Refuge on Leebrick (The Hills of Burlington Book 4)

by Jacie Middlemann

  Mark played it around in his mind. “Like I said, maybe that’s exactly what she wanted. I’ve heard about some problems from other people that can be tied back to her but nothing that was big enough to call her in on it. Even this isn’t that big of a deal especially if Tom doesn’t want to make an issue of it which sounds like he doesn’t. But the bottom line is that she’s a problem and that problem is escalating.” He looked down again at the papers Jake had given him. “Your idea of a departmental reorganization is a good one. It doesn’t give the appearance that we’re singling her out. And it certainly doesn’t give her the ability to cast blame on anyone else.”

  “Hell, Mark. I don’t think she has that deep of an agenda. I think she just doesn’t like that we bought the place and is doing her damn best to stir up trouble.”

  “You could be right,” the other man agreed even as he continued to study what Jake had outlined. “Do you think Nancy is strong enough to stand up to her? Even with promoting her into a position that will put her on the same management level as Clarissa she’s still going to have to deal with her.” He looked up and pinned the other man with a serious look. Despite his easy demeanor he was the same man who’d run a major news department in another life and it showed. “This won’t stop Clarissa by any means. It’s only going to slow her down for a while. And probably not for all that long at that.”

  “You’re likely right but we need to do something. This will divide the responsibilities and provide some balance in that department. It won’t eliminate her ability to cause trouble but it’s going to make it more difficult. Shifting her responsibilities to the Benefits side of the department will limit her exposure elsewhere. She can still create problems but…”

  “There’s more likely to be a paper trail at that end of it,” Mark filled in when Jake’s explanation trailed off. “It’s not the perfect solution but it’s a start,” he said grimly, acknowledging what the other man was trying to accomplish. What he’d really like to do was give the woman the severance package she seemed to be practically asking for. But that could cause them an entirely different sort of problem. “Let’s do it. What you’ve outlined is a good idea and something we should have considered months ago.” He shook his head thinking of all the grief one person could cause.

  “There was no way of knowing this would continue. I’d hoped she’d settle in like pretty much every one else has since we came in here.”

  “Hell, Jake, there’s a reason for that. Everyone else is thrilled to have a job considering the financial shape the place was in when we walked in the door. To my knowledge there were at least a half dozen key employees looking for work elsewhere. Each and every one of them are thrilled with how things went down. Not a single one of them wanted to leave the area for another job.”

  “Yeah, well not everyone looks at a gift-horse in the same way.”

  Mark didn’t respond though he agreed completely with his friend’s dour assessment. “Send me half the paperwork. Between the two of us we should be able to get it done and set this in motion before the end of the week.”

  “My favorite past-time, paperwork.” Jake gave his friend a quick nod as he made his way out the door and back to his own office. He wished all their problems could be worked out this easily.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  “Grace,” Tom waited for her to turn. Saw her shoulders tighten in the moments before she did. If he hadn’t known her as well as he had…as long as he had, he wouldn’t have noticed the slight tremor in her hands as she brought them together in front of her. “It’s been a long time.”

  Grace let out the breath she’d been holding since she heard his voice softly say her name, the way it almost echoed in the silence. “I’ve heard a lot of talk about Jake’s friend Tom. I never connected it though.” But she should have. The moment she heard his voice moments before, she made the connection she should have made days before.

  Tom wandered the front of the store. He’d heard a lot too. About both the woman and her store. He’d known on his own everything they’d claimed about the woman to be true and now that he saw the store for himself he realized the real thing was more than he expected. Like the woman. “I overheard Casey and Mary talking about how they’d just found out their friend Grace was related to them after her very telling visit to the second floor room at their great-grandmother’s house.”

  “It was interesting,” she said quietly. There was no sense in denying it especially since she knew he had experienced the same.

  Tom glanced over his shoulder in her direction knowing that it had been a bit more than that and from her expression saw she knew it too. “I wouldn’t have put it together that you were their friend Grace if it weren’t for the fact that on my first visit there I was treated to a fairly prolonged collage of images going back probably centuries.” He looked over at her, caught her eyes, eyes he knew intimately from years before. Eyes that had haunted him ever since. “One of the women in that particular jaunt down memory lane bore an uncanny resemblance to you. So much so that those few moments just about put me on my ass.” He turned away from the look in her eyes, uncertain what to say when he was still trying to figure it all out for himself. “After that when I overheard Casey and Mary talking it wasn’t too much of a jump to figure the Grace they knew was also the Grace I once knew as well.” He watched the range of emotions play across her face. She’d never been one to hide her thoughts well from anyone. Had never been able to do so with him. He waited patiently for her to respond. To say anything in response to that or just about anything else that lay between them like a deep black void waiting to be filled. When she offered nothing he asked what had simmered for years.

  “Why did you leave like that, just drop out of sight?” he finally asked after several moments of silence. In the big scheme of things it probably wasn’t the most important thing they needed to talk about but he’d waited long enough to ask. Lord only knew he’d never expected to be able to. Ironically enough he wanted to understand. “Why did you really leave D.C.?”

  Grace understood he was asking for more than the superficial reasons she’d left. And there had been plenty of those as well. But what he wanted were her reasons that lay below the surface, the ones she hadn’t shared with others as her reasons for walking away from the profession she’d been very, very good at. By the accounts of some who knew because they’d benefitted from those skills, she’d excelled at it as few others did before her. She stared off into the distance, not at anything in particular, simply looking beyond what was in front of her to her thoughts. Memories she’d set aside at the same time she’d walked away. If she were to share any of them with anyone it would be this man.

  “You know my family travelled quite a bit when I was growing up?” At his slight nod she continued slowly, not cautious of sharing but of doing so in a way so that he would understand. She herself had only truly been able to do so over the course of the months after she’d walked away from the world and the life she’d known for years. “We lived in a number of other countries because of my father’s job. Some good and some not so much. Not because they were bad places to live but sometimes because they were difficult places to live. There’s nothing that makes you appreciate living where we do than having lived someplace where concepts such as democracy that we assume is ours and always will be isn’t a given for many, isn’t something to take for granted, but instead everyone’s greatest wish.”

  “I’ve seen similar to what you’re describing,” Tom said quietly. He’d stopped his perusal of the contents of the long, glass encased cabinet and now stood next to it.

  “Yes, well as a teenager it took a while before I was able to really reflect on those experiences and put them in their proper perspective.” Grace looked into his eyes and saw the understanding she’d known would be there. “I had a pretty good foundation as far as my beliefs long before I went to D.C.,” she said trying to lay a foundation so he would understand the bottom line when she got to it. Maybe sayin
g it out loud for the first time instead of just running it through her head would help her to better understand it as well. “My grandparents, especially my grandfather was a big influence in my life for as far back as I can remember. Even when we were overseas they visited a lot. Not as much as when we were state-side but they were around. I drew on what I learned from them a lot when I was working in D.C. Sometimes it helped and sometimes it didn’t.” She lifted her coffee cup to her lips before realizing it was empty. Before she could walk over to get a refill Tom was taking the cup from her hands and doing it for her.

  “Go on,” he said when he brought it back to her, filled with the steaming jolt of caffeine she desperately needed.

  “I got to a point where what was going on around me was more than I could easily flick off as if it was no big deal. For a long time I stayed silent during a lot of conversations when I didn’t agree. I knew there was no way my opinion would change theirs so what was the sense in even speaking up. In the process though a lot of people simply thought I was in total agreement. My silence allowed them to make the assumption I was in agreement to their thinking or at least that’s how they saw it. And in all honesty at the time that was all fine and dandy with me.” She sighed because she’d promised herself honesty. At least to herself if no one else. “It was okay up to a point.”

  “The point where they’d toss your name in with theirs when they were trying to validate their own view and having yours backing it up would help them.” Tom understood well what she was talking about. He’d experienced the same but for different reasons. He’d simply not given a damn what people thought one way or another. As far as he was concerned his beliefs no matter what they were, was no one’s business but his own. But he knew Grace. She had always despised any sort of confrontation with anyone. He knew no one who was more adept at avoiding a discussion of anything that could lead into something even barely bordering on a debate, contentious or otherwise. He waited silently as he watched her mull over what to say next. He couldn’t count the number of time he’d seen her do the same years before.

  “That was part of it and when it happened I’d just cringe inwardly but then I’d simply go on my merry way.” She paused, thought about how playing the role of someone she wasn’t had come to wear on her more than she ever thought it could. “My writing was what I did well at. If I know the topic that needed to be focused on, understood the beliefs of the person speaking, what their hopes and goals were, and what it was they wanted to convey, I could write the words they needed to say to express themselves,” she tried to explain. “I didn’t have to agree with them to be able to do that. For the life of me I don’t understand how anyone could assume that because of what I wrote for others it somehow automatically expressed my own philosophy as well.”

  “It’s easier for them that way,” Tom said softly.

  “I wrote for numerous people,” Grace said still not certain he understood. “Not all of them were on one side of the political spectrum. For Pete’s sake, I even wrote a couple of speeches for that guy out on the west coast running for some council seat or something. He thought we should all go back to the days before electricity like that was somehow the beginning of all our problems.”

  “And I’m sure he was forever grateful to you. He won by a landslide,” Tom said easily with amusement flowing in his voice.

  “I should have spoken up instead of slinking away,” Grace said quietly sidestepping his comment of what she already knew to the bottom line of where she’d been aiming for since they’d started this conversation.

  Tom was beginning to put together a lot of what he hadn’t known all those years ago. “Everyone’s different in how they deal with adversity, Grace.” Tom took in a deep breath. He wasn’t certain how to proceed but knew he had to say something. “You did the best you could in a situation that quite frankly has no damn rule book. You’re not alone in the world when it comes to not wanting to engage in face-to-face demolition derby. Has Casey ever given you the blow-by-blow of how and why she left the network she worked for?” He watched the hint of a smile play at the edges of her mouth. “I see you’ve heard about it,” he said grateful that he’d remembered it himself and was hopefully able to help her to put things in perspective.

  “It’s been talked about,” Grace admitted. “I’ll agree that you’re right on a lot of those points but I should have handled it better. If nothing else I should have handled it sooner. I should have just spoken up and made clear my own views instead of allowing others to frame them for me.” She sighed, just remembering those days made her weary. “By the time I’d gotten myself in a state of mind to finally stand up for myself other things were popping up left and right. I was probably fortunate to have caught on to all of it as buried in my own self-pity that I was. While I was wading around in all that mire of admonition I’d unwittingly allowed myself to be put in the position of being used as a very convenient scapegoat.” She wrapped her cold hands firmly around the still warm coffee cup. “That pretty much made all my decisions for me.”

  “I heard you left him with a word of warning of what would happen if he didn’t take your resignation in the good faith that it was offered,” Tom said dryly. He’d heard a lot more than that but wasn’t about to share most of it. She’d been considered next door to a hero for taking on and winning in her skirmish with one of the most powerful men in Congress at that time.

  “We don’t exchange Christmas cards, if that’s what you’re asking,” Grace said dryly. Even now she wasn’t certain whether that last conflict had been a matter of standing up for herself or protecting herself. She sighed, probably a bit of both.

  “Why didn’t you let me know where you were? Where you went?” he asked. There was no question that at the time she’d left D.C. they hadn’t exactly been on the best of terms and that was on him.

  “I didn’t exactly settle anywhere for very long for a while,” Grace answered him knowing it wasn’t what he was asking but she didn’t have the answer he was looking for. She didn’t at the time and still didn’t.

  “But you’ve been here a while,” Tom looked around again. It didn’t take much to see all the work she’d put into the place. And knowing Grace as he did he’d bet good money that she’d done much of it herself. He could well imagine it would have been almost cathartic for her at the time. Wasn’t that what he was doing at the paper? With a deep sigh he let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. In some ways he better understood now what she’d dealt with. How could he not? And with that he realized the time between then and now was of less consequence than what came next. “You’ve done a lot here.” And with those simple words he shifted his future. Let all that had gone before drift off into where it belonged.

  Grace wasn’t certain what to say. One minute he was pressing for why she’d dropped off the radar. Specifically his radar. Then as quickly as it took for her to count change out of her antique cash register he was commenting on the state of her store. If it was anyone else she probably wouldn’t have noticed. But she knew Tom Holland. Under the best of circumstances he rarely gave up on anything until he was satisfied he had whatever it was he came for. And that included answers to all his questions. Under less than pristine circumstances he was like a dog unwilling to give up the proverbial bone. As she considered what his game might be she also watched him slowly wander towards the back of her store. What was he up to? Before she could come up with any satisfying conclusion he spoke again.

  “Did you do the wallpaper back here?”

  She knew exactly what he was talking about. She’d spent weeks finding a near perfect match for the vintage wallpaper that now graced the walls on the far side of the back of the store. It was the area where her grandfather displayed the clothing and household linens that he’d carried. He had done the surrounding décor differently than the rest of the store to make it seem more homey rather than the mercantile it was. She still carried clothing and linens in that same area but they were second-hand a
nd vintage. They were also some of her best sellers. With a sigh acknowledging he wasn’t going to drift off and let her work out this new wrinkle in her head as she really needed to she walked over to where he stood. It didn’t surprise her to find him shifting through the stack of vintage linens that included everything from tablecloths to pillowcases. He’d told her enough about his childhood to know he’d grown up with a mother who loved everything vintage. She had no doubt that he’d been dragged along on many of his mother’s shopping trips. Flipping through vintage anything was likely the norm for him rather than the exception as it was for many who came through her doors.

  She finally answered his earlier question knowing even though his thoughts were now elsewhere he would connect it. His mind worked on varying levels at all times. She knew it for a fact. Knew too it had been only one of the many aspects of his character that made him successful in his chosen profession. “I did.”

  “Great job,” he said without pausing from his search through the myriad of linens. “Looks just like it belongs in this area.”

  How could she battle against such easy camaraderie. Almost as if the last years of separation between the two of them had never been. “It’s as close as I could match to what my grandfather had up there to start with.” She watched him take his eyes away from his current focus and back to the wallpaper. “What are you doing here, Tom?”

  “At the moment, shopping,” he said easily without so much as a blink that signaled she may have caught him off guard with her question. In truth she hadn’t. Not really. He’d expected something along those lines eventually just not quite this soon. Grace had never been one to make assumptions. He turned from his study of the wallpaper to face her. Saw the hint of concern. Knew from their time together that if he could see it at all, it went far deeper. “Asking you to dinner.” He only just barely kept the corners of his mouth from creeping up at her obvious surprise.