Married To A Stranger

by Connie Bennett

  “Oh,” she said, suddenly speechless.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he told her, then left with Detective Hogan right on his heels.

  “Are you all right, Madeline?” Dr. Manion asked solicitously.

  It was a moment before Maddy could drag her gaze from the door. “I’m just tired, Doctor,” she finally replied.

  “And still confused?”

  Maddy looked up at him with a little shake of her head. “You have no idea how much.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  DESPITE THE ACHE in her left leg, Maddy paced her room with a determined stride, stretching the throbbing limb and exploring the limits of her strength and endurance. She was free of the IV line; Dr. Manion had ordered it removed shortly after that first surprising and disturbing visit from Adam four days ago. She could move about as she pleased now—but only within the confines of this room.

  Maddy chafed against the restrictions, but she knew she wasn’t ready to face the outside world yet. Detective Hogan was convinced that the hit-and-run attack on her was deliberate, so there was an excellent possibility that her assailant was out there somewhere waiting to finish what he started.

  Just knowing that someone wanted her dead was terrifying enough; not knowing why only added to the torment. But instinct told Maddy that Hogan was right—her life was in danger. She also knew she had to be ready for anything, so to keep fit she paced the floor of her room and did modified push-ups with her hands against the wall. She did sit-ups in bed, despite the pain they caused her.

  The exercise routine, which she performed covertly as many times a day as her limited stamina would allow, was the only outlet Maddy had for the emotional confusion she was suffering. Her frustration at not being able to remember anything was growing so quickly that sometimes it was all she could do to keep from screaming.

  Adam visited her several times a day, valiantly trying to keep her spirits up and patiently answering her endless questions, gradually filling in the missing pieces of her life. But it wasn’t enough. Nothing Adam told her brought back any memories, but the picture he painted didn’t feel real to her. When he talked about their life together, he might just as well have been telling her an inventive bedtime story.

  He was keeping her sane, though. As much as Maddy hated to admit it, she had come to depend on Adam. Except for her doctor, the overworked nurses and increasingly infrequent visits from Detective Hogan, Adam was Maddy’s only connection with the outside world. She didn’t want to depend on him— didn’t want to need him—but she couldn’t deny that he exuded a kind of strength she found compelling.

  She finally concluded that was probably the reason she had fallen in love with him ten years ago. Aside from his obvious physical attributes—the handsome face and sleek, athletic body—he exuded a confidence that told Maddy this was a man who, when he wanted something, took action and made it happen.

  The increased security for her room was a perfect example. When he decided that Hogan’s single police officer wasn’t enough protection, Adam had brought in his own private security force of six guards who worked in teams of three on twelve-hour shifts. He’d sworn he’d protect her, and he was living up to that promise.

  When she reached one hundred paces, Maddy stopped and moved to the lavatory to splash water on her face. Adam was late this morning and she didn’t want him to walk in while she was so obviously overexerted. In fact, she wouldn’t have started the routine in the first place if she hadn’t been impatient for Adam to arrive.

  She toweled off, then glanced at the clock over the lavatory and discovered it was after ten. Where on earth was he? The past three mornings he’d arrived early, usually in time to share a cup of weak coffee and listen to her complaints about the horrible hospital food. Yesterday he’d even taken pity on her and snuck in a cup of real coffee and a croissant from a deli down the street.

  But today he hadn’t arrived in time to save her from a tray of runny scrambled eggs and rubbery strips of bacon. Where was he? What could be keeping him?

  As if in answer, Maddy heard the click of the latch as the door started to open. Out of reflex, she reached for the nail file she now kept tucked in the pocket of her flimsy hospital robe, but as soon as she saw Adam, she dropped the file back into the pocket.

  “Well, look what the cat dragged in,” she said, noting as the door closed behind him that he wasn’t arriving empty-handed. With an overnight bag hanging from one shoulder, a box under the other arm and bulging shopping bags in both hands, he looked like a slender, beardless Santa Claus. “And look what he dragged in with him. What’s all this?”

  Adam grinned at her as he crossed to the bed. “I’m sorry I’m late, but I had some errands to take care of this morning. When you complained yesterday about being as sick of hospital gowns as you were of hospital food, I realized I should’ve thought of this days ago.”

  “You mean you brought me clothes? Real clothes?” Maddy asked gleefully, moving to the bed with him.

  “Real honest-to-goodness store-bought clothes,” he confirmed, dropping his parcels onto the bed. “Plus the few things of your own you had with you when you arrived in Charleston.” Adam held out the plain brown tweed overnight bag to her. “I went by the police station this morning and Detective Hogan released it to me.”

  Elated at the thought of having something that might spark a memory, Maddy grabbed the bag eagerly and found room on the bed to sit. “What about my purse?”

  “It’s in the bag,” he told her. “How are you today?”

  “Oh, peachy,” she replied as she dumped the contents of the bag in front of her. “I’m caged like a wild animal at the zoo, I can’t remember who I am, and I’ve got three oversize gorillas camped on my doorstep. How the hell do you think I am?”

  Adam chuckled. “At least you’re in a better mood than yesterday.”

  Maddy stopped rooting through her belongings and looked at him. “Is that a polite, husbandly way of telling me I’m being a grouch?”

  “You’ve earned the right to be grouchy, Maddy,” he said.

  “Yeah. I just wish we knew how I earned it.”

  “True.” Adam nodded sympathetically, then pointed at the tangle of clothing in front of her. “Does anything look familiar?”

  She held up a flimsy scrap of ecru silk and lace. “I recognize this as a being a teddy, but I don’t remember ever having worn it.”

  “I do.” He grinned again, showing the dimples that Maddy was beginning to find irresistibly sexy.

  “I suppose you remember this, too,” she replied dryly, holding up a blue nightgown.

  “Vividly.”

  Maddy realized she had just led them into dangerous territory, and she regretted it. Adam Hopewell had enough sex appeal to knock any woman off balance. Maddy had seen that in the way the nurses responded to him, and she had certainly felt it herself. That was why she’d been careful to avoid asking any questions that might lead to the topic of the more intimate aspects of their marriage. She was far from ready to dive into those waters.

  Trying to cover her discomfort, she tucked the teddy and nightgown back into the overnight bag, along with several other bits of lingerie, then began inspecting the remaining items—a pair of serviceable tan slacks, a beige blouse and a light brown jacket. The three made a reasonable outfit, but certainly not one designed to make her stand out in a crowd. And not one that jogged any memories.

  Since Detective Hogan had returned her makeup and toiletries to her days ago, there was nothing else in the overnight bag, so Maddy turned her attention to the large black leather purse. A small wallet with her driver’s license, two credit cards and several hundred dollars in cash—but no photo of Adam similar to the one he carried of her. And no French currency or anything else that indicated she’d recently arrived from Paris.

  Maddy thought back to the items she’d seen in Adam’s wallet. “Where’s my national driving license, Adam? And my insurance green card, like the one you had? My French ide
ntification? My passport?”

  “I don’t know, Maddy. I can only assume you left them wherever you left the rest of your luggage.”

  “What makes you think I had more luggage?”

  Adam laughed shortly. “Maddy, my darling, in the ten years we’ve been together, I’ve never made a trip with you where we didn’t have to pay for at least one extra suitcase. And the bags we were allowed were usually overweight.”

  “So I like clothes?”

  He nodded. “Beautiful ones.”

  Maddy thought of the plain brown suit she’d just returned to the overnight bag. If she was such a clotheshorse, why had she chosen to travel with only one drab outfit?

  She sighed and returned to the contents of the purse. Besides her wallet, the purse contained a half-empty pack of gum, a magazine and a cosmetic bag, which held a tube of lipstick, a compact, a small hairbrush and another nail file like the one in her pocket.

  Not one thing was familiar.

  She couldn’t help being disappointed.

  “Maddy?” Adam said.

  She shook her head and looked up at him plaintively. “Nothing. Not a damned thing.” She scooped up the bits and pieces of her life and held them up to Adam. “Damn it, why don’t these make me remember something? I want to remember, Adam!”

  “I know, I know,” he said soothingly, gently taking the items from her and dropping them back into her bag before she could hurl them across the room in frustration. “You’ll remember eventually, Maddy. Just give yourself some time.”

  “How much time, Adam? A week? A month? A year?” She felt the control she maintained over her fear slipping. “How much time do you think my friend with the itchy trigger finger is going to give me before he comes back to finish what he started?”

  Adam sat on the bed, facing her. “Maddy, I’ve told you that I won’t let him get near you. I promise, he’ll never hurt you again.”

  “How can you promise that? We don’t know who he is—or even what he looks like!”

  “We’ll find out who he is and why he wanted you dead.”

  “How?” she demanded, furious with herself and the circumstances. “How are you going to do that, Adam? Look into a crystal ball?”

  “I’ve hired a private detective, Maddy. One of the best.”

  Maddy was stunned. “You did? When?”

  “Two days ago.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because there was nothing to report. He’s trying to reconstruct your trip and figure out what you did during the thirty-six hours you were in New York before you caught the plane to Charleston.”

  She frowned. “Thirty-six hours? How do you know I was in New York for a day and a half?”

  Adam sighed patiently, the way he always did when Maddy’s questions interrupted the flow of what he was saying. “That’s what I haven’t had a chance to tell you about yet. I finally heard from Immigration yesterday afternoon. According to their records, you came through customs in New York at 7:15 p.m. on Sunday, the twentieth.”

  “From Paris?”

  “Yes. I’ve given the flight number to the detective, and he’s sent one of his men to Paris to question our friends. Meanwhile he’s in New York trying to figure out what happened in those thirty-six hours that prompted you to come to Charleston.”

  Maddy pushed herself off the bed. “I want to go to New York, too,” she said adamantly. “As soon as Manion releases me.”

  “Absolutely not,” Adam said just as adamantly. “You’re in no condition to play sleuth. You have to recuperate. And besides that, it would be nearly impossible to protect you in the middle of Manhattan.”

  “But—”

  “No buts, Maddy. This isn’t even open to discussion.”

  She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Who the hell died and made you dictator? If this is any indication of the kind of marriage we had, we should’ve been divorced years ago!”

  “Well, we’re not divorced,” Adam said hotly, “and I am not a dictator! But I’m not going to stand by and let you get yourself killed on some wild-goose chase! I almost lost you, damn it…” His words seemed to catch up with him, and his voice became choked with emotion and frustration. “I have lost you, Maddy,” he said softly. “But I’ve got to believe that you’ll come back to me someday.”

  Maddy was ashamed of the way she’d blown up at him. “I’m sorry, Adam. I keep forgetting how hard this is on you.”

  “I just want to keep you safe, Maddy.” He reached out, placing his hands on her shoulders as though he meant to gather her into his arms, but Maddy stepped back out of his reach.

  It was an action she instantly regretted. These past few days, Adam had gotten better at covering up how saddened he was by the distance she maintained between them, but this time she could see she’d hurt him, and that was the last thing she wanted to do.

  “I’m sorry, Adam,” she said quickly, but it was too late. He’d already buried his feelings as though they hadn’t existed and waved her apology off.

  “It’s all right, Maddy. Don’t worry about it.”

  “But I keep hurting you without intending to.”

  Almost tentatively he moved one hand toward her face, and when she didn’t shy away, he brushed the back of his hand against her cheek. “It’s okay, Maddy. I’m a big boy. I can handle it. Just promise me you won’t do anything stupid—like try to run off to New York by yourself.”

  Clearly he wanted to let the incident pass, so Maddy did. She raised one eyebrow. “How could I possibly run off with your three trained gorillas watching my every move?”

  Instinct told her, however, that she could easily evade Adam’s guards if she wanted to. But she didn’t want to. Not yet, anyway. She was impatient and frustrated, but she wasn’t stupid. She didn’t have the physical strength to protect herself yet, and until she did, she was going to have to rely on Adam and his hired guards.

  Apparently Adam wasn’t fooled by her apparent compliance with his edict. “Maddy, please. You have to trust me.”

  Trust. He’d hit the nail squarely on the head. At moments, she could imagine having loved Adam Hopewell, could envision their having had a very passionate relationship. She could even, sometimes, imagine having been married to him.

  But she couldn’t imagine trusting him. Couldn’t imagine trusting anyone, in fact, and deep in her soul, she knew she never had. Distrust was almost as intrinsic to her life as loneliness.

  But telling him so would only hurt him, and Maddy had done enough of that for one day. “I promise you, Adam, I won’t ditch your gorillas. I won’t go running off to New York to sleuth without giving you proper warning.”

  She wasn’t sure she would keep those promises, but she made them, anyway, without compunction. Apparently lying was quite comfortable to her. And so were diversion tactics.

  “But there are a couple of things we need to consider, Adam. You can’t hire round-the-clock security for me forever, nor can I stay in this hospital room indefinitely. Dr. Manion expects to release me in three or four days. What are we going to do then?” she asked as she returned to the bed and sat.

  Adam sat down facing her. “I’ve already talked to Dr. Manion about that. He was at the nurses’ station when I came in a few minutes ago, and he approved of the plan I presented to him.”

  “What plan?” Maddy asked, trying not to show her displeasure that Adam had obviously made an important decision about her welfare without bothering to consult her.

  “Well, you know that Manion thinks it’s important for you to go someplace familiar when you leave here so that it’ll stimulate the return of your memory.”

  Maddy nodded. She, Adam and the doctor had discussed this yesterday. “Right. But he doesn’t want me to fly anywhere because of the changes in air pressure, so going back to Paris is out of the question, and you’ve summarily ruled out New York. What’s left that’s within driving distance?”

  “Bride’s Bay,” he answered.

 
; Maddy frowned. “The resort where we spent our honeymoon?”

  “That’s right. You loved it, Maddy. That’s why you wanted to go back and celebrate our anniversary there,” he told her with a loving smile. “It’s the perfect solution to our problem. Not only is it someplace familiar, it’s very exclusive.”

  “Exclusive?”

  Adam nodded. “It’s a high-security resort on a private island. Diplomats hold international conferences there. Heads of state come year round to play golf. I’ve even heard a rumor that the President of the United States is vacationing there this year.”

  “And we can afford to stay at a place like that until I’m able to fly or my assailant is caught?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Maddy was astonished. “Are we rich?”

  “Well…” He paused a moment. “We’re not exactly the Rockefellers, but between your trust fund, the inheritance my father left me, our gallery and the hefty brokerage commissions we’ve earned these last ten years, we could very easily take a two- or three-year vacation and do anything we wanted without worrying about our finances.” .

  “Wow.”

  “So money is not a problem,” he assured her, then returned to his original subject. “And the beauty of going to Bride’s Bay is that you wouldn’t feel like a prisoner there. The security isn’t impenetrable, but with proper precautions, we could have the run of the island. We can do all the things we did on our honey-moon, and eventually something is bound to jog your memory.”

  Maddy wanted to ask if “all the things” included the activities of their wedding night, but she thought it best not to bring that subject up again.

  Instead, she concentrated on the important issues. Like regaining her strength and her memory—in that order, because she readily acknowledged that until her memory returned, her strength was the only weapon she had against the man who wanted her dead. Since she didn’t have either at the moment, she really had to depend on Adam to keep her safe.

  And he obviously believed Bride’s Bay was the best place to do that.

  “All right, Adam. As soon as Dr. Manion releases .me, we’ll go to Bride’s Bay.”