The Girl From Summer Hill

by Jude Deveraux

  “But we never talk,” Gizzy said. “Just plain talk. He looks so pleased when I do something like swing from a rope and land in the middle of a pond that I do it again and again. I love the physical and it’s great that Jack can keep up with me, but sometimes I want to be still. I want to tell him what’s inside my mind. Do you have the same problems with Tate?”

  “No.” Casey didn’t say that everything with Tate had been perfect. She had no complaints at all. He was caring, concerned, an unselfish lover. She could talk to him about anything and he always made her feel better. He—

  “Is there any more of this?” Gizzy held up her empty glass.

  “Sure.” Casey went to the kitchen to get the blender out of the fridge.

  “I don’t like hearing that you and I were considered temporary,” Gizzy said from the doorway, “but it’s okay. Jack and I would have broken up anyway. I need more than just the physical side of a relationship.” She paused. “Casey, I’m going to leave Summer Hill. I don’t know where I’m going yet, but somewhere. I may go back to school to get a license to become a personal trainer. I think…”

  When Casey looked up, she saw that Gizzy was crying. She set the blender down and went to put her arms around her.

  “I’m lying,” Gizzy said. “Jack was great. I could have tied him to the bed and made him listen to me, but I didn’t. He’s a movie star, but I’m just a—”

  “You’re beautiful.” Casey meant to stop her from saying anything bad about herself.

  Pulling away, Gizzy grabbed a tissue from a box by the cookbooks. “Fat lot of good it does me! Every man in this town is afraid of me.”

  “The firemen love you.”

  “Only because I can slither inside skinny spaces.”

  “I think it’s the slithering that they like to watch.”

  Gizzy sniffed. “Don’t make me laugh. How are we going to do this play with Jack and Tate?”

  “I don’t know,” Casey said. “I really and truly don’t know.”

  The two of them ended up crying and hugging and saying that at least they’d learned something. But that was poor compensation for the loss of the two beautiful men they’d come to care about.

  Casey had been able to contain her anger about what she’d found out until Tate showed up after his trip. She was like a steam kettle ready to explode. When she first saw him, pure happiness went through her. He was standing in the fading light and looked like he was very glad to see her. For a split second, she wanted to dive through the screen door and go to him. Throw him to the ground and tear his clothes off.

  But he got to her before she could move. His arms around her felt so good, and the electrical charge between them made her body hum. For a few seconds she forgot all the terrible things that she’d learned about him.

  Then he opened his mouth. Out of it came orders and demands. Everything Casey had heard from Rachael seemed to be in his words. He wanted her to change her life for him, give up all she knew and loved to go to the other side of the country to be at his beck and call. After she had a makeover, that is.

  The anger and outrage inside her erupted, and she told him what he could do with his demands.

  In an instant, his face had gone from happiness to…to nothing. It was like looking at a photograph. He showed no emotion whatever. Not anger or sadness, not even disappointment. Just blank.

  After he left, she again talked to Gizzy and they strengthened their resolve to stay away from the men. If they hurt like this now, what would it be like if they continued?

  One thing they agreed on was to say nothing about what had happened. If they told even one person about the publicity stunt, it could become local gossip. From there it could go nationwide. The last thing they wanted was some scandal bringing the press to their small town. They didn’t want the play tainted with the dreadful news.

  Keeping quiet hadn’t been easy for Casey. But she said nothing to her mother or to Stacy or to Olivia. She did her best to smile and act as if nothing had happened.

  She didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts, so she baked. Pies, cookies, cupcakes, a six-layer salted-caramel cake. She delivered everything to the crew at the gazebo. When they couldn’t eat even half of it, her father, Dr. Kyle, took it to a homeless shelter.

  “Are you okay?” he asked Casey.

  “Sure. Fine. Nothing is wrong with me. How are you? How’s the new doctor?”

  “Jamie’s good. There are problems, but…” He shrugged. “If you need to talk to someone, I’m always here.”

  “Thanks, but I really am fine. I have to go and…uh, rehearse.”

  “Sure,” he said.

  The rehearsals were bad. Jack looked as if he hadn’t slept in days. Casey saw him and Gizzy talking, but when Gizzy walked away from him, Jack looked like he might cry.

  Casey had no mercy. Actors! she thought. Who knew when their emotions were real?

  One day, Kit told Casey to rehearse with Tate. It was the scene where Darcy says the ladies want to show off their figures.

  “There are only ten yards of fabric in this dress,” Casey said. “I hope it’ll fit around my hips.” Everyone on the stage stopped and stared at her.

  Kit ran his hand over his face. “Deliver me from young love.”

  “What would you know of it?” Olivia’s voice held an extraordinary amount of anger.

  After that, the day went downhill.

  Tate and Jack pulled back into shells of coldness, never letting anyone see beneath the surface.

  Casey and Gizzy had trouble concealing their anger, and when they spoke their lines, some of the hurt and fury they felt could be heard and seen.

  “You’re supposed to be in love with him!” Kit shouted at Gizzy about her scene with Jack/Bingley.

  Her reaction was to walk off the stage, and Casey went after her.

  Kit threw up his hands in frustration. “Take a break,” he shouted. “Eat some of the hundred and fifty cakes and pies Casey baked.”

  The only person smiling was Olivia.

  Casey ran back to the guesthouse, which had become her sanctuary, her hiding place. She didn’t venture out except for rehearsals and necessary errands. No more wandering about the grounds, searching for fruit-bearing plants. She was too afraid she’d see Tate. Or Jack. Or the well house.

  She made three meals a day for Tate and Jack and delivered them in a cooler. Only once did she see Tate. He was sitting alone at the table in the breakfast room and he looked as unhappy as she felt.

  Probably acting, she thought, and turned away before he saw her.

  Twice, Devlin had approached her. Maybe it wasn’t fair, but she couldn’t bear the sight of him. She wished she could feel some sympathy for him. After all, he seemed to have been thoroughly used as Tate Landers made his way to the top. Devlin’s career, his marriage, seeing his beloved daughter, all of it had been taken from him in his ex-brother-in-law’s ferociously ambitious pursuit of a career.

  But even though it made no sense and wasn’t at all fair, Casey didn’t want to see Devlin, or talk to him, or even be on the same stage as he was. Before he showed up with his friend Rachael, Casey had been sublimely happy. In one seemingly innocent picnic, it had all changed. Laughter with Tate, telling him secrets about her life, kissing, making love. When she’d been with him, she’d felt more alive than she ever had before. But now all of it was gone, never to be found again.

  Maybe it wasn’t fair to blame Devlin, but she did. She just wanted to stay far away from Tate and Devlin. The anger, the vindictiveness, between those two men was not something she wanted to be part of.

  Devlin seemed to understand, because after the first couple of days he kept his distance. He became quieter, almost as though he regretted that he’d been the cause of so much turmoil. Casey often saw him going over lines with young Lori, leaning over her in a fatherly way. It was as though he’d become a mentor to her.

  Casey couldn’t help thinking that young Lori was having a good effect on Devl
in. The girl was a favorite with everyone. She was so quiet, never complaining, always with a book in her hand. In spite of being very pretty, she seemed almost mousy—until she got onstage, that is. Then it was as if a magician waved a wand and Lori went into character. She didn’t just play Lydia but became her.

  Lori had lightened everyone’s bad mood when they most needed it.

  One day when Dr. Kyle was late, Kit went into the garden to take a phone call. While everyone was standing around grumbling, Lori stepped forward and loudly said, “I’ll play Mr. Bennet.” She looked at Olivia. “Really, my dear,” Lori said in a deepened voice, “can you not see that Mr. Collins is an odious little man? Too unlovely for Jane, too stupid for Elizabeth.”

  The lines weren’t in the book or the script, and everyone was bewildered.

  Only Olivia understood, and she stepped forward. “Ah, well, then, shall we package Lydia and present her to him? Perhaps roll her in the second-best rug?”

  Lori seemed thoughtful as she reached to the fake fireplace and pantomimed removing a pipe. As she lit it and began puffing, she seemed to be thinking hard. “Lydia is too full of life, too exquisitely beautiful, and much too intelligent to be hidden in a rug.”

  Since Lori was playing Lydia, the spectators let out a muffled laugh.

  “I agree,” Olivia said. “It would be a shame to conceal hair the color of sunlight for even a moment.”

  More laughter escaped since Olivia was as blonde as Lori. “Perhaps Kitty?”

  Lori puffed on her imaginary pipe. “Kitty is young, silly, and oblivious to the outside world.”

  At the side of the stage, the high school girl playing Kitty was tapping away on her phone, unaware of anything going on around her. The crowd quit trying to hold in their laughter.

  “Then,” Olivia said, “oh, wise husband, perhaps Mary. With her books, she could be a match.”

  “No,” Lori said thoughtfully as she looked around at the people on the stage. “I have decided who will marry Mr. Collins and will have this house that is my very soul. The house that is the source of all this beastly marriage rumpus.” Lori took a long breath, then whirled around and pointed at the woman playing Hill, the overworked servant of the Bennets.

  In real life, the woman was about forty-five years old and was doing the play only because her children had nagged her into it.

  “Hill, you are my great love!” Lori said loudly. “And the house will be yours!”

  The woman—the only one onstage who was sitting down—said, “Only if Darcy comes with it.”

  There was an explosion of laughter that didn’t end until Kit came back on the stage.

  After that little episode, Lori was everyone’s favorite.

  Other than that one bit of lightheartedness, the rehearsals were unpleasant and they continued to be for nearly a week. By the end of it, Kit and Olivia were hardly speaking. One morning Olivia was to work on the scene where her husband is teasing her. But Dr. Kyle was called out on an emergency and had to leave. Kit stepped in for the part.

  “Oh, Mr. Bennet,” Olivia said, “you have no feelings for my nerves.”

  “Your nerves,” Kit said softly, even seductively, “your words, your thoughts, your very breath, have been my companions these many years.”

  “If only I believed that!” Olivia snapped, and walked off the stage.

  It took Kit a few moments to recover, then he called for yet another break.

  Casey went to the guesthouse to prepare lunch to be delivered to Jack and Tate. When Josh stopped by, she gave him the cooler to take for her. If she could avoid going to the Big House, she did.

  Minutes later, he returned with a gift in his hand. It was the size of a shoe box and wrapped in shiny green paper with a pretty pink ribbon. “This is for you.”

  She gave it a quick glance. “I don’t want it.”

  “It’s not from the men. It’s from her.”

  Casey looked up from the pie dough she was rolling out. “Who is ‘her’?”

  “Tate’s sister.”

  “Then I definitely don’t want it.”

  Josh sat down on a stool. “You wouldn’t consider telling me what’s going on with you and Gizzy, would you?”

  “We broke up with some guys,” Casey said. “No biggie.”

  “You four, along with Kit and Olivia, are sabotaging a play that benefits charity, but it’s no big deal?”

  “Sorry.” Casey rolled the dough over her pin.

  “Casey!” Josh said loudly as he went to her. “Stop with the pies. You’re putting the local bakery out of business.” He put his hands on her shoulders and looked at her. “I understand that you and Tate had a falling-out. It happens. But I just met his sister and his little niece and they don’t deserve to be part of it.” When Casey was silent, he threw up his hands and stepped away. “Nina asked if you’d cook for them.”

  “Of course. Tate already asked. But…” Trailing off, she took a breath. “You’re right. I’m carrying this too far. I would be glad to cook for them.”

  Josh picked up the prettily wrapped gift. “Open it.”

  “I will.”

  “No,” Josh said firmly. “Open it now.”

  Reluctantly, Casey tore away the paper. Inside was a box filled with pink tissue paper. Buried in the middle was a little blue velvet case, the kind a ring came in. She dropped it back into the papers as though it were poison. “I’m not opening that.” She turned away.

  Josh picked it up and flipped the lid back. Inside was a small 128GB flash drive. “I have never seen an emerald this big!”

  “He’d better not—” When she saw what Josh was holding, she grimaced. “Cute.”

  “Where’s your computer? You’re going to see whatever is on here now.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Casey,” Josh said, “I don’t know what happened, but I do know there are two sides to every argument, and from what I’ve seen, you and Tate aren’t sharing info. His sister gave me this in private. My guess is that her brother knows nothing about it.” He waited until Casey was looking at him. “Sometimes a man doesn’t defend himself because he wants to keep his honor. I know that’s an old-fashioned concept, and forgive us men, but we still feel it. I once had a girlfriend accuse me of something I didn’t do. I walked away and let her think the worst about me rather than put myself on trial. When she found out the truth, she begged me to forgive her, but I couldn’t do it. I don’t want that to happen to you and Tate.”

  Casey took a breath. “I’m the one who can’t forgive.”

  Josh went to the door. “I’m going back to the set and I’ll tell everyone that you’re sick, that for the rest of the day you can’t rehearse or cook dinner or even take calls. I want you to swear to me that you’ll stay here and see whatever is on that drive. Will you?”

  She hesitated. Hearing what Rachael said had hurt a lot and she hadn’t yet come close to healing. To see more of the fight within that family, to get more involved, would deepen the wounds.

  On the other hand, maybe Josh was right and there was another side to what she knew. And besides, wasn’t she already buried up to her neck in all of it?

  “Okay. No pies, no tarts, no anything. I’ll watch all of it.”

  “Thanks.” He kissed her cheek, then left the house.

  As Casey wrapped the dough and put it in the fridge, she thought of half a dozen other things she could cook. Of course, she’d have to go to the grocery first. Maybe after that, she could look at the drive. But by then she’d need to…

  “Oh, hell!” She grabbed the flash drive off the island, went into the living room, and opened her laptop.

  At first she didn’t know what she was seeing. There were about twenty folders, each one containing documents, photos, and videos. She was glad they were numbered as to what order to open them.

  The first folder was labeled DEATH POINT, the name of Devlin’s TV show that Tate had ruined. As she watched clips from the episodes, she saw Devlin pla
ying a police detective—but he wasn’t the handsome man Casey had met. His eyes were red and he was unsteady on his feet. She could believe that Devlin was drunk or on drugs. Great acting! she thought.

  Rachael, playing his girlfriend, came into the scene and started talking to him earnestly, but it was as though she was unaware that he wasn’t at full capacity. Maybe that was part of the story, Casey thought.

  In the next clip, Devlin looked worse. Bleary-eyed, distracted, pausing between lines.

  It began to dawn on Casey that this was real. Devlin had played the role while he was high on something.

  There were eight clips, each worse than the one before. The last one was for the season finale, and poor Rachael was killed in it. In Devlin’s scene, where he was supposed to show grief, he seemed like he couldn’t wait to get away. The tears rolling down his cheeks looked as if they were from a bottle of eyedrops.

  Besides the clips from the TV shows, there were videos from the set. They appeared to have been taken on a cellphone. Three were of Devlin loudly arguing with crew members. One was of him groping Rachael’s backside and her telling him to go screw himself. It was clearly not a happy work environment.

  The videos were followed by documents. There were four jeering, laughing newspaper articles about Devlin Haines on the set of Death Point. Two TV Guide articles speculated on the future of the show. Would it be picked up for season two? Then came a notice saying the show had been canceled and that Devlin was going into rehab.

  The next documents were receipts for payments made to Long Meadow, a drug-rehabilitation clinic in Minnesota. They totaled a couple of hundred thousand dollars. The patient was Devlin Haines, and the man who paid the bill was Tate Landers.

  Casey got up and walked around for a while, trying to let what she’d seen sink in. This was completely different from what she’d been told!

  She sat back down and opened the next file. It contained papers from Nina and Devlin’s divorce. Casey felt that these things were none of her business, but she couldn’t stop. In return for hundreds of thousands of dollars, Devlin had agreed not to sue for custody of his daughter.