Secret Whispers (Heavenstone 2)

“He wanted me to come to his office today, but I asked if he could just send them over.”

“Good. I like you here to babysit the house,” she said, smiling. “You know that old expression: When the cat’s away, the mice will play. What are you reading these days? My father was so critical of whatever I read. I had to be sure it had some intrinsic value and wasn’t simply entertainment.”

“The Magic Slipper.”

“I don’t know it.”

“It’s a modern-day version of Cinderella, which even your father might think has intrinsic value, as you say.”

She laughed. “I doubt it. I had to bribe my mother to get permission to see Beauty and the Beast. ”

“How sad. Speaking of reading, however,” I said as we reached the bottom of the stairway, “I was wondering if you might have picked up some mail for me accidentally.”

“Mail?” She paused. “When?”

“Yesterday, maybe?”

“Oh. You know, maybe I did. I just scooped up the pile and brought it to your father’s office. I haven’t gone through half of it,” she said. “Are you expecting mail?”

I shrugged.

“Well, why would you think I accidentally picked up something addressed to you?” she asked suspiciously.

“I just wondered,” I said. “Some of the girls mentioned they’d keep in touch.”

I knew Mrs. Dobson had told me she wasn’t afraid of my mentioning her seeing the envelope addressed to me, but unless I had to do it, I saw no reason to get her on Lucille’s bad side.

“Oh, I see. Well, you’re quite welcome to go to the office and look through the pile yourself,” Lucille said coolly. “I’m just grabbing a little breakfast and then leaving. I’ve been on such a merry-go-round with the wedding preparations, business issues, and social events, I haven’t had a moment to think about the mail. I do hope there’s something nice there for you,” she added, and walked on to the dining room.

Either she was a great actress or she really had accidentally taken a letter addressed to me, I thought as I walked to the office. Cassie was already there, standing behind Daddy’s desk.

“Accidentally? Or she’s a great actress? Take a wild guess which it is,” she said.

I ignored her and went to the mail stacked on the desk. I was only halfway into it before I found the letter. It was from Ethan.

“She read it,” Cassie said. “She steamed it open and read it.”

I turned the envelope over and looked at it carefully. The edge of the seal was slightly torn and when I brought it into more light, it did look as if some glue had been reapplied. But unless I had a forensics expert check the fingerprints on the letter inside, I really couldn’t be sure. I opened it, took out the letter, and sat behind the desk to read it. I saw from the date that it was nearly a week old.

Dear Semantha,

I was sorry to have missed your graduation. The fact is, I even missed my own. I was called home because my father had a heart attack. It was touch and go for the first few days, and then the doctors decided to operate and do a triple bypass. It went well, but I remained here during his first weeks of recuperation. Naturally, I put my own life on hold. He’s doing well now.

I hope your graduation went well and your family enjoyed being there. I know how hard it was for you the last few days at Collier, and I wish I could have been there for you.

Perhaps we’ll see each other again in the near future. Despite the craziness toward the end, I really did enjoy our time together. Let me know how you are doing.

Love, Ethan

He’d added his e-mail address at the bottom. I folded the letter and put it back into the envelope. How unexpected this was. When Ethan hadn’t shown up or called the day of my graduation, I had assumed that after all he had learned about my past and all of the commotion because of Ellie, he wanted no more to do with me. I had all but written him out of my life, fighting back any nice memories that tried to rise to the surface like bubbles in a pond. Even Lucille’s questions didn’t raise any new hope in me. I waited to hear Cassie say something sarcastic or nasty about Ethan’s letter, but she was silent.

“Anything there for you?” Lucille asked when I entered the dining room. She was looking at the newspaper’s society page and sipping her coffee, sitting, I noted, in Daddy’s seat.

“Yes.” I put the envelope in front of me on the table.

“Oh. I do apologize. I’ve been rushing about these days and simply missed it.”

Mrs. Dobson came in to bring me my juice and a bowl of my favorite cereal and fruit. Lucille waited for her to leave.