Secrets by Jude Deveraux Read Free Book Online

don’t you? Thank you for championing me, but I do feel guilty in a lot of ways. Kenneth had to work for what he had, but I…” She gave a little shrug.
    â€œYou had raw, natural talent,” Dana said.
    â€œI had hunger,” Althea answered.
    Dana and Cassie nodded. They knew Althea’s story, as did most of the United States, thanks to the movie that had won Althea her first Academy Award. She was born to a beautiful, ambitious, husbandless mother who wanted to be in the movies, so she’d dragged her infant to Hollywood when the place was mostly desert. The problem had come when the woman was found to have no talent whatever. But that hadn’t stopped her from trying to push her way in front of the camera. She’d been unable to afford child care so she’d dragged her daughter to the sets and left her to fend for herself. One day, a director needed a child to play a small part, he’d seen Althea sitting in the shade with a coloring book, and he’d put her in the role.
    As they say, the rest was history. Althea had all the talent her mother yearned for but didn’t have. From the time she was three Althea lived on movie sets, and as her fame and wealth grew, her mother’s extravagant lifestyle increased. The woman died when Althea was twenty-eight. Everyone said it was a good thing because Althea found herself not only broke but also deeply in debt. Her mother had not only spent all that Althea had earned, but also had borrowed heavily on her daughter’s talent. Biographies and the resulting movie—in which Althea played herself—told of the hardship she’d gone through to pay off the debts and to keep her dignity while doing it. The movie ended when her husband filed for divorce the day after he read the reviews of her stage performance. In one of the all-time greatest scenes, Althea vowed that she’d not only survive, but she’d triumph.
    â€œHere, have one of these raspberry tarts,” Althea said, holding out the plate. “The young man who works for me has a stand of raspberry bushes somewhere about the place. Perhaps you could bring the young lady over here sometime and pick them,” Althea said to Cassie.
    Cassie took another tart, but Dana didn’t. “Skylar?” Cassie asked. “I don’t think she’d like to—Oh, sorry, you meant Elsbeth.”
    â€œSkylar. That’s David Beaumont’s daughter’s name, isn’t it?”
    At even the thought of Skylar and the rapidly approaching end of her time with Jeff and Thomas and dear little Elsbeth, Cassie’s eyes teared up. “Yes, that’s her name,” she said softly. “I think she’ll soon be Elsbeth’s mother.”
    Althea looked from one woman to the other, Cassie with her head down, staring at her half-eaten tart on the pretty porcelain plate, and Dana sitting ramrod straight, with all emotion erased from her face, as though she dared anyone to know what was really inside her. “Men are fools, aren’t they?” Althea said, putting down her teacup. “I am the only thing other than the theater that Kenneth Ridgeway has ever loved, but he’d die before he admitted that. So what does he do but come here every six weeks and put on a grand performance in order to get money from me. The poor dear doesn’t have a cent.”
    â€œHe probably thinks his performance is worth your money,” Dana said.
    â€œI’m sure he does,” Althea answered. “In fact—”
    She broke off when the door was loudly pushed open and in came a divinely handsome young man. He had a beautiful face, dark blond hair that looked as though the breeze had just ruffled it, and he wore jeans and a knit shirt that showed off his well-sculpted body.
    â€œYou were shot at?” the young man said in anger, glaring down at Althea. “How did he get through? Rosalie said it was your ex-husband