Someone to Love Read online

  There was silence after that and no one spoke for a while.

  “I think we’ve taken up enough of your time,” Jace said, standing up. “I cannot thank you enough for your help.”

  Carol and Nigh also stood up. “I only wish I hadn’t been so passive when we were girls,” Carol said.

  Nigh took the woman’s hand. “I don’t think any of this is your fault.”

  “And I don’t think that Stacy committed suicide,” Jace said.

  “But if she didn’t kill herself—” Carol’s eyes widened. “You think Tony killed her?”

  “If he didn’t, I think he may know who did. Thank you so much for this. I cannot begin to tell you how much you’ve helped me.”

  They exchanged more pleasantries, then they left Carol’s house and got into Jace’s car. For a moment he leaned back against the seat, his eyes closed. Nigh didn’t disturb him. She knew how he felt. It was a lot of information to take in. Secrets and lies. Carol had said that Stacy was full of them. Nigh would never say so to Jace, but she agreed. Stacy hadn’t told the man she was to marry about her year at an English boarding school or about a man that she was probably in love with. In normal circumstances, this would have been understandable, but Stacy seemed to have been still in love with this Tony Vine many years later. She loved him so much that she’d gone to a lot of trouble to get to see him just before her marriage. All he’d had to do was send her a picture of Priory House with a few words scrawled on the back, and Stacy had jeopardized her future with Jace to meet Tony.

  What had happened in that meeting? Nigh wondered. Had she told Tony that he’d always been the one? That she wanted to marry him and no one else? That she’d dump Jace if Tony would have her back?

  Did Tony say no? Did he say that he already had a wife and kids and didn’t want her? Is that why Stacy went to the pub and took a bottle of sleeping pills?

  Nigh glanced at Jace as he started the car and wondered what he was thinking. To Nigh’s reporter mind, it was becoming more and more clear that Stacy had killed herself.

  As far as Nigh could piece together, when Stacy was a girl she’d been worried about getting her father’s love. He was the only parent she had left, and he’d chosen his new, young wife over his daughter. From Carol’s polite description of Tony Vine, he seemed like a real sleazebag. Girls didn’t get the approval of their fathers by marrying men who wore shiny suits and dated schoolgirls.

  Nigh looked at Jace and wondered if Stacy had agreed to marry him because he was the kind of man a father would approve of. Jace was everything that a father dreamed his daughter would marry.

  “Comparing me to Tony Vine?” Jace asked.

  She didn’t want to lie. “Yes.”

  “You’re beginning to think that Stacy killed herself because her high school boyfriend told her he no longer wanted her, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” Nigh said, dreading what he’d say to that.

  “Good,” Jace said, smiling. “If you think that, then you’ll be more curious to find out the truth.”

  When they reached Margate, Nigh said, “I guess I’d better go back to my house.”

  “But your things are at Priory House,” Jace said.

  “I can get them later. I have another toothbrush and nightgown, so I’ll be okay.”

  “If that’s what you want to do,” he said.

  “It’s not what I want to do, but—” Her temper got the better of her. “You and I have practically lived together since we first met. I’m sure that the entire village is talking about nothing else. And the worst part is that not a word of what they think is true. You and I are just friends and we’re working together. That’s all.”

  Jace stopped the car in the courtyard of Priory House and turned off the engine. “Friends? Is that what you think we are?”

  As he got out of the car, he was chuckling. Nigh sat in the passenger seat and frowned at him, but then she smiled and got out of the car and went into the house. She went in by the front door, not the kitchen door.

  They spent a quiet evening “at home,” as Nigh was beginning to think of it. Like two old married people—except that every time Jace got near her, her heart started beating wildly. She refused to let him see how she felt because he didn’t seem to feel the same way. Was he interested in her the same way she was interested in him? His pulse didn’t seem to quicken when his arm brushed hers. His breath didn’t seem to catch when her face came near to his.

  They talked about their futures in a roundabout way that made her happy and insane at the same time. She wanted to know if he truly meant to include her in his future. And she wanted to know what he planned to do after he found out about Stacy. Would he put Priory House up for sale and leave England forever? But then he’d said that he liked England. “In spite of all its faults” was how he’d generally put it.

  The more she thought, the less she could figure out.

  Mrs. Browne put dinner on the table, and Jace and Nigh ate, saying little, each of them lost in their own thoughts.

  After dinner they went to the drawing room and sat there in silence.

  “We haven’t found out why Ann and Danny have been appearing to us,” Nigh said.

  Jace was sitting in a chair staring at the fire. “I’m afraid we may never find out,” he said. “I think I’ll go to London tomorrow.”

  Nigh wanted to yell, “Without me?” but she said nothing. It was his decision. No doubt he was embarrassed at her having heard so much about his former fiancée.

  She gave a yawn. “I think I’ll go to bed,” she said. When Jace said nothing, she stood up and started for the door. As she passed his chair, he caught her by the wrist, then held the back of her hand to his cheek.

  “I’m sorry that I’m not very good company. I haven’t been myself since Stacy died. But I want you to know that you’re the first person who has managed to make me think that life may yet be worth living.” Still holding her hand, he looked up at her. “I promise that when I get this settled, I’ll make up for lost time.”

  She smiled down at him, then he released her hand and looked back at the fire. Feeling partly happy and partly frustrated, she left the room and went upstairs to the lady’s bedroom. A fire had been laid and it was warm and cozy in the room. But not as warm and cozy as it could be, she thought, looking at the empty bed.

  She took a bath, put on her nightgown, and went to bed. She didn’t turn off the light until she heard Jace come up the stairs and go to bed. There was a shadow under her door, and she held her breath.

  When the shadow moved, Nigh cursed, turned out the light, hit the pillow with her fist, and settled down to sleep. In spite of her annoyance at Jace Montgomery, she was asleep in minutes.

  20

  Nigh was awakened by music. It wasn’t loud, but she could hear it coming from far away. At first she was disoriented, not knowing quite where she was. As she awakened more fully, she listened. It didn’t seem to be coming from downstairs but from just outside her door. Was Jace awake and playing music? Big band–era music from the sound of it.

  She got out of bed and went to the door and opened it. Jace was just coming out of his bedroom. He had on jeans and a heavy wool sweater and a pair of leather boots. He put his finger to his lips for her to remain silent. The music was coming from the chintz room, Ann’s room. The haunted room.

  Nigh’s first instinct was to run back into her bedroom and crawl under the bed. Better yet, maybe now was the perfect time to get in her car and go home.

  But Jace’s next gesture made up her mind for her. He gestured for her to go back into her room, close the door, and get back in bed. No doubt he thought she was too cowardly to face whatever was going on in Ann’s room.

  His lack of belief in her gave her courage. She gestured for him to wait for her while she put on some clothes. It was bad enough to face ghosts, but she couldn’t do it in a nightgown. She ran back into the room and put on the same as he was wearing: jeans, a thick sweater, and boots. Four mi