The High Price of Secrets

A man who continued to stay by her side as she’d battled her alcoholism and as eventually her body and mind broke down around her. Ellen’s health was so precarious right now that Finn feared that even if she recognized Tamsyn, should she manage to track her mother down, at the sight of her, Ellen could slide into a place in her mind from which she would never return.

After all, hadn’t his own mother’s death occurred after he had finally been allowed to visit her following her breakdown? Hadn’t seeing him been a reminder of what she’d given up on when the sudden death of her husband had forced her to retreat into the supposedly safe reaches of her mind? And hadn’t her shame pushed her deeper into her mind, never to emerge again? Even now, those memories had the power to hurt. He pushed them forcibly away.

Tamsyn Masters—she should be the focus of his thoughts right now, and his plans to get her to stay in the area without letting her find out the truth about Ellen. Finn thought again what he knew about the young woman who’d turned up at his house today. She was twenty-eight years old, five years younger than himself. Last he’d heard, she was engaged to marry some up-and-coming lawyer in Adelaide. Clearly she hadn’t been wearing her ring today. It could mean anything. Maybe she had taken it off to get it cleaned or resized. Or maybe she’d taken it off when she’d washed her hands and had forgotten to put it back on again.

Another idea occurred to him. One that sparked his interest. Maybe, just maybe, it meant she might be in the market for a bit of rebound romance. A bit of light flirtation perhaps—some enticement to stay in the Marlborough district? If she was as shallow as he’d found her type to be in the past it would be all good fun—no chance of emotional involvement or hurt feelings, just an opportunity to keep her very carefully under observation while making sure she found out nothing about Ellen.

It would take some doing, sure, but he was confident he could handle it. A buzz of anticipation hummed through his body. Yeah, he was definitely the man to do it, and along the way he’d find out as much as he could about the perplexing Ms. Tamsyn Masters.

Three

Voices echoed down the wide paneled hallway of the hotel as Tamsyn walked toward the dining room. She still felt a little tired, but last night’s light meal, warm bath and a comfortable night in a good bed, had all gone a long way toward restoring her equilibrium.

Last night she’d all but decided to head to the airport this morning and book a flight back to Auckland. But she’d woken filled with a new sense of purpose—more determined than ever to make the most of her time here. Her mother had to be in the area somewhere. As far as she and Ethan were aware, checks were still being sent to her from their father’s estate—and none of the checks had ever been returned to sender. Last night she’d been too tired and too disheartened to remember that vital detail. Today was another matter entirely and she was thinking far more clearly. A call to Ethan would confirm the address her father’s lawyers used.

First order of the day though, after breakfast, was a trip to Blenheim to purchase some new clothes and luggage. She’d left Adelaide in such an all-fired hurry she’d arrived here in New Zealand with only the clothes she stood in and her handbag. Despite making use of the iron and ironing board stashed in her room’s wardrobe, her clothing was definitely looking the worse for wear.

She couldn’t wait to rid herself of her underwear, either—the pieces so carefully chosen to titillate and entice her then fiancé. Despite the fact she’d had to rinse out, dry and then rewear them twice now, she wouldn’t be happy until she’d seen them thrown into the trash.

They were yet another reminder of how foolishly naive she’d been—and how the people she’d trusted had let her down. Bile rose in her throat as she remembered how eager she’d been to surprise Trent just two nights ago. How she’d planned a romantic dinner and evening for two culminating in the slow and sexy removal of said lingerie. But the surprise had been all hers when she’d discovered him in bed with someone else—her personal assistant, Zac.

Once the hurt had begun to recede she’d felt such a fool. What kind of woman didn’t know her fiancé was gay? Worse, that he’d been prepared to marry her and simply string her along as a mask of respectability so he could continue his steady rise through the ranks of the old-school law firm he worked for.

She’d known that she only had to go home to have her family surrounding her, consoling her—but the thought had failed to comfort her. Her family had lied to her, too, had hidden things from her that she’d had the right to know. Her father, her uncle and aunts—they’d all known that her mother was alive, and they’d kept it from her. Even Ethan had hidden the truth from her once he found out, after their father’s death. Suddenly desperate to get away from the secrets, the evasions and the betrayals, she’d headed to the airport, determined not to return until she found some answers for a change.