Saving Laurel Springs (21 page)

“Gracious heaven.” He heard her swallow in the dark.

“That's pretty much it, Rhea. I could have said no. But I'd have never seen or known my son. You don't fight someone like Morgan Benton. In shock, I told them both I'd think about it.” He picked up a stick on the floor to twist it in his hands. “When I went back to agree to their terms, I had demands of my own. I insisted on having everything drawn up by an attorney and signed. When you play ball with people like the Bentons, you make sure you protect yourself very well.”

Rhea fell quiet for a space. “What does Mr. Benton think of you being back here now?”

“It was in my agreement that I could come back here after Judith died, bring my child, and that Morgan wouldn't fight me or oppose me.” Carter reached over to touch Rhea's face. “I never stopped loving you. I never gave up on our dream. Perhaps you'll still hate me for giving in to Judith and Morgan—feel I should have walked away from them and from my son. It was for my child I stayed. As soon as I held him, I never regretted that decision.”

In the shadowy darkness, he saw Rhea pull her knees up and wrap her arms around them, thinking. “I probably misjudged you somewhat in the past, maybe a lot, but this still isn't easy for me. Even knowing everything now.” She punched him with a fist. “I'm mad, too, that you didn't call—or write—and tell me this when it happened.”

He winced. “I didn't think you'd believe me. It sounds like a soap opera drama. We weren't on the best of terms at that time, and I just didn't think you'd believe me.” Carter hesitated. “In all honesty, I was angry at you, too.”

“Why?” She turned to him in surprise.

Gathering his courage, he said, “Because I blamed you in part for what happened.”

“Me?” She was incredulous.

“Yes.” He spoke softly. “I felt that if you'd come to California before Judith came home that she'd never have gone after me. She'd have found someone else to help her fast-forward her dreams, to be the father of the child she so desperately wanted. I felt victimized on both sides.”

“Ouch—that's too candid and tends to forget your accommodating role in all this drama, too.” She leaned back and wrapped her arms around herself, as if chilled.

Carter sagged against the tunnel wall in relief, glad to finally have all this off his chest. To finally see it laid out in the open.

Rhea spoke at last. “Do your parents know this? And your Grampa?”

He shook his head. “No. Although I think all of them added up the months to Taylor's birth and had some suspicions as to why I married suddenly, to Judith and not to you. I believe it shamed them, and so they never really asked me any questions. As Grampa said once, ‘What was done was done.' ”

“I see.” She considered this. “Will you tell them now?”

“I don't know. Maybe someday.” He turned to look toward her, glad the darkness hid the moment. “I guess I wanted to see how you reacted first. Wanted to see if you'd even believe me.”

Her mouth quirked in a small smile. He could see it even in the dark. “I believe you, Carter Layman. Even you, with your incredible, highly versatile imagination could
never
think up a whopper like this. Besides, Judith dying lends credibility to the story. As does Taylor.”

Carter leaned over to kiss her. “Thanks for believing, Rhea.”

“Hmmm. I guess this explains why there were so few society pictures of you and Judith, why she still went so many places on her own, even after you married.”

Carter sighed. “Judith tried to do a lot of living in a very short time, even after we married. I made an effort to be a good husband, even under the circumstances, but I stopped sleeping with Judith when she began to run around on me. She enjoyed a number of lovers before her pregnancy showed, and after Taylor came and she recovered her figure, she sowed more wild oats until her disease progressed. She frantically tried to hold on to life for as long as she could. To do and experience as much as possible. I don't say I condoned her actions during that time, but knowing Judith as I did, I understood them.”

He spread his hands. “In some ways, I think Judith's actions made it easier. She didn't expect me to pretend things were different than they were. We returned to being friends and grew closer later on, especially after Judith became more tied to home. She had to become resigned to diminishing health at that point and to diminishing abilities in all areas.”

“Was Judith a good mother?”

“As good as she could be, I suppose. Mothering was always more about Judith than Taylor, but she loved Taylor in her own way. Probably too fiercely sometimes, knowing she wouldn't see him grow up. She worried he wouldn't remember her. She hated it when she started being really sick, when she couldn't pick Taylor up or play with him anymore. And Judith despised anyone seeing her sick. Her deteriorating emotional and physical condition was difficult for her and for Taylor. She had good days and bad, and Taylor saw more sorrow and suffering than a small child ever needs to see—especially during the last years of Judith's life.”

“Why did you all live at the Benton estate?” Rhea's tone sounded curious.

“Why not?” Carter shrugged. “Ours wasn't a normal marriage and her father wanted every minute possible with his daughter. He tried every doctor and every treatment, struggling to save Judith, but even wealth can't stop death sometimes.”

He pulled his knees up to change his position. “The Benton estate was big enough for four families. Judith and I had our own wing, like our own house, with privacy enough when we wanted it. Judith didn't cook or clean. She threw her clothes on the floor after wearing them like a child might, knowing they'd be picked up and put away. The Bentons' servants had cared for Judith since she was a small girl. They understood her and ministered to her with a love she hardly deserved when her illness wasted her physically and emotionally. They truly loved Taylor, too, and he needed people like that in his life. I'm grateful to Martha and Pickett for all they did for Taylor and Judith through a long, difficult time.”

“Taylor showed me a picture of the new home you bought after Judith died.” Carter could feel the wheels in Rhea's mind turning. “I wondered about that.”

“It was time for a change. I wanted Taylor and I to build a new life, get out of the Benton mansion, out from under Morgan's heavy grief and away from his control. We needed a place to heal on our own.”

He put a hand over to find Rhea's. “I bought a pleasant, livable house I thought you would like, Rhea. As Alvin once said, you could go there knowing Judith never crossed the threshold. Knowing I never lived in that house with her.”

Carter heard Rhea catch her breath. “You think I would go to California with you? Leave Laurel Springs?”

“No.” He squeezed her hand. “Go there with me sometimes. During the slow seasons at Laurel Springs. When we wanted to fly out for pleasure or a break or when I had business in California.”

She didn't say anything.

“You'd like it there. It's beautiful. The ocean and a big park are near the house.” He couldn't read her thoughts, so he kept talking. “You've never traveled, Rhea. We can travel together, see new places together, have adventures. I'm a very wealthy man. You won't want for anything.”

“That's Morgan Benton's money.” She spit out the words venomously.

“Wrong.” Carter snapped the word out and turned to grab her by the shoulders. “I earned my own money through all this, Rhea Dean. I did receive some inheritance through Judith and I may inherit through Morgan one day, in trust for Taylor, but I did fine work at Quest. I raised the company to a new level, designed games for Quest that put it on the map in a way it never was before. I made Quest a big player in the game industry, won awards for the company through my game designs, moved it into the big leagues with my Traveler games—in sales volume and with the comics and animated movies being created about its characters.”

He pulled away from her, anger simmering in his veins. “I may have been bought in one way—but I made the best of a bad situation. I came into my own. I grew through difficulties. I worked hard. I didn't allow myself to grow bitter or to give up my own dreams.”

Carter stood up, flicking on his flashlight so he could pace in the small space. “Don't diminish me to only a bought man. I have known my own hardships in these years—but I have not let them destroy me.”

“I suppose you could have.” Her voice drifted softly through the darkness to reach him. “It would have been easy to have given up or to have become bitter or hard.”

She pushed herself to her feet, wincing over her sore ankle and stiff joints from the long time on the dirt floor.

Her temper flared. “Sheesh, I hate it in here. I have a new respect for all Thumbelina endured trapped in that mole's tunnel for so long.”

Carter laughed despite himself, remembering the childhood fairy tale. “Well, at least Marshall hasn't shown up tonight.” He glanced at his watch. “We can thank our blessings for that.”

Rhea froze in place. “Oh my gosh, Carter. With all that's happened, I never considered that he might come back while we were trapped down here.”

She looked toward the hole high above them apprehensively.

Carter walked over to put an arm around her. “It's nearly four in the morning. I think there's little chance any vandal will make an appearance at this hour. I had concerns earlier but not now.”

She leaned into him. “I hate to bring this up, but I have to go to the bathroom. Will you hold the light for me in the side passage and close your eyes and not look?”

“Sure.” He chuckled. “If you'll do the same for me.”

They attended to their needs and then settled back down on the boards to dig through Carter's backpack for more snacks.

CHAPTER 19

R
hea studied Carter in the dim light from the flashlight they'd propped between them. “I feel like I know you better now, Carter. And before this I thought I knew you better than anyone in the world did.”

“Oh, yeah?” He popped a handful of cheese curls into his mouth.

“Yeah.” She punched him with a fist playfully, wanting to lighten up the intensity of this time.

Rhea rubbed her neck as she finished off a box of raisins. “I'm sore all over.” She looked up at the sloping tunnel above them. “If that tunnel dropped straight down, versus having a little slant to it that caught our falls, we'd probably both have broken something.”

“Probably.” Carter rustled in his backpack for something else to eat.

Both settled back against the wall after finishing off their raisins and cheese curls. Rhea gratefully let Carter wrap his arm around her again. The chill underground seemed to have stolen into her bones.

Exhausted, they nodded in sleep for a short time.

Eventually, Carter's voice broke the quiet. “Rhea, why didn't you come to California that summer? I know your father died—but I always felt there was something else. . . .” His voice trailed off.

The night hours and the darkness seemed to encourage a candor not possible in the day.

Rhea searched her heart. Carter had shared honestly with her, and he deserved the same back. “Maybe I felt a little jealous.”

He jerked in surprise. “Of Judith?”

“No.” She felt reluctant to admit the next words. “Of your success. You went to California, got that wonderful scholarship and then, in your first year, the company put your game design straight into production. You stayed that summer to oversee it. I understood why you couldn't come home. You told me that. But you were already on your way, Carter, and I hadn't even started.”

He hugged her closer. “But you won your own scholarship at San José University in the Hospitality, Tourism and Event Management program. Remember? You said you wanted to learn how to bring Laurel Springs into the big time. . . .”

She sighed. “I really just wanted to go where you were going. You had to leave Cosby to achieve your dreams in game development. I knew that. My dreams to go to California were ‘hitch on' dreams.”

She felt him tense, but she continued before she lost her nerve. “In a deep part of me, I didn't want to go. San José is a big city—near Sunnyvale, of course, which is smaller—but we wouldn't have been right next door anymore, like here at Laurel Springs. I would have been on my own. No major fields of study suited to me existed at Cogswell Polytech. You know that, so I couldn't go to the same school with you. Live in the same town.”

“But you said the major at San José was perfect for you. . . .”

Rhea interrupted. “No, Carter,
you
said that. You found the school near yours and researched the academic majors. You researched the available scholarships. You planned everything. I just went along.”

“That's not true. . . .”

Rhea put a hand over Carter's mouth now. “Let me try to say this. Please?”

She swallowed the lump in her throat. “You were always such a strong person. I sometimes felt I floated along in your wake.”

He snorted.

“It's true. Jeannie was strong, too—popular, outgoing, well liked, and involved in everything in high school. I floated along after her, too, into her circle of friends, into cheerleading, which I never liked. I drifted along on your arm, absorbing your popularity, admired for being linked to you, in the same way I was favored for being Jeannie's friend. And then there was Billy Wade, the star receiver on the football team, also popular. All three of you knew exactly who you were and where you were going.” She hesitated. “Sometimes I felt invisible.”

Carter shook his head. “Rhea Kaden Dean, you are one of the strongest people I know. You are now and you were then. How could you not have seen that about yourself?”

“I don't know.” She shrugged. “When my father got sick, I had to step up and take his place. I felt scared at first, but then I liked those new roles . . . taking on Daddy's administrative and planning tasks, leading the tours, running many aspects of Laurel Springs. I liked the power and responsibility.”

He blew out a deep breath.

“To keep from falling behind in college, I went to Walters State Community College with Jeannie and Billy Wade. I found aspects of myself at the college there that I liked, too. I loved the business program and courses.” She paused. “Then in a journalism elective, I discovered a whole new aspect of myself. I wrote a newspaper column for a course assignment and the paper asked me to continue to write more.”

“You never even told me about that.”

“I know.” Her voice dropped. “I was afraid you'd pick up on how much I loved doing it and realize how much I didn't want to let it go.” She clenched a fist. “It may not seem like a lot compared to your nationally known video games . . . but it was mine, Carter. My personal thing, my own accomplishment, and it mattered to me. I loved the column. I knew moving to California would mean giving up everything I'd begun to value that year, the column, my new roles at Laurel Springs, my sense of individuality, and my feeling of being my own person at last. I would have gone back to being a follower.”

He took his arm from around her shoulder and stood up, trying to find space to pace out his frustration. “I always sensed there was something,” he said at last. “Why didn't you tell me?”

She crossed her arms against her waist, searching for an answer. “I didn't think you'd understand. You wanted me to come, and I knew you were angry because I hadn't come already. But the more time slipped by, the more I didn't want to go, even though I loved you. California seemed more and more like your world, and this little corner of the Smoky Mountains, and Laurel Springs, seemed more and more like my world. Where I belonged.”

He pushed a hand through his hair in irritation. “Dash it, Rhea, you should have told me. I would have understood.”

“Would you have understood?” She stood up to move closer to him, picking up the flashlight to guide her way. “Can you look at me—right here, right now—and tell me you would have truly understood?”

His dark eyes met hers and then slipped away. “All right.” He kicked at a scrap of board on the dirt floor. “I admit it. I would have tried to talk you into coming anyway. It's what I wanted. I would have tried to plan and figure a way for you to write a column in California, work at a resort around the San José area. I wanted you with me. And I would have reminded you that we would have come back here eventually.”

“I know.” She leaned her head against his shoulder.

He brushed a clump of dirt off his jeans. “So you only
told
me you didn't come because of your father dying. You thought I'd understand that you needed to stay for that reason.”

“It wasn't a lie. Daddy asked me to stay, and Mother and Nana really did need me. Even Laurel Springs needed me, Carter, especially with you gone. Someone needed to stay here to fight for the dream.”

She felt a touch of her old anger rise. “You worked hard in California, but I worked hard here. Many times I despaired that we could keep this place afloat. The need for repairs grew and grew. Often unexpected bills arose, frightening all of us until we found ways to earn extra money to pay them off. Staff had to be let go, and all of us picked up extra work tasks to add to our own. It wasn't a lie that I needed to stay here, to fight to see Laurel Springs survive. But I wanted to be honest tonight and say that other things influenced my staying, too.”

A muscle in his jaw bunched, but he pulled her into his arms, holding her against him. “We thought we knew everything about each other, but we didn't, did we?” He put his hands on her face. “I wish we'd opened our hearts to each other more in the past.”

She shrugged. “We were kids. We didn't always know or understand ourselves in those years. How could we explain what we were still figuring out?”

He smiled at her. “Perhaps you're right. But one thing I've always known is that I love you, Rhea. I always have and I always will. No matter what else has happened. No matter what else happens in the future.”

Carter traced his fingers over her lips, and his smile twitched with a wicked touch of pleasure as a kick of awareness sparked between them. He lowered his mouth to cover hers, and Rhea plummeted head over heels into the moment, forgetting the dirt, the filth, and the spiders around her. Aware only of the beating of her heart and the feel of Carter tight against her.

She heard herself utter a small crooning sound as Carter deepened their kiss and wrapped her body tighter against him. His hands roamed over her, sending sparks through her nerve endings in every place he touched.

Carter barely suppressed a groan as he rained soft kisses near her ear. “Marry me, Rhea Dean,” he whispered. “No matter what has happened between us, we belong together. Surely you feel it—and know it in your heart?” His mouth covered hers again.

Dizzy with desire, Rhea wondered why she couldn't say yes immediately. She knew her body cried yes within her. Why did she hesitate?

Suddenly, sharp voices from above interrupted the moment.

“Carter?” Rhea heard Grampa Layman's strong preacher's voice. “Are you here, boy?”

Carter pulled back with reluctance. “Yes, Grampa. Down here.”

Rhea heard Jinx barking with excitement from overhead.

“Is Rhea there with you?” Carter's father's voice filtered down from the cabin floor above now.

“She's here. We're both safe and well, just tired and worn out.” He walked over to stand below the opening above them. The lights of his father and grandfather's flashlights flicked over him—and then over Rhea.

Grampa Layman's voice sounded again. “Good Lord, what's happened here?”

Carter sighed. “We'll explain everything when you get us out! Go get some strong rope, or better, an extension ladder. Load it up in the truck. We're both pretty sore and worn out from the fall. Rhea, especially, would find it easier to climb out of this hole on a ladder rather than to have to pull up on a rope.”

“I'll head that way right now,” Wes Layman confirmed.

Rhea heard his footsteps pace swiftly across the cabin floor.

The dog barked eagerly once more, scratching around the edge of the opening above.

“It's all right, Jinx,” Carter called to him.

“You've got a good dog here,” Grampa said. Rhea saw him pet the big dog's head with fondness. “He's got a real sense when someone's in trouble. Woke us up about four in the morning, scratching and whining. Our guess is he went in your room and found you missing about that time.”

The next hours until morning went by in a flurry. Wes came back with the ladder. Carter and Rhea climbed out, and all of them rode back to the Laymans' place. Then the sheriff was called again.

Rhea felt worn out from the long, tense night and from the extensive explanations that ensued after their rescue. Even more discussion occurred after the rescue of the strongbox from the underground tunnel.

Rock chunks threaded with veins of gold filled the box, but the value of the stash didn't appear to be great. The best finds in the strongbox were a few gemstones, probably mined out of Jonas Sutton's time working in North Carolina.

“Marshall will be disappointed he risked so much for so little,” Carter said to Rhea as he drove her home later.

Both of them were stiff and filthy from their night in the tunnel. Wes offered to drive Rhea home, but Carter had insisted he would take her.

Rhea, quiet on their ride, dreaded the battery of questions awaiting her from her mother and Nana Dean. Neither knew she'd been gone until Rhea called them at 5:00 a.m.

Carter stopped the car along the circle driveway before they neared the Deans' farmhouse. He turned off the motor and let his eyes wander over Rhea, a slow smile spreading across his face.

A nervous flick of apprehension moved through her. “I look a sight, don't I?” She'd caught a glimpse of herself earlier in the Laymans' bathroom mirror. “I don't think I ever looked forward more to a hot bath.”

He put a hand to her cheek, not willing to let her avoid the subject she feared he wanted to discuss again. “You didn't answer my question I asked you before our rescue team arrived.” He traced a finger down her cheek. “Will you say yes? Will you let me love you forever—be in my life and my heart for always? I promise I will cherish you.”

She hesitated, dropping her eyes, but not before she saw disappointment flash across Carter's face.

“You're still hesitating, Rhea? Even after tonight and all our confessions?”

She crossed her arms defensively. “It's a lot to take in. And we're both tired. Can't we talk about this more some other time?”

His eyes grew hard. “I don't think so. I need to know what's in your heart.”

Feeling pressured, Rhea felt her anger start to rise. “I don't know what's in my heart.” She knew her voice sounded testy. “A lot of mixed feelings. I could say I love you, and I would mean it. I've always loved you, Carter. Surely you know that?” Her words rushed on. “I could say I forgive you—for everything that's happened, for all the years, for all the time lost. But I'd be lying to say I can simply put everything behind me, even after learning Judith Benton used trickery to induce you to marry her.”

She gave him a stubborn look. “Despite her getting you drunk, you
were
spending time with her. Going to the beach with her, sharing meals together. Knowing she desired you and found you attractive. Risking fate.”