Undercover Christmas

Chapter Four

Long after Chase left, Marni lay on the big log bed, her arm protectively around Sam as she stared up at the ceiling and mentally kicked herself. What had she hoped to accomplish by coming here? When was she going to learn that she couldn’t solve everyone’s problems?

As for the kiss…

She tried to excuse it. It was only a test and a test kiss didn’t amount to anything. She shouldn’t feel guilty. Really, if she was going to pretend to be Elise, these things were bound to happen. Men kissed El unexpectedly, passionately, soundly.

Not that Marni would let it happen again. One test kiss per sister’s boyfriend, thank you. But if it should—

Marni groaned. Why was she agonizing over one silly little kiss? Instead she should be worrying about how El was going to take the bad news. She’d tried to call her sister before climbing into bed but the phone line was dead. Probably the storm.

She stopped a moment to listen, almost sure she’d heard footsteps out in the hallway again. As she drew the covers up around her shoulders, she assured herself the house didn’t feel exceptionally imposing or hostile and that all those grunts and groans, creaks and crackings were just from the storm outside. This was Chase’s doing. Him and his “you and your baby aren’t safe here.”

Only silence came from the adjoining room. Chase had no doubt gone to bed and was sound asleep by now. So much for his guilty conscience keeping him awake.

She’d really believed that once she had him alone, she could get him to admit his part in Elise’s pregnancy. At least she would have accomplished that much. Not that he planned to do anything about it. But instead, he wouldn’t even consider she might be part of his lost memory. If indeed he suffered from such a convenient affliction.

Marni squeezed her eyes closed and searched for sleep, wishing she’d grabbed a book from the library. Nothing could distract her mind faster than a book.

Her stomach growled. How could she be hungry when she’d devoured such a large meal just hours ago?

She tried to ignore the hunger pangs and the mental picture that kept flashing in her brain. Cake. A moist white cake, rich with buttery frosting.

Her stomach rumbled loudly. She opened her eyes. It would be incredibly rude to raid the refrigerator. Not for a woman who was eating for two, she argued, as she slid her legs over the side of the bed.

The embers had burned down in the fireplace and the storm’s icy chill settled in along with Chase’s warning. He didn’t know her very well if he thought he could scare her that easily.

She reminded herself that he didn’t know her at all. He knew Elise. And the truth was, Elise probably wouldn’t have budged from her bed until morning.

Marni opened her bedroom door cautiously and peered out. The hallway was empty. And dark except for a light at the far end beyond the stairs. The house seemed to hunker in silence as if waiting for something. For her, the voice of reason warned. But a piece of cake, rich with frosting, was calling. The cake won. She stepped out and, quietly closing the door behind her, tiptoed down the hall.

A cold draft crawled over her bare feet. She pulled Chase’s robe around her. The robe was thick and warm and like the shirt, smelled faintly of its owner, a scent that was both disarming and comforting.

When Marni reached the stairs, she trod down them carefully, her near accident still too fresh in her memory for comfort.

Someone had left a light on and Marni wondered if she was the only one up raiding the fridge. The thought of running into Vanessa almost changed her mind. Marni tiptoed across the foyer, peeked into the dining room, then headed for what she figured would be the kitchen.

The kitchen was spacious like the house. But unlike the house, it had a warm, almost homey feel to it. Marni guessed it was probably because Vanessa never set foot in it It was the first room that Marni could say she actually liked. And it was blessedly empty.

She found the cake without having to raid the fridge, cut herself a large slice and sat down at the table. The cake was delicious. She licked the frosting from her lips as she eyed another piece. Oh, what would it hurt?

As she was scraping her plate to get the last of the crumbs, she marveled at her increased appetite. Was it just nerves? Or was her body somehow kidding itself into believing she really was eating for two?

Whatever it was, she had to quit or she’d gain a ton.

A short while later, she made her way toward the library. The house groaned and moaned around her. Snow piled up at the windows and cold crept along the bare wooden floors like snow snakes.

Marni had started down the hall when she heard something that made her freeze in midstep.

Crying. At first she thought it was the baby again. Then realized it wasn’t the same sound she’d heard earlier coming up through the heat vent. The heart-wrenching sobs pulled at her and she found herself trailing the sound past the library toward the back of the house.

A faint light shone from a far corner of what appeared to be the living room. The thick, dark curtains along the bank of windows were open to the night. The darkness outside blurred in a thick lattice of falling snow.

Lilly Calloway sat slumped in a large log rocker, in a golden circle of light from a floor lamp beside the chair. She clutched something in her arms and rocked, Marni noticed with a start. Beside the rocker on the floor sat a half-empty wine bottle. The room smelled faintly of gardenias.

Marni reminded herself again that this was none of her business. She should backtrack and go up to bed. But the woman’s wail tore at her heart.

“Lilly?” she asked softly, half expecting the woman to rebuff any attempts to console her. After all, Marni was a stranger. And no one in this house had been what she would call friendly.

Neither the crying nor the rocking stopped.

Marni stepped around in front of the woman. “’Lilly?”

Lilly slowly raised her head, her rocking motion slowed. The storm outside lit her pale heart-shaped face and Marni saw what the woman clutched in her arms. A rag doll, its face worn and grayed, its yarn hair matted with age. Lilly glanced down at the doll crushed in her arms. For a moment, she made no sound. Then her eyes swam with tears and great, huge sobs racked her body.

Marni knelt and opened her arms to the woman. The rag doll tumbled to the floor as Lilly fell into Marni’s embrace. ‘There, there,”’ Marni whispered, sympathizing with the woman’s pain. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like losing a child. “It’s all right.”

As the crying subsided, Marni heard the scrape of a boot sole on the wooden floor. She looked up with a start, not sure who she expected to see.

Even in shadow and even if he hadn’t had the crutches, she would have known Chase Calloway. He filled a doorway. Not only with his body but with his anger.

He stood, watching her, suspicion in every line of his body. She could feel the heat of his gaze on her as surely as she could feel the reproach in that gaze. She glanced down at Lilly, wondering what made Chase so angry with her, that he thought she was pregnant or that he thought she was trying to trap him? When she glanced up again, he was gone.

Marni didn’t know how long she held Lilly. The crying had stopped, but the slim arms still held her tightly, as if Marni were Lilly’s only anchor in some blizzard far worse than the one outside this room.

After a while, Marni looked down to find Lilly had dropped off to sleep on her shoulder. Carefully, Marni laid her back into the rocker and covered her with a knitted afghan from the couch. Lilly whimpered softly but continued to sleep the sleep of the dead. Or the inebriated.

Marni switched off the lamp and left her in front of the bank of windows and the storm, hoping Lilly slept off the wine before she attempted the stairs.

On the way to her room, Marni stopped at the library and quickly found Pride and Prejudice. As she turned out the light and headed for the stairs, she told herself she was ready at last for some sleep of her own.

But back in bed, Marni lay, listening, waiting for Chase to come storming in to admonish her for interfering in family business. After a while, when she heard no sound, she opened the soft, worn volume to chapter one, realizing it had been years since she’d read this book.

The first line jumped off the page at her. Marni groaned as she thought of Chase Calloway. Who was this impossible single man in possession of a good fortune her twin had fallen in love with? Certainly not a man in want of a wife—or a baby, as Elise had been led to believe. That was one truth at least Marni acknowledged.

A few pages into the book, she heard Chase return to his room, heard the clomp of the crutches as he approached the door adjoining their rooms. She held her breath. Then she heard him lock his side of the door. Instead of relief, Marni felt a wave of anger. Did Chase think he had to lock his door to protect himself from her? Did he really think she’d come to his room tonight and throw herself at him? The man couldn’t be that big a fool, could he?

Tossing the book on the night table, she threw back the covers and swung her legs over the side of the bed, set on sharing a few choice words with Mr. Chase Calloway, even if it meant through a three-inch-thick door.

The lights flickered, and before her feet could touch the floor, went out. Marni held her breath, waiting for them to come back on. They didn’t. And she had a feeling they wouldn’t. As Vanessa had reminded her earlier, the electricity often went out during snowstorms in Montana. This far from civilization, it could be out for hours. Even days. Great. And just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse.

A thud came from the adjoining room and Chase swore loudly after stumbling into what sounded like a piece of good-size furniture. She smiled, ashamed but no less amused. Served him right for being such a jerk.

Content, she slipped back under the covers. The embers in the fireplace cast a pale patina over the room. If she had been anywhere else, she might have thought it cozy. Outside, the snow fell in a dense suffocating silence. Marni watched it for a few moments, trying not to think about the other people in this house. The night seemed colder, Marni thought, or maybe it was just knowing the electricity had gone off. She felt alone and far from home. At least Elise and the baby were fine, she assured herself. Then she closed her eyes, hoping for the oblivion of sleep.

Chapter Five

December 21

Morning came like a blessing. But unfortunately, Marni’s nightmares followed her into the daylight. One dream in particular haunted her: Chase standing over her, his blue eyes dark with evil as he told her she would never have the baby. Then something in his hands. An ax? Marni shivered and looked toward the window.

If the remnants of her bad dreams weren’t enough, she found herself still trapped by the snowstorm raging outside. Wind plastered snow to the windowpanes and sent icy gusts hammering at the glass.

With a curse, Marni threw off the covers and lumbered from the bed, keenly aware of Sam. She hurriedly dressed, hoping to speak to Chase before he went down to breakfast. But when she tapped softly at their adjoining door, she received no response. She tried the door. It wasn’t locked. When had he unlocked it? She thought about him standing over her in the dream. The dying firelight in his eyes. The ax in his large calloused hands.

“Chase?” She stepped into his room. What surprised her was the open suitcase lying in the bottom of the empty closet. Marni frowned as she surveyed her surroundings. The room was exactly like the one she’d spent the night in. A guest room. Chase didn’t live here. She shook her head, continuously amazed at how little her twin knew about the man she’d fallen so desperately in love with. The man who’d fathered her child.

The bed didn’t look as if it had been slept in and Marni guessed it probably hadn’t, judging from the appearance of the chair pulled up in front of the fire. The cushions were crushed as if he’d battled them in the night searching for comfort and sleep. Marni smiled, taking some pleasure in the thought that Chase might not have slept as soundly as she’d suspected.

As she headed downstairs, she found herself keeping a firm grip on the railing. Her near accident the night before had proved to her just how uncoordinated she’d become thanks to Sam. She couldn’t even see her toes.

None of the family appeared to be up yet, although it was nearing time for breakfast. She could hear someone in the kitchen banging pots and pans, and smell the rich scent of coffee. Coffee sounded wonderful, although she wasn’t sure a pregnant woman should be drinking caffeine. Marni peeked into the dining room, hoping to sneak a cup anyway.

“Mr. Calloway and his son are in the library,” a voice announced behind Marni, making her jump.

She swung around to find Hilda looking harried and flushed. “There’s coffee and juice in the library. Mr. Calloway said you’d be joining him.”

He did, did he? She wondered which son was with him and hoped it was Chase.

Without a word, Hilda hurried away and Marni headed down the hall toward the library. The sound of angry voices drifted out, making her hesitate long before she reached the library door. She recognized the two male voices at once, confirming what she’d hoped, that Chase was in there with his father. In the cold light of morning, Marni was more determined than ever to get things settled between them—one way or another.

She stepped through the open library door and stopped abruptly at the sound of Chase’s angry words.

“You’re going to get Elise and her baby killed if you don’t do something about this mess.”

Chase stood, hunched over his crutches, in front of the blazing fire. His father stood next to him, a hand on the thick-timbered fireplace mantel as if he needed the support. Both had their backs to her.

“Why do you have to be so damned stubborn about this?” Chase demanded. “Isn’t it enough that someone tried to kill you?”

Marni slipped behind the end of the bookcase, aware she planned to spy on the pair shamelessly. But if Elise and the baby really were in danger—She told herself not even to try to justify her actions. Silent as a mouse, Marni peeked around the edge of the bookcase.