Her Secret Past by Amanda Stevens

Author:Amanda Stevens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 1999-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

WHEN AMY GOT UP the next morning, she had dark circles under her eyes. Sleep had eluded her after she’d overheard the conversation between Lottie and Fay. She’d lain awake thinking about the night’s events, and wondering if James Birdsong had been right to warn her. Was there something sinister at work here?

Was there no one here she could trust?

For a moment, she considered calling Reece. She even went so far as to pick up the phone in her room and listen for the dial tone. He’d offered to help her two weeks ago, but that was before she’d broken their engagement. Could she swallow her pride and tell him he’d been right? She couldn’t handle this alone. There were too many dark secrets in Amber Tremain’s past. Too many people who had wanted her to leave and never come back.

But she was back, and Con had been right about one thing. She would never have any peace until she found out what had happened to her nine years ago.

Replacing the phone in the hook, Amy went into the bathroom to shower and dress. Emerging from her room a little while later in jeans and a blue sleeveless shell, she stood in the hallway, listening to the silence of the house. It was still early, but Lottie was usually up by dawn. Today, however, there were no sounds of clanking dishes, no vacuum cleaner running, no soft hum as she went about her household chores. Amberly was almost ominiously quiet.

Pausing on the second-floor gallery, Amy stared up at an oil painting she’d been told was of her mother. The woman was delicately beautiful, lovelier by far than either Amber or Jasmine, although both daughters bore a striking resemblance to her.

In the portrait, Miranda Tremain stood at the top of the stairs, her hands clasped around a magnolia blossom she cradled against the bosom of her misty green ball gown. Her blond hair was swept back and up, showcasing her exquisite features and a magnificent emerald pendant that nestled in the smooth hollow of her throat.

But it was her eyes that were her most arresting feature. They tilted at the corners, just as her daughters’ did, but the color was a deep, mossy green. Dark and mysterious, her eyes seemed to hold untold secrets, a melancholy mixture of sorrow, longing and ennui.

What had made her so sad? Why had she felt desperate enough to believe her only recourse was to throw herself into the river? Did her suicide have something to do with this house? Or was it because of her husband’s betrayal?

“I see you’re staring at Mama’s portrait again.”

Amy jumped at the suddenness of Jasmine’s voice. She turned as her sister walked up beside her at the top of the stairs. “I didn’t hear you come down the hallway. You startled me.”

“Sorry. Lottie says I’m like a cat. Personally, I think if she didn’t have such a guilty conscience, she wouldn’t startle so easily.”

“I don’t have a guilty conscience,” Amy pointed out.

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