Secret Garden (12 page)

Colin kept his pace as if it were the most natural thing. “I think most people would feel the same,” he remarked, wanting to help her feel at ease, “especially since he’s your older brother and he would have been the one in charge.”

“Interesting you say that.” She cocked her head. “You would make a tolerable older brother, wouldn’t you? Did Daisie Lee have any more children?”

“No,” he said, grateful that he didn’t have to explain anything about his family to her because she already knew his people. “She just has me.”

“Ah.” Rhiannon seemed to be studying him. “That could be both a blessing and a curse, I suppose.”

He chuckled because Rhiannon said it so matter-of-factly.

As they neared the picnic area, Rhiannon gently pulled back on Molly’s leash. “Stay,” she murmured to her dog.

She glanced up at Colin, blushing again. While Colin watched, fascinated, her cheeks turned a deep, rosy shade.

His first instinct was to gently tease her, as if they were still kids. But they weren’t kids, and despite the easy, familiar conversation they’d just had, he held himself back. He wanted to be more respectful where she was concerned.

She lifted her eyes, gazing directly at him. “I...have to ask you something.”

“Okay?” he said cautiously.

She licked her lips. “Is everything all right between you and Jessie? Truly?”

“Yeah.” Hadn’t he just told her that? Was he giving her the wrong idea? “Why?”

“Well...you stayed at a hotel last night.”

“Wow. For an agoraphobic, you’ve obviously got spies,” he teased.

She lowered her head. “Your grandparents are tenants and work on our estate. Of course phone calls go back and forth. Jessie was looking for you.”

“So you’ve been talking to them about me?”

“No!” Her eyes widened. She sighed, as if about to make a confession. “Jessie called Paul, asking if you’d been by. She was worried.”

“I called her to let her know.” Colin thought he’d been doing pretty well, considering he wasn’t used to accounting for his actions. “I was with my caddie, Mack, at a course we’d heard about, and it was so light outside that we didn’t realize how late it was. I figured by the time we drove back, they would be asleep, so I called Jessie to give her a heads-up, then checked into a hotel for the night.” He shrugged. “She didn’t indicate that it was a problem. I thought I’d been reasonable about it all.” Responsible, actually.

“I’m not chastising you, Colin,” she said hurriedly. “I’m not your mum.”

“No. You are in no way Daisie Lee,” he agreed.

“How is she?” Rhiannon asked politely.

“Great. Good.” Daisie Lee would have been haranguing him over it if she were present, upset about the funeral, about Rhiannon. He would’ve had to spend time with her, calming her down. “Everything’s okay. No big problems.” He grinned at her, eager to change the subject.

Rhiannon stooped to fix something with her shoe. She was gazing up at him strangely.

“What?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I was just thinking about something.”

“Tell me.” He smiled at her and leaned against a tree trunk.

“Do you remember that New Year’s Eve when we were kids, and we eavesdropped on the stairs...and then Daisie Lee came in, and you acted happy and told her nothing was wrong...?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, I was just wondering if that’s what you were doing now.”

“With you?”

“Yes,” she said, as if relieved he understood.

“Ah...maybe I’m trying to be positive. And careful.” He glanced at her. “Isn’t that a good thing?”

“I’d like to know the truth.” She looked at him earnestly. “I can handle the truth, Colin.”

He knelt down and petted Molly again, running his hands through her silky red fur.

“Please,” Rhiannon said.

He sighed. He hadn’t wanted to bother Rhiannon, but... “The truth is, Jamie’s angry I’m here. If I had my way, I’d rather stay elsewhere, but Jessie’s heart would be broken, so for her sake I haven’t cut off relations entirely. That’s the truth.”

* * *

R
HIANNON STARED AT HIM
, feeling bug-eyed. This
was
a problem. An issue her mother might take on, if she were here.

Colin stood and wiped his hands. “So, you okay, Rhi?” he asked.

“I’m glad you told me, Colin.”

He blew out a breath. “Okay, but it’s nothing for you to worry about.” He glanced over the woods, where the drone of an approaching electric buggy sounded. “That’s probably Jessie now. She gets winded when she walks too far.”

Rhiannon nodded. Maybe she could help sort this problem out for them. She had a fairly decent rapport where Jessie and Jamie were concerned.

“Colin, will you promise to be honest with me like this, no matter what?”

He glanced at her, his eyebrows raised. “You sure?”

She nodded.

“Some people just want to hear the good stuff,” he said.

“I know. But I want to hear everything.”

Colin looked her in the eye. “Okay. So...only honesty between us.”

She had a funny thought, remembering that old New Year’s Eve and their pledge to write to each other. “I promise, as long as you do, too,” she teased him. “And this time, I really will follow up on it.”

He smiled. He knew what she was referring to. “Yeah, I promise.”

The sound of Jessie and Jamie chatting with each other drifted over the hill. “Honestly,” Colin said, “I wish it were just you and me for dinner, but they’re part of this shindig now, so I guess we’ll just roll with it, won’t we?”

Roll with it.
The phrase amused her. She followed Colin to the clearing where the ancient picnic table was located.

Parked beside the table was the small, motorized vehicle that Jamie used to get around the estate. Colin’s grandmother sat at a folding camp chair placed at the head of the table, and Jamie stood behind her, solicitously settling her in while also gazing about and scowling.

The two spoke in low tones. Rhiannon couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Colin was right, she sensed Jamie’s displeasure.

The muscles in Colin’s neck and shoulders visibly tightened.

Rhiannon held out Molly’s leather leash to him. “Would you mind letting her sit beside you? It’ll calm her.”

“Sure.” Colin indulged her by petting Molly’s fur and guiding her to the table.

Then he moved over on the bench, giving Rhiannon room to sit beside him, on the end. This made her grateful, because in that position she wouldn’t feel so hemmed in or panicked.

Rhiannon’s dog settled her head onto Colin’s lap and gazed up at him with big brown eyes. “Well, you already know Rhiannon,” Colin said to his grandmother. “And this is Molly.”

“Your grandmother knows who Molly is,” Jamie snapped.

Oh, my,
Rhiannon thought.

“You don’t have to eat with us if you don’t want to,” Colin said quietly to Jamie. “I invited Nana because I wanted her to have dinner with Rhiannon and me again.”

Jessie looked more tired than Rhiannon had recalled. There were lines in her face and her eyes had dark circles beneath them. She also seemed to have lost weight; her blouse hung loose about her shoulders.

“Jamie, please why don’t you sit?” Jessie directed him.

With a grudging expression, Jamie sat directly across the scarred wooden picnic table from Colin, whom he proceeded to shoot a glare toward.

Yes, there was surely a problem between them. What would her mother do?

Bother that. This was
Rhiannon’s
situation, and she would handle it how she saw fit.

She leaned across the table and lightly touched Jamie’s gnarled hand, saying gently, “I’m sorry for your loss. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do for you.”

* * *

C
OLIN’S PULSE SEEMED
to stop. The only sounds were the birds and the rustle of leaves in the soft breeze. His grandfather’s eyes were moist and shining, his lips pressed together. It brought a lump to Colin’s throat.

Something had happened between him and Rhiannon during that conversation about honesty. They’d started out friendly enough. It had felt easy. But she had a way of seeing beneath the surface to what was really important.

Honestly, he truly wanted to get along with Jamie. And it touched him that Rhiannon seemed determined to help him smooth out that relationship.

Part of all this was the early years they’d spent together—what Rhiannon had seen of his family back then. She’d known his father. There had to be all kinds of photos of the three of them together...

No way was Colin looking at those photo albums his grandmother had brought over. He hadn’t seen a picture of his father in years, and if he did now, he might lose it.

“Rhiannon, dear,” his grandmother said, eyeing him and then Jamie, “bless you for coming. Tell me how your parents are doing? Are they enjoying their tour of South America?”

“I haven’t heard yet.” Rhiannon politely accepted a sandwich from the tray that Jamie passed her. “They promised to send photos when they get the chance.”

“The laird is keen to see the penguins in Antarctica,” Jessie said to Colin.

Colin nodded. He knew his grandmother was tactfully moving the topic of conversation away from anything unpleasant, and that was fine with him. He also knew that technically, Mr. MacDowall wasn’t a laird—he hadn’t inherited the ancient castle, he’d purchased it. But Colin remembered liking him.

Colin spread his paper napkin on his lap and picked up his soupspoon. He’d wanted to get Rhiannon alone, and for a few minutes during their walk, he had done so. She wasn’t as skittish with him anymore, and he was glad for that. While he ate, he listened to Rhiannon describe her parents’ travels for a bit. She seemed relaxed and happy with his grandmother.

“Do you and Jessie get together a lot?” he asked during a lull in their conversation.

“Not often enough.” Rhiannon showed them her dimples.

“Several times a year, the lady has us to tea at the house,” his grandmother explained. She turned to Rhiannon. “Tell Colin about the times we met in your mother’s sitting room and watched him on the telly.”

“I didn’t know the US tour was televised over here,” he remarked.

“Not every tournament,” Rhiannon said. “Sometimes we have to catch it over the internet.”

“Aye. The laird sets it up so we can see it on the wide screen.”

“We’re technologically advanced,” Rhiannon said with a smile.

“And Rhiannon went to her brother’s wedding by way of the computer, too,” his grandmother announced.

“Really?” Colin said. “How did that go?”

Rhiannon picked up her sandwich. “Malcolm was married in Vermont last autumn. He set up an internet connection so I could watch the ceremony from home.”

“That’s...”
Sad,
he thought. “I’m glad you were able to participate.”

Rhiannon nodded. But she hadn’t been participating; she’d been observing. She had to know that.

He glanced over his soupspoon to see Jamie glowering at him still. Jessie and Rhiannon might have forgiven him for staying away, but Jamie obviously wasn’t ready to forget. The man had a soft spot in his heart for Rhiannon, it seemed, and so was behaving for her sake. But as for him—it seemed Jamie wouldn’t be happy until he’d climbed on the plane back to Texas. And Colin would happily oblige him.

Colin reached down to feed Molly a piece of ham from his sandwich. The sooner Sunday’s funeral was finished and over, the better off they all would be.

* * *

A
LARGE, PROVERBIAL
elephant-in-the-room sat with them at their open-air picnic table.

Rhiannon saw it, and it bothered her. Sunday’s funeral hung over all of them, and Jessie was obviously reluctant to talk about it. And yet it needed to be addressed. Rhiannon’s mother would certainly agree.

Rhiannon glanced to Colin and then to Jamie. Jamie seemed to be in a truce of sorts, yet she had no way of knowing if this would continue beyond the meal. She did wish she could smooth the way for Colin during his visit. This went beyond her desire to be an effective manager of the estate—it felt deeply personal.

She’d been surprised by the pleasure she’d taken in Colin’s company and the ease she felt. He was also good with Molly. No doubt, they were slipping back into their old friendship, and she cherished that more than she’d expected. Maybe she’d been lonelier than she realized.

Colin was possibly the one person in the world who related to her purely as a friend. To him, she wasn’t Rhiannon the recluse. Or Rhiannon the artist. Or Rhiannon the agoraphobic who needed to be protected.

And she rather liked that. It gave her courage and made her want to step a bit beyond her comfort zone and into the role her mother played. Though of course her mother would have physically attended the funeral in the village.

Rhiannon couldn’t do that. She had no intention of attending
anything
beyond her castle walls. She would step into a bigger role, but a bigger role on the estate. Now that Colin truly understood that, they were better off. She liked their new “honesty” policy.

Rhiannon cleared her throat. “Jessie, what will you and Colin do tomorrow?”

Saturday. One day before the funeral.

Jamie sat at attention. He was interested in her answer, too.

“Why, Colin has to prepare for the New York Cup, of course,” Jessie said.

Colin blinked at her. “You know about my tournament?”

“Of course.” She seemed insulted. “You think I don’t follow your career? Everyone at Kildrammond follows your career.”

“What’s Kildrammond?” Colin asked.

“Your home club in Scotland. The place where I taught you to grip a club.”

“I forgot about that.” Colin lazily scrubbed the fur on Molly’s neck while the dog stretched and preened. “Rhiannon and I went to the junior clinic one summer, didn’t we?” He turned and grinned at her.

Oh, no. Don’t get me involved with that. I’m not golfing.

“I arranged a tee time for us tomorrow,” Jessie said to Colin.

“Uh...actually, Nana, that’s something my caddie takes care of.”

Jessie made a
pffft
noise. “He took you to Raith today. A beautiful, scenic firth-side links course, but you’re an American tour professional,” she chided. “You need to train on a parkland course with long fairways. Flat putting greens.”