The Lightkeeper's Ball (13 page)

Still buttoning his shirt, Jerry burst out of the enclosed stairway. He was barefoot. “Lady Devonworth, you said there is an intruder?”

Her limbs had begun to tremble. Olivia nodded and fought the burning in her eyes. It was just a reaction, but she couldn’t give in to it. “He spoke into the speaking tube.”

“What did he say?”

She bit her lip. “He just whispered my name.”

He herded her to her room and opened the door. “Wait here until I check the house.”

“What if he’s in my room? I
 
.
 
.
 
. I was elsewhere.”

He glanced at her with a question in his eyes but didn’t ask where she’d been. Flipping on the light, he left her standing in the doorway while he examined her bedroom, including the closet. When he found nothing, she entered and sank onto the chair by the dresser.

“Thank you,” she said. “I shall lock the door after you.”

“I’ll report back after examining the rest of the house. The other footmen are scouring the grounds.”

When he left, she rose and threw the lock on the knob. It couldn’t have been her father’s voice. He had been dead for six months.

The tree would provide the perfect frame for his new aeroplane. Harrison pointed out the specimen he wanted, and the lumberjacks set to work. He would never admit it to his father, but he enjoyed getting out of the office and seeing how men worked with their hands. When he was a teenager working here to learn the ropes of his father’s latest acquisition, he’d liked exercising his muscles hauling timber and running his end of a saw. It gave him a chance to clear his head and be one with God. Even now, he liked doing more than pushing papers.

His valet, Eugene, worked alongside him as he loaded some boards for the wings onto a trailer. “You’ve been quiet today, sir,” Eugene said.

“Just thinking about the new flying machine. I’ve come up with a new idea. What would you think about something on the bottom? Like skis. Something that allowed it to land on water?”

“On water? You mean the ocean?”

He shook his head. “Probably not the ocean. The waves would upend it. I was thinking about a lake. The weather would have to be calm.”

Eugene paused and wiped his brow with a red kerchief. “It might work. Are you going to attempt to build it on this machine?”

“I believe so.” Eugene’s calm gaze lingered on Harrison’s face. “What is it?” Harrison asked.

“You’re a true visionary, sir. I never realized until now.”

Harrison stopped and tugged on his collar. “Hardly a visionary, Eugene. It’s interesting though, no?”

“The world is changing, as you’ve said,” his valet said. “Men like you will help shape it, if you have the courage to lead.”

Harrison thought of his father’s hard face. “Some expectations are hard to break.”

“They are. Even your father’s expectation for you to marry a Stewart lady. What will you do now, sir?”

“I know one thing. I’m not going to marry some highbrow just to satisfy my father’s desire to be part of the nobs.”

“What will become of Mrs. Stewart?”

“I wouldn’t want Mrs. Stewart to be deprived of her fortune.”

“Perhaps your father will give her a fair part of the mine anyway.”

“I don’t see him ever being willing to do that.”

“Did Mr. Stewart ever discuss this matter with you personally? The marriage, I mean.”

“No.” That fact had always bothered Harrison. Arrangements had been made while his father and Mr. Stewart were in Africa. His father had come home from that trip with the agreement in his pocket. And Mr. Stewart was dead.

“I’m going to tell Father to pay her anyway,” he said.

Eugene nodded.

Harrison pressed his lips together. In the past five years he’d seen the desire for more and more money consume his father. They were comfortable. There was no need for more. But his father wanted to be accepted as one of the premier families in America. He lusted after that power to an unhealthy degree.

T
WELVE

T
HERE WAS A
brook around here somewhere. Olivia could hear it gurgling and churning over the rocks. Redwoods towered overhead, their leaves so high she nearly couldn’t see them. Addie held little Edward’s hand, guiding her son as the women picked their way along the path through the forest. His German shepherd, Gideon, nosed after a ground squirrel, and Olivia kept an eye on the dog.

“Are we almost there?” Olivia asked. Something about the mist curling around her boots and the lack of city noise had her glancing over her shoulder.

“Nearly there,” Katie called. She was the vanguard of the little group.

Olivia heard it then—the roar she’d mistaken for the wind in the trees became more prominent. The falls came into view. Clear water tumbled from the black rocks to the pool of water at the base. The dog barked and raced to leap into the clear lake.

“The perfect spot to plan the ball,” Addie said. She set down the basket she carried and withdrew a red-and-white checkered tablecloth from it. Once she spread it on the ground, she began to lift sandwiches wrapped in waxed paper from the basket.

Olivia settled beside her and watched the little boy and his dog frolic in the water. She glanced into the shadows of the trees. Their location was exposed and dangerous. She needed to tell her friends about last night’s intruder. At least Jerry had come with them. She felt safer with a man in attendance. He hovered a discreet distance from their little picnic.

“Have you had any success in finding the letter?” Katie asked.

Olivia shook her head. “I’ve poked through every corner of Eleanor’s room, and most of the other bedrooms. I can’t imagine where she hid it. I’m beginning to consider the possibility that it might not be in the house,” she admitted. “If I don’t find it, I’m not sure how I shall find out what so disturbed her. But there’s more.”

She told Addie about finding the dance card. “I thought you might offer insight, Addie, since you attend more parties. Katie doesn’t really know Mr. Fosberg. Do you know the man?”

“Oh yes. Every matchmaking mama in town has her claws out. I’m surprised he hasn’t gained twenty pounds from all the dinners he’s been invited to.”

“He has accepted all the invitations?”

Addie handed her a sandwich. “Indeed he has, though I haven’t heard he’s paid any particular attention to one young woman over another. He’s opening a branch of his law office in town, and he’s happy to make the acquaintance of anyone who might need his services.”

“You’ve met him personally?”

Addie nodded. “I spoke with Eleanor in the garden the night he came to that dance you mentioned. I asked her about him when we spoke. She said they were discussing business.”

“That was Katie’s impression too,” Olivia said. Katie nodded. “What kind of business could she possibly have? Our attorney handles everything. Even Mother has no head for business.”

“She didn’t elaborate,” Addie said.

Olivia bit her lip. “There was an intruder in the house last night,” she said. She told her friends about the whispers from the speaking tube.

Katie shuddered. “I’m most fearful for you, Olivia. You should have roused Will.”

“I should have done just that.” She tipped her head to the side. “Do you hear something?”

“What did it sound like?” Katie asked. “I hear only the wind.”

“Almost like a child crying.” The noise came again, a plaintive wail that lifted the hair on the back of her neck. “It sounds like it’s coming from that tree.” She rose and went to the base of a giant redwood. The trunk’s diameter was so wide that if she stood with her arms outstretched, her fingers would not reach the outer edges.

She peered up the rough red bark. The pungent odor of the crushed needles under her feet filled the air. Something moved in the high branches. Squinting, she tried to make out what it was.

Katie stared up into the treetops too. “I do believe it’s a kitten,” she said.

“How could a kitten get so high?” Olivia asked. Another wail floated down from the treetops.

“It probably climbed.”

“How can we get it down?”

“We would need a lumberjack,” Addie said, joining them. “He could shimmy up with no problem.”

“There is some activity going on at the lumber camp,” Katie said. “I’ll run over there and fetch help.”

“Not by yourself,” Olivia said.

“I’m quite used to hiking in the forest.”

“I shall go with you,” Olivia said. “Addie can stay with Edward so his enjoyment of the lake isn’t cut short.”

“As you wish.” Katie pointed toward a trail through the redwoods. “It’s that way.”

The women set off. At first the trail followed the river, cutting a swath through the valley far below them. Then it began to climb out of the gully until they walked a track barely wide enough for their boots. One misstep and Olivia knew she could plunge to her death. She soon felt a blister on her right foot. Insects buzzed in her ears, and a light mist hung in the air that made it seem she breathed liquid.

“Are you managing all right?” Katie asked. She didn’t even appear to be out of breath.

“I’m perfectly fine,” Olivia said, biting back a request to stop a moment. She forced one foot in front of the other. This was no stroll on well-tended sidewalks.

They reached a break in the trees overhead, and Olivia looked down at the mass of the lumber site. It hurt her heart to see the majestic trees lying broken on the forest floor.

Her attention was caught by a familiar set of broad shoulders. Instead of a blue morning coat, Harrison wore a red-and-black checkered shirt and trousers held up with suspenders.

She pointed. “What’s he doing here?”

“His father owns this camp. I suspect he’s here overseeing.” Katie started down the trail.

Olivia followed. She told herself the only reason her pulse had leaped when she saw Harrison was from fear.

A movement caught Harrison’s eye on the trail and he realized two women were picking their way along the narrow track to the camp. Alone. Squinting against the sun in his eyes, he frowned when he realized it was Lady Devonworth and Katie.

He moved to intercept them with Nealy on his heels. Lady Devonworth stepped into a shaft of sunlight. Her hair gleamed like a raven’s wing. Her skin held a blush of color from her hike through the forest. He couldn’t take his eyes from her. Since when did a lady hike through a redwood forest? Since when did she visit a lumber camp full of loud men?