Return To Rose Cottage: The Laws of Attraction

How often had she said exactly that? Ashley wondered. She had believed it, too, but knowing that she’d been responsible for putting a violent, totally amoral man back on the streets made her sick.

Having been validated by numerous acquittals from juries, Ashley had gotten used to believing she was always right. She’d grown comfortable looking at the law and its loopholes more intently than the crime and its victims. Maybe that was sound law and a solid defense tactic, but she was beginning to question whether it had anything at all to do with justice.

“The man made a complete fool of me,” Ashley told her sisters. “How am I ever supposed to trust my own judgment again? How can anyone else? After this, if I said it was sunny, I’d expect people to check for a second opinion. And what client would want me, knowing that every jury is going to regard me with total skepticism from the outset? It’s hard enough to fight the evidence in most cases without the added liability of having a controversial lawyer.”

“This was one case out of how many?” Maggie asked, regarding her sister worriedly. “Stop beating yourself up. You have an excellent track record, Ashley. The papers describe you as brilliant, relentless, passionate about the law.”

“Not today,” Ashley retorted, gesturing toward the stack of newspapers on her coffee table. She’d read them all with a sort of morbid fascination, just as she’d watched every newscast. “Today they’re asking questions about how many other criminals I’ve helped to set free. I have to admit, I’ve been wondering that myself.”

Jo regarded her indignantly. She was the quietest of the D’Angelo sisters, the most sensitive, but when she felt strongly about something, she could make herself heard above their nonstop boisterous chatter.

“Do you really think for one minute that you’ve intentionally set out to free a bunch of criminals?” Jo demanded. “Because if you do, then you’re right. You need to get out of law. You need to find some other field where your mistakes in judgment don’t matter, where you can’t ever be fooled by a clever client.”

“I honestly don’t know what I’m doing anymore,” Ashley replied. Uncertainty was an unfamiliar feeling, and she didn’t like it. She’d always been the D’Angelo with a sense of purpose. She was the confident big sister who protected the rest of them. She didn’t like being the object of their pity. She didn’t like needing them, rather than the other way around.

“A day ago I would have said I was a champion for the truth,” she added. “Now I’m wondering if I’m not just a clever lawyer who’s easily duped by a little charm and just the right note of righteous indignation.” She stared bleakly around the room. “Look at all this fancy stuff I’ve accumulated because I’m good at my job. When I had to look the victim’s son and daughter in the eye today and tell them I was sorry, I felt like a failure and a fraud.”

Her three sisters exchanged a look, then seemed to reach some sort of silent, mutual decision.

“Okay, that’s enough self-pity, Ashley. Sackcloth and ashes don’t suit you. You’re coming back to Virginia with us,” Melanie said decisively. “A month or two at Rose Cottage is what you need. You promised Maggie you’d come back after the trial anyway. Now it’ll just be for a little longer, until you get your feet back under you.”

Ashley stared at her younger sister, horrified by the prospect of an entire week—much less a couple of months—away from work. Work defined her. Of course, today that definition pretty much reeked.

“No way,” she said fiercely. “I know you and Maggie thrived while staying in grandmother’s old cottage, but I’m not cut out for the boonies. A weekend is about as much as I can take.” She scowled at Maggie. “I thought I’d made that clear.”

“Hey, you’re the one who’s been carrying the key around with you as a talisman all these years,” Maggie reminded her. “Now it’s time you made use of it. Melanie’s right—you need to get away. You need to think. You can try to figure out what went wrong this time and stop it from ever happening again. Or you can decide to chuck law and do something else entirely. The one thing we won’t let you do is sit around and wallow in self-pity.”

“As if there are a lot of other career options open to me,” Ashley said bitingly. “I’m a lawyer. That’s all I know how to do.”

Maggie rolled her eyes. “If you were bright enough to graduate from law school with honors, you can probably find another career in which to excel, if it comes to that. You have to take this break, Ashley. You owe it to yourself. For you to overreact like this, it’s obvious you’re burned-out. You’ve been working at a breakneck pace ever since law school in order to jump on that fast track at your law firm. It’s time to slow down and re-evaluate.”

“I agree,” Jo said, her jaw set stubbornly. “These two may only be around for a day or two to nudge you, but I’m here for the duration. And I promise I will pester you to death until you agree to take this vacation. In fact, if it were up to me, you’d take a six-month sabbatical.”

When Jo, the youngest of them, made such a firm declaration, Ashley knew she was defeated. “Two weeks,” she bargained, refusing to even consider as long a leave of absence as Jo was suggesting. “That’s all the peace and quiet I can bear.”

“Two months,” the others chorused.

“Three weeks,” she pleaded. “That’s it. That’s my limit. I’ll go nuts if I have to rusticate even one second longer than that.”

“Done. Three weeks it is.” Maggie and Melanie exchanged a grin.

“What?” Ashley demanded, instantly suspicious of their gloating expressions.

“We were sure you’d bargain us down to a week, max,” Maggie said. “You really must be losing your touch.”

Ashley started to chuckle, but it came out more like a sob. Wasn’t that exactly the point? She had lost her touch. And right this minute she couldn’t imagine ever getting it back again.

1

This didn’t have to be the worst thing that had ever happened to her, Ashley decided stoically as she stashed groceries into the refrigerator at Rose Cottage.

Two of her sisters and their husbands were close by, so it wouldn’t be like she was isolated among strangers. She could always order cable, so she could get Court TV and CNN. She’d brought a case of her favorite wine with her from Boston, along with a year’s worth of articles by some of the country’s foremost lawyers. She’d even tucked a few novels into her suitcases, books centered around trials, of course.

The key was going to be planning out her days, organizing every minute so she wouldn’t have time to think about what had happened in that courtroom back in Boston. Heck, that ought to be a snap. She excelled at organization. That was one reason she’d been able to maintain such a high caseload.

Dispersing those cases among the other partners for the duration of her absence had taken an entire week. She’d worked compulsively to make sure each attorney fully understood her clients’ needs. She’d briefed them so thoroughly, they’d seemed a little eager to see her gone.

After that frenetic pace, after loading up the car with all the essentials she couldn’t possibly live without and after the long drive, she was just starting to feel a bit of a letdown, that was all. It was to be expected. By morning she’d probably be climbing the walls…or calling the office every five minutes to make sure all the cases she’d left behind were being handled properly. She knew it wouldn’t take more than a day for that to wear thin with the already exasperated lawyers she’d left in charge. She would simply have to resist the temptation.

She put her laptop on the kitchen table and placed a stack of legal pads and pens right next to it. It had taken every ounce of willpower she possessed to leave behind her law books, but there was a lot of information to be found on the internet. She’d make a few notes on her pending cases and pass them along when the time was right.

The mere sight of those familiar tools made her feel better, as if her life hadn’t spun wildly out of control.

No sooner was everything in place, though, than Maggie and Melanie swept in the back door, took one look at her stash of supplies and loaded the lot into a shopping bag. They ignored every one of Ashley’s heated objections.

“What the hell do the two of you think you’re doing?” she demanded, trying to snatch things back as fast as they picked them up. “This is my house. Those are my things.”

“Actually it’s grandmother’s house,” Maggie reminded her.

“Don’t you dare start nitpicking with me,” Ashley commanded. “I will leave here.”

“No, you won’t,” Melanie soothed. “You know this is the best possible place for you to be right now.”

“And all your precious stuff will be at my place for safekeeping,” Maggie promised. “You can have everything back when you leave.”

“I need it now if you expect me to stay sane,” Ashley protested.

“Forget it,” Maggie responded. “And while we’re at it, hand over your cell phone.”

Ashley felt an unfamiliar hint of panic crawling up her throat. “Come on, Maggie,” she pleaded. “I want that stuff. And I’ve got to have a cell phone. What if somebody needs to reach me?”

Maggie gave her a wry look. “Can you honestly say there’s anyone back home besides Mom and Dad and Jo that you’re anxious to talk to right now? As for the rest of this, you only need it when you’re working.”

“And you’re on vacation,” Melanie reminded her, even as she checked out the stack of reading material Ashley had piled up on the counter. “Sorry. This needs to go, too.” She rummaged in Ashley’s purse and plucked out the cell phone.

Ashley frowned at the pair of them. “What the hell am I supposed to do for three whole weeks?”

Melanie chuckled. “You’re supposed to relax. I know it’s a foreign concept, but you’ll get the hang of it eventually.”

“I can’t sit here all day doing nothing,” Ashley protested. “I’ll go out of my freaking mind.”

“We thought of that,” Maggie soothed, handing over a bag filled with videos and paperback novels. “Comedy and romance.”

Fluff, nothing but fluff. Ashley moaned. “Dear God, what are you trying to do to me?”

“We’re trying to get some balance in your life,” Melanie said. “Of course, there’s a lot to be done in the garden now. The tulip and daffodil bulbs need to be thinned, and I bought some new ones to be planted out front.”

“It’s fall, not spring,” she reminded Melanie. “Aren’t you supposed to plant things in the spring?”