Double Dealing (2013)

by Cajio, Linda

  “Because it was a very interesting conversation, Jed.” Her smile felt frozen now. Maybe he hadn’t known about the conversation, but he still worked for Morrison. She had forgotten that all too often lately. His leaving now, and with such a flimsy excuse, proved that. She went on. “I think the thing that stood out the most was that your real job has been to talk me into selling to Atlantic—in any way possible.”

  “You believed him?”

  “Yes, at first,” she admitted, folding her arms across her chest. “Then I decided I wasn’t being fair not to trust you. So I gave you a chance to prove my trust wasn’t misplaced. You’ve certainly done that this past week.”

  “What chance, Rae?” he asked angrily. “You give me a lousy deadline that I don’t even know about to prove something in your damn mind because of a stupid phone call you don’t tell me about, and you call that trusting me?”

  “I thought that actions would speak louder than words.” Her voice cracked for an instant. She inhaled, then added, “I was wrong.”

  He glared at her. The fury in his hazel eyes was easy to read. “Dammit, Rae! The man says something totally stupid and out of line, and you believe him rather than me.”

  “What was I supposed to believe?” she snapped, feeling the tears push against her eyelids. “That you’ve been actively looking for another site? You never meant to find one, did you? You were just stringing me along until I was pliable, weren’t you? You’ve been playing on my … emotions, and now this ‘leave of absence’ is just your way of easing out gracefully while I still trust you. I’ve known all along what you’ve been up to, Jed, and your boss only confirmed it!”

  He brushed past her and strode toward the door. After opening it, he turned around. “Don’t be so self-righteous, Rae. You hopped into my bed fast enough. What were you after? Sex with the gardener’s boy?”

  He couldn’t have hurt her more if he had slapped her in the face. She stared at him, then lifted her chin and lied.

  “Yes.”

  He slammed the door behind him.

  Thirteen

  Tuesday morning, Jed walked very calmly into Henry Morrison’s office and dropped a pile of papers on the desk.

  “Here’s your damn site,” he said coldly. “Cheaper and better than the Barkeley estate ever would have been. By the way, I quit.”

  “Jed!”

  He turned around and strode out the door.

  “If I may say so, miss, you have surpassed Mr. Merriman for foolish stubbornness.”

  “Burrows, please,” Rae murmured, continuing to gaze at the stock market quotes on her computer screen.

  “Going to your house in New York for nearly two weeks,” he continued, ignoring her, “and never a word …”

  She let his voice drone on, rather than bother telling him she’d already lectured herself sick. Besides, it would take more energy than she possessed to try and dissuade him. The only good thing about her time in the city was that she had regained enough control to function like a robot.

  Almost from the moment Jed had stormed out of her house, she had known she was wrong. She had hurt him terribly. At the thought of his “leave of absence,” she turned all her fears into accusations, and he retaliated with one of his own.

  Feeling her throat begin to tighten, she swallowed in an attempt to quell the feeling.

  Just as she had been unjustified, so had he. Her pride and her pain had been riding her like twin devils by the time she realized that. Foolish stubbornness, Burrows had called it, and he was right. With one little word, she had been very foolish and very stubborn. If she had only answered him differently when he accused her of just having sex with him, he never would have walked out the door. But she hadn’t, and he had.…

  The telephone rang, cutting off her thoughts and Burrows’s words.

  Grateful for the interruption, Rae grabbed for the receiver before the butler could. Hoping against hope that it would be Jed, she picked it up.

  “Hello?” she said, giving Burrows a tiny smile of false apology.

  “Rachel? Is that you?”

  The voice was very faint, but all too familiar. In shock, she exclaimed, “Uncle Merry! Where … Are you still in Nepal?”

  “Where else would I be, dear child?”

  “I mean … I thought there wasn’t a phone at the monastery,” she sputtered, astonished to hear his voice.

  “There isn’t. But it would seem things do change in fifty years. The government finally installed a line to the village headman’s house last year. I just thought I would call to let you know that I arrived safe and sound.”

  “Do you know all the trouble you’ve caused?” she nearly shouted, as she realized that she could finally vent her anger on the proper person. “That business with Atlantic Developers—”

  “Calm down, dear child. It was just a little mix-up.”

  “Hardly!”

  “Really? The lawyers should have had it straightened out by now. I can’t see any reason for a hullabaloo. Surely with Jed handling the transaction for his company …”

  To Rae’s surprise, she suddenly felt fat tears rolling down her cheeks. She tried unsuccessfully to gulp them back and muttered, “Dammit, Merry.”

  “I beg pardon, but did you say something? There’s some static on the line.”

  A sudden crackling reached her ears. She sniffled and raised her voice. “I said, ‘dammit’!”

  “Are you crying, child?”

  “Yes, I’m crying.”

  Burrows thrust a handkerchief under her nose. She took it and wiped her eyes. “First, you made a mess, then I made a mess. Jed—”

  “How is the lad?” Merriman asked, breaking in.

  She caught back a sob. “I don’t know.”

  “What the hell do you mean you don’t know?” he demanded from halfway across the world. “Haven’t you seen him? Talked to him?”

  “I’m trying to tell you about it!”

  “Oh.”

  Taking a deep breath, Rae informed her uncle of everything that had happened since he’d left for his retirement. She didn’t spare herself. As a last note, she added, “I was a fool, Uncle Merry. A complete and total fool. Much as I would love to blame you for starting it all, I was the one who lost Jed.”

  “I don’t under … Where was Burrows during all this—”

  “What does Burrows have to do with it?” she asked, glancing in confusion at the stone-faced butler. “Believe me, I didn’t need any help messing up my life.”

  “Well, of course. I just meant that Burrows is usually a wealth of information on matters of the heart. He’s a pain in the rear end, but I do have to admit that he does have a romantic nature.” Rae stared at the subject in question, trying to find a Joan Wilder under the butler’s stoic exterior. “If you had gone to him, he might have given you the benefit of his insight.”

  “He did try,” Rae admitted, remembering Burrows’s observations. “But I had my own stupid ideas.”

  “I’m sure all is not lost, Rachel.” Merriman chuckled. “What you need to do is to regain some of your Barkeley backbone. Just go after Jed and beg his forgiveness. It’s easy.”

  “But I said the most horrible things to him—”

  “In the heat of the moment, dear child. You can’t be held responsible for your actions. I’m sure he’ll forgive you.”

  She didn’t bother to tell her uncle how many times she had picked up the phone to apologize to Jed, and how each time she’d hung up before dialing. She knew no apology would outweigh her accusations.

  “It’s not that easy,” she began, while wiping away fresh tears. Lord, she thought, she’d never felt so emotionally drained.

  “You’ll work it all out, dear child,” her uncle said optimistically. “The temple bell is ringing to call the monks in to prayer, so I must go. If Burrows is handy, might I speak with him for a moment?”

  “Of course.”

  She handed the receiver to Burrows, and needing to be alone, she got
up from her chair and left the room. She wandered across the hall and into the drawing room. Even though the furniture had been rearranged, memories of the night she and Jed had made love for the first time flooded her mind.

  Spinning on her heel, she tried to think of a room that wouldn’t haunt her with some image of Jed, and realized there was none. It had been a mistake to come back to the estate, she thought. Since she’d arrived yesterday, she had been constantly reminded of Jed. There wasn’t a place she could go without feeling pain and guilt stabbing at her.

  With a silent curse, she tightened her hands into fists. Damn this house! It had always been the obstacle between them. She had been fighting for her heritage, and Jed had been fighting for his career. Now the house would always be a symbol of what she had won … and lost.

  She couldn’t go on like this, she thought frantically, as a kind of blind panic welled up inside her. There had to be something she could do that would get him back, and it had to be something so perfect that he would know that she did love him … and did trust him. Something that would absolutely and totally convince him …

  She nearly jumped out of her own skin when she realized exactly what that something was.

  “There you are, miss,” Burrows said, coming out of the library. “I—”

  “Did Uncle Merry finally hang up?” she asked, rushing past him into the room.

  “Yes, miss.”

  “Great. I have a very important call to make.”

  “It is good of you to receive me, sir,” Burrows said.

  Jed hesitated for a bare instant, then took the butler’s hand and shook it. “It’s good to see you again. Please sit down.”

  Nodding, Burrows perched himself on the sofa. Jed took a seat across from him in a stuffed rocker and smiled as the older man looked around the living room. He admitted that his furnished condominium was more a place to hang his suit jacket, and it looked it.

  “Would you like a drink?” Jed asked. “Coffee? Tea?”

  “No, thank you, sir,” Burrows said. “I have come about Miss Rachel, sir.”

  “That wasn’t hard to figure out,” Jed said, leaning back in the rocker. What he couldn’t figure out was why he had even agreed to see the man in the first place. Every time he’d thought of Rae pain had festered, and he wanted it to keep festering. Maybe that was why, he thought. There was a perverse pleasure in just hearing about her.

  Nodding, Burrows cleared his throat. “Before I say anything further, I must request that she never be told of this conversation. She has no idea I have come to see you, and, frankly, sir, I am committing a horrible breach of etiquette. But I felt it was extremely important.”

  Jed dipped his head once to show his agreement to the request.

  Burrows continued. “Although a butler is not supposed, in essence, to see or hear anything of his employer’s personal life, I am aware that there has been a rift between you and Miss Rachel.”

  “And?” Jed said impatiently. If Burrows thought he was going to make some kind of reconciliation, he was wasting his breath.

  “I readily admit that whatever has occurred is your business and hers. I have no wish to interfere there. However, Miss Rachel has done something that I think is also your business—”

  “Is she pregnant?” Jed demanded, sitting upright. The thought had come from nowhere, but now it left a hollowness in the pit of his stomach. “You said she did something. My God! She didn’t—?”

  “No!” Burrows exclaimed vehemently, clearly understanding. “No, sir, nothing like that. I have no idea if she is even … with child.”

  Jed felt relief and disappointment run through him at the same time. Suddenly restless, he left the chair and began pacing the living room. “Well?”

  “What I was attempting to say, sir, is that I feel you have a right to know that she placed the estate in the hands of a realtor, two days ago.”

  Stunned, Jed turned in midstride. “Placed the … she’s selling the house?”

  Burrows nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  “After all I went through to save it for her!” Jed half shouted, slamming a fist into the nearest object—a floor lamp. He ignored it as it crashed to the ground. “She can’t do that! Dammit, it was … she only cared … what the hell …!” Realizing how incoherent he sounded, he returned to the rocker and flopped down in it. “But why would she do that? She loves that place. Why, Burrows?”

  “That is the oddest part, sir. She won’t say why. She is very willful and determined, though.”

  “But what about you?” Jed asked, as the question suddenly came to him. “And the dogs? And Harvey? What about all of you?”

  “She says we shall all move back to her house in New York.” Burrows gave a tiny shudder. “I am fond of a quiet life, but I will not leave her service now. I suspect the dogs and the spider will adjust more easily than I shall. Dogs are happy anywhere, so long as they have their master’s affection. I doubt the spider will care.”

  “Have there been any offers for the place?” Jed asked almost absently, as his mind churned with confusion. “Was Atlantic one of the calls?”

  “I could not say, not being privy to whom the realtor had interested in the estate. I have managed to put them off, so far. I don’t think Miss Rachel has realized that she hasn’t answered the telephone in two days. I would have come sooner, but I had to wait until she was out of the house. She is visiting her mother this afternoon.” Ruefully, Burrows shook his head. “I am hoping, sir, that you can do something to stop her.”

  Jed pressed his fingers to his temples and muttered, “I need to think.”

  She was selling the estate. The words ran through his mind like a litany. She had defended her home against him. She hadn’t trusted him with it. Now, when everything was over, she was selling. Why? Why now?

  He had worked like a madman to prevent the deal with the estate from ever entering Henry Morrison’s head again. Even if Henry had heard it was suddenly on the market, he doubted if his former boss would touch it now. It would appeal to Henry’s nature to have the complex sitting right across the river from the Barkeley home.

  After storming out of her house, he had spent the weekend tracking down the right people in an effort to investigate and secure the park as the new site. He had done it, too. A small portion of the park had been rezoned shortly after Atlantic’s first inquiry months ago. It seemed that the company’s interest—however short-lived—had spurred the county government to reconsider the opportunity for additional revenues. He negotiated a terrific deal and dropped it all on Henry’s desk, along with his resignation. Henry had begged him to come back, too, and there had been other job offers. Gratifying as they were, he had never felt so damned self-righteous in his life as he had at having proved Rae wrong. He’d been living on the feeling ever since.

  There had been times, though, during the past several weeks, when he began to wonder if he’d asked too much of her, but he immediately suppressed the thoughts. All she had ever cared about was the estate, and she had made that painfully clear.

  Now she was selling. Why give up the only thing she had wanted all along? Obviously, something had happened to cause her change of heart.…

  Jed jumped out of the chair and demanded, “Burrows, does Rae know that Atlantic bought the park property?”

  “The park? The one on the other side of the river?”

  “Yes, that one.”

  The butler swallowed visibly. “Your condominium complex will be right across from the estate?”

  Jed nodded, hoping the answer was the one he needed.

  “Heaven forbid,” Burrows muttered, closing his eyes. He opened them. “Since I did not know, I doubt very much that Miss Rachel does.”

  So she wasn’t selling because of the view, Jed thought, as a huge grin spread across his features. For all she knew, she was opening herself to lawsuits galore from Atlantic. Although Burrows claimed to have come in secret, Rae must have been aware that Jed would eventually hear about th
e sale. In fact, he’d bet his last dime on it. The sale was her way of saying that she loved him. What it must have cost her to do such a thing! Actions did speak louder than words, he decided. They could say quite a lot.

  “You say she’s at her mother’s?” Jed asked, as he mulled over several actions he could take. Whatever he did, it would have to be damn good to match hers.

  “Yes, sir.” Burrows stood up. “This all means something to you, doesn’t it?”

  Jed laughed. “Obvious behavior, Burrows. Now I have to be just as obvious, and I’ll need your help.”

  “Alicia must have misunderstood the boys,” Vivian Barkeley said, as she walked arm in arm with her daughter to the front door.

  “I don’t know where they get these things,” Rae replied with a straight face. “Me kidnap some man?”

  “I told Alicia the same thing, dear.” Her mother opened the heavy oak door. “But you know Alicia; she’s very excitable.”

  Her sister-in-law was a pain in the tush, Rae thought, stepping out onto the front patio of the sprawling Main Line house. Alicia was a gossipy snob, but Rae cursed herself for not swearing her nephews to secrecy. Still, her mother didn’t have to know.

  “Why don’t you come over for lunch on Sunday, Mom?” she asked, turning to face her mother.

  Before Vivian could answer, a car roared up the U-shaped drive and screeched to a halt in front of the house. It was the antique Rolls.

  Rae stared in amazement as Jed scrambled out of the front passenger seat. Fearing something horrible must have happened, she ran to him. “Did something happen? Is someone hurt?”

  “Nope.” He grinned at her, resting one arm on the top of the open car door. “But you’re about to be kidnapped.”

  “Kidnapped!” Rae and her mother exclaimed at the same moment.

  Before Rae could move, he reached out and very calmly hoisted her up onto his shoulder. Shocked and disoriented, Rae suddenly found herself with a bird’s-eye view of his rear.

  She braced her hands on his backside and pushed herself up enough to angle her head. “You can’t be serious, Jed! Now what is this really all about?”