The muscles of her stomach tightened to a knot, and suddenly, she knew
. It was suspicion, the same suspicion that whispered in her ear that the crusty brown spots on her mother’s cameo could be nothing except blood.
*
“You bastard.”
Ethan turned his head sharply toward the unexpected voice
. The gulls, his watchdogs, hadn’t barked their usual cries that signaled someone was approaching, nor had he felt the vibrations of footsteps on the deck. Sitting on that well-scrubbed surface, he supposed he’d been too involved with his frustrating attempts to unravel the tangled leech line to notice much of anything.
“Morning, Phillip,” Ethan finally answered
. If he ignored the combative tone, surely his old friend would grow calm enough for reason.
“On your feet, man,” Phillip demanded
. His dark gaze smote Ethan, and his fists were raised and knotted at the ready.
Ethan didn’t budge, except for his fingers, which continued wrestling with the line
. “Not just yet,” he stalled. “I’ve nearly got this out.”
“Coward.”
Ethan shrugged. “Think what you wish. This way you won’t start something you’re sure to regret.”
“You’re saying
you
won’t?”
Ethan continued feeding rope through a tight loop in the knot
. “I’ve never been much troubled by a conscience. If I beat you, I’ll get over it. If I lose, I’ll at least know I deserved it. But either way, you’d miss my apology. I’m sorry about Rachel. Truly.”
Phillip shook his head in disbelief
. “Truly?” Sarcasm skewered the two syllables. “Oh, in that case, it’s quite all right. Let’s go sailing in the morning. I’ll have my cook pack us a hamper with a splendid lunch. Why not invite your Rachel, too, just to show there are no hard feelings?”
Ethan felt his mouth twist in displeasure
. He hated it when good old Phillip got self-righteous on him. He could be so tiresome that way. Releasing the twisted rope at last, Ethan raised both palms to signal peace. “Has my support through this stubborn episode of yours meant nothing?”
“A thank-you, of course, but not my fiancée.”
“I’ve been more loyal than you know.” He removed an envelope out of his shirt pocket and extended it toward Phillip. “Look inside.”
Phillip didn’t take it
. “Nothing in there could possibly excuse what you have done. Get up.”
“You need to look at it
. Right now, before this goes any further.”
Phillip snatched it from his hand so quickly that the corner of the envelope sliced Ethan’s finger with a stinging paper cut
. He tore the end off and tipped it, then unfolded and scanned the single, handwritten sheet.
“What in heaven’s name is this?” he demanded.
“You’re so obtuse at times,” Ethan complained. “It’s an offer from my father and Lowell Shipping. We want to buy you out. Phillip, it’s an answer for you. You’ve gotten your holdings shaped up in the last two years, despite your recent setback. Others can’t see that, but my father and I do. I think you’ll agree this offer is more than equitable. Your family will remain reasonably well-off, and you can go back to what interests you. You haven’t been truly happy since you left medicine.”
His face a mask of fury, Phillip crumpled up the paper and tossed it to the deck
. “First of all that’s a damned insulting offer, and you know it. But it wouldn’t matter if your father bid the moon. You might
steal
Rachel Tisdale, but I’ll be damned if you’ll buy her.”
“She isn’t for you, Phillip,” he explained
. “Go and find yourself some sweet dolt, who’ll marry you for love or some such drivel. Rachel suits me better. The woman has ambition, enough for both of us.”
“And few qualms about how she goes about achieving her desires.”
That was for certain. She’d bargained a handcrafted diamond bauble from him, just to punish him for his liaison with Shae Rowan. So very shrew
d
just what he needed in a wife. Again, Ethan lifted a shoulder to show he wouldn’t quibble over sentimental factors. “I told you, she’s meant for me, not you. She rather fancies me a budding politician.”
Bitterness gave Phillip’s laughter a hard edge
. “In politic
s
you?”
“Rachel and I have a few ideas on how things in this state should be run,” Ethan explained.
“With such admirable values as deceit and treachery, I’m certain the two of you will be an asset to all Texas. And do you plan to include the subject of Shae Rowan’s ruin in your stump speeches?”
Ethan shook his head
. “I can see you’re in no mood this morning to be civil. I suppose that’s understandable. But you must try to see our side. I truly thought that Rachel and I were through before the two of you became involved. I truly believed I wanted Shae to be my wife. Now I can see how ridiculous that was. The girl never had a chance of fitting in. It would have been cruel to try to force her into my world. I can see now I need a woman who’s my equal socially, culturall
y
”
“
And morally,” Phillip continued. “Let’s not forget that. After all the years we’ve known each other, how could you do this, Ethan? How?”
“Some things simply happen.”
“What a ridiculous statement, especially from you. You see what you want and you
make
things happen. But even supposing that you and Rachel deserve one another, why not leave Shae Rowan out of this sordid disaster? You needn’t destroy her life too.”
Ethan shook his head and laughed
. “By God, man, but you’re afflicted with her, too! Admit it. You want what’s under that girl’s skirts every bit as much as I do. But I’ll warrant you, I’ll get to it firs
t
because you’re right. I
do
have the courage to go after what I wan
t
to take it, if need be. You, you’re far too fond of sanctimony to allow yourself any but the feeblest attempts.”
“How’s this, then, for starters?” Phillip asked.
Ethan choked as Phillip grabbed him by the collar and jerked him roughly to his feet.
“I believe I asked you to stand up,” the dark-haired man explained while Ethan fought to control his coughing.
“You were too rude to comply,” Phillip continued, “so I decided to follow your lead and attend to
my
wants, for a change.”
Ethan struggled to force his feet to support him, to remove the pressure from his neck
. He focused his gaze on Phillip’s fist, poised to strike his face. Hoarsely, Ethan cried out, “Wait just one damned minute! You’ll have a hell of a time selling cotton when you can’t hire a single ship to move it. One word from me, and everything you haven’t wrecked already will be gone. Hit me and you’re throug
h
and so is Payton Enterprises!”
It was hard to take his eyes off of that fist, but Ethan managed it, to glare into Phillip’s face
. He had to remind Payton that he didn’t joke about such things, that he was well-connected enough to make good on his threat. And he would, too. He couldn’t care less if he’d stolen Rachel; he wasn’t about to take a beating from this self-righteous prig!
Payton hesitated, and Ethan suppressed a grin of triumph
. Good old, sensible Phillip. Any other man would knock his block off, but Phillip was no doubt thinking of his obligations to his family and what this rare display of temper might cost all of them. Virtue was such a predictable weakness, Ethan decided.
As he’d known it would, Phillip’s grip on his collar weakened, and by degrees, his right fist drooped.
“I’m not through with you,” Phillip swore. Turning, he kicked over Ethan’s makeshift bar before he stormed off toward the gangplank.
As an expensive bottle of bourbon soaked into the deck, the laughing gulls barked their belated warning.
Ethan smirked. “Yes, you are, my friend, because you’ve already lost more than you know.”
*
Lucius Oliver’s raised cottage stood amid a modest neighborhood of similar structures, neither grand nor shabby. Although each had once been white, some gray showed through the clapboards. The narrow peninsula’s salt air was hard on paint.
Lucius’s house was not yet peeling, but an unmistakable air of neglect hung over it nonetheless
. Claire’s garden in the front yard grew untended. Weeds poked abundant shoots through vines and shrubs she had once maintained fastidiously. In one front window, a tan shade hung askew.
Shae climbed the front steps onto the porch
. Guilt churned in her stomach. Since Claire’s funeral, she’d avoided coming here. She’d been so caught up in her conflicting emotions over Ethan, she had neglected helping her old friend adjust to life alone.
The thought of the cameo inside her bag and the note Lucius might have written chilled her
. If he had kept some awful secret, did he deserve her sympathy? Was he worthy of her guilt?
Walking up the steps to the front door, she belatedly remembered the hat he’d left at the jewelry store
. She’d forgotten it there yesterday, and she realized it would be just like King to throw it out.
In answer to her knock, tiny nails scraped against the inside of the front door
. Jasper, Claire’s beloved terrier, yapped frantically, but no one in the house heeded his barking.
“Lucius, it’s Shae
! I know you’re in there. Let me in!” Shae knew Lucius would have shut up Jasper in the extra bedroom unless he were home. The small white dog had a criminal history, at least where the pantry was concerned.
Jasper’s yelping grew more desperate, and a chill raced up Shae’s spine
. What if Lucius
couldn’t
answer? She knocked again, hard enough to bruise her knuckles, then listened for footsteps on the hardwood floor. But again, all she heard were the terrier’s frenzied barks.
She walked to the window with the crooked shade and peered inside
. All four of the tiny white dog’s feet left the floor with every yip. He paused to dig at the door, evidently still believing she was there.
Beyond the entry, the sitting room looked cluttered
. Newspapers littered the rug near a deep brown wingback chair. A film of dust blanketed a small table nearby. Shae’s gaze focused on its surface. When she squinted, she could just make out a trail, as if an object had slid off onto the floor. By tilting her head at an awkward angle, Shae could see the shards of porcelain lying on the wooden floor.
Someone had broken the dancer’s figure Claire kept there
. Either that or Jasper had progressed from stealing biscuits to far more serious offenses.
Shae’s heart raced in her chest
. Maybe his dismissal, on the heels of his wife’s death, had been too much for Lucius to bear. Perhaps he was lying il
l
or wors
e
inside.
She rushed to the front door and tried it
. With a loud creak, it opened, further evidence that Lucius was home. Since a string of burglaries had been reported in the newspaper this summer, Shae doubted he’d leave the house vacant and unlocked.
The terrier pushed past her legs and ran onto the porch, then down the steps
. The moment he reached the garden, he relieved himself. The poor thing seemed so desperate that Shae wondered how long it had been since he’d gone out.
“Lucius, where are you?” she called as she glanced around the sitting room
. Besides the shattered dancer and the dustiness, nothing else seemed out of place. Without waiting for the dog to finish sniffing in the garden, she walked into the kitchen.
On the table, a beefsteak had been cut into neat bites
. Tiny globs of fat had congealed among dried juices. Beside the meat, a fork stabbed a single carrot slice. A hunk of bread, half-eaten, rounded out the unfinished meal.
Pans left on the stove assured Shae that Lucius had cooked for himself last evening
. Maybe he hadn’t been as devastated as she’d feared. But then, where was he? He might have become untidier since Claire’s passing, but she couldn’t imagine him departing so abruptly that he would leave a mess like this.
She checked the bedroom, the guest room and the dining roo
m
even tapped on the backyard privy doo
r
but still, she found no other sign of Lucius. It was as if he’d simply vanished during suppertime last evening.
She backtracked to the broken porcelain, not far from the front door
. As she let in Jasper, she imagined the old man at his solitary meal. A knock had come, and he had answered. Had some sort of struggle followed? Had Lucius’s departure been unwilling?
That theory explained the condition of the kitchen, the broken porcelain, the unlocked front door, even Jasper’s freedom in the house
. But who, she asked herself, would have taken the old man?
Her gaze settled on the sofa
. On it sat the old bookkeeper’s bowler, the very same hat he had left behind yesterday at the jewelry store. Tears filled Shae’s eyes, and she sank into the wingback chair. How could she be so stupid as to wonder at who’d come here? Who had fired Lucius only yesterday? And whose secrets might the old man have been trying to tell her?