Hidden Legacy

He’d shared that smile with Zizi. No wonder she’d softened toward him. Alyssa had no difficulty picturing the two of them sitting here in the kitchen as they were doing now, sharing a cup of coffee. She could see Zizi letting him make it.

Alyssa shook her head, trying not only to conceal her reaction to this man, but also to push it away. “Not yet,” she answered. She picked up another sandwich, scarcely aware of what she was doing. “Does your father know any of this? If it’s true.”

“Everyone in the family knows that Julian was madly in love with Elizabeth Jane Calvert when they were young. We also know it was serious between them. Everyone expected a wedding, but in the end nothing came of it. Julian never married.”

“Neither did Zizi. So what? Perhaps they were genuine loners. There are people like that. Zizi was reclusive. She was eccentric—I can’t deny that—but she was the most lovable woman in the world.”

“And one of the most secretive, it seems,” he said with quiet irony.

Alyssa shook her head once more. “Provided what you’re telling me is true,” she repeated. “We’ve only got your great-uncle’s word for it. Artists are highly imaginative people. Perhaps he dreamed up this epic love affair? Perhaps the love was all on his side? He wouldn’t be the first or the last to get it all wrong.”

“You wouldn’t say that if you knew him.” He swallowed a mouthful of coffee. “Besides, there’s more.”

Her laugh was slightly hysterical. “Of course there’s more! Next you’ll be telling me there was a child, in the true tradition of soap opera.”

“Which nevertheless manages to echo real life.” His voice was so grave it gave her a jolt of foreboding. “Why don’t you finish those sandwiches,” he urged.

Her skin flushed. “I must really look like I need reviving.”

“You do. More coffee?”

“Yes, please.”

He refilled her cup, topped up his own, then sat down again. “There’s no easy way to go about any of this, Alyssa. Not for you, not for me, certainly not for Elizabeth. Not for Uncle Julian. Or for that matter, the Langfords.”

Her tenuous control snapped. She set down her coffee cup so forcefully, it clattered against the saucer. “What on earth have they got to do with it?” she asked. “They’re ancient history. I assume you’re talking about the Langfords, as in LCL?”

He nodded, a glitter in his eyes. “Richard Langford had a great many shares in the family company, as you might imagine.”

“So? They would’ve passed to his heirs. Why have you really come here, Adam? To stir up trouble?”

“I told you.” Muscles bunched along his firm jawline.

“I came as my great-uncle’s emissary. He desperately wants to know before he dies if Elizabeth’s child was his or Langford’s.”

Shock flooded her. She opened her mouth to protest, but no sound emerged. For an instant she feared she might faint. Her brain seemed totally dislocated from her heart. Elizabeth’s child?

“Alyssa!” He was on his feet, shoving back his chair.

“Here, put your head down.” He placed his hand on her nape, his touch gentle but nonetheless compelling.

For a full minute she obeyed, then when she felt better, she shook off his hand. She was angry and afraid of his effect on her. She’d felt that touch of his hand not only on her neck, but in her breasts, the pit of her stomach, between her legs. If she put all those sensations together, what did she get? She fought to compose herself. “I’m fine.”

“Just sit quietly for a moment,” he advised, himself so affected by a moment so intimate he wished now he hadn’t touched her. Was it possible she truly didn’t know about Elizabeth’s baby?

I’ve got to stop this, Adam thought. Start again another time.

“This is a shocking conversation, isn’t it?” she lamented. “Zizi never had a child. I’m sorry to have to say it, but Julian Wainwright must be crazy. There’s a name for it, isn’t there? Erotomania, something like that. The poor man must be fantasizing, especially if he’s pumped full of drugs.”

He looked at her with compassion. “If Elizabeth told you so little—after all you were a child when she was already a middle-aged woman—surely someone else in your family knows. Her sister, Mariel, perhaps?”

“No way! Zizi never married. She never had a child. Do you seriously believe we wouldn’t know if she had?”

He sat back, staring at her. Her emotional upheaval appeared real. “It’s happened before,” he mused. “All families have secrets, even from one another. The thing is, secrets don’t always remain buried. My aim isn’t to shock or upset you, Alyssa. I see I have, but you must trust me on this. Elizabeth did have a child. What Julian’s desperate to know is who was the biological father. Julian’s a very rich man. He’s made his will, but it’s obvious to us all that he doesn’t feel he’s put his affairs in order. Over the years he begged Elizabeth for the truth. She always said the child died within twenty-four hours of its birth. We now know that’s not what happened.”

“We?” she cried. “Who’s we, your dying uncle and you? It’s all hearsay in your case. And it’s not true! None of it is true! I hate when people make up lies. I hate you. Zizi must have hated you.”

He gave a half smile. “I think Elizabeth braced herself the moment she laid eyes on me. I’m told I look very much like Julian as a young man. Elizabeth, for reasons of her own, appears to have led a life of deception. In doing so she turned her back on fame and fortune, a full life, a successful career. All the things most people would give anything to have. I think some part of her was greatly relieved it was all coming to an end.”

Every nerve in her body was jittering. “Was she going to rejoice that all the skeletons would come tumbling out of the closet?” She didn’t hide her outrage at the insult to Zizi’s memory.

“Can’t you see it as a release? Elizabeth didn’t bar me from the house. The truth is, she was comfortable with me. Unfortunately I’d barely begun my voyage of discovery before she had her fatal fall.”

“Are you sure you weren’t there at the time?” It simply stormed out of her before she could claw back control.

“I’ll forget you said that.” His expression went taut.

“I’m sorry.” She rested her aching head on her hand.

“I hardly know what I’m saying. But why should I sit here and listen to you destroying all my illusions about the Zizi I loved?”

“The closer the link, the more intense the pain,” he said. “Elizabeth Calvert was a riddle. Secrets were her way of life.”

“Secrets and secret lovers!” Alyssa laughed bitterly.

“I’m sorry, but it’s all too far-fetched for me. Sadly Zizi’s not here to defend herself. Julian Wainwright might well be delusional. It’s not uncommon. Even so, lovers are one thing, but saying Zizi was an unmarried mother not even sure of the identity of her child’s father is quite another. Zizi may have been different, but she was much loved by her family. They would’ve looked after her. They would have protected her. She had her sister, as you seem to know—my grandmother, Mariel. Do you really believe Mariel would have let Zizi go through a pregnancy by herself?”

“Very possibly Mariel didn’t know about it,” he suggested. “Based on the little I saw of Elizabeth, I’d say she would try to see it through by herself. Again, not uncommon.”

Alyssa found herself grinding her teeth. If all of this was true, nothing could restore her faith in Zizi. “There’s never been one word about any unwanted pregnancy.”

“Who said it was unwanted?” he asked.

Anger spurted again. Had Zizi really had such a tempestuous past? What was I really? she thought wretchedly, as doubts started to pour through her breached defenses. The perennial seven-year-old who implicitly accepted whatever Zizi told her? Of course she was.

“Elizabeth was only starting to open up,” Adam Hunt was saying. “She’d committed her youth to the deepest vault. I suspect that whatever happened to her so traumatized her, she withdrew from the world. The further tragedy was her accidental death.”

Alyssa lifted her hands helplessly. “Something I just don’t understand. Zizi didn’t use that bath, not since she had a near-accident some time back.”

He shook his head. “I wouldn’t know anything about that. There was no hint of anything untoward. It was a tragic accident. One that’s quite common in that age group.”

It was difficult to deny. “That must have been awful for you.” Her beautiful eyes welled with tears she blinked away.

“Devastating,” he said, still seared by the memory.

“When I first entered the bathroom, for some reason, suicide came to mind.”

Alyssa drew back obviously, astounded. “Suicide? I can’t consider that for a moment. Zizi wasn’t the type.”