Midnight Secrets

by Janelle Taylor

  Table of Contents

  Cover Page

  Excerpt

  Other Books By

  Title Page

  Epigraph

  Dedication

  Acknowledgement

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Copyright

  DANGEROUS PASSIONS

  Steve gazed deeply into Ginny’s eyes and asked, “Is friendship all you want from me? I don’t think so.”

  “I honestly don’t know what I want from you, Steve.”

  “I know, and it’s trouble for both of us.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m not the settling-down kind. Look for a husband in Texas.”

  “I’m not searching for a husband, Steve, in Texas or here with you.”

  Steve bent forward and kissed her, pulling her tightly against him. Scorching heat licked over his body. He felt her tremble in his embrace. She was so warm and willing and eager with her responses. He knew it would be wonderful to teach her lovemaking, to experience it with her. But what would happen after she surrendered to him? Would she endanger his mission? Would she blind him to her possible involvement in his case?

  The intensity of Steve’s kisses and hunger, and that of her own, alarmed Ginny. Strange and powerful longings filled her, and she knew she would relish his fiery caresses as long as she dared…

  ZEBRA’S REGENCY ROMANCES DAZZLE AND DELIGHT

  A BEGUILING INTRIGUE (4441, $3.99)

  by Olivia Sumner

  Pretty as a picture Justine Riggs cared nothing for propriety. She dressed as a boy, sat on her horse like a jockey, and pondered the stars like a scientist. But when she tried to best the handsome Quenton Fletcher, Marquess of Devon, by proving that she was the better equestrian, he would try to prove Justine’s antics were pure folly. The game he had in mind was seduction—never imagining that he might lose his heart in the process!

  AN INCONVENIENT ENGAGEMENT (4442, $3.99)

  by Joy Reed

  Rebecca Wentworth was furious when she saw her betrothed waltzing with another. So she decides to make him jealous by flirting with the handsomest man at the ball, John Collinwood, Earl of Stanford. The “wicked” nobleman knew exactly what the enticing miss was up to—and he was only too happy to play along. But as Rebecca gazed into his magnificent eyes, her errant fiancé was soon utterly forgotten!

  SCANDAL’S LADY (4472, $3.99)

  by Mary Kingsley

  Cassandra was shocked to learn that the new Earl of Lynton was her childhood friend, Nicholas St. John. After years at sea and mixed feelings Nicholas had come home to take the family title. And although Cassandra knew her place as a governess, she could not help the thrill that went through her each time he was near. Nicholas was pleased to find that his old friend Cassandra was his new next door neighbor, but after being near her, he wondered if mere friendship would be enough…

  HIS LORDSHIP’S REWARD (4473, $3.99)

  by Carola Dunn

  As the daughter of a seasoned soldier, Fanny Ingram was accustomed to the vagaries of military life and cared not a whit about matters of rank and social standing. So she certainly never foresaw her tendre for handsome Viscount Roworth of Kent with whom she was forced to share lodgings, while he carried out his clandestine activities on behalf of the British Army. And though good sense told Roworth to keep his distance, he couldn’t stop from taking Fanny in his arms for a kiss that made all hearts equal!

  Available wherever paperbacks are sold, or order direct from the Publisher. Send cover price plus 50¢ per copy for mailing and handling to Penguin USA, P.O. Box 999, c/o Dept. 17109, Bergenfield, NJ 07621. Residents of New York and Tennessee must include sales tax. DO NOT SEND CASH.

  Midnight Secrets

  Janelle Taylor

  In memory of

  Roberta Bender Grossman

  my publisher and friend who passed away on March 13, 1992.

  I shall always remember this wonderful lady with admiration and affection and with gratitude for “discovering” me in April of 1981. Everyone who knew Roberta and was touched by her magic will miss her.

  Dedicated to:

  Rhonda Snider, who has been like an adopted daughter to me for years, and still is

  And, Angelia “Angie” Holloway Hogan, who also has been like an adopted daughter to me for years, and still is

  And, Taylor Hogan, Angie’s first child and the Taylor family namesake

  Acknowledgment and deep appreciation to the following individuals and staffs for their kind and generous help with research on this novel:

  Ms. Darlene Martin, Chamber of Commerce, Jacksboro, TX

  Ms. Judy Rayborn, Ft. Richardson State Park, Jacksboro, TX

  Staff of Fort Leavenworth Museum in Ft. Leavenworth, KS

  Pine Bluff Chamber of Commerce and Tour Center at Lake Village, AK

  Chamber of Commerce, Museum, and Library at McAlester, OK

  Welcome Centers at Kansas City, MO and Kansas City, KS

  Welcome Center and Battlefield Museum at Vicksburg, MS

  Museum at Fort Smith, AK

  Garden of the Gods Campground at Colorado Springs, CO

  People of Cripple Creek, CO (though I decided not to use their site)

  Missouri Department of Natural Resources/Division of Parks & Historic Preservation at Jefferson City, MO

  Welcome Center of AL

  Welcome Centers and Tourist Bureaus of Savannah and Columbus, GA

  The marvelous staff of the Augusta/Richmond County Library in Augusta, GA

  And,

  most of all, thanks to my husband, Michael, who made several long and rushed trips to videotape locations and to collect research materials.

  PROLOGUE

  March 13, 1867

  Savannah, Georgia

  “You aren’t going to die, Johanna Chapman; I won’t let you.”

  “You heard what the doctor said, Ginny; it’s too late.”

  “I won’t let it be too late; I’ll find a way to save you. I’ll get another doctor to treat you. He’ll make you well; you’ll see.”

  “We must face the truth, Ginny; I’m going to die, very soon. There isn’t much time. You must listen to me and do what I say.”

  “You aren’t going to die. You mustn’t talk. You need to rest to recover. Yesterday was strenuous for you, the move from the ship and the doctor’s examination. It can’t be your heart; you’re only eighteen. He’s mistaken.”

  “He said I have infection all through my body. That’s why I have this fever, why I have trouble breathing, and every part of me is failing.”

  Ginny recalled the physician’s grim words about Johanna’s condition. “He’s wrong about there being nothing we can do to get you well; there must be a medicine for what’s wrong with you.”

  Johanna took a ragged breath and shook her head of matted curls. “He said there isn’t. So did the doctor on the ship. There’s nothing anyone can do to make me well. I’ve been ill for weeks and I’m sinking fast. I’ve accepted my fate, Ginny, and you must do the same.”

  “In the six years we’ve known each other, Johanna Chapman, have I ever lied to you?” After the girl shook her he
ad, Ginny said, “You aren’t going to die. I’ll send for your father; he’ll know what to do.”

  “You can’t. I don’t want him to see me end up this awful way.”

  A tearful and frightened Ginny said, “We’ve come this far, Johanna, all the way from England to America. We can’t stop now; we won’t. We’ll make it to Texas as soon as you’ve recovered.”

  “You’re ignoring reality, Ginny, and that isn’t like you: I’m not going to get well, ever. I may only have a little while left.”

  Virginia Anne. Marston looked at the feeble young woman who had been her best friend, like a sister to her, for years. She couldn’t believe this tragedy was happening; she couldn’t allow it to happen. Yet, there was nothing she or medicine could do to save Johanna. They needed a miracle and had prayed for one, but her dear friend worsened every hour. With tears in her hazel eyes, she vowed, “No, I won’t believe that. I can’t.”

  “You have to go on to Texas and take my place. You must do what I was going to do. If Father’s guilty, you have to punish him for me and Mother.”

  “Don’t think or talk about that trouble today. You need rest. You must take the medicine the doctor left for you; it will ease your pain.”

  “I need a clear head to think; I don’t have much time left.”

  “Don’t give up, Johanna, please. Fight this illness.”

  “I don’t have any fight left in me, Ginny. I’m as weak as a baby. I can’t even tend or feed myself.”

  “Let’s talk tomorrow when you’re stronger.”

  “I won’t be here tomorrow. We have to settle this today.”

  “At least nap for a while. I’ll get you some hot soup. You hardly ate this morning or at the noon meal. You can’t get well if you don’t try.”

  “I’m not hungry, and I’m losing this battle fast. I want to spend my last hours talking with you. Don’t deny me that much.”

  Ginny felt as if each word was a knife in her heart. She wanted to be strong and brave for her best friend, but it was hard. “In a year, we’ll be discussing the doctor’s mistake over hot tea and scones.”

  “Don’t dream, Ginny; it isn’t fair to either of us. You must go to Father and pretend to be me. You must punish him.”

  “What if your father isn’t guilty?” She thought of their recent discovery of a hidden compartment in Johanna’s mother’s trunk filled with letters from Johanna’s father. It had also concealed money that had provided payment for their trip from England to America to reunite Johanna with her father and to aid Ginny’s search for hers. “Remember the letters we found in your mother’s trunk after she… passed away?” She watched in anguish as the girl struggled to speak between gasps for air and increasing exhaustion. She mopped beads of feverish perspiration from her friend’s face with a cool cloth. She witnessed torment in Johanna’s eyes and heard it in her voice.

  “If Mother lied about him betraying and discarding us, why didn’t Father contact me during all those years? Why didn’t he come after me or send for me? Why didn’t he fight for me? He abandoned her for another woman; he adopted an orphan boy and let him take my place. He loved and wanted them, Ginny, not us. He must pay for what he did. Mother died in England. I’ll die returning to confront him. His selfishness destroyed us, Ginny. He must suffer as we have. I can’t exact revenge; you must do it for me. Please, I’m begging you. This is my last request, my dying wish. You’re my dearest and best friend, my sister in heart and soul. I can’t rest until the past is settled. Only you can do that for me.”

  Ginny fought back tears as she watched the near-breathless girl work hard to get out those bitter words. “I love you, Johanna, but I can’t pull off such a ruse. I’d never fool your father and adopted brother.”

  “You know everything about me, Mother, and my past. You know everything revealed in those letters we found. They can’t catch you in a lie, you have all the facts. You can become me and you can obtain justice or revenge for us. We even look so much alike that people have always believed we were sisters. You can use our resemblance and all that information to fool them.”

  “If I failed, they could have me imprisoned for fraud, or even killed if they’re as bad as you and your mother believe.” Ginny kept talking to let Johanna rest for a while. “Besides, I have to search for my own father in Colorado. I haven’t seen him since I was sent away to boarding school in London, six long years ago. I haven’t heard from him in over eight months. I miss him and I’m so worried about him. He said someone had murdered his mining partner and was trying to kill him. He told me to keep his whereabouts secret and to remain in England until he settled his troubles and either came for me or sent for me to join him. I’m the only one from home who knows he didn’t die in the war as reported.”

  “Your father must be dead, Ginny. If he were alive, he would have written again. If you go to Colorado unprepared and penniless, you’ll be vulnerable, in terrible danger. We’re almost out of money, so you don’t have any safe way to get there. If you go to Father’s ranch and pretend to be me, you can find a way to get money for your search. It will solve your dilemma, too.”

  “I couldn’t steal from Bennett Chapman and escape scotfree.”

  “If it’s necessary, you could; you must. You know you can’t return home. Your stepmother and her new Yankee husband have taken control of Green Oaks. Your father has been declared dead. She ordered you never to return to the plantation; she cut off your funds.”

  “I know, and I hate it that I’ll never see my half sister. She was born after I was sent away. My stepmother and her son were always malicious and devious. I can’t go there or let them know I’m back. If it hadn’t been for your mother’s kindness, I couldn’t have finished my last year at school. I would have been put out to fend for myself without funds, home, or family and in a strange country.” A bitter taste rose in Ginny’s throat when she had to speak favorably of Johanna’s mother whom she hadn’t liked or trusted. Ginny knew Johanna had persuaded her mother to pay her expenses and the woman had done so to keep Johanna distracted and removed from her ill-gotten lifestyle. “When I locate Father, I’ll repay the money she loaned to me.”

  “What’s mine is yours, Ginny; it’s always been that way between us. I don’t need or want your money; I want and need your help, your promise.”

  Ginny wished her own mother were alive to give advice, but she had died when Ginny was eleven. That death had compelled her lonesome and tormented father into a terrible second marriage.

  As if reading her line of thought, Johanna said, “Cleniece took your mother’s place and Nandile took mine. Our fathers were foolish men.”

  “I can’t blame Father for marrying again; he was so lost without Mother. But our lives would have been different if he hadn’t met and married that greedy, selfish, and conniving woman. He thought I needed a mother and Green Oaks needed a mistress. He believed she would take away his pain. All Cleniece did was make us both miserable. She never liked me or wanted me around and convinced Father to send me away to school. I know he agreed because he wanted me safe and happy while he was off fighting in the war. He didn’t trust her; that’s why he deposited enough money in a London bank to pay my expenses for five years. He never thought the war would last so long; no one did. I would have been fine if Cleniece had sent my money. You remember Father sent me money directly from Colorado until he vanished. He was angry when he learned she had refused to support me, but he couldn’t challenge her without revealing he was still alive. That witch believed I would be stranded across the ocean and be out of her hair for keeps.”

  Ginny helped Johanna with a drink of water and fluffed her pillows. She kept talking to make the girl stay silent and rest. “I know she and her new husband stole my home and inheritance, but I won’t fight them over it. Green Oaks couldn’t be the same after they’ve tainted it. But if they learned Father wasn’t killed in the war, that he was captured and sent west as a Galvanized Yankee, and that he’d found a silver mine—they woul
d try to lay claim to part of it. That’s partly why Father refuses to contact her. After he sneaked home when the war ended and found her married to that Yankee usurper, a man my half sister believed was her father, he decided it was best to stay dead to them. His new trouble started after he returned to Colorado. How could anyone believe my father could murder a friend and partner for his share of their mine? It’s absurd, and I’ll help him prove it. I memorized the map he sent to me, then I destroyed it. I know how to find his cabin and I know where the claim map is hidden.”

  “Knowing the culprit’s identity won’t protect you from harm, Ginny. It’s in the wilderness. Haven’t you heard of wild animals and Indians?”

  “I realize my plan is dangerous, but if Father is in trouble, I must help him. If he’s dead, I have to make certain his killer is punished.”

  “Just as I have to make certain our family’s betrayer and killer is punished.”

  “I know this man is guilty; we don’t know if your father is guilty.”

  “He’s guilty of forcing Mother to escape him all the way to England. She wouldn’t run away without a good reason. When he cut off our funds to force her to come back, she still refused. For a wife to go penniless rather than return home to a rich husband does not speak well for my father. He forced Mother to become that earl’s mistress to survive.”