"Oh, c.r.a.p!" she heard a woman say. A few feet away was a screen door, and when Gemma looked inside she saw a large, modern kitchen. Standing in the center of it was a tall, beautiful woman, her l.u.s.trous dark hair pulled back into a soft chignon. She had on black silk trousers and an emerald green top that clung to her rather remarkable bosom. This wasn"t what Gemma had imagined when Colin had said the woman coming to cook was a friend of "the whole family." If she was someone"s girlfriend, Gemma certainly hoped she wasn"t Colin"s.
With a jolt, Gemma realized that for all of the woman"s elegance and beauty, she was leaning over the island, holding her left hand up, and blood was trickling down her arm. She wasn"t moving, just staring at the blood with gla.s.sy eyes.
Gemma threw back the door, ran inside, grabbed the woman"s wrist, and pulled her to the sink. She turned on the cold water and pushed the woman"s hand under it.
"Where"s the first aid kit?" Gemma asked, but the woman didn"t say anything. Gemma grabbed a dishtowel on the countertop and wrapped it around the cut finger. She turned off the water, then led the woman to sit down on a tall wooden stool, and went in search of bandages. She found a big box of first aid supplies in a white metal box hanging on the wall in the walk-in pantry.
With the box in hand, Gemma hurried back to the woman, who hadn"t moved so much as an eyelid since she"d left her. Gemma was regretting having left her cell phone upstairs. If she had to call an ambulance, she"d need it. But then, she reminded herself that Colin was probably nearby, and he"d know what to do.
Gently, Gemma removed the cloth from the woman"s hand. She needed to see how bad the injury was before she called for help. When she saw that the cut was shallow and not very big at all, she looked at the woman in disbelief, but she was still sitting in stony silence, her beautiful face drained of color.
Carefully, Gemma bandaged her finger. "I think you"ll be okay now."
The woman said nothing.
"I"m Gemma. I"m one of the applicants for the job and-"
"The rolls!" the woman said as she jumped up, ran to the big stove, and threw open the oven door. She started to reach for the hot metal sheet, but since she was keeping her injured hand elevated and the other one was bare, she couldn"t get them out.
"I"ll do it," Gemma said as she picked up pot holders and removed the tray of bread.
"I"m a real wimp," the woman said as she sat back down on the stool. "When it comes to blood, especially my own, I"m a coward. I"m Jean Caldwell, and thanks a lot for this. If you hadn"t come by I probably would have fainted, then dinner would have been ruined. That would have meant the Fraziers would have to order in pizza-which the men would have loved." Jean sighed. "Maybe you shouldn"t have saved me."
Gemma smiled, but Jean"s face was still too white. "Why don"t you stay seated and let me help with this?" The top of the stove had a bubbling pot on each of the six burners.
"You can cook?"
"Not at all, but I"m excellent at following directions. It"s what I"ve been doing since I was five."
"Oh, right, school. I remember thinking that I couldn"t wait to get away from the professors and be free. Little did I know that bosses make teachers look like angels."
"I take it you"ve never had Dr. Fredrickson."
Jean smiled. "Colin said you were funny."
"Did he?" Gemma said and couldn"t help feeling good at the compliment. His girlfriend wouldn"t make such a remark, would she? "Do I need to do anything to any of this?"
"Turn off that left back burner, and stir that orange pot. Good. I hear Colin took you with him when he played hooky this afternoon."
Gemma didn"t turn around. There was something so possessive in the way Jean said his name that Gemma"s heart began to sink. "He . . ." she said tentatively.
"I don"t blame either of you," Jean said. "I"ve met Isla and Kirk. She came in here and started giving me cooking instructions. I got rid of her by asking her to chop onions. Then that prissy little Kirk came in and stuck a spoon in my os...o...b..cco. He said it needed more salt. Colin took him away before I slammed his face in the pot. Would you like some wine?"
Gemma worked to keep any expression off her face, but the euphoria she"d felt all day was leaving her.
Jean refilled her own gla.s.s from a bottle of red wine that was sitting open on the stone countertop. "I need this if I"m going to face those two at dinner." She pointed to a cabinet and Gemma opened it to see winegla.s.ses. "Sorry to be such an invalid, but I"ve been in court all day. My feet are killing me. Then I had to drive the nearly seventy miles from Richmond, and when I got here I was introduced to that Isla. She seemed to think she and I were destined to be best friends."
Gemma nodded, glad Jean was speaking of something besides Colin. "I"m sure Isla believes she"s won. She doesn"t consider me a worthy opponent, so she doesn"t bother with me, either here or at school."
"I can"t see her in that mess Alea bought, so what is she really after?"
"I think she wants Lanny, but Colin says she"s after Shamus." Gemma watched to see if Jean would show any emotion at Gemma"s mention of Colin"s name, but she didn"t. Either they weren"t a couple or Jean was very secure.
Jean laughed. "That sounds like something Colin would say. The other brother, Pere, isn"t here. He"s the pretty one. Isla would probably do a lap dance for him. Would you turn down the heat under that big skillet? Colin doesn"t like his beef overcooked. Thanks."
"The problem . . ." Gemma said as she slowly sipped her wine. She was trying to adjust to what she was beginning to see as a fact: Colin and Jean were a couple. "Is that Mrs. Frazier likes Isla."
"I wouldn"t be so sure of that." Jean lowered her voice. "You can never guess what the Fraziers are thinking."
"Even Colin?"
"He"s the worst! The stories I could tell you!" Jean said. "He knows a lot of people, and he listens to them, takes care of them. But even people who consider Colin their best friend don"t know what his problems are. He keeps them to himself."
"I"ll have to remember that," Gemma said and thought how he"d evaded her more personal questions. She was trying to recover from finding out that Colin was taken.
"Don"t worry about it. All the Fraziers keep their secrets. Would you put those rolls in that basket and cover them? Thanks. You"re a good sous chef. So where was I?"
"The clandestine nature of the Fraziers."
"Clandestine. What a perfect word to describe them. Anyway, the point is that just because Alea puts up with Isla"s and Kirk"s endless gushing doesn"t mean she"s going to give the job to one of them. I know Colin"s already told her he thinks she should hire you, and I"m certainly going to vote for you."
It looked like Jean was considered a member of the family. "Shouldn"t you get to know me a little first?"
Jean held up her hand with the bandaged finger. "I always vote for people who save my life."
"It was hardly that. Although there was a lot of blood and the body doesn"t hold all that much. Who knows what could have happened?"
"I agree," Jean said as she raised her gla.s.s in a toast. "I think you and I are going to get along quite well. Although I wish you weren"t quite so pretty."
"No one"s ever said that to me before."
"Honey, with some highlights, a good cut and some decent eye makeup-" She broke off, looking at Gemma in speculation.
"What?"
"I was just thinking of someone in town who"d be perfect for you, that"s all." She got off the stool and went to the stove. She was half a foot taller than Gemma, and with her high heels she looked like she"d just stepped off a Paris runway. "You wouldn"t mind grating some cheese for me, would you? I figure I have about ten minutes before a Frazier starts demanding food. They eat enormous quant.i.ties of it, preferably all beef. I told Colin-"
"What did you tell me?"
The two women turned to look at him. He"d showered and changed into black slacks and a white shirt that wasn"t as snug as his other one had been. He looked very good, and Gemma couldn"t suppress the flutter that came to her heart and body. She had a vision of standing on tiptoe and slipping her arms around his neck. She could imagine how good his body would feel against hers.
"I can"t persuade you into a tie?" Jean said, going to him and putting her arms around his neck. She aimed to kiss his lips, but he turned his head away so her kiss fell onto his cheek.
Gemma turned away. d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n, double d.a.m.n! she thought. She was as bad as Isla in looking at a Frazier with wedding bells in her eyes.
"Is Gemma helping you cook or are you two hiding out in here?" Colin asked.
"Hiding," Gemma and Jean said in unison.
"Your mother couldn"t possibly be thinking of hiring one of those two," Jean said as Colin moved away from her and went to the stove.
"I hope not. What is all this?" he asked when he was standing beside Gemma.
"I have no idea, but it smells divine," she said and took a step away from him. He smelled too good for her to be close to him.
"It does." He picked up a lid. "Got a spoon?"
"Here," Jean said from his other side as she handed him one.
"There you are!" Mrs. Frazier said from behind them. "Jean, dear, give me a gla.s.s of that wine. Better yet, Colin, pour me a shot of tequila."
Gemma stayed by the stove and watched as Colin and Jean hurried to do her bidding. She couldn"t help thinking that they were a beautiful couple, her so tall and lovely, him so strong and masculine.
Mrs. Frazier dropped down onto the stool, threw back the shot Colin handed her, then chased it with half a gla.s.s of wine. "Now I feel better."
"What has set you off into binge drinking?" Colin asked, an eyebrow raised.
"I hardly think that this small amount const.i.tutes a binge. In fact-" Mrs. Frazier broke off as she drained the rest of the wine and held out her gla.s.s for more.
"Where is everyone?" Mr. Frazier asked as he came into the kitchen. "Alea, are you getting drunk? Without me? Colin! Alcohol quick!"
He grabbed another gla.s.s and poured his father a shot. After the second one, Mr. Frazier put the gla.s.s down and collapsed onto a stool next to his wife. "Alea, so help me, if you hire one of those two people I"ll divorce you."
"If I were stupid enough to employ one of them, I"d let you," she said.
Gemma, standing apart from the others, drew in her breath.
"Then Gemma gets the job?" Colin asked. He was standing beside Jean, the tequila bottle in his hand.
"Of course." Mrs. Frazier looked around her son to Gemma. "I never had any doubt. When you saw those old doc.u.ments I thought you were going to have an o.r.g.a.s.m."
"Mother!" Colin said, while Jean laughed.
Mrs. Frazier kept her eyes on Gemma. "You can"t imagine how much ridicule I"ve had to endure from my own family merely because I want to find out about our history. But right away I saw that you felt the same way I do. And Colin adores you!"
"Mother, I don"t think-" Colin began.
"Tristan," Jean said loudly, and they all looked at her. "I was thinking that Gemma and Dr. Tris would make a wonderful couple."
"Good," Mr. Frazier said. "That boy needs a family."
Gemma stepped forward to put her hands on the cool countertop; she needed something to hold on to or her knees were going to give way. She had the job. She really and truly had the job. For the next two years-or more-she"d be living in the pretty little guesthouse and finding out the secrets buried in those old doc.u.ments. And she was being set up for a date with a local.
Right now, her future looked so good she thought she might investigate employment at William and Mary College. Maybe she could get a teaching position there and stay in Edilean forever.
They were all looking at her expectantly, but she didn"t want to tell them her thoughts. "What"s this Tristan"s doctorate in?" Gemma asked.
"Medicine," Jean answered. "If you"d let me keep bleeding, he"d be here now."
When the mention of Jean"s injury made people start asking questions, Gemma stepped to the back. The four of them were gathered around the island, listening intently to Jean"s story of how she"d cut herself, and how Gemma had come to her rescue. The screen door was nearby, so Gemma slipped outside.
She stopped near a tall bush that was covered with pink flowers and took a few deep breaths. This is it, she thought. This lovely place would be the site of her first full-time job.
"Overwhelmed?" Colin asked from behind her.
"No," Gemma said. "Not at all."
"My family isn"t scaring you off?"
"Just the opposite. But . . ."
"But what?"
"All of you, Jean included, seem very close to each other. I promise I"ll not intrude on you."
"You"re no intrusion. Mother will want you at the house every night for dinner and-"
"Absolutely not!" Gemma said firmly. "I"m here to do a job, and that"s what I"ll do."
Colin gave her a teasing smile that she"d seen before. "The truth is that you want to read while you eat, don"t you?"
"Oh yeah."
"All right. I"ll tell Mother she can"t adopt you. With our sister in California now, Mom doesn"t have a girl to lavish gifts on. But don"t be surprised if new shoes show up now and then."
"Jean says I need a hairdresser." She hoped that mentioning her would make Colin say something about their relationship, such as saying there wasn"t one.
Colin frowned. "Jean sometimes oversteps herself. I think your hair is fine. We better go in. The other two will leave in the morning."
"I hope no one tells them they"re not getting the job until after we eat. It won"t be a pleasant dinner with Isla and Kirk being miserable, and Jean has done a lot of work."
"Compa.s.sion for your enemies," Colin said as he held open the screen door and Gemma slipped under his arm to go back into the kitchen. "I like that."
"Sorry, but it"s actually self-protection. When you do tell them, I want to be locked inside your room at the top of the house."
"Hidden away with my old sheriff"s badge?"
"Exactly. Is that what started you on your lifelong pursuit of being a sheriff?"
He smiled. "Mom loves to tell the story of how I wore that badge continuously from the time I got it for my second birthday until I was eight. She likes to elaborate on how she used to have to tape it on me while I was in the tub with my brothers. Someday when you two are alone, ask her about it."
"I will," Gemma said, and a little thrill ran through her at the thought that she was going to be there and could ask questions. "That"s what you wanted. You said there was something you"d wanted as much as I wanted this job. You wanted to be the sheriff of Edilean."
His smile was so warm that she took a step toward him. "Yes," he said softly. "You"re exactly right."
Neither of them saw that across the room, Jean was frowning at them.