Forever Hidden (Forever Bluegrass #2) (2 page)

“Are you talking about the silver your great-grandmother buried in the backyard before Sherman ransacked Atlanta?”

Her great-grandmother just smiled weakly. Her eyes started to focus on something far away. “Promise . . .”

“I promise,” Sydney swore before bending down and placing a kiss on her cheek.

Her great-grandmother focused on something beyond Sydney, and her hand shook as she tried to raise it. “Oh, Beauford, how handsome you look.”

Sydney leapt from the bed and flung open the door as tears streaked down her cheeks. Her family hurried in. Surrounded by those who loved her most, Mrs. Ruth Wyatt left Keeneston to be reunited with her true love.

CHAPTER TWO

Sydney stood staring at the lowered casket. Her great-grandparents were buried side by side in the family cemetery at the back of the farm. During the spring, it was the most beautiful place on the farm. Pink and white dogwoods shaded the area with their blooms while tulips and daisies lined the wrought iron fence. But not in February. In February it seemed as lonely as Sydney felt.

As the people quietly left the service and headed to the farmhouse for the celebration of life, Sydney continued to stare. Cold air whipped against her face. Gray clouds threatening a snowstorm held the sun hostage. Sydney felt as bleak as the weather. She wasn’t ready to go back to the house and hear words of sympathy from her aunts and uncles on the Davies side of the family.

“Syd?”

Sydney didn’t turn around as she heard the footfalls crunch against the frozen grass. He stopped next to her, her brother's shoulder bumping hers.

“What am I supposed to do with all this?” Wyatt drawled quietly as he looked out at the expanse of Wyatt Farm.

“Put on the lipstick and pucker up,” Sydney managed to tease as her brother put his arm over her shoulder and pulled her against his side.

“Don’t tell anyone, but I did that this morning. The horses were so happy. I thought it was appropriate to have red noses as they drew her casket up here.”

Sydney did laugh then. “That’s why your lips were so red! And you said it was because it was cold out.”

“I just don’t understand why she didn’t give you anything. I could use your help running this place. There’s more than enough for the two of us.”

Sydney looked down at the ring she hadn’t taken off since her great-grandmother had given it to her. “No. She gave me something—something precious. I just have to go get it.”

“Is that what she wanted to talk to you about?” Wyatt asked.

“Yes, but she made me promise not to talk about it until I had it all together. You know Great-grandma; everything is always done just so.”

“Which is why Mom sent me to get you,” Wyatt said apologetically. “It’s time to do our duty at the house.”

Sydney groaned. “I can’t take much more of this. It’s been exhausting. The whole town has stopped me at least once a day since she passed to express sympathies. And yesterday’s wake almost did me in. Six hours of standing, hugging, and shaking hands.”

“I know, Syd. But she’d have loved it.”

Sydney smiled as she looked at the tombstone. “That she would. And because I love her, and you, I’ll do my duty.”

Sydney should have bolted. Her father was the second oldest of six children—five boys and one girl. And they’d all had kids. She had a slew of cousins ranging from thirty down to eighteen years old. That’s not even counting family friends who were so close she called them aunts and uncles.

“Here,” a voice whispered from behind her.

Sydney smiled. When she turned, she saw auburn hair and green eyes full of sympathy—Sienna Ashton, her best friend. Well, now she was Sienna Parker since she’d married Sydney’s cousin, Ryan. Sydney took the teacup and sipped the hot liquid.

“Holy . . .” Sydney couldn’t finish as the burning caused her to cough.

“Did I put too much bourbon in it?” Sienna asked sweetly.

“Is there any tea in it?”

“Nope.” Sienna grinned. “I thought you could use it.”

“Have I told you how much I love you?” Sydney asked as she took another sip of bourbon.

“Not nearly as much as I do.”

Sydney rolled her eyes as her cousin Ryan slipped his arm around his new wife’s waist. Since Ryan was about six-two, he made Sienna’s five-feet-five inches seem tiny as he pulled her close to him. “How are you holding up, Syd?”

Sydney was stopped from answering when yet another person came to offer condolences. As soon as the person left, Sydney downed the cup. “I know Great-grandma touched so many people’s lives. She was always first with a cake when tragedy struck. Food baskets mysteriously appeared in front of doors when she heard people were having a tough time. And don’t get me started on the people in the horse racing industry. I am pretty sure she was an adopted grandmother to every jockey and trainer at Keeneland. I would give anything to be alone so I could mourn. Does that sound selfish?”

“I can help with that. Ryan, catch me,” Sienna whispered a second before her hand was pressed to the front of her head as she collapsed. She would have fallen gracefully to the floor except Ryan caught her.

“Are you okay?” he asked, full of concern.

“Ooooh. I’m so weak. I felt like I might pass out. Maybe it was because I couldn’t keep anything down this morning,” Sienna said breathlessly as she pressed her hand to her very flat stomach.

“You need to lie down,” Ryan ordered as he scooped her up into his arms.

“Yes. Sydney, be a dear and come with me.”

“Of course,” Sydney said at once, grasping the chance to escape. “Right this way.”

They weren’t even halfway up the stairs when the shouting started—ten dollars here, twenty there. Sienna and Ryan had started Keeneston betting pandemonium to rival the opening bell on Wall Street. Keeneston folks loved their betting, but the best bets were on babies. For a town as small as Keeneston, every new addition was celebrated.

“Wait, are you two actually pregnant?” Sydney asked a she stopped at the guest room door.

“What, and give you an unfair advantage in the betting pool?” Ryan asked as he sent her a wink.

“Ugh! You two are impossible together. It’s really quite sickening how in love you are,” Sydney teased with only a hint of jealousy.

“Yes, but now you love us, too, since we got you up here and got everyone talking about something besides death. Mrs. Wyatt would love it. Honey, go put the rest of the bourbon in the punch. We’re turning this into the party Mrs. Wyatt would want.”

Ryan kissed his wife’s forehead and set his “tea” on the nightstand. “Anything for someone in a delicate condition.”

Sydney waited until he disappeared down the back staircase before rounding on her friend. “So, what gives?”

Sienna took the teacup and downed it.

“Ah. You’re good.” Sydney laughed and sat down on the bed next to Sienna. Sienna wrapped her arms around her and before Sydney knew it, the laughter had turned to tears. Sienna simply held her as she cried for the loss of someone as important and loved as Mrs. Wyatt.

Sydney didn’t know how long she had been crying, but finally the tears were gone, and when she blinked her dry eyes she saw two teacups sitting on the nightstand. Ryan must have come back and dropped them off.

“Feel better?” Sienna asked.

“I do, thank you. I’m sorry I fell apart like that. And I’m even sorrier Ryan is having to handle the fallout from your fake pregnancy announcement.”

Sienna gave a snort in reply. “Are you kidding? He’s eating it up. There will be cakes and casseroles arriving at our house for days now. It’s payback for getting stopped every day.
When are you going to have a baby? Wouldn’t a baby be lovely? Is there a bun in that oven yet?
” Sienna mimicked. “And my favorite,
you’re not getting any younger, you know
.”

“I promise I won’t ask ever again.” Sydney laughed as they toasted with their teacups. In a quick gulp, Sydney took fortification in the stiff drink and stood up. “I better get down there. Thank you. You’re the best friend I could ever have.”

Sydney gave Sienna a hug, and then, arm in arm, the two friends headed downstairs. The crowd was still there, but the atmosphere had shifted. Gentle music played in the background as people laughed and told stories of the grand love Ruth and Beauford shared.

Her mother and father sat on a loveseat with their fingers entwined. Her mom laid her head on her father’s shoulder, and Syd watched as he automatically put his arm around his wife and kissed the top of her head. Sydney’s great-grandparents weren’t the only couple in this room with a grand love affair. In fact, Sydney was starting to feel rather singled out. While most of her cousins weren’t married—in fact, only Ryan was—the love she saw in her aunts and uncles, and now Ryan and Sienna, had her feeling like she was missing out.

“And then when Joe pulled that cannonball from the ground,” her mother laughed, “Nana was so disappointed. She thought it was a treasure she’d buried long ago.”

“Her good set of silver,” Sydney’s father finished as the group laughed.

The treasure! Sydney had been so busy writing the obituary, planning for the funeral, and meeting with lawyers that she’d completely forgotten to look for the family Bible. She had a little more than a week before she had to get back to work, and she was going to spend it on a treasure hunt.

Sydney had thought she wanted the party to end quickly before, but the next hour and a half seemed like a lifetime. As people slowly started saying their goodbyes, she found it harder and harder not to herd them out the door. Finally the door closed behind the last visitor. Her parents declared that they were exhausted and wanted to go home, while Wyatt collapsed on the couch.

“We have to clean up, though,” her mother said with a sigh.

Sydney jumped at the chance to have the house to herself. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll get it. You
all
just go home, and I’ll get everything taken care of here.”

Her mother looked around at the plates and glasses littering the living room and the dining room table full of food. “Are you sure? You’ve done so much this week already.”

“Absolutely. This will all go right into the trash. Poppy and Zinnia already covered and stored all the food people brought.” The two cousins of the infamous Rose sisters had been a huge help earlier that afternoon. They had taken over running the bed and breakfast and the Blossom Café for their elderly cousins, Miss Lily, Miss Daisy, and Miss Violet. They had fit right into this small town.

Her mother wrapped her in a hug. “Thank you. I don’t know how much longer I could stand it. I just want to climb into a hot bath and go to bed.”

Sydney kissed her mother and then was pulled into a big hug by her father. “Thanks a lot, kiddo.”

Her father kissed the top of her head as if she were still six years old before gathering his wife’s purse and helping her out to the car. Wyatt raided the refrigerator and came back with an armful of food.

“You still eat like you’re a teenager,” Sydney teased as her brother shrugged.

“I may be many things, but a cook isn’t one of them. This will hold me over for a month.” Wyatt looked at the food he was carrying and grinned. “Okay, a week. Are you sure you don’t want me to stay and help you clean up?”

“No, I’d rather be alone. There’s been so much talking this week; I just want to have some time to myself.”

Wyatt leaned forward and placed a kiss on her cheek. With a sad smile, he headed out to his car, and finally Sydney found herself alone. She looked at the oil painting of a young Ruth and Beauford Wyatt hanging on the wall of the living room and smiled. They were together again, and that brought her a sense of comfort.

Sydney walked down the hall to the kitchen and passed the cannonball from the Civil War that Great-grandma had used as a doorstop and laughed as she pulled out a couple trash bags. Her great-grandmother had refused to let an Army munitions expert look at it after learning his last name was Sherman. She had declared there had only been one Sherman on her family’s property, and there would never be another.

Smiling to herself, Sydney worked quietly as she cleaned the living room and dining room. She took the full trash bags out to the trashcan and stored all the leftovers in the second refrigerator in the garage. With relief, she headed upstairs to the master bedroom.

It hadn’t been used in years, but when she opened the door it still smelled of a mix of her great-grandmother’s perfume and her great-grandfather’s pipe tobacco. Happy memories filled her with warmth and a little bit of sadness, too. She could picture herself as a young child, bouncing on the large four-poster bed while her great-grandmother put on her makeup and her great-grandfather smoked his pipe and read the paper.

The room was like walking straight into the history of the old South. Beautiful navy and white wallpaper covered with magnolia blossoms adorned the wall above the white chair rail. On one side of the room a brick fireplace had been painted white; an old oil painting of her great-grandmother’s family’s plantation outside of Atlanta hanging over it. Two upholstered chairs with matching ottomans and a coffee table sat in front of the fireplace. Lining the walls on either side of the fireplace were photos in gilded frames. Photos from when Ruth and Beauford Wyatt were children, first married, new parents, and then photos of Katelyn all through her life as well as Marshall, Sydney, and Wyatt.

The rest of the room contained a massive walk-in closet, master bath, makeup table, and pictures of Wyatt Farm over the centuries. Sydney headed for the nightstand and stared down at the items so familiar to her childhood. Her great-grandmother’s hand-painted jewelry bowl that she put her earrings in each night, the book she’d been reading before getting sick and moving downstairs . . . it felt as if Sydney were invading her great-grandmother's privacy.