The garage door opened smoothly and the limousine rolled into the huge garage. To her relief there were several other cars parked in the garage. For a moment she laid her head against the headrest and let her breath out slowly. The limousine halted and her chauffeur turned off the motor.
“John, thanks for coming to get me in this awful storm. I’m sorry for dragging you out, but I was so tired and I didn’t want to stay at Donovans overnight.” Nothing could have induced her to stay at the laboratories now that Ryland was no longer there. It was strange, almost terrifying, how bereft she felt.
“I’m glad you called me, Miss Lily. We were all worried about you. Why were there so many guards poking through the car? They’ve never done that before.” The chauffeur turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow, but he refrained from saying a single word about the disappearance and reappearance of storm-drenched cars in their garage.
“I’m sorry, John, it’s a classified thing to do with the military.” She slid from the car, swaying with weariness. She could hear the wind howling at the doors of the garage and she shivered. “What a ghastly night.”
He glared at her as he opened the driver’s side door. “You didn’t eat today, did you? Not a single thing.”
Lily leaned over and kissed the top of his head. “Stop worrying so much about me, John. I’m a sturdy woman, not a delicate waif.”
“I have a feeling I’ll always worry about you, Lily. This thing with your father…I’m damnably sorry.” John shook his head. “I thought he might be found, but he’d never stay away from you this long. And if it was a kidnap for ransom, or even secrets of some kind, we would have heard.”
Lily could see the lines of age in his face, the tinge of gray to his coloring. She put her hand on his arm. “I know how much you loved him, John. I’m sorry for both of us.” His sorrow was beating at her, profound and deep, slashing at her unprotected mind.
Lily closed her eyes for a moment, worried about Ryland Miller and his men. She wanted to check with Arly and make certain they had arrived and were safe within the thick walls of her home. Compassion welled up as she studied her chauffeur. John suddenly appeared fragile and looked his age. It caught her by surprise. She didn’t want to lose John.
“He was my friend, Lily, my family. I knew your father when he was a boy. My father worked for his family. I think I was his only friend growing up in that house. His life was hell in that house. His parents and grandparents had been carrying on some sort of experiment to have a child of great intelligence. He was unloved, merely a product of breeding the right genes. His parents never talked to him unless it was to insist on his studying. He wasn’t allowed to play sports or play with toys or even associate with other kids. They wanted a highly developed brain and everything he did even as a child was to that end. And when you”—he hesitated—“came along,” he improvised, “Peter vowed he wouldn’t be like his parents. I talked to him many times about his absentmindedness. I know it hurt you when he couldn’t remember your important events.” He shook his head sadly. “He did love you, Lily. For all his strange ways, he did love you very much.”
But Peter Whitney had been like his parents. Exactly like his parents. He had followed in their footsteps until something had opened his eyes. Lily put her arms around John as he got out of the car, hugging him. “Does everyone in the household know I’m not his biological daughter?”
John Brimslow stiffened, jerked back to glare down at her. “Who told you that?”
“He did,” she said. “In a letter.”
He passed his hand over his face, then gripped her arms. “You were everything to Peter.” He cleared his throat. “And to me. To all of us. You brought sunshine to us, Lily. Rosa could never have children. Arly dated a multitude of women but he never could tolerate anyone’s company but his own for very long. We’re a family of misfits, Lily. You’ve always known about me, I never hid who I am from you. We built the family around you.”
Lily smiled at him, grateful for his words. “John, do you know how my father came to adopt me?”
John shifted uncomfortably. “Your father went overseas. Some people might say he bought you, Lily, I don’t know how much money was involved, but does that matter now? You didn’t have a family and neither did we.”
They walked together through the entrance hall leading from the garage to the house, Lily’s hand tucked in the crook of John’s arm, as he continued, “Rosa was young back then, she barely spoke English, but she was a nurse and she needed a job to stay in the country. Peter snapped her up as your nanny and eventually she ran the house for us.” He grinned at her. “She frowned on my lifestyle at first. I had already met Harold by then and we were life partners. Peter never judged me, but Rosa was afraid I would somehow damage you with my perversions.”
“John!” Lily protested. “She has never, ever indicated in any way, by word or action, that she disapproved of you. Rosa speaks very highly and affectionately of you.”
“That was in the old days when you were just a little thing. She’s come to accept me and she nursed Harold devotedly at the end. I don’t know what I would have done without her.” He patted her hand. “Or you, Lily. I’ll never forget you standing next to me at the grave site with your arm around my waist and sobbing right along with me.”
“I loved Harold, John. He was as much a part of our family as you and Rosa and Arly. I still miss him, and I know you do too.” She stopped walking just outside the kitchen where she knew Rosa was waiting for her. “Have you had a physical recently? I want you to rest and take very good care of yourself. I can’t afford to lose anyone else in my family.”
He lifted her chin and brushed a kiss over the top of her head. “I’d like you to remember how important you are to us, Lily. You have enough money and a beautiful home, you never have to work if you don’t want to. Don’t get into whatever Peter was into. I know he was more distracted than usual those last few weeks.”
Rosa burst through the kitchen door and flung her arms around Lily. To Lily’s horror, she was sobbing. “I paged you over and over, Lily. Why didn’t you call me? You didn’t say you were going to be late and when I called Donovans they wouldn’t tell me anything except there had been trouble.”
Lily held her close, astonished that the unflappable Rosa was so distressed over her being late. “I left my pager in my locker. I’m really sorry, Rosa, I should have called you. It was so thoughtless of me.”
“The storm was so wild, I thought you must have had an accident.” Rosa clung to her, alternating between hugging and patting Lily’s back.
“Didn’t Arly tell you I asked him to send John for me?” Lily looked up at her chauffeur for help. Rosa was prone to outbursts of temper, chasing people around her kitchen with tea towels, but she never wept as if her heart were breaking.
“When the police didn’t call about an accident I was afraid someone had kidnapped you. Oh, Lily.” She turned away from the younger woman and covered her face with her hands, sobbing uncontrollably.
John put his arm around her, frowning as he did so. “Rosa, dear, you’ll make yourself ill. Sit down, I’ll make tea for you.” He helped her to the nearest chair.
Rosa put her head down on the table and continued crying. John put on the kettle to boil water. Lily stood close to the older woman, puzzling over her behavior. “Rosa, I’m perfectly fine. Don’t cry anymore. I promise I’ll be better about calling you.”
Rosa just shook her head. Lily sighed. “John, perhaps I should speak to Rosa alone, do you mind?”
John kissed the top of Rosa’s head. “Don’t make yourself sick. It’s been a difficult time for all of us.”
Lily waited until the kitchen door swung closed. “What is it, Rosa? Tell me.”
Rosa continued to shake her head, refusing to look at Lily.
Lily took the time to make the tea, first heating the small pot with a little water from the kettle, then discarding the water before measuring out the tea leaves and pouring on
the boiling water to brew. The simple ritual cleared her mind and allowed it to work as it preferred, coming at the puzzle from various angles. She waited for the worst of the storm of tears to pass before placing a teacup in front of Rosa. All the time her mind was working, putting together the fact that Rosa was a nurse and Peter Whitney had brought her into the country.
“Does this have anything to do with the fact that you were my nurse when my father brought me here with all those other little girls?” She asked the question very softly, without inflection, not wanting to sound accusing.
Rosa cried out and stared at Lily in shock. There was guilt in the depths of her eyes. Guilt and sorrow and remorse. “I should never have agreed to do it. I had nowhere to go, Lily, and I loved you so much. I couldn’t have children of my own. You have been my daughter.”
Lily sat down abruptly. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about my father, Rosa? Why didn’t you tell me about that horrible room and all those other poor little girls?”
Rosa looked around in fear. “Ssh, never speak of such things. No one can ever know about that room or those poor children. Dr. Whitney should never have told you. It was wrong. He came to see that and he tried to find those girls good homes. What he did was evil, unnatural. His eyes were opened when you were nearly killed.”
Lily took a cautious sip of tea. Rosa obviously believed Lily’s father had told her everything. “My leg,” she said, as she set the cup in the saucer. “I had so many nightmares and Dad would never tell me.”
“It was a terrible accident, Lily. Your father was devastated. He promised me he would never make you do anything like that again.” Rosa was whispering, obviously fearful of being overheard.
“Did John know about the other girls? Did he know about the experiment?” Lily couldn’t look at the woman who had raised her. Couldn’t look at the tearstained face, which plainly told her there was so much more she didn’t want to hear.
“Oh no, Lily,” Rosa protested. “He would have beat Peter within an inch of his life and then he would have quit. Peter needed John to keep him human. Your father only had a few people he allowed into his world. John was a big part of that world. They were boyhood friends and John never minded Peter’s eccentric ways.”
Lily was watching Rosa’s face closely. “Why are you so upset, Rosa? Tell me. All of this was a long time ago. I would never blame you for something my father did. You’re a victim as much as I am.”
“I can’t tell you, Lily. You’ll never forgive me and you’re the only family I have. This is my home. John, Arly, you, and your father are my entire world.”
Lily reached across the table to take Rosa’s hand. “I love you. Nothing can ever change that. I don’t like to see you so upset like this.”
“Arly told me someone broke into our house. He said they knew exactly where your office was and where your father’s office was. He said they had the house codes.” Rosa stared miserably into her teacup.
Lily allowed the breath to leave her lungs in a little rush. She remained silent, simply waiting. Her fingers tightened around Rosa’s hand in reassurance.
“They threatened me Lily. They said they could make me leave the country. They said they could make a problem with my citizenship papers. They said I would never see you again.”
“Who told you that?”
“Two men stopped me as I was getting out of my car at the grocery store. They had badges and wore suits.”
“Rosa, you know you’re independently well off and my money is your money. Our lawyers would never allow anyone to send you away. You’ve lived in this country for years. You’re a citizen, legally here. How could you think we would ever allow you to be taken away?”
“They said they would just take me off the street and send me away and no one would ever know what happened to me. Then they said they could make you disappear, too. I should have told you but I was so afraid. I thought Arly would catch them whether or not they had the codes. He has all those silly gadgets he loves so much.”
Rosa had never paid attention to life outside the Whitney home. Coming from a poor background, coupled with the guilt she had always felt over her part in using little children in an experiment, had aided in keeping her segregated from the outside world. “Did you tell them about the laboratory?”
Rosa squeaked in terror. “I never speak of that unholy place. I try to forget it exists. Your father should have destroyed it.” She raised her stricken gaze to Lily’s. “I’m sorry, Lily. I copied some of your father’s papers off his desk. I tried to give them things that didn’t matter but I didn’t know what was important.”
There is a traitor in our house. Lily leaned over and kissed Rosa. “You have no idea what a relief it is to hear this. I knew someone in our home was supplying information and I thought it was a matter of money or politics. These people can’t touch you, Rosa.” Rosa was no traitor, just a simple frightened woman who had done her best to feed information of little consequence to those threatening her. The relief was overwhelming. “If they contact you again, let me know or tell Arly.”
“I don’t leave the house anymore, Lily. I have our groceries delivered. I don’t want to see these men.” She leaned toward Lily, a fresh flood of tears swimming in her eyes. “What if they are the men who made your father disappear? I’m so ashamed of myself. I should have told Arly but I didn’t want him to know I even spoke to those men. What if they take you away from me? I’m so afraid.”
“No one is going to harm me, Rosa. And if you ever disappeared, I would move heaven and earth to find you. I need to know a few other things about the time when my father first hired you.”
Rosa shook her head and clambered to her feet, taking her teacup to the sink. “I don’t speak of that time. I won’t, Lily.”
Lily followed her. “I’m sorry, Rosa, but it isn’t just idle curiosity. There are other things going on and I need to find a way to fix them. Please help me.”
Rosa crossed herself and turned toward Lily with a helpless sigh. “If we do evil, it will haunt us always. Your father did things that weren’t natural and I helped him. No matter what we do now, we have to pay for what we did then. That’s all I’ll say on the subject. Go to bed, Lily. You look so pale and tired.”
“Rosa, what did I do that brought me to Peter Whitney’s attention in the first place? What set me apart from the others so much? There must have been others who could do the things I did.”
Rosa hung her head. “The things he did were wrong, Lily. I’ve tried very hard to make up for helping him. I don’t want to think about those times.”
“Please, Rosa, I need to know.”
“Even as an infant you could make things fly in the air. If you wanted your milk and we were too slow you could bring it to you. It is no good to think of these things. We have a good life, long past those times. Go to bed now and sleep.”
Rosa kissed Lily and walked out of the kitchen, leaving Lily staring after her. Lily put her head down on the sink and growled in sheer frustration. Rosa had always been stubborn over the strangest things. Pressing her for more information was useless. Lily pushed away from the counter and made her way through the darkened house to the stairway.
Lily wrinkled her nose when she saw Arly waiting for her on the bottom stair. She should have known he’d be there; her family had a tendency to hover.
“I didn’t think you’d ever get here. You left me in a mess, Lily.”
Lily scowled at the annoyance and accusation in his tone. “Well, I’ve had a few little problems to deal with tonight, Arly. I’m so sorry if you were inconvenienced and missed your beauty sleep.”
“You’re in a foul mood tonight.”
“Did they make it?”
Arly stood up, towering over her. “Now you want to know. The trouble with women is they never have their priorities in place.”
“If you give me any trouble tonight, Arly, I swear I’m going to smash you one. I am not in the mood to pander to your overinflated ego, s
oothe your ruffled feathers, or listen to you expound on your pet peeves.”
“I always told your father you had such a penchant for violence. Why couldn’t you be one of those seen-and-never-heard children?” Arly groused.
“I made up my mind after the first five minutes in your company I was going to be the plague of your life.” Lily leaned her head against his chest wearily and looked up at him. “I am, aren’t I, Arly?”
He kissed the top of her head then ruffled her hair as if she were still a child. “Yes, Lily, you’re definitely the biggest plague of my life.” He sighed. “One of the men is in bad shape. They said he had a seizure and all of them are worried about a brain bleed.”
Her heart dropped to the floor. Her legs turned to rubber. She clutched at Arly’s sleeve. “Who? Who is it?”
He shrugged, his gaze narrowing as her agitation registered. “I don’t know, someone they call Jeff. He’s out like a light.”
Lily breathed a prayer of thanks that it hadn’t been Ryland. “Take me to them, Arly and I’ll need our medical kit.”
“Are you certain about this? If these men are caught here, we could get into a lot of trouble. Are you prepared for that?”
“Are you prepared for the alternative?”
NINE
RYLAND met her at the door, his silver gaze devouring her face, taking in every shadow, noting how pale she was. Without preamble, he pulled her into his arms. Needing her. Needing to feel her against him. Needing to run his hands over her body and assure himself she was unharmed. “Why the hell are you so late? Didn’t you think I’d be worried about you? I didn’t have the energy for wave communication.” He gave her a little shake.
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