Hidden Talents (25 page)

“Franklin?” Phyllis spoke sharply. “What is it? What's going on?”

“I don't understand,” Franklin muttered. “I just don't understand. It's not possible. I did everything I was told to do each time.”

Caleb plucked the receipt from his hand. “What don't you understand, Franklin?”

“There wasn't supposed to be any record of this. He told me there wouldn't be any way to trace the sale.” Franklin rubbed the bridge of his nose. He appeared dazed. “On both occasions, I carried out his instructions to the letter.”

“What instructions?” Serenity asked.

“I parked my car in the Ventress Valley Mall parking lot.” Franklin stared out the window at the gray sky. “Left the door unlocked, the money in the glove compartment. I went into the mall for fifteen minutes. I never saw him, but when I returned to the car, the money was gone.”

“And the photos were in the glove compartment?” Caleb asked.

“Yes. The first time. I paid five thousand for them.”

“And on the second occasion?”

Franklin looked haunted. “He called again on Sunday. Said it wasn't over. Said he still had the negatives and that he'd send prints to the
Ventress Valley News
if I didn't pay him five thousand dollars.”

“Then you admit you purchased those pictures?” Roland asked roughly.

Franklin's head came up proudly. His shoulders straightened. “Yes, I admit it. As soon as I knew those photos existed, I realized it was my duty to get hold of them. I had to see just what sort of woman had gotten her greedy little claws into Caleb.”

“And once you did have the pictures in hand, you tried to threaten Serenity, didn't you?” Caleb asked. “You sent copies of the photos to her and warned her that if she didn't end her business relationship with me, you'd send the pictures directly to me.”

“I hoped she would have enough sense of shame to end the relationship on her own.” Franklin gave Serenity a furious glance. “I suppose I should have known better. Any woman whose moral standards are so low that she has no compunction about posing nude, wouldn't care who saw the pictures, I suppose.”

“Don't worry about Serenity's moral standards,” Caleb said. “I guarantee you that they're a lot higher than yours are.”

“How can you say such a thing about a member of your own family?” Phyllis demanded.

“On my scale, blackmailers rank a lot lower than photographers' models,” Caleb said.

“Really,” Phyllis grumbled. “I don't see that Franklin was actually blackmailing anyone.”

“I was only doing what I had to do to save you from her.” Franklin stared at Caleb. “Don't you understand? I had a duty to this family. I could not allow you to repeat the mistakes of the past. I simply could not allow it. We all suffered too much the last time. I couldn't let you follow in your father's footsteps.”

A sudden hush gripped the room. The dreadful words had finally been spoken aloud. Serenity knew they had all been waiting for them.

“No, I guess you couldn't allow that to happen, could you?” Caleb said quietly. “Not after you and my grandfather and Aunt Phyllis had worked so hard over the years to make sure that I didn't repeat my father's mistakes.”

Serenity looked at Roland's stark face and felt colder than ever. She could see the pain in him very clearly now. Every word that was being spoken was a knife thrust that cut to the bone.

“We did our best,” Phyllis said grandly. She narrowed her eyes at Serenity. “Apparently we failed.”

Serenity stirred. “I think you're all overlooking one major fact that makes this situation different from what happened in the past.”

“And what would that be?” Phyllis asked disdainfully.

“Caleb isn't married to another woman, as his father was when the original scandal broke,” Serenity pointed out gently. “You may not approve of his involvement with me, but you can't claim that he's repeating his father's sins. He's not committing adultery. He's not betraying a wife.”

“He's betraying his family, just as his father did.” Phyllis's voice shook with indignation.

“There may not be an innocent wife involved this time, but that makes no difference.” Franklin gave Caleb a fulminating look. “The end result will be the same. You'll embarrass this entire family. You'll humiliate all of us again, just as Gordon did. This is a small town. Everyone will know.”

Phyllis lifted her chin. “Perhaps that is precisely what Caleb wants.”

Roland stared at her. “What the hell are you saying?”

“That perhaps that's what this affair is all about,” Phyllis snapped. “It occurs to me that by taking up with a woman like Miss Makepeace, your grandson has found a very effective way to punish all of us.”

“Punish us for what?” Roland demanded. “I took him in and raised him. I gave him a home. Made him my heir. What more could I have done for him?”

“Yes, I know, Roland. You did everything you could for him. We all did. One would think he would be grateful.” Phyllis gave Caleb a gimlet-eyed look. “But it appears that gratitude is not what he feels for us. I've suspected as much for years.”

Roland's hand curved into a fist on the arm of the chair. His gaze was riveted on Caleb. “Is that why you're doing this? Are you trying to punish us for some reason? Is this your notion of vengeance? For God's sake, why?”

“I didn't get involved with Serenity because I wanted revenge on you,” Caleb said evenly. “I got involved with her because I wanted her.”

“You sound just like your father,” Roland shot back. “You even look like he did that day when he told me he wanted Crystal Brooke. How dare you do this to me?”

Serenity raised her hand before Caleb could lash back. “I would just like to point out once again that this scene, however unpleasant, is not, I repeat not, a replay of what happened thirty-four years ago. Things will turn out differently this time if you handle them differently. There is no need to replay the past.”

Phyllis glowered at her. “As you yourself noted earlier, Miss Makepeace, the only thing that's different this time is that Caleb isn't married.”

“It seems to me that's a major difference,” Serenity said. “It also raises a very interesting question.” She turned toward Roland. “I'm curious. Had there been problems between Caleb's father and his wife? Or did the affair with Crystal Brooke just come out of the blue?”

“Problems?” Roland beetled his brows. “They'd only been married a couple of years. All young couples have problems. Moving out West was an adjustment for Patricia. We all knew that. What's that got to do with it?”

“I just wondered if perhaps your son got involved with Crystal Brooke because his marriage was in trouble,” Serenity said.

“It was an excuse.” Roland's fist slammed down on the arm of the chair. “Nothing more than a trumped-up excuse for satisfying his own selfish lust for that slut.”

Caleb went dangerously still. “I warned you not to call her those names.”

“Bah, I don't care if she was your mother,” Roland said. “She was no good and that's a fact. And I don't care what Gordon said, I never believed for one minute that Patricia was having an affair.”

“Patricia?” Serenity repeated quickly. “Was that the name of Gordon's wife?”

“A fine young woman.” Roland's eyes were piercing.

“A beautiful young woman,” Franklin murmured. “Refined, elegant, well-mannered.”

“She was a Clarewood,” Phyllis chimed in with obvious satisfaction. “One of the New England Clarewoods, you know. Old money. Ancestors back to the
Mayflower
. Gordon met her when he went back East to visit friends from college. After the scandal broke, she returned to her family. She remarried. A senator, I believe.”

“We never heard from her again after she left Ventress Valley,” Franklin said in a distant voice.

Caleb paid no heed to Phyllis and Franklin. His entire attention was on his grandfather. “My father claimed Patricia was having an affair?”

“It was a lie,” Roland said bluntly. “He made up the accusation to justify his own actions.”

“Lies, nothing but shameful lies,” Franklin echoed fiercely.

Serenity tilted her head to one side and considered that. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I'm sure,” Roland insisted. “Good lord, Ventress Valley is small now, but it was even smaller thirty-four years ago. It would have been impossible for the wife of Gordon Ventress to have an affair for long without someone in the family knowing about it.”

“And even if it was true, even if Patricia had an affair, it changes nothing,
nothing
!” Franklin roared. “That's the important thing here. Gordon had no right to subject this family to the shame and humiliation he brought upon it, no matter what the provocation. There was no excuse for it.”

Roland peered at Caleb. “Franklin is right. I don't for one moment believe that Patricia was having an affair, but even if she was, it does not excuse Gordon's irresponsibility.”

Franklin gave Caleb a seething look. “Your father was spoiled and overindulged from the day he was born. Gordon could do no wrong in Roland's eyes. Roland insisted on giving him everything. All the while I was growing up I had to watch my cousin being raised as if he were someone special, a young prince just waiting to be crowned king of the Ventress clan. All I got were the leavings.”

“That's enough, Franklin,” Phyllis said firmly. “What's past is past. We all know what came of overindulging Gordon. The important thing here is that nothing excuses his actions.” She glowered at Caleb. “Nor yours, you ungrateful wretch. When I think of all we've done for you, I could just weep.”

A sense of desperation welled up in Serenity. She met Caleb's eyes. “We'll never know the truth,” she said. “In a way, it's really none of our business, is it? Whatever happened between your father and Patricia is in the past, and it will have to stay there. All we're concerned with here is the future.”

“What about the future of this family?” Roland demanded.

Franklin's mouth was a thin line. “It's obvious your grandson doesn't care about that.”

“I always knew it would come to this,” Phyllis muttered. “From the earliest days I could see that Caleb was never really a part of this family. I knew he only tolerated us so that he could take advantage of Roland's money and position. I sensed he never cared about any of us no matter how much we did for him.”

Roland's jaw was rigid. “This has gone far enough, Caleb. You're acting the way Gordon acted that day when he told me that he was going to marry Crystal Brooke. And I'll tell you now exactly what I told him then.”

“What's that?” Caleb asked.

“If you go through with this shameful marriage, I'll cut you out of my will. I swear to God, I will. You'll never get one penny of the Ventress money.”

Serenity noticed that Phyllis and Franklin looked stunned by the threat.

Caleb smiled wearily. “Do you really think I give a damn about being disinherited? Want to know the truth? It will be one hell of a relief.”

“Relief?” Franklin's mouth fell open.

“It will set me free,” Caleb said.

“How can you say that?” Phyllis gasped. “Think of what you'll be losing.”

Caleb flicked her a brief, disinterested glance. “I don't need my grandfather's money. My private income from Ventress Ventures last year nearly equaled that of the family's total income. If I choose, it can go even higher next year.” His mouth was a bleak line. “Trust me, Aunt Phyllis, money is the least of my problems.”

“I don't believe this,” Franklin whispered. “You can't possibly mean it. After all Roland has done for you? After what this family has done for you? You'd walk away from a fortune without a backward glance?”

“As I see it, the only thing I'm walking away from is thirty-four years of blackmail payments. Like I said, it will be a relief.”

“
Blackmail
?” Roland surged to his feet. “What the devil is that supposed to mean?”

Caleb braced his legs slightly apart and confronted Roland. “All of my life I've paid for what my parents did. I've never been allowed to forget for one damn moment that I was the cause of all the scandal and tragedy that this family endured.”

“Now just one goddamn minute—” Roland snarled.

“It has always been made clear to me that if I hadn't existed, things would have turned out differently. Perhaps Crystal Brooke could have been bought off. Perhaps my father would have eventually come to his senses and come home to his wife. Who knows? But things didn't turn out right because I was born.”

“You've got it all wrong,” Roland whispered.

“Have I? How many times have you told me that you were afraid of making the same mistakes with me that you'd made with my father? How many times did you say that I had to be better at everything than my father had been? That I had to prove that I wasn't tainted with my mother's bad blood?”

“You don't understand,” Roland said fiercely.

“How often did you lecture me on my duties and responsibilities to the family?
How many times have you called my mother a slut
?”

“Crystal Brooke was a slut,” Franklin raged. “She ruined everything.”

Caleb ignored him. He kept his attention on Roland. “I've spent my whole life trying to give you what you wanted. But it was never enough, was it? I could never win enough ball games for you. I could never collect enough trophies to satisfy you. I could never make enough money for the family.”

“Now see here,” Roland thundered, “if I was a little hard on you, it was for your own good.”

“No, it was for your own good,” Caleb said. “You tried to use me to undue the mistakes of the past. You made me pay for them. That's blackmail. And the one sure thing about blackmail is that it never ends. But I can choose to stop paying it. And that's what I'm going to do.”

Roland's mouth worked. He turned away from Caleb and leveled his finger at Serenity. “So help me, if you leave this house to go off with that woman, you'll never be welcome here again.”

“I haven't been welcome here since the day I arrived,” Caleb said softly. “I was allowed to stay on sufferance. You had to make do with me because I was all you had left.”

“Damn you, you sound just like your father,” Roland said.