Миранда Джеймс - Digging Up The Dirt

An’gel decided she might as well voice what everyone was thinking. “No one ever heard from her again, to our knowledge. Everyone thought, you see, that she had run away to join you because she didn’t want to stay with Hamish.”

Hadley didn’t appear startled at An’gel’s statement. He shrugged. “I’m not surprised by that. I know everyone thought Callie and I were having a passionate affair behind Hamish’s back, but that simply was not the case. I never touched her, and she certainly didn’t run off to be with me.”

“Then where could she have gone?” Arliss threw up her hands. “She had no family left, as far as I know.”

“She was a registered nurse, remember, even though she quit working after she married Hamish,” Barbie said. “She could have found a job anywhere. Taken on a new name, even gotten married again for all we know.”

“Hamish never said anything to me about divorcing her.” Reba sniffed. “If she did marry again, she was committing bigamy.”

“Hamish didn’t tell you everything, Reba.” Lottie simpered. “I was his closest confidante the last few years. If he had told anyone, he would have told me .”

“Well, did he tell you whether he divorced her?” An’gel asked. Really, she could shake Lottie sometimes for her coyness.

Lottie shrugged. “The subject never came up. Hamish and I had other things to talk about when I visited with him.”

When you were trying to get him interested in marrying you, you mean. An’gel resisted the temptation to say the words aloud.

Arliss saved her the trouble. She hooted with laughter, then said, “Hamish was too smart for you, Lottie. He knew better than to tell you any such thing. Otherwise you’d have dragged him to the altar before he could put on a fresh pair of socks and clean underwear.”

“That’s what you would have done, you mean-spirited woman,” Lottie said. “I thought of Hamish as a friend, nothing more.”

Hamish might well have divorced Callie, An’gel thought, but he was too canny to let any of the women in this group know. They all had men and marriage in their sights.

Everyone except her and Dickce, that is. An’gel had never cared much for Hamish, nor had Dickce. Neither of them understood why Callie married him. He was dour and cheap, the opposite of his brother. Hamish had been almost as handsome as Hadley in his younger years, and Callie had met Hamish first. He could be charming, An’gel admitted to herself, but whenever Hadley was present, Hamish got eclipsed.

“There’s one possibility no one has mentioned.” Sarinda crossed her arms as she surveyed the room. She let the silence lengthen before she spoke again. “What if Callie never left Athena at all?”

CHAPTER 3

An’gel felt a chill at those words as the implications sank in. Then she felt foolish and annoyed for letting Sarinda’s love of drama affect her in such a way.

Reba guffawed. “That’s about the silliest thing I ever heard, Sarinda. Tell me, do you think Callie’s been living in the woods around Ashton Hall all this time? Or maybe she has taken on a secret identity.” She continued to laugh.

“I have a confession to make.” Barbie rose from her perch on the arm of the sofa and hung her head for a moment. “I’ve had Callie locked away in my cellar all these years. I suppose I should let her out now.” She glanced around the room.

Lottie giggled. “She can’t be in your cellar, Barbie honey, because I’ve got her in my attic.”

An’gel checked Hadley’s expression and found it guarded. What was his true reaction to these juvenile attempts at humor? she wondered. She herself found them distasteful.

“You can make light of it all you want,” Sarinda said. “But can one of you tell me—tell all of us—where Callie is? And whether she is even still alive?”

“But you said, what if she never left Athena?” Arliss frowned. “That’s quite a different question. If she never left, then something must have happened to her. Something fatal . That’s what you really meant, isn’t it?”

“Perhaps.” Sarinda looked down at her lap.

An’gel had to suppress the urge to go grab hold of her shoulders and give her a good shake. What was Sarinda trying to do? Could she possibly know something about Callie’s disappearance? An’gel felt that chill again.

“Callie kept in touch with several friends from nursing school,” Hadley said. “Like Barbie suggested, Callie probably went to one of them, and they helped her find a job. She wanted to go back to work after she and Hamish got married, but he wouldn’t hear of it.”

“That seems likely to me.” Reba nodded. “Yes, very likely. Sarinda, all you’ve ever wanted to be is the center of attention, and you’ll say anything to get your way.” She turned to Hadley. “What have you been doing all these years? You know we’re all curious.”

Hadley gave a brief smile. “I know y’all are. It’s not really an exciting story, but basically I went to New York and got a job with a company that has offices around the world. I worked in various places over the years—Vienna, Sydney, Madrid, Paris, Los Angeles, and a few others. I became a corporate troubleshooter and did pretty well at it. I retired about three years ago in London, and that’s where I was when I got word from Hamish’s lawyers about his death.”

“What part of London?” Lottie asked. “London is my favorite city in the world, and I’ve been oodles of times.”

“Mayfair,” Hadley said.

Mayfair, An’gel knew, was a pricey place to live, so Hadley wasn’t short of a bob or two, as the Brits would say. He had apparently done well for himself as a corporate troubleshooter. His clothes were expensive, and An’gel could see he wore an expensive watch, one that cost at least fifteen thousand dollars.

“I just love Mayfair,” Lottie said. “So exclusive.”

Barbie spoke at the same time. “So glamorous, all those great cities. What an interesting life you have had.”

Hadley shrugged. “Nothing particularly glamorous about it. I never had time to settle down long in one place because as soon as I finished one assignment they sent me off on another one. Eighty-plus-hour weeks and too much travel, if you want to know the truth.”

To judge by the glum expressions of her fellow board members, An’gel reckoned they were disappointed with Hadley’s prosaic explanation. The dashing playboy of four decades past had become a hardworking corporate type, and they evidently didn’t see much glamor in that.

An’gel, while more than a bit surprised at Hadley’s choice of profession, was nevertheless pleased to hear that he had buckled down and worked hard. He hadn’t shown many signs of dedication to work before he left Athena, relying instead on charm, good looks, and his brother’s checkbook in lieu of gainful employment.

“We’re all happy to welcome you back home.” An’gel nodded at Hadley. “We also hope you’re truly here to stay. You’re not planning to renovate Ashton Hall and the gardens so you can sell and then move back to London, are you?”

Hadley cocked his head to the side and regarded her with one of his patented slow smiles, designed to warm even the coldest heart. “I am here to stay, dear An’gel. Athena holds an attraction that, oddly enough, London doesn’t.”

He’s pouring it on a bit too thick. An’gel wanted to box his ears. Why is he singling me out like this?

Once again she felt hostile glances. She gazed coolly around the room with a silent challenge. The other women’s gazes dropped, and An’gel relaxed.

“We’re all delighted to hear that you’re staying,” Dickce said. “Though if I had to pick between London and Athena, well, there are plenty of days I’d rather be in London.”