Digging Up The Dirt

CHAPTER 2

An’gel felt her heart flutter the tiniest bit at the sight of Hadley Partridge. Dickce had teased her earlier in the day about her attraction to Hadley, and she had tried to shrug it off as coolly as possible. She had to admit to herself, however, that she was eager to see the most handsome man she had ever known. He’d always had too roving an eye for An’gel to take him completely seriously when he flirted with her. According to the Athena rumor mill he’d had affairs with any number of women, some of them in this room. The moment she’d heard about his return, however, she began to speculate what he would look like after forty years, whether the old easy, notorious charm would have remained intact. Or whether he had come back to Athena a broken-down wreck of a man, after decades of dissipated living.

The flutter moved down to her stomach as she stared at Hadley, who had paused in the doorway to observe the room. An’gel noted that the hair once jet-black had turned completely white, but the mane appeared as thick as ever. Hadley had never worn his hair to fit any fashion, and now the flowing locks brushed his neckline. He had obviously spent many years in the sun, and the tanned skin contrasted nicely with the hair. He wore black pants and a densely knitted, dark blue sweater that complemented his dark eyes and white hair perfectly. His slow, seductive smile emerged as he beheld the women who had waited so tensely for his arrival.

Hadley strode into the room, arms open wide. Barbie, her gaze firmly fixed on Hadley’s back, stumbled in behind him and almost knocked over a table. She caught herself and the table in time, but barely, An’gel noted with amusement.

“Good afternoon, dear ladies.” Hadley stopped about three feet away from the assembled group and treated them all to another expansive smile. His hands dropped to his sides. “You don’t know how wonderful it is to be home again. And to be greeted by friends who by some miracle are just as gorgeous as they were the day I left Athena those many years ago.”

An’gel heard several sighs, including one from her sister. She might even have sighed herself, but she would never admit it to anyone.

“Oh, Hadley, it’s wonderful that you’re back home.” Sarinda propelled herself up from the sofa to leap into Hadley’s arms. Evidently startled by the sudden movement, Hadley took a step back. Sarinda stumbled, and Hadley reached out to halt her fall. She ended up in his arms, her intention all along. An’gel suppressed a snort of irritation.

Hadley bestowed a quick kiss on Sarinda’s cheek before he led her firmly back to the sofa. Sarinda resumed her place, but An’gel noted that the blonde’s gaze never left Hadley’s face. He kissed both Arliss and Lottie on the cheek quickly before he approached An’gel.

Was it her imagination, or did his eyes light up as he gazed into hers? An’gel couldn’t remember the last time she had blushed over anything, but now she was convinced her face had flushed. Dickce would rag on her for the rest of her days.

Hadley extended both hands, and An’gel took them. Before she realized what he intended, Hadley pulled her up and into his arms. His lips grazed her ear when he whispered, “Still as stunning as you were forty years ago.” He hugged her for a moment and then released her. He grinned, and An’gel wanted to slap his face for making her feel so embarrassed.

“You’re every bit as wicked as you were forty years ago.” She spoke in a low tone in the hopes that no one but Hadley would hear, but when Dickce snickered she knew she had misjudged.

“Of course, An’gel,” Hadley said, one eyebrow raised. “Would you have me any other way?”

He gave her no time to respond as he moved to stand in front of Dickce. He leaned down to give her a kiss, and An’gel heard her sister sigh. He moved on to Reba.

Feeling a sudden wave of hostility directed toward her, An’gel sat abruptly. She tried as coolly as possible to return the gazes of the other women. Hadley had singled her out, and they looked at her as if they could cheerfully strangle her. The first chance she had to speak to Hadley alone, she would give him a dressing-down he wouldn’t soon forget.

Hadley found a chair and pulled it forward between Dickce and Reba. Barbie perched on the arm of the sofa next to Lottie once Hadley sat. Hadley leaned back, crossed his arms over his chest, and regarded them all. “Thanks for inviting me back into the fold, ladies. It’s not often the prodigal son returns to such an open-armed greeting.”

“We’re all delighted you’re back in Athena.” Reba turned slightly in her chair to look at him. “We’re all also hoping that you intend to remain and bring Ashton Hall back to what it ought to be.”

“That is my plan.” Hadley nodded. “I was appalled to see how my dear brother had let the gardens go.” He grimaced. “Hamish never cared as much about them as I did.”

An’gel—like the others, she had no doubt—burned to ask Hadley why he had left so abruptly all those years ago. There had been various rumors at the time. The one that had the most support was that Hamish had caught his brother in bed with his wife, Callie, and had thrown Hadley out of the house and told him never to come back. Another story held that Hadley embezzled money from his brother and skipped town to avoid prosecution, though many doubted Hamish would have suffered the indignity of putting his brother in jail. Hamish Partridge had been far too proud of his family name to allow that to happen.

“But now they’re mine,” Hadley said in a somber tone. “Poor old Hamish finally passed on, and to my great surprise he left everything to me.”

“I wasn’t surprised in the least.” Arliss fluttered her eyelashes at Hadley. “There was no one else, at least as far we know, and Hamish would never have left Ashton Hall to strangers.”

“No, he certainly wouldn’t.” Lottie shook her head. “The last time I saw him, about three days before he died, he told me everything would be yours, Hadley.” She paused to glance up at Barbie, then looked at Hadley again. “Especially since he had no idea where his wife was.”

An’gel felt an immediate change of atmosphere in the room, and she could see that Hadley had tensed up. She had wondered how long it would take one of the women to mention Callie Partridge.

Calpurnia Partridge, actually, An’gel knew, but Callie had always hated her full name. Callie left Athena a couple of days after Hadley, so the story went, and everyone assumed she’d run after him.

“Poor Callie.” Hadley sighed, his shoulders now relaxed. “Hamish never treated her the way he should have, so it’s no wonder she bolted when she did.” He paused to glance around the room. “I wonder what happened to her? Did any of you ever hear from her after she left Athena? Until I heard that Hamish left everything to me, I really thought I would find her still living at Ashton Hall.”

No one responded right away to Hadley, and the silence lengthened. An’gel knew the others were no doubt as stunned as she was, because they had all assumed that Hadley and Callie had been together all these years. If Callie hadn’t followed Hadley from Athena, what on earth had happened to her?

An’gel decided she might as well voice what everyone was thinking. “No one ever heard from her again, to our knowledge. Everyone thought, you see, that she had run away to join you because she didn’t want to stay with Hamish.”

Hadley didn’t appear startled at An’gel’s statement. He shrugged. “I’m not surprised by that. I know everyone thought Callie and I were having a passionate affair behind Hamish’s back, but that simply was not the case. I never touched her, and she certainly didn’t run off to be with me.”

“Then where could she have gone?” Arliss threw up her hands. “She had no family left, as far as I know.”

“She was a registered nurse, remember, even though she quit working after she married Hamish,” Barbie said. “She could have found a job anywhere. Taken on a new name, even gotten married again for all we know.”

“Hamish never said anything to me about divorcing her.” Reba sniffed. “If she did marry again, she was committing bigamy.”

“Hamish didn’t tell you everything, Reba.” Lottie simpered. “I was his closest confidante the last few years. If he had told anyone, he would have told me.”

“Well, did he tell you whether he divorced her?” An’gel asked. Really, she could shake Lottie sometimes for her coyness.

Lottie shrugged. “The subject never came up. Hamish and I had other things to talk about when I visited with him.”

When you were trying to get him interested in marrying you, you mean. An’gel resisted the temptation to say the words aloud.

Arliss saved her the trouble. She hooted with laughter, then said, “Hamish was too smart for you, Lottie. He knew better than to tell you any such thing. Otherwise you’d have dragged him to the altar before he could put on a fresh pair of socks and clean underwear.”

“That’s what you would have done, you mean-spirited woman,” Lottie said. “I thought of Hamish as a friend, nothing more.”

Hamish might well have divorced Callie, An’gel thought, but he was too canny to let any of the women in this group know. They all had men and marriage in their sights.

Everyone except her and Dickce, that is. An’gel had never cared much for Hamish, nor had Dickce. Neither of them understood why Callie married him. He was dour and cheap, the opposite of his brother. Hamish had been almost as handsome as Hadley in his younger years, and Callie had met Hamish first. He could be charming, An’gel admitted to herself, but whenever Hadley was present, Hamish got eclipsed.

“There’s one possibility no one has mentioned.” Sarinda crossed her arms as she surveyed the room. She let the silence lengthen before she spoke again. “What if Callie never left Athena at all?”