Secret Whispers (Heavenstone 2)

Lucille smiled that smile she gave when she wanted me to feel like a much younger girl, someone who needed doors and windows opened so she could see what was going on in the real world.

“When you reach your father’s and my social level, Semantha, everything we do has political implications.” She turned back to Daddy and gazed at him with admiration as she slipped her right hand into his left. “Your father knows I have secret ambitions for him.”

“What secret ambitions?”

“Oh, Lucille,” he said. “Let’s not talk about any of that now.”

“No, Teddy, she should know. She’s a grown woman now, and besides, she should be part of every important family decision.” Lucille turned back to me. “There’s been some serious talk about your father running for governor at the end of the present governor’s term. He has a little more than two years left, and he’s made it clear that he won’t run again.”

“But . . .” I turned to Daddy. “How can you be governor and still run the Heaven-stone Corporation?”

Lucille looked to him for his answer, too.

“Well . . . Lucille is coming aboard to assume, assist, and take on some of my executive responsibilities,” he replied. “In time, she can take on more.”

It had the sound of a rehearsed and memorized answer, one she had planted in his head.

She nodded, released Daddy’s hand, and turned back to me.

“Which is why I urged you earlier to give second and third thoughts to your getting yourself involved with your uncle in a rather minor part of our business right now. As I assume more business responsibilities, it will fall more and more on your shoulders to manage this great house. I’ll help you gain more of the needed experience as soon as we return from our honeymoon, but don’t underestimate how important this is to the Heaven-stone image and reputation.

“And,” she added, reaching across the table to take Daddy’s hand again, “how important this house and its history are to your father. I’m sure he would want someone he could trust, someone who understands the heritage, to take charge while we’re off doing our work. Naturally, after your father is elected governor, we’ll all move into the governor’s mansion, but we won’t let a single dead lightbulb go unchanged here.”

She looked at me again.

“Unless, of course, you’re romantically involved with someone and perhaps still living here. Then all our problems are solved.”

I stared at her, stunned. She wasn’t only planning her own future with my father. She was planning mine as well.

Daddy widened his smile. “She’s quite an executive thinker, our Lucille,” Daddy said. He patted her hand. “Okay, I’ll have a talk with Perry and smooth it over. You go forward with Senator Brice.”

I felt the breath get caught in my throat again. Of course, if Daddy asked him, Uncle Perry would step aside, but I knew in my heart that he would be terribly and deeply hurt. How could Daddy not realize it, too?

“That’s wonderful, Teddy,” Lucille said.

They stared at each other lovingly for a moment, and then Daddy stood up.

“I’ve got some work to get back to at the office,” he said. “There were a few things I had left to do and would rather have done before morning.”

“I’ll walk you out,” she told him, and put her arm through his. When she looked back at me, I thought she wore an expression of utter self-confidence and power. It was as if she said, See, he’s putty in my hands.

I watched them leave and then went out to the rear patio again and looked over the grounds toward where the altar was to be set up for them to take their vows. The bottom of my stomach felt full of worms. I took some deep breaths and stepped down to walk toward the pool and cabana. Cassie stepped out of a shadow cast by one of our great old oak trees. She said nothing at first. She just walked along with me.

“Still want to close doors in my face and shut me up?” she finally asked. I said nothing, just walked. “When a man makes that much of a fool of himself over a woman, you can’t depend on him for anything. The fact is, Semantha, you’ll have to become Daddy’s eyes and ears. It will fall to you to wake him up.”

I continued walking, even though she paused.

“You’re going to need my help!” she shouted after me. “Do you want my help or not? I’m not going to beg you, Semantha. Well?”

I paused, thought a moment, and turned around. “Yes,” I said.

She caught up with me, and we walked side by side, neither of us saying much. It was like the old days before everything terrible had happened, the time when I used to think we could be wonderful sisters, the Heaven-stone sisters, the most famous two sisters in all of Kentucky, with our picture together in the newspapers and magazines. Underneath, the caption would read Beauty and Brains. We would be thought of as two parts of one wonderful person.

I felt Cassie slip her hand into mine. “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “We’ll save him and save ourselves.”

“What about my little girl?” I muttered. “Who will save her?”

My hand felt empty, and when I turned to look, she was gone.