She broke the kiss, said a bit breathlessly, "A ship's captain could marry us. Actually, I think I'd really enjoy being confined with you in a small cabin on the high seas. We don't have to return on the train with the others, do we?"
He groaned at the thought of having her all to himself for weeks at sea. "No, we don't. We don't need to be here either. I'd as soon hear about this secondhand."
She chuckled. "Your impatience is showing."
"Damned right it is," he growled, but then he sighed. "All right, let's get this finished. I'm not going to get your undivided attention until this strange situation is settled. We should have brought a posse. They tend to settle things real quick."
She was laughing as she left the carriage, but sobered instantly upon seeing her sister marching up the path to the front door of their old house. Knowing her, Amanda still considered it her house, and would walk right in. Which probably wasn't a good idea, since it wasn't really theirs anymore and wouldn't be until Albert was arrested and charged with his crimes.
So she ran up the path to beat Amanda to the door and pounded on it, blocking her sister from opening it herself. It was opened almost immediately by a butler neither of them recognized.
Amanda opened her mouth to demand entrance, but got beaten to the punch again, by the butler's saying, "Come in. You're expected."
That should have been all the warning Marian needed. If she hadn't just shared such a distracting interlude with Chad on the way over, she might not have been so surprised when she and the others followed the buder to the dining room and found both her father and Albert's sister sitting there having a quiet dinner together.
"Let's keep this civil, shall we?" Mortimer said, and waved a hand toward the chairs at the long table. "Sit down. Dinner is being served."
No one moved. Amanda was displaying some long-overdue shock. Even she could see that they'd been seriously wrong in their assumptions. And for their father to be so blase* about it, as if he hadn't done anything wrong. But that was so typical of him. He didn't like confrontations. That was one of the reasons Amanda had been spoiled so badly. He simply didn't want to deal with her tantrums, so he gave her whatever she wanted instead.
"Looks like you hit it right on the nose, Stuart. A total sham," Kathleen said, shaking her head.
"Is that you, Kathy?" Mortimer asked curiously.
"Sure is, brother." Kathleen took a seat at the opposite end of the long table. "But don't worry, I don't plan on staying long."
Mortimer shrugged. "You've aged well. I wasn't quite sure."
"Of course you were," Kathleen snorted. "You're just stalling."
He flushed slightly, but the woman sitting next to him threw her napkin down on the table angrily, and said, "Get out! All of you. We don't owe you any explanations!"
That brought Amanda out of her shock long enough to screech, "Who the hell are you?"
"Albert's sister," Marian supplied.
But woman was determined to speak for herself, "Your stepmother, though I was hoping I'd never have to say it—to you."
"You married her?" Amanda gasped at her father.
"Yes, it was necessary," Mortimer replied.
Not exactly a normal way to put it, which had Marian guessing, "She was your mistress, wasn't she?"
"Mortimer!" his wife complained. "I won't stand for being insulted in my own house."
"Hardly an insult if the shoe fits, gal," Kathleen said with a smirk.
Marian realized her aunt was enjoying this, a little payback after so many years, putting her brother on the spot. She was thankful she was able to read between the lines herself. Now that she was over her initial surprise, only her curiosity remained and most of it had already been satisfied. After all, she'd seen the baby.
"If this can't be discussed in a calm manner, I will have to ask you to leave," Mortimer said to the group at large, though he was looking at Amanda when he said it. Then to his wife, he added, "That goes for you as well."
She blushed furiously, put her napkin back on her lap, and resumed eating. She might be a shrew, and rude beyond the pale, but obviously, Mortimer didn't allow her to carry on in his presence.
From their party, only Kathleen and Stuart had sat down at the table. Amanda was too agitated to sit. Marian didn't think she'd be staying long enough to bother. Spencer and Chad were being particularly supportive in sticking close to their sides.
Kathleen sat back and said casually if still somewhat sarcastically, "So you married your mistress. Good for you. But why did you need to die to do it?"
He shrugged. "It was Albert's idea. I was simply going to get both daughters married off with a small dowry and be done with it. But he pointed out Amanda's temperament, and in the end I had to agree. It has been quite peaceful, having you out of the state, my dear."
Amanda was speechless for a moment, which allowed Kathleen to say, "So all this just because you figured Amanda would raise a ruckus if you married again? That's going to extremes just to avoid a tantrum or two."
Mortimer actually chuckled. "You always did have an odd way of putting things, Kathy. But no, that was only a small part of it."
"There's more?"
"Most definitely. I wasn't just starting fresh with a new wife, but a new family. I have a son now, you see."
"So that's why you married your mistress?"
He didn't answer directly, just said, "Regardless, I couldn't see giving the girls any of my money when I've become quite selfish in my affection for my son. They're females, after all. They will have husbands to support them. It would have been a total waste leaving them a portion of my estate when it would just have gone to their husbands—something I simply wasn't willing to allow now that I have a son."
"I understand how you managed to fool the girls," Kathleen said, "but how'd you manage to fool the whole town?"
He smiled at her. "Because hardly anyone actually knew about it."
"Impossible. A man of your prominence—"
"Let me finish," he cut in. "The news of my 'death,' the funeral, everything was planned on a very tight schedule, so the girls could be shipped off directly after the funeral, before they had a chance to talk to anyone. Their callers were turned away at the door for those few days before the funeral. No announcement was made in the newspaper, but the girls rarely read the paper to wonder about that. Only one of Amanda's beaux knew of my 'death' and we had a good tale lined up to tell him afterward, or anyone else who found out about the 'funeral,' but as it happens, he was so devastated by Amanda's rejection of him that he left town himself."
"And your servants? Did you pay them to keep silent?"
"That would have been a waste of good coin. No, the tale about my 'reappearance' worked very well for the few people who knew about the funeral. The explanation was it was merely 'assumed' that I died, but my body hadn't been recovered."
"Yes, I suppose that would keep people from wondering exactly who got buried."
"Exactly. And I pretended to have a broken leg, to account for my failure to make it back in time to prevent a funeral from taking place."
"When did you make your miraculous 'return'?"
"The day after the girls' ship sailed, of course. The whole thing was timed around that ship's departure date, to get the girls out of town before too many people found out about our little hoax. A few of my business associates were told of the 'death.' After all, the girls would have thought it strange if no one showed up for the funeral."
"I wouldn't have," Marian put in.
Her father snorted at her, but went on with his explanation. "But those who were told of the 'death' were handpicked because they weren't very astute. They readily accepted the explanation afterward, glad to have me back."
"And Amanda's endless stream of admirers?" Marian asked. "How did you explain her absence to them?"
"A planned tour of Europe before she settled down."
"That she bragged to no one about before she left?" Marian scoffed.
"She didn't want to witness their disappointment at learning that she'd be gone for a few months."
"And when she didn't return as they expected?"
He waved a hand dismissively. "Marriage, of course."
Kathleen shook her head. "Such an elaborate scheme, and all for what? You aren't dead yet, Mort. Your wealth is still yours to do with as you please. If you didn't want any uproar over making the boy your only heir, you could have just kept it to yourself."
"And have them all fighting over my money when I am gone? They were known as heiresses. All of Amanda's suitors here expected a piece of the pie. If something did happen to me, I didn't want anyone fighting over my estate. No, no indeed, there will be no contention. And there would have been none if the girls had just stayed in Texas where they were sent. Why are they back here?" he asked with distinct annoyance.
"Because your brilliant-idea man wasn't so brilliant in sending along an accounting of your estate that Amanda would recognize as a lot of bull. We thought Bridges had robbed the girls of their inheritance. That's the only reason we're here."
He sighed. "Yes, he can be quite stupid at times."
His wife sputtered indignantly on her brothers behalf, but still kept her mouth shut. Mortimer might have married her to get their son under his roof, but he probably didn't treat her as a real wife. It was doubtful that there was any affection between them because he'd apparently transferred all his love to the boy.
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