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Undercover Christmas
B.J. Daniels
She Claimed Her Baby Was His…Yet Chase Calloway swore he'd never met the mysterious pregnant woman who appeared at his family's ranch. True, an accident had blocked parts of his memory, but he wouldn't have forgotten the desire that flared between them….Marni McCumber deceived so that she might learn the truth. She hadn't counted on the pre-Christmas snows stranding her with Chase's secretive family–or the dangerous mishaps that have hinted she’s not the only one with something to hide. Forced to accept Chase's protection, Marni has found one truth impossible to conceal–she wants Chase. But when he regained his memory, would he want her?
She Claimed Her Baby Was His…
Yet Chase Calloway swore he’d never met the mysterious pregnant woman who appeared at his family’s ranch. True, an accident had blocked parts of his memory, but he wouldn’t have forgotten the desire that flared between them….
Marni McCumber deceived so that she might learn the truth. She hadn’t counted on the pre-Christmas snows stranding her with Chase’s secretive family—or the dangerous mishaps that have hinted she’s not the only one with something to hide. Forced to accept Chase’s protection, Marni has found one truth impossible to conceal—she wants Chase. But when he regained his memory, would he want her?
Previously Published.
“All I can tell you is…the truth.”
“The truth?” Chase asked, sounding skeptical.
Marni nodded as she turned to face him. “The truth is…I’m in love with you.”
For a moment, she thought he’d laugh in her face. “Cut your losses and give up this charade,” he said, dropping his voice to a menacing softness as he leaned closer. “You are no more pregnant with my child than you are in love with me.”
Before she could move, he took her face in his hands. In the depths of his gaze, she saw what he planned to do. He took her mouth with an intensity that stunned her. Her body ached; no one had ever kissed her like this.
He broke off the kiss and shoved himself away from her. “You and I have never kissed before,” he said. “If we had, I would have remembered.”
Dear Reader (#ulink_24d5c9ba-2960-58d0-8aaf-e5664fb321d7),
You’ve told us that stories about hidden identities are some of your favorites, so this month we’re happy to bring you another, in the HIDDEN IDENTITY promotion. Join B. J. Daniels for a special Christmas HIDDEN IDENTITY mystery.
B.J. loves old houses, like the one in Undercover Christmas—set in her hometown of Bozeman, Montana—because they always have secrets of their own. So do families. Coming from a family that is rumored to have had a few horse thieves of its own, B.J.’s always been fascinated by family dynamics. She’d love to hear from her readers at P.O. Box 183, Bozeman, Montana 59771.
We hope you enjoy it—and all the HIDDEN IDENTITY books coming to you in the months ahead.
Regards,
Debra Matteucci
Senior Editor & Editorial Coordinator
Mills and Boon
300 East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017
Undercover Christmas
B. J. Daniels
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To my daughter, Danielle Rosanne Smith.
Thanks for all the laughs, the love
and the encouragement. You’re the best
CAST OF CHARACTERS (#ulink_9f2e4140-7126-5e45-a3dd-347f5885b826)
Marni McCumber—She had no idea what she was getting into when she pretended to be seven months pregnant to help her twin.
Chase Calloway—He knew he wasn’t the father of this woman’s baby and he planned to prove it—if he could just keep her alive long enough.
Elise McCumber—All she did was fall in love with a man named Chase Calloway and now someone wanted her and her unborn baby dead.
Jabe Calloway—He wanted a grandchild and he would do anything to get one.
Vanessa Calloway—She was determined to keep the Calloway fortune for herself and her sons.
Lilly Calloway—Who knew what she’d do to settle an old score?
Hayes Calloway—He was in a loveless marriage, tied to a woman he suspected was a killer.
Felicia Calloway—She planned to have the baby who would inherit the Calloway fortune—and nothing was going to stop her.
Dayton Calloway—He was tired of not being the favorite son and decided to do something about it.
Table of Contents
Cover (#ue5f508d3-1ab1-5f78-bf0c-5a3743f10f90)
Back Cover Text (#u7e4f2cdb-ccbe-55f9-ae96-4b08417f2d63)
Dear Reader (#ulink_6bf448e3-cfa8-5ab7-8497-5bf6f6324ff2)
Title Page (#u62f47c2d-3dcf-5a0c-af13-8ba8f28b0f8e)
Dedication (#u3645d571-03ae-5335-b359-ae5df1918251)
Cast of Characters (#ulink_08d31326-134b-591f-9da1-c7e47ad1430f)
Prologue (#ulink_c108c689-536e-53a8-8aec-ffab9357a182)
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue (#ulink_56a6469a-a307-584a-83c4-01a5f515c8e4)
November 3
A biting cold wind stole down Main Street, sending the last of the shoppers scurrying. Chase pulled his coat around him and stepped to the curb in front of the old Bozeman Hotel to check again. It wasn’t like his father to be late. But then Jabe Calloway had been doing a lot of unlikely things in the past few weeks.
Lights flickered off as downtown stores closed for the night. The traffic dwindled, exhausts cloudy and white as the vehicles passed. From the dark sky, snow sifted, covering the town in an icy layer of frost.
Worry stole Chase’s thoughts the way the cold stole his body heat. He stomped his feet and rubbed his gloved hands together trying to stay warm. No, it wasn’t like Jabe Calloway to be late nor to call his oldest son and ask him to meet him on a street corner.
The memory of something Chase thought he’d heard in his father’s voice suddenly chilled him more than the weather. He hadn’t been able to put a name to it. Probably because it was a word he’d never associated with his father. Fear. Chase glanced at his watch. Almost an hour late. Jabe had been explicit about the time. Nine sharp. Jabe had some papers he needed to sign at the family attorney’s office and he wanted Chase to go with him. But at this late hour? No, Jabe Calloway wasn’t himself lately. Either something was terribly wrong or—
Chase turned at the sound of hurried footsteps slapping the snow-coated concrete. Jabe Calloway halted beneath the streetlamp across the intersection ten yards away and glanced upward as if waiting for the traffic light to change. He wore a gray Stetson hat on his salt-and-pepper hair, and a dark plaid shirt, jeans and boots beneath the long stockman duster that flapped open in the wind. At sixty-five, Jabe still stood six feet four and looked as solid as the lamppost next to him.
And yet for one ridiculous moment, Chase thought he saw his father stagger. Thought he saw frailty in those broad shoulders. And vulnerability.
The light changed. Jabe seemed to hesitate. Worried, Chase stepped off the curb and headed toward his father. He could feel Jabe’s pale blue gaze. Eyes the same color as his own. Eyes always filled with a stubborn determination that brooked no interference.
Jabe nodded once and started across the street, all that usual arrogance and authority in his step. Chase almost laughed. Had he really thought Jabe Calloway might be in trouble? That this immovable rock of a man might need help?
The truck appeared out of nowhere. Headlights sliced through the snowfall as its engine revved and bore down on the tall cowboy in the street. Chase dived, hurling his father to the gutter as the truck’s grill connected with Chase’s left leg, the pavement with Chase’s head. The lights went out. The truck kept going.
Chapter One (#ulink_16f51f1d-18c5-526d-837f-699cba12e251)
December 20
Marni pounded on the motel-room door, panicked by the hysterical phone call that had sent her racing across town on icy winter roads just days before Christmas.
“This’d better be good, Elise,” she muttered as she waited impatiently for her sister to answer the door. This was so like Elise. After a five-month absence, a frantic phone call from a motel. And what was Elise doing staying at a motel anyway? She always stayed with Marni between adventures. So what had happened this time?
Only one answer presented itself, flashing on like one of the Christmas lights strung along the motel’s eaves. It had to be man trouble, Marni thought with a groan. That was the only thing that rattled her sister’s legendary composure.
Marni pounded on the door again, trying not to think about how many times she’d had to rescue her sister. Elise had a natural ability for getting into trouble but no talent for getting herself out. She also had a knack for the dramatic. Marni rolled her eyes. Of course Elise did. She was in the theater. It didn’t matter that she designed sets rather than performed onstage; Elise loved the drama. All Marni could hope was that things weren’t half as bad as her sister had made them out to be on the phone.
On the other side of the door, she could hear Elise fumbling with the lock.
The door opened a crack and El’s tear-streaked face peeked around the edge. “Hi,” she said with an apologetic smile.
Marni looked into the mirror image of her own face and felt instant relief that Elise appeared to be all right. Her twin sister had made it sound like the end of the world, as if this time she was in serious trouble. So serious that Marni had abandoned her employees at the boutique to come charging over here at two in the afternoon on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, to save her twin who appeared not to need saving at all, just a shoulder to cry on.
Elise opened the door a little wider and Marni pushed her way in, feeling a lecture coming as surely as her next breath.
“El, this better not be another one of your—” The word stunts never left her lips. Speechless, Marni stared at her twin.
Elise stood, pigeon-toed and timid, wearing a flannel nightgown and a pair of bunny slippers. She gave Marni another apologetic smile, her eyes filling with tears as she looked down at the source of Marni’s speechlessness—her swollen belly.
“You’re…pregnant?” Marni cried. “You’re pregnant?” Frantically she tried to remember the last time she’d seen her twin. Summer. El had stopped by the boutique, slim and excited about the new man in her life. Admittedly, Marni hadn’t been paying a lot of attention. A new man in Elise’s life wasn’t exactly earth-shattering news. Now, if it had been Marni with a new man—any man—that would have been news.
“You’re pregnant,” Marni repeated. She replayed what she could remember of Elise’s phone call five months ago. Something about a theater tour in London. Marni had suspected the “tour” was also a romantic rendezvous but it had never crossed her mind that El might be—“Pregnant!”
Elise nodded. Tears began to trickle down her cheeks and Marni could see the dam about to break. She rushed to her sister, hugged her tightly, then took her hands in hers.
No wedding band. At least Elise hadn’t eloped and forgotten to tell her. She’d just gotten pregnant and failed to mention it.
“A baby”, Marni said brightly as she led Elise over to the bed. They sat on the edge. A zillion questions buzzed around in Marni’s head. “How did this happen?”
A stupid question. And obviously the wrong one. Elise burst into a flood of tears. Marni grabbed a box of tissues from the night table—where already used ones were piled high—and handed several to her twin.
The story came out between sobs, sniffles and nose-blowing. Elise had met a man last summer, fallen head over heels in love and found herself pregnant—and him long gone. “His name is Chase Calloway.”
Sounded like a made-up name, if Marni had ever heard one. “Where did you meet him?”
“Remember that fender bender I had last June in Boze-man? It was his truck I ran into.” El smiled at the memory. “He bought me dinner because I was upset. He was so sweet and thoughtful.”
Marni just bet he was.
“He was in town for a few days so we spent them together.”
“In town?”
“He travels a lot, just like me.”
Marni just bet he did. “How few days?”
“Four. And don’t tell me someone can’t fall in love in four days.”
Heaven forbid Marni would even suggest such a thing. Elise could fall in love in four seconds. “He knows about the baby?”
Elise nodded. “He’d been out of town for a while and I was worried about him. When he called in August—” she sniffed “—he said he couldn’t see me anymore. He couldn’t explain. It was complicated, had to do with his father and his family and the way he was raised.”
“So you told him about the baby,” Marni interjected.
Elise shook her head. The waterworks started again and through the crying Marni pieced together the story as best she could. In August, El, heartbroken and feeling heroic, had decided to have the baby on her own and had taken off to London to live the tragic life of a romantic heroine. But her bravado started to fail when her belly started to grow, the play closed and her job ended. Now she was having complications and had flown back to the States where her doctor had prescribed bed rest until the baby was born.
“So when did you tell him about the baby?”
“Yesterday, when I got back. I called his family’s ranch in the Horseshoe Hills. When he came to the phone, he sounded…strange.” Elise chewed her lower lip for a moment. “He acted like he didn’t know me and didn’t know what I was talking about.”
“So,” Marni said, trying to figure out exactly what her sister wanted her to do about all this. “You want me to find you a place to live and someone to come in and stay with you until the baby is born?”
Elise shook her head.
“You want to move in with me?”
Elise shook her head.
Marni let out a silent sigh of relief. As much as she loved her twin, she couldn’t imagine the two of them living under the same roof for more than a short visit. They were too…different.
“You want to go live with Mom?”
“Good heavens, no!” Elise cried.
“Maybe you’d better tell me what it is you want me to do.”
“Take me to see him.”
“Who?” she asked, wishing she didn’t know.
“Chase.”
“Did your doctor say you could go?’” Marni asked and saw from El’s expression that he’d said just the opposite.
“I have to talk to Chase,” Elise cried. “He loves me. I know he does. He said he’s always wanted a baby. Something is wrong or he wouldn’t be acting like this now that he knows I’m pregnant. He’s avoiding me because of his family. His father, Jabe Calloway.”
Marni reminded herself of all the times since grade school her twin had involved her in “sticky situations,” but at the same time she and Elise both knew that Marni McCumber was a registered, card-carrying sucker for anyone in trouble. And her twin was in classic trouble.
“Chase said his father rules the family like a dictator,” Elise cried. “Chase wouldn’t deny his own baby unless he was being forced to. I know if I could just talk to him—”
Marni looked at the lump on El’s lap. All the other times, it had just been Elise in some dilemma. Now there was a baby. Marni’s niece or nephew.
“I’ll call this Chase Calloway and talk to him,” she relented. What could that hurt?
Elise hugged her and provided the phone number at the Calloway Ranch. Marni reached for the phone on the night table and punched in the number.
A woman answered on the third ring. Marni asked for Chase.
“May I tell him what this is in regard to?” she inquired.
“Just tell him it’s urgent that I speak with him. My name is Elise McCumber.”
She could hear a man’s voice in the background. “I’m sorry, Chase Calloway isn’t taking calls,” she said and hung up.
“Well?” Elise asked, eyes wide and hopeful.
“He isn’t taking calls.”
“See, I told you.” Elise started tearing up again. “He’s in terrible trouble. I have to go to him.”
”You’re not going anywhere,” Marni reminded her. “You have to do what’s best for the baby and the doctor said bed rest, right?”
“What am I going to do? I’m trapped here, and who knows what’s happening to Chase.”
Marni tried to assure her Chase was fine, but El wouldn’t hear of it. “Surely this can wait until after Christmas.” Maybe she could talk Elise out of pursuing this man by then. Or maybe Chase would have a change of heart over the holidays. Sure.
“Chase is in trouble,” El cried, her hand going to her stomach. “I feel it.”
Marni seriously doubted Chase was in any kind of trouble. The baby, however, was another matter. She knew her sister, she’d never been good at waiting for anything, especially a man. Elise couldn’t sit still for a few days, let alone two months until the baby was born, before she knew what was going on with this Chase character.
“I’ll go talk to him,” Marni heard herself say. The thought of telling Chase Calloway what a lowdown louse he was definitely had its appeal. Maybe the boutique could survive for one afternoon without her being there. “Where’s his ranch?”
El quit crying. “I’m sure you can find it, but you can’t go there like you are.”
“What?” Marni knew she wasn’t going to like this.
“You have to pretend you’re me, like we used to.”
“What? Do I have to remind you how much trouble we got into, pretending to be each other?”
“But this time it’s different,” El cried. “You have to pretend you’re pregnant or Jabe Calloway will take one look at you, think you’re me and that I lied about being pregnant, and not even let you in the door.”
The last thing Marni wanted to be was pregnant, pretend or otherwise. No thanks. “All I have to do is explain that I’m your twin sister,” Marni said reasonably. “You did tell Chase you have an identical twin, right?”
El looked chagrined. “It never came up.” She gave Marni another apologetic glance through her tear-beaded lashes. “You won’t be able to convince Jabe—or Chase—unless they see you like this. Once Chase admits his love for me, you can tell him the truth. He’ll listen then. Oh, Marni, it will work. We look more alike now than we ever have.”
Marni studied her sister. While they were identical twins, Elise had always been the picky eater and the skinnier one; Marni had what she liked to think of as the more well-fed, “rounded” look. Now that Elise was pregnant, grudgingly, Marni had to admit that her sister was right. They did look more alike than ever. Except for El’s protruding stomach.
“Chase will break down when he sees the woman he loves that he thinks is me, pregnant, especially seven months along,” Elise said with such confidence, Marni found herself almost believing it. Almost. And she couldn’t see even an old ogre as awful as this Jabe Calloway sounded turning away a very pregnant woman. Especially right before Christmas.
All Marni needed was a chance to talk to Chase Calloway and decide for herself if he was avoiding Elise on his own—or because of his dictatorial father.
“El, what if I talk to Chase and he doesn’t want a relationship with you or the baby?” she asked gingerly.
“If Chase truly doesn’t love me and doesn’t want me or the baby, I’ll accept it,” Elise said with a dignity her bunny slippers belied. “But I know how he feels about kids. He said finding a woman to share his life with and having children was all he’d ever dreamed of.”
Marni turned away to roll her eyes. Geez, couldn’t El tell a come-on when she heard one? “Okay. I’ll go up there and talk to him. I’ll give him one last chance.”
Elise nodded. “You’ll see. He loves me.” She patted her round belly. “And our baby.”
“I’ll go on one condition,” Marni said. “That you go to Mom’s—at least temporarily.” She expected an argument.
But El readily agreed. Marni stared at her sister. Until that moment, she’d had no idea how much Chase Calloway meant to her twin. Marni cursed the man’s black heart.
* * *
MARNI COULDN’T BELIEVE what she’d volunteered for as she took Dry Creek Road out of town headed for the Horseshoe Hills north of Bozeman. She wound through the snowy foothills that lay in the shadows of the Bridger mountain range. Farmhouses became fewer and farther between, and the road narrowed as she left civilization behind.
Occasionally she’d catch her reflection in the rearview mirror, and do a startled double take at the woman who looked back at her. Elise had insisted on putting a russet rinse on Marni’s normally dark-blond, curly, shoulder-length hair. Marni had drawn the line at chopping it off to look like El’s short wedge.
“He’ll just have to think I let my hair grow,” she told her twin. “El, are you sure there’s no chance that this guy really doesn’t remember you?”
El laughed. “Not after the four days we spent together.” Her eyes sparkled. “It was…magical.”
Magical. Marni suspected that wasn’t the way Chase Calloway would describe it, especially now that Elise was pregnant
“Here, let’s do something with your makeup,” El had said. “Then we’ll call my friend at the costume shop and get you a maternity form.”
Elise had filled her in on how she and Chase had met, where they’d gone and what they’d done, just in case she needed those details to get past Jabe Calloway to Chase. Marni only hoped she could keep it all straight. The last thing she wanted was to get caught in this whopper of a lie.
The deejay on the radio cut into Marni’s nervous thoughts with more disturbing news. A winter-storm warning. Great, exactly what she needed. “White Christmas” began to play on the radio. How appropriate. Well, it was too late now, she thought, looking at the darkening sky. All she could hope was that she’d get finished with Chase Calloway before the storm hit. And that he’d have some reasonable explanation for his disappearing act, just as El believed.
But common sense told Marni that Chase’s father wasn’t keeping him away from Elise; he was just using the old man as an excuse. Even if Jabe Calloway had forbidden his son to acknowledge El and the baby, and Chase had conformed to his father’s wishes, what kind of man did that make Chase?
No, Marni decided as she headed up the canyon, there was nothing about Chase Calloway she was going to like. She dropped down a hill through the snowy pines into Maudlow, an old railroad town with an abandoned clapboard hotel and gas station-grocery. Signs over the ancient fuel pumps outside listed gasoline at thirty-seven cents a gallon.
Marni hung a left at Maudlow, driving past the old schoolhouse on the hill up Sixteenmile Creek, and felt her first real trepidation.
The canyon narrowed in a thick fringe of snowcapped pine trees, rocky cliffs and creek bottom. She followed the winding frozen waters of the creek farther up the dead-end road and into the darkness of the approaching storm. She could feel the temperature plummeting outside her four-wheel-drive wagon and realized she hadn’t seen another vehicle on the road since the Poison Hollow turnoff.
She cranked up the heater and rubbed her cold fingers as she looked anxiously to the snowy road ahead. A Montana native, she knew how quickly the weather could change. Especially in December. But it wasn’t the cold or the storm that worried her. It was not knowing what lay ahead in this isolated part of the country.
She’d convinced herself that she’d missed the turnoff, when she saw the sign. Calloway Ranch. She shifted down, amazed at how cumbersome the maternity form was. How did pregnant women drive? She felt like a hippo out of water.
She turned up the road, feeling even more isolation as she crossed the creek on the narrow one-lane bridge and drove into another narrow dark canyon.
To her surprise the canyon opened up and in the middle of the small valley sat a huge, Gothic-looking house. It towered three stories. Nothing about it looked hospitable. No Christmas lights stretched across the eaves. Nor did any blink at the windows. Under the grayness of the approaching storm, the place looked dismal and downright sinister. Not that she’d expected a warm reception.
Marni pulled her car in front of it and cut the engine. She sat for a moment, rehearsing. She was Elise Mc-Cumber. She checked herself in the mirror. Nice eye shadow, El. She was seven months pregnant. She patted the maternity form. “How ya doin’, �Sam’?”
Then she shook her head in disbelief that she was doing such a fool thing and opened the car door.
It didn’t look as if anyone was home. No dogs ran out to greet or bite her. What few vehicles were parked along the side of the house were snow-covered. What kind of ranch was this? Didn’t El say they raised horses?
An uneasiness raised goose bumps on her skin. She looked up. A face peered out at her from a tiny window under the eave above the third floor. Then the face was gone. But the uneasy feeling remained.
“Well, someone’s home,” Marni muttered. “And the family now knows I’m here.” She took a deep breath and mounted the steps.
An older woman answered the door with a dish towel in her free hand. “Yes?” she inquired, giving Marni a disdainful once-over.
“I’m Ma—Elise McCumber,” Marni said. “I’m here to see Chase Calloway.”
“And what may I say this is in regard to?” she asked, even more cool and reserved than before. Unless Marni missed her guess, this was the same woman she’d spoken with on the phone earlier.
“It’s personal,” Marni said meaningfully as she opened her coat and patted “Sam.”
The woman rocked back on her sensible shoes.
“Would you please tell Mr. Calloway I’m here. Elise McCumber.” Marni started to step into the foyer but the woman blocked her way.
“Mr. Calloway isn’t seeing—”
“I’ll take care of this, Hilda,” called a male voice from some distance behind the woman.
The moment Hilda moved out of the doorway, Marni stepped in from the cold, breathing a sigh of relief. She’d gotten her foot in the door, so to speak.
Marni wasn’t surprised to find the inside of the house as forbidding as the outside. The interior provided little warmth, from the dark hardwood floors and trim to the somber wallpaper and heavy dusky draperies. In the corner sat an artificial Christmas tree, flocked white and decorated with matching gold balls positioned perfectly around its uniform boughs. So different from the McCumber tree at the farm with its wild array of colorful ornaments, each homemade and placed on the tree by the McCumber kids.
At the sound of boots on the wooden floor, Marni turned to see a large older man in western clothing coming down the hall. He filled the hallway with his size alone—he had to be close to six foot six—but also with his imposing manner. Marni took a wild guess. Jabe Calloway.
“Yes?” he asked, assessing her with sharp, pale blue eyes. He seemed surprised by what he saw. “You’re inquiring about my son?”
Marni watched the housekeeper scurry toward the back of the house as if the place were in flames.
“I’m Elise McCumber,” she said, saying the name over and over in her head like a mantra. Or a curse. “And you’re…?”
“Jabe Calloway,” he said, plainly irritated. “What is it you want with my son?”
“I want to talk to him. What it’s about is between Chase and me.” A strange sound made Marni turn. She blinked in surprise as a younger man hobbled into view from down the same hallway Hilda had disappeared. Marni told herself this couldn’t be Chase Calloway.
“Chase,” his father said, also turning at the sound. “There’s no reason to concern yourself with this. Ms. McCumber was just leaving.”
“But this is my concern,” Chase said.
Under normal circumstances, Marni would have reacted poorly to the fact that Jabe Calloway was trying to shuffle her off without even a chance to talk to his son. But what was normal about any of this?
She stared at Chase, too surprised to speak. She’d just assumed he’d be handsome, knowing El. But this man set new standards for the word, from his broad shoulders and slim hips to his long denim-clad legs. He had a thick cap of wild dark hair that fell over his forehead above a pair of blue eyes that put his father’s to shame. The resemblance between the two men was remarkable. But while Chase had his father’s strong, masterful features, his mouth was wider, his lips more sensual, even turned down as they were now. He was the kind of man women dreamed of. This explained a lot.
Chase’s muscular shoulders were draped over a pair of crutches. He limped toward her, his jeans trimmed to allow for the cast on his broken left leg. Eyes downcast, he seemed intent on maneuvering the crutches across the slick floor. Or on avoiding looking at her. On closer inspection, Marni decided it was the latter. The coward.
A few feet from her, he stopped and looked up for the first time, his pale blue eyes welding her feet to the floor.
Marni didn’t move an eyelash as his gaze flicked over her. Would he recognize her for the impostor she was?
He frowned, those blue eyes intent on her face. She let out a silent oath. She knew this wouldn’t work; any man who’d been intimate with a woman would know whether or not she was his lover when he saw her. One look at this man, and Marni knew she’d never be able to fool him. He made her feel as if he could see beyond the dye job and the eye shadow right into her deceitful soul.
“I wondered when you’d show up here,” Chase said.
So much for that theory. “What did you expect?”
His gaze dropped to her swollen abdomen, then insolently moved back up to her face. His eyes iced over. “Not this.”
She shot him a look that she hoped would give him frostbite. Had he thought Elise wasn’t serious when she’d told him she was pregnant? Or maybe he thought by rejecting her she’d just go away.
“We need to talk about the baby,” Marni said, putting a protective hand over “Sam.”
Chase clenched his jaw, eyes narrowing. “The baby? I thought I told you on the phone, this wasn’t going to work. What is it you want?”
“For you to own up to what you’ve done and accept some of the responsibility,” Marni snapped.
Hushed voices drifted down from the second floor.
“For what I’ve done?” Chase demanded. He seemed to be fighting to keep his voice down. “What are you trying to pull here?”
The muffled voices silenced. Marni looked up to see a small crowd gathered at the top of the wide, circular staircase. All eyes stared down at her.
“This is not the place to discuss this,” Jabe interjected abruptly. “Let’s take it into the library.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Chase said, locking his gaze with hers. “I don’t know who you are or what you want. But I can assure you of one thing, that…baby…isn’t mine.”
Chapter Two (#ulink_c7744285-1365-57c6-a892-7f91a106af3e)
After that stunning declaration, Chase turned on his crutches and hobbled off without a backward glance.
Marni started after him, planning to use one of his crutches to help refresh his memory, but Jabe put a firm hand on her arm.
“I’d like a word with you in private,” Jabe said. “Come this way.”
She had a word for him—and his son. “Excuse me, I don’t mean to be rude, but you and I have nothing to discuss. Your son, on the other hand, is a whole different matter.” She heard a door slam in the direction from which Chase had disappeared. The group at the top of the stairs didn’t even bother to pretend they weren’t eavesdropping.
Jabe studied her with a look of mild surprise. “I think you’re wrong about that, Ms. McCumber, I believe you and I might have a great deal to talk about.” He motioned toward an open doorway down the opposite hall. “Please?”
Marni had a feeling the word didn’t come easy to him. And although she suspected he planned to read her the riot act once they were behind closed doors, she also saw it as an opportunity to share a few choice words she had for him about his son.
“You might be right,” she said to Jabe.
The group at the top of the stairs descended in a scurry of curiosity before Jabe and Marni could escape. The oldest of the women broke free of the others and approached them.
“Is there a problem?” she inquired, pretending to ignore Marni. She had a diamond the size of Rhode Island on her ring finger and wore her marital status like a badge of honor. This had to be Mrs. Jabe Calloway.
“Nothing to concern yourself with, Vanessa,” Jabe assured her. “Go on in to dinner. I’ll be along shortly.”
Vanessa looked as if she’d been dragged into her late fifties kicking and screaming. From the bleached blond hair of the perfect pageboy to her tightly stretched facial features, she looked like a woman at war with the aging process.
She gave Marni a disdainful look, hesitating on the protruding belly for one wrathful moment before she turned and swept away. Over her shoulder she said, “Don’t be late, dear. You know how Hilda hates it when you’re late.”
Her words sounded hollow, lacking authority. It was obvious who ran this household, just as Elise had told her.
Marni took a calming breath as she followed Jabe Calloway down the hall. She reminded herself why she’d come here. To talk to Chase. To give him a chance to explain, if not rectify, the situation. To give Chase a chance, period. Because Elise loved the man. Although at this moment, good looks aside, Marni could not fathom why.
* * *
THE LIBRARY WAS as large and masculine as Jabe himself. He motioned to a chestnut-colored leather couch that spanned one wall. Built-in bookshelves bordered the room. A huge rock fireplace stretched across the only open wall. An oversize brown leather recliner hunkered in front of it. Several other chairs were scattered around. Everything in the room seemed to have been sized to one man—Jabe Calloway.
Marni scanned the bookshelves as she headed for the couch, curious if the books were for looks only or if someone in this family actually read them.
“Do you like to read?” Jabe asked from behind her.
She nodded as she spotted one of her favorites and pulled it from the shelf, surprised to find the cover worn.
“You’re a Jane Austen fan, too?” Jabe asked.
Marni turned, the copy of Pride and Prejudice still in her hand. Jabe Calloway didn’t seem to be someone who would enjoy Austen.
“She’s one of Chase’s favorites.”
“Really?” Marni said, her surprised gaze momentarily connecting with his before she put the book back and went to the couch. “I didn’t know that.” She was beginning to realize how little she knew about Chase Calloway; she wondered how much Elise really knew.
“The subject of books probably never came up,” Jabe said as he took a seat across from her.
She started to sit on the couch, forgot how awkward sitting was “pregnant” and basically fell into the soft, deep, low sofa.
“Did Chase tell you about this house?” Jabe asked, obviously making small talk, probably thinking he could mollify her once he had her alone. “It was built by a wealthy horse thief turned politician a hundred years ago.”
She didn’t comment, not half as impressed with the horse thief as he was. Nor was she interested in this house.
He must have realized that. He quit smiling and leaned back in his chair, studying her openly. “Tell me about my son.”
Was he serious? “Has he always tried to avoid responsibility?” she asked instead, attempting to get comfortable in the deep couch in her present condition. She ended up resting her arms on Sam.
Jabe seemed to consider her question. “No, as a matter of fact. Chase has always taken his responsibilities very seriously. That’s why I’m surprised by his attitude toward you.”
“Me, too,” Marni said. Although, in truth, she wasn’t all that surprised. Furious, yes. Surprised, no.
“I have to be honest with you, Ms. McCumber, you aren’t what I expected,” Jabe said. “When I heard that a woman was calling here, claiming to be pregnant with Chase’s child, well—” He waved a big hand through the air as if it went without saying what he thought. He settled his gaze on her, his look almost kind, but Marni feared he could spot her for the fraud she was.
“Tell me, if you wouldn’t mind, how did the two of you meet,” Jabe said.
Marni licked her dry lips and related to Jabe the story Elise had told her. But unlike El, Marni began at the beginning. “It started with a little fender bender in Bozeman last June.”
“Really?” Jabe said. “In one of the ranch trucks or one of Chase’s cars?”
Marni met his eyes. So this was a test. “The ranch’s white truck, the three-quarter ton with the stock rack and the words Calloway Ranches printed in dark blue on the doors.”
He nodded with an apologetic smile. “Please continue.”
Marni told him everything El had told her. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how much time and patience a person had, Elise had a way of recounting the smallest, most insignificant details, often overlooking the big picture. It was the thespian in her.
“I felt so awful about running into him that he asked me to dinner. At dinner, something just clicked between us,” Marni said, condensing Elise’s account. “The rest is history, as they say.”
“How long did you date?” Jabe asked.
Date? “We spent four days together.”
He lifted an eyebrow at that. Marni couldn’t say she blamed him. Only Elise could fall in love over dinner and think four days constituted a lifetime commitment.
“In August I realized I was pregnant.”
“I’m surprised Chase wouldn’t use protection,” Jabe said.
Marni was surprised this conversation had taken such a personal turn, and had it been her who was pregnant she would have told him it was none of his business. But if there was a chance of getting Jabe on Elise’s side—“We always did, except for one night in a hot-springs pool near Yellowstone,” she said, lowering her gaze, wondering why she felt embarrassed when she hadn’t even been there.
When he said nothing, she continued. “Chase called me in August to say he couldn’t see me anymore. He said it had to do with his family and was very complicated.”
Jabe looked confused. “Why didn’t you confront him in person before this?”
Her chin went up defiantly. “I decided to have the baby on my own.” Not unlike what Marni herself would have done in the same situation.
“What changed your mind?” Jabe asked.
“I wanted to be sure this was Chase’s decision and not yours,” she said truthfully. Well, as truthfully as she could, all things considered.
“I see. You think I have that kind of control over my son?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. After meeting Chase, Marni wondered just how much control anyone could wield over the man. “Do you?”
He shook his head ruefully. “Chase is his own man, I assure you. But I know my son. If you’re carrying his child, he’ll accept responsibility.”
She wished she was as convinced of that as he seemed to be. Could Elise have been wrong about Jabe Calloway? Could he be an ally rather than the diabolical family patriarch? That would mean, though, that Chase was the louse Marni suspected he was. In her heart of hearts, she’d hoped there would be a good explanation for Chase’s denial of Elise and her baby. Marni was a sucker for happy endings.
“When I called yesterday, Chase pretended not to know me and told me not to call again,” Marni said. “That doesn’t sound like a man who accepts responsibility.”
“That doesn’t sound like Chase.” He frowned as he studied Marni openly. “I’m sure you’re aware that Chase has had some…problems since the accident”
Accident? “When he broke his leg,” Marni said with a silent groan as she realized her mistake. She should have shown more concern for his injury or at least asked about it. Elise would have. “It looks like he’s getting around fine now. Did he break it skiing?”
“You haven’t heard then?” Jabe asked, sounding surprised. “I just assumed that you had and that was why you were here.”
He made her feel guilty. And that made her mad. “I would have sent a card, but Chase wasn’t even taking my calls.”
“That was my fault,” Jabe said. “I was the one who told Hilda to turn away your calls. I was afraid you were trying to take advantage of my son because of his injury.”
“Take advantage of his broken leg?” she asked.
“You don’t know about Chase’s memory loss?”
Memory loss?
“Chase suffered some temporary memory loss because of the accident.”
“I’m sorry, what accident was this?” she asked, wondering if he really believed she was buying the memory loss.
“A hit-and-run driver,” Jabe said. “Chase saved my life.”
Marni felt a good shot of repentance. Chase had been injured saving his father’s life and she’d thought Jabe was lying about Chase’s memory loss.
“Right after the accident, he couldn’t even remember his sisters-in-law,” Jabe said. “Now it’s just gaps in his memory, he says.”
Wait a minute. What was he saying? “You think El—I might be a…gap…in his memory?” she asked incredulously. Wasn’t that a bit too convenient?
“Fortunately, his memory seems to be coming back. What do you do in Bozeman?” Jabe asked, changing the subject.
Without thinking, she said, “I own a boutique. With my sister.”
“Really? Is it profitable?”
Oh, so he thought she’d gotten herself pregnant to get the Calloway money. “Very,” she said, then reminded herself she was supposed to be Elise, and added, “My sister runs the shop. I’m a theater stage designer.”
“Very enterprising,” Jabe said, eyeing her even more closely. “You build sets locally?”
“I just returned from a theater tour in London,” she said smugly, proud of her sister’s talents and her success, completely forgetting she was suppose to be El. “I’m not after your money, Mr. Calloway. I am more than capable financially of raising this child alone if that becomes necessary. I came here to give your son one last chance to decide whether or not he wants to be part of this baby’s life. It would appear, he’s already made his decision.”
Jabe Calloway seemed to flinch at her candor. His blue eyes took on a remote look. His face contracted in pain. For a moment, she thought he might be ill.
“Are you all right?” Marni asked in concern.
He blinked at her as if he’d forgotten she was there, took a bottle of prescription pills from his pocket, popped two in his mouth and washed them down with a glass of water on the table next to him.
“I’m fine. Just allergies. What did Chase tell you about my relationship with him?”
Another test? Marni met his gaze, wishing he hadn’t asked. “I know the two of you have never gotten along.”
“Did he tell you why?”
Marni looked at the older man, sensing something far more complex than what Elise had told her about Chase and his father. “He said you were a hard, uncompromising man who cared more about money than people and that you use your money to extract a high price from your sons.” She could see that the words hurt him, but also that they must have rung true. “I’m sorry.”
Jabe Calloway looked away for a moment and when he turned his gaze back to Marni’s, his blue eyes glistened. “Do you love my son, Ms. McCumber?”
“Very much,” she said, remembering the look on El’s face when she’d talked about Chase. “And I believed he loved me.”
Jabe nodded slowly, and with a visible effort pushed himself to his feet. “You will join us for dinner.”
“Thank you, but I have to get back—”
“I insist,” he said, cutting her off. He must have seen the look in her eye. He quickly softened his tone. “If you would be my guest for dinner, I’ll arrange for you to have a chance to speak with my son again without any interruptions.”
“I can’t see that it would do any good,’ Marni said, sounding as discouraged as she felt.
“You might be surprised,’ Jabe said. “My son is a reasonable man. Right now he’s extremely frustrated by his immobility and his inability to remember everything. He hates being cooped up. Especially here.”
“All right.” What could one dinner hurt? She owed it to El to at least give Chase a chance.
Marni worked her body out of the couch’s soft cushion and let Jabe usher her to the family dining room.
“Set another place,” Jabe ordered as he swept Marni into the room. “Next to me. Elise McCumber will be our dinner guest.”
Marni figured the latter part was addressed to the family now seated around the huge slab of an oak table. While they might not have a choice, they didn’t pretend to be happy about it. Especially Chase. He met her gaze with an irate scowl. Marni got the impression he would have gotten up and left, but someone had moved his crutches out of his reach, which no doubt added to his irritation.
At the foot of the table, Vanessa’s expression was one of shocked disbelief. For a moment, Marni thought the woman would raise an objection.
Instead, she brushed back her perfect pageboy and said, “Cook says the roast is going to be overdone.”
“I like my roast overdone,” Jabe said, pulling out the chair the housekeeper procured for Marni before taking his place at the head of the table.
Vanessa snapped, “Hilda, you may serve dinner now.”
The moment Jabe sat down he began the introductions. Starting on Marni’s right, he went around the long rectangular table. “Lilly is my youngest son’s wife.”
Marni recognized the heart-shaped face and large dark eyes from earlier when she’d seen the woman peeking out the window under the third-story eave. A petite, pretty woman, Lilly wore a pale pink dress that hung from her frail frame. Her white-blond hair was pulled severely back into a knot at her slim neck and the only color in her face was her eyes.
She murmured, “Nice to meet you,” and drained her wineglass with a trembling hand.
“Lilly, you’re hitting the wine a little hard tonight, aren’t you, dear?” Vanessa asked too sweetly.
“I’m worried about Hayes,” Lilly said as she motioned the housekeeper to refill her glass.
Jabe frowned at the empty chair next to Lilly, then at Vanessa. “Where is Hayes?”
“He had to go to Bozeman,” Vanessa said.
“What is he doing in Bozeman?” Jabe demanded.
“I certainly wouldn’t know. He only told me he planned to be back before dinner. I can’t imagine what could have detained him.” She looked over at Lilly as if Lilly knew but just wasn’t telling out of meanness.
Jabe sighed and continued his introductions. “My wife, Vanessa.” He skipped over her quickly. “And this is my middle son, Dayton.”
Dayton Calloway had his father’s blue eyes and a head of dark hair that he’d had meticulously styled, unlike Chase’s more unruly soft locks. A dark mustache curled across Dayton’s upper lip like a thin mean caterpillar. While no way near as handsome as Chase, he was good-looking in a petulant, dark sort of way. Marni got the immediate impression that he didn’t like her for some reason.
He didn’t get to his feet as Marni was introduced. Instead, he just nodded. Out of the corner of her eye, Marni saw Jabe scowl and mutter something directed at his wife about bad manners. Vanessa frowned and glared at Marni as if it were Marni’s fault.
“Felicia is Dayton’s wife,” Jabe continued. A sharp-featured brunette with green eyes, a more than ample chest and a bad disposition sat between Dayton and Chase. Marni knew about Felicia’s bad disposition the same way she knew the price of the expensive ethnic-print maternity dress and matching jewelry the woman wore. Marni had sold it to her at her Bozeman boutique—last week.
“You look familiar,” Felicia said, eyeing her suspiciously.
The truth seemed the best approach. “I believe you trade at the boutique I’m part owner of in Bozeman.” She looked at Chase to see if he registered any shock to hear she owned a boutique. Chase didn’t look up; he sat turning the thin stem of his wineglass in his strong fingers, showing no sign that he was paying the least bit of attention to any of this.
Felicia’s gaze narrowed. “Yes, I remember now. But when I saw you last week you weren’t pregnant.”
Marni laughed. It sounded hollow even to her ears. “You probably have me confused with my sister. We look a lot alike.” Boy, was that putting it mildly.
Felicia didn’t appear convinced, but lost interest as Hilda served dinner a beef roast the size of Montana, followed by huge bowls of mashed potatoes, brown gravy, fresh green beans, another of hot homemade dinner rolls and butter.
Marni felt famished, having not taken time all day to eat. She ladled gravy over her beef and potatoes, buttered a hot roll and slathered butter on her green beans. Her love of food was one of the reasons she’d never had Elise’s slim model-like figure.
Hilda brought Vanessa broiled chicken, cottage cheese and crudit#233;s, and Felicia a plate of what looked like Chinese food. Lilly seemed to be the only Calloway woman who didn’t ask for a special-order meal. She took a spoonful of everything that was passed to her then hardly touched the food she’d put on her plate. But she polished off the remaining wine at her end of the table, ignoring Vanessa’s reprimanding looks. Marni declined wine when Hilda came around to fill her glass, needing all her wits about her. It wasn’t until later that she realized pregnant women weren’t supposed to drink alcohol and she was a pregnant woman, by all appearances.
Everyone ate in silence, not that Marni minded. She concentrated on the food, rather than the strange family dynamics. The roast was excellent, not in the least overcooked. Halfway through her meal, she glanced up to see Chase staring at her, his expression unreadable. But she noticed he hadn’t touched his food any more than Lilly had.
“I enjoy a woman who likes to eat,” Jabe said, smiling at Marni.
“This is delicious,” she said, a little embarrassed by her appetite.
“You’re eating for two,” he said. “It’s healthy to eat even if you’re not expecting.”
Vanessa mumbled something under her breath and pushed away her diet plate in what could only be described as disgust. The room grew painfully quiet.
Marni finished her roast beef, thinking about El and the baby. At least she knew her sister wasn’t going hungry or not following doctor’s orders. By now, Mary Margaret McCumber would have Elise at the family farm. If anyone could get El to do as she was told, it was Mother, Marni thought with a smile.
The door to the dining room swung open and a man in western attire rushed in, apologizing for being late as he took the chair next to Lilly.
“Hayes,” Lilly said, lifting her wineglass to him in a less than sober salute. “We were so worried about you.” She didn’t sound as if she meant it in the least.
Clean-shaven, Hayes Calloway also had his father’s blue eyes, a little lighter version of Chase’s hair color and a softer, gentler, more handsome face than his brother Dayton.
Hayes seemed to eye his wife warily before brushing a kiss across her pallid cheek. Then he spotted Marni and looked startled to see that they had a guest Marni got the impression the Calloways didn’t have many dinner guests.
“Hayes, this is Elise McCumber,” Jabe said. “She’s a…friend of Chase’s.”
Hayes stumbled to his feet, his eyes widening in surprise. “Hello.”
“Why are you so late?” Jabe demanded.
He looked past Marni to his father. “The roads are covered in ice and the visibility was so bad I hit a deer on the way home.”
“Are you all right?” Vanessa cried, although he obviously was fine.
“What about the damage to the truck?” Jabe asked.
“The truck?” Hayes asked, anger flickering in his gaze as he sat down and began to dish up his plate. “The truck is repairable.”
“The truck is the least of our worries,” Vanessa cut in, sending a look at Jabe.
He grumbled but returned his attention to his meal.
Marni watched Chase pick at the food he’d put on his plate. He looked as uncomfortable as she felt. She caught both Hayes and Dayton stealing curious glances at her. But then, why wouldn’t they be? They had to wonder who she was, what she was doing at their dinner table, seven months pregnant, and why she was sitting next to Jabe as if part of the family.
What was she doing here? More and more she felt she was on a fool’s errand. What possible good would it do to talk to Chase after he’d already denied even knowing her. And now it sounded as if the roads were probably getting worse by the minute. But she had to give it one last try with Chase. For El’s sake.
“I hate to eat and run,” Marni said pointedly to Jabe.
He nodded, letting her know he remembered his promise, but then said, “We couldn’t possibly let you leave with the storm as bad as Hayes says it is. Not in your fragile state.”
Fragile state indeed. “You don’t understand. I have to work tomorrow.”
Jabe shook his head. “By now the road out of here will be impassable.”
“He’s right,” Hayes said. “It’s much too dangerous. Especially in your…condition.”
Marni started to argue that she’d driven icy roads all her life, having been born and raised a Montanan, but to her astonishment it was Chase instead of Jabe who cut her off.
“It’s settled,” Chase said, slamming down his wineglass. “You’ll stay the night and leave first thing in the morning after the roads are plowed and sanded.”
Marni groaned inwardly, but knew there was no point in arguing. She’d leave in the morning. After she’d finished her business with Chase. What was one night in a haunted house with people who hated her, anyway?
In the deathly silence that followed, Vanessa signaled for Hilda, who hurriedly cleared the dinner dishes and brought in a bottle of champagne on ice and a huge cake with one large pink candle and Congratulations! scripted across the white icing in bright pink.
Marni stared at the cake. She had a strong feeling it wasn’t for her and Chase. In fact, she suspected she’d put a damper on a family celebration by showing up when she did.
Vanessa irritably motioned Hilda away the moment the housekeeper had poured the champagne and lit the candle. “We have something to celebrate tonight,” Vanessa announced. Her smile looked strained as she glanced almost warily at Jabe.
Jabe appeared surprised. And maybe a little worried.
“Felicia and Dayton have an announcement,” she said and took her seat again.
Dayton got to his feet. “Felicia saw her doctor today and it’s a girl,” he announced without preamble.
If Marni thought the news would be met with cheers, applause or even halfhearted congratulations from the rest of the family, she was mistaken.
Lilly let out a startled cry, spilling her wine, then rushed from the room. Hayes looked to Marni as if he felt he should say something on behalf of his wife, then hurried out after her. Following their departure, a hush fell over the room. It was Chase who broke it.
“Let me be the first to congratulate you.” He raised his glass in a toast. “Dayton. Felicia. To the firstborn grandchild of Jabe T. Calloway. A girl.” His gaze shifted to his father. “Jabe finally has what he wanted, a grandchild.” A tension Marni couldn’t comprehend danced in the air like Saint Elmo’s fire.
Jabe got slowly to his feet. He picked up his glass and raised it. Marni started to raise hers, then realized the rest of the family hadn’t touched their champagne.
“To my first grandchild,” Jabe said, his voice cracking with emotion. Or anger. Marni couldn’t tell which.
He looked over at Marni. Her glass seemed filled with lead as she lifted it and he touched the rim of his glass to hers with a tinkling sound that echoed through the room. “To my first grandchild,” he repeated.
Marni lifted the glass to her lips. No one else in the room had moved. She took a sip of the champagne, realizing that everyone was staring at her. She quickly put the glass down.
“What’s going on here?” Dayton demanded sourly.
Jabe looked at Chase.
Marni thought she could have heard a snowflake drop in the room.
“We may have double reason to celebrate,” Jabe said to Dayton. “I may have been blessed with not one grandchild, but two. It seems Elise is also carrying my grandchild. It appears it will be my first grandchild.” He shifted his gaze to Chase. “Chase’s child.”
Felicia gasped. Dayton let out an oath. Vanessa looked across the great expanse of table at Marni, hatred in her eyes.
But it was Chase’s reaction that worried Marni the most. He got up, hopped over to his crutches and left the room without a word.
Chapter Three (#ulink_faa9206d-209e-5dce-b6cd-cf0b571bf67b)
Jabe excused himself and went after his son, leaving Marni alone in the dining room with what was left of the family and their dagger-throwing glares. The silence in the room was stirling. But it didn’t last long. An argument between Chase and his father ensued outside the dining-room door.
“How dare you make such an announcement without even discussing it with me first,” Chase bellowed.
“Keep your voice down,” Jabe warned him. “You can’t just pretend you don’t know her.”
“I don’t know her!”
“That’s ridiculous,” Jabe said. “She told me in no uncertain terms how you feel about me. You must have made her…acquaintance. No one outside the family could paint such an unattractive—or accurate—picture.”
“This is all your fault, you and your damned ego,” Chase said. “I told you not to change your will. I warned you not to do this. Now look what you’ve done.”
“I offered you a chance to run my business, you turned it down.”
“You aren’t going to lay this on me! I wouldn’t be surprised if you were behind this.”
“What are you talking about?” Jabe demanded.
“That woman. I wouldn’t be surprised if you put her up to this. You just don’t give up, do you?”
“That’s ridiculous,” Jabe snapped. “You owe it to yourself to find out if she really is carrying your child.”
“And I’m telling you I’ve never seen her before in my life.”
“If you talk to her, you’ll find she’s very convincing,” Jabe said.
“Well, she’s going to have a damned hard time convincing me. I happen to remember the women I sleep with.”
“How can you be so sure?” Jabe asked, sounding almost reasonable. “Think of all the other things you haven’t been able to remember since the accident”
“Believe me, I’d remember her,” Chase shot back. It sounded as if he’d started to leave, his crutches clopping across the floor.
“She doesn’t seem the type to lie about something like this.”
Chase’s hobbling stopped. “What type is that, Jabe? A woman like my mother?”
Marni shot a look at Vanessa. She’d paled visibly.
“I won’t have my first grandchild be a bastard,” Jabe boomed, his voice an iron glove of authority.
“It was good enough for your first son,” Chase retorted just before a door slammed and silence filled the dining room again.
Marni felt her head swim. Chase was Jabe’s firstborn son, wasn’t he?
“I’m sorry, dear,” Vanessa said to Dayton as he got to his feet again.
“Leave it to Chase to throw cold water on any family celebration, and Father to be…Father.” He gave Marni a mocking bow, and snagging a bottle of wine Lilly had missed, headed out through the kitchen with Felicia trailing along behind him.
Chase certainly knew how to empty a room, Marni thought, then noticed with regret that she’d been left alone with Vanessa. And Vanessa looked as if she might start a food fight if given any provocation. What kind of family had El gotten herself involved with? What had Marni gotten herself into?
Jabe returned to the room, looking tired. “I apologize for…” He couldn’t seem to find a word for what had happened. Neither could Marni. “But I assure you, I am a man of my word, Elise. You will have a chance to speak with my son before you leave. In the meantime—” He turned to Vanessa. “See that Elise gets a room and anything else she needs for the night.” With that he turned and left.
After a long sigh, Vanessa rang for the housekeeper and instructed her to prepare a room for their guest. The way she said “guest” made it sound like “ax murderer.
Marni noticed that the candle had burned down on the untouched cake. It flickered, barely alive, in a pool of wax. Vanessa snuffed it out with the serving knife in one swift swat and stabbed the knife into the heart of the cake with a good deal of what appeared to be pent-up aggression.
Her hostess sat for a moment surveying the empty room before she looked again at Marni. She opened her mouth seemingly to speak and closed it, as though she’d thought better of it. Instead, she cut herself a thick slice of roast beef, stuck it and a half inch of butter into one of the rolls and took a healthy bite. As she chewed, she scrutinized her houseguest as if deciding how best to dispose of her. It seemed Jabe dictated she be nice to Marni. But if looks could kill…
Marni stared down into her empty plate, considered having another slice of roast beef herself, vetoed the idea and sat thinking about the conversation she’d just overheard. She didn’t care about any of the particulars except one. Chase was sticking to his story that he didn’t know her. He didn’t even want to believe it was because of his temporary memory loss. The problem was: No man forgot Elise McCumber.
“You must be tired,” Vanessa said after she’d polished off the last bite. “I’ll show you to your room.” As they got up, she instructed Hilda to save her a piece of cake. A every large one. Marni got the impression Vanessa had just fallen off her diet
“I’ll leave it in your sitting room,” Hilda said conspir-atorially.
Vanessa shot Marni a look, daring her to say a word.
Not likely. As they entered the foyer, Vanessa glanced toward the library. “If you’ll excuse me for just a moment,” she said. Not waiting for a reply, she strode down the hall through the open doorway, closing the door firmly behind her.
Marni grimaced as she imagined the choice words Vanessa must be sharing with her beloved husband at his moment, then turned her thoughts to her own precarious situation.
Snowed in. Miles from everything. Seven months pregnant. Or so it seemed. Forced to spend the night in this huge, old—quite possibly haunted—house. With people who definitely hated her. Pretending to be her beguiling sister. All because of a man who swore he’d never seen her before—nor it seemed—her identical twin. How had she talked herself into this?
She hadn’t even had a chance to really speak to Chase. And she couldn’t for the life of her understand the strange reactions of these people. Why had Vanessa been so happy about Dayton’s child but so upset by Chase’s? Was it just because this baby was conceived out of wedlock? Or did it have something to do with the argument she’d heard outside the dining-room door about Jabe’s firstborn being a bastard?
And why hadn’t Elise told her any of this? Maybe Elise hadn’t known, Marni realized. She groaned. It seemed clearer and clearer that Elise didn’t know much about Chase Calloway. But how much could you learn in only four days?
Marni turned at the soft sound of footsteps directly behind her. Lilly stumbled around the corner, the wine in her glass sloshing onto the floor as she came to a lurching stop at the sight of Marni.
She smiled as she tried to rub the wine into the hardwood floor with her shoe, then staggered over to Marni, leaning toward her confidentially. “It isn’t going to work, you know.” Her words slurred. “You think I’m a fool? You think I don’t know what you’re really after? Pretending you’re carrying Chase’s baby. You don’t fool me.”
“Lilly, do you want to sit down?” Before you fall down? Marni looked around for a chair. There were none.
Lilly didn’t answer. She glanced down the hallway toward the library and dropped her voice. “You don’t really want him. It’s the money. You’re after the baby money.”
Baby money? “Lilly, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Marni said softly, not sure why they were almost whispering, but feeling a little seasick just watching Lilly sway back and forth. She motioned toward the stairs. “Perhaps if we sit down—”
“The first grandchild,” Lilly said, following Marni to the stairs. She plopped down hard on the first step, spilling more of her wine onto her dress. It looked like blood against the pale pink of the fabric.
Marni sat down beside her. “What difference does it make if I’m having Jabe’s first grandchild or the fifth?” she asked.
“Like you don’t know,” Lilly said with a smirk. “He told you about the change in Jabe’s will. He probably told you everything.”
Right, like Chase had told Elise anything. “What does the change in Jabe’s will have to do with the first grandchild?” she asked again.
Lilly straightened. “Jabe wants someone he can leave his…empire to. Chase turned it down. So Jabe changed his will to leave a fortune to his first grandchild,” she said, bitterness buoying her in a way not even strong, black coffee could have. “The other two sons end up with almost nothing.”
“Why would he do that?” Marni exclaimed, realizing now exactly what she’d witnessed at dinner. Jabe Calloway had pitted his sons against one another, a baby race, and Elise had unwittingly become a part of it and was now it appeared, the leading contender. No wonder Dayton and Felicia had been so upset.
“It should be my money,” Lilly said. She drained her glass and set it on the step beside her. Her gaze bobbed up to sear Marni with a hateful look. “Not yours”
Marni heard the library door open and the sound of Vanessa’s voice drift toward them.
“I assure you I knew nothing about this will.” Marni said quietly, but she could tell Lilly wasn’t listening, her attention drawn to the library instead.
“I had the first grandchild,” Lilly whispered as she stumbled to her feet. “But Vanessa killed it.”
“What?” Marni cried, jumping to her feet Surely Lilly was too drunk to know what she was saying.
But Marni felt a chill as she witnessed the fear she saw in the woman’s eyes as Lilly lurched around the side of the staircase at the sound of Vanessa’s high heels thumping across the hardwood floor toward them. Marni started to follow Lilly, afraid the woman would hurt herself in the state she was in, but Lilly motioned for her not to. The pleading in her wide-eyed gaze stopped Marni. What was she so afraid of? Vanessa? Or Vanessa catching her this inebriated?
Marni watched in surprise as Lilly touched the wall behind her and a narrow door silently slid open. Lilly slipped into what appeared to be a passageway and disappeared, the door sliding shut behind her with only a whisper.
“Are you ready?” Vanessa demanded.
Marni jumped as she swung around to find Vanessa glaring at her. The conversation in the library must not have gone well.
“Is something wrong?” Vanessa asked, her gaze narrowing as it settled on the empty glass resting on the bottom stair where Lilly had left it.
“You just startled me,” Marni said quickly.
Vanessa nodded suspiciously. Then she picked up the empty wineglass with obvious annoyance, and placed it on the marble-topped table to the left of the stairs. “Hilda should have your room ready.” Without giving Marni a backward glance, Vanessa started up the stairs.
Marni followed her up the wide circular staircase, realizing that the longer she was in this house, the more questions she had about Chase and his family. She shook her head, confused but too smart to ask Vanessa anything.
As she climbed the stairs, Marni found herself looking over her shoulder. You’re getting a little paranoid. Yeah? Well, who wouldn’t be in this house? She tried to laugh off the feeling that she was being watched. Spied on. That someone definitely didn’t want her here. She almost laughed at the thought. No one wanted her here and it wasn’t as though they’d made a secret of it.
As Vanessa led her toward the third floor, Marni glanced back again, thinking about Chase Calloway. She had so many questions, but only one that really mattered. Could it be possible he was the man Elise thought he was and this was just a misunderstanding because of his memory loss? Then why, her skeptical side questioned, is he so adamant that El couldn’t be carrying his child?
Marni had almost reached the top of the stairs when suddenly her right foot slipped. She grasped for the railing but wasn’t close enough to reach it. She felt herself teeter and start to fall backward. Two strong hands grabbed her.
“Are you all right?” Hayes cried as he steadied her.
It took Marni a moment to assure herself she wasn’t at that moment cartwheeling to the bottom of the long, curved staircase. She looked up, wondering where Hayes had come from so suddenly, and realized he’d been waiting in a small alcove on the stairs. As odd as that seemed, Marni was thankful he’d been there. It also explained that paranoid feeling that someone was watching her. She almost laughed in relief.
“Thank you. I must have slipped.” Marni spotted the cause of her near accident—a colorful silk scarf on the stairs—about the same time as Hayes and his mother did.
Vanessa”s hand went to her throat, her look one of shock. “Did I drop that? I didn’t even realize I was wearing it.” She stepped back down the stairs to pluck up the scarf. “How careless of me.”
“Mother,” Hayes said, the reprimand clear in his voice. “She could have been killed and the baby—” He stopped, distress in his expression
“It mustn’t happen again,” Hayes said to his mother.
Vanessa looked as if he’d slapped her. “It was an accident.” Her voice sounded close to tears.
A chill wrapped its icy fingers around Marni’s throat as she watched Vanessa retie the scarf around her neck. It mustn’t happen again?
“Go find your wife,” Vanessa said to Hayes. “She needs you.”
Hayes glared for a moment at his mother, a silent accusation in his eyes that even Marni couldn’t miss before he turned and left.
Vanessa led the way to what Marni guessed was the guest bedroom. What had Hayes meant by “It mustn’t happen again"? Had there been other falls down the stairs? Marni wondered as she stepped through the doorway Vanessa now held open for her. Is that how Lilly had lost her baby? Or had he meant another baby mustn’t die in this house? Whatever, it gave Marni a chill not even the fire in the small rock fireplace in the corner could throw off.
The bedroom was spacious and not quite as masculine as the library was, even with the king-size log bed, matching log furniture and antler-based lamps.
The covers had been turned down on the bed and the flannel sheets looked inviting. So did the huge claw-foot tub she glimpsed in the bathroom.
Marni glanced a little apprehensively at the adjoining bedroom door, however.
Vanessa must have noticed. “The room next door is Chase’s.”
Whose idea was that? Marni asked herself.
“It locks from either side,” Vanessa said.
“Thank you,” Marni said, still curious about the woman’s antagonism toward her. That had been an accident on the stairs, hadn’t it?
Marni noticed a light blue striped shirt and a black velour robe had been left for her on the bed. Both garments were obviously male. Vanessa frowned when she saw them and Marni wondered whose they were.
“There are candles beside the bed. When it storms, the power often goes out. If there is anything else you need…” Her voice trailed off, then, “Breakfast is at eight.”
Marni could see that being forced to be nice was taking its toll on the woman. “I’ll be gone first thing in the morning,” she said. “Right after I talk to Chase.”
If she thought that news would please Vanessa, she was sadly mistaken. The woman gave her an icy stare. “Good night,” she said and left, closing the door firmly behind her.
Marni stood in the middle of the room suddenly too tired to move. What a day! She felt worn-out by everything that had happened and even more tired by trying to understand Chase Calloway and his decidedly weird family. That wasn’t fair, she told herself. She’d thrown his family into turmoil by showing up in an advanced stage of pregnancy claiming to be carrying Chase’s child.
She considered knocking on the adjoining door and trying to talk to him, but it was late and she didn’t feel up to it. Morning would be soon enough to have her final say before she left.
Marni walked to the window and looked out into the storm. Outside, a Montana blizzard raged. Snow fell, dense and deep, smothering the mountain landscape with cold white. It was as beautiful as it was confining. A white Christmas. Marni had to remind herself Christmas was just days away. Little in the Calloway house reflected the season. And something told her there wouldn’t be much Christmas spirit at the Calloways’ this year.
She started to move away from the window, but stopped as she heard a faint sound. It seemed to be coming up through the heat vent. She leaned closer, surprised to hear a baby crying softly. Marni frowned. All that talk about the first grandchild at dinner…Whose baby was this? she wondered.
The sound stopped as abruptly as it had begun. With a shiver, Marni stepped away from the window to lock the hallway door. A hot bath. That’s what she needed. Something to get her mind off El, Chase, his family, this house—
As she entered the bathroom, Marni stopped, shocked by what she was doing. Waddling. She was taking this whole pregnancy thing way too seriously.
She started filling the tub, splashed in a generous amount of the vanilla-scented bubble bath she found on a shelf at the foot of the tub and hurriedly undressed, anxious to get the maternity form off and end this ridiculous charade at least for a few hours.
But as she slipped into the tub sans Sam and let the bubbles caress her nakedness, she felt a stab of regret that took her a moment even to recognize. She missed Sam.
With a groan she sank under the water. What was wrong with her? She’d never even thought about children of her own and now she was getting attached to a maternity form? No, not a maternity form, she thought as she surfaced. A pretend child named Sam. Chase Calloway’s son. Geez.
She heard a soft knock at her hallway door and started to call that she was in the tub but stopped herself. The last thing she wanted was another confrontation with someone else in this family—especially right now, naked in the tub, with her bubbles dissolving and her body unpregnant.
Whoever it was knocked again. Softly. As if they didn’t want the rest of the house to know they’d come to see her? Chase? Surprised, she listened as the person tried the knob. Please let it be locked. The knob started to turn. And stopped. Locked. Footfalls retreated down the hall. Marni let out the breath she’d been holding.
Relieved, she leaned back in the tub and closed her eyes, doing her best not even to think about Chase Calloway. But her thoughts went to him as swiftly as an arrow shot from a bow. What was his story? And more to the point, how could Elise have fallen for such a disagreeable man?
The water began to cool and Marni climbed out and quickly dried herself, curious to know who her earlier visitor had been. Would her caller have come in if the door hadn’t been locked? It appeared so. She doubted it was Chase. It seemed odd that he’d use the hallway door instead of their adjoining one. It seemed even odder anyone would try the door when she didn’t answer the knock.
Whoever it was might return, she thought, realizing she’d have to put the maternity form back on. She didn’t relish the idea, but it was better than getting caught unpregnant by Chase Calloway. No amount of explaining would get that man to believe her.
But at least she could get comfortable. After putting the form back on, she wandered into the bedroom, picked up the loaned shirt from the bed and pulled it on over the maternity form. It was large enough that the soft fabric covered her to her knees.
Her earlier tiredness came back suddenly and she couldn’t wait to climb between the flannel sheets of the massive bed. That’s when she remembered she hadn’t locked the door between her room and Chase’s. Buttoning the shirt on her way, she waddled to the door and reached for the knob. The door must not have been closed soundly. The moment she touched the knob, the door creaked open and a deep, angry voice bellowed, “What the hell do you want?”
Marni jumped at the sound of Chase’s voice. “I—” She grimaced as she heard him limping across the floor toward her, the crutches beating a path to her.
The door banged open and Chase filled the space between their rooms. “Look, woman—” His gaze dropped from her face to her chest. She caught the smell of brandy on his warm breath as he leaned toward her. “Is that one of my shirts? What the hell are you doing in my shirt?”
“Someone left it for me,” Marni said defensively. “The way your mother acted, I just assumed it was Jabe’s.” Her chin went up to show him she wasn’t afraid, but her traitorous feet stumbled back a step from the fury in his eyes.
“My mother?” His gaze narrowed. “That proves how little you know about me. Vanessa’s not my mother.”
Marni stared at him. Well, that explained a lot. Did Elise know anything about this man? “Dayton and Hayes are your…”
“Half brothers.” Chase hobbled toward her, forcing her into a corner. “How can you pretend we were lovers and his is my baby, when you know nothing about me?” he demanded.
Marni felt the hellfire of his gaze and wanted to proclaim her honesty but it was hard to do, all things considered. She lifted her chin again and met his blue eyes, frantically trying to imagine what Elise would say in answer to his very reasonable question. She had no idea, having never met a man like Chase Calloway. All she knew was that he made her nervous. Self-conscious. Unsure of herself.
“I thought I heard a baby crying,” Marni said, motioning toward the heat vent, belatedly realizing he’d see right through her clumsy attempt to change the subject.
“A baby? There is no baby in this house.” His gaze dropped to her swollen form. “Yet.”
No baby? But she’d heard a baby crying. Or had she? Her eyes widened. No, it couldn’t be. This pretend pregnancy made her waddle, even vulnerable to emotions she couldn’t remember ever having before. But surely it didn’t make her imagine crying babies?
She realized Chase was waiting for an answer to his original question. She felt at a loss as to how to reply.
He gave her an impatient look and she knew she’d have to say something. She took a deep breath and, closing her eyes, concentrated. She imagined she was Elise and that this man standing in front of her was her lover. Her eyes flew open; she felt the flushed heat of embarrassment rush to her cheeks as the sudden, crystal-clear image of the two of them unclothed branded itself on her brain.
“Admittedly,” Marni said shakily as she sidestepped away from him, “there is a lot I don’t know about you and your family.” Practically nothing. “All I can tell you is the…truth.” She almost choked on the word.
“The truth?” Chase asked, sounding skeptical.
She nodded as she turned to face him, suddenly reminded of the disastrous results the other times she’d pretended to be her twin. “The truth is…” She tried for that slight catch in her throat El had when she talked about Chase. It came out more like a croak. “I’m in…in love with you.”
For a moment, she thought he’d laugh in her face. Instead, he let out an animal growl and thumped over to her, slamming any and everything in his path out of the way with his crutches. He stopped, towering over her, his eyes hard as ice chips.
“Don’t you see how dangerous this game is you’re playing?” he demanded, his voice reverberating through her.
She commanded her feet to stand their ground. He couldn’t scare her, she assured herself with only a slight tremble.
“Cut your losses and give up this charade,” he said, dropping his voice to a menacing softness as he leaned closer. “You are no more pregnant with my child than you are in love with me.”
She couldn’t argue that. Not that he gave her a chance.
Before she could move, he took her face in his hands. She felt his calloused hands, warm and strong, on her cheeks. The hands of a man who did an honest day’s work. That picture didn’t quite fit with the one she’d already painted of him. But she didn’t have time to worry about that now. In the depths of his gaze, she saw what he planned to do. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to react before he took her mouth as he’d probably no doubt taken her sister’s body, with an intensity that stunned her. And for those few moments, she was El. And she knew the power this man had over her twin.
Abruptly he broke off the kiss and shoved himself away from her. “You and I have never kissed before,” he said, his voice as rough as his hands. “Believe me, if we had, I would have remembered.” He limped a few feet away on his crutches and turned to glare at her.
Marni fought the urge to cry out. In frustration. Her body ached, reminding her how long it had been since a man had kissed her. Had one ever kissed her like that?
Worse yet, he’d been testing her and she’d failed miserably. Failed to pull off her fraud. And failed El. She already felt like a traitor to her sister for just letting the man kiss her.
“Let me give you some advice, Miss McCumber,” he said, his voice sending a shiver through her. “You picked the wrong man to fool with. I don’t know who you are or what you want, but if you’re smart, you’ll get away from here as fast as you can. You and your baby aren’t safe in this house.”
He left, the threat hanging in the air as he slammed the door between their rooms.
Chapter Four (#ulink_8910943b-84e6-57a8-b648-f90f78ab3a50)
Long after Chase left, Marni lay on the big log bed, her arm protectively around Sam as she stared up at the ceiling and mentally kicked herself. What had she hoped to accomplish by coming here? When was she going to learn that she couldn’t solve everyone’s problems?
As for the kiss…
She tried to excuse it. It was only a test and a test kiss didn’t amount to anything. She shouldn’t feel guilty. Really, if she was going to pretend to be Elise, these things were bound to happen. Men kissed El unexpectedly, passionately, soundly.
Not that Marni would let it happen again. One test kiss per sister’s boyfriend, thank you. But if it should—
Marni groaned. Why was she agonizing over one silly little kiss? Instead she should be worrying about how El was going to take the bad news. She’d tried to call her sister before climbing into bed but the phone line was dead. Probably the storm.
She stopped a moment to listen, almost sure she’d heard footsteps out in the hallway again. As she drew the covers up around her shoulders, she assured herself the house didn’t feel exceptionally imposing or hostile and that all those grunts and groans, creaks and crackings were just from the storm outside. This was Chase’s doing. Him and his “you and your baby aren’t safe here.”
Only silence came from the adjoining room. Chase had no doubt gone to bed and was sound asleep by now. So much for his guilty conscience keeping him awake.
She’d really believed that once she had him alone, she could get him to admit his part in Elise’s pregnancy. At least she would have accomplished that much. Not that he planned to do anything about it. But instead, he wouldn’t even consider she might be part of his lost memory. If indeed he suffered from such a convenient affliction.
Marni squeezed her eyes closed and searched for sleep, wishing she’d grabbed a book from the library. Nothing could distract her mind faster than a book.
Her stomach growled. How could she be hungry when she’d devoured such a large meal just hours ago?
She tried to ignore the hunger pangs and the mental picture that kept flashing in her brain. Cake. A moist white cake, rich with buttery frosting.
Her stomach rumbled loudly. She opened her eyes. It would be incredibly rude to raid the refrigerator. Not for a woman who was eating for two, she argued, as she slid her legs over the side of the bed.
The embers had burned down in the fireplace and the storm’s icy chill settled in along with Chase’s warning. He didn’t know her very well if he thought he could scare her that easily.
She reminded herself that he didn’t know her at all. He knew Elise. And the truth was, Elise probably wouldn’t have budged from her bed until morning.
Marni opened her bedroom door cautiously and peered out. The hallway was empty. And dark except for a light at the far end beyond the stairs. The house seemed to hunker in silence as if waiting for something. For her, the voice of reason warned. But a piece of cake, rich with frosting, was calling. The cake won. She stepped out and, quietly closing the door behind her, tiptoed down the hall.
A cold draft crawled over her bare feet. She pulled Chase’s robe around her. The robe was thick and warm and like the shirt, smelled faintly of its owner, a scent that was both disarming and comforting.
When Marni reached the stairs, she trod down them carefully, her near accident still too fresh in her memory for comfort.
Someone had left a light on and Marni wondered if she was the only one up raiding the fridge. The thought of running into Vanessa almost changed her mind. Marni tiptoed across the foyer, peeked into the dining room, then headed for what she figured would be the kitchen.
The kitchen was spacious like the house. But unlike the house, it had a warm, almost homey feel to it. Marni guessed it was probably because Vanessa never set foot in it It was the first room that Marni could say she actually liked. And it was blessedly empty.
She found the cake without having to raid the fridge, cut herself a large slice and sat down at the table. The cake was delicious. She licked the frosting from her lips as she eyed another piece. Oh, what would it hurt?
As she was scraping her plate to get the last of the crumbs, she marveled at her increased appetite. Was it just nerves? Or was her body somehow kidding itself into believing she really was eating for two?
Whatever it was, she had to quit or she’d gain a ton.
A short while later, she made her way toward the library. The house groaned and moaned around her. Snow piled up at the windows and cold crept along the bare wooden floors like snow snakes.
Marni had started down the hall when she heard something that made her freeze in midstep.
Crying. At first she thought it was the baby again. Then realized it wasn’t the same sound she’d heard earlier coming up through the heat vent. The heart-wrenching sobs pulled at her and she found herself trailing the sound past the library toward the back of the house.
A faint light shone from a far corner of what appeared to be the living room. The thick, dark curtains along the bank of windows were open to the night. The darkness outside blurred in a thick lattice of falling snow.
Lilly Calloway sat slumped in a large log rocker, in a golden circle of light from a floor lamp beside the chair. She clutched something in her arms and rocked, Marni noticed with a start. Beside the rocker on the floor sat a half-empty wine bottle. The room smelled faintly of gardenias.
Marni reminded herself again that this was none of her business. She should backtrack and go up to bed. But the woman’s wail tore at her heart.
“Lilly?” she asked softly, half expecting the woman to rebuff any attempts to console her. After all, Marni was a stranger. And no one in this house had been what she would call friendly.
Neither the crying nor the rocking stopped.
Marni stepped around in front of the woman. “’Lilly?”
Lilly slowly raised her head, her rocking motion slowed. The storm outside lit her pale heart-shaped face and Marni saw what the woman clutched in her arms. A rag doll, its face worn and grayed, its yarn hair matted with age. Lilly glanced down at the doll crushed in her arms. For a moment, she made no sound. Then her eyes swam with tears and great, huge sobs racked her body.
Marni knelt and opened her arms to the woman. The rag doll tumbled to the floor as Lilly fell into Marni’s embrace. �There, there,”’ Marni whispered, sympathizing with the woman’s pain. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like losing a child. “It’s all right.”
As the crying subsided, Marni heard the scrape of a boot sole on the wooden floor. She looked up with a start, not sure who she expected to see.
Even in shadow and even if he hadn’t had the crutches, she would have known Chase Calloway. He filled a doorway. Not only with his body but with his anger.
He stood, watching her, suspicion in every line of his body. She could feel the heat of his gaze on her as surely as she could feel the reproach in that gaze. She glanced down at Lilly, wondering what made Chase so angry with her, that he thought she was pregnant or that he thought she was trying to trap him? When she glanced up again, he was gone.
Marni didn’t know how long she held Lilly. The crying had stopped, but the slim arms still held her tightly, as if Marni were Lilly’s only anchor in some blizzard far worse than the one outside this room.
After a while, Marni looked down to find Lilly had dropped off to sleep on her shoulder. Carefully, Marni laid her back into the rocker and covered her with a knitted afghan from the couch. Lilly whimpered softly but continued to sleep the sleep of the dead. Or the inebriated.
Marni switched off the lamp and left her in front of the bank of windows and the storm, hoping Lilly slept off the wine before she attempted the stairs.
On the way to her room, Marni stopped at the library and quickly found Pride and Prejudice. As she turned out the light and headed for the stairs, she told herself she was ready at last for some sleep of her own.
But back in bed, Marni lay, listening, waiting for Chase to come storming in to admonish her for interfering in family business. After a while, when she heard no sound, she opened the soft, worn volume to chapter one, realizing it had been years since she’d read this book.
The first line jumped off the page at her. Marni groaned as she thought of Chase Calloway. Who was this impossible single man in possession of a good fortune her twin had fallen in love with? Certainly not a man in want of a wife—or a baby, as Elise had been led to believe. That was one truth at least Marni acknowledged.
A few pages into the book, she heard Chase return to his room, heard the clomp of the crutches as he approached the door adjoining their rooms. She held her breath. Then she heard him lock his side of the door. Instead of relief, Marni felt a wave of anger. Did Chase think he had to lock his door to protect himself from her? Did he really think she’d come to his room tonight and throw herself at him? The man couldn’t be that big a fool, could he?
Tossing the book on the night table, she threw back the covers and swung her legs over the side of the bed, set on sharing a few choice words with Mr. Chase Calloway, even if it meant through a three-inch-thick door.
The lights flickered, and before her feet could touch the floor, went out. Marni held her breath, waiting for them to come back on. They didn’t. And she had a feeling they wouldn’t. As Vanessa had reminded her earlier, the electricity often went out during snowstorms in Montana. This far from civilization, it could be out for hours. Even days. Great. And just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse.
A thud came from the adjoining room and Chase swore loudly after stumbling into what sounded like a piece of good-size furniture. She smiled, ashamed but no less amused. Served him right for being such a jerk.
Content, she slipped back under the covers. The embers in the fireplace cast a pale patina over the room. If she had been anywhere else, she might have thought it cozy. Outside, the snow fell in a dense suffocating silence. Marni watched it for a few moments, trying not to think about the other people in this house. The night seemed colder, Marni thought, or maybe it was just knowing the electricity had gone off. She felt alone and far from home. At least Elise and the baby were fine, she assured herself. Then she closed her eyes, hoping for the oblivion of sleep.
Chapter Five (#ulink_f70fe5ff-d5b8-55f4-a320-a6347c5966c4)
December 21
Morning came like a blessing. But unfortunately, Marni’s nightmares followed her into the daylight. One dream in particular haunted her: Chase standing over her, his blue eyes dark with evil as he told her she would never have the baby. Then something in his hands. An ax? Marni shivered and looked toward the window.
If the remnants of her bad dreams weren’t enough, she found herself still trapped by the snowstorm raging outside. Wind plastered snow to the windowpanes and sent icy gusts hammering at the glass.
With a curse, Marni threw off the covers and lumbered from the bed, keenly aware of Sam. She hurriedly dressed, hoping to speak to Chase before he went down to breakfast. But when she tapped softly at their adjoining door, she received no response. She tried the door. It wasn’t locked. When had he unlocked it? She thought about him standing over her in the dream. The dying firelight in his eyes. The ax in his large calloused hands.
“Chase?” She stepped into his room. What surprised her was the open suitcase lying in the bottom of the empty closet. Marni frowned as she surveyed her surroundings. The room was exactly like the one she’d spent the night in. A guest room. Chase didn’t live here. She shook her head, continuously amazed at how little her twin knew about the man she’d fallen so desperately in love with. The man who’d fathered her child.
The bed didn’t look as if it had been slept in and Marni guessed it probably hadn’t, judging from the appearance of the chair pulled up in front of the fire. The cushions were crushed as if he’d battled them in the night searching for comfort and sleep. Marni smiled, taking some pleasure in the thought that Chase might not have slept as soundly as she’d suspected.
As she headed downstairs, she found herself keeping a firm grip on the railing. Her near accident the night before had proved to her just how uncoordinated she’d become thanks to Sam. She couldn’t even see her toes.
None of the family appeared to be up yet, although it was nearing time for breakfast. She could hear someone in the kitchen banging pots and pans, and smell the rich scent of coffee. Coffee sounded wonderful, although she wasn’t sure a pregnant woman should be drinking caffeine. Marni peeked into the dining room, hoping to sneak a cup anyway.
“Mr. Calloway and his son are in the library,” a voice announced behind Marni, making her jump.
She swung around to find Hilda looking harried and flushed. “There’s coffee and juice in the library. Mr. Calloway said you’d be joining him.”
He did, did he? She wondered which son was with him and hoped it was Chase.
Without a word, Hilda hurried away and Marni headed down the hall toward the library. The sound of angry voices drifted out, making her hesitate long before she reached the library door. She recognized the two male voices at once, confirming what she’d hoped, that Chase was in there with his father. In the cold light of morning, Marni was more determined than ever to get things settled between them—one way or another.
She stepped through the open library door and stopped abruptly at the sound of Chase’s angry words.
“You’re going to get Elise and her baby killed if you don’t do something about this mess.”
Chase stood, hunched over his crutches, in front of the blazing fire. His father stood next to him, a hand on the thick-timbered fireplace mantel as if he needed the support. Both had their backs to her.
“Why do you have to be so damned stubborn about this?” Chase demanded. “Isn’t it enough that someone tried to kill you?”
Marni slipped behind the end of the bookcase, aware she planned to spy on the pair shamelessly. But if Elise and the baby really were in danger—She told herself not even to try to justify her actions. Silent as a mouse, Marni peeked around the edge of the bookcase.
“Ridiculous,” Jabe snapped, pushing himself away from the fireplace. “It was just some fool in a pickup going too fast. Didn’t see us until it was too late, if he saw us at all.” Jabe dropped into a chair in front of the fireplace and reached to pour himself more coffee from the pot on the end table. “Probably some drunk driver.”
“Like hell,” Chase said, turning on his father. “A drunk driver tried to run you down only minutes before you were threatening to change your will? Not even you can believe that. You just don’t want to admit you made a mistake in the first place with this first grandchild foolishness. Or is it that you can’t face that it has to be someone in this family or someone closely connected to this family that’s trying to kill you now?”
Jabe raised his head to look at his son. “Is that the reason you’ve been staying here? You think my life is in danger?” He sounded touched that Chase would try to protect him.
Marni was touched as well by this side of Chase Calloway, and surprised.
“You saved my life that night,” Jabe said. “I owe you, son, but—”
“You don’t owe me anything,” Chase snapped. “It was a reflex action, one if I’d given some thought to, I would probably have done differently.’”
Jabe clearly didn’t buy that any more than Marni did. No matter what Chase said, he cared about his father. And it seemed he’d saved Jabe’s life in some heroic feat that had left him with a broken leg and memory loss. Marni almost felt guilty for still doubting Chase’s memory loss. Almost.
“I just don’t want you to concern yourself with my welfare,” Jabe said.
“It’s not only your fool neck on the line anymore,” Chase retorted. “What about this woman and her baby? What about Felicia’s baby? Are you willing to jeopardize all their lives, as well?”
“Why would anyone want to harm my grandchildren?” He sounded shocked that Chase should even think such a thing.
Chase dragged a hand through his dark locks in obvious frustration. “Because of that damned will of yours.”
“Have either Elise or Felicia been threatened in any way?” Jabe asked reasonably.
Chase let out a curse. “By the time that happens it could be too late.”
Jabe shook his head. “I’m not going back on my decision when I don’t believe for a moment that my grand-children or their mothers are in any danger.”
Chase sliced a hand through the air between them. “I’ve never been able to reason with you. I thought you’d finally come to your senses that night in November right before the hit-and-run, I thought you realized how foolish this first grandchild thing was. Why don’t you be honest with yourself for once. The only person you care about is yourself and what you want. That’s the way it’s always been.” He turned and hobbled toward the door.
Marni ducked back behind the corner of the bookcase and tried to flatten herself to the wall, suddenly aware how ludicrous that notion was. Sam stuck out like the prow of a ship. Marni groaned silently. The last thing she wanted was to get caught in this compromising position by Chase Calloway.
“By the way,” Chase said, the sound of his crutches halting, “I saw the face of the person driving that truck right before it hit me.”
A tense silence filled the room.
“I’m going to remember and then I’ll know who in this family hates you more than I do.”
Marni held her breath as Chase stormed out, slamming the door behind him. It took her a moment to digest everything she’d overheard and to realize Chase Calloway had trapped her in the library by closing the door and sealing off any surreptitious escape. She was cursing her inquisitive nature when she heard Jabe get up from his chair.
“You can come out now,” he said wearily.
Marni grimaced as she stepped from behind the bookcase. How long had Jabe known she was there? Shamefaced, she brushed imaginary lint from the front of her maternity top, trying to think of something appropriate to say. Jabe saved her the effort.
“Chase is confused,” he said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a bottle of prescription pills. She watched him shake two into his hand and toss them down with the last of his coffee.
“When Chase’s memory comes back he’ll realize that he was mistaken about a lot of things,” Jabe said with conviction. His gaze settled on Marni and seemed to soften at the sight of her pregnant form. “My son is very stubborn. Go after him. Try to make him see.”
Marni stood for a moment, wondering what she could make Chase Calloway see. “Where—”
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