“Livie! I was afraid you’d forgotten, and after I invited a date for you, too. It’s lucky he’ll be late.” Tammy grabbed Olivia’s elbow and pulled her into the tiny foyer. “You can hang your coat on a hook with the others, and—oh, you
did
wear a dress.”
“As I recall,” Olivia said, “I was ordered to do so.”
“Yes, but you usually ignore me and do whatever you want.” A hint of amusement softened Tammy’s comment.
Olivia followed Tammy into the living room, where a subdued group of five sat and sipped coffee. Fine bone china cups clicked on their saucers as Olivia entered the room.
“Everyone, this is Olivia Greyson. You all know her, don’t you?” Tammy directed her question to a young couple huddled together on a deep plush sofa.
“I’m not sure I . . .” The young woman’s voice trailed off into a whisper. She was so petite that her feet lifted off the floor as she retreated toward the sofa’s high back.
“Oh, of course,” Tammy said with a light laugh. “We’d graduated by the time you two started at Heights High. Olivia, this is Dottie and Timmy, my neighbors. They’ve been married for six months.” Tammy announced this information as if Dottie and Timmy were her family and she couldn’t be more pleased. “Olivia owns that sweet little cookie-cutter shop on the town square.”
“Along with Maddie Briggs,” Olivia added, darting a glance at Maddie, whose expression reminded her of a carved stone bust.
Dottie’s face lit up. “Of course, I love that store. I didn’t recognize you at first. All dressed up, I mean.”
Tammy made a faint chortling sound in her throat that Olivia hoped no one else could hear.
As Tammy fussed through her hostess duties, allowing no guests to get anything for themselves, Olivia sat in a wingback chair and observed the group. Lucas Ashford, wearing a gray suit that strained across his broad shoulders, occupied a stuffed armchair. His dark eyes skittered around the room as if he were searching for the exits. Maddie perched on one arm of the chair, leaning into him.
Hugh Chamberlain was the only remaining guest. Olivia had seen Hugh on many occasions during her visits to the Chamberlain home, but they’d exchanged no more than a few sentences. Whenever she looked at him, she thought of the portrait of his father that hung in Clarisse’s study. Hugh had his father’s easy charm and good looks, with a well-proportioned body that always looked good in a suit. Olivia remembered that he had played basketball in high school. He’d looked the part and seemed to enjoy himself, but his playing was mediocre. Yet most of the girls had treated him like a successful jock and longed to stand beside him as homecoming queen.
Hugh caught Olivia watching him and smiled. She noticed that his light blue eyes lacked the dark intensity that shone from the deep blue ones in Martin’s portrait. Hugh looked tired. Hardly surprising, given what he’d been through the last few days. Olivia wanted to offer him her condolences, but it just didn’t seem like the right moment. She found it curious that he’d allowed himself to be talked into a gathering so soon after his mother’s death. Perhaps her mom was right that he did love Tammy.
A flash of green in the corner of her vision alerted Olivia that Maddie was trying to get her attention from across the room. Maddie raised her cup and waved it in a circle. Puzzled, Olivia glanced at her own cup, which was white with a thin filigree design in silver. She gazed around the room and noticed white linen cloths covering the coffee table and two side tables. A white vase of white tulips decorated the bureau under the living room window.
When Maddie casually wriggled her own bare ring finger, then nodded her head toward Tammy, Olivia started to catch on. She squirmed in her chair to get a better look at Tammy, specifically at her left hand. Yep, there it was—a diamond ring. No wonder Tammy wanted her guests to stay put. There was to be an announcement.
Olivia glanced again at Maddie, who rolled her eyes. With the slightest tilt of her head, Olivia indicated that Maddie should follow her. When Tammy leaned toward Dottie to answer a question, Olivia slipped into the nearby hallway, which she knew, from previous visits, led through the study, Tammy’s bedroom, and ultimately to the bathroom.
Tammy’s small study was neat, as always. Even when she was in the throes of lesson planning for her first-grade classes, Tammy kept her materials organized in stacked plastic trays. Her bookcase had four shelves, one for children’s books and three for romance novels. On the corner of the desk, Olivia noticed a stack of women’s magazines, their edges even. The top magazine advertised a special section on “Your Perfect Wedding.”
Sometimes Olivia wondered why she and Tammy had remained friends. They were so different. Her thoughts drifted to her other childhood friend Stacey, and she made a quick mental note to give her a call. Those childhood bonds were tough to break, but she knew that having friends, even ones who didn’t like each other, made her life richer.
Tammy’s bedroom repeated the theme in the study, minus the children’s books and plus a stuffed bear collection. Olivia noticed a new adornment for the Victorian-style walnut dresser—a framed photo of Tammy and Hugh on a rocky shore, possibly in Maine, where Tammy’s family used to vacation. Tammy stood on tiptoe, her face tilted upwards toward Hugh, who held her upper arms as he kissed the tip of her nose. From Tammy’s hairdo, Olivia guessed the photo was recent.
Olivia slipped into the bathroom. She left the light out and the door ajar, so she could watch for Maddie. She heard footsteps approach, and her heart began to canter. When Maddie walked through the bedroom door, Olivia was so relieved she laughed.
“Isn’t this a kick?” Maddie closed them into the bathroom. “I think Tammy is bursting to announce her engagement, so we should keep this short. Did you notice that photo in the bedroom? Tacky.”
“I think it’s touching,” Olivia said. “Reassuring, too. I was afraid Hugh didn’t return her feelings. My mom told me about Jasmine.”
“Jasmine,” Maddie said. “I haven’t heard that name in a while.” She settled on the edge of the tub, and Olivia joined her. “I liked that woman. She had moxie. Everybody thought she and Hugh would get married, but I wasn’t surprised when she up and left. She was so independent, plus I always suspected she had a ‘past,’ you know? She never talked much about herself.”
“Maddie, you don’t suppose . . . I mean, what if she disappeared because she was pregnant?” On her way to the party, Olivia had been feverishly mulling over the letter from Clarisse and the note she left with the cookie cutters. She was growing more certain that both items had to somehow tie into the information her mother had given her.
A sliver of curl worked loose from Maddie’s casual hairdo and bounced on her nose. Her eyes crossed as she blew it away from her face. “I suppose Jasmine might have gotten pregnant, but if it was Hugh’s, they would have gotten married. Clarisse adored Jasmine, so she’d have been floating on clouds if she found out a grandchild was on the way. You knew Clarisse. Do you think she’d have been bent out of shape by the whole premarital, out-of-wedlock thing?”
“I doubt it.” Clarisse had flouted numerous conventions during her life, and Olivia remembered her emphatic disdain for double standards when it came to acceptable male and female behavior. She had been ahead of her time in that regard.
“Well, there you are. If Jasmine was pregnant, she’d probably be here today, and Clarisse would have been swimming in grandbabies.”
Olivia felt a moment of sorrow as she thought about what might have been. Clarisse had deserved to grow old surrounded by grandchildren. “What if it wasn’t Hugh’s baby? And what about Jasmine’s ‘past’? Her independent streak?” Olivia asked. “Maybe Jasmine didn’t want to have a sea of babies.”
Maddie’s eyebrows wrinkled together in thought. “I guess she might have left to have the baby and put it up for adoption.”
“If Jasmine had wanted to end the pregnancy, Clarisse would never have forgiven her. So either way, she’d have left if she didn’t want a baby and Hugh did.”
“Makes sense,” Maddie said. “So that means—”
“Shh.” Olivia put a finger to her lips and held her other hand over Maddie’s mouth. She dropped her hand when Maddie nodded to indicate she understood.
Olivia had heard the click of a door. A second click told Olivia that the door had closed. Her worst fear was that someone had entered the room, heard their last few words, and was now lurking in the bedroom waiting to hear more.
Maddie put her mouth close to Olivia’s ear and breathed, “We are so busted.”
They had locked the bathroom door behind them but hadn’t turned on the light, since the night-light was sufficient. Olivia watched the doorknob, willing it not to turn. When she’d held her breath long enough to see spots in front of her eyes, she began to feel safer. That is, until she heard whispering from the other side of the door. The whispers became voices, and the voices became Tammy and Hugh arguing. Olivia glanced at Maddie, who grinned.
“Sweetie, we’ve come this far, we can’t move back time.” Tammy sounded cajoling, with a hint of first-grade teacher in her voice.
“I think we should slow down, wait a bit,” Hugh said. His rich baritone usually commanded attention, but his voice sounded flat, tired. “It’s all too much right now. It wouldn’t look right.”
“I don’t care what it looks like. People can think whatever they want. This is our life, and we’ve come too far to turn back now, you know that. Your mother would never have let us have a life together. We had no other choice. Now you have your businesses, and we have each other. You do want that, don’t you?”
“Of course I do.”
Maddie wrinkled her nose at the sound of kissing, while Olivia’s mind began to churn. If she weren’t wearing a dress, she’d have her little notebook and pen in her pocket and could write down, in exact words, Hugh and Tammy’s exchange. What had Tammy meant when she said they’d had no other choice? Olivia didn’t know Hugh very well, but Tammy? Could she commit murder to marry Hugh? Maybe.
Tammy said, “Let’s go back to our guests. I don’t want them to wander off before we make our announcement.”
A couple of seconds after they heard the bedroom door close, Olivia and Maddie cracked open the bathroom door and peeked out. Once they were sure it was safe, they escaped through the study and into the hallway. It occurred to Olivia that Tammy would arrive in the living room before they could, and she’d realize they were gone. She might wonder where they’d been while she and Hugh were talking.
Olivia gripped Maddie’s arm and led her into the empty kitchen, where they leaned against the counter as if they’d been having a casual conversation. A moment later, the door to the outside opened, and Edward Chamberlain entered, along with the acrid smell of cigarette smoke. He froze momentarily when he saw Olivia and Maddie.
“Tammy won’t let me smoke inside,” Edward said.
Olivia had encountered Edward only sporadically over the past year, and each time she had been intrigued by his apparent lack of concern for the social graces. He’d never been rude to her, only abrupt. Perhaps his curt manner stemmed from preoccupation with important business matters.
“Edward,” Olivia said, “I am so sorry about your mother. She was my dear friend, but I can only imagine what her loss means to you and Hugh.”
Edward’s right hand lifted to the left breast pocket of his suit coat, which bulged in the shape of a cigarette packet. He did not reach inside. Staring out the kitchen window, he said, “Thank you.”
Tammy appeared at the entrance to the kitchen, cheeks flushed. “There you are,” she said.
At the sound of her voice, Edward’s head tilted toward her. Olivia thought she saw tears glisten in his vivid blue eyes.
“I’ve been looking all over for you three. I was afraid you’d left,” Tammy said with genuine distress in her voice. “Come on back to the living room. Please? Hugh and I have an announcement to make.” She clutched Olivia’s wrist and hooked her arm through Edward’s. With a forlorn glance at his cigarette pocket, he allowed himself to be dragged along.
“
T
alk about an anticlimax,” Maddie muttered to Olivia after a bubbling Tammy had announced her engagement to Hugh. Everyone exclaimed over her ring, even though they’d all seen it as Tammy served coffee, offered cookies supplied by The Gingerbread House, and provided refills.
Another new guest had arrived during Olivia and Maddie’s absence—Sheriff Del. He had dressed for the occasion in a dark blue suit and light blue shirt.
Not bad.
When Edward entered the room, Del went over to talk to him, and she noticed Edward’s hand touch his cigarette pocket again. She wondered who was supposed to be her date, Del or Edward.
Once the glad nuptial tidings had been delivered, Del moved his folding chair next to Olivia’s.
“You look nice,” Del said. “As always.”
“You’re wearing a tie.”
“Nothing much gets past you.”
Del Jenkins had a way of throwing Olivia off-kilter and darned if she didn’t enjoy it. When he smiled at her, she found herself smiling back. “I guess that was my way of saying you look nice, too.”
“Thanks, I thought it might be.” His smile faded as he leaned toward her and whispered, “Did you know about this engagement? I thought those two were on the outs.”
“You keep up with Chatterley Heights gossip?” Olivia asked with genuine surprise.
“I try. It helps me anticipate problems.” Del frowned at the floor. “I’ve learned a lot about the Chamberlain family in the last few days. The general consensus was that Clarisse was opposed to Hugh marrying Tammy. It seems she was very vocal about it during the last few days of her life. It’s odd, though, no one was really sure why.” Del narrowed his eyes at Olivia. “So I was thinking, outside of her family, you probably knew the most about what went on in Clarisse’s mind.”
Olivia hesitated. If she told Del what she and Maddie had overheard and what Clarisse had left for her in the store, it might convince him to delve more deeply into Clarisse’s death. On the other hand, Tammy and Hugh hadn’t admitted any wrongdoing. What if there was an innocent explanation for their conversation? Olivia needed time to think.