Undercover Christmas Read online

  “Let me be the first to congratulate you.” He raised his glass in a toast. “Dayton. Felicia. To the firstborn grandchild of Jabe T. Calloway. A girl.” His gaze shifted to his father. “Jabe finally has what he wanted, a grandchild.” A tension Marni couldn’t comprehend danced in the air like Saint Elmo’s fire.

  Jabe got slowly to his feet. He picked up his glass and raised it. Marni started to raise hers, then realized the rest of the family hadn’t touched their champagne.

  “To my first grandchild,” Jabe said, his voice cracking with emotion. Or anger. Marni couldn’t tell which.

  He looked over at Marni. Her glass seemed filled with lead as she lifted it and he touched the rim of his glass to hers with a tinkling sound that echoed through the room. “To my first grandchild,” he repeated.

  Marni lifted the glass to her lips. No one else in the room had moved. She took a sip of the champagne, realizing that everyone was staring at her. She quickly put the glass down.

  “What’s going on here?” Dayton demanded sourly.

  Jabe looked at Chase.

  Marni thought she could have heard a snowflake drop in the room.

  “We may have double reason to celebrate,” Jabe said to Dayton. “I may have been blessed with not one grandchild, but two. It seems Elise is also carrying my grandchild. It appears it will be my first grandchild.” He shifted his gaze to Chase. “Chase’s child.”

  Felicia gasped. Dayton let out an oath. Vanessa looked across the great expanse of table at Marni, hatred in her eyes.

  But it was Chase’s reaction that worried Marni the most. He got up, hopped over to his crutches and left the room without a word.

  Chapter Three

  Jabe excused himself and went after his son, leaving Marni alone in the dining room with what was left of the family and their dagger-throwing glares. The silence in the room was stirling. But it didn’t last long. An argument between Chase and his father ensued outside the dining-room door.

  “How dare you make such an announcement without even discussing it with me first,” Chase bellowed.

  “Keep your voice down,” Jabe warned him. “You can’t just pretend you don’t know her.”

  “I don’t know her!”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Jabe said. “She told me in no uncertain terms how you feel about me. You must have made her…acquaintance. No one outside the family could paint such an unattractive—or accurate—picture.”

  “This is all your fault, you and your damned ego,” Chase said. “I told you not to change your will. I warned you not to do this. Now look what you’ve done.”

  “I offered you a chance to run my business, you turned it down.”

  “You aren’t going to lay this on me! I wouldn’t be surprised if you were behind this.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jabe demanded.

  “That woman. I wouldn’t be surprised if you put her up to this. You just don’t give up, do you?”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Jabe snapped. “You owe it to yourself to find out if she really is carrying your child.”

  “And I’m telling you I’ve never seen her before in my life.”

  “If you talk to her, you’ll find she’s very convincing,” Jabe said.

  “Well, she’s going to have a damned hard time convincing me. I happen to remember the women I sleep with.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Jabe asked, sounding almost reasonable. “Think of all the other things you haven’t been able to remember since the accident”

  “Believe me, I’d remember her,” Chase shot back. It sounded as if he’d started to leave, his crutches clopping across the floor.

  “She doesn’t seem the type to lie about something like this.”

  Chase’s hobbling stopped. “What type is that, Jabe? A woman like my mother?”

  Marni shot a look at Vanessa. She’d paled visibly.

  “I won’t have my first grandchild be a bastard,” Jabe boomed, his voice an iron glove of authority.

  “It was good enough for your first son,” Chase retorted just before a door slammed and silence filled the dining room again.

  Marni felt her head swim. Chase was Jabe’s firstborn son, wasn’t he?

  “I’m sorry, dear,” Vanessa said to Dayton as he got to his feet again.

  “Leave it to Chase to throw cold water on any family celebration, and Father to be…Father.” He gave Marni a mocking bow, and snagging a bottle of wine Lilly had missed, headed out through the kitchen with Felicia trailing along behind him.

  Chase certainly knew how to empty a room, Marni thought, then noticed with regret that she’d been left alone with Vanessa. And Vanessa looked as if she might start a food fight if given any provocation. What kind of family had El gotten herself involved with? What had Marni gotten herself into?

  Jabe returned to the room, looking tired. “I apologize for…” He couldn’t seem to find a word for what had happened. Neither could Marni. “But I assure you, I am a man of my word, Elise. You will have a chance to speak with my son before you leave. In the meantime—” He turned to Vanessa. “See that Elise gets a room and anything else she needs for the night.” With that he turned and left.

  After a long sigh, Vanessa rang for the housekeeper and instructed her to prepare a room for their guest. The way she said “guest” made it sound like “ax murderer.

  Marni noticed that the candle had burned down on the untouched cake. It flickered, barely alive, in a pool of wax. Vanessa snuffed it out with the serving knife in one swift swat and stabbed the knife into the heart of the cake with a good deal of what appeared to be pent-up aggression.

  Her hostess sat for a moment surveying the empty room before she looked again at Marni. She opened her mouth seemingly to speak and closed it, as though she’d thought better of it. Instead, she cut herself a thick slice of roast beef, stuck it and a half inch of butter into one of the rolls and took a healthy bite. As she chewed, she scrutinized her houseguest as if deciding how best to dispose of her. It seemed Jabe dictated she be nice to Marni. But if looks could kill…

  Marni stared down into her empty plate, considered having another slice of roast beef herself, vetoed the idea and sat thinking about the conversation she’d just overheard. She didn’t care about any of the particulars except one. Chase was sticking to his story that he didn’t know her. He didn’t even want to believe it was because of his temporary memory loss. The problem was: No man forgot Elise McCumber.

  “You must be tired,” Vanessa said after she’d polished off the last bite. “I’ll show you to your room.” As they got up, she instructed Hilda to save her a piece of cake. A every large one. Marni got the impression Vanessa had just fallen off her diet

  “I’ll leave it in your sitting room,” Hilda said conspir-atorially.

  Vanessa shot Marni a look, daring her to say a word.

  Not likely. As they entered the foyer, Vanessa glanced toward the library. “If you’ll excuse me for just a moment,” she said. Not waiting for a reply, she strode down the hall through the open doorway, closing the door firmly behind her.

  Marni grimaced as she imagined the choice words Vanessa must be sharing with her beloved husband at his moment, then turned her thoughts to her own precarious situation.

  Snowed in. Miles from everything. Seven months pregnant. Or so it seemed. Forced to spend the night in this huge, old—quite possibly haunted—house. With people who definitely hated her. Pretending to be her beguiling sister. All because of a man who swore he’d never seen her before—nor it seemed—her identical twin. How had she talked herself into this?

  She hadn’t even had a chance to really speak to Chase. And she couldn’t for the life of her understand the strange reactions of these people. Why had Vanessa been so happy about Dayton’s child but so upset by Chase’s? Was it just because this baby was conceived out of wedlock? Or did it have something to do with the argument she’d heard outside the dining-room door about Jabe’s firstborn being a bas
tard?

  And why hadn’t Elise told her any of this? Maybe Elise hadn’t known, Marni realized. She groaned. It seemed clearer and clearer that Elise didn’t know much about Chase Calloway. But how much could you learn in only four days?

  Marni turned at the soft sound of footsteps directly behind her. Lilly stumbled around the corner, the wine in her glass sloshing onto the floor as she came to a lurching stop at the sight of Marni.

  She smiled as she tried to rub the wine into the hardwood floor with her shoe, then staggered over to Marni, leaning toward her confidentially. “It isn’t going to work, you know.” Her words slurred. “You think I’m a fool? You think I don’t know what you’re really after? Pretending you’re carrying Chase’s baby. You don’t fool me.”

  “Lilly, do you want to sit down?” Before you fall down? Marni looked around for a chair. There were none.

  Lilly didn’t answer. She glanced down the hallway toward the library and dropped her voice. “You don’t really want him. It’s the money. You’re after the baby money.”

  Baby money? “Lilly, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Marni said softly, not sure why they were almost whispering, but feeling a little seasick just watching Lilly sway back and forth. She motioned toward the stairs. “Perhaps if we sit down—”

  “The first grandchild,” Lilly said, following Marni to the stairs. She plopped down hard on the first step, spilling more of her wine onto her dress. It looked like blood against the pale pink of the fabric.

  Marni sat down beside her. “What difference does it make if I’m having Jabe’s first grandchild or the fifth?” she asked.

  “Like you don’t know,” Lilly said with a smirk. “He told you about the change in Jabe’s will. He probably told you everything.”

  Right, like Chase had told Elise anything. “What does the change in Jabe’s will have to do with the first grandchild?” she asked again.

  Lilly straightened. “Jabe wants someone he can leave his…empire to. Chase turned it down. So Jabe changed his will to leave a fortune to his first grandchild,” she said, bitterness buoying her in a way not even strong, black coffee could have. “The other two sons end up with almost nothing.”

  “Why would he do that?” Marni exclaimed, realizing now exactly what she’d witnessed at dinner. Jabe Calloway had pitted his sons against one another, a baby race, and Elise had unwittingly become a part of it and was now it appeared, the leading contender. No wonder Dayton and Felicia had been so upset.

  “It should be my money,” Lilly said. She drained her glass and set it on the step beside her. Her gaze bobbed up to sear Marni with a hateful look. “Not yours”

  Marni heard the library door open and the sound of Vanessa’s voice drift toward them.

  “I assure you I knew nothing about this will.” Marni said quietly, but she could tell Lilly wasn’t listening, her attention drawn to the library instead.

  “I had the first grandchild,” Lilly whispered as she stumbled to her feet. “But Vanessa killed it.”

  “What?” Marni cried, jumping to her feet Surely Lilly was too drunk to know what she was saying.

  But Marni felt a chill as she witnessed the fear she saw in the woman’s eyes as Lilly lurched around the side of the staircase at the sound of Vanessa’s high heels thumping across the hardwood floor toward them. Marni started to follow Lilly, afraid the woman would hurt herself in the state she was in, but Lilly motioned for her not to. The pleading in her wide-eyed gaze stopped Marni. What was she so afraid of? Vanessa? Or Vanessa catching her this inebriated?

  Marni watched in surprise as Lilly touched the wall behind her and a narrow door silently slid open. Lilly slipped into what appeared to be a passageway and disappeared, the door sliding shut behind her with only a whisper.

  “Are you ready?” Vanessa demanded.

  Marni jumped as she swung around to find Vanessa glaring at her. The conversation in the library must not have gone well.

  “Is something wrong?” Vanessa asked, her gaze narrowing as it settled on the empty glass resting on the bottom stair where Lilly had left it.

  “You just startled me,” Marni said quickly.

  Vanessa nodded suspiciously. Then she picked up the empty wineglass with obvious annoyance, and placed it on the marble-topped table to the left of the stairs. “Hilda should have your room ready.” Without giving Marni a backward glance, Vanessa started up the stairs.

  Marni followed her up the wide circular staircase, realizing that the longer she was in this house, the more questions she had about Chase and his family. She shook her head, confused but too smart to ask Vanessa anything.

  As she climbed the stairs, Marni found herself looking over her shoulder. You’re getting a little paranoid. Yeah? Well, who wouldn’t be in this house? She tried to laugh off the feeling that she was being watched. Spied on. That someone definitely didn’t want her here. She almost laughed at the thought. No one wanted her here and it wasn’t as though they’d made a secret of it.

  As Vanessa led her toward the third floor, Marni glanced back again, thinking about Chase Calloway. She had so many questions, but only one that really mattered. Could it be possible he was the man Elise thought he was and this was just a misunderstanding because of his memory loss? Then why, her skeptical side questioned, is he so adamant that El couldn’t be carrying his child?

  Marni had almost reached the top of the stairs when suddenly her right foot slipped. She grasped for the railing but wasn’t close enough to reach it. She felt herself teeter and start to fall backward. Two strong hands grabbed her.

  “Are you all right?” Hayes cried as he steadied her.

  It took Marni a moment to assure herself she wasn’t at that moment cartwheeling to the bottom of the long, curved staircase. She looked up, wondering where Hayes had come from so suddenly, and realized he’d been waiting in a small alcove on the stairs. As odd as that seemed, Marni was thankful he’d been there. It also explained that paranoid feeling that someone was watching her. She almost laughed in relief.

  “Thank you. I must have slipped.” Marni spotted the cause of her near accident—a colorful silk scarf on the stairs—about the same time as Hayes and his mother did.

  Vanessa”s hand went to her throat, her look one of shock. “Did I drop that? I didn’t even realize I was wearing it.” She stepped back down the stairs to pluck up the scarf. “How careless of me.”

  “Mother,” Hayes said, the reprimand clear in his voice. “She could have been killed and the baby—” He stopped, distress in his expression

  “It mustn’t happen again,” Hayes said to his mother.

  Vanessa looked as if he’d slapped her. “It was an accident.” Her voice sounded close to tears.

  A chill wrapped its icy fingers around Marni’s throat as she watched Vanessa retie the scarf around her neck. It mustn’t happen again?

  “Go find your wife,” Vanessa said to Hayes. “She needs you.”

  Hayes glared for a moment at his mother, a silent accusation in his eyes that even Marni couldn’t miss before he turned and left.

  Vanessa led the way to what Marni guessed was the guest bedroom. What had Hayes meant by “It mustn’t happen again"? Had there been other falls down the stairs? Marni wondered as she stepped through the doorway Vanessa now held open for her. Is that how Lilly had lost her baby? Or had he meant another baby mustn’t die in this house? Whatever, it gave Marni a chill not even the fire in the small rock fireplace in the corner could throw off.

  The bedroom was spacious and not quite as masculine as the library was, even with the king-size log bed, matching log furniture and antler-based lamps.

  The covers had been turned down on the bed and the flannel sheets looked inviting. So did the huge claw-foot tub she glimpsed in the bathroom.

  Marni glanced a little apprehensively at the adjoining bedroom door, however.

  Vanessa must have noticed. “The room next door is Chase’s.”

  Whose idea was t
hat? Marni asked herself.

  “It locks from either side,” Vanessa said.

  “Thank you,” Marni said, still curious about the woman’s antagonism toward her. That had been an accident on the stairs, hadn’t it?

  Marni noticed a light blue striped shirt and a black velour robe had been left for her on the bed. Both garments were obviously male. Vanessa frowned when she saw them and Marni wondered whose they were.

  “There are candles beside the bed. When it storms, the power often goes out. If there is anything else you need…” Her voice trailed off, then, “Breakfast is at eight.”

  Marni could see that being forced to be nice was taking its toll on the woman. “I’ll be gone first thing in the morning,” she said. “Right after I talk to Chase.”

  If she thought that news would please Vanessa, she was sadly mistaken. The woman gave her an icy stare. “Good night,” she said and left, closing the door firmly behind her.

  Marni stood in the middle of the room suddenly too tired to move. What a day! She felt worn-out by everything that had happened and even more tired by trying to understand Chase Calloway and his decidedly weird family. That wasn’t fair, she told herself. She’d thrown his family into turmoil by showing up in an advanced stage of pregnancy claiming to be carrying Chase’s child.

  She considered knocking on the adjoining door and trying to talk to him, but it was late and she didn’t feel up to it. Morning would be soon enough to have her final say before she left.

  Marni walked to the window and looked out into the storm. Outside, a Montana blizzard raged. Snow fell, dense and deep, smothering the mountain landscape with cold white. It was as beautiful as it was confining. A white Christmas. Marni had to remind herself Christmas was just days away. Little in the Calloway house reflected the season. And something told her there wouldn’t be much Christmas spirit at the Calloways’ this year.

  She started to move away from the window, but stopped as she heard a faint sound. It seemed to be coming up through the heat vent. She leaned closer, surprised to hear a baby crying softly. Marni frowned. All that talk about the first grandchild at dinner…Whose baby was this? she wondered.