Passions of Chelsea Kane Part 19

"Only if it was hot as h.e.l.l and dry as the Sahara,, neither of which it's been around here, and even then you'd probably need a bolt of lightning for a starter." Chelsea sighed. That was pretty much what Judd had said. "Nolan's been combing through trying to find incriminating evidence, but there's nothing." Having arranged the smoldering logs to his satisfaction, Hunter took a new one from the nearby basket and deftly laid it on top. "All you need is gasoline and a match. The barn was tinder." Smoke immediately curled around the log he'd added. "People in town think you did it."

"That figures."

"Because of the other fires?" He bowed his head. She couldn't see what he was doing. Then he stood, took a swig of the beer, put a 403 8=6MA Denwww hand on his hip. He looked down at the fire he'd built, which was dancing with flames. Quietly and without turning, he said, "Not because of them. I didn't have anything to do with them, either. But I did set one fire. It was a long time ago." He continued to stare at the burning logs until one crackled loudly and sparked. Then he sank down on the chair on the far side of the sofa, took another drink, and looked straight at Chelsea. "I was nine years old and having nightmares. I thought that if I burned it down, they'd end." She swallowed. "Burned what down?"

"The shack where I was born." His eyes remained directed her way, but they had gone distant. "I spent the first five years of my life there. When she went out, she locked me in the closet. She told me that the bad things wouldn't get me if I was quiet, and that if I made any noise at all until she opened the door again, I'd be eaten alive."

"My G.o.d," Chelsea cried. She remembered being terrified of being eaten by the giant in "Jack and the Beanstalk," but she'd had Abby to talk her to sleep. "Why did she do that?"

"She wanted to make sure that if anyone came while she was gone, I wouldn't say a word. I was a secret. No one knew I existed. She wanted to keep it that way."

"But why?"

"So I wouldn't be taken away. I was all she had. She loved me, she said.

I was her whole world. Besides, she prided herself on fooling the town. They all thought she'd given me away at birth." So she'd kept him locked up.

Chelsea couldn't imagine anything so sick. She must have had a look of horror on her face, because Hunter said quickly, "I 404 Ike Pa.s.slaw of Chchwa Kmw hate her. Don't get me wrong. She never hit "',She never yelled. Within that very confined I , she gave me everything she could.

She MY meals and made my clothes. She brought home from the library and taught me how to She bought cookies and cakes at the bakery. bought fuzzy stuff at the store and made me a . She just didn't let me go anywhere in it." [email protected]'*Did you want to?" Chelsea asked because it was cible that what he didn't know about, he didn't "I wanted to all the time. The'books were about s being with kids. I wanted to be like them.

I ted friends. I wanted to see a man. I even wantto go to school. I used to ask her all the time. Beg r. She responded by trying to be that much more me-playmate, father, teacher." He drew in a ,"deep breath. His mouth was clamped shut, his eyes .3,01led with'remembered anguish, until the pressure _became too great and the words spilled out. "She to hug me and hug me and tell me everything ",would be all right, that I'd be happy, that she'd "never ever leave me, and I felt like jumping out of "my skin." He drew in another deep breath, as Ahough to separate himself from the past, but he couldn't. "I escaped sometimes." "Where did you go?" Chelsea asked softly. He looked at his hands, then at the beer bottle, ",,'then at her. "Boulderbrook." "The farmhouse?" she asked in surprise. "It was abandoned. I used to play there."

"Was that when you first heard the voices?"

"They were my friends." Chelsea caught in a breath. His friends. His imaginary friends. She wanted to cry. 405 [email protected] Dc.u.mWW Hunter stared broodingly at the fire. "She used to be furious when she found me. She'd lock me in the closet then and leave me there for a good long time. I was terrified."

"Oh, Hunter." It was all she could do not to go to him. He turned to her. "I don't want your pity.

That's not why I'm telling you this. I just want you to know why I burned down the shack. It stood for everything my mother had done to me.

I thought that if it was gone, my past would be gone and I'd be more like everyone else." It struck Chelsea then that along with the clear, .clean lines of his furnishings went little of a personal nature. There were no photographs, no keepsakes. She wondered if they'd burned down, too, or if they'd ever existed. "Was that what you wanted most-to be like everyone else?"

"For a while. Because I felt so, different from the others. By the time I was a teenager, that didn't matter. I wanted my own ident.i.ty, so I went my own way." With barely a breath he said, "P. S., the shack I burned was on Boulderbrook land."

"Boulderbrook land?

But I thought Katie Love lived in Cutters Corner."

"When she was with her husband, she did. Then he left town to go looking for an easier life."

"Why didn't she go with him?" "She didn't like [email protected] "She told you that?" What would a young child understand of affairs of the heart, much less the body? "She didn't tell me. She used to pace the shack, ranting and raving to no one in particular. it wasn't 406 years later that some of the things she said sense to me." lapsed into silence.

Setting down his beer, he t to the fireplace and poked at the logs. When was done, he sat on the floor with his back to "Anyway, she had been wanting to get out of Corner for a while. She was different from the women there. She wanted to move up in the Id. She was a quilter." ."So Margaret told me." He flexed one shoulder. When it settled back into e, his whole back seemed stiffer. "Did Margaret you what they did to her?"

"Vaguely." "Well, I'll tell you more," he said, and turned only ugh to hold Chelsea's eye. "My mother was an Ist. She had real talent. She used to support us by ng signs for local shopkeepers, but that wasn't t she was best at. She had a feel for color and esign that was totally instinctive, more so than any the other women in town. She taught herself to uilt by buying quilts and taking them apart. She'd into the fabric store in town, buy remnants for '90 pennies, and produce beautiful things. It occurred .,to the local ladies that she could do them some ood, so they invited her to join them. They used er designs to make some of the best quilts they'd , produced. She wasn't one of them exactly, but ey let her think she was. So when her husband she moved out of the Corner. She didn't have uch money, but the shack was cheap, and it was @on Boulderbrook land. The way she saw it, that was the next best thing to living in the farmhouse." Pushing himself to his feet, he went to the win Aow, put an elbow on the jamb for a minute, then 407 Zwbam Deffilghy took it off and returned to the fireplace, where he stood facing the flames. "When she got pregnant, the ladies went berserk. They accused their husbands. They accused their brothers.

They accused traveling salesmen. But Katie Love wasn't saying who the father was, so in the end they could only accuse her." He walked back to the window and stood staring out into the dark. "She became a pariah.

She was disinvited to tea, disinvited to library luncheons, disinvited to the Quilters Guild. They wouldn't sell her b.u.t.ternut squash bread at church fairs. They wouldn't give her the time of day. She'd burned her bridges in the Corner and was treated like a leper in town, so she spent her time alone. She went mad. That's what they did to her." Chelsea couldn't keep her distance any longer. Leaving the sofa, she went to him. She didn't touch, just stood close. "They were wrong."

"Wrong or not doesn't matter in this town," he said with the bitterness she'd heard so often from him. "They do what they want. That's why you'd better rethink having your baby here. They'll make you miserable."

"I won't let them."

"I'm telling you, they will."

"I'll fight." He looked down his shoulder at her. "Why in h.e.l.l would you bother? You have a life somewhere else. You have a family somewhere else."

"But I like it here.

I want to have my baby here."

"You're as nuts as she was," he scoffed, and walked off. He lifted the bottle of beer from the floor and put it to his mouth. Tipping it back, he swallowed once, twice, three times.

"Do you think it's Oliver?" 408 BW russiong Of CJWINW JLMC He didn't pretend not to know what she meant. T, eah, I think it's Oliver. I think most of the town Inks it, too. It had to be someone powerful. herwise why would they have cared?" He turned her with a look of frustration.

"He bought me this ace. Gave it to me when I graduated from the col-that he sent me to. Would he have done either those things if he wasn't my father?" Chelsea wanted to think he might have, that he the very charitable man Margaret so righteousjy claimed, but in her heart she didn't believe it. She .'t think Margaret believed it, either, in her @heart. There was too much venom on her tongue. Hunter put his head back and studied the rafters before turning to Chelsea. "I want him to admit that he's my father. Is that so much to ask? But he won't. ! prides himself on his position in town. And then there's his family.

They'll scream b.l.o.o.d.y murder. All except Donna. I think Donna knows."

"She's never said anything to me."

"Because of Margaret. Margaret is the bottom Jine. She's the fragile one i'n the family."

"Margaret? Fragile?"

P, "She had a breakdown when Donna lost her hearing. ' then Oliver won't do anything to displease her. Telling the world that I'm his son will displease her."

"Why does he have to tell the world? Why can't ':'he just tell you?"

"Go ask him. And while you're at it, ask him why he did what he did to my mother. He owed her more than she got. I stick around here like a thorn in his side to remind him of that."

"But how can you live with the anger?"

"I've lived with it so long, the question now is whether I can live without it." 409 Deansw The pa.s.sions or cbersea KMe "That's sad, Hunter," Chelsea said. "Not sad. I'm doing okay. My life hasn't been all tragic. There were some bright spots when I was little."

"Like?" He popped the empty beer bottle up and down in his palm. After a minute he went into the kitchen and put the bottle in the sink, and all the while Chelsea watched, wanting to know what he meant. He continued on to a chest at the foot of the bed. It was of the same lacquered pine, with the same clean lines as the rest of the furniture. After raising the lid, he shifted things around inside until he came up with a small bundle. He brought it to Chelsea. "Like I said, she was talented. We used to play a game, make up our own story, kind of. She used to make sketches of a town, first a church, then a post office, then a library, then a general store. Then we made up people-children, usually- and had them go through little adventures." He offered her the bundle. It was a collection of drawings held together by a thin blue ribbon that might have easily come from one of Katie Love's quilts. Chelsea took the bundle. She looked up at Hunter. "Are you sure you want me to see these?" They seemed intensely personal, even more so than all he'd told her because they were material relics, of which he seemed to have precious few. "She was good. I want you to see," he said, but Chelsea saw something else then. Hunter loved his mother. Despite all she had put him through, despite all the town had put him through because of her, his mother's work made him proud. 410 Awk the bundle to ihe sofa, set it in her lap, fully untied the ribbon. She was fully preto ooh and ahh regardless of what she found. ted to give something to Hunter. Since he n't allow a hug, expressing admiration for his r's work would have to do. wasn't prepared for extraordinarily delicate gs, done in various shades of ink with what could have sworn was a quill. Nor was she ed to see glimpses of Norwich Notch, but that what Katie had drawn with remarkable accuraeach drawing was on a piece of white paper the of a greeting card, each of a single building, done in a single ink color.

The detail work was unding, from the sixteen tiny panes of gla.s.s in h window of the library, to the lyrical swirls hed in wood at the top of the bandstand on the en, to the initials carved on the front row of kers in the graveyard beside the church. Most markable, though, was the message that came ough. Despite what Norwich Notch had done to le Love, the town was her home. Chelsea went through the bundle of drawings lowly, savoring each one before turning to the ext. She went through again, looking for anything e'd missed the first time, and in the process omething moved her. She didn't know what it was, hether it was the beauty of the drawings or their dhistory or simply the fact that Hunter had shown "'them to her, but by the time she had them gathered "together again, she was feeling weepy. Holding the bundle in her lap, she looked up at him. "They're beautiful," she said. "What a treasure."

He held out his hand. With great care she retied 411 EMIMM Deunshy the ribbon, but she didn't hand the bundle back immediately. She touched it gently, the top drawing, the bottom one, the ribbon. Finally, feeling indeed as though she were relinquishing a treasure, she handed it over.

Oddly, her tears lingered. She blotted her lower lids, but new tears replaced the old. Having put the drawings back in the chest, Hunter came to stand at the far end of the sofa. "They weren't supposed to make you sad."

"I know." She went to the chair where she'd left her coat and reached into the pocket for a tissue. "Don't mind me. I'll be fine." She dabbed at her eyes. "Maybe I'd better go." She slipped into the coat.

Remembering the orange juice she'd barely touched, she picked up the gla.s.s and started toward the kitchen. He met her halfway and took the gla.s.s from her. She avoided his eyes and made for the door. Her hand was on the k.n.o.b, when he called on a note of pique, "What in the h.e.l.l do you want?" She didn't turn. "What do you mean?" "With me. From me, what do you want?" She paused. "Friendship."

"But why me?" She did turn then.

"Because I like you. You're as lost and alone as I feel a whole lot of the time."

"You? Lost and [email protected] "I was born here, Hunter, thirty-seven years ago last March. I have no other information than that. I don't know who either of my birth parents are, or whether I have brothers and sisters. All I know is that someone doesn't want me here." She took a shuddering breath. "So there are plenty of times when, yes, I feel lost and alone. Tonight was one of those times." 412 ' Paswong of chelfto [email protected] looked stunned. e wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her coat time.

With a final sniffle she said, "Anyway, I did take to the underdog, and you are that. I Ake you, Hunter. If you were anyone else, I'd give a hug and kiss you good-bye. On the cheek. e platonically." She paused. On a more hopeful e she added, "Maybe another time?" When he didn't answer, just stood there looking her dumbly, she gave him a sad wave and let herif out. Chelsea looked for Hunter the next day afthe arry, Ju st to make sure that her visit hadn't T him too much, but he wasn't at Moss Ridge hen she stopped by, or at Kankamaug, or Haskins ak. None of the men had seen him. Nor did anyne seem co incerned. Apparently Hunter had a habit disappearing from time to time. What worried helsea was that he had disappeared because of she'd said or done. This time she drove past his house for three ,,',,nights running before she saw the Kawasaki in the driveway. She parked out front long enough to see him moving---alive and apparently well-around the living room. She debated knocking on the door. In the end, out of respect for his privacy, she shifted into drive and went home. 413 nineteen OINCIDENTALLY, THE FIRST OF THE SEASON'S Wednesday afternoon teas took place the week after the Notch learned Chelsea was pregnant., and Chelsea wouldn't have dreamed of missing it.

She'd meant what she had told Hunter. She wasn't being ostracized the way Katie Love had been. If anyone tried it, she would fight. She wore the first of her maternity clothes, a pair of tailored pants that were expandable at the waist and a long sweater, and had to admit that other than the small bulge of her belly, she looked very much as she always did. She might as well have had a brand on her forehead, though, because the instant she entered the main room of the library, the ladies stopped their chatter and stared. "Hi," she said with a bright smile on her face. Of the twenty-some faces in the room, she recognized nearly every one, which made a statement about how far she'd come. The fact that not one of them stepped forward to greet her made a statement about how far she had yet to go. "I've been hearing about these teas since last June," she said. "This is a 414 The Pa.s.sions of Chetsea Ame t." Still smiling, she moved toward the table "Allere the large silver tea service was prettily anged. "How are you, Maida?" she asked. Maida I was the matriarch of the accounting b.a.l.l.s. She pouring tea with the realtor's wife and lawyer's er, Stella Whip. Maida nodded somberly. "Fine."

"Stella, I understand your grandson just started '7 Princeton. I studied architecture there. He'll love e town."

"His fath r went there," Stella said dismissively. "Ahhh. Well, good luck to him." Chelsea moved n past silver trays lined with tea sandwiches. "I 11ove your blouse, Nancy," she said to the librarian "'posted there. "Did you pick it up ifi Boston?" Several weeks before, when Chelsea had stopped at the [email protected]'Jibrary for literature on birds and bird feeders, the woman had chatted on and on about an upcoming librarian's convention in that city.

"I T Bean," Nancy said now. "Oh. Interesting. Pink is your color." When Nancy seemed disinclined to say more, Chelsea said to her companion, "It's good to see you, Mrs. Willis. I'm still getting compliments from people who were here for the open house last month. They loved the inn.

I take it all's well there?" "Yes, '," Mrs. Willis said. "Are things slowing up?"

"Not at all."

"Oh. Why's that?"

"Peepers."

"Ahhh." Chelsea had forgotten. The fall foliage season was approaching Its height, bringing with It an, influx of sightseeing buses. "That's good for business." She paused, then smiled and said, "See you in 415 luwbara Deakwaw a bit," and moved on to the nearest group of women. It contained Margaret Plum, Lucy Farr, and Lucy's daughter-in-law, Joanie. "How's Oliver feeling, Margaret?" she asked. He hadn't been at the quarry. Word was he had the flu. Wearing an innocuous expression with a voice to match, Margaret said, "He's feeling better. He'll be in the office tomorrow. You know, you really shouldn't be here, Chelsea." Chelsea hadn't expected such bluntness so fast. "I thought these teas were open."

"They are. But given your state, a bit of prudence is in order."

She clucked her tongue. "And Judd isn't even the father. Do you know who is?"

"I certainly do. He's someone back home." "Are you planning to marry him?" Lucy asked. "He's already married," Chelsea said before she realized the mistaken impression she was giving. She opened her mouth to correct it, then, at the bidding of a mischievous little voice inside, didn't say a word. Lucy looked bothered. Joanie looked bored. Less innocuously now, Margaret said, "We don't much like things like this."

"My pregnancy"-Chelsea was driven by the mischievous little voice to say the word aloud- "shouldn't affect you at all." "But it does. When your name is said in the same breath as Norwich Notch, what you do affects every one of us."

"Margaret," Chelsea protested gently. Margaret looked past her. "Oh, my, there's Rachel, just back from the doctor." She raised her hand to wave, accidentally hitting Chelsea's tea cup in the process. Its contents spilled from the saucer 416 nw Pa.s.sions of Chasm Amm ' floor before Chelsea could right it. Margaret tisked.

"Goodness, I didn't mean to do Lucy, some napkins, please. Joan, stay and talk th Chelsea while I clean this up." She had taken P CH and saucer from Chelsea's hand before helsea knew what she was up to. "No, no, 1-"

"I'll be right back," Margaret said, and was off. Alone with Chelsea, Joanie wasted no time. @'You're the talk of the town." Chelsea shrugged. She had never quite known hat to make of Joanie Farr.

Dark-haired and stylish .'by Norwich Notch standards, she had a come-on :quality that made her a man's woman, which was -.fine with Chelsea.

What bothered her was Joanie's "@,opaqueness. Chelsea couldn't read a thing of her haracter. She was an attractive facade that hid G.o.d only knew what. "Did you plan this pregnancy?" she asked, ironically in a tone that hid nothing. Her disapproval was clear. Chelsea sighed.

"That's neither here nor there," and was none of Joanie's business, she thought. "I'm really excited about the baby."

"You won't get much support."

"I don't need "You may later on. Winters are long here.

They're isolating. You'd be better off in Baltimore." Lucy chose that minute to return with a handful of paper towels. "Let me do that," Chelsea said, but the older woman had the puddle absorbed in no time flat. "All done," she said, and vanished. Joanie picked up where she'd left off. "Donna would be better off if you were in Baltimore, too. 417 Barbara Deunshy You're making trouble between Matthew and her."

"Me?"

"She talks back to him. She never used to do that."

"Maybe she has cause."

"Not with Matthew. Matthew's wonderful." Chelsea wondered if they were talking about the same man. "Stay away from them," Joanie warned. "He has enough trouble with her. He doesn't need more." Chelsea was about to ask what trouble innocent, good-hearted Donna could possibly be, when Margaret returned with a fresh cup of tea. "There," she said. She handed Chelsea the cup and took Joanie's arm. "Rachel wants us." Chelsea watched them leave, then turned to face the others.

They stood in small cl.u.s.ters, abundantly aware of her, she knew, but busying themselves with each other. She sipped her tea. She wondered when Donna would arrive. She did everything In her power to look perfectly at ease in what was an infuriating situation. She was debating which group to confront next when a woman close to her own age approached. She wore the Notch uniform-a simple wool skirt and a blouse-and the same kind of innocuous expression Margaret had worn.

Chelsea steeled herself for another attack. "I'm Sandra Morgan," the woman said In a voice that nixed the Idea of an attack. It was small, shy almost. "My husband Is loan officer at the bank. My sister is Wendell Hovey's wife. You've been kind to them. I wanted to thank you."

Chelsea's smile relaxed. "No thanks necessary. I feel terrible about the accident. I'm just grateful 418 The Pa.s.sions of Okelmw KWW dell didn't lose the leg."

"Caroline is your biggest fan." Chelsea had sensed that in subsequent visits. e's a sweet girl. She was so frightened at first.

I uld have taken her home with me, but that would e frightened her more." 1'@ '," Sandra said, and dropped her eyes. In murmur that wouldn't carry far, she said, "This is ' self-righteous group."

Chelsea chuckled. "Tell me." Still studying the floor, Sandra said, "I'm no gosp. But it isn't fair, what they're doing. None of em's perfect.

Stella Whip is such a nut for neatss that she has her family walking around the ouse with plastic bags on their shoes. Joanie Farr ,",@"blleeps with Matthew whenever she can. And Margaret, Margaret's the one who made Donna deaf. I'll bet you didn't know that."

"What?" Chelsea whispered. Sandra raised her eyes. "You have a right to have your baby.

I just want you to know that if you need ,,.,any help, you can call me.

Or my husband'. He's always glad when new people come to town. So are lots of others. They just don't say it."

"Thank you," Chelsea managed.

"Joanie and Matthew?" Sandra shook her head. "I shouldn't have said that. It's not my affair." Her gaze shifted. "There's Donna. Don't say a word." She smiled. "Hi, Donna ... Judd wasn't keeping track of Chelsea. It wasn't his business to. She had gotten pregnant on her own, she had moved to Norwich Notch on her own, she was a competent, independent, self-sufficient 419 woman. She didn't need him, and he wasn't dallying where he wasn't needed. There were too many more important demands on his life. That was why he was annoyed when Fern called him at Moss Ridge to ask if he'd seen her. "Not me," he snapped.

"Odd," Fern said. "She was supposed to be here for a conference call at ten-thirty, and she's always on time. But it's eleven-thirty, and she hasn't been in. No one's seen hide nor hair of her since yesterday afternoon." Judd had seen her since then. She had stopped by the house in the early evening with an apple pie that was slightly burned at the edges. Leo, bless him, had loved it. He didn't remember that edges weren't supposed to be burned. Judd hadn't seen her since then. "Have you tried the house?" "No answer," Fern said. "Call Donna. See if she was -at aerobics." He couldn't believe that Chelsea was still doing that, but she insisted that the exercise was good for her heart and the baby both. "She wasn't there," Fern said. "Donna thought maybe she decided all of a sudden to visit her father, but it's not like her to forget business." Judd agreed. Chelsea was nothing if not reliable. He pushed a hand through his hair. "I'll go by her place on my way back to town." Determined not to rush-he wasn't her keeper, d.a.m.n it-he finished what he had to do at Moss Ridge, stopped briefly at Pequod Peak-one of the newer quarries, turning out some of the finest green granite they'd seen in years-and only then drove over to Boulderbrook. He had to admit to surprise 420 The ra.s.slom OF awsea K~NW that the Pathfinder was there.

He didn't know why she wasn't answering her phone. He knocked on the door. When there was no response, he used the key he'd never returned and unlocked it. "Chelsea?" He went through the living room to the kitchen. Her purse was there, open to reveal her wallet and everything else she would surely have taken if she'd gone out. Feeling a flicker of worry, he went up the stairs to her bedroom. There was a huge mound of coverings on the bed, not only the quilt that matched the sheets, but another one, plus a.s.sorted blankets thrown on in haphazard fashion.

October nights were cool, he agreed, but not that cool. "Chelsea?" The mound moved. There was a small sound, then more movement. He went to the bedside and began peeling layers away. By the time he found Chelsea's head, she had one eye slitted open. "Judd," she said in a voice that was hoa.r.s.e and not at all like her own. "What are you doing here?"

"Do you know what time it is?" he asked gruffly. He didn't want to show concern.

She flinched at his voice, closed her eyes, and W, pulled the covers back up to her ears. "It's nearly twelve-thirty. Fern's been trying to reach you."

"No, she hasn't," she mumbled. "Why didn't you answer your phone?"

"It didn't ring." "What's wrong with you?" he asked, annoyed.