Deception (19 page)

“They’re fine.” Connor couldn’t help the snap in her voice. “If they’re ever going to develop confidence and responsibility, they have to be given a chance.” She softened her tone. “I promise you, riding together is the best thing for both of them now.”

“Connor, you’re the horsewoman and you know best about all of that. I didn’t mean to question you, it’s just that those children are like my very own flesh and blood.”

“It’s okay, forget it.” Connor felt her anger evaporating.

“Is something wrong?” Willene’s worried voice came over the phone with a sharp edge to it. “Has something happened?”

“No.” Connor forced herself to calm down, to project a professional image. She wanted to tell the older woman about her feelings for Clay, to share the joy of her secret with someone, but natural caution held her in check. If there was any telling of anything to be done, it was Clay’s place to do it, not hers.

“You sound … strange,” Willene pressed.

Connor took a deep breath. “You worry too much, Willene. What’s on the menu for lunch?”

“I was planning on a homemade chicken pot pie, but I think I’ll save that for supper, since Mr. Clay is coming out. We’ll have sandwiches for lunch, okay?”

“Fine.” Connor caught herself up short. “How did you know Clay was coming out?” She knew the cook was nosy, and that someone up at the house could easily listen in on barn conversations by simply lifting the phone.

“Renata must have mentioned it to me.”

There was the sound of a loud crash over the telephone. “Damn!” Willene cried. “I have to go. I just dropped a pot of hot water all over the floor. Goodbye.”

Before Connor could frame an answer, the phone line went dead. She held the receiver in her hand a moment. Well, if Willene had been listening, she certainly got an earful.

Connor put down the telephone and picked up a stack of bills. The feed bill had been a bit higher than she’d expected. And there were several items billed from a hardware store that she had yet to find around the barn. It had crossed her mind that Jeff might be padding the expenditure list.

As she sat down at the desk and pulled the barn ledger toward her, she had a sudden image of Jeff and a small, dark woman together. Jeff and Talla had used the barn for their private rendezvous. Worry bloomed large in her mind. Where had Jeff been on the night she and Clay had made such passionate love in the barn? At the time, she’d felt certain he was not at Oaklawn. Now, she couldn’t shake the idea that perhaps he’d been on the premises. Possibly watching. He’d been acting peculiar for the past few weeks, staring at her with speculation. And now the bills seemed out of proportion. Was he slyly trying to blackmail Clay?

For the first time Clay’s vulnerability as a political candidate struck Connor with full force. He was single, and an adult, as he was so fond of saying. Did that really make a difference in the conservative South?

She shook off the troubling line of thought and picked up the bills. When she was finished adding everything up, she couldn’t find an obvious error. She tucked the bills away. Next time, she’d pay a little more attention to the feed sacks that came in and the money that went out.

She thought about taking Cleo or Tinker out for a trail ride, then decided not to. She didn’t want to run into the children, or they’d think she was following them. Instead, she saddled Apollo and led him into the ring for a little lunge work. He was walking, trotting, cantering, and stopping on command. Nothing seemed to delight him more than to please her. He was a rare horse. No matter what else she did at Oaklawn, she’d found three excellent mounts for the children and Clay.

She lunged the chestnut gelding for thirty minutes and then climbed on his back. He was still a bit confused about her weight, but he was agreeable. She put him on the rail and worked in both directions at a trot. In another few weeks, he’d be ready for trailwork and Clay. She smiled at the thought. Maybe, with a pinch of luck, he’s be ready by Christmas. That would be one nice present for Clay.

She noticed Jeff and Old Henry leaning on the fence, watching her work. Old Henry was smiling, but Jeff’s expression wasn’t easy to read. His eyes were narrowed and he was chewing a piece of dead grass.

She leaned over to pat Apollo’s gleaming neck. The sound of hooves pounding in the distance made her sit up straight. Old Henry and Jeff heard it, too. They both turned in the direction of the woods.

Connor felt her heart leap into her throat. The horse, or horses, she couldn’t tell which, were running hard. Wide open. She had a fleeting image of a riderless pony coming into the yard. It was almost her vision come true when the little gray Connemara pony burst through the woods. Renata was leaning forward in the saddle, urging the pony on, and Danny was right behind her, calling her name.

Connor watched in horror and anger as Renata rode the little gray pony straight toward the arena. When she was almost to the fence, she pulled Erin up. Once he entered the barn area, Danny slowed Ali Baba and halted him. He looked at his sister and then at Connor.

“I tried to stop her,” he said. “As soon as we talked to that woman, Renata rode here as fast as she could.” He was gulping air and trying to catch his breath as he talked.

Both horses were heaving. Sweat gleamed on their necks and chests.

“Walk your mounts cool, and then we’ll talk.” Connor was so mad she didn’t trust herself to say more.

“Whooee!” Jeff called, as he walked toward them. He pushed his hat back at a jaunty angle. “That was some kind of ridin’, Miss Renata. You came in here like Annie Oakley.”

“You’re a damn fool, Jeff!” Old Henry spat the words before he stalked back into the barn mumbling about spoiled children. At the door he turned back and looked at them all. “I see the things that go on here. I’m old, but I see.”

Stunned for a second, Connor turned on Jeff when she’d gathered her wits. “If you don’t have something to do with your time, I’ll be glad to find some work for you, Jeff. My advice to you is to get busy before Mr. Sumner arrives.”

“Pardon me, Miss Horse Trainer.” Jeff didn’t bother to hide the sarcasm. “I was trying to pay the little lady a compliment on her riding. I wouldn’t let that old man bother me. What you and Mr. Clay do is your own business.”

“Get out of here, Jeff. Now! I shouldn’t have to tell you that Renata’s riding was dangerous and stupid. She might have killed herself and her pony.” Her attention was diverted from Jeff by Danny. The little boy looked like he was going to burst into tears.

“It was that woman, Connor. She started all of this. She was in the woods, dressed up like she was from some other time, from the past.” Danny’s face was red, and his eyes were worried.

“What woman? What are you talking about?” Connor couldn’t make sense of what he was saying.

“She wouldn’t say her name, but she knew you.”

“Shut up!” Renata turned on him. “Just shut up!”

“No!” Danny held Ali’s reins, and he slapped them absently against his palm, a gesture he’d picked up from his father. “She was pretty, Connor. Like you. But she said …” He looked at Renata. “She said that you had to leave Oaklawn or that something terrible was going to happen to you. She was real worried about you.”

Connor looked at Danny’s upset face and then at Renata’s stonelike expression. The little girl went to her pony, ran the stirrup up, then walked around and ran up the other one before loosening the girth. “I think I should walk Erin around a little. She’s hot,” Renata announced, as she started out to the center of the ring.

“Danny?” Connor went to the boy. “What did you see? And where?”

“It was on the perimeter trail. We were walking along, talking, when I saw something in the woods. Well, really Ali Baba saw it and sort of spooked, but then we all saw that it was this woman.”

“She was on Oaklawn property?”

“She was,” Danny agreed. “She was at the side of the path, like she was waiting for us to come by. And she stepped into the path.”

“Did you know her?” Connor felt a strange sensation.

“No. I’d never seen her before. But she knew you.”

“What exactly did she say?”

Danny shifted his weight as he watched Renata in the distance, walking Erin around in circles. Her dark eyes followed every move Danny made. “Maybe I should walk Ali,” he said.

“Good idea, we’ll walk together.” Connor led Apollo out the gate and dropped in beside Danny as they walked toward the house. “Now, tell me as good as you can remember what she said.”

“She said she was a friend. That she had come from a long way away.”

“And?” Connor prompted.

“That she was worried about you.”

“She said my name?”

“Connor Tremaine. That’s what she said. She said you were in danger at Oaklawn. That she’d come a long, long distance to warn you. That you had to leave before you were hurt.”

Even though Connor had begun to suspect Renata’s hand in the appearance of the mysterious woman, she felt a chill trace up her spine. “Did she say how I was going to be hurt?”

Danny shook his head. “She was really worried about you.”

“And what was she wearing?”

“She had on a long blue dress. Like from
Little House on the Prairie
. That kind of dress. And her hair was long and all down her back.”

“Did she frighten you?”

Danny shot a quick look at Connor to see if she was making fun of him. “A little at first. She was sort of odd. But then she was more … sad than scary. Like maybe she was lost. She kept looking around like she expected someone to come for her.”

“And what did Renata do while all this was going on?” Connor had her own suspicions.

“Well, the woman was talking mostly to Renata.”

“Can you take me to the place where you saw this woman?”

“Sure. Right now?”

Connor looked at her watch. It was twelve-thirty. Willene would be expecting them up for lunch.

“Not today. Maybe tomorrow. We’d better hose these horses and get cleaned up for lunch.”

They turned back to the barn. Renata was still walking Erin, and she was beside the pony, whispering in her ear.

“You’d better apologize to that pony, Renata. The way you treated her is inexcusable. You never, never ride a horse like that, and especially not toward the barn” Connor looked at both of her charges. “As of right now, you two are grounded with the horses. I won’t have you treat an animal with such careless disregard for its safety. Danny, you’ll clean stalls for a week. Renata, since you don’t care for the barn, you can paint the paddock fences.”

“You can’t give me orders,” Renata said angrily.

“Watch me,” Connor said easily. “That’s exactly what your father is paying me to do.”

“You’re going to get hurt here.” Renata braced her feet and stared at Connor.

“There’s always a risk of danger around horses. I’ve told you that, but I’ll tell you something else, young lady. If you don’t take care of that pony and mind your manners, I’m going to turn you over my knee and spank your bottom right here and now.”

Renata’s cheeks flamed red. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Believe me, Renata, I would. I’d be doing us both a favor. If you insist on acting like a spoiled brat, then I’ll treat you like one. Now I suggest you tend to Erin, get washed up, and get to the house for lunch.”

Without another word she led Apollo into the barn and started to untack him.

Connor took a sandwich, cookies, and coffee down to the barn for lunch. She’d asked Willene to occupy the children in the house until Clay arrived. The cook had noticed the tension, but she’d refrained from asking any questions. It wouldn’t take long for the grapevine to spread the word that she and Renata had had words, Connor knew. As she sipped her coffee and ate the turkey sandwich, Connor went over the scene with Renata. She shouldn’t have threatened to spank the child, but there came a point when even the best tempers and the best intentions could be stretched no further. It was Renata’s mistreatment of the pony which had triggered her ire. Clay had also urged Connor to take a firm hand with both children. He knew they were spoiled and willful, possibly to the point of danger to themselves.

Still … Connor folded up the napkins and plastic wrap and threw them in the trash. No point in reliving the incident again and again. It was done, and there was no way to undo it. She went to the barn and brought Tinker, out. She had a pretty good idea where this alleged encounter with the mystery woman had taken place, and she wanted to examine the area before any more time passed.

It was Connor’s belief that Renata had made the whole thing up, a childish attempt to frighten Connor away from Oaklawn. What was troubling was Danny’s role in it: the boy was usually honest. Renata would have had to convince him that she’d actually seen something.

Connor mounted and rode off at a brisk trot. It took her about forty minutes to find the place where horse tracks were clustered, as if the animals had shifted back and forth repeatedly. This would be the spot where the “encounter” took place. Connor got off Tinker and checked the ground in either direction. Sure enough, Renata’s pony’s smaller hoofprints led off down a side trail alone.

Just as Connor had conjectured, the pieces fell into place. Renata had left Danny on the main path and had taken a little side trail, where she allegedly came upon the strange woman and heard a dire warning directed at Connor. Then Renata had come back to Danny. They’d sat on the horses in the middle of the main trail, and Renata had told him everything the woman had told her, and described her. Then Renata had sealed the lie by pretending to be upset and riding home like the wind. Danny, always his sister’s pawn, had followed behind her, genuinely worried that someone was going to hurt Connor.

It was farfetched, but it made a lot more sense than a strange woman in period clothing wandering around the woods warning Connor about an impending injury.

Remounting, Connor headed home. She knew the little girl really meant her no harm. Renata was just frightened of losing her father. It was a very real fear based on the action her mother had taken. Was there that much difference between abandonment of affection and death? Not to a child. Especially one as desperately needy as Renata.