“Sorry to interrupt,” she winked at Libby. “Do you want us to drive around the block?”
“Take him,” she countered carelessly. “I’ve had enough.”
“Hey!” Jackson shrugged into his jacket, pretending annoyance. “I thought I meant something to you.”
“It was all about the bike.” She yelped as he caught her in a hug, tickled her ribs.
“Take it back.”
“Fine, fine,” she gasped, twisting away. “I confess. It was the surly attitude and high detention rate.”
He kissed her, longer this time. “You’ll pay.”
“Okay, okay,” Kelly held up her hands as if shielding them from her view. “Let’s go, Romeo.”
“See you tomorrow.” Libby caught her friend’s eye. “Okay?”
The redhead nodded, smiled a little. “See you tomorrow.”
It was noisy. Everyone seemed to be talking at the same time, laughing and joking as though they’d been friends for years. Libby tried not to find it odd, as she watched Eric and Ian debating some referee’s decision in a recent football game. She also tried not to think about this being a little like a ‘meet the in-laws’ evening.
In desperation, she turned to Kelly. “Where’s Danny again?”
“Paul had some work thing. They’re on their way.” Kelly passed her a glass of orange juice and cast her a sympathetic gaze.
“They’re like long lost relatives,” Libby murmured as she accepted the drink. “Isn’t this a bit weird?”
Kelly followed her glance to their mothers, who were laughing together over glasses of wine. Bolognaise simmered on the stove behind them and one of them would turn very few minutes to stir it.
“Well, it’s better than them hating one another,” her friend shrugged at last. “What’s Jack doing?”
“Something with the motorbike.”
They rolled their eyes in unison.
“He's a wuss.” Kelly grinned, then glanced out of the window. “Danny’s here.”
Libby sat up at that. Her parents hadn’t yet met Paul, since he’d been away consulting on some case. When they came in, Danny smiled a greeting before crossing over to where she sat with Kelly.
“Hi Libby.” He smiled briefly at her before turning his gaze on Kelly and Libby smiled as he tugged on the redhead’s plait. “Hey.”
“Hey yourself.”
Pleased that the couple seemed more normal than they had in days, it took Libby a moment to realize that silence had fallen.
“Fran?”
The concern in her dad’s voice had her whipping around to face her mother. She was deathly white, her wide gaze fixed on Danny. Shaken by the look of horror on her mother’s face, Libby pushed her glass onto the table.
“Mum?” Libby got up from her chair, barely hearing Paul’s exclamation as she watched her mother sink to the floor in a faint.
Anna barely caught her. “What’s going on? Paul?”
In the confusion that followed, Libby didn’t hear if he answered. She rushed to her mother’s side, looking on anxiously as Anna eased her carefully onto the floor. Eric gripped his wife's hand.
“She’ll come around in a moment.” He shook his head, a wry smile on his lips in spite of his concern. “She’s always been a fainter.”
“Really?” Libby shook her head, confused. How had she not known that?
At that moment, Francis stirred. Groaned.
“Eric?”
“You’re alright, honey,” he replied. “Anna broke your fall.”
A faint smile curved her lips at his attempt at humour, then faded.
“Danny.” She pushed herself into a sitting position. “Can I sit? Help me up, Eric.”
“Give yourself a minute.”
“I’m fine.” Her voice was stronger, firm. Libby backed up as Eric helped her mother into a chair. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting…I didn’t know.” Her eyes flew to Paul. “I swear I didn’t know.”
Libby turned to Paul in confusion, imagining that they all looked bewildered at what was happening. How did they know each other?
Paul’s expression was hard, unreadable. “Explain.”
Francis glanced at Danny, her eyes filling with tears.
Eric stepped forward, shielding his wife as he watched Paul suspiciously. “What’s going on here?”
“Eric. Please.” Her voice was faint. “I saw…”
“Your sister?” Paul’s voice was hoarse, almost disbelieving. “No.”
“She…I had no idea there was a child.”
Danny watched his dad carefully, his expression as blank as his father’s. Paul didn’t spare him a glance, but Libby had no doubt they were communicating.
“Can you explain what this is about?” Ian’s voice seemed to release the tension somewhat. He was calm, curious. Libby saw her mother draw in a deep breath.
“My sister died fourteen years ago.” She shook her head. “We were told she had died and I didn’t...we had no reason not to believe it.”
Libby frowned. “What do you mean? She’s not dead?”
Paul’s voice was hard with bitterness. “No. She is not.”
“You know her?”
There was a long silence as Paul and Francis looked at each other, then at Danny. Libby saw his hand tighten on Kelly’s shoulder.
“She’s my mother.”
The shock of that revelation was so great that when the door burst open to admit an alarmed Jackson, no one even acknowledged his arrival.
“What the hell is going on?”
Libby couldn’t answer him. As he looked around the room, clearly collecting thoughts as fast as he scanned faces, his expression turned to one of disbelief.
Finally, his gaze returned to Libby. She felt his sympathy, but didn’t fully understand the cause of it.
“So, there’s been a mistake?” Libby ventured at last.
Paul snorted derisively.
“I can’t understand it,” Francis was still pale, her eyes dark with worry and fear. “The police found her body. She’d been missing for two years.” She reached for Eric’s hand, gripped it hard enough that her knuckles whitened. “She died.”
When Ian spoke, it was with pity. “It’s easy enough to fake a death when you have talent like hers. The police would have had all the evidence required to draw that conclusion.”
“And for those of us who can't read minds?” Eric asked, his voice confused. Libby wanted the answer to that herself. Ian bred horses - what would he know of police work?
“I was a Detective for eight years before we moved here,” Ian replied. “I spent the last three of those years trying to track down Maria for various crimes.”
Francis gasped in shock. “Crimes? No.”
“Your sister is a con woman, a thief and a murderer.”
Paul’s voice was hard and filled with anger. Libby sensed the pain rolling off him, knew that it had something to do with his son. She shuddered, not sure if she wanted to know more. She knew that Danny hadn’t spoken to his mother in three years, but didn’t know the details. From the shock pulsing from her best friend, she guessed that Kelly hadn’t known either. At least, not the whole of it.
“Okay,” Anna spoke into the silence. She sounded calm, but Libby could feel her nerves humming beneath the façade. “I think we need a few minutes to process this before we go any further. Kids,” she turned to them with a firm voice. “Go for a walk.”
Libby raised her eyebrows. As if! There were a million questions that needed answering and she wasn’t happy to be excluded. This was her family they were talking about, after all.
After a moment, Jackson gestured for her to follow him. “Let’s go.”
When Kelly got to her feet without complaint, Libby sighed. There seemed no choice but to follow the others outside.
Chapter Twenty Two
The silence was thick with worry as they walked, quickly enough to put distance between them and the house in a few minutes. Finally Kelly stopped at
the edge of the paddocks. Her face was calm enough, but Libby could see the battle warring within her even without the benefit of her talent.
“You didn’t tell me about your mother.”
Danny leaned against the fence, his hands gripping the wooden rails as he looked out towards the horses.
“No.”
“You told me that she had used you,” Kelly’s voice was unnaturally even. She stood a couple of steps behind Danny, staring at his back as though trying to burn holes through him. “I thought you meant in the divorce.”
Casting a worried glance at Jackson, Libby made an effort to focus. Danny’s jaw was set as though trying to contain some terrible emotion, his shoulders hunched against Kelly’s questions. Shame swirled around him, bitter and cold.
“I didn’t want you to know.”
Flooded with sympathy, Libby stepped forward to cover his hand with hers. His skin felt cold to the touch.
“Idiot.” Kelly’s voice softened and Libby bit her lip to stop a grin.
“I’m sorry.”
Kelly’s arms slid around him and Libby met her gaze as the red head rested her head against Danny’s back. Her eyes rolled heavenward.
“Alright, there’s no need to make fun.” Danny huffed. He turned his hand to grip Libby’s. “Cousin.”
She grinned. “So it seems.”
Jackson shifted restlessly. “Now your idiot status has been cleared up, can we get some answers here?”
Casting him a reproving glance, Libby shook her head. “Jack -”
“No,” Jackson cut her off with a quick shake of his head. “This affects you, Libby. We need to know what we’re dealing with here.”
“He’s right.” Danny turned, squeezing Kelly’s shoulders briefly before releasing her. “There must be a reason she wanted her family to think she was dead.”
Libby frowned. “Maybe it was to cover her tracks, given that she was a criminal.”
“Fourteen years ago? She wasn’t. Well, not exactly.” Danny rubbed his hands over his face. “My parents married when they found out she was pregnant. Dad thought they were linked, but the truth about that didn’t come out until I was around three, I guess.”
“What do you mean?” Kelly asked in confusion. “How can you mistake a link?”
“That’s one of her talents,” he replied bleakly, his eyes dark with painful memories. “She can see and forge connections, make people believe it’s real.”
Recoiling, Libby took a moment to absorb that. How it was possible?
“Mum only knew of her as a seer. Why would she make Paul think they were connected?”
“She wanted dad, I guess.” He shrugged. “She found his skills useful, although he didn’t let her use him. They weren’t happy together, but he stayed. Because of the link, because of me. She had already started the cons then. It was so easy for her, as she was able to make her marks think that they had a connection of sorts, a special bond. She manipulated them and made a fortune at it. When dad found out, she told him that she wanted rid of him, that their link wasn’t real. He said it made it easy to walk away.”
They watched him as he paced away, dragged his hands through his dark hair. “I can’t remember this of course. He took me when he moved out and she let him. But he didn’t…I think he hoped that she would change, because he didn’t tell me about this until much later. He never spoke badly of her.”
He continued and they let him talk, not interrupting to ask questions. He had seen her sporadically over the years, had clearly loved her although he didn’t say as much. He didn’t need to; his pain showed it all too clearly. When he was fourteen, she took him from school without Paul’s knowledge. She played him, and he believed her. She used him, of course. His mind reading skill was so helpful and her cons had grown more ambitious, more dangerous.
He hadn’t really understood it at the time. Libby had an image of him, terribly young and desperately wanting to please an absent mother. It was heartbreaking. She felt anger building inside her, and struggled to contain it.
“It went on for about a year. The last time, she took me to this house.” Danny’s voice quietened in disgust. “The state of it…it was disgusting. The men she was meeting were animals. She wanted them for a job, I’m not sure what. I read them and…it terrified me. The things…” He shook his head as if to clear it. “Anyway, I did as she asked. But they knew, somehow. They weren’t talents, but they knew and they almost killed us.”
In the silence that followed, no one spoke. He offered no more details, although the way Kelly blanched told Libby all she wanted to know.
“At that point Ian convinced dad to get as far from her as possible. It didn’t take much convincing.” He smiled then, his eyes lightening a little as he looked down at Kelly. “Only by that stage I’d met you, so you all had to come along.”
“Ian had been working with Paul for almost two years by then,” Jackson told Libby. “They had no idea that Maria was in contact with Danny.”
Danny grimaced. “I was an idiot.”
Libby swatted Danny’s arm, unable to immediately vocalize her frustration towards his attitude. “You were fourteen. You loved your mother and she used you. You were not an idiot.”
His mouth kicked up in a half smile. “Down, girl.”
“She’s right,” Kelly chided him. “So stop it.”
“Ditto,” Jackson waved that away. “So how does this fit with Libby? I hate coincidences, but the arrival of another link seems a little suspicious at this point.”
“Chill out, Sherlock,” Libby retorted. She understood that he was concerned about her, but as far as she could see the people most affected here, besides Danny, were all back at the house. “It could be a coincidence. It seems to me that if Maria had any interest in us at all, she wouldn’t have faked her own death.”
He didn’t look convinced.
Danny shrugged. “I don’t know. She must have done it after she and dad separated. Dad’s the one to ask. It was as much of a surprise to hear that as it was for Francis.”
“Then we should speak to Paul.”
Rolling her eyes at Jackson’s persistence, Libby reminded him that they’d been sent out of the house.
“We won't be out here all night,” he pointed out.
Kelly interrupted the exchange impatiently. “I need to walk. We’ll see you later.”
Libby watched as the pair moved off, hands linked. She imagined they had a lot to talk about.
“Poor Danny.”
Jackson took a breath. “I know. I knew things with his mother had been bad, but it wasn’t something we ever discussed. And I know I’m being an idiot. I’m just worried about you.”
“Worry about him.” Libby suggested, sliding her arms around his waist. He was warm and for the first time she realized how chilled she had become, standing out in the cold evening air. Automatically, his arms encircled her and drew her close.
“I am worried. Although he could do worse than you for a cousin, I guess.”
Laughing, she looked up at him and met his amused gaze. “Charmer. Isn’t that just crazy? All these years I’ve wanted family and now…”
“And now you have Danny,” Jackson winced theatrically. “Oh well.”
Laughing again, Libby pulled away and caught his hand in hers. “Come on, I’m freezing. If we can’t go in the house, we’ll visit the horses.”
They walked in silence towards the stables. It was warm in there, and the rustle and occasional whinny of the horses made it welcoming.
Libby wandered down the stalls, greeting each horse, stroking their velvet noses. Jackson leaned back against one of the stalls, the horse there nuzzling at his neck. He soothed the stallion absently.
“You think there’s a connection?” Libby asked at last. He took his time answering.
“I think that it would be better to assume there is,” he replied at last. “What are the chances of you and Danny ending up in the same town? That you suddenly are linked to two
people, when forging links is his mum's talent?”
She shrugged, uncomfortable with the fact that he had a point and not wanting to think about the question he was asking himself – which link is the forged one?
Instead she turned her thoughts to her mother, sighed. She couldn’t begin to imagine what her mum was going through right now. How would it feel, to lose a beloved sister only to discover this shocking deceit? To realize that you had a blood relative that you had never known of before now?
It seemed too much to take in.
What if it was?
“She won’t leave.” Jackson spoke her fear out loud.
Libby shuddered, turned to him. “You can’t know that.”
“I know.” He pulled a face and she felt his discomfort. “I know how she felt when she came back, discovered everything you’d been going through. It ripped her apart, Libby.”
She considered that and hoped it was true, because if it was then maybe Francis would stay this time.
“She has no reason to leave anyway,” Jackson continued calmly. “You and Eric know everything. If she’s struggling, she can get help without having to hide it from you.”
The logic of that relaxed her. He had a point. Her mother had disappeared in order to keep her talent secret; that wasn’t necessary now.
“I guess she has Danny to consider now, too.” She mused. “I hope she’s okay.”
“She’s okay.” Jackson shifted. “Come on, they’ve had long enough to talk this through without us. Let’s go back.”
“Well,” Eric dropped his keys onto the kitchen table and sat down in some relief. “What a night. This talent life seems fraught with excitement.”
Libby’s lips twitched as she sat opposite him. “Yeah, it’s been pretty full on so far.”
“It isn’t usually,” Francis commented, automatically filling the kettle with water. “You’ve had something of a trial by fire.”
“So, we need a family meeting,” Eric leaned forward. “Now we know Maria is alive, what happens next?”
Francis heaved out a breath. “What can happen? She let us believe she was dead. She disappeared prior to that. Evidently she cares nothing for us.”
Talent Page 18