Digging Up the Dirt

by Miranda James

  Hadley strode into the room, arms open wide. Barbie, her gaze firmly fixed on Hadley’s back, stumbled in behind him and almost knocked over a table. She caught herself and the table in time, but barely, An’gel noted with amusement.

  “Good afternoon, dear ladies.” Hadley stopped about three feet away from the assembled group and treated them all to another expansive smile. His hands dropped to his sides. “You don’t know how wonderful it is to be home again. And to be greeted by friends who by some miracle are just as gorgeous as they were the day I left Athena those many years ago.”

  An’gel heard several sighs, including one from her sister. She might even have sighed herself, but she would never admit it to anyone.

  “Oh, Hadley, it’s wonderful that you’re back home.” Sarinda propelled herself up from the sofa to leap into Hadley’s arms. Evidently startled by the sudden movement, Hadley took a step back. Sarinda stumbled, and Hadley reached out to halt her fall. She ended up in his arms, her intention all along. An’gel suppressed a snort of irritation.

  Hadley bestowed a quick kiss on Sarinda’s cheek before he led her firmly back to the sofa. Sarinda resumed her place, but An’gel noted that the blonde’s gaze never left Hadley’s face. He kissed both Arliss and Lottie on the cheek quickly before he approached An’gel.

  Was it her imagination, or did his eyes light up as he gazed into hers? An’gel couldn’t remember the last time she had blushed over anything, but now she was convinced her face had flushed. Dickce would rag on her for the rest of her days.

  Hadley extended both hands, and An’gel took them. Before she realized what he intended, Hadley pulled her up and into his arms. His lips grazed her ear when he whispered, “Still as stunning as you were forty years ago.” He hugged her for a moment and then released her. He grinned, and An’gel wanted to slap his face for making her feel so embarrassed.

  “You’re every bit as wicked as you were forty years ago.” She spoke in a low tone in the hopes that no one but Hadley would hear, but when Dickce snickered she knew she had misjudged.

  “Of course, An’gel,” Hadley said, one eyebrow raised. “Would you have me any other way?”

  He gave her no time to respond as he moved to stand in front of Dickce. He leaned down to give her a kiss, and An’gel heard her sister sigh. He moved on to Reba.

  Feeling a sudden wave of hostility directed toward her, An’gel sat abruptly. She tried as coolly as possible to return the gazes of the other women. Hadley had singled her out, and they looked at her as if they could cheerfully strangle her. The first chance she had to speak to Hadley alone, she would give him a dressing-down he wouldn’t soon forget.

  Hadley found a chair and pulled it forward between Dickce and Reba. Barbie perched on the arm of the sofa next to Lottie once Hadley sat. Hadley leaned back, crossed his arms over his chest, and regarded them all. “Thanks for inviting me back into the fold, ladies. It’s not often the prodigal son returns to such an open-armed greeting.”

  “We’re all delighted you’re back in Athena.” Reba turned slightly in her chair to look at him. “We’re all also hoping that you intend to remain and bring Ashton Hall back to what it ought to be.”

  “That is my plan.” Hadley nodded. “I was appalled to see how my dear brother had let the gardens go.” He grimaced. “Hamish never cared as much about them as I did.”

  An’gel—like the others, she had no doubt—burned to ask Hadley why he had left so abruptly all those years ago. There had been various rumors at the time. The one that had the most support was that Hamish had caught his brother in bed with his wife, Callie, and had thrown Hadley out of the house and told him never to come back. Another story held that Hadley embezzled money from his brother and skipped town to avoid prosecution, though many doubted Hamish would have suffered the indignity of putting his brother in jail. Hamish Partridge had been far too proud of his family name to allow that to happen.

  “But now they’re mine,” Hadley said in a somber tone. “Poor old Hamish finally passed on, and to my great surprise he left everything to me.”

  “I wasn’t surprised in the least.” Arliss fluttered her eyelashes at Hadley. “There was no one else, at least as far we know, and Hamish would never have left Ashton Hall to strangers.”

  “No, he certainly wouldn’t.” Lottie shook her head. “The last time I saw him, about three days before he died, he told me everything would be yours, Hadley.” She paused to glance up at Barbie, then looked at Hadley again. “Especially since he had no idea where his wife was.”

  An’gel felt an immediate change of atmosphere in the room, and she could see that Hadley had tensed up. She had wondered how long it would take one of the women to mention Callie Partridge.

  Calpurnia Partridge, actually, An’gel knew, but Callie had always hated her full name. Callie left Athena a couple of days after Hadley, so the story went, and everyone assumed she’d run after him.

  “Poor Callie.” Hadley sighed, his shoulders now relaxed. “Hamish never treated her the way he should have, so it’s no wonder she bolted when she did.” He paused to glance around the room. “I wonder what happened to her? Did any of you ever hear from her after she left Athena? Until I heard that Hamish left everything to me, I really thought I would find her still living at Ashton Hall.”

  No one responded right away to Hadley, and the silence lengthened. An’gel knew the others were no doubt as stunned as she was, because they had all assumed that Hadley and Callie had been together all these years. If Callie hadn’t followed Hadley from Athena, what on earth had happened to her?

  An’gel decided she might as well voice what everyone was thinking. “No one ever heard from her again, to our knowledge. Everyone thought, you see, that she had run away to join you because she didn’t want to stay with Hamish.”

  Hadley didn’t appear startled at An’gel’s statement. He shrugged. “I’m not surprised by that. I know everyone thought Callie and I were having a passionate affair behind Hamish’s back, but that simply was not the case. I never touched her, and she certainly didn’t run off to be with me.”

  “Then where could she have gone?” Arliss threw up her hands. “She had no family left, as far as I know.”

  “She was a registered nurse, remember, even though she quit working after she married Hamish,” Barbie said. “She could have found a job anywhere. Taken on a new name, even gotten married again for all we know.”

  “Hamish never said anything to me about divorcing her.” Reba sniffed. “If she did marry again, she was committing bigamy.”

  “Hamish didn’t tell you everything, Reba.” Lottie simpered. “I was his closest confidante the last few years. If he had told anyone, he would have told me.”

  “Well, did he tell you whether he divorced her?” An’gel asked. Really, she could shake Lottie sometimes for her coyness.

  Lottie shrugged. “The subject never came up. Hamish and I had other things to talk about when I visited with him.”

  When you were trying to get him interested in marrying you, you mean. An’gel resisted the temptation to say the words aloud.

  Arliss saved her the trouble. She hooted with laughter, then said, “Hamish was too smart for you, Lottie. He knew better than to tell you any such thing. Otherwise you’d have dragged him to the altar before he could put on a fresh pair of socks and clean underwear.”

  “That’s what you would have done, you mean-spirited woman,” Lottie said. “I thought of Hamish as a friend, nothing more.”

  Hamish might well have divorced Callie, An’gel thought, but he was too canny to let any of the women in this group know. They all had men and marriage in their sights.

  Everyone except her and Dickce, that is. An’gel had never cared much for Hamish, nor had Dickce. Neither of them understood why Callie married him. He was dour and cheap, the opposite of his brother. Hamish had been almost as handsome as Hadl
ey in his younger years, and Callie had met Hamish first. He could be charming, An’gel admitted to herself, but whenever Hadley was present, Hamish got eclipsed.

  “There’s one possibility no one has mentioned.” Sarinda crossed her arms as she surveyed the room. She let the silence lengthen before she spoke again. “What if Callie never left Athena at all?”

  CHAPTER 3

  An’gel felt a chill at those words as the implications sank in. Then she felt foolish and annoyed for letting Sarinda’s love of drama affect her in such a way.

  Reba guffawed. “That’s about the silliest thing I ever heard, Sarinda. Tell me, do you think Callie’s been living in the woods around Ashton Hall all this time? Or maybe she has taken on a secret identity.” She continued to laugh.

  “I have a confession to make.” Barbie rose from her perch on the arm of the sofa and hung her head for a moment. “I’ve had Callie locked away in my cellar all these years. I suppose I should let her out now.” She glanced around the room.

  Lottie giggled. “She can’t be in your cellar, Barbie honey, because I’ve got her in my attic.”

  An’gel checked Hadley’s expression and found it guarded. What was his true reaction to these juvenile attempts at humor? she wondered. She herself found them distasteful.

  “You can make light of it all you want,” Sarinda said. “But can one of you tell me—tell all of us—where Callie is? And whether she is even still alive?”

  “But you said, what if she never left Athena?” Arliss frowned. “That’s quite a different question. If she never left, then something must have happened to her. Something fatal. That’s what you really meant, isn’t it?”

  “Perhaps.” Sarinda looked down at her lap.

  An’gel had to suppress the urge to go grab hold of her shoulders and give her a good shake. What was Sarinda trying to do? Could she possibly know something about Callie’s disappearance? An’gel felt that chill again.

  “Callie kept in touch with several friends from nursing school,” Hadley said. “Like Barbie suggested, Callie probably went to one of them, and they helped her find a job. She wanted to go back to work after she and Hamish got married, but he wouldn’t hear of it.”

  “That seems likely to me.” Reba nodded. “Yes, very likely. Sarinda, all you’ve ever wanted to be is the center of attention, and you’ll say anything to get your way.” She turned to Hadley. “What have you been doing all these years? You know we’re all curious.”

  Hadley gave a brief smile. “I know y’all are. It’s not really an exciting story, but basically I went to New York and got a job with a company that has offices around the world. I worked in various places over the years—Vienna, Sydney, Madrid, Paris, Los Angeles, and a few others. I became a corporate troubleshooter and did pretty well at it. I retired about three years ago in London, and that’s where I was when I got word from Hamish’s lawyers about his death.”

  “What part of London?” Lottie asked. “London is my favorite city in the world, and I’ve been oodles of times.”

  “Mayfair,” Hadley said.

  Mayfair, An’gel knew, was a pricey place to live, so Hadley wasn’t short of a bob or two, as the Brits would say. He had apparently done well for himself as a corporate troubleshooter. His clothes were expensive, and An’gel could see he wore an expensive watch, one that cost at least fifteen thousand dollars.

  “I just love Mayfair,” Lottie said. “So exclusive.”

  Barbie spoke at the same time. “So glamorous, all those great cities. What an interesting life you have had.”

  Hadley shrugged. “Nothing particularly glamorous about it. I never had time to settle down long in one place because as soon as I finished one assignment they sent me off on another one. Eighty-plus-hour weeks and too much travel, if you want to know the truth.”

  To judge by the glum expressions of her fellow board members, An’gel reckoned they were disappointed with Hadley’s prosaic explanation. The dashing playboy of four decades past had become a hardworking corporate type, and they evidently didn’t see much glamor in that.

  An’gel, while more than a bit surprised at Hadley’s choice of profession, was nevertheless pleased to hear that he had buckled down and worked hard. He hadn’t shown many signs of dedication to work before he left Athena, relying instead on charm, good looks, and his brother’s checkbook in lieu of gainful employment.

  “We’re all happy to welcome you back home.” An’gel nodded at Hadley. “We also hope you’re truly here to stay. You’re not planning to renovate Ashton Hall and the gardens so you can sell and then move back to London, are you?”

  Hadley cocked his head to the side and regarded her with one of his patented slow smiles, designed to warm even the coldest heart. “I am here to stay, dear An’gel. Athena holds an attraction that, oddly enough, London doesn’t.”

  He’s pouring it on a bit too thick. An’gel wanted to box his ears. Why is he singling me out like this?

  Once again she felt hostile glances. She gazed coolly around the room with a silent challenge. The other women’s gazes dropped, and An’gel relaxed.

  “We’re all delighted to hear that you’re staying,” Dickce said. “Though if I had to pick between London and Athena, well, there are plenty of days I’d rather be in London.”

  Bless Sister for helping to break the tension. An’gel laughed. “Especially in August and September when it’s unbearably hot here.”

  Barbie cleared her throat. “Time to get the meeting started. We really need to focus on the spring tour of homes. Now that we can include Ashton Hall I believe we can up the ticket prices by a few dollars. What do y’all think?”

  “We’ve been charging twelve dollars for the past ten years for a single house tour,” Arliss said. “I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t raise that to fifteen now. Three dollars isn’t that much.”

  “I agree.” Reba nodded. “And ten for children under sixteen. That seems reasonable.”

  “I agree,” An’gel said, and Dickce echoed her. An’gel went on. “What about the package prices? Fifty dollars for four houses?”

  “Sounds fine to me,” Lottie said. “We need to increase our revenue. Preservation isn’t cheap, and some of us don’t have large bank accounts to pay for repairs to these old houses.” She cut a sly glance at An’gel and Dickce.

  An’gel ignored Lottie’s remark. Lottie always liked to pretend she was the poorest member of the board, but An’gel knew Lottie was tight with money. Lottie’s home, The Oaks, stayed in excellent condition.

  “We can use the same schedule we have for the past few years,” Barbie said. “What group should Ashton Hall be in? People will be excited since it hasn’t been shown for over thirty years.”

  “Put it in the group with Riverhill,” Hadley said. “That’s the closest, and Fairleigh is the next closest in town.”

  Sarinda brightened at the mention of her home. “Yes, I agree. It makes sense to group us together.” She smiled at Hadley. “I can’t wait to see Ashton Hall restored to its former glory.”

  “The tour generally starts the first weekend in March.” An’gel looked at Hadley. “That gives you about four months to get the gardens and the house ready. Will you be able to do that?”

  Hadley nodded. “I already have a team there inspecting the house and the gardens. The house mostly needs a good cleaning.” He grimaced. “I’m afraid Hamish was none too particular about housekeeping recently.”

  “We’re going to need a few pictures for the website,” Barbie said. “How soon do you think we can get those?”

  “I think I can find some suitable shots in the next few days,” Hadley said.

  “I’ll be delighted to come over and help you look,” Reba said. “My son Martin—do you remember him, Hadley? He was about five when you left—anyway, he takes all the pictures for the website, and we can come over and scout a
round.”

  Hadley shook his head. “Only vague memories, I’m afraid. I never paid much attention to children. I’m a more than decent photographer, if I do say so myself. I can take the pictures and send them. Who maintains the website?”

  “Martin does,” Reba said. “It really wouldn’t be any trouble at all for us to take the pictures and save you the bother.”

  “I appreciate your offer,” Hadley said. “But there are going to be so many workmen around the place that everything’s going to be chaos for a while. I think it’s better if I take the pictures myself.”

  Reba shrugged. “Well, if you insist. I’ll give you Martin’s email address.”

  Hadley had made it clear that he didn’t particularly want visitors, at least for now, An’gel decided. She wondered whether the others would take the hint, or whether there would soon be a steady stream of casserole dishes and congealed salads making their way to Ashton Hall. She and Dickce would invite him to dinner soon, though, because it was the proper thing to do.

  All the other women in the room would issue invitations as well, she knew. She wondered how many of those invitations Hadley would accept. Perhaps he had reformed his ways and was no longer a playboy. She realized suddenly that no one had bothered to ask Hadley whether he was married, or had been.

  At the moment she couldn’t think of a polite way to ask. She had noticed that Hadley’s left ring finger was bare, but that didn’t necessarily mean Hadley was single. Still, surely Hadley would have mentioned a wife or a girlfriend if he had brought a woman home with him.