by Diana Palmer
But she did worry. They took out the license and she went back to the office to continue her search for Tansy. It was much more imperative now to find her, with the impending marriage. She wanted Tansy there. More, she wanted to make sure that her future mother-in-law was all right. The fact that Tansy had checked into a medical center was very worrying indeed. Usually when the elderly woman sought medical assistance, it was after some wild stunt that bruised her. But there hadn’t been any wild stunts. Tansy had gone in deliberately, on both feet. And that in itself, Kit thought uneasily, was cause for concern.
Chapter Ten
Kit found the hospital without a problem. Then she sat in the car, worrying about how to proceed. There was a good chance that Tansy would be very angry if Kit just walked into her room and started asking questions. On the other hand, there was little else she could do.
Leaving her car in the parking lot, she proceeded into the hospital and found which room Tansy was in. She hesitated outside the private room, but only for a minute. With a deep breath, she knocked gently at the door and opened it.
Tansy Deverell stared at her without speaking, her eyes very wide in a thin, pale face which held pain and worry.
“And here you come again,” Tansy murmured, with a hint of a twinkle in her eyes.
“Yep,” Kit said, smiling.
“You’re too good a detective, Kit,” Tansy said. “This time I didn’t want to be found.”
“I had that figured out for myself.” She moved to the bed, and sat down beside it, her blue eyes quiet and steady on the worn face in its frame of untidy silver hair. “Why are you here?”
“I won’t tell you that.”
“Are you ill?”
“I won’t know that until I get the results of the tests.”
Kit held her breath. “Tests for what?”
Tansy couldn’t conceal her worry and fear. “I don’t know, Kit,” she said in a choked tone. “I’ve been getting tired a lot, and I can’t seem to stop losing weight. I don’t know, but it could be cancer.”
“Oh, Tansy,” Kit wailed.
“And if it is,” she continued, “I don’t want my boys to have to suffer through the uncertainty with me. When I find out for sure, then I’ll tell them.”
Kit felt terrible. She knew she should tell Logan and Chris, but Tansy looked crushed enough already.
“It isn’t fair to keep it from them,” Kit began gently.
“Yes, it is, dear,” came the soft reply. “You’re all heart, aren’t you, Kit?” she asked. “Nothing like that curvy cash register he thinks he’s in love with.”
“The delectable Betsy?” Kit replied with a quiet smile.
“Chris’s description.” Tansy nodded and she smiled. “He’ll come to his senses one day.”
“I’m delighted to tell you that he already has,” Kit told her. “We just got a marriage license. I’m going to be your daughter-in-law.”
Tansy held out her arms and hugged the younger woman with pure delight. “You couldn’t have brought me happier news if you’d looked for years. Kit, how wonderful!”
“He doesn’t love me yet,” Kit told her. “But maybe I love him enough for both of us.”
“Give him time. Commitment is new to him. He’s my son. He can’t be completely stupid.”
Kit laughed. “Of course he can’t.”
Tansy could sympathize with Kit. It was hard to love so deeply and not have it returned. If only her eldest son wasn’t so blind!
She rubbed her cold hands. “Go away, Kit. I love seeing you, but this is something I have to do alone. And don’t tell my sons. Not a word,” she said sternly.
“But…”
“Not one word,” Tansy repeated, her eyes piercing. “This is my business. Mine alone.”
Kit knew when she was beaten. “All right. But I’ll be back to see about you,” she said firmly.
“I knew that already,” Tansy said, and smiled. “You’re a sweet child.”
“No. I just have good taste in people,” Kit murmured.
Tansy laughed, although her eyes didn’t.
“When will you know, one way or the other?” Kit asked.
“Tomorrow.”
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow. Can I bring you anything?”
“Not really, Kit. But thank you for asking.”
She studied the older woman, noticing that her hands were shaking. “Tansy…”
“I’m freezing,” Tansy said. “And starving to death. You know, no matter how much I eat or drink, I can’t seem to get full. All that hunger and thirst, and look at me.” She laughed. “Skin and bones.” She lay back and closed her eyes. “Life is so complicated sometimes.”
“Don’t we all know it,” Kit mused.
“How is Melody working out?”
“I don’t know if he’ll still have her by sundown,” Kit replied. “She’s babysitting Emmett’s kids, and he hates her. I mean hates her!”
Tansy’s eyes opened and she looked less frail. “Oh, my goodness. Poor child!”
“She’s a trooper. Amy and Polk like her. Guy is his father all over again. I imagine he’s giving her the devil.”
“She’s too young to bear the brunt of Emmett’s hatred of her brother. I shouldn’t have recommended her for the job, but she’d just lost a job she’d had for two years and she was too afraid of Emmett to even live in the same city he did. I saw a chance to help Logan and Melody. But if Emmett is going to make a habit of coming back here, I may have done more harm than good. Poor child!” she repeated.
“Emmett didn’t even look like himself,” Kit said, recalling with a mental shiver. “I thought he was easygoing and funny.”
“Did you? Emmett wears a mask. Most people see through it a lot sooner than you did. He has plenty of enemies.”
“If he’s like he was today when he rides in a rodeo, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that he wins every event,” she said. “He’s ruthless.”
“He always was. It’s his way or no way.” Tansy shook her head. “I’ll have to apologize to Melody. But Emmett won’t be in town for long, I’m sure. Logan will protect her.”
Kit wasn’t certain about that, but she didn’t say so. She stayed and talked for a little longer, before she looked at her watch and realized that she was already past due back at the office.
“I have to go,” she said, bending to kiss the thin cheek. “You know where to find me if I can do anything for you. And I won’t tell Logan or Chris where you are. I promise.”
Tansy studied her face for a long moment, reading accurately the acquiescence in it. “That’s a deal. Come back tomorrow. Maybe it will be good news.”
She didn’t sound as if she expected it to be. Kit was an incurable optimist, though, and she knew what a strength of will Tansy had.
“I’d bet on you, no matter what,” she told Tansy. “You’re too special to lose.” She smiled and left the room before Tansy had time to reply.
It didn’t help that later in the day Dane Lassiter wanted to know about her progress.
She considered lying to him. That didn’t seem particularly bright. Dane was a detective himself, and much more experienced. If he wanted to find Tansy, it would take him no time at all. And it would be dishonest to lie.
So she asked to speak to him privately and told him everything.
“So you see,” she said miserably, “I don’t know what to do. I told Tansy I wouldn’t tell Logan a thing. Professionally I’m bound to.” Her eyes searched his stern face. “Where do you draw the line?”
“In this agency, we stand behind our detectives,” he said, smiling gently. “It’s your decision.”
“Thanks for not firing me.” She got up from the chair she’d been sitting in.
“Don’t be absurd,” he murmured. “I trust your judgment.” He sighed. “God, I hope it’s not cancer. Logan pretends that his mother is a trial to him, but he loves her.”
“So does Chris,” she added.
“Of cou
rse he does. But Logan will take it harder.”
She nodded. He was right about that. The icy Mr. Deverell had a surprisingly soft side, and he did adore his mother. Even if he raised the roof over some of her antics from time to time.
“Kit,” Dane said as she started to leave, and he looked solemn, “think very carefully about the position you’re putting yourself in. You and Logan are engaged. Keeping this sort of secret between you could irreparably damage your relationship. I won’t blame you if you do give in and tell him. No one would, least of all Tansy.”
“I don’t know about that.” She clung to the door. “If I tell Logan, I’ll be betraying Tansy’s trust.”
“It’s a hard decision, I know,” Dane said. “Just remember, you have to live with the consequences of your actions. I don’t. Neither does Tansy.”
“Yes. I know,” she said quietly.
Kit had hoped that she wouldn’t have to lie to Logan. The following day, after all, she’d know for certain about Tansy. But she had no such luck.
Logan telephoned less than ten minutes before she was due to leave the office that afternoon. In the background, boisterous yells and shouts interrupted him.
“I’ll pick you up about six and we’ll eat out,” he said. “Can you kids shut up?” he yelled. “My God, they’re driving us nuts! Emmett promised to be back by five, and he isn’t here! I don’t know what to do!”
“Bring them with you,” Kit suggested, buying time. “We can look after them.”
“Kit, are you out of your mind?” he asked.
“I guess so. But we can’t ask Melody to have them, not the way Emmett treated her.”
“I know.” He paused. “Have you found my mother?” he asked abruptly.
The question shook her. She took a slow breath and steadied her nerves, preparing to hedge the question. She was flirting with finishing their relationship before it began, and she knew it, but Tansy trusted her. She had to consider that before she considered her personal feelings.
“I’ve got a good lead that I’m following up,” she replied carefully, mentally crossing her fingers at the lie. “I should know something by lunch tomorrow,” she added, praying that she would, and that it would be good news.
“I thought you were an ace detective, Miss Morris.”
“Detective work can be slow, Mr. Deverell,” she countered. “And you might remember that I am very efficient.”
“So you were.” He chuckled. “Come on over here and go home with me. We can pick up your car in the morning.”
“Okay. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” she promised.
She and Emmett arrived together. He was unusually quiet as he rode up in the elevator with her, totally uncommunicative.
“Did you get signed up for the rodeo?” she asked.
“Yep.”
And that was all he said, all the way to Logan’s office. He walked in, saw the kids sitting all in a row on the sofa with their hands angelically folded and did a double take.
A harassed, black-eyed Melody glared at him. “You can take them with you, now, if you don’t mind,” she said stiffly. “I hired on here to be a secretary, not a baby sitter.”
“We ain’t babies,” Guy muttered with a hard glare in her direction. “And we ain’t scared of that electronic gadget in your desk, neither!”
“What electronic gadget?” Emmett said with deadly menace.
Melody looked straight at him, opened her desk, picked up a black box and pointed it at him. She pressed a colorful button. Death ray sounds out of a grade B science-fiction movie filled the room.
“Tomorrow morning when you wake up, you’ll have green skin and antennae,” she promised him. “And warts.”
Emmett’s eyebrows lifted.
“She tried to turn us into Martians with that thing, but we weren’t scared of it, Emmett,” Amy said proudly. Her haughty expression wavered just a little when she glanced at the black box. “But, we’ll go now, won’t we? Before she points it at us again, I mean.”
“Witch,” Emmett accused. “Scaring little children.”
Melody put the black box back in the drawer. “Those aren’t little children,” she said icily. “They’re a home-bound terrorist unit, complete with hardware. Look at this, for heaven’s sake!”
She started pulling things out of the desk. When she finished, there were screwdrivers, Swiss Army knives, fingernail files and other assorted tools in a heap before her. “Just look! They could break open a safe with this!”
“No, we could not,” Polk said indignantly.
“We only tried one,” Guy reminded his brother. “And it was old. If we worked on a new one…”
“That’s right!” Amy agreed.
Exasperated, Melody stared at Emmett. “Congratulations,” she said. “You can visit them all in federal prison next year after you’re through riding in rodeo competitions.”
Emmett stared at his children. Comprehension was dawning. He’d spent two years hating his ex-wife and blaming her for all his problems. He’d spent an equally long time running away from the kids.
Now here they were, and he was just beginning to see what his neglect had accomplished. Instead of normal, wholesome children, he was raising a family of potential second-story men.
“Where did you kids get that stuff?” Emmett asked, nodding toward the desk.
“We’ll never tell,” Amy said, making a motion across her lips like a zipper closing.
“That’s right,” Polk agreed.
“We’ll see about that,” Emmett said grimly. “Let’s go. I’ve booked us into a hotel for the night.”
“Great!” Guy said. “At least we can escape the wicked witch of the stock market before she makes Martians out of us.”
Emmett herded them to the door. He paused, glancing at Melody, who was composed and not very communicative. “Kind of you to watch them,” he said reluctantly.
“I’ll quit before I do it again, even if it means starving,” she said quietly.
His lean face hardened. “No stomach for children, Miss Cartman?”
“I like most children,” she replied.
“There’s not a damned thing wrong with those kids,” he said furiously.
She didn’t reply.
“Emmett, that’s enough,” Logan said with quiet menace. “Go away.”
“You hired her to get back at me, didn’t you?” Emmett accused his cousin.
“You think everyone is out to get you, don’t you?” Logan asked quietly. “Your biggest problem is your own lack of trust.”
“I trusted Adell. Until her damned Romeo brother—” he pointed at Melody “—waltzed in and carted her off!”
Melody colored. Her hands were shaking. She clasped them together tightly. “Adell said she got tired of dirty diapers and living alone with three toddlers,” she said with pure bravado and a shaking voice, “while you strutted around with pretty young girls at rodeos.”
Emmett didn’t say another word. His face hardened to stone. He turned and went out, slamming the door so hard that the windows shook.
“Well, he did,” Melody muttered, shaken.
“I know,” Logan replied. “You don’t have to tell me about Emmett. I’m sorry, Melody. I won’t let him in here again.”
“Thanks,” she said quietly. “I seem to set him off.”
“Everything does. Get your things and I’ll lock up. I’m taking Kit out to eat. Want to come along?”
Melody smiled. “Thanks, but I’ve got a nice pot full of soup waiting.”
“That sounds good on a cold night,” Kit remarked.
“Well, good night, Melody,” Logan said.
Logan took Kit to an elegant restaurant and they drank expensive wine and ate perfectly cooked steak, paying much more attention to each other than to the food.
“Two more days,” he groaned when he kissed her good-night at her door. “I’ll never make it!”
“Yes, you will,” she said, smiling with delight at his h
unger for her. “Good night, Logan.”
He kissed her one last time and reluctantly let her go. “Good night. If you find out anything about Tansy, call me, all right?” he added.
She cleared her throat and averted her eyes. “Certainly I will!”
Logan saw that suspicious, guilty look and scowled. “You aren’t holding anything back, are you?”
“Logan!” she exclaimed. “Of course not.”
He stuck his hands into his pockets and stared down at her, frowning. “I love my mother, despite her shenanigans,” he reminded her. “If you know something, and you don’t tell me, I won’t forget it.”
Her conscience was killing her. She wanted to tell him. She should tell him. But she couldn’t force the words out. She groaned. “There’s nothing to tell yet,” she said.
“When?”
“Soon. Really.”
He nodded, but his eyes were watchful. And there was a blatant withdrawal in his manner when he turned and walked away from her.
She closed the door behind him, locked it and leaned back against it. Her heart was beating her to death with its mad rhythm. Blast her own tongue! She wasn’t good at lying. Now Logan was suspicious, and Tansy would never forgive her if he found out anything too soon. But, then, how could he?
By the time she went to bed, she’d convinced herself that he had no way of knowing that she wasn’t telling the truth. And Dane wouldn’t blow her cover. No, she had nothing to worry about.
Late in the morning, after she’d gone through her files and done some legwork on an unrelated case, she drove to the hospital and went to find Tansy.
She knew by the expression on the older woman’s face that it wasn’t cancer.
“You’re all right, aren’t you?” she asked Tansy, smiling. “It wasn’t cancer after all, was it?”
“No,” Tansy sighed, smiling. “Thank God, it wasn’t.”
The door opened suddenly and Logan Deverell came in, his face like a thundercloud. “So here you are,” he told Tansy. “Hiding out in a hospital… What’s wrong with you?”
Tansy stared at Kit and grimaced. “You told him! You told him, after I begged you not to!”