The Housekeeper's Daughter

by Laurie Paige

  “I don’t think their marriage is very happy right now.”

  “There’s been a lot of stress with the shootings and the kidnapping, then the police investigation.”

  “Isn’t trouble supposed to bring couples closer?”

  Maya ignored the cynical undertone. “It can go either way, or so I’ve read. I think marriage must be hard in the best of times.”

  He was quiet for a few minutes. “You wouldn’t let me say this last night, but I think we should try it.”

  “Marriage?”

  “Yes. For Marissa’s sake.”

  “That isn’t fair,” she murmured in protest.

  “Life never is.”

  The sardonic resignation in his voice troubled her. “A child needs a stable home. She would sense if we were unhappy. It would confuse her.”

  “Would we be unhappy? Last night was pretty fantastic.”

  Sparks shimmered inside her as she relived those moments of magic—his hands, so gentle as he stroked her, his lips, so enticing as he kissed her, his eyes…

  Last night there had been moments when she’d felt close to him. With the dawn, the distance had returned. She wondered if he was thinking of his mother and father and the unhappiness that seemed to surround them.

  That was the problem when morning came: all the problems came flooding back.

  Maya wanted to offer comfort, but she didn’t. The complications in their lives seemed insurmountable. She knew she had only to say the word and Drake would make the necessary arrangements; they could be married by noon. And then what? Happily ever after?

  Her heart set up a cacophonous beat. They had shared a wild, tender passion during the night. That and a child, were those enough to cement a marriage into one happy whole?

  She didn’t know, but it was a chance she was reluctant to take. “It’s easier to dream of how wonderful it might have been than to know the reality of failure.”

  “Yes.”

  He sounded so sad. It broke her heart.

  “My parents aren’t a good example,” he continued. “Yours are. Why does their marriage work? I’ve never seen Inez or Marco even frown at each other, much less quarrel.”

  She had to smile. “They do, though. Once Daddy complained about too much spice in the salsa. Mom dumped the entire batch in the garbage. Neither of them spoke during the whole meal. Later, after we went to bed, Lana and I heard them laughing like mad.”

  Drake’s eyes flicked to her. “Sounds as if they kissed and made up,” he suggested huskily.

  Chills ran along her scalp and down her arms at the look in those golden depths. It was the way he’d studied her last night, as if he wanted to memorize every inch of her.

  “Did we do that last night?”

  The softly spoken question took her off-guard. “There’s nothing to make up.”

  “I think there is.”

  “Guilt,” she murmured.

  “Perhaps.” His manner was introspective. “I did leave you to face the music alone—your parents, mine, the town.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” She managed a laugh. “One thing I learned is that a person endures. One day at a time.”

  “Does it ever become easier?” He sounded doubtful.

  “Yes,” she said, realizing it was true. She studied him, sensing more to the question. “What troubles you, Drake? If it’s me, you don’t have to worry. I really can make it on my own, even with a baby. I’ve saved during the past ten years. With very few expenses, I’ve banked most of what I made. When I get my teaching certificate, I’ll have a secure future. I won’t be rich, but I’ll be able to support Marissa without help.”

  “What if I want to help?”

  “How? By sending money?”

  “That’s one way,” he admitted.

  “Money isn’t a child’s main need.”

  “I’ve told you I’m willing to be a full-time parent. And husband.”

  She swallowed as misery blocked her throat. “Then the baby and I would live with you? Go with you wherever you go?”

  “You can’t,” he began, then stopped, a scowl on his handsome face. “I’m posted to danger zones, sometimes for months on end.”

  “Don’t families ever go to these places?”

  “Sometimes, but—”

  “But you wouldn’t take yours there.”

  He nodded. “One guy I worked with, his house was blown to bits by terrorists. It isn’t a situation I’d recommend for women and children.”

  “As you said in your note, there’s no place for a wife and family in your life,” she said, not allowing herself to flinch from the hurtful truth.

  He was silent for a mile. “I always thought that, but there’s the child to think of.”

  “Marissa is mine, Drake. Don’t try to take her from me. I still have that note. I’ll use it in court if I have to.”

  Instead of anger, his expression changed to one of tenderness. “Mama tiger,” he said softly, “I’d never try to take your kitten. As far as I’m concerned, you and Marissa are a package deal.”

  She wasn’t sure what to say to that, so she kept silent and mulled over the conversation. She wondered if she was letting her ego stand in the way. Her mother had cautioned her about excessive pride often during her growing years.

  But she wanted so much more than a marriage forced upon them because of the baby. She wanted love and sharing and laughter. Drake saw only the responsibility, but none of the joy of the union. That wasn’t enough, not for her, and not for him in the long run.

  They arrived at the ranch shortly after eleven, in time to see several people ride off in different directions through the drizzle.

  “Something’s happened,” Drake muttered.

  Maya felt it, too. Icy fingers of dread ran along her neck as they went into the house. Joe appeared at the door of his den. “Drake, you’re back. Good.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  Ms. Meredith appeared from the living room. “Joe Junior has disappeared. He was gone this morning when Inez went to get him up for school.”

  Her eyes, so like Drake’s, flicked to Maya, the anger a palpable force in them, then to her husband. Maya steeled herself for a dressing-down.

  “I see no reason to pay someone to watch over the boys if she isn’t going to do her job,” Meredith said coldly.

  “What happened?” Drake interrupted.

  Joe returned his wife’s frown with one equally ferocious before answering. “He was sent to his room last night for talking at the table.”

  Meredith glared at her husband for a moment longer, then spun and returned to the living room.

  The boys must have been called to the main table for a command performance, Maya surmised, and Joe Junior had gotten in trouble with his mother. She stared out the window at the rain while Drake and his father looked at a map of the area and discussed the areas already searched.

  “I think I know where he might have gone,” she said.

  The men turned to her.

  “I showed the boys my old hiding place among the boulders, near the alcove on the beach, recently. A kid can crawl between the boulder shaped like a giant egg and the cliff. There’s a clear area under the rocks, roomy enough to sit up and move about. It was my secret castle when I was a child.”

  “I’ll go look,” Drake said at once.

  “I’ll go, too,” she said.

  “No,” Drake and Joe said together.

  “It’s too dangerous,” Joe continued. “Visibility is nearly zero, and the steps are slippery.”

  She knew the men were right. She nodded. “Be careful,” she said to Drake.

  Drake swallowed against the lump that formed in his throat at the worry that darkened her eyes, not just for his little brother, but for him, too.

  He’d never wanted anyone to be anxious about him, had never asked for it. With Maya, it wasn’t necessary to ask. She was there, like the north star, steadfast in her faith in others. Warmth swept down to that cold dark s
pot within.

  “I will,” he said huskily.

  He threw on rain gear and headed for the stairs. The mist obscured the beach entirely as he made his way down the steps. Once on the damp sand, he jogged toward the alcove, his eyes on the waves beating against the shore. The storm surge might have reached the rocky area during the night.

  With the rain softening the soil, whole hillsides had been known to let go in a mighty rumble and fall like an avalanche on those below.

  “Joe,” he called when he reached the huge pile of boulders that had once been part of the cliff face.

  There was no answer.

  Drake lay flat on the sand and, using his elbows, worked his way through the V-shaped opening. Under the boulders was a small room, just as Maya had described. Joe lay on a blanket, curled into a ball, blissfully asleep.

  “Hey,” Drake said, shaking the boy’s shoulder.

  “What?” Joe sat up and looked around wildly. “Oh, Drake, it’s you,” he said in relief.

  “Yeah. Time to go home.”

  Joe shrank back. “I don’t want to.”

  “I know, old man, but you have to face the music sooner or later. Maya’s worried about you.”

  “She should have been home last night,” Joe said in accusing tones. His lip trembled and tears filled his eyes.

  “She’s waiting for you,” Drake said kindly. “Come on.”

  He eased outside and brushed the sand off. Joe followed. Drake laid a hand on the boy’s neck. Joe threw his arms around him and held on for a second before screwing up his courage and stepping back.

  Drake was surprised at how touched he was by this simple gesture. He’d never been around the youngest kids much, but he felt a bond with them. He thought his own childhood had been happier and easier than theirs, although he couldn’t say why. So much seemed to have changed in the past ten years.

  The two returned to the house. There their mother—if she was their real mother—grabbed the boy and kissed and cried over him, almost hysterical in her relief.

  Drake observed her actions with some concern and a bit of cynicism. Maybe he would ask Maya if she’d read anything about split-personality types. Or he could buy Rand’s and Em’s evil twin theory. It was beginning to seem plausible.

  When Meredith at last let him go, Joe went to Maya. “I’m sorry,” he said, misery in the droop of his shoulders.

  She brushed the hair off his forehead. “I think you need to apologize to your parents for the worry you caused them,” she suggested softly.

  Drake smiled slightly when Joe faced the parents. In spite of a skewed family life, Joe and Teddy would be okay, he decided. Because of Maya. She was honest and loving and giving, and they trusted her.

  Emptiness grew in him, pushing at the warmth that lingered from the night of passion. A man would miss a woman like her….

  “I’m sorry, Mom, Dad,” Joe said dutifully.

  “You should be,” Meredith said, anger surfacing. “That was a thoughtless and stupid thing to do. You worried us half to death.”

  “I think the boy realizes that,” Joe Senior said. “Joe, you’d better go shower, then have lunch. I’ll drive you in for the afternoon session at school.”

  The boy bounded out of the room.

  “I’d better go see about him.” Maya, too, hurried out.

  Drake watched Maya flee. His mother was rather formidable when she got started.

  “I have some news from Thaddeus Law,” Joe continued to his wife, including Drake with a glance.

  “What?” his mother demanded. “Is it about Patsy?”

  Joe nodded. “There was a fire at the clinic, set by one of the inmates. All the records were destroyed. The present head of the clinic wasn’t there when Patsy was, but he thought the letter you received was authentic. I suppose we’ll have to accept that Patsy is dead and her ashes scattered in the Pacific.”

  “She could hardly fake her own death,” Meredith said as if questioned on the matter.

  Drake studied his mother. She was tense. Her eyes, the same color as his, held a feverish glint.

  Her manner worried him. Once he’d worked with a guy, a bomb defuser, who had been the soul of quiet competence, then one day the man had exploded in the officer’s mess, threatened to blow up everyone and had to be taken away.

  The human mind could be a dangerous thing.

  His father spoke. “I didn’t mean to imply she did. It just makes things a little more complicated.”

  “Nothing is complicated! If the police would leave things alone, there would be no problem!”

  Puzzled, Drake watched as his mother paced the floor, her hands clenched in rage. He sighed. He no longer understood this woman who had been a tender, nurturing mother in the past. He didn’t doubt that her joy had been real when he brought Joe Junior home, but everything after that didn’t make sense.

  “I’m afraid two shootings and a kidnapping add up to more than a spot of trouble in the eyes of the law,” Joe said wryly.

  With an infuriated little cry, Meredith walked out. Drake listened until the sound of her footsteps was drowned by the slamming of her bedroom door.

  His father stared out the window for a few minutes while Drake wondered if he should quietly disappear.

  “Thanks for getting Joe,” his dad said.

  “It was no problem. He was where Maya said.”

  Joe smiled. “She’s good with the boys. How did she do on the test?”

  “I’m sure she aced it, but she was nervous. As usual.” He shared a smile of understanding with his father.

  “Did you two talk about the future?”

  “Some. I think we might be close to an agreement.”

  “A settled life is good for a family. It can bring some of your happiest years.”

  “Or some of the unhappiest,” Drake said, “if the marriage doesn’t work.”

  His father gazed at him, sorrow in his eyes. “Then it can be hell,” he agreed.

  Patsy deposited the diamond earrings and slammed the lid on her jewelry console. Meredith’s jewelry console.

  She hated the life she led—Joe, the house far up the coast from the city and any excitement, the housekeeper with her all-seeing eyes. How had Meredith stood it?

  Ha! Her goody-goody sister had probably loved it.

  Sitting at her desk, Patsy glanced at the bills scornfully. She had more expenses than Joe could possibly know, what with hiring Silas Pike to get rid of Emily, a P.I. searching for the real Meredith and another investigator looking for her beloved daughter Jewel—lost to her because Ellis Mayfair took the baby away while she slept and wouldn’t tell her where he’d hidden the child, which was why she’d had to kill him.

  That stupid Pike. He was costing her a bundle. Maybe she could get more money out of Graham. No, probably not. And the ransom money from Emily’s supposed kidnapping was useless, marked so that she couldn’t use it.

  She tapped her nails on the leather pad, then exclaimed in disgust. She needed another trip to San Francisco. Her nails and hair looked terrible, and there was no one competent in Prosperino, no one at all.

  If she could find Jewel, she’d take her and the boys to live in Los Angeles. As soon as she inherited Joe’s fortune.

  He hadn’t changed his will. She was sure of that. He’d better not. She needed that money to care for the children.

  Her babies. They loved her. Children always loved their mother. Even Meredith’s brats loved her, as if she were their real mother.

  She laughed in delight. She had them all fooled.

  However, Joe was getting harder to handle. It had been a mistake to have Teddy. But how was she to know that Joe had become sterile due to mumps?

  However, Teddy had given her a hold over Graham, so that hadn’t been all bad. Everything would be fine. She only had to hold on a little longer.

  If Pike would hurry up and take care of Emily, if Joe would hurry and meet his end, then all would be well. With a fortune and her adoring chil
dren around her, she would be happy. She closed her eyes in ecstasy.

  Drake walked aimlessly through the dark. The day had ended on an uneasy note. Dinner had been tense with neither of his parents speaking.

  Maya hadn’t eaten in the kitchen but had taken dinner for her and the boys to her room. Drake had left her alone, eating in the formal dining room, then leaving the house for a long walk after that. The restlessness was in him again.

  He stopped beside the road as he recognized the outline of the country church he had once attended. Changing directions, he went around the church to the small cemetery at the back. Pushing the old wrought-iron gate open, he walked through and stopped.

  His heart beat with a dull thud of dread as he contemplated life, a thing he seemed to be doing a lot of lately. Continuing on, he walked past headstones over a century old to the newer section close to the road.

  He hadn’t been here in years, not since he used to come with his mother to put flowers on the grave stone each Memorial Day. At a small granite marker in the Colton section, he stopped. It was a lonely site with its one child-sized grave.

  Michael Colton. Beloved Son and Brother.

  His mother had had the last added for him. “Because he knew you loved him,” she’d said.

  Michael, watch out!

  His call hadn’t been fast enough to save his twin. His prayers hadn’t been enough to breathe life back into that broken, lifeless body lying in the dust. Not enough…

  There were some things that could never be made right.

  Sitting on a bench, cold with winter dew, Drake rested his forearms on his thighs. A large part of himself was buried here, with the twin he had never stopped missing.

  “Michael,” he murmured, “there’s a child.”

  He didn’t know why he said that or why it felt like a plea. But there was a need inside him that couldn’t be denied. He had to find an answer. Or else he thought his soul would die. It had come to that point.

  “If you knew Maya… She was only eight when you died. Do you remember her?”

  Would Michael love her if he were alive today?

  As he did?

  The question burned down to his soul. “I love her,” he said, and that was another pain, one harsher than all the others. More than that, she loved him. And that was the greatest hurt. Because he didn’t deserve it. He’d run out on that love, afraid to face what it might mean in his life.