Undercover Christmas

“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 that? 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.

The sound stopped as abruptly as it had begun. With a shiver, Marni stepped away from the window to lock the hallway door. A hot bath. That’s what she needed. Something to get her mind off El, Chase, his family, this house—

As she entered the bathroom, Marni stopped, shocked by what she was doing. Waddling. She was taking this whole pregnancy thing way too seriously.

She started filling the tub, splashed in a generous amount of the vanilla-scented bubble bath she found on a shelf at the foot of the tub and hurriedly undressed, anxious to get the maternity form off and end this ridiculous charade at least for a few hours.

But as she slipped into the tub sans Sam and let the bubbles caress her nakedness, she felt a stab of regret that took her a moment even to recognize. She missed Sam.

With a groan she sank under the water. What was wrong with her? She’d never even thought about children of her own and now she was getting attached to a maternity form? No, not a maternity form, she thought as she surfaced. A pretend child named Sam. Chase Calloway’s son. Geez.

She heard a soft knock at her hallway door and started to call that she was in the tub but stopped herself. The last thing she wanted was another confrontation with someone else in this family—especially right now, naked in the tub, with her bubbles dissolving and her body unpregnant.

Whoever it was knocked again. Softly. As if they didn’t want the rest of the house to know they’d come to see her? Chase? Surprised, she listened as the person tried the knob. Please let it be locked. The knob started to turn. And stopped. Locked. Footfalls retreated down the hall. Marni let out the breath she’d been holding.

Relieved, she leaned back in the tub and closed her eyes, doing her best not even to think about Chase Calloway. But her thoughts went to him as swiftly as an arrow shot from a bow. What was his story? And more to the point, how could Elise have fallen for such a disagreeable man?

The water began to cool and Marni climbed out and quickly dried herself, curious to know who her earlier visitor had been. Would her caller have come in if the door hadn’t been locked? It appeared so. She doubted it was Chase. It seemed odd that he’d use the hallway door instead of their adjoining one. It seemed even odder anyone would try the door when she didn’t answer the knock.

Whoever it was might return, she thought, realizing she’d have to put the maternity form back on. She didn’t relish the idea, but it was better than getting caught unpregnant by Chase Calloway. No amount of explaining would get that man to believe her.

But at least she could get comfortable. After putting the form back on, she wandered into the bedroom, picked up the loaned shirt from the bed and pulled it on over the maternity form. It was large enough that the soft fabric covered her to her knees.

Her earlier tiredness came back suddenly and she couldn’t wait to climb between the flannel sheets of the massive bed. That’s when she remembered she hadn’t locked the door between her room and Chase’s. Buttoning the shirt on her way, she waddled to the door and reached for the knob. The door must not have been closed soundly. The moment she touched the knob, the door creaked open and a deep, angry voice bellowed, “What the hell do you want?”

Marni jumped at the sound of Chase’s voice. “I—” She grimaced as she heard him limping across the floor toward her, the crutches beating a path to her.

The door banged open and Chase filled the space between their rooms. “Look, woman—” His gaze dropped from her face to her chest. She caught the smell of brandy on his warm breath as he leaned toward her. “Is that one of my shirts? What the hell are you doing in my shirt?”

“Someone left it for me,” Marni said defensively. “The way your mother acted, I just assumed it was Jabe’s.” Her chin went up to show him she wasn’t afraid, but her traitorous feet stumbled back a step from the fury in his eyes.

“My mother?” His gaze narrowed. “That proves how little you know about me. Vanessa’s not my mother.”

Marni stared at him. Well, that explained a lot. Did Elise know anything about this man? “Dayton and Hayes are your…”

“Half brothers.” Chase hobbled toward her, forcing her into a corner. “How can you pretend we were lovers and his is my baby, when you know nothing about me?” he demanded.

Marni felt the hellfire of his gaze and wanted to proclaim her honesty but it was hard to do, all things considered. She lifted her chin again and met his blue eyes, frantically trying to imagine what Elise would say in answer to his very reasonable question. She had no idea, having never met a man like Chase Calloway. All she knew was that he made her nervous. Self-conscious. Unsure of herself.

“I thought I heard a baby crying,” Marni said, motioning toward the heat vent, belatedly realizing he’d see right through her clumsy attempt to change the subject.

“A baby? There is no baby in this house.” His gaze dropped to her swollen form. “Yet.”

No baby? But she’d heard a baby crying. Or had she? Her eyes widened. No, it couldn’t be. This pretend pregnancy made her waddle, even vulnerable to emotions she couldn’t remember ever having before. But surely it didn’t make her imagine crying babies?

She realized Chase was waiting for an answer to his original question. She felt at a loss as to how to reply.

He gave her an impatient look and she knew she’d have to say something. She took a deep breath and, closing her eyes, concentrated. She imagined she was Elise and that this man standing in front of her was her lover. Her eyes flew open; she felt the flushed heat of embarrassment rush to her cheeks as the sudden, crystal-clear image of the two of them unclothed branded itself on her brain.