Chapter Three
“Hi.”
Startled, Olivia sat up and saw young Elise standing a few feet away.
“I didn’t mean to scare you. I was out walking and I saw a bit of yellow and...” She shrugged.
Olivia’s blouse was a pale yellow, her slacks a dark brown, not bright enough to be a beacon that was easily seen through the trees. It looked like Elise had been searching for her. “Are you hiding from Ray or your husband?”
Elise smiled. “Both. Ray is stomping around, looking for something, but I can’t imagine what. And...” She hesitated. “By now my family knows I’m missing. They’ll be searching for me.”
Olivia tried to imagine the enormity of being pursued by... What? The police? Had the girl been labeled as an escapee from a mental institution? Said to possibly be dangerous? “What will happen if they find you?”
“I don’t know. Jeanne said that what they’re doing is illegal, but my father paid for a wing on the clinic, so I don’t think anyone will listen to me. I have no money of my own, and—”
She broke off because Olivia put her arm out to the side. Elise sat beside her on the little stone wall and let Olivia hold her.
“What did your husband do to make you so angry?”
“He loved someone else,” Elise said simply. “He married me because our mothers have been best friends since college, and my father gave Kent a job and a house and...”
She was crying and Olivia guessed that she’d done a lot of that.
“I’m sorry.” Elise sat up straight. “I don’t mean to dump my problems on you. You’re so perfect and elegant, while my life is as sordid as something on 20/20.”
“Doesn’t that show deal with murders?”
“I’m sure Kent has thought about that with me,” Elise muttered. Olivia looked at her in alarm.
“I’m kidding. Kent would never kill me. If he did, Dad would probably fire him. Maybe. And if I wasn’t his cover, Kent wouldn’t get to screw around with Carmen. And who would he present to the world without me? I’m the image he wants people to see. Not the gardener’s sister.”
“Ah,” Olivia said. “Carmen gets the passion while you get the ladies’ luncheons that further your husband’s career.”
Elise groaned. “I’m twenty-five years old and already I’m a cliché.” Olivia couldn’t help laughing.
“It’s not funny.” Elise sniffed. “Well, maybe it is a little.” She gave a bit of a smile, then buried her face in her hands. “What am I going to do? I don’t know how to solve this.”
Olivia took Elise’s hands in hers and looked at her. “We’re going to fix this. There are many lawyers in my husband’s family and we’ll set all of them on this. They’ll be like wolves going after lambs. How does that sound?”
“Can I go after Carmen too? She came to my wedding. I felt so sorry for her because she kept throwing up. I knew she was pregnant, but I had no idea my husband was the father.”
“She didn’t, by chance, have a girl, did she?”
Elise’s pretty eyes widened. “She did. How do you know that?” She jerked her hands out of Olivia’s grasp. “You aren’t with them, are you? Did you—?”
“No,” Olivia said calmly. “But it appears that you and I have some things in common. Alan, my late husband, has a daughter named Alana. She was born four years after we were married. I worked six days a week running the appliance stores that put Alana through college.”
“Oh,” Elise said. “I’ve put on dozens of dinner parties for Kent’s clients. Every morning he gave me a list of things to do for him. I spent my life in a car as I ran errands for him. And it was all so he’d have more time to spend with Carmen.”
“Alan told me he was playing golf. He was so passionate about the game that he went on several trips to play on fabulous courses. It wasn’t until he was dying that I found out that he didn’t even own a set of clubs.”
Elise let out a full laugh, then leaned back on her arms. “My husband complained about how much I spent on groceries, but he was buying Escada for Carmen.”
Olivia leaned back beside her. “Alan bought a vacation house for us. It was a cute little place just fifty miles away in the mountains. But every time we planned to go, he came down with some illness. I found out that his girlfriend and daughter lived there.”
It was Elise’s turn. “While I was locked away, my parents came to visit and I said I knew that they’d known about Carmen all along. Guess what they said?”
“I can’t imagine.”
“My mother said, ‘Darling, Kent couldn’t marry the gardener’s sister, now could he? She’d probably serve tacos at a dinner party. How would Kent’s career progress with a wife like that?’”
Olivia blinked at the coldness of Elise’s parents and she couldn’t top it. But giving sympathy might make Elise feel worse. “I don’t know about you, but I love tacos.”
“Me too.” Elise was smiling as she sat up. “Thank you. You’re making me feel better.” She looked around. “What is this place?”
Maybe it was having just shared confidences, or maybe it was because Elise had called her elegant, but Olivia told the truth. “It’s where my husband and I made mad, passionate, all-consuming love back in the summer of 1970. When the caretaker came after us with a shotgun, Kit and I climbed over the stone wall in our birthday suits and escaped.”
Elise looked at her for a moment, eyes wide. “I wish I could have an adventure like that. But Kent saves everything for Carmen. I’m the one who picks up his dry cleaning.”
Olivia smiled. “It was an adventure, and a bit dangerous. But back then, I would have followed him anywhere.”
“Even past firearms.” Elise sighed. “That’s what I want. A man who’d brave a shotgun for me.”
Olivia looked serious. “I bet if you broke into the dry cleaners at night, there’d be all kinds of guns involved.”
Elise laughed. “You are making me feel better! You think we should go back and see if Ray is starving or not?”
“It’s funny about men. They’re only helpless when they’re sure someone who will wait on them is nearby.”
“So what’s his problem?”
Olivia started to tell but thought better of it. “Let’s go back and ask him.”
As they started toward the bridge, they heard a car door slam, then a woman’s voice.
“Kevin! I told you she wasn’t here, now let’s go!”
Instantly, Olivia stepped back into the trees, and Elise moved behind her. “Who are they?” Elise whispered.
Olivia’s face fell. “My stepson and his wife. They are very, very angry at me.”
“What dreadful thing did you do?”
“I got married and moved out of their house. No more free cooking and cleaning.”
“I had no idea you were such a selfish person.”
Olivia put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.
“Come on, Hildy,” Kevin said. “I brought a picnic basket and two bottles of wine. You know her plane gets in today and of course she’ll come here. Let’s wait.”
“Why she’d want to give up our beautiful new home for this horrible old place, I’ll never understand. Or why she married that old man.”
“He’s rich—you know that,” Kevin said. “Olivia has always loved money. When I was a kid she was always working. If it hadn’t been for having a home with Willie and Alana, I don’t know how I would have survived my childhood. They always had time for me.”
Just a few feet away, across the narrow piece of water, Olivia’s whole body stiffened. This was something she hadn’t heard before. She’d had to work. She had to support all of them. She had to—
“So who the hell does he think paid for that home?” There was a great deal of anger in Elise’s voice. “Who gave them the time to do nothing?”
When Olivia turned to look at her in gratitude, she saw that Elise was pulling her T-shirt off over her head. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to escape by going over that wall in my birthday suit. I need an adventure.”
Olivia hesitated for only a second. She didn’t have the beautiful body she’d once had, but she’d kept in shape. She had a wooden ski machine in her office and spent twenty minutes a day on it. Expending the pent-up energy kept her sane, and vendors were used to talking to her when she was out of breath. She unbuttoned her blouse. “I’m with you.”
Under her T-shirt, Elise wore a very pretty white bra made of lace. As she unsnapped it, Olivia said, “If you leave that here, Young Pete can add it to mine that he found so long ago. I’ve been told that it’s in a frame and on his wall like a trophy.”
With a wicked little smile, Elise dropped the bra to the ground, then removed the rest of her clothes and tossed them over her arm. She unabashedly watched Olivia undress. “My mother would kill to have a body like yours. But lying on a table and having gorgeous men run their hands over her and calling it a massage hasn’t helped.” She nodded toward the house. “Are they still there?”
“Oh yes,” Olivia said. “But they’re looking the other way. I think we can make it across the bridge without being seen.” As she stood there naked, she felt silly and embarrassed, but also a bit excited. She’d had her clothes off for most of her honeymoon, but this was different. This was someone else’s fantasy.
Elise picked up a stone. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to throw it at the end of the terrace to distract them.”
Olivia took the rock from her. “Let me.” It had been a while since she’d thrown anything, but she’d kept her arms strong—and well, maybe Kevin’s ungrateful words would help her aim.
She drew back into a pitcher’s stance, leg lifted, and threw the rock. It sailed over the strip of water and hit the bottle of wine standing on the cooler. The bottle hit a rock and made a loud sound as it broke into pieces.
“Impressive!” Elise said.
“What the hell was that?” Kevin shouted as he jumped up.
“It’s this horrible old house,” Hildy yelled back. “It’s falling down. I told Olivia that man was a charlatan. He’s put her in this house and he’s left her—just like he did before. Kevin, we must get her out of here. If we have to move into this place, we’re going to be here when she gets back. I bet if we look hard enough we can find a key hidden somewhere. We must do whatever we have to to make her see reason.”
“Is there a key?” Elise whispered.
Olivia gave a nod. “I think I’ve just seen the gates of hell.”
“Come on,” Elise said. “Race you across the bridge.”
Olivia started to follow, but on impulse, she tossed her pretty blue and white satin bra through the trees. Naked, clothes over her arm, she ran after Elise, across the bridge, then took a sharp left over a shallow part of water that lapped about their bare ankles.
At the tall stone wall, Elise hesitated, unsure of how to get over. Olivia came up behind her and began throwing clothes over. The stump she’d used so many years ago was gone, but a thick tree branch hung down low and ended on the other side of the wall. Olivia jumped up, caught it, swung herself up, then looked down at Elise on the ground.
Bits of sun sparkled on their bare bodies.
“Come on.” Leaning down, Olivia stretched out her arm to Elise. “Don’t back out now.”
Elise grabbed Olivia’s arm in a grip so secure that it felt as though she’d rehearsed it, then propelled herself upward. The two women scooted across the branch.
Olivia groaned. “I do not want my gynecologist to see what I’ve just done to my nether regions.”
“A gyno would be the only one to see my injuries.”
“I don’t know. Ray seems to like you.”
“Bad Olivia!” Elise said as she came to the end of the branch and dropped down beside the older woman.
As soon as they were on the ground, they began running, body parts bouncing. In spite of their age difference, both of them were tall and thin, and as pretty as wood sprites.
Abruptly, Olivia grabbed Elise’s arm and stopped her. Silently, she pointed. Houses had been built on the land since she and Kit had run across there.
With muffled giggles, they pulled on their clothes and, braless, they started to walk around the old stone wall to the entry gate.
“It’s getting late and I’m hungry,” Elise said. “Do you think part of Ray’s gang membership was to be able to make a tuna casserole?”
Olivia let out a snort of laughter. “You saw that in him too? That’s exactly how I saw him. I told Kit I bet that on what looks to be a very fine body he has one or more gang tattoos.”
“And what did your husband say?”
“That he hoped I didn’t go searching for them.”
Elise laughed. “I love a man with a sense of humor.”
“Let’s see... You want passion and humor. What else?”
“Are men capable of more than two good traits?”
“Oooooh,” Olivia said. “So cynical at such a young age.”
“I have my father and my husband as role models. According to them, what makes a man is how much money he has.”
“I understand that. In that case, my late husband was powerful. He had all the money I could provide.”
“Now who’s being cynical?”
“Truthful, my dear. I’m just being truthful.”
“Anyway, when it comes to Ray, I’m allowed to say anything I want. He looks at me like I’m some brainless rich girl who’s never had a problem.”
“Then change his mind,” Olivia said.
They had reached the main gate to the Camden Hall estate. To the left was Young Pete’s small house and to their right was a three-story stone tower. Decades ago, the neighborhood kids had named it Pete’s Spy Tower. Three generations of the family had watched through the open porch on the top, and it did resemble a prison guard’s eyrie.
When Elise and Olivia stepped onto the property, Young Pete was standing there. His long, unsmiling face was wrinkled from a lifetime of being outside in all weather. His blue eyes were watery, but it was said that he could see a fly at a hundred yards.
As calmly as she could manage, Olivia asked how he was doing and introduced Elise. Young Pete said nothing, just gave a sort of grunt and nodded.
As the women walked toward the cottage, they suppressed their giggles. If Young Pete had seen them just a few minutes earlier...
The man’s voice came to them. “Well, Olivia, I see you’ve been up to your old tricks.”
Olivia froze in place. He was telling her that he knew what she’d done today and who the culprit was so long ago. She could feel her entire body turning red. Deeply embarrassed, she started running so fast that Elise had trouble keeping up with her.
In the cottage, Olivia barely let Elise inside before she slammed the door behind her.
Ray was sitting on the couch reading a trade magazine. “You two look like you’ve been up to no good.”
Elise started to laugh, but the look on Olivia’s face stopped her.
“If he knows, the whole town does,” Olivia muttered. “The church, the quilting circle. Oh no! Maybe my parents knew.”
Elise turned to Ray. “Do you know how to make a drink? Not one of those nasty tea-colored things on ice, but something that tastes good?”
Ray gave Elise a slow glance up and down, as though he was seeing her for the first time. When his eyes met hers, it was with a look the waitress at the diner would have loved. He was interested.
But Elise didn’t budge. She glared at him.
With a nod of concession, he went to the kitchen and they heard ice tinkling. In minutes, he returned with two of those wonderful glasses that were a big triangle on top. Two olives on toothpicks were in each glass.
“Girlie enough for you?” Ray asked Elise.
She sipped hers. “Delicious. You must have had bartender experience.”
Ray shook his head in disbelief. In a sentence she had taken away his years of success and put him back to going to school during the day and bartending at night. “Daddy cut your allowance off, did he? Terrified you’ll have to get a job like the rest of us?”
Before Elise could speak, Olivia held out her empty glass. “Another one, please.”
“I hope you two floozies don’t get drunk. I’ve got a tuna casserole in the oven.”
That was too much for the women. The drinks on an empty stomach, the memory of what they’d done, Young Pete’s knowledge, and Ray’s casserole made them fall on each other laughing. They could hardly stand up.