Charity had been sitting on a high stool next to the kitchen sink when they rushed by. Her eyes wide, she’d jumped down and hurried after them.
While the water in the shower rushed down her back, Leiann could hear her maid and her rescuer talking in her bedroom. The bathroom door opened. Leiann wrapped the ornate shower curtain around her wet body.
“Miss Hambrick, I’ve put a robe on the vanity for you.” Charity’s comment was followed by the bathroom door opening and closing again.
Leiann turned off the water and leaned her head against the shower wall, letting the marble tiles cool her. What is going on? The whole incident on the mountain felt bizarre. She towel-dried her hair, then wrapped another one around her head before drying off and donning the plush terrycloth robe. Leiann hadn’t heard any voices since her maid brought the robe. Perhaps her rescuer had left.
Charity sat in the chair beside the balcony door, waiting for her to emerge from the bathroom. “Would you like something to eat. . .or maybe a pot of tea?”
“Tea would be nice.” Leiann walked into the closet to choose something to put on.
When Charity returned from downstairs, Leiann stood in the bathroom blow-drying her hair.
“Would you like me to stay with you?” Her maid’s words made Leiann realize she didn’t want to be alone right now.
“Did you bring an extra cup?”
The girl giggled. “I did.”
Leiann unplugged the dryer and stepped into her bedroom. Charity had set places on the table by the window.
“I brought some finger sandwiches, too.” She glanced at Leiann. “Grandma said you’d need something to eat.”
While Leiann slipped into one of the chairs, Charity settled into the other and poured two cups of tea. She added a few heaping spoonfuls of sugar into one and stirred it before handing it to Leiann. “Grandma told me to load it up with sugar to stave off shock.”
“We don’t drink much hot tea in Texas.” Leiann breathed in the fragrant steam wafting from her cup, then took a sip. “It feels funny to be drinking it near Boston. Makes me think about the Boston Tea Party from history class.” She knew she was babbling, but she didn’t want to start crying. This felt like a safe topic.
Charity passed her the plate of sandwiches.
Leiann looked over the variety. “What kind are they?”
“The ones on the white bread are cream cheese and cucumber. Grandma likes those best. Egg salad is on the wheat bread, and chicken salad in the croissants.”
Leiann shook her head. “This is way too much food for me.”
“Don’t worry about it. Someone else will eat whatever we don’t.”
After taking a sample of each kind, Leiann had another thought. “Charity, why were you so formal when you brought the robe to me in the bathroom? You haven’t called me Miss Hambrick since we became friends.”
A sheepish grin covered the girl’s face. “Mr. Mays was just leaving, and I didn’t want him to think I’d forgotten my place.”
“So his name is Mays.” Leiann sank her teeth into the cucumber sandwich.
“Yes. Gerome Mays. He’s only been here a couple of weeks.”
Now her hero had a name.
❧
Gerome drove so fast up the track toward the observation tower that he bumped all over the truck seat and had a hard time keeping his foot on the accelerator. He wanted to pick up all the evidence he could before anyone else took it.
He stopped the truck at the end of the track and, leaving the door open, scrambled the rest of the way up to the structure. The strenuous exercise reminded him that he hadn’t kept to his regimen as well as he should have since arriving here. He leaned his hands on his knees and breathed through his mouth, trying to calm his racing pulse.
Scanning the area, he knew something was wrong. Things had changed since he left here with the girl.
Who was he kidding? She was a woman. Catching her and holding her may have been part of the reason his pulse rate had shifted to double time. Leiann Hambrick had curves in all the right places, and the floral fragrance from her hair tingled in his nostrils even now. In different circumstances, he might have wanted to get to know her better. But at this juncture, he had to remain vigilant.
Gerome stood tall and raked the tower with his intense gaze. His rambling thoughts came to a screeching halt when he finally found what had changed. The wood from the two broken steps no longer hung between the railings. He circled the structure, searching the ground for even a sliver of the lumber. Someone had come up here and removed all of it. He gripped his hands into fists and pounded one of the wooden supports with his right hand. Not a smart move. As he rushed back down to his truck, he rubbed his sore knuckles.
❧
When Eric called Leiann’s room, asking if she would go for a drive with him, she told him no. He’d left her on the tower, hanging on for dear life.
“Where did you go?” Her voice sounded strident, but she didn’t care.
“I went for help. Evidently I needn’t have bothered.”
Leiann took a deep breath. “How did you know I was back at the house?”
“I saw Mays bring you in.” He paused. “Leiann, I have to talk to you.” His voice held an urgency that startled her. “There are things you need to know.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t want to risk anyone overhearing. You don’t understand the danger.”
Because he sounded so upset, she agreed to meet him on the terrace at four. That would give her a little while to get dressed and fix her hair.
She wasn’t comfortable with the way he had disappeared while she dangled from the tower. She could have been killed. To her, that spelled danger with capital letters. How was he going to explain that? As if any explanation would be acceptable.
When she got to the terrace, he wasn’t there. Leiann sat in one of the chairs and let her gaze travel over the back gardens. She hoped to catch a glimpse of Gerome Mays. She wanted to thank him for rescuing her. She’d been so rattled before, she didn’t even think to do it. But he was nowhere in sight.
“Why so glum, Leiann?”
Eric had come up on her without making a sound. She wondered if he did that on purpose or if she was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t hear him.
Leiann stood and faced Eric with her hands on her hips. “What a stupid question. This has been a horrible day.”
He held up both hands as if to ward off her anger. “Wait a minute. I went for help.”
“You left me dangling who knows how many feet up in the air. If I’d fallen to the ground, I could’ve been killed.”
His gaze made a lazy trip up and down her body. “You don’t look hurt to me.”
Leiann fisted her hands to keep from slapping his face. “My arms, hands, and shoulders hurt plenty.”
Eric’s expression softened. “I’m sorry. But I have acrophobia. You know, a fear of heights. So I couldn’t climb up there after you. I hoped to get help before it was too late.”
Leiann crossed her arms and looked out over the rose garden, allowing the rich perfume to calm her nerves while she let this new information sink in. When she looked back at Eric, his eyes were focused on her.
“It’s a good thing Mr. Mays was there. He saved me and brought me home.” When she realized what she said, she gasped. Why had she called this home?
“Yeah, good thing.” Eric sounded skeptical. “Didn’t you wonder what the moody gardener was doing up there at that time of day?”
“Why should I? I’m just thankful he came to my rescue.”
Eric stuck one hand in the front pocket of his slacks and jingled the contents. “The reason I want you to go for a ride with me is so I can show you what I found when I got back up there.”
“What did you find?” Leiann was losing her patience.
“The boards had been cut almost all the way through. Someone tried to kill you. It could have been anyone. It could even have been Mays. Maybe he was
hiding so he could watch you fall.”
“Then why did he rescue me?”
“Probably because he didn’t want to leave a witness, and I’d seen it happen.”
Leiann couldn’t imagine a reason anyone would want to kill her. She rubbed her forehead. All this gave her a headache. Suddenly, another thought popped into her head. “How did you get the wood down from the steps if you have acrophobia?” She glared at Eric.
The jingling stopped. “It fell when you did. I found it on the ground at the base of the tower.”
That makes sense, doesn’t it? Leiann wondered who she could trust. The only person who’d told her about the sabotage was Eric. And he’d always been a gentleman with her. Maybe she could trust him. “What do we do now? Should we call the police?”
“That would upset your grandfather. I think it would be better to wait until we know for sure what happened. That way we don’t worry him without reason. He had a bout with his heart before you came, and even though the doctor says he’s okay, I wouldn’t want to cause more trouble.”
Concern wrinkled Eric’s brow. “How about if I do a little more checking on my own? I’ve done private investigation before. I’ll call the law in after I see what I can dig up myself.”
Perhaps he was right. Leiann didn’t want to disturb her grandfather until it was necessary. She just hoped that Eric would quickly be able to dig up the information.
❧
Leiann spent part of every day with her grandfather, and the more she got to know him, the better she liked him. She’d seen how quickly he tired, so she didn’t want him upset needlessly, but Eric’s investigation was taking longer than she’d hoped.
Three days after the accident, Leiann’s grandfather sent word that he wanted to have a long talk with her after breakfast. When she finished eating, she walked the familiar hallways to his office.
“Come in, my dear.” Her grandfather waited for her in the conversation area of the office. “Close the door behind you.”
She did, then sat on the couch across from his easy chair. “What do you want to talk about today?”
He clasped his hands loosely in his lap. “I need to tell you the rest of the story about what happened to your mother. I hope that since you’ve come to know me, you can forgive an old man for the many mistakes he has made in his life.”
The time she had anticipated and dreaded was finally here. Leiann felt expectant and apprehensive at the same time. “I’ll try.”
Herman Johnson began to fidget with his clasped hands. He kept his eyes trained toward the floor instead of looking at her. “I was a very hard man when I was younger. I came from a poor family, but I vowed that I wouldn’t stay that way. I fought and clawed my way to success, eventually owning many businesses. I was ruthless in the takeovers, never caring who was hurt in the process.”
He leaned forward. “When my wife died, I became even harder. . .and bitter. As my son grew older, I wanted to control him. When Lee told me he was going to marry your mother, I forbade the marriage. I thought Geneva was a nobody, not worthy of my son’s attention.”
The words felt like bullets to Leiann’s heart, but she tried not to show how much they hurt.
“Lee was strong and stubborn, just like me. He married her anyway.” His tight smile indicated his pride in her father. “I’m most ashamed of the way I tried to buy off your mother by offering her a lot of money to never see my son again. But Geneva told me she loved him and rejected my offer. . .and me. I thought all my money would buy me anything I wanted.” He wilted against the back of the chair. “I was furious at her, but I couldn’t blame her.”
Something inside Leiann wanted to comfort him, but she held back. She needed to hear more.
“Within three months of their elopement, your father was killed in a motorcycle accident. I hadn’t wanted Lee to have that bike, and he knew it. Riding it was another form of rebellion from my controlling ways. I’ll always blame myself for pushing him away when all I wanted was to hold him in my arms and love him. Too bad I hadn’t built the connection with him when he was younger.”
Tears filled Leiann’s eyes. She blinked to clear them.
“When he died, I didn’t know that your mother was carrying you. That probably was a good thing. I would have tried to control her life, too. When she quickly married Milton Hambrick, I thought that proved she hadn’t really loved Lee.”
When his voice broke, Leiann took a deep breath. This wasn’t easy to hear.
“Leiann.” Her grandfather’s tone grew softer. “Do you know why your mother gave you the name you have?”
She shook her head. “I asked her more than once, but she never told me.”
“It’s a combination of Lee and her middle name, Ann. That was her tribute to my son.” His smile took on a faraway quality. “How I misjudged that fine woman.” He took out a pristine linen handkerchief and wiped his eyes. “When I went to her in contrition, she forgave me.”
Leiann wanted to get him back to the story. “Where did she meet Milton?”
“He was a fellow student in college. She was working toward a nursing degree, and Milton was a ministerial student.”
“But Mother was never a nurse.” Leiann felt bewildered, something like Alice when she fell down the rabbit hole.
“No. She dropped out of school after they married. Milton knew she was carrying Lee’s child, but he wanted to help raise you. Because of an illness when he was young, Milton could never father a child of his own. They both loved you very much.”
Grief welled up inside her. Leiann pulled a tissue from the box on the table beside the couch.
Her grandfather leaned toward her and patted her hand. “I didn’t want to make you cry. But I knew I couldn’t tell you the whole story without doing that.”
She hiccuped a sob. “Please go ahead. I need to know it all.”
“When I realized what a selfish man I’d been, I asked Milton to come see me. I asked him why he would marry a woman he knew was pregnant with another man’s child and raise that child as his own. He shared Jesus with me.”
That sounds like Milton.
“When I became a Christian, my outlook on life changed. All the money meant nothing to me.”
Leiann had often heard that many wealthy people weren’t happy or fulfilled. Her grandfather exemplified that.
“I wanted to become a part of your life, but Milton asked me to allow him to continue raising you as if he were your natural father. How could I do anything else? He rescued Geneva and you when you both needed it.”
Tears blurred Leiann’s vision, but she didn’t wipe them away.
“I did keep up with what was going on with you. I knew when you broke your arm, when you had your first violin recital. . .”
“I never did learn to play very well.” Leiann gave a self-deprecating laugh.
“I know. I heard all about it.”
Leiann wondered who told him. Her mother and Milton had always said she played well. She wondered if her grandfather had someone shadowing her. The thought made her feel a little creepy.
“Milton and Geneva corresponded with me over the years. They also sent me pictures of you. I have an album in my bedroom that I look at whenever I have trouble falling asleep.”
Leiann had twisted the wet tissue until it disintegrated. She stood and threw it in the wastebasket beside the desk before sitting in the chair beside her grandfather’s.
“Milton had his heart attack when he was still a young man. Your mother almost lost the house. Even if she took a job, she knew she couldn’t afford to keep it. So I talked her into letting me help. I bought the house and convinced Geneva that the monthly checks I sent would have been your father’s anyway, so she should use it for you. That way she could continue to stay home and raise you.”
“I assumed Daddy had taken out a really good insurance policy since Mom was able to do that.” So much began to make sense now.
“I thought Geneva would tell you the whole story
when you grew up, but she never did. I didn’t think I had a right to push for it, but I’ve wanted to get to know you for years. I probably should have signed the house over to her, but I guess enough of my old nature remained for me to want to keep it in case I needed it for leverage to see you.” The elderly man’s voice shook.
Leiann patted his hand, wondering what would happen next. Although the story she’d just heard answered many questions, it brought to mind several others. But she’d wait until she had a chance to mull all this over before deciding what to ask.
Seven
After her grandfather said he needed to rest, Leiann told Mrs. Shields she would like to have her lunch out on the terrace. While she waited for the meal to arrive, she strolled along the many paths through the arbors and between flower beds. In Texas this time of the year, midday would be scorching. She enjoyed the more temperate climate in Massachusetts.
As she rounded one corner, she came face-to-face with the man she’d been hoping to see for three days. Gerome Mays looked as startled as she felt.
“I’ve been looking for you, but you haven’t been around.” She reached up to brush from her eyes the strands of hair a capricious breeze had been playing with. “I wanted to thank you for saving me.”
❧
Gerome stared into intriguing eyes that changed color every time he saw them. Today, against the backdrop of lush leaves and flowers, they took on a greenish hue.
“I’m glad I was there to help.” He couldn’t tear his gaze from hers.
The woman was beautiful. No wonder Eric Smith was always trying to spend time with her.
Gerome wondered how he could ever have thought she could be a part of the swindle. Innocence surrounded her like a cloak.
Who Am I? Page 5