Unfortunately, she’d decided to go through the kitchen, having no idea that it would have anyone in it that early in the morning. And Madison was sure that Adelia was one of those women who’d faint at the thought of someone stepping outside without a full belly, so, to keep from being seen and losing time, Madison had slipped into a space between the refrigerator and a pantry. She was willing to bet that the kitchen hadn’t been renovated since about 1910, and from the roar of the motor of the refrigerator, Madison was sure that that machine was from that era too.
Madison had peeked from behind the refrigerator to see when she could safely escape to the outdoors when the door opened and in walked the man who was undoubtedly Thomas Randall, the elder son. And after seeing him, Madison hadn’t moved a muscle.
“Why sure, honey, I always got lots to eat,” Adelia said, and her tone was that of a woman talking to an adult whom she’d known since babyhood. “You sit here and I’ll fill you a plate.”
“No bacon,” Thomas said.
“Do you think I don’t remember that?” Adelia said, sounding hurt. “And where’s my kiss?”
When she said that, Madison saw Thomas’s face soften. And it was then that she saw the man he could be. Or was, she thought. He was another man under that scowl, and the sight of that man almost made Madison’s knees give way. His eyes were indeed round, and his mouth was as soft as a baby’s.
“Good to see you,” Thomas said, then he hugged Adelia as though he meant it and he planted a hearty kiss on her cheek. “Are you well?”
Adelia pushed him away. “You are not gonna practice your medicine on me. Now, sit down and eat and I’ll tell you everything about everybody.”
To Madison’s horror, Thomas sat down at a beat-up old pine table directly in front of her. Now what was she to do? Step out and say, “Excuse me, I was just hiding because I didn’t . . .” Didn’t what? Want to eat? Right now the plate of food that Adelia set before Thomas looked and smelled awfully good. But Madison was trapped. If she stepped out now and they saw that she’d been hiding like some six-year-old, she’d never recover from her embarrassment.
And, besides, the truth was, she didn’t really want to leave. She wanted to see and hear more of this man who was doing funny little things to her stomach.
“So who’s here?” Thomas asked as he picked up a fork and scooped up buttery scrambled eggs.
Madison watched those eggs all the way to his mouth. He had his scowl back on, so his mouth was back to being a tight line.
“Your mom and dad, Scotty and Nina, of course, your cousin Terri and also Robbie.” At that name Adelia paused and smiled at Thomas. She was standing on the other side of the table, across from him, smiling down at the top of his head fondly.
“Hmph!” Thomas said, not bothering to look up. “She bring any clothes with her this time?”
Adelia laughed. “I hope so. With you around she’ll freeze to death. I don’t know what you don’t like about her. It’s time you settled down.”
“Robbie is a spiteful little brat with too much money and time on her hands. How’s Mom?”
“Your momma is good. She looks real good. She likes the tall girl a lot.”
At that Madison sucked in her breath and held it. If she was going to make an honorable escape, now was the time to do it. But she knew that if a rattlesnake had bitten her big toe, she still wouldn’t have been able to move.
“Tall girl?”
“You know that boy Roger, the one that was here a few years ago?”
“Scotty’s clone?” Thomas asked derisively. “The football hero?”
“That’s the one. He’s usin’ a couple of canes now. Your momma said he was hurt real bad, but he’s better now, so what with Scotty and his broken leg—”
“The two of them can feel sorry for themselves together,” Thomas said, and Madison had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing out loud.
“So Roger is here?” Thomas asked.
“Him and his wife,” Adelia said with aplomb, glad to deliver this juicy bit of gossip.
“What kind of nincompoop would marry Roger?”
This time Madison had to stick both sides of her tongue between her back teeth and clamp down. Now I understand, she thought. How many other women had felt attracted to him, then been speared by his cynicism? It was one thing for Madison to feel she’d had enough of Roger, but what right did this man have to judge him—or her, for that matter?
“She’s a looker, I can tell you that,” Adelia said. “Beautiful doesn’t begin to describe her. I wonder what they feed them out there where that boy lives, because she’s at least three inches over six feet.”
Thomas gave a snort of laughter as he picked up a piece of pancake and ate it. “Roger isn’t that tall, is he?”
Taller than you, you little toad, Madison wanted to say to him. Six feet three indeed! She was half an inch short of six feet.
“So Roger married some tall Montana cowgirl and now he’s here sucking up to my little brother. What’s he want?”
Adelia seemed to consider that for a moment. “Not his tall wife, that’s for sure. Hardly looks at her. My guess is that he wants either your sister or Terri. You know Roger. He spent a whole summer chasing after Lucy, but she wouldn’t have him.”
“No. He’s too stupid for Lucy. But Terri might take him. She’d like a man who ignored her. So if he wants to dump his cowgirl, why’d he bring her with him? Why not leave her home with his mom and dad? He still lives with his parents, doesn’t he? I can’t imagine that Roger would ever leave them and their money. Roger never struck me as the type to go out and get a job.”
“As far as I know, he’s still livin’ with his folks, and he’s been hurt too bad to have a job. But I can’t say why he brought his big, gorgeous wife with him. There’s no love lost between ’em. She looks down her nose at Roger like this.”
To Madison’s disbelief, Adelia tipped her head back and looked down her nose at Thomas. There was a lot said in that gesture, and when Madison saw it, all the blood seemed to drain from her head. No wonder Roger was angry with her if she was looking at him like that!
“And how does Roger look at his wife?” Thomas asked.
“Like she’s ain’t even there,” Adelia said. “If it was me and a man looked at me the way Roger looks at that beautiful creature, I’d throw him in a vat of boiling oil. Or maybe I’d take his canes away and hit him with ’em. Or maybe—”
“So how’s Dad?” Thomas asked.
“Enjoyin’ it all. I think he’s half in love with that tall girl. He said that your mom didn’t want to spend another summer here, but now they’re glad they came. Last night that girl Robbie threw a fit and ran out of the dinin’ room. And later after the tall girl went to bed, Terri was all over Roger. And I can tell you that he wasn’t pushin’ her away.”
“And who was the tall girl with?”
At that Madison almost stepped from behind the pantry and told him what she thought of him.
“Nobody. She went to bed.”
“By herself?”
“All by her lonesome,” Adelia said. “You interested in takin’ her husband’s place? She looks hungry to me.”
“You think the world is hungry,” Thomas said, pushing away his empty plate.
“They are. Hungry for food of one kind or another. So how long you plannin’ on stayin’ here this time?”
“Not long. I have exams to study for.”
“A genius like you?”
“Unlike my brother, I don’t pay someone else to take my exams for me. I’m going to bed now. I was up most of the night studying, then I drove here. Tell Mom and Dad I’m here, but don’t let anyone wake me.”
“That include Miss Robbie?”
“Most especially that little tart.” Standing, he stretched, then asked Adelia if she’d ask Charlie to get his suitcase out of the car.
“He’s still asleep now, but he’ll get it when he gets up.” With that she turned and left the kitche
n.
Madison, still wedged into the small space, was aware that she was now in the kitchen alone with Thomas. Of course he didn’t know she was there, but she did. She held her breath for fear that he’d hear her, and she didn’t move so much as an eyelash.
After a moment of standing by the table, his back to her, he walked to the door, and Madison almost let out her pent-up breath. But he stopped in the doorway, his back still to her. “Next time you want to snoop, you should hide where your shadow doesn’t hit the floor,” he said; then he left the room.
For a moment, Madison stood paralyzed. Then, slowly, she turned her head and looked at the kitchen floor. High above her head was a little window, and with the angle of the early morning sun, it had caught the back of her head and made a round shape on the floor. To someone unfamiliar with the kitchen, the shape on the floor wouldn’t have been noticeable, but Thomas Randall had spent a lot of his life in that kitchen and he knew every shadow.
Feeling very foolish and wishing she could die from embarrassment, Madison moved out from between the pantry and the refrigerator, then stepped into the kitchen. For a moment she didn’t know what to do. Should she find the man and apologize? Explain to him that she hadn’t really been snooping? Or should she just go to Frank and tell him that she absolutely positively had to return to Montana now.
Madison looked down at the fishing pole still clutched in her hand. On the other hand, she could just get out of the house and spend a day by herself near a stream somewhere and not think about Thomas Randall or her husband or any other man in the entire world.
In the end, fishing won out. She grabbed half a dozen biscuits from the sheet that had just been taken from the oven, and with a defiant little smile, she also took six slices of bacon, a couple of napkins, and left the kitchen. On the way out, she saw Adelia and the skinny little woman she’d seen with her yesterday, the one who seemed to be named Pretty, and Madison waved to them as she headed in the direction that Brooke had pointed out to her last night.
Thomas stepped through the trees and stopped dead in his tracks. Ahead of him, standing in his favorite fishing spot, the spot that had been his since he was six years old, was . . . was . . . Botticelli’s Venus was the first thing that came to his mind.
Standing with her back to him, she looked like something from a fishing magazine that would be titled “Lust Fantasies Issue.” She was tall, slim, curvy. She had on snug, worn jeans and green thigh-high waders. Above the boots was a round, firm rear end that curved up into a tiny waist that was encircled with a wide leather belt. She had on a denim shirt and a vest that must have been his brother’s years ago, as it was too small for her. It reached only halfway down her back.
She had yards of honey blonde hair that hung down her back in huge waves, and when she swirled the pole around, her hair floated about her like some erotic cloud.
All Thomas could do was stare at her. He couldn’t seem to move forward or backward—and what was worse, he couldn’t seem to think. Instead of thoughts, his head was filled with visions. There was the vision of him walking toward her, taking her in his arms, undressing her, then making love to her on the rocky stream bank. Another vision showed them making love in the grassy meadow that was about half a mile from the cabin. Then there was horseback. And there was that big pine table in the cabin. And there was—
He put his hand over his eyes to hide the view of her.
“Control, man,” he said to himself. His whole life had been about control and he couldn’t lose it now. He wasn’t going to become like his brother and sister, or like his grandfather who had nearly bankrupted the family with his self-indulgences.
Thomas took a couple of deep breaths, then looked back at her. She was so involved in casting her line that she was unaware that anyone was near her. What kind of woman liked fishing? he thought angrily. When Thomas had been younger, he’d had several girls tell him that they loved fishing, but he’d soon found out that what they loved was an invitation to the summer home of the Wentworths. Had this woman heard about Thomas’s love of fishing, then wheedled his mother into revealing the site of Thomas’s favorite spot?
As he watched her, trying to keep his eyes off her body, he saw that she knew what she was doing with the rod. Of course the rod she had was old and she’d never catch anything with it, but she looked as though she’d cast a line a few times.
Turning away, he took a couple of steps back down the path. He wasn’t in a good mood. He’d been up all night and he’d wanted to sleep, but Adelia’s words about the goings-on at the house had disturbed him too much to sleep. He didn’t like Roger because Roger encouraged Scotty to be all the things that Thomas hated: vain, lazy, self-absorbed.
So now Roger was back, and this time he had a new bond with Scotty, with their both having trouble walking. So what was Roger after this time? Last time it had been Cousin Lucy, who had laughed at the brainless jock and sent him away. But Terri was another matter. Last year she’d been jilted by some big, good-looking guy who was up for the Olympics, and now Terri seemed determined to get a man somewhere somehow. But Roger was married. Was Thomas the only one who thought that it was odd that this man would bring his wife with him when he went courting other women? Turning back, Thomas looked at the tall woman standing ankle deep in the stream. She was moving out deeper now and casting her line further out. All his life he’d been told that he was too suspicious, but Thomas had found that no matter how suspicious he was, it was never enough. He had seen this woman’s shadow on the floor in the kitchen and known she was hiding and listening. Why had she been spying? Were she and Roger working together? Maybe he was going after Terri, a Wentworth cousin, or Nina, Thomas’s sister. So who was this woman after? Scotty?
Or me, Thomas thought; then a slow smile spread over his face. But it wasn’t a smile that extended to his eyes.
“If she thinks she’s going to get me, she’s in for a surprise,” Thomas said aloud; then he removed the smile from his face and walked toward her.
“Catch anything?” said a voice behind Madison, making her jump.
“You scared me!” she said as she turned and saw the man. Madison wasn’t usually attracted to men. Usually, she spent her time trying to hide from them, but, just like this morning, when she looked at Thomas, she felt that little fluttery thing in the region of her heart. To cover herself, she looked down at her fishing pole. “A few,” she said. “What about you?”
“You’re in my spot,” Thomas said.
“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t see any signs,” Madison said, realizing that it was a stupid thing to say. He was looking at her so hard that he was beginning to make her nervous.
Taking a deep breath, she looked at him. There was about twenty feet separating them, and the sound of the stream and the birds was loud. “Look, I’m sorry about this morning. I wasn’t meaning to spy. I just wanted to sneak out of the house without being seen, so when I saw the cook come in, I slipped into—”
“Adelia. Her name is Adelia.”
“Oh. Sorry. When Adelia came in, I hid. Then you came in and—”
“You stayed to hear what you could.”
She blinked at him a few times. He was making it sound as though she had purposefully hidden herself so she could eavesdrop. “I didn’t really mean to hear anything,” she said. “It just happened. One circumstance led to another.” He was glaring at her, the lines between his eyes deep. Madison wanted to lighten the air. “Anyway, all I heard was that everyone thinks I’m six feet four, so I learned my lesson.” She said this with a smile.
But Thomas didn’t return her smile. “Three. Six feet three. And you also heard that your husband is enamored with my cousin Terri.”
For a moment Madison stood there with her mouth opening and closing like the fish she was catching. “I see,” she said at last. “And what do you think I’m going to do with this information?”
“Name her in a divorce case. Or perhaps suggest that she give you a gift in order to keep her na
me out of the papers.”
It took Madison a full minute to comprehend what he was saying. “Blackmail?”
“If that’s what you want to call it.”
The whole idea was so far from anything that had ever crossed Madison’s mind that she laughed. She just stood there and laughed at him; then she turned and began to reel in her line. “You know, I used to feel sorry for myself because my mother and I weren’t rich. I used to hunger after the pretty clothes that the other girls had and I drooled over Roger’s rich house. But then I grew up and I’ve now lived in Roger’s rich house. It has lots of expensive decorations in it, but it has no love in it. Not one bit.”
She put her rod in one hand, then reached down into the water and lifted a string of fat fish. It was more than Thomas had ever caught in three days, but she had caught them all in just a couple of hours.
“So now here I get a vacation with a bunch of rich people and what am I accused of? Blackmail, that’s what.” She looked down at the fish, then back at him. “You know something, Mr. Randall? You can keep your money and you can keep your fishing hole.” With that she threw the whole mess of fish smack in his face, then turned and walked back the way she’d come.
“Thomas,” his mother said softly, but there was steel in her voice. “This time you’ve gone too far. Whatever you said to her has made Madison ask that your father drive her to the airport so she can return to Montana. Immediately.”
“Perhaps,” Thomas said calmly, “but I could have been right in what I assumed.”
Mr. Randall was standing to one side of the two of them, the three of them alone in the small sitting room. “Assume: makes an ass of u and me,” Frank said under his breath.
Brooke Wentworth Randall calmed herself. She was the only person on earth who could get to Thomas. He was so stubborn. “Do you know who called me last night?”
Thomas gave her a look that said he wasn’t going to play guessing games. “My sister called to ask how I was getting on with her dear friend Madison.”