“Time’s going, team,” Todd urged, his eyes glued to Dash.
“Love sonnets,” Lotus breathed, making Dash beam. “Shakespeare’s love sonnets.”
Dash nodded, sat down beside her, and lifted her hand to his lips.
“Ooooo, I love stuff like that,” Lee said as she watched him. She sat on the other side of Lotus. Lord, coz, you should have him cloned.”
Lotus inhaled and gave her cousin a vague smile. “Now it’s my turn.” Lotus’s father stood and took one of the folded papers. “I hope I can do this.”
As the game progressed, the names became increasingly hard. The sides were almost even after an hour, but the game showed no sign of abating.
Lotus was delighted with the way her uncle seemed to sparkle and how eagerly he would whisper things to her aunt. There was no doubt he was having fun. “Lee, look at him.”
“I know it. I wish we had thought of something like this before.”
Lotus nodded.
“Lotus doll, pay attention,” Rob called to her. "Lee, it’s your turn.”
“Yes, great and mighty one.” Lee jumped to her feet, grabbing one of the folded papers from the dish. “Oh, no, this is awful.”
“No talking.” Will laughed at her.
Lee grimaced, but started to make signs anyway. “First word is shake,” Lotus guessed.
“No.” Lee glared at her, gyrating again.
“Stop talking,” Rob said to both girls.
“Crab,” Lee muttered, then started moving again, not only with her body but with her hands as well.
“Merry-go-round,” David Sinclair said.
Lee jumped up and down and nodded.
“Lee, for heaven’s sake, help us. Do something. Don’t just stand there, nodding your head and clasping your hands.”
Lee glared at her brother.
“Wooden horses,” Lotus offered, earning a scowl from her cousin.
“Do more. Do more,” Lela urged her daughter.
“Mother, I’m trying,” Lee huffed.
“Stop talking,” Rob and Will said at the same time.
“Carousel,” Dash guessed.
“Yes.” Lee looked relieved to sit down.
“Dash, that was good,” Lotus told him, so very proud of him.
The game got hot. There were some disagreements among the brothers and cousins.
“Look at those fools,” Lee whispered to Lotus, glancing at her brother and her cousins. “You would think tomorrow’s breakfast was on the line.” She looked at Todd and Will, who were huddling in agitated whispers.
“Lee, get over here. You’re on our team.” Rob gestured to his cousin to join Jeremy and him.
“Coming, oh, great one.” Lee salaamed and rolled her eyes at Lotus, who laughed.
When Lotus was through marking her square of paper with the title of the Hindu book, Kama Sutra, she had a chance to watch the others. Uncle Silas was doing his with Aunt Lela’s help. Mother was biting the end of her pencil. Todd and Dash had their heads together. She frowned at them. What were they doing? They seemed too serious for a silly game, she mused. She was about to rise
and go over to them when Todd turned around and looked over at his brother and Jeremy.
“We’re ready.” Todd had a zealot’s gleam in his eye. “Everyone should initial his work, so that we know whose work we’re doing.”
“Bull. I never heard of such a thing,” Rob said inelegantly.
“Neither have I,” Lotus concurred.
Todd glared at her. “You’re on our team, sis.”
The game was begun after many fits and starts, and small points of order from both sides.
The Sinclairs do everything the hard way, Lotus thought, then she was heart and soul in the fight.
Noisy and raucous, the game would have gone on all night, except that Uncle Silas tired. There was much arguing and rehashing of things done, hen it was time to leave.
Lotus was yawning by the time she and Dash reached her house, but she insisted on walking him to his car to kiss him good night. It struck her that he seemed more than anxious to leave, which rankled her. Visions of gorgeous women waiting for him in the foyer of the Strathallan rose in her mind.
She went upstairs to sit on her bed and stare at the wall, not able to quash the thoughts of Dash with other women. “Damn him,” she groaned aloud. “I know he loves me.”
Wide awake now, Lotus went down to the kitchen in the darkened house. She knew no one would be there. Rob and Jeremy had gone out, her mother and father were in bed, and she assumed that Todd must be with Rob and Jeremy. She was staring out the kitchen window to the road that ran behind the houses, not far from the
abandonedHojack railroad line, when she noticed that there was a car parked down the lane, not far from her uncle’s house. The headlights were out, but the interior light was on, showing shadowy figures in the auto.
Not too alarmed, Lotus put down her glass. There were few break-ins in their area. PAC-TAC, Police and Citizens Together Against Crime, was active in their area, and most people had watch dogs and alarm systems. Curiosity won over prudence, and she took off her slippers and pushed on old mocassins she had at the back door to wear to the beach and pulled a sweat jacket of her brother’s over her silky pajamas. Then she whistled to Bear, her brother’s mixed-breed dog, who would be more of a comfort to her as a companion than a threat to strangers.
She walked out of the house, cursing the squeak of the old wooden screen door that had just been put on for the summer. Her mother didn’t like the newfangled aluminum kind, so each year the old wooden one was dragged out of the loft in the garage and made ready for another summer season. “Come on, Bear. Look ferocious.”
Bear wagged his head and panted, looking more like a small friendly teddy bear than a dog.
“If you can’t look fierce, just throw a mean shadow,” Lotus mumbled as she went out the gate between the high cedar hedges to the narrow tarmac row that was an access for the homes along the shore.
The closer she came to the car, the more her hands shook. There were three people in the car! And they were reading something with a flashlight!
Lotus stopped, deciding that caution was the better part of valor when the light of the flash shifted to a face. “Will!” What was he doing in the back of a Mercedes? A Mercedes! That looked like the car that Dash had arranged to have at the airport!
She squinted, inching closer. That was Todd in the front seat with Dash! What were they doing? She marched up to the car and grasped the handle of the front seat passenger door. It wouldn’t open.
The window slid down. “Damn it, Lotus, I thought you were tired.” Todd was irritated.
"I should have known she’d sniff out something,” Will said from the backseat, slouching down into his lounging position again.
Dash got out from behind the wheel and gestured to her to come around the car. “Your skin is damp.” He kissed her cheek, then looked down when Bear growled at him. “Who’s your defender?”
“He’s a sweetheart.” Lotus felt gratified that Bear had done his work.
“Go home, Bear,” Will said, and rolled down his window. “Get in back with me, Lotus.”
“No. I’ll take her up front with me,” Dash told him, ushering her under the wheel to the middle of the bench seat of the Mercedes. He followed her back into the car, hooking his arm around her waist and pulling her close to him. “She’s chilled.”
“Am not,” Lotus said, then shivered.
“Don’t worry. She’s tough,” Todd said at the same time.
Dash folded her close to him, then nodded to Todd. “Go ahead. You said you thought you had recognized the handwriting on the folder. . .”
“Folder? Are you talking about the file I stole from Dash’s office . . . ?”
“Stole?” Todd and Will gasped in unison.
“Well, lifted, sort of . . . Lotus floundered.
“I’ll explain another time,” Dash told them. He turned to Lot
us. “I told your brother and Will about the file—and how we needed to match the handwriting. Todd thought it looked familiar. He suggested we do something that would require everyone’s writing ...”
“Charades,” Lotus guessed, wondering how Todd could suspect someone so close.
“Right. Stop interrupting.” Todd took a deep breath, ignoring it when Lotus poked him in the arm. “Then tonight when I kept all the pieces of paper ...”
“With the initials on them . . Lotus interjected, excitement in her voice.
“Do we have to gag you?” Will leaned over from the backseat.
Dash said nothing but he folded her even closer to his side, his chin on her head. “So you feel you have someone whose handwriting fits the file?” Todd nodded. “I sure didn’t want to believe it, but I think it fits. I brought some other samples of his writing from my briefcase and . . .
“Someone in our family?” Lotus pronounced in horror. “I don’t believe it.”
Will put his hand on her shoulder. “Neither did I, but I’m coming around to it . . .” His hand squeezed her. “And if I find out that my father went through this because someone we trusted . . .” “You’ll do nothing,” Dash interrupted, his voice like steel. “The police will be called and they’ll take it from there. My advice is that you, Will, stay away from the firm tomorrow. Let Todd handle it.”
“What are you saying?” Lotus whispered.
“Jeremy.” Will choked. “It’s his handwriting that seems to match the file. Dash called his people out in Las Vegas . . .”
“I called Hans. He has run an investigation of his own, and it seems that the man who called himself Sinclair had gray hair, but he was quite youthful-looking . . .” Dash paused, looking down at her stunned face. “One of the showgirls remembers him . . . without the wig.”
They talked some more. Lotus heard them say that it must have been a wig he wore because he couldn’t just dye his hair. She heard their words, but she wasn’t really listening. “Could he really have done that to Uncle? To all of us?”
“Honey, having gambler’s fever is every bit as deadly and addictive as being a heroin addict or an alcoholic,” Dash said in a low voice.
“That’s what they say,” Lotus answered listlessly. “I can’t believe I dated him . . . and never knew him.” She choked. “My God, what if I had been serious about him?”
“No chance. We were meant to find each other, angel,” Dash whispered in her ear. “I’m going to take her back to the house. Todd, I think you should handle this in the morning and as soon as possible.”
“I will. It won’t be easy convincing Rob. They were roomies at the university.”
“I’ll kill him.” Will pressed his hand to his eyes. “Willy, don’t.” Lotus got out of the car, then climbed into the backseat with her cousin. “Don’t be foolish. Uncle Silas couldn’t take that, could he?”
“No.” Will put his arms around her and pressed his face into her shoulder. “You did it. The rest of us knew he couldn’t have done it, but we didn’t do anything about clearing his name. You did that. I love you, little cousin.”
“Oh, Willy, Willy.” Lotus held him.
“Come on, sweetheart.” Dash edged her out of the car, then looked over the roof at her brother. “Maybe you should stay with him tonight.”
Todd nodded, then muttered something to his cousin, who got out of the car and walked with him toward his home.
Lotus leaned on Dash as he walked her home. “Will thanked me, but he should have been thanking you. Hans took a great deal of time to question so many people, and it was under your direction that it was done. Thank you.”
“I knew that you believed in your uncle. That was enough for me.”
“I don’t suppose you’d believe me when I tell you I love you.”
“I believe you, not just because you are a very truthful person but because I find that I have to believe that if I’m going to feel whole.”
“I will love you forever, probably.”
“Not just probably, I hope.” Dash kept his arm around her as they walked through the gate in the hedge. “Love, I know we have to stay here while this mess gets ironed out, but I believe the outcome will be ultimately a happy one. So ... I was wondering if you would like to marry me before we meet my family? What do you think of that?” Lotus was going to remind him that they were going to table any discussion like that, but when she looked up at his face, silvered by the moon and starlight, her heart thumped in rough cadence at the look of love on his face. “I think I would like to be married before we go to Boston, or is it Worcester where the fishermen are? Dash? What is it?” She stared at him.
His jaw felt paralyzed, his tongue and lips wouldn’t work. He had never felt so helpless in his life. She said she’d marry him. “Darling . . . he breathed, then swept her up into his arms so that she was high above his head. “Darling. I’ll call tomorrow and make the arrangements. Don’t change your mind.”
“No.” She leaned over him, feeling a shivery delight. Could something part them? She clutched him to her, letting her hair swing around his face.
No. I want to marry you right now.”
“God. How can I leave you tonight?” Dash groaned, his mouth moving over hers as though by touching her his life would be sustained.
“I think I’ll be taking cold showers too.” Lotus half laughed, half groaned, pushing back from him.
“I’ll be here as soon as I make a few calls in the morning. Will you prepare your folks or shall I? I don’t want anyone changing your mind.”
“I’ll tell them. Father will balk a little, but we’ll talk. Mother will listen to Father.”
With one last lingering kiss, Dash was gone. Lotus didn’t expect to sleep right away. She hugged her pillow to her, pretending it was Dash. Her eyelids drooped and she was gone.
She heard the voice before she opened her eyes and knew who it was. “Lee! What are you doing here?” She blinked open her lids to squint at her cousin who was crouched on the end of the bed.
“Is it true? Did you dear Daddy, Lotus? Oh, Lotus, he’s smiling this morning. He wants to see you. The police were here,” Lee chattered, her moist eyes shining with happiness. “I can’t believe the nightmare is over. Daddy says that if Jeremy clears out and repays the money, he won’t be prosecuted. I think they should throw him in a dungeon. Oh, Lotus.” Lee threw herself on the bed, hugging Lotus. “Hurry, get dressed. J.D. is here too.”
“What!” Lotus shot to a sitting position but Lee was gone.
She scampered into the bathroom taking a fast shower and shampoo, then scuttled back into the bedroom. She took the time to get out her best ultrasuede vest suit in pink with a pink silk blouse dotted in turquoise to match it. With the outfit she wore medium high leather slings that were almost the color of her hair.
She ran out of her bedroom and down the stairs, taking them two at a time.
“Whoa.” Dash caught her as she catapulted down the last steps. He held her and kissed her, then pushed her back from him so that he could look at her. “Lovely. You look wonderful in that color. I have something for you.”
“You do?” Lotus felt out of breath with him.
“Yes. Here’s part of it.” He pushed a filigreed gold ring on her finger, the gold swirled high around one very large round diamond. “Do you like it?”
“It’s beautiful. It looks old.” Lotus looked up at him, feeling the shimmer of tears in her eyes. “I do love it. Thank you.”
“Thank you for wearing it.” Dash kissed her again. “It belonged to my grandmother. She gave it to me after my divorce, and told me to find someone' to love.” He touched her lips with his index finger. “Now I know what she meant.” "Ahem.” Mrs. Sinclair coughed to get their attention. “I don’t want to interrupt.” She smiled at her daughter who was now in Dash’s embrace.
Lotus didn’t move from Dash’s arms. “Mother, we’re in love. We’re being married soon.”
‘Tomorrow. Here. By a judge
,” Dash stated softly.
“I wanted her to be married in a church,” her mother faltered. “But I want her to be happy too.” “I will spend my life making her happy, Mrs. Sinclair. I promise you that.”
“You must call me Mother then.” Lotus’s mother’s smile was tentative. “Or something like that.”
“I would be pleased to call you Mother,” Dash told her.
It delighted Lotus when her mother smiled and nodded. “I never expected it to be this fast.” Mrs. Sinclair laughed when Lotus looked puzzled. “I mean that I knew you would tumble into love all of a sudden, child, but you’ve surprised even me.” “Mother.” Lotus went to her parent and hugged her. “I do love him.”
“We should tell your father. My goodness we have so much news today.” Lotus’s mother paused and looked at her. “I must tell you, child, that neither your father nor I ever thought you were in love with Jeremy, but we did like him.” She looked sad for a moment. “Rob is very upset this morning.”
Lotus felt stricken as she hurried after her mother. She almost fell into the large country kitchen and ran straight to her brother, Rob, who stood in one corner of the large eating area watching her. She threw her arms around his neck. “None of us would have ever guessed it could be him.”
Rob sobbed into her neck, hugging her close. “God! I wanted you to marry him someday! I was sure he would make you happy.”
“We all liked him,” Lotus murmured, aware that the family was watching them, listening. “What will they do to him?”
Rob shrugged. “I saw to it that he had a lawyer. I don’t think the family wants to prosecute as long as Uncle Silas’s name is cleared and the money is repaid.” Rob sighed, his eyes sliding toward the window where a proud, male cardinal sang his heart out in the backyard. “It’s been a nightmare, Lotus.” He looked back at her. “I should have paid more attention when I gambled with him. I should have checked out his debts and I never did.”
“Robbie, don’t say that. I was stunned when Todd and Dash told ...”
“Dash? You mean J.D.?”
Lotus turned around and held out her hand to Dash.
He was at her side at once, taking her hand in his. “What is it, love?”
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