Gypsy

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘Shay—’

  ‘It’s true, Matthew,’ she sharply interrupted his reasoning voice. ‘I’ve actually asked him.’

  ‘Asked him what?’ he frowned.

  ‘If he works for Lyon.’ She sighed her impatience. ‘The nurse that brought my medicine this morning seemed very agitated,’ she revealed hardly. ‘And when I asked her if everything was all right she said she hadn’t ever been questioned as if she were a criminal before. It seems that “innocuous-looking chap" gave her the third degree before letting her in here!’

  ‘That doesn’t sound as if he’s spying on you,’ Matthew said slowly.

  ‘Of course it does,’ she raged bitterly. ‘He probably thought the poor woman was trying to smuggle me in some clothes for the great escape! I’m telling you, Matthew, he’s gone too far this time.’ Her expression was mutinous. ‘I’m going to have the man kicked out of here.’

  He looked at his wrist-watch. ‘It’s about seven o’clock in the morning in New York,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Not too early to call Lyon.’

  ‘Call him from here,’ she invited tightly. ‘Then I can tell him what I think of him too!’

  Matthew smiled hardly. ‘I think I’ll make the call from home. I wouldn’t want to get you kicked out of here for using obscene language in front of Richard!’

  Some of her tension left her as she gave a rueful grimace. ‘Lyon just infuriates me,’ she sighed. ‘I’ve told him from the beginning that I’ll never try to keep Richard away from you all, but that doesn’t seem to be enough for him.’

  ‘I’m sure there must have been some sort of mistake—’

  ‘Lyon doesn’t make mistakes, he only has setbacks,’ Shay dismissed hardly.

  ‘As usual, you’re misjudging him,’ Matthew reproved. ‘I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation for—’

  ‘Donaldson,’ she put in harshly. ‘He said his name is Eric Donaldson,’ she told him disgustedly.

  ‘I’m sure Lyon can easily explain the man’s presence here,’ Matthew frowned.

  ‘I wish you looked, and sounded, more convincing,’ Shay condemned his obvious confusion.

  ‘I’ll get back to you later,’ he promised.

  He hadn’t contacted her by the time Neil and her grandfather arrived later that afternoon, although Neil did happen to mention that Matthew had been on the telephone most of the day trying to contact Lyon in New York.

  That didn’t placate Shay at all, wanting to know what Lyon’s explanation was for Eric Donaldson. By seven o’clock that evening she had had enough of waiting, putting a call through to the house, ringing off impatiently when the line was engaged, jumping nervously when her own telephone began ringing as soon as she had replaced the receiver.

  ‘Matthew, you scared the life out of me!’ she accused as soon as he had identified himself as the caller.

  ‘Why, what’s happened?’ he demanded sharply.

  ‘I just put the receiver down from trying to reach you, and obviously you were just calling me. And—Never mind all that,’ she continued impatiently. ‘Have you managed to contact Lyon?’

  ‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ he persisted.

  ‘Of course I’m all right. Matthew—What did you say?’ she frowned, sure he had said something like ‘he’s got me at it too now’. It didn’t make any sense to her if he had. ‘Matthew?’ she prompted again.

  ‘Look, I know it will be late when I get there,’ he told her briskly, ‘but I have to talk to you.’

  She swallowed hard at the seriousness of his tone. Matthew was either sarcastic, mocking, derisive, or just plain cruel, he was never this gravely serious. ‘If it’s bad news, Matthew, I’d rather you told me now,’ she said abruptly.

  ‘It isn’t bad news.’ His voice was hoarse. ‘It’s—Look, I’ll be there in about an hour, we can talk then,’ he told her firmly before ringing off.

  Shay immediately rang him back, only to be told he had already left the house. Something was wrong, badly wrong, and she couldn’t think what it could be. Unless something had happened to Lyon, and that was the reason Matthew had had such difficulty trying to reach him. But she couldn’t believe that was it—Lyon was invincible!

  Matthew looked pale and haggard when he arrived shortly after eight o’clock, and Shay knew she was right to be so concerned when he told her he thought it would be better if she sat down while they talked.

  ‘What is it?’ she demanded sharply. ‘Matthew, you’re just making things worse!’

  ‘I’m not sure they can be any worse than they already are,’ he frowned.

  ‘Just tell me!’

  ‘Donaldson isn’t spying on you for Lyon,’ he stated flatly.

  Her expression was scornful. ‘Lyon was sure to tell you that, but I told you, I’ve spoken to the man, and he definitely works for Lyon.’

  Matthew looked angry. ‘I don’t care what your personal differences are,’ he bit out tautly. ‘Lyon is not a liar!’

  She blushed uncomfortably. ‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled.

  He nodded acceptance of the apology. ‘Donaldson has been hired as a body-guard by Lyon,’ he stated flatly.

  Shay frowned her puzzlement. ‘A body-guard? But—He’s guarding me?’ she said disbelievingly.

  Hazel eyes met hers steadily. ‘Yes.’

  Her mouth quirked. ‘I know Lyon doesn’t like my books, but he can’t seriously think anyone would want to hurt me because of them!’

  ‘This isn’t a time for levity, Shay!’ Green flecks flashed angrily in Matthew’s hazel eyes. ‘There have been several attempts on the lives of members of this family during recent months, and although I don’t agree with the secretive way Lyon has tried to protect us all, I do agree that it had to be done.’

  ‘You have to be joking, Matthew!’ she dismissed.

  ‘No,’ he said in deadly earnest.

  ‘But why would someone want to hurt anyone in the family?’ she gasped.

  He shrugged. ‘In business you sometimes make enemies you don’t even know you have.’

  Fantastic as it might sound, she could no longer doubt he was completely serious about this. And with her acceptance that he was telling the truth came something else. ‘Ricky?’ she choked.

  ‘We don’t know if his death was an accident or not, Shay,’ he said huskily. ‘We just don’t know,’ he repeated heavily.

  CHAPTER TEN

  SHAY stared at him blankly, not even aware that she had stopped breathing until she sucked air into her starved lungs. Matthew couldn’t really have just said there was a possibility that Ricky’s death hadn’t been an accident after all.

  ‘Drink this,’ Matthew ordered her to swallow the water he had poured, watching her closely as she numbly did so. ‘I said we don’t know, Shay.’ He took the empty glass from her trembling fingers. ‘And we don’t. The initial report in Los Angeles wasn’t extensive, so we’re waiting for a more detailed report on the plane from the people Lyon hired.’

  She swallowed hard. ‘I—You—Lyon—’ She couldn’t articulate, too choked with emotion.

  ‘Neil was the first one to be involved in an accident.’ Matthew held her hand as he gently began to talk. ‘His hang-glider nosedived from a couple of hundred feet in the air. He was only concussed, luckily; it was surprising he wasn’t killed. The people at the workshop told him one of the supports had worn away.’

  ‘Oh God, oh God,’ Shay cried, burying her face in her hands, tears streaming down her face.

  ‘We can talk about this some other time if it’s upsetting you too much—’

  ‘No!’ she looked at him wildly. ‘I want to know it all now.’

  Matthew frowned. ‘I only meant to explain to you why Donaldson was so necessary outside. Lyon will be back tomorrow to tell you the rest.’

  ‘I have to know now.’ She shook her head desperately. ‘I have to know, Matthew,’ she pleaded, clutching at his hand.

  He sighed raggedly. ‘I know you do, I felt the same way earlier
when Lyon finally told me what’s been going on. But obviously he still knows more than I do—’

  ‘Just tell me what you know!’

  He nodded abruptly. ‘We all dismissed Neil’s accident as the stupidity of the sport,’ he rasped. ‘Then Lyon had an accident in the Porsche. At least, he told us it was an accident at the time. Actually his brakes failed and he had to drive into an embankment rather than go over a bridge.’ Matthew revealed grimly.

  ‘Was he hurt?’

  ‘His pride took a beating,’ Matthew attempted to mock. ‘And it knocked his lifetime no-claims bonus for six!’

  ‘Matthew!’

  He gave a rueful shrug. ‘He had a nasty bump on his head for several days, but nothing more than that. Then Ricky had his accident—As far as we know there’s no connection, Shay,’ he put in quickly as she paled even more.

  ‘But Lyon suspects there is?’

  ‘He—isn’t sure.’ Matthew watched her closely. ‘And that’s the truth.’

  ‘But if it wasn’t an accident, then there—there’s a murderer out there somewhere.’ She felt sick at the thought of her beloved Ricky being deliberately killed. ‘Why hasn’t Lyon gone to the police?’

  ‘He has,’ Matthew sighed. ‘But so far we only have a string of unrelated accidents—’

  ‘Three members of the same family isn’t unrelated—’

  ‘Five,’ Matthew put in softly.

  ‘What?’ she gasped.

  ‘Six if you count Richard,’ he added grimly.

  Shay’s face was stricken. ‘Richard …?’

  ‘I could have been badly hurt when the electronics on my chair went haywire, and both you and Richard could have died when you went down the escalator.’

  ‘That was an accident—’

  ‘Was it?’ Matthew prompted softly. ‘It was a crowded station, everyone rushing for the train due in, couldn’t you have been pushed?’

  ‘No, I—’ She broke off as she remembered the jostling at the back of her as she prepared to step on to the escalator. Someone could have pushed her. ‘I can’t believe this, Matthew.’ She shook her head. ‘It can’t be real.’

  ‘That’s the way the police feel about it too. Lyon can’t give them a motive for anyone wanting to hurt all of us in this way, and so they dismiss it as several accidents that have happened over quite a period of months.’

  ‘Lyon’s sure it couldn’t just be that?’

  ‘Yes. At first he wasn’t sure, but the night he came off Wildfire his saddle had been tampered with.’

  She drew in a ragged breath. ‘Why didn’t he tell any of us about this?’

  Matthew shrugged. ‘He didn’t tell you because of the baby, and he didn’t tell the rest of us because at the beginning he just wasn’t sure.’

  ‘We had a right to know!’ Shay claimed bitterly.

  ‘Lyon was frightened you might lose the baby if he told you.’

  Her mouth twisted. ‘Of course,’ she derided harshly, sighing deeply. ‘He’ll be back tomorrow, you said?’ Her eyes were narrowed.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Tell him as soon as he gets back that I would like to see him,’ she instructed hardly.

  ‘Shay, it’s no good being like this, none of this is Lyon’s fault—’

  ‘I know that,’ she nodded. ‘I just have to know if he’s found out any more about Ricky.’

  ‘Even if he has, it won’t bring Ricky back,’ Matthew told her quietly.

  Shay’s eyes took on a haunted quality. ‘I know that. But accepting that the plane crashed and Ricky died is one thing, knowing that someone deliberately caused that accident is something else entirely.’

  Matthew squeezed her hand comfortingly. ‘I’m sure it was an accident, Shay.’

  Shay wasn’t, and just the thought that it might not have been kept her awake all night just looking at Richard as he slept between feeds, insisting he stay in with her even though the night nurse had offered to take him so that she could have a peaceful night. The thought that someone, some faceless person, might try to take him away from her filled her with apprehension and fear.

  Who could want to do such a thing? Why, that was what she didn’t understand? Could what Matthew said be true, that someone had a grudge against the whole family because of business? If that were so why did it have to be Ricky who was the one to die?

  * * *

  ‘SHAY, I DON’T HAVE any more answers,’ Lyon told her wearily.

  He had come straight to the hospital from the airport, looked tired and haggard, his tailored brown suit still slightly creased from the flight.

  Shay knew she looked no less tired, dark circles under her shadowed eyes, the rest of her face very pale in comparison. ‘Matthew said you’re waiting for a second report on Ricky’s crash?’

  He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘It will be several more weeks.’

  ‘Lyon—’

  ‘Shay!’ he said with patient sternness. ‘I had Matthew tell you what was going on because he said you were all set to have Donaldson removed from the hospital.’ His eyes were narrowed. ‘I’m sure you can understand now why I couldn’t let you do that. But nothing else has changed—’

  ‘Nothing has changed?’ she echoed incredulously. ‘There’s some lunatic out there trying to do every member of this family harm, and you say nothing has changed!’ She shook her head disbelievingly. ‘Lyon, you amaze me!’

  ‘Except for a couple of slip-ups, you have been protected from the moment Ricky’s plane went down—’

  ‘You had me watched even then?’ she demanded sharply.

  ‘I had you guarded,’ corrected Lyon harshly.

  ‘So that was the reason you didn’t doubt Richard’s parentage.’ Her eyes flashed. ‘You knew I hadn’t seen another man since Ricky’s crash!’

  Lyon’s mouth thinned. ‘I didn’t doubt your baby’s parentage because I know you!’ he bit out. ‘I never, ever doubted it was Ricky’s child you carried. I had you guarded for your own safety, and it was made easier by the man you yourself hired to keep the press away from you. But your stubbornness in insisting on finding your own home when you came back to England complicated matters slightly, especially after the threat you made about going to the police if you saw anyone following you,’ he added grimly.

  ‘So you had Mrs Devon watch me instead!’

  He shook his head. ‘Not at first, no.’

  ‘Then—Grandy,’ she realised with dismay. ‘He knows, doesn’t he?’ she said flatly, sure that she finally had the answer to her grandfather’s unexpected advice that it would be better if she stayed at Falconer House. It had been so unlike him, considering that he knew how she felt about Lyon, but now it was easier—if not more pleasant!—to understand his concern.

  ‘I had to tell him,’ Lyon nodded abruptly, ‘so that he knew what to look out for.’

  ‘He went everywhere with me,’ she realised bitterly, feeling a little like an overprotected child.

  ‘We daren’t risk your being upset in any way, Shay,’ Lyon sighed.

  ‘No wonder Grandy didn’t want to go home.’ She frowned as she recalled her grandfather’s reluctance to go back to Ireland.

  ‘We realised that his delay was arousing your suspicions, and so Mrs Devon was persuaded to watch over you at the house, and I hired a private detective to follow you if you went out, on the supposition that after all that time you wouldn’t suspect me of having you watched.’

  ‘The day on the escalator—’

  ‘Donaldson’s predecessor lost you during your shopping expedition,’ Lyon recalled harshly. ‘I almost strangled him when I found out what had happened, even more so once I discovered you hadn’t arrived for your appointment with Marilyn. The man was lucky he just got off with a dismissal,’ he recalled savagely.

  ‘Then all these months have told you nothing?’ Shay frowned.

  ‘All these months,’ he bit out, ‘have shown me that someone has a grudge against the family, I’ve been trying to protect its membe
rs as best I could.’

  She blushed at the reproof in his tone. ‘Maybe if you hadn’t treated us all like children it wouldn’t have been so difficult,’ she snapped resentfully.

  ‘If it hadn’t been for your child maybe I wouldn’t have done.’ His eyes glittered angrily.

  ‘Don’t keep using Richard as the excuse for everything, Lyon,’ she dismissed scornfully.

  ‘Your doctor told me that any more distress could bring on a miscarriage,’ he told her coldly.

  Shay became suddenly still, very pale as she looked at him with stunned eyes. ‘You spoke to Andrew Fitzroy about me?’ Her voice was very faint.

  ‘Yes,’ he instantly admitted talking to Peter Dunbar’s predecessor.

  ‘I—And what did he tell you?’ She moistened stiff lips.

  ‘Nothing detailed,’ Lyon assured her derisively. ‘After all, he had a patient’s confidence to think of.’

  ‘It sounds very much to me as if he forgot all about that!’ she returned angrily.

  ‘He understood that the family were concerned about you—’

  ‘You are the family!’ she glared.

  ‘God, Shay, I’m not going to keep arguing with you about everything and nothing!’ he rasped. ‘Your doctor, quite rightly, warned of the possibility of miscarriage. And because of that possibility I didn’t tell you about the attempts on the lives of members of the family. Now you can say what you like about the rights and wrongs of that decision, but it will ultimately make no difference to the outcome. If you want to argue choose some other time,’ he snapped. ‘I’ve had enough for one day!’

  She had become so used to his arrogant determination where she was concerned, his mockery, his anger, that his coldness now came as something of a shock to her. It was also evidence of just how weary he was.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said abruptly. ‘But you must realise what a shock all this has been to me.’

  ‘I’d like to sympathise with you, Shay,’ he sighed. ‘But I’ve been worried by it and shocked by it for months, not hours!’

  She blushed at his intended rebuke. ‘Maybe you should learn to share your problems, Lyon,’ she bit out scornfully.