Aside from Jack, it seemed unlikely that someone in Calais had a problem with Alaina unless it had something to do with the will. It was time for a conversation with William to determine who benefited if Alaina and her sisters didn’t inherit. Of course, that only mattered if the secondary beneficiaries were even aware of their status, which he doubted, as even the sisters had not been aware of the terms of their mother’s will until after Purcell’s death.
It was far more likely that it was personal—that someone from Alaina’s past had followed her to Calais and was using the remote location and her solitary living arrangement as an opportunity to scare her. But the wire was far more than a prank. Alaina could have easily been killed.
He headed downstairs to check the lights but already knew he’d find nothing wrong with them. Bad wiring hadn’t rigged a trip wire on the stairs, nor did he think it was a coincidence that the lights went off exactly as Alaina exited the bathroom. Someone was toying with her.
As soon as he finished here, he’d head back to his mother’s. Being the consummate hostess—and being his mother—she’d insist on their staying for dinner. But as soon as it was over and he’d grabbed a change of clothes from his cabin, he and Alaina were going to have a long talk about the people who may want her dead—starting with everyone related to the one case she was probably trying to forget.
* * *
WILLAMINA, WHO’D INSISTED Alaina call her Willa, had been the consummate host. Alaina smiled at her as she carried a tray of iced tea onto the spacious stone patio behind her house. It was warm and humid, but Willa had assured her that her swamp cooler would make the atmosphere pleasant and allow them to see the sunset over the swamp, something the older woman said she enjoyed most evenings.
Alaina hadn’t been convinced that anything could best the heat and humidity of Louisiana in the summer, but she’d been intrigued by the term swamp cooler and couldn’t resist heading outside to see what one looked like.
It had turned out to be a giant water-cooled fan that seemed to lower the temperature on the patio by a good twenty degrees, which was impressive. She suspected the loud whirling wouldn’t be accepted at her condo back in Baton Rouge, but then, she wasn’t even certain she’d return there except to pack. Maybe when all this was over, she’d find a small town to move to. This one was rather charming and if all small towns had women as nice and interesting as Willa, who could bake pie like an angel, it would be all that more tempting.
Maybe you should just stay here.
The thought flashed through her mind and she froze. Where in the world had that come from? Calais was lovely in its own way, but she could hardly hope to have a legal career here. Any town could support a doctor or dentist, but few small places had enough need for an attorney to support them. Not to mention that while Alaina was enjoying the slower pace for the moment, she knew it wasn’t something she could adjust to on a daily basis. She had to have enough mental stimulation keeping her busy or she’d get restless, bored and unhappy.
Willa handed her a glass of tea and motioned to patio chairs placed directly in the path of the swamp cooler airflow. She took a seat and sipped the tea, then sighed, savoring the sweet, crisp taste.
“I don’t usually drink sweetened tea,” Alaina said, “but then, I never get tea that tastes like this in Baton Rouge either.”
Willa nodded and took the seat across from her. “The secret is in steeping the tea. No cheating with coffeepots and such. You either boil the water or set it out on a hot day on your porch. When it’s just the right shade of brown, you add sugar and cold water and stick it in the refrigerator to chill.”
Alaina didn’t even want to think about exactly how many cups of sugar were in the tea. She was enjoying herself far too much and, quite frankly, deserved a bit of a treat. “Well, it tastes wonderful.”
Willa smiled. “It’s nice to see a young woman who isn’t afraid to have a bit of sugar. Why, my niece took a swig of tea last time she was visiting and I thought she’d have apoplexy. Said it would put her over her calorie limit for the day. When I have to count the calories in my tea, I want to just pass on over to the big house. I bet there’s no unsweetened tea in heaven.”
Alaina laughed. “I hope you’re right.”
Willa studied her for a moment. “You’re not what I expected.”
“Really? What were you expecting?”
“Someone beautiful and I got that part right. Your mother was beautiful and you look a lot like her.”
Alaina felt a flush rise up her neck at the compliment. “Thank you.”
“I can’t find any polite way of saying the rest, so I’ll just come out with it—I expected you to be a taskmistress.”
“Oh!” Alaina grinned. “There are some attorneys who would definitely support such a belief. So where did you get that idea—from Carter?”
Willa waved a hand in dismissal. “It’s no secret that Carter’s annoyed by this whole mess. It is rather a strange way to settle an estate, and I know there was no love lost between him and attorneys from his time spent in New Orleans. But I guess I thought you’d be rigid and humorless because William said you worked for the best firm in Baton Rouge. I figured if a young, beautiful woman was that successful, especially given the good ol’ boy network, that she must be a taskmistress.”
“I suppose there’s a lot of truth to that. You have to be very focused and driven to make a play in my field, especially in a male-dominated firm, and most of the oldest and most prestigious are.”
“But, dear, why would you want to pretend to be someone you’re not? You’re a bright, warm, interesting girl—why hide all that just to impress a bunch of men who probably aren’t worth the time anyway? You should concentrate on finding something to do that utilizes your skill and education but that allows you to be you.”
> Alaina’s eyes began to mist and she swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat. It was exactly the sort of thing she imagined a mother might say to her daughter. She needed to reply, but was afraid that if she opened her mouth, she’d start crying.
“Oh, no!” Willa said. “I’ve upset you.”
“No,” Alaina said, finally finding her voice. “I’m just... I guess I’m not used to people looking past what I do and actually seeing me, much less caring that I’m happy with my life. It’s a little overwhelming and sad, all at the same time. I mean, my adoptive parents took care of me, but I never felt a real part of their family.”
Willa reached over to pat her knee. “You’re a wonderful girl, Alaina, but you’re going to have to tear down that wall you’ve built around you so that others can see. Not everyone is as perceptive as I am.” She grinned.
Alaina smiled. “No, you’re definitely one of a kind.”
“Don’t go telling her that.” Carter’s voice sounded behind her and Alaina jumped, then twisted her head around as he walked out onto the patio. He leaned over to kiss his mom on the forehead. “She already thinks she’s got mythical magical powers.”
Willa looked up at her son and sighed. “I don’t know how I managed to bring such an unimaginative man into this world,” she said, but Alaina could tell she was joking.
Carter smiled and pulled a chair up to join them. Alaina fidgeted a bit, wondering if Carter was going to talk about her situation in front of his mother. Willa had already insisted that she and Carter stay for dinner after he returned, and Alaina wasn’t sure she could sit through an entire meal wondering what he’d found, if anything.
“I figure Mom’s insisted on dinner,” he said, “so I’ll get the bad part out of the way.”
Alaina let out a breath of relief. “Oh, good. I mean, not good that it’s bad, but good that you’re getting it out of the way.”
“What did you find, Carter?” Willa asked.
“There was nothing wrong with the lights. Someone strung wire across the stair newel posts and then turned off the lights to draw you downstairs. They intended for you to fall—no question about it.”
