The High Price of Secrets Read online

  Two

  “There’s no Ellen Masters here,” he replied, letting go of her hand. “Was your mother expecting you?”

  She had the grace to look shamefaced. “No, I kind of hoped to surprise her.”

  Surprise her? Yeah, he just bet she did. Without sparing a thought to whether or not her mother would, or could, see her. How typical of her type, he thought angrily. Pampered, spoiled and thinking the world spun for her delectation. He knew the type well—unfortunately. Too well. They were the kind who’d always expect more, no matter how much you gave. People like Briana, his ex. Beautiful, seemingly compassionate, born into a life of opportunity—but in the cold light of day as grasping and as single-minded as Fagin in Oliver Twist.

  “Are you sure you have the right address?” he asked, tamping his fury down.

  “Well…I thought…” She reached into her handbag and pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper and read off the address. “That’s right, isn’t it? I’m at the right place.”

  “That is my address, but there’s no Ellen Masters here. I’m sorry. It looks like you’ve had a wasted trip.”

  Before his eyes, every particle in her body slumped. Her eyes suddenly brimmed with unshed tears and a stricken look froze her delicate features into a mask of sadness. Again that urge to protect her welled within him—along with the compulsion to tell her of the well-concealed and unsealed driveway she’d have passed on the road here. The one that led to the cottage where Ellen and Lorenzo had lived for the past twenty-five years or so—but he just as determinedly pushed the impulse back.

  He knew for a fact Tamsyn Masters had legally been an adult for ten years. What whim had finally driven her to seek out Ellen now? And, more important, why hadn’t she reached out to her mother sooner, when it could possibly still have made a difference to the other woman’s happiness?

  “I—oh, well, I’m sorry to have bothered you. My information can’t have been correct.”

  She reached into her handbag for an oversize pair of sunglasses and shoved them none too elegantly onto her face, hiding her tortured gaze from view. As she did so, he caught sight of the white band of skin on the ring finger of her left hand. Had the engagement he’d read of over a year ago come to an end? Had that been the catalyst to send her searching for her mother?

  Whatever it was, it was none of his business.

  “No problem,” he answered and watched as she walked back to her car and turned it around to drive back down the driveway.

  Finn didn’t waste another second before reaching for his cell phone and punching in a number. It went straight to voice mail and he uttered a short sharp epithet in frustration while listening to the disembodied voice asking him to leave a message.

  “Lorenzo, call me. There’s been a complication here at home.”

  He slid his phone back in his pocket and closed the front door of his house. Somehow, though, he had the feeling he hadn’t completely closed the door on Tamsyn Masters.

  * * *

  As Tamsyn steered down the driveway, disappointment crashed through her with the force of a wrecking ball. The tears she’d battled to hold back while talking to the stranger now fell rapidly down her cheeks. She sniffed unevenly, trying to hold in the emotion that had been bubbling so close to the surface ever since she’d left Adelaide last night.

  Why on earth had she thought it would be simple? She should have known better. Should have listened to Ethan, even, and tackled this another time—another day when she was in a stronger frame of mind. Well, she’d done it now, she’d gone to the address her late father’s solicitor had used to send her mother all those payments through the years and it had been the wrong one.

  Disappointment had a nasty bitter taste, she’d discovered—not just once, but twice now in the past twenty-four hours. It just went to prove, that for her, acting out of character was the wrong thing to do. She wasn’t made to be impulsive. All her life she had weighed things up long and carefully before doing anything. Now she fully understood why she’d always been that way. It was safer. You didn’t get hurt. Sure, you didn’t have the thrill of taking a risk either, but was the pain you suffered when things went wrong worth it? Not in her book.

  Tamsyn thought about the man who’d opened his door to her at the top of the hill. Over six feet, she’d been forced to look up at him. He’d had presence—being the kind of guy who turned heads just by entering a room. A broad forehead and straight brows had shadowed clear gray eyes the color of the schist rock used on the side of the house that was very definitely his castle. A light stubble had stippled his strong square jaw, but his smile, while polite, had lacked warmth.

  There’d been something in his gaze when he’d looked at her. As if…no, she was just being fanciful. He couldn’t have known her because she knew full well she’d never met him before in her life. She would most definitely have remembered.

  The sun was sinking in the sky and weariness pulled at every muscle in her body as all her activity, not to mention crossing time zones, over the past day took its toll. She needed to find somewhere to stay before she did something stupid like drive off the road and into a ditch.

  Tamsyn pulled the car to the side of the road and consulted the GPS for accommodation options nearby. Thankfully there was a boutique hotel that provided meals on request about a fifteen-minute drive away. She keyed the phone number into her mobile phone and was relieved to find that while the room rate was on a par with the accommodation at The Masters, yes, they had a room available for the next few nights. Booking made, Tamsyn pressed the appropriate section of the GPS screen and followed the computerized instructions, eventually pulling up outside a quaint-looking early-1900s single-story building.

  With the golden rays of the early-evening sun caressing its creamy paintwork, it looked warm and inviting. Just what she needed.

  * * *

  Finn paced his office, unable to settle back down to the plans that were sprawled across his wide desk. Plans that were going to go to hell in a handbasket if he couldn’t buy the easement necessary to gain access to the tract of land he wanted to use for this special project. He shoved a hand through his short hair, mussing it even more than usual.

  The chirp of his phone was a happy distraction.

  “Gallagher.”

  “Finn, is there a problem?”

  “Lorenzo, I’m glad you called.” Finn settled in his chair and swiveled it around to face the window, allowing the vista spread before him to fill his mind and relax his thoughts into a semblance of order. Thoughts that had been distracted all too thoroughly by his earlier visitor.

  “What is it, my boy?”

  Despite Lorenzo’s years in Australia, followed by the past couple of decades in New Zealand, his voice still held the lilt of his native Italian tongue.

  “First, how is Ellen?”

  The older man sighed. “Not good, she is having a bad day today.”

  After Ellen began to show signs of kidney and liver failure, she and Lorenzo had relocated to Wellington, where she could receive the specialized care her advancing dementia required.

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  He could almost hear Lorenzo shrug in acceptance. “It is what it is. I have asked Alexis to make plans to return from Italy.”

  “Ellen’s that bad?”

  Alexis was Lorenzo and Ellen’s only child and had been working overseas for the past year. Currently, she was visiting with Lorenzo’s family still living in Tuscany.

  “Si, she has no fight left in her anymore. If she recognizes me at all it is a good day, but they are few.”

  Finn could hear the pain echoing in the older man’s voice before Lorenzo took another deep breath and continued.

  “Now, what did you call me for?”

  Choosing blunt statement over trying to find an easy wa
y to say what he had to, Finn said, “Tamsyn Masters showed up here today wanting to see Ellen.”

  “So, it has finally happened.”

  “I told her Ellen Masters doesn’t live here and sent her on her way.”

  Lorenzo gave a short laugh, the sound crackling like autumn leaves. “But you didn’t tell her that Ellen Fabrini does, I assume?”

  “No,” Finn admitted. He hadn’t told an outright lie when he’d spoken to Tamsyn. Though Lorenzo and Ellen had never formalized their union, she’d always been known as his wife and had gone by his last name the whole time they’d lived in New Zealand.

  “You say she left again?”

  “Yes, hopefully to return to Australia.”

  “Hmm, but what if she doesn’t leave?”

  Finn’s lips firmed in a line as he considered Lorenzo’s statement. “What are you thinking?”

  “You know I have no love for that family after what they did to my Ellen. I lost count of the hours she spent crying over letters she wrote to those children. It broke her heart a little more every single time. And did they ever write back, or even try to contact her when they were older? No. Yet as much as I would wish them all to Dante’s inferno, I know how much Ellen loved them and if she was to stabilize, if her mind was to clear just a little, she might benefit from a visit from her daughter.”

  Finn fought to keep the incredulity from his voice. “You want me to keep her from going home?”

  “Do not chase her away just yet. But, if you can, keep her in the dark about where Ellen is—about all of us, if you can. With things the way they are…” His voice cracked and he took a moment to recover.

  “I understand,” Finn soothed.

  His heart broke for the man who’d stepped into the role of father figure when Finn’s own father had died, and his mother suffered a complete nervous breakdown. Finn had been only twelve and Lorenzo, his father’s business partner, and Ellen had taken him into their hearts and their home. The couple had been his rock through his turbulent adolescence and his teens. Their unwavering support, together with their careful guardianship of the land his father had owned, had ensured stability and, eventually, a good living for them all. Finn owed them everything.

  “I’ll take care of things. Don’t worry,” he assured Lorenzo as they completed their call.

  Exactly how he was going to take care of things was another matter. First, he had to find out whether Tamsyn had left the area. Given how exhausted she’d looked hovering on his doorstep, he doubted she’d have gone far. It only took a few calls to find her and he wasn’t at all surprised to discover the Aussie princess had chosen one of the most expensive accommodation providers in the area.

  Okay, so now he knew where she was, what was he going to do next? Finn leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers under his chin, rocking the leather chair back and forth slightly as he stared back out the window again.

  Encroaching twilight began to obscure the Kaikoura ranges in the far distance, narrowing his world to the acres that surrounded him. His acres. His land. His home. A home he wouldn’t have today but for the determination of Lorenzo and Ellen all those years ago. What was he going to do? Whatever they needed him to—even if it meant befriending the woman who’d caused Ellen so much suffering over the years.

  Growing up, he’d heard occasional tales about Ellen’s other children—the ones she’d been forced to leave behind once her marriage had irretrievably broken down. Even then, he’d seen the pain that abandoning her children had caused her, how she’d sought solace in alcohol that had eventually led to her current illness, and over the intervening years he’d wondered about the children themselves and why they hadn’t done a thing to try to get in touch with the mother who’d loved them with all her heart.

  As soon as he’d been old enough, and computer savvy enough, he’d done a little research and discovered the favored lives Ethan and Tamsyn Masters lived on their family vineyard estate, The Masters. They’d grown up wanting for nothing and had had every opportunity to excel presented to them on a platter. Not for them the hard graft of after-school jobs and backbreaking weekend work, just to get ahead. Not for them the millstone of student loans and expenses.

  Finn didn’t mind admitting he’d felt some resentment toward Ellen’s other family, they’d had it so easy while she, on the other hand, had made do with so little—secure only in the love of the man she’d walked away from her husband and children with.

  A man who continued to stay by her side as she’d battled her alcoholism and as eventually her body and mind broke down around her. Ellen’s health was so precarious right now that Finn feared that even if she recognized Tamsyn, should she manage to track her mother down, at the sight of her, Ellen could slide into a place in her mind from which she would never return.

  After all, hadn’t his own mother’s death occurred after he had finally been allowed to visit her following her breakdown? Hadn’t seeing him been a reminder of what she’d given up on when the sudden death of her husband had forced her to retreat into the supposedly safe reaches of her mind? And hadn’t her shame pushed her deeper into her mind, never to emerge again? Even now, those memories had the power to hurt. He pushed them forcibly away.

  Tamsyn Masters—she should be the focus of his thoughts right now, and his plans to get her to stay in the area without letting her find out the truth about Ellen. Finn thought again what he knew about the young woman who’d turned up at his house today. She was twenty-eight years old, five years younger than himself. Last he’d heard, she was engaged to marry some up-and-coming lawyer in Adelaide. Clearly she hadn’t been wearing her ring today. It could mean anything. Maybe she had taken it off to get it cleaned or resized. Or maybe she’d taken it off when she’d washed her hands and had forgotten to put it back on again.

  Another idea occurred to him. One that sparked his interest. Maybe, just maybe, it meant she might be in the market for a bit of rebound romance. A bit of light flirtation perhaps—some enticement to stay in the Marlborough district? If she was as shallow as he’d found her type to be in the past it would be all good fun—no chance of emotional involvement or hurt feelings, just an opportunity to keep her very carefully under observation while making sure she found out nothing about Ellen.

  It would take some doing, sure, but he was confident he could handle it. A buzz of anticipation hummed through his body. Yeah, he was definitely the man to do it, and along the way he’d find out as much as he could about the perplexing Ms. Tamsyn Masters.

  Three

  Voices echoed down the wide paneled hallway of the hotel as Tamsyn walked toward the dining room. She still felt a little tired, but last night’s light meal, warm bath and a comfortable night in a good bed, had all gone a long way toward restoring her equilibrium.

  Last night she’d all but decided to head to the airport this morning and book a flight back to Auckland. But she’d woken filled with a new sense of purpose—more determined than ever to make the most of her time here. Her mother had to be in the area somewhere. As far as she and Ethan were aware, checks were still being sent to her from their father’s estate—and none of the checks had ever been returned to sender. Last night she’d been too tired and too disheartened to remember that vital detail. Today was another matter entirely and she was thinking far more clearly. A call to Ethan would confirm the address her father’s lawyers used.

  First order of the day though, after breakfast, was a trip to Blenheim to purchase some new clothes and luggage. She’d left Adelaide in such an all-fired hurry she’d arrived here in New Zealand with only the clothes she stood in and her handbag. Despite making use of the iron and ironing board stashed in her room’s wardrobe, her clothing was definitely looking the worse for wear.

  She couldn’t wait to rid herself of her underwear, either—the pieces so carefully chosen to titillate and entice her the
n fiancé. Despite the fact she’d had to rinse out, dry and then rewear them twice now, she wouldn’t be happy until she’d seen them thrown into the trash.

  They were yet another reminder of how foolishly naive she’d been—and how the people she’d trusted had let her down. Bile rose in her throat as she remembered how eager she’d been to surprise Trent just two nights ago. How she’d planned a romantic dinner and evening for two culminating in the slow and sexy removal of said lingerie. But the surprise had been all hers when she’d discovered him in bed with someone else—her personal assistant, Zac.

  Once the hurt had begun to recede she’d felt such a fool. What kind of woman didn’t know her fiancé was gay? Worse, that he’d been prepared to marry her and simply string her along as a mask of respectability so he could continue his steady rise through the ranks of the old-school law firm he worked for.

  She’d known that she only had to go home to have her family surrounding her, consoling her—but the thought had failed to comfort her. Her family had lied to her, too, had hidden things from her that she’d had the right to know. Her father, her uncle and aunts—they’d all known that her mother was alive, and they’d kept it from her. Even Ethan had hidden the truth from her once he found out, after their father’s death. Suddenly desperate to get away from the secrets, the evasions and the betrayals, she’d headed to the airport, determined not to return until she found some answers for a change.

  So far, it was going dreadfully.

  She swallowed against the burning sensation in her throat. Maybe breakfast wasn’t such a good idea after all.

  “Here she is,” the voice of her hostess, Penny, greeted her as she reached the doorway of the dining room. Penny rose from a small table set in the bay window that looked out over a delightfully old-fashioned garden. “Good morning, Ms. Masters, I trust you slept well?”

  “Oh, call me Tamsyn, please. And yes, my room is very comfortable, thank you.”

  Tamsyn’s eyes flicked to the man who sat opposite Penny and who now rose to his feet in welcome. The man from yesterday—and absolutely the last man she had expected to see this morning. Courtesy demanded she acknowledge his presence and she gave him a short nod, just the barest inclination of her head.