“I’ll go with you,” Sam said, easing out of Jake’s arms.
Charlotte shook her head and cupped a hand over her mouth. “No. I can do one thing by myself.” She ran from the room. Sam hurried to the doorway and watched her disappear into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. Sam turned shakily. Jake’s solid presence behind her—his hands on her arms, his determination to risk his own reputation for hers—slid through her veins like fire.
The unresolved argument strained his parents’ faces; Ellie looked calmer, but not happier. “You don’t want him to do this,” Sam said. “And if I hadn’t loved him since I was a little girl, I wouldn’t care about anyone’s future but mine and my sister’s. But I do love him, and that’s why I won’t make Mrs. Big Stick’s warning come true. I won’t tear this family apart.”
Jake’s fingers tightened slowly on her arms. “Clara came to see you?”
“Yes. She says I’m bad luck. I didn’t want to believe her, but I do.” She faced Jake. “It’s enough that you want to go with us. I’ll never forget that.”
“Listen to me. I won’t let anyone take you back to Alexandra, and I won’t let you try to run without me. If you try to leave with Charlotte again, I’ll only follow you. I’ve always found you, and I always will. Sorry, but you’re stuck with me.”
She made a garbled sound filled with anger and love and terrible conflict. Jake drew her against him and held her tightly again. She grasped his hands and shut her eyes, trying to think of some other way. Seconds dragged in silent grief.
“You’ll need money,” Dr. Raincrow said.
Her mouth open, Sam whipped around and stared at him. He was looking at Mrs. Raincrow, who swallowed hard and rubbed a hand over her eyes, then nodded. Ellie, her face a mask of worried contemplation, nodded too. “Let me drive up to town. I’ll use my instant teller card. I can get a couple of hundred dollars tonight. When I get back to school on Monday, I’ll clean out my account at the bank in Durham. If you and Mom withdraw a large amount of money from your bank in town, people will talk.” She looked at Jake. “Call me in a few days. I’ll send you the money.”
Sam was speechless. His family loved him enough to be part of this deception. To risk everything—to be ruined if Aunt Alex learned they’d aided the plan. “No,” she said desperately, pleading. “No, please—”
“I took care of it,” Charlotte said. She had returned while no one noticed. Misery crumpled her expression, but she seemed strangely proud. Her eyes darted to Jake. “I guess I never knew how much you love my sister, and how much she loves you. I can’t mess up your life. Aunt Alex would kill you, and then where would Sammie be? She’s never even looked at another guy.”
Sam could barely breathe. “What did you do?”
“I lied about having to go the bathroom. I saw a phone on the table in the hall, Sammie.” Her voice was ragged. “I called the sheriff’s office and told them where we are.”
Jake’s mood was black. Never in his memory had Alexandra been allowed in the Raincrow house. Charlotte’s well-intentioned intervention had left them with no weapon except words, and he was no damned good with words. He decided, simply and without remorse, that Sam and her sister would be taken from the house only over his dead body.
He placed himself beside Sam, who had an arm around Charlotte again. Sam gripped the back of his shirt with her other hand, and he sensed her fear—the fear that he would do exactly what he intended to do.
Mother had scooped the gold necklace into a drawer of a small lamp table at one end of the couch. Ellie stood near the table, and her troubled gaze went repeatedly to the drawer’s knob.
She met Jake’s shrewd eyes. She feels something I don’t feel, he realized suddenly. Why? She rested one hand on the table. To anyone else it would have seemed a casual gesture, but he recognized the inward, searching concentration in her eyes. She was listening for answers to some question.
“Let me do the talking,” Father warned one more time as Mother reluctantly opened the front door for the sheriff and Alexandra. She and Mother traded cold stares. Alexandra stepped into the living room, her face pale above the luxurious collar of a long fur coat dusted with snow. “What a nice family reunion,” she said acidly. “How kind of you to invite me.”
“You’re not family and you never have been,” Mother answered.
“Be that as it may.” Alexandra’s brittle attention focused immediately on Sam and Charlotte. “I don’t want to hear any explanations,” she said. “I blame myself for thinking the two of you could easily adjust to your mother’s death and to living with me. I should have realized that I hurt you by trying to take her place so quickly. I should have realized that my efforts—no matter how sincere—might seem overbearing to you.” She held out her hands. “But I thought you knew how much I love the two of you.” She turned gracefully toward the sheriff. “I’m sure they think I expect you to drag them back. But this is a family matter between my nieces and me; we simply need to talk for a minute, and then they’ll come with me. I’ll bring them home in my car. You can go now.”
The sheriff looked relieved. He twisted his broad-brimmed hat in beefy hands and nodded. “I figured this was no matter for the law, Mrs. Lomax. I’ll just—”
“It is a matter for the law,” Father said. “Because I’ve got a fifteen-year-old here who was sexually assaulted in Alexandra’s home.”
The sheriff gaped at him. Alexandra stiffened. Her hands dug deeply into her collar. She stared at Charlotte, who shivered violently but stared back. Alexandra pivoted toward the sheriff. “I assure you that’s not the case. I’ve heard my niece’s story, and I’ve determined it isn’t true. I’ve already contacted a psychiatrist who’ll help her sort out the emotional problems that led her to make it up.”
“That’s not how it was,” Sam interjected. “You threatened to put Charlotte in a mental hospital if she didn’t change her tune.”
The sheriff stammered incoherently, then said, “Mrs. Lomax, this is a serious thing. I can’t just walk out of here and pretend I never heard about it.”
“Oh?” Alexandra glared at him. “Neither can you pursue it with no more evidence than the claim of a troubled child. I’m trying to save you the public embarrassment of apologizing to the lieutenant-governor. I’m telling you there’s no need for that.”
The sheriff blanched. He shot a worried glance at Father. “Did you … take a look at her? She got any bruises or anything?”
“I haven’t had time to examine her,” Father admitted. “But I’ve questioned her enough to feel convinced she’s telling the truth.”
Sam leaned forward, straining against Jake’s hold on her shoulders. “It happened almost three weeks ago,” she said bitterly. “The bruises are gone. But she had marks all over her breasts.” Jake gritted his teeth. He felt desperate sorrow for Sam, who had to tell her sister’s intimate details to a stranger, and for Charlotte, who mewled with humiliation. Mother strode to Charlotte and put an arm around her. Charlotte seemed to hang inside her and Sam’s reinforcing grasp. “No one’s going to browbeat this girl anymore,” Mother said.
“You saw the bruises?” the sheriff asked Sam.
“Yes.”
“That’s not true,” Alexandra interjected, gazing at Sam as if Sam had disappointed her terribly. “Sam didn’t come to me with her sister’s story until yesterday. She told me she’d just heard it.”
Jake vibrated with fury. “She knows Charlotte didn’t lie. You’re the one who wouldn’t believe it. Wouldn’t believe Tim had groped his own cousin.” Her eyes flashed. She looked horrified, but beneath it was a lethal warning.
“Tim?” the sheriff repeated incredulously. “I thought y’all meant it was some fellow who works for Mrs. Lomax.” He shook his head. “I can’t see Tim hurting his own little cousin. He’s a grown man. Lord knows, he’s never lacked for attention from the girls his own age.”
Charlotte gasped. “I didn’t make it up. I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn
’t—”
“There’s no doubt in my mind that Charlotte’s telling the truth,” Mother announced. Her livid eyes bored into Alexandra’s. “You made Tim into a bully. You’ve deliberately tormented and humiliated him all his life. He takes it out on any helpless victim he can find. I blame you.”
“How convenient,” Alexandra answered. She dismissed Mother with a little jerk of her head and looked at the sheriff. “These people, as I’m sure you’re aware, will never be character witnesses for me or my son. They are, in fact, so interested in causing trouble for me that they’ll say anything and do anything.”
“Now, look,” the sheriff said, shifting from foot to foot and gazing at Father somberly, “Everybody knows there’s bad blood between you folks and Mrs. Lomax. It is gonna sound like you’re meddling in her business just to make a stink.”
Jake made a soft sound of disgust. “I’ve tracked about a hundred people for you,” Jake said tersely. “I’ve worked for you since I was in high school. You’ve said more than once that you can depend on me more than on your own deputies. And now I’m telling you that Mrs. Lomax wouldn’t admit that Tim mauled his own cousin if her life depended on it. I’m telling you she’s a goddamned liar.”
Sam’s hand tightened against his back. He felt her devotion like a warm tide. Father looked at him with a mixture of pride and rebuke. “Thank you,” Father said, “for choosing this moment to discover a gift for making speeches.”
The sheriff rubbed a hand over his sweaty brow and exhaled. “Jake, I can take one look at the bear hug you’ve got on Mrs. Lomax’s oldest niece and see you’re not talking with your brain in gear.”
“This is a ludicrous discussion!” Alexandra said. “I came here to take my nieces home, where we can work out our problems and get on with our lives. There’s no reason for me to listen to any of this nonsense. Charlotte is my legal ward and I will get help for her. Samantha, you’re old enough to do as you please, but I’m begging you to do what’s right. Don’t make me take Charlotte and leave you here. It would break my heart.”
Father raised his hands for silence. He leveled an unwavering gaze at the sheriff. “If you don’t get on the phone and call social services right now, I’ll do it. I’ve referred cases to them more times than I care to remember, and they know I don’t do it unless I’m certain. Every referral they’ve checked out has turned up true. They’ll listen to me.”
“I’ll get my husband on the phone immediately thereafter,” Alexandra countered. “And anyone foolish enough to take your charge seriously will be looking for a new job next week.”
The sheriff took a step back, his face flushed. He had wrung the shape out of his hat. “Hugh, you do what you have to do, but I got to let social services sort it out. In the meantime, Mrs. Lomax has the right to take her niece home with her.” He looked at Charlotte sadly. “Come on now, girl. Get your things. Nobody’s gonna hurt you. Come on.”
Charlotte drew back and gazed at Sam desperately. Sam shook her head. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Alexandra’s eyes flashed. “Samantha, don’t make this harder than it already is. It would kill me to have Charlotte hauled back to Highview like some sort of criminal. Don’t make me do that. I promise you, if you’ll persuade her to come home—and come with her—I’ll forgive both of you. We can start fresh.”
Sam shivered. Jake felt her hopelessness and seethed inside. “We’ll go,” she said slowly, “if you’ll admit right now, in front of everyone, that you believe her story. If you swear you won’t send her away. And if you swear that Tim won’t set foot in your house again as long as Charlotte and I have to live there.”
“You have nothing to bargain with,” Alexandra answered. “You stole from me. I’ll forgive that too.” She held out a hand. Suddenly Jake saw the slightest nervous tick beneath one of her eyes. “Return my necklace. Right now.”
Jake stepped in front of Sam and Charlotte. “You’re afraid of her. Afraid of me. I’m not drunk, like Uncle William was. I’m not standing at the top of the marble staircase. You can’t push me.”
Alexandra recoiled, one hand flying to her throat. She whirled toward the sheriff. “Do your job. I want my necklace and Charlotte. I’ll expect you to bring both to me tonight.” She strode toward the hall.
“Wait,” Ellie called. “Here it is.” Alexandra pivoted, her face strained, her eyes nervous and violent. Ellie leaned on the lamp table and jerked its drawer open. Her hand dove inside. There was a strange harmony about her swift movements. She clenched the pendant in her hand, the thick gold chain of the necklace dangling like a noose. Her eyes were half shut. She swayed. Her eyes widened suddenly, and her expression froze in amazement.
Alexandra lurched toward her. “Give it to me!”
“No!” Ellie grabbed the chain and swung it fiercely. Jake leapt forward to block Alexandra’s way. The heavy pendant made a glittering arc and struck the tabletop with a sharp crack of sound.
And popped open.
Jake halted, staring. Alexandra froze in place.
The unmistakable ruby gleamed in a bed of delicate white material. Ellie reached for it, her hand shaking, her face a mask of horrified fascination. Jake’s stomach twisted. Old dread and repulsion swept over him. Now he understood. The one thing he could not find, the one blank, self-protective part of himself. Ellie had sensed the stone now, just as she’d known when they were children that it wasn’t buried with Uncle William.
It’s mine. I’ll die for it. Ellie’s words that day came back to him, engraved in memories of what he’d seen when he’d touched the ruby, the memory that it was dangerous, that Uncle William had died because of what the ruby had told Jake all those years before.
Don’t, he demanded silently. He plunged his hand down to stop her, but she already had the stone between her fingertips. She rolled it in her palm and closed her fingers over it tightly.
“You stole from us,” she said, facing Alexandra. She opened her hand. The ruby gleamed like blood, its star winking in the light. Mother staggered forward and cupped her hands around Ellie’s. “Oh, my God. It is my ruby.”
Alexandra stiffened. Her head jerked up, and she watched them with unwavering dignity, but her lips were parted in a silent pant of alarm. Mother plucked the ruby from Ellie’s palm and faced her furiously. “My brother willed this to me, and you swore you’d buried it with him. But you’ve hidden it all these years. You’ve worn it. You’ve flaunted it. And now it’s come back to haunt you.”
Alexandra looked trapped. “Consider it returned to your care, then.”
Mother advanced on her, the ruby clenched in a raised fist. “You’re a thief, Alexandra. I should drag you into court and let the whole world hear how the lieutenant-governor’s wife cheated and stole from her first husband’s family. I’d love every minute of it.”
Alexandra backed away, holding up both hands. Mother moved toward her again, both fists raised. Father moved over quickly and thrust an arm between them. The sheriff seemed paralyzed by the drama. Mother pressed against Father’s outstretched arm and shook her fist at Alexandra. “But I’ll trade you,” Mother continued, speaking softly and with deadly calm. “I’ll show you more mercy than you ever gave William. This stone will finally accomplish some good. ’I’ll trade you,” Mother repeated. “My silence for your cooperation. You walk out of my house and leave these girls alone. Don’t even think about taking Charlotte with you—not now, not ever. Tell everyone you’ve decided to let her live with her sister. Tell them whatever you like. I don’t care. But don’t mess with me, or you’ll be sorry.”
Alexandra stood her ground, but the twitch below her eye grew worse. Fury and defeat seeped from her like invisible steam. “They are mine,” she protested. “My nieces. My flesh and blood. I’ve wanted only what’s best for them. Frannie knew that.”
“You killed her,” Jake said. “You squeezed her down to a shadow, until finally all she could do was disappear.”
Sam was suddenly beside hi
m, brilliantly controlled, her chin up and eyes unyielding. “My mother loved you. I wanted to love you too. But my mother never understood you the way I do.”
“You’re just like me,” Alexandra exclaimed. “You could be just like me. You’re ambitious, and smart, and strong. If you let these people turn you into some pathetic little nobody, you’ll regret it. You want what I want—the power, the money, the independence.”
“You don’t look real independent to me right now,” Sam answered. “You look desperate and lonely. I’ll never be like you.”
“Get out of my house,” Mother ordered.
Jake stepped closer. He met Alexandra’s blank, pitying stare. “You want Orrin to be governor. That’s more important to you than anything else. You won’t risk bad publicity.”
“I’m not finished with you. You may wallow in satisfaction for now, but in time, in time …” Her voice trailed off. “You don’t deserve my nieces,” she told Mother finally, her voice hoarse. Then, stronger, she said, “And someday they’ll come back to me on their own.”
She turned swiftly and walked out. The sheriff flailed his hat at thin air and followed her, his hands out. The front door slammed. Seconds later came the rumble of car engines.
The house seemed to be holding its breath.
Jake felt Samantha’s hand gripping his shirt in back again. She didn’t realize how much that contact affected him. Besides the obvious—that strong but shivering hold on him—he felt her shock and relief. All that mattered was not letting Samantha down the way it seemed just about everybody else in her life had.
Everyone stood without moving. Jake pretended to listen to the sound of the sheriff’s car following Alexandra’s up the long driveway to the Cove road. But he was secretly fixated on the ragged cadence of Samantha’s breathing.
“Are we safe?” Charlotte asked. “Can we really live here?”
“Yes,” Father answered. He took Mother’s raised fists and caressed them. She swallowed roughly. “She always had it. And she thought she’d always keep it.”
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