“Where's Lucy?”
“Evie took her to introduce her to some old friends.”
“Enjoying the party?”
“Very much. I can't believe that this happens annually. It's a huge affair.”
“Mom thrives on it, as you may have noticed. Even Phyllis, who gets stuck doing most of the work, seems to love it.”
“Phyllis told me as much. She said it lifts her out of the monotony of her normal duties around here.”
“But I didn't come over here to talk about Phyllis. I came over to ask you something.”
“What?”
And before I knew what was happening, Heath was on his knee in front of me, reaching into his jacket pocket. I could feel my eyes growing wide and my cheeks getting hot. I glanced around briefly and saw that people had stopped talking and were staring at us. Heath was holding a small black-velvet box in the palm of his hand and he opened it as he looked at me.
“Carleigh, the first time I met you we were at different places in our lives, but now that I've come to know you over these past several months, I have to say that you are the most beautiful and talented and wonderful and thoughtful person I have ever known. You are a tender and caring woman and mother, and I want to know if you'll be my wife.”
Tears were streaming down my face and I laughed as I wiped them clumsily away. “Yes, of course I will,” I answered, crying softly.
“You said you wanted a proper proposal. How was that?” he asked with a grin.
“Wonderful!” I told him, laughing.
I noticed again the people that had been watching us. They all began to clap and cheer as Heath took my arm and helped me to my feet. I looked at the ring. It was exquisite.
It was a large diamond, square cut and sparkling brilliantly in the twinkly lights, surrounded by tiny diamonds.
“I found that ring at my mother's store. She found it for me, actually. I told her I wanted something that represented your time here at the manor and she found one from the mid-1800s,” Heath said.
“It's perfect,” I said with a smile. How thoughtful of him to get a ring that would mean so much to me. People were starting to crowd around to congratulate us. It was all a little overwhelming. I kept peering through the crowd looking for Lucy. I wasn't sure how I would explain all of this to her, but I knew she would be happy. She loved Heath as much as I did.
It wasn't long before Evie brought Lucy back to my side. She hugged me and demanded to see the ring.
“Heath wouldn't show it to me before you saw it,” she said, casting a pout in his direction.
“You knew?”
“Why do you think I came to take Lucy? Heath needed you all to himself for a few minutes. He enlisted my help and told me what he was up to. I am so happy for you both!” she squealed, and hugged me again.
Graydon and Vivian made their way to the front of the group surrounding us. Lucy stood on the bench next to me, talking to everyone.
“Congratulations to you both,” Graydon said, hugging me and then Heath. “I knew he was going to fall for you, Carleigh,” he said. “You're just the type of girl he needs.”
Vivian nodded, agreeing. “You two are perfect for each other,” she gushed in that Southern drawl. “I can't wait for the wedding!”
Ruby came up to us, too, and wrapped us both in a big embrace. “I wish Mother had been here to see this,” she said hoarsely, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. “But she's watching. I know she is.”
I felt a pang of sympathy for her and held her hand for a moment. “You'll help with the wedding plans, I hope, Ruby?”
She beamed. “Do you really want me to, I would love that!” She clapped her hands.
“Why is Ruby happy?” asked Lucy.
“Because she is going to help us make some very special plans,” I explained. She seemed satisfied with that, so I didn't discuss the matter further.
Heath led me around by the hand, accepting the hugs and claps on the back from all the assembled guests. I got my fair share of hugs from women and men I'd never met as everyone shared in our happiness.
Eventually I told Heath I had to go upstairs to powder my nose. I intended to take Lucy with me to give her a short break from all the attention. I turned to her, holding out my hand. She wasn't there.
“Do you see Lucy?” I asked Heath.
He craned his neck and looked around. “No,” he answered. “Let's go find her.”
I hoped she wasn't getting tired and grumpy because she had been on her best behavior for so long. I went first in search of Evie, who said she hadn't seen Lucy. She took Boone by the arm and they went looking for her in the dining room. I saw Vivian and Graydon next, but they hadn't seen Lucy, either. I went upstairs, assuming she had gone up to our room for a little time alone. But she wasn't there.
I was getting a bit worried. I went back downstairs, where Heath was coming out of the kitchen trailed by Ruby and Phyllis. “She's not in there,” he said. “I'm going to check the carriage house. Maybe the noise here got to her and she went over to see Addie.”
“That's a good idea,” I replied.
“What do you want me to do?” asked Ruby.
“Can you go check around the outside of the manor?”
“Yes.” She hurried off. Graydon and Vivian came up to me in the front hall. “We haven't been able to find her.”
“Heath is looking in the carriage house and Ruby is checking the outside of the manor.” I turned to Phyllis. “Would you mind checking in your apartment?”
“Not at all.” She left, but returned quickly. “She's not in there. Where else should I look?”
“Why don't you check in the basement? That's the only place we haven't checked inside the house.”
Graydon and Vivian had left to check the withdrawing room and the sitting room behind the ballroom. Heath returned from the carriage house shaking his head.
“Heath, where can she be?” I was getting very worried.
“Maybe she's hiding in among the Christmas trees in the ballroom. She likes playing in there. Let's check.”
I accompanied him into the ballroom, which had just a few minutes before been the site of indescribable happiness for me. Now the room seemed darker, more sinister, a room of worry and fear.
We started at opposite ends of the room, checking under and behind every tree. She wasn't there. A few guests cast wondering glances at us, whispering among themselves.
As Heath straightened up after looking under the very last tree, a guest came up to him and clapped him on the shoulder.
“Hey, Heath! Congratulations! I was surprised to see your ex-wife here! Did she know you were going to pop the question?”
I froze. Ex-wife? Odeile was here? Heath looked in my direction, confused.
A cold chill snaked up my back.
CHAPTER 25
“L
et's go.”
Heath grabbed my hand and we hurried to the front hall. Graydon and Vivian were there, along with Evie. Ruby wasn't back yet from checking outside the house.
“Did anyone else know Odeile was here?” Heath asked grimly.
“What?” Vivian's face registered genuine shock. “Who invited her?”
“No one. That's the problem. She crashed the party and I'm very worried. I don't know how she got in without any of us noticing her,” Heath answered.
“What do we do next?” I asked frantically.
Vivian put her hand on my arm. “We'll find Lucy, Carleigh. She's probably hiding somewhere. I'm sure she's fine.”
I appreciated Vivian's attempt to make me feel better, but it didn't help at all. Heath and I hurried out onto the veranda. Ruby still hadn't come back. I couldn't imagine where she had gone. We ran down the steps and went in separate directions around the house, shouting for Lucy. No answer.
By now I was frantic. I didn't know where to look. Odeile's presence at the party was not a coincidenceâshe was there for a malevolent purpose, and it somehow involved Lucy. My voice rose as I spoke to Heath.
“What do we do now? I'm going to call the police.”
“Let Evie do that. We'll keep looking. We'll find her.” He ran up the front steps into the manor, where Vivian and Evie were waiting in the front hall. I could hear their voices as if it was a dream. It didn't seem real.
“Did you find her?” came Evie's taut voice.
“No.” Heath sounded grim.
“What should I do?”
“Call the police. Get them out here fast. Send an ambulance.”
Ambulance
. My heart, thudding in my rib cage, skipped a beat. I thought I was going to throw up. The dream-like quality of the conversation I had heard between Heath and Evie suddenly became very real. I bent over, my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath.
Heath came running down the stairs. “Carleigh, are you all right?” he asked in alarm.
“No. I think I'm going to faint.” I stood up and just for a moment everything went black in front of me. Voices faded away. Heath put his arm around me and helped steady me. He shouted for his mother.
“What can I do?” Vivian asked as she came hurrying out to the veranda.
“Mom, please get something for Carleigh to eat and drink. Quickly.” She turned around and ran back into the house. Meanwhile Heath helped me to sit down on one of the front steps. Vivian returned just a moment later with a glass of sweet tea and a small sandwich. She held them out to me, but I pushed them away.
“I can't eat. I'm going to be sick.”
“Carleigh,” Heath said sternly, “eat that food. We need you strong and alert. You need to help us find Lucy.”
The tone of his voice helped me to focus on what I needed to do. I took the plate from Vivian and ate the sandwich and drank the tea.
“Are you all right now?” Heath asked.
“I think so.”
He helped me to stand up. I felt a little wobbly, but stronger. I looked up at him. “What should we do next?”
He turned to Vivian. “Mom, send Evie out here. She can help us. You should probably go back in with Dad and play hostess so people don't start to panic.”
She nodded mutely and turned to go back inside. As she was going through the front door, Evie and Boone were coming out.
“Give us something to do,” she told her brother.
“You two go look in the old barn,” he instructed. “Maybe Lucy went in there to play.”
I shook my head. “She'd never go in there by herself.”
“It's worth a try.”
“Okay. Where do you think we should look?”
Just then Phyllis appeared in the doorway.
“I just spoke to Sarah. She was in the basement. She said to get to the cabins right away.”
This wasn't the time to debate Sarah's existence.
Heath stood up and grabbed my hand. We ran toward the cabins in the gathering twilight. I looked into the first cabin as Heath rushed down to the last one, yelling behind him, “I'll start at the other end!”
There was nothing amiss in the first cabin. The table and chair that I had set up were still in place, untouched. I headed back outside as Heath was exiting the fourth cabin. He shook his head. He ran to the third cabin in the row and peered inside.
“This one is empty,” he shouted from the door.
I ran to the second cabin and burst inside, then stopped short in horror. The first thing I noticed in the semidarkness of the cabin in the woods was Lucy's small, limp body on the mattress I had fashioned on the floor. A primal noise erupted from my lips. Somehow my brain hadn't yet registered the sight of Odeile, seated on the chair I had just put in the cabin a few days previously, a gun in her hand trained steadily on me.
Heath arrived at the door of the cabin behind me and quickly took in the scene. “Odeile,” he said quietly, “put that down. There's no need for this.”
Her lips curled in a sickening smile. “Heath, darlin', I hear you're going to marry this dullard,” she said, jerking the gun in my direction.
“I'm marrying Carleigh, if that's what you mean,” he answered.
“And you're going to be the daddy of this awful creature.”
“She has a daddy, Odeile. I'm going to be her stepfather.”
The blood was rushing, pounding in my ears. I didn't know if my baby was dead or alive. I couldn't stand it. Odeile wouldn't hesitate to shoot me if I tried moving toward Lucy, I knew, but I had to do something, say something.
“Odeile, you and Heath can still be friends,” I croaked.
“You shut up,” she growled.
“Odeileâ” Heath began.
“You shut up, too.”
Then her tone changed suddenly. “Heath, why wasn't I good enough for you?” she whined.
Heath didn't answer.
“How could you want
her
instead of me?”
He stared at her in silence.
“You'd better answer me, Heath Peppernell. If you don't, I'll shoot her,” she said, again twitching the gun toward me.
He swallowed. “Odeile, you know why we divorced. You didn't want children and I did. You were abusive.”
“How could you want children? They're awful.”
“I love Lucy just as if she were my own child,” he explained. “She's a bright, sweet, kind little girl.”
Odeile scoffed.
“Can I go to her, please?” I asked. Odeile sat and studied me for several endless moments.
“No!” she finally shouted.
“Odeile, the police are on their way. You have to put the gun down and let Carleigh go to Lucy,” Heath told her gently.
“I said no!” she screamed.
I stood still, searching frantically for something that would distract Odeile so I could get to Lucy. But there was nothing.
Heath and Odeile and I stood staring at each other for what seemed like hours. Then she spoke again. She was talking to me.
“I shoulda run you over when I had the chance.”
“That was you?” I asked.
“What are you two talking about?” Heath looked at both of us, his brow furrowed.
“She tried to hit me with her car one night on the main road,” I replied.
“Odeile, what were you thinking?” he asked. “Why would you want to hurt Carleigh?”
“I just happened to be driving by when I saw her out walking with your sister and your parents and that miserable kid and it was my chance to keep you from falling for her!” she shouted. “So I went back and tried to hit her! But she hid like a frightened animal!” She turned to me.
“He should be married to
me!
” And in an instant, she had raised the gun and was pointing it at my head. Tears started to roll down my cheeks. Heath moved toward Odeile suddenly and a shot rang out. I didn't know what was happening.
“Carleigh, are you all right?” he yelled.
“Yes.” I could only muster a whisper.
The room suddenly became slightly darker. I instinctively looked toward the door and was stunned to see Ruby standing there, a vision of pink chiffon with a confused look on her face.
“What's going on here?” she asked.
“Get out of here!” Odeile shrieked. But Ruby didn't move. She must have processed the scene before her and figured out what was happening. Odeile still held the gun, but it was pointed toward the floor. I couldn't believe she had missed me the first time. I was shaking, and Lucy hadn't moved. We could hear sirens close by.
“Odeile, the police will be here any second,” Heath warned. His eyes flicked toward mine.
I don't know how I summoned the courage, but I took a step toward Lucy. Everything was happening in slow motion. As I moved, Ruby rushed into the cabin and put herself between me and Odeile.
A second shot rang out.
Ruby fell to the floor in a gauzy pink heap as I reached Lucy. I spun around to look at Ruby and watched in horror as the blood spurted from her stomach. Even Odeile seemed surprised by what she had done. She stared at the gun and took a step backward, tripping over the chair. Heath whipped off his suit jacket and tried pressing it into Ruby's stomach. Odeile, who had landed on her hands and knees, was scrabbling for the gun, which had skittered across the floor. Heath tried to beat her to the gun, but she grabbed it first.
Hands trembling, she raised the gun again.
Then for the third time, we heard a gunshot. I screamed and flung my body over Lucy's. Ruby lay motionless on the floor and Heath covered his head with his arms.
Three police officers stood in the doorway. When I looked up, one was lowering his gun and another was pushing into the cabin and heading toward Odeile, who was lying in a slowly spreading pool of blood. It covered the dark stains left behind when Sarah's father killed himself all those long years ago. The officer bent and held her wrist, feeling for a pulse. He looked at the other officers and shook his head.
“Over here!” I cried. Sobbing, I heaved myself off Lucy's small body, which still lay on the mattress. One officer ran over to her and another went to Ruby. He radioed for the ambulance to drive over the lawn to the border with the woods. He looked up at us.
“This woman is still alive, but we need to get her to the hospital immediately.”
The other officer, the one with Lucy, was holding her tiny wrist in his big hand. He looked down at her and concentrated on finding her pulse. Finally he looked at me and nodded.
Lucy was alive. I had never in my life felt a relief like the feeling that flooded my body. Heath came over to me and wrapped me in his arms as I wept like a baby, so thankful that my child was alive.
It was only a minute before the EMTs were at the door with three stretchers. One medic knelt by Lucy and helped his partner slide a board under her. They carried her gingerly through the door and onto a stretcher that they wheeled toward a waiting ambulance. I followed closely behind them. As I stood at the cabin's door, though, I looked back at the scene behind me.
The medics with Ruby were performing CPR. Heath watched, silent and still, as they worked to revive his aunt. Part of me wanted to stay and make sure Ruby was going to be all right, but I knew I needed to be with Lucy. I ran to catch up with the medics wheeling my little girl to the ambulance.
We left Peppernell Manor, driving into the darkening evening with sirens blaring. Pretty soon I heard the sound of another siren somewhere behind us. That was a good signâif Ruby had died, there would be no siren necessary. When we got to the hospital, the emergency room doctors took over immediately and I stayed as close to Lucy as they would allow.
It was a long time before they finally were able to stabilize her and determine exactly what had happened. She had been poisoned with a prescription medication. Odeile must have given her something to eat or drink with the medication in it and taken her outside onto the veranda. When Lucy was unconscious, it would have been easy for Odeile to carry her to the slave cabin.
When she awoke a long while later in a hospital room, Lucy was scared. She didn't seem to remember what had happened to her, and thankfully she had no recollection of being in the cabin. She apparently hadn't heard the screaming or the gunshots or the sirens.
I sat up in a chair all that long night while she drifted in and out of sleep. In the small hours of the morning, there was a knock at the door. Heath came in; he looked haggard and exhausted. I went to him and put my arms around his neck.
“How's Ruby?” I whispered.
“She's asking for you. The doctors say she's not going to survive. Mom and Dad and Evie are there. You'd better hurry. I'll stay with Lucy.”
I ran the entire way to Ruby's room. Her eyes were fluttering open when I arrived, breathless. I took her hand in mine as Graydon and Vivian and Evie stood by, watching.
“You saved Lucy's life, Ruby. And mine. Thank you.”
Her lips parted. She was trying to say something.
“No, Ruby. Don't talk.”
“I killed Harlan.”
Graydon and the others stepped quickly to her bedside. I spoke to her soothingly.
“No, Ruby. Someone else killed Harlan.”
“It was me. There was no peace in our family. He was a bad person.”
She was struggling to get the words out. Vivian held her hand to her mouth, looking at Graydon.
“She's hallucinating, Graydon.”
“Let her talk, Viv.”
“No. I'm not. I couldn't stand the fighting anymore.”