transport me overnight to the family home,” she retorted.
“Perhaps that’s what I mean,” he said. “The Copeland household is a dysfunctional one, to say the least.”
“Perhaps you yourself create some of that tension,” she accused him, herself on the attack.
“The fact that Travis Copeland and I are often at loggerheads has nothing to do with you. As you seem destined to find out. It’s no secret. For almost fifty years, Lady Copeland has carried with her a photograph of her little daughter. Her name was Angela. Her golden child.”
Jewel stared down at her hand. It trembled. “I had no idea Lady Copeland had a daughter.”
His eyes contested that. “I’m amazed. A fact you missed? It’s a matter of public record. The little girl died of bacterial meningitis when she was six.”
“How sad!” Even her voice trembled slightly.
“Indeed it was. Although Lady Copeland has led a very full and active life, I suspect she’s been weeping inside ever since. Angela was, from all accounts, a lovely little girl. A Botticelli angel. Sparkling with life. She looked pretty much the way you would have as a child.”
Jewel fought hard to master her emotions. “My God!” she breathed. “You’re very cruel.”
He gripped the arm of the chair, his knuckles showing white. “And you’re very—” He broke off immediately at Archie’s approach with their drinks.
“Could I get you anything else?” Archie put down the drinks on the club coasters, then glanced from one to the other, obviously picking up on their tension.
“No, no, thank you.” With a flick of his wrist Keefe Connellan produced a wallet, selecting a note that more than covered the price of the martinis. “Thanks, Archie.”
“A pleasure, Mr. Connellan. Good evening, Ms. Bishop.” Archie accepted the money and all but skipped off.
“I don’t want this drink,” Jewel said, feeling as nerve-ridden as if there were ghosts at the table.
“Just sip it,” he replied. “I’d like to continue this…unique conversation.”
“Why? I’m beginning to wonder if you’re slightly unhinged,” she suggested shortly.
The comment caused him to smile. “I don’t think so. Whoever you are, Eugenie Bishop, you’re not presenting your case—if you have one—in the right way.”
“I have no case,” she said angrily. “It’s all in your mind. In any event, I’m flying home this weekend. I’ll speak to my mother then.”
“So she can come up with an explanation? Or perhaps tell you what you should do next?”
She returned his stare coolly. “My mother isn’t a well woman.”
“I’m sorry. What’s wrong with her?”
Her blue eyes flashed. “She suffers from chronic depression. She’s done so for many years.”
“But surely she can be treated?” he asked, unexpectedly showing concern.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything the doctors can do—and they’ve tried.”
“Who’s looking after her?”
She stiffened, although this time his tone was anything but confrontational. “I wanted her to come and live with me. But she dislikes change. She lives with my aunt Judith, her sister, in the family home.”
“So there are only the three of you? No one else?”
“Unless you’ve come up with someone,” she said with more than a touch of bitterness. “My father’s death brought about great changes in our lives. My mother has been in deep mourning all these years.”
“I’m sorry. That’s tragic.” He drank a little of his martini, set it down. “It must have affected your whole world.”
“Of course.” Jewel didn’t touch her drink.
“So you sought to correct the past?”
Jewel suddenly reached flash point. She rose from her seat like the jet from the sparkling fountain. “My father was killed. It was a tragedy. Forgive me if I can’t speak about it.”
She left him sitting at the table, indifferent to the fascinated eyes that watched her progress across the room and into the lobby.
CHAPTER FOUR
IT WAS A LONG TRIP HOME. Two hours in the plane, another hour before she reached Hungerford by minibus, then the town taxi out to the house. The heat did not help her mood. She had almost forgotten how hot it was North of Capricorn, how humid. The driver left her at the gate. She picked up her overnight bag and began the trek through the garden, and its extraordinary lush beauty began the ritual soothing.
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