Secrets by Jude Deveraux Read Free Book Online Page B

to have our own children.” She looked straight ahead, avoiding the eyes of both women.
    â€œThat’s neither here nor there,” Althea said, looking at Cassie. “My point is that if Jefferson marries Skylar, you’re going to need a job. I wonder if I could persuade you to work for me as a sort of social secretary and a researcher.”
    â€œI don’t know,” Cassie said slowly. The truth was that she couldn’t actually imagine a time when she wasn’t living with Elsbeth and Jeff and Thomas. To go from living with them to being at the beck and call of this woman…She just couldn’t conceive of it. “I’ll have to think about it.”
    â€œOf course. But remember that if you work here you’ll be near the child.” Althea leaned forward. “Or is it Jefferson who you want to be near?”
    Cassie also leaned forward. “If he was interested in me, he wouldn’t be marrying Skylar, now would he?”
    Althea laughed. “You’ve got some backbone, don’t you?”
    Dana started to say something, but suddenly there were noises from behind the door that led into the main part of the house. When a man’s voice sounded, Althea listened, then stood up. Moments before, she’d been nearly helpless, an old woman in distress, but she stood up with the energy of a woman a third her age.
    â€œI apologize, but I have something I must take care of,” she said quickly, then went to the door that led out to the veranda and opened it. “Perhaps you wouldn’t mind going out this way.”
    â€œOf course,” Dana murmured and went to the door, Cassie beside her.
    â€œCould I presume to ask that you tell no one of this?” Althea said.
    â€œYou know how gossip is in this place. I wouldn’t want the tabloids writing something about Kenneth.”
    â€œWe won’t tell anyone,” Cassie said. “It’ll be our secret. We’ll—”
    She broke off because Althea nearly shoved her out the door, Dana in front of her, and shut the door firmly behind them. In the next second, they heard muffled voices, but when they turned to look, the curtains had already been drawn.
    â€œWell,” Dana said as they walked through the garden and back toward the little beach.
    â€œYes, well,” Cassie said. Had Dana been her friend, she would have suggested that they go to the club for lunch and talk about what had just happened. But Dana wasn’t a friend, so she didn’t. “I’m glad we were around to help,” Cassie said at last, but then she looked at the beach with longing. Never again would she feel that she could use the beach, and she and Elsbeth were going to miss it. “Well, uh…” Cassie wasn’t sure what to say to Dana. She’d learned a lot in the last hour, and none of it was particularly good.
    â€œYes,” was all Dana said, then they parted at the end of the garden, each of them going in opposite directions to their houses that flanked the Fairmont mansion.
    But when Cassie got home—no, correction, to Jeff’s house—she couldn’t bear being in the house alone, so she went downtown to the farmers’ market. When people first moved to Williamsburg they were shocked that “downtown” meant Colonial Williamsburg. They assumed that the beautiful, restored city of eighteenth-century houses was for tourists and that the residents had somewhere else to do their shopping. There were lots of stores in Williamsburg, even an outlet mall that could make one dizzy with the variety and quality of goods for sale, but where was the downtown? The confusion between tourist and resident led to the building of New Town, a pristine, modern—but Colonial-looking—town not far from William and Mary College. New Town was a place where people could get a haircut or sit at a sidewalk café to eat. There was a to-die-for bookstore, and the courthouse,