strain of the past twenty-four hours finally caught up with her. She’d had the day from hell yesterday, topped off by terrible news about Maddie. Then a fitful night’s sleep, followed by the rushed trip to New Orleans and the drive to Maraville. Suddenly it was all too much.
“Doesn’t sound to me like I’m the vulture here. Maddie will get well and return home. You two stop fighting over her property. It will remain with her!” She turned and headed back through the hall to the stairs. She quickly climbed the steps and made her way to the room that had been hers.
Pausing in the doorway, she stared in disbelief. Nothing seemed to have changed. There was her bulletin board on the wall, faded pictures and pages held with thumbtacks. The blue gingham coverlet still covered her bed. The dresser looked as if it hadn’t been touched in a dozen years. But the room was tidy and clean. There was no dust anywhere.
She heard a phone ring. Moments later footsteps sounded on the stairs. Eliza wasn’t surprised to see it was Cade.
“If you can do anything to help Maddie save her house, do it now, or get out,” he told her bluntly. “Allen’s planning to force the sale. He said the bank will ask a steep price because of all the land. I hope I can meet it. But if it goes to auction, it’s anyone’s guess.”
“Then why don’t you pay off the loan and give Maddie a chance to get back on her feet?” Eliza asked, doubting Cade really wanted to help. He probably wanted an inside track to getting the house and land. Property values weren’t as high in Mississippi as Massachusetts, but the twenty-five acres Maddie owned had to be worth a lot.
“Eliza, Maddie Oglethorpe has been in a coma for almost a week. She’s unlikely to wake up, and even if she does, she’ll probably have to live in an assisted-care home the rest of her life. Whatever happens, I think it’s certain she’s not coming back here. If that’s the case, then I mean to have the house, and the property.”
He glanced around the room and looked at her. “Was this your room?”
Eliza nodded, moving into the room. She lightly touched the bed. It brought a flood of memories.
The house was old, with many rooms, all of them high-ceilinged and spacious. There was even a third story, which Maddie had never used. The once-white Priscilla curtains on her own high windows drooped, the starch long ago leached out.
She felt sad that the bedroom she’d occupied for so long looked tired and lifeless. She had never expected that Maddie would have kept it exactly the same. Why had she? In case Eliza returned?
They’d all been told that last day that they would not be coming back to live with Maddie. Eliza had believed Social Services. Hadn’t her foster mother? She wondered how Maddie had dealt with their departure. They’d never discussed that in their recent letters.
“Don’t let me keep you from anything,” she said, studiously avoiding looking at Cade. Her heart pounded, and memories crowded her mind. They had been high-school sweethearts. As close as two young people could be, spending every waking moment outside of school together.
At one point, Eliza had suggested they run off and get married. Cade had refused. Had her love been stronger? Or had it been one-sided? After Chelsea had died, Cade had wanted nothing to do with her. He blamed her for his sister’s death. Sometimes Eliza wondered if he was right.
As an adult, she knew no one was responsible for another person’s suicide. Still, telling Chelsea of her boyfriend’s betrayal had been more than the teenager could deal with. The guilt had faded over the years. Now it surged back as strong as ever.
“You’re not keeping me from anything. Can’t do much more today. I’m making sure nothing happens to the house.” He leaned negligently against the door-frame.
“I’m not here to damage the house or steal anything, just to walk through,” she said. Even if he wrongly blamed her for Chelsea’s death, he had to know she wasn’t a vandal. Those last days in Maraville remained crystal clear in her memory. Chelsea’s death wasn’t the only problem between them. There was the lack of trust and the uncertainty of where she’d ever stood with him.
But she would never do anything to harm Maddie or her property. Cade knew that. Why was he baiting her?
“What happened to April and Jo?” he asked. “Never figured any of you would come back.
The hard tone was unfamiliar. Eliza remembered his easygoing southern drawl. She’d loved to listen to him when they’d been dating. He didn’t sound like the same person she remembered.
“Well, that proves you don’t know everything, doesn’t it?” she retorted. She didn’t need to explain herself to him.
“You sounded like Jo there. You used to act like Miss Prim and Proper Goody Two-shoes in public.”
She ignored the comment. She had tried to be proper in public. But it was the time she spent with Cade that she remembered most, and then she had been most improper.
“But not in private,” he said, as if reading her thoughts.
Eliza glared at him. She would never admit it to him, but she felt uncomfortable knowing he remembered everything she did about their time together. Had Chelsea lied about his involvement with Marlise? Or had saying she lied been the lie? Eliza and Cade had never discussed that. The police had arrived before they’d gotten to the subject uppermost in Eliza’s mind that night so long ago.
“April sure didn’t worry about looking proper,” he continued when she didn’t speak. “As I remember, she worked her way through the football team.”
“She did not!” He was deliberately trying to provoke her. Eliza knew it and tried to keep her temper under control. Cade had always known how to rile her. But she wasn’t a besotted teenager anymore.
He nodded, giving that damn smile again. “Oh, yes she did. She was the neediest girl I ever knew. But banging every boy in high school wasn’t the way to get what she wanted.”
“I suppose you have firsthand knowledge,” she said, hoping to call his bluff. He didn’t know her at all, much less April. If he had, he could never have accused her of the things he had. Or April.
“Jo was in trouble more than anyone else I knew,” Cade said. “Yet she escaped jail. At least while living here. Is she doing time now?”
Eliza shook her head, not willing to admit she didn’t know exactly what Jo was doing. But it couldn’t be time in prison. Jo had been high-spirited and rebellious because of her mother. But she’d never do something that would land her in jail. At least Eliza hoped not.
She met Cade’s gaze, refusing to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was getting to her. Tilting her chin defiantly, she said nothing.
“Too bad Jo caused the breakup of your foster family.”
That was too much for Eliza.
“Too bad the adults in charge didn’t believe her when she finally told the truth,” she snapped back. “April and I swore Maddie had never hurt any of us, but would anyone listen to us? No. They moved everyone out so fast we never had a chance—” She closed her mouth. She was not going there.
“Chance to mess up more lives like you did mine?” he prodded.
