Blue Clouds

by Patricia Rice

  Of course, considering the state of the country, that might not be such a bad thing.

  Seth sipped his tea and waited as Pippa showed Dirk out. He had the ominous notion that she would return shortly with a thundercloud over her head.

  Idly, he wondered why—with all his wealth—he couldn’t hire meekly obedient yes-men.

  “That was a particularly nasty specimen,” Pippa announced as soon as she returned and sagged into the lounge chair.

  Not completely a thundercloud but close, Seth reflected as he sipped his tea and ignored her opening volley. He might actually be coming close to understanding one woman in this world. Of course, this one woman had a nature as open as the valley beyond his window. He’d have to be pretty simple-minded not to notice the storm brewing.

  “I’ve been thinking about what you told me about Mikey,” he replied irrelevantly.

  That brought her up straight.

  “Have your friends taken him to the best specialists? Perhaps there’s some new treatment....”

  Her eyes narrowed and Seth could see the lightning flicker.

  “Did you think I’d let them go anywhere but the best? I’ve been researching this disease and—”

  Seth waved his hand and cut off the coming diatribe. “All right, I had to ask. You yelled at me for not taking Chad to specialists. Now, play the part of psychologist. How difficult will it be for Chad if he grows up to be friends with Mikey and has to watch him slowly die before he ever has a chance to live?”

  Seth waited out Pippa’s silence. He could see the torn loyalties evolving. She wanted the best of everything for Mikey, things she knew Seth and Chad could provide, but she didn’t want Chad hurt. That she wanted to protect his son as much as she wanted to protect Mikey reassured him.

  “Chad needs a friend,” she replied slowly. “So does Mikey. Right now, they’re good for each other. They may grow apart as years go by. If they don’t...” She sighed, swirled her tea, and stared over the pool. “I have no easy answers.”

  “All right, we’ll take it one step at a time. Do you have access to Mikey’s specialists? Can you find out what he needs most to help him lead an active, normal life for as long as possible?”

  “Money,” she replied dryly. “Money for experimental medicines, money for doctors and hospitals, money for equipment. The list is endless. That’s why George has to sell the pharmacy and find a job with good insurance. You may not have to worry about Chad and Mikey. George is considering a position in ’Frisco.”

  “And if I rebuild the printing plant?”

  Pippa swung around and stared at this stranger she thought she’d known these last few weeks. Seth wore dark glasses to shield his eyes. He wasn’t even looking in her direction as he sipped his tea. She thanked the heavens he was fully dressed in one of his long-sleeved turtlenecks. If he’d been in his swim trunks, looking accessible, she’d probably have leaned over and kissed him, and she knew where that would lead. As it was, the distance he carefully preserved through his mode of dress and body language served her well. She kept her response as low-key as his.

  “I know very little about printing plants except that they apparently employ large numbers of people. Any industry employing large numbers of people in the valley will turn the economy around. George could stay here and pay his own insurance.”

  “The people in town despise me. I’ve never seen any particularly good reason to help them out.”

  Land Mine Number One. Pippa edged around it carefully. “I don’t know the group dynamics here. Is it possible they think you despise them, and so return the favor?”

  He didn’t answer. He swirled the ice in his glass, frowned at the pool, then stood up. “I do despise them,” he answered calmly, before striding into the house.

  “Oh, hell,” Pippa muttered, draining her glass. Maybe she should learn to drink beer.

  ***

  “I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve filed these invoices in different order. Now you can see the last billing instantly and can compare it to the last payment on the computer.”

  Lillian slid the manila folder into the file cabinet and patted the drawer almost affectionately. “I set up this system when I was a teenager. It’s nice knowing it still works, even in this age of computers.”

  Pippa stared morosely at the stacks of bills and invoices that had grown this past week of Chad’s illness and convalescence. “Whoever said computers would eliminate paperwork had turpentine for brains. Computers generate more gunk than a prize cow.”

  “Gunk?” Lillian asked delicately.

  Pippa shrugged. “My mama told me not to use those other words.”

  “Gunk.” Lillian’s cosmetically polished facade almost cracked a grin. “Cow gunk, that’s all it is.” She swept a beringed hand over the stacks of mail. “We could shove it all in the basket and tell everyone the bomb blew it away.”

  “After that newspaper story hit the press today, I’m sure they’ll all believe you. The phone’s been ringing off the hook. If only everyone had Skype so I could watch their expressions, I’d tell Seth’s editors the book got blown away. They’re about to have cows as it is.”

  “You didn’t by any chance grow up on a dairy farm, did you, dear?” Lillian asked wryly. “Your language is quite bucolic this morning.”

  “I’m just trying to avoid the part that involves bulls.” Sighing, Pippa grabbed a handful of envelopes, scanned the return addresses, and dropped them in the wastebasket. “I could almost wish it was my desk they blew up. Seth doesn’t keep anything in his....”

  Her gaze met Lillian’s, and in unison, they scanned the contents of Pippa’s desk.

  “Besides the book, is there anything else of importance in here?” Lillian asked tightly. “Something someone might want destroyed?”

  Pippa ran a mental checklist as she recited: “Current bills, correspondence, checkbooks, Rolodex, reports from various companies—-nothing important.”

  “Reports,” Lillian repeated, pleating her perfectly made-up brow in a frown. “List all the reports.”

  Pippa stared at the older, white-haired woman she’d once considered a pampered layabout, but obediently, she searched her memory. “There’s always financial statements. I just file them. Seth hates looking at them.”

  Lillian clucked her disapproval but signaled Pippa to continue.

  “In the last week he’s received a report on the new plant merger and the paper crisis in Japan.” She shuffled through the stack in her in-box. “And a lot of stuff I haven’t opened yet. Here’s one addressed ‘confidential.’ The address belongs to that man who was here yesterday. I think he’s a detective.”

  They looked at each other again.

  “That wouldn’t make sense,” Pippa murmured in protest. “He could always write another report. It’s probably on his secretary’s computer.”

  “Call his secretary,” Lillian ordered. “And give that envelope to Seth right now.”

  Pippa picked up the lightweight envelope and shook her head. Even maniacs didn’t blow people up over a report that could just as easily be transmitted by phone or fax and was probably copied in triplicate and buried in file cabinets in three different locations. Seth probably knew everything in the report already.

  Maybe someone wanted to destroy his book. That made more sense. Blow up the computer and the backup disks, and it would take months to reconstruct from the scribbled-over hard copies kicking around the office. But why would anyone want to destroy a book?

  She didn’t have time to consider the idea. Before she could carry the report to Seth, the intercom buzzed. Hitting the button, she heard Doug’s exasperated voice.

  “Tell Seth he’s got a visitor and there ain’t no way in hell I’m trying to keep his ex-wife waiting at the gate. She looks like she’s gonna run over me right now.”

  Chapter 24

  “He’s been ill, he’s under a nurse’s care, he slept right through the explosion, and if he were in any danger, I’d have hi
m out of here faster than your tongue can flap.” Disgruntled, Seth stalked up and down the acre-wide living room, crumpling the confidential letter Pippa had given him while his wife sat taut and brittle on the couch.

  Pippa had never been in this room before. Seth never used it, but she surmised it served his purpose in keeping his distance from Natalie. Instinct urged her to get the hell out of this domestic dispute, but Seth’s glare every time she edged for the door as well as her own curiosity held her back.

  “He’s in danger just being in your vicinity,” Natalie snapped back. “Time has proven that well enough. You haven’t seen me drive my car off a cliff into a tree or receive packages that explode.”

  Low blow. Pippa watched Seth flinch but she was in no position to protect him from his ex-wife’s venom. She focused her concentration on the tiny woman revolving around the room like a dervish ready to implode at any minute. Natalie was definitely not the elegant socialite Pippa had expected. Instead of the tall, blond Miss America type, she was short, dark, and workout hard. Pippa could envision her taking Seth down in a physical confrontation. She had that kind of energy and pent-up hostility.

  “That has nothing to do with anything,” Seth replied wearily, amazing Pippa with his lack of anger. “You don’t have the time, facilities, or money to provide Chad with everything I can. Hell, someone could kidnap him from that country club you call home and you probably wouldn’t notice for three days. Just let it be, Natalie. Don’t dredge up more excuses for your lack of maternal instinct.”

  Oh, wow, talk about hitting a sore toe. Pippa waited for the fireworks.

  “Lack of maternal instinct!” Natalie screamed. “What do you mean, lack of maternal instinct? I—”

  “...would rather play golf than take Chad to doctors,” a voice completed the sentence from the doorway.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, Pippa edged closer to the snowy-haired matron sailing into the room. Maybe now she could get out of here.

  Natalie swirled around and glared. “Lillian! I thought you were on my side.”

  “I have always been on my son’s side,” Lillian responded regally, settling on an immense silk-covered Victorian sofa. “When I thought he needed a good wife, I found him one, but you disappointed me. You continue to disappoint me. You have no right to slander my son in public or private. He’s always done what he thought best for Chad.”

  “Mother, this really isn’t necessary.”

  Seth raised a weary hand in an attempt to intervene, but Pippa could see it was a losing battle. She was beginning to understand that he was a private man, one who needed solitude like flowers need rain, and that he had no interpersonal skills for dealing with confrontation—unless he could slug them, she admitted with a mental grin. These two strong women would flatten him like steamrollers with their storms and demands while he tried to act the part of gentleman. Apparently, he could only deal with people who could be bought and sold, hired and fired.

  “Mr. Wyatt,” she interjected formally, “I hear Chad calling for you. Why don’t you go up and see what he wants while I have Nana bring in some tea? Lunch should be ready in an hour.”

  She lied, and Seth knew she lied. They couldn’t hear a volley from a firing squad outside this cavern. Pippa ignored his sharp look and maintained her pleasant expression as he accepted this excuse and escaped. Natalie looked as if she would follow, but Pippa stepped in her way.

  “Chad shouldn’t be overexcited at this point. Mr. Wyatt will pave the way so you may visit him shortly. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll have refreshments sent in.”

  She almost escaped, but Natalie’s harsh response caught her by surprise.

  “You’re sleeping with him, aren’t you? How much is he paying you? God only knows, it would take a small fortune to keep any sane woman out here, let alone endure his constant demands. How much would it take to get you on my side?”

  Pippa literally saw red. She swung around and pinned the other woman with a furious look. “You just nailed your own coffin, Mrs. Wyatt. I would have supported your rights as a mother without a word, but I would never subject that child to the viciousness of a serpent. If I were you, I’d do a full survey of my priorities, right now. You’ve got them ass backward.”

  Pippa stalked out, steaming. She’d never lost her temper like that before. Never. She never swore in front of strangers either. She couldn’t even tell if she was defending Seth and Chad or herself, or hiding a guilty conscience. She just knew no one had ever crawled under her skin as quickly as that woman had. If she had time to cool off, she might wonder why. Not now.

  It took Lillian to pinpoint the crux of the matter.

  Finding Pippa typing furiously in her office some while later, she set a glass of iced tea beside her and intruded without invitation. “You’re jealous of Natalie.”

  The amusement in her voice as much as the words jerked Pippa’s head up. She glared at Lillian. “I thought you were my friend.”

  “I’m Seth’s mother before I’m anyone. I’m lousy at it, admittedly. I never had much of an example to follow and never really had the backbone to learn. But a mother’s instincts are strong, regardless of how poor her training.”

  Lillian stood there defiantly, daring Pippa to argue. Garbed in her usual armor of silk and jewels, she could have vanquished presidents with her vitriol. Instead, she chose to let Pippa stand in judgment of her words.

  Pippa shook her head. This day was much too long. Seth didn’t pay her enough for this. She’d better start looking for another job. But the thought of the little boy in bed upstairs, and Billy waiting outside the fence, held her back. Seth and his needs might terrify her. His mother might scare the hell out of her. But neither was worse than Billy or more compelling than Chad.

  All right, so Seth might be equally compelling, but that was only more reason to run.

  “I’m not certain I would call it jealousy,” she responded carefully. “It’s very hard for me to imagine a woman fortunate enough to have everything Mrs. Wyatt had and who would throw it all away. For what? Out of spite?”

  “Her name is Golding now. She married an old high school lover of hers after she divorced Seth. I think she was sleeping with him while she was still married to Seth. I made as rotten a choice of wife for my son as I did of husband for myself.”

  Turning the conversation away from herself released some of the pressure, but Pippa didn’t really want to be involved in family history. She didn’t want to be involved at all. Getting involved meant feeling the pain of the people around her.

  “No one can foresee the future. I’m pretty rotten at choosing men myself. Maybe we should take up astrology. From what I can tell, it can’t work any worse.”

  “You’re avoiding the subject, Pippa,” Lillian chided.

  “Natalie is having lunch with Chad, and Seth is sulking in his room. Shall we eat by the pool?”

  Pippa would rather emulate Seth and nurse her wounds in her room, but she couldn’t turn her back on Lillian’s needs any more than she could ignore Chad’s or Seth’s. She was a glutton for punishment. Where was the backbone her mother had kept telling her to straighten?

  Deciding that she had the spine of a jellyfish, Pippa reluctantly rose from her desk, and picking up her glass of tea, followed Lillian through the house. Had she not had her feet knocked out from under her several times lately, she’d have stormed upstairs and dragged Seth from his lair to join them. But an action like that would only confirm the relationship everyone assumed was between them. The nonexistent relationship, she repeated firmly to herself.

  “My son is not an easy man to know,” Lillian said as she settled into the poolside chair at the table where Nana had set out linens and silverware.

  “And you’re not any good at matchmaking,” Pippa reminded her pointedly, taking the opposite chair.

  “What was in that letter, anything important?” Lillian demanded, picking up her napkin.

  “Nothing worth bombing an office,” Pippa acknowle
dged. Seth had merely scanned the contents and trashed it as if it contained no surprises. “Have you had any luck in finding contractors for the gym yet?”

  “The gym may be a waste of time if Natalie wins the court suit and takes Chad.” Lillian unfolded her napkin and laid it across her lap without looking up.

  Well, that was a different direction, Pippa supposed. Glaring down at the selection of silverware and wondering whatever happened to good old-fashioned plastic, she stabbed something on her plate that looked green and slimy and swallowed it rather than answer.

  “I hope that man Seth hired will prove Natalie is a bad mother, but the courts really don’t look favorably on fathers, you know.” Lillian sipped her tea and slyly watched Pippa over the rim of the glass. “It might help if Seth remarried.”

  “I doubt it,” Pippa replied curtly. “It will only complicate matters, unless you want him to remarry Natalie. We’ll simply have to continue on the assumption that Seth will win the case again. We can’t let plans for the gym stand idle while we wait.”

  “You’re a disappointment, Pippa,” Lillian said coldly. “I’m offering you my approval and encouragement, and you’re pretending you don’t understand. Is my son so objectionable that you couldn’t accept him in exchange for all he can do for you? Would you rather go about cleaning up other people’s messes than live here in all this wealth and luxury? And what about Chad? Have you given any thought to him?”

  Very carefully, Pippa laid down her fork and lifted her gaze to the conniving woman across from her. To survive in this jungle of Seth’s, she needed a machete for a tongue.

  “Mrs. Wyatt, you are extremely gracious in your generosity, but my life, and your son’s, are not yours to give away. Haven’t you learned by now that choosing spouses for wealth instead of love is not a stairway to heaven, or even to a good relationship? If you’ll excuse me, I’m really not hungry, and I have a lot of work to catch up on.”