Scarlet Nights (Edilean 3)

“If she welcomed him, Mr. Lang might not have realized she thought he was someone else.”

For a while, Mike was silent as he thought about all the hatred and anger that had emanated from his grandmother—but it had been directed toward the wrong people. “You know what Grans tried to get the police to do? Make Alex McDowell marry her. She even told the pastor and the church members what had happened and tried to get them to force the marriage.”

“Poor Uncle Alex. No wonder he was so bad tempered. No one could understand why sweet Aunt Lissie married him.”

“Miss Edi did it,” Mike said. “That’s why Grans hated her so much. Lissie’s family was about to marry her off to some aspiring young politician, but then Miss Edi stepped in and arranged an elopement.”

“I can’t imagine anyone less suited for the campaign trail than my aunt Lissie.”

“She was like you,” Mike said. “You’d hate dealing with strangers.”

“I wouldn’t. I like to meet people. I—” She saw Mike’s look. “Okay, so I like family better. So Miss Edi saved Alex from going to jail and gave him the beautiful Lissie for a wife? I guess that’s why he was so grateful to Miss Edi after she retired.”

“I would imagine so. It took Tess years of digging to ferret out all the information. But from what I heard, Alex and Lissie were a good match. Alex was a poor man from a good family, while Lissie’s family was newly wealthy and from redneck stock.”

“That explains a lot,” Sara said. “I always wondered about them because Aunt Lissie was careful to be very proper, while Uncle Alex belched at the table.”

“The right of kings,” Mike said.

Sara was thinking about all he’d told her. “Your grandmother was filled with hatred because she believed she’d been raped by Uncle Alex, but he wasn’t punished in any way.”

“Grans hated the people of Edilean because they wouldn’t help her in her attempt to force him to marry her.”

“Do you think people knew that Miss Edi lied when she gave Alex an alibi?” Sara asked.

“You grew up here, so what do you think?”

“They knew,” Sara said. “But they must have also known that Alex wouldn’t attack a woman. And Miss Edi certainly believed in him.” She was marveling at how many secrets the people of Edilean had held on to.

“She did,” Mike said. “But the elopement she set up made a lot of people angry. Lissie’s family disinherite

d her, but the joke turned out to be on them. After Alex made himself rich, he supported Lissie’s parents in their old age.” Mike looked at Sara. “And until today no one knew who raped Grans.” He patted Sara’s shoulder. “Good detective work.”

“I’m so good at this that I think you should let me handle Greg while you spend next week in a cabin in Montana.”

Mike chuckled. “You know, don’t you, that all this, as interesting as it is, has nothing to do with the Vandlo case?”

“I wonder if that was the only sex Mr. Lang had in his whole life? I never heard even a rumor that he’d ever had a girlfriend.” She gave Mike a sharp look. “If they used no protection …” Her eyes widened. “Is Mr. Lang your grandfather?”

“No! My mother was born five years after that night.” He shook his head. “Grans used to tell us how she staggered to the farm after the attack. Lang called the police and made her tea and served her little cookies.”

Sara looked at the road in front of them and thought about what Mike had told her. When she got back, she’d have to tell Joce so she could put this in her biography of her grandmother, Edilean “Miss Edi” Harcourt.

“Hungry?” Mike asked. “I think we should stop, get something to eat, then you and I should talk about your life.”

Sara groaned. “This is why you wanted me to ride with you, isn’t it?”

“Sara, you hurt me to the core,” he said with so much feeling that for a moment she believed him. She hit him on the shoulder.

“Ow! I put too much muscle on you this morning.”

“I think you should tell me more about your life.”

“No one is trying to marry me to get whatever it is I have that I don’t know belongs to me.”

Sara smiled. “That is so convoluted it almost makes sense.”

“So start talking.”