Secrets Read online

  But the farmers’ market, with vendors from all over eastern Virginia, was still held in the exquisite Colonial Williamsburg. Cassie parked the MINI Cooper in the lot near the cemetery, walked to the booths, and browsed through stands selling herbs in pots, seafood caught that morning, and homemade jams. She purchased bags full of goods, making three trips to the car to put her purchases inside. Cassie believed in supporting local merchants and growers, so she bought as much as she could from people who grew their own.

  After she finished shopping, she drove back to Hamilton Hundred and put the food in the refrigerator.

  Through all her activities, her mind was only half on her tasks. She kept thinking about meeting Althea Fairmont and all that had been said. When she was away from the presence of the famous woman, Cassie could think more clearly. And the more she thought, the more confused she became. It seemed that Miss Fairmont knew an extraordinary amount about both her and Dana Craig. Had Althea really guessed, on the spur of the moment, that Dana wanted Elsbeth? Jeff had said that he owed a lot to Dana for taking care of Elsbeth after his wife died, but Cassie had never thought about how Dana must have felt when the child was taken away from her.

  And Cassie had been the one to take the child. Jeff had hired three other nannies before Cassie, but Thomas said they were all incompetent and lazy—which meant that Dana had Elsbeth most of the time during the week.

  It was when Cassie was hired that things changed. She paused as she pulled the scallops out of the bag. Who had hired the three nannies that were so incompetent? she wondered. Instantly, she knew without a doubt that it was the let-me-take-care-of-that-for-you Dana. Cassie could almost hear her asking Jeff to let her help him find a nanny. She could imagine Dana saying that she felt “responsible” for the bad nannies, so she’d make up for it by taking over little Elsbeth.

  But Cassie had foiled her. Cassie had nearly thrown herself at Jeff. But then, hadn’t she been throwing herself at him for years? Not that it had done any good, but she’d done it. She’d come to Williamsburg because she knew he was here. She got a job at Elsbeth’s nursery school because she knew that Jeff’s daughter went there. And she was the one who’d called Jeff several times to tell him that the nanny had screwed up yet again.

  It was Cassie who’d been there the day when Jeff arrived to pick up his daughter. It said on Elsbeth’s card that Dana Craig was to be called if there were any problems, but Cassie ignored that and called Jeff’s cell number. He’d arrived right away. But then, Cassie had made it sound like an emergency.

  She’d listened to him complain that this was the third nanny he would have to fire and he couldn’t understand why he couldn’t find competent child care. When he paused, Cassie said she’d love to have the job. She said that she never got to know the children in the nursery school and it was too much to take care of so many. She’d love to work with just one child. Jeff asked her when she could start.

  She gave a week’s notice to the school and moved into Jeff’s lovely house the day after.

  Did I mess up Dana’s plans? she wondered.

  More importantly, was Elsbeth the reason Dana was pushing to get Skylar and Jeff married? Skylar looked at Elsbeth as though she were an annoying insect that she wished would go away. Cassie was sure that Skylar would love to turn Elsbeth over to Dana.

  Cassie took a pot of basil out of its bag and went outside to plant it in the raised brick beds that Thomas had had made for the herb garden. She went to the little shed to get a hand shovel and, with her mind elsewhere, began to replace the basil that she’d cut down to the stems.

  Wasn’t it odd that Althea Fairmont had figured this out, but Cassie, who was involved in it, hadn’t? And wasn’t it strange that Althea had asked Cassie if she was after Jeff? She’d lived in his house for a year, and only in the first few weeks had people at the club made little innuendos about them. But they’d soon stopped. But here was Althea bringing it all up again. It was almost as though she knew things that other people didn’t.

  Or was being told some rather hurtful gossip, Cassie thought. Who in the world was her spy? Had she not been with Dana today, Cassie would have thought it was her. But Dana had been as surprised as she had been. So who in their tight little community was sitting down with Althea Fairmont and spreading what could be considered malicious gossip? Gossip that could cause a lot of problems if it was spread around. What if someone told Jeff that his nanny was “after him”? Cassie was sure he’d laugh about it, but he’d look at her differently.

  But then, what did it matter how Jeff looked at her, since Cassie was going to be thrown out of his house soon?

  Cassie had thought about going to a movie at the beautiful New Town cinema, but her head was racing so fast that instead she stayed in and baked six batches of cookies. She knew that Jeff loved her sesame seed and apricot bars, so she made a double batch of them. As she baked, a plan was forming in her head. If Althea knew so much about people, maybe she knew of a way to break up Skylar and Jeff. It was a low-down, devious plan, but Cassie couldn’t stand by and see Elsbeth have to put up with a mother like Skylar.

  Maybe if Cassie could get into Althea’s good graces, she could find out more about Skylar’s past. Maybe she could find out something she could tell Jeff that would change his mind about the woman he thought he was in love with.

  And at the very least, if she did accept a job from Althea, just as she said, Cassie would be right next door.

  Smiling, she took a sheet of cookies out of the oven and put another one in.

  4

  BY SIX THAT EVENING,Cassie had piles of cookies made, but no one to eat them. Thomas, Jeff, and Elsbeth still hadn’t returned from the boat, and she didn’t like to think what was going on. Maybe Thomas had taken Elsbeth so Jeff and Skylar could have a romantic dinner. But what about Dana’s husband? It was his boat. As to that, why had the man bought a big boat if his wife wasn’t, as Dana said, “good” on boats? Cassie smiled at the image of perfect Dana heaving over the side. Maybe her husband had bought a boat to get away from his wife.

  Cassie took a basket from the pile of them she had stored in the pantry, tied a ribbon around the handle, put a good linen napkin in the bottom, and filled it with cookies. She would take them over to Althea’s house as a thank-you gift for the tea she’d served them.

  She told herself she wasn’t sneaking, but she avoided the path to the beach. She’d seen the way the windows in the house showed any movement on that path. Instead, she made her way through the trees to the side of the Fairmont house.

  As she quietly walked toward the house, she thought how oddly secured it was. It almost looked like a fortress. It had a tall iron fence across the front, with a big iron gate that was opened by a security code box. The residents of Hamilton Hundred saw this from their side of the street and assumed the fence went all around the property. But it didn’t. It ended about two-thirds of the way down to the water, leaving the end of Althea’s property free for walking—and trespassing.

  Cassie slipped around the end of the fence and walked into the garden, staying hidden under the trees and between the plants.

  Most of the house was dark and she heard nothing. Her soft-soled shoes made no noise on the slate as she went to the door of the room where she and Dana had had tea.

  The curtains were still drawn, but she could see light in the room, and she could hear voices. For a moment she stopped, telling herself that she was spying on a woman who had been very nice to her. She should go back the way she’d come and never bother Miss Fairmont again.

  But even as she thought it, she couldn’t help looking at a gap in the curtains. She could see part of the room through the space. It was as pretty as she remembered, and for a moment she thought about asking Althea who had been her decorator. Maybe she could redo their living room. If Jeff would let her touch it, that is. If Jeff didn’t marry Skylar, that is. If Jeff—

  Cassie stopped thinking because into her view came Roger Craig, Dana’s lawye