The Delacourt Scandal (12 page)

“Please don’t make too much of that,” Maddie said, feeling miserable at getting this woman’s hopes up when she knew she would only dash them at some point in the very near future.

“We’ll discuss it some more over lunch. Perhaps whatever reservations you’re feeling I can put to rest. Believe me, when it comes to Tyler, I can’t say enough good things.”

Once more Maddie sensed a special bond between Mrs. Delacourt and Tyler. She sighed, dreading what was to come. Even so, she made arrangements to meet Tyler’s mother at her country club at noon. With any luck by midafternoon she would know if Bryce Delacourt had been involved in a relationship with Pamela Davis and if that could be why he had accused her father of embezzlement, to cover up the acts of his lover.

The country club dining room was tastefully furnished in the style of an English tea room. The atmo
sphere was cozy, perfect for sharing confidences. Or so Maddie hoped.

She and Mrs. Delacourt sat across from each other, sipping iced tea and eating chicken Caesar salads, making small talk. The food was delicious, but Maddie was having a hard time swallowing.

“I am so delighted to have this chance to get to know you better,” Helen Delacourt said again. She was dressed in a smart designer suit in a deep blue that perfectly matched her eyes. “I spoke to Tyler earlier. He seemed surprised that we were meeting.”

“I didn’t mention it to him,” Maddie admitted. “I called on impulse.”

“Well, I am so glad you did. Tell me about yourself, Maddie. How long have you been in Houston?”

“Just a few weeks.”

“You work?”

“I have a lead on a job now.”

“Well, good, I hope you get it, if that’s what you want. Though, of course, once you and Tyler are married, you certainly wouldn’t have to work unless you wanted to.”

Maddie felt lower than pond scum for deceiving Tyler’s mother about their plans. Worse, she was about to turn this woman’s private life into a public spectacle. Bryce Delacourt might deserve such a fate, but Tyler’s gracious mother didn’t. Then she thought of her own family’s anguish, of her mother’s descent into lonely isolation. Those memories made it easier to harden her heart.

“I hear you’ve moved in,” Mrs. Delacourt said casually.

“That’s just temporary,” Maddie said, embarrassed that she knew.

Mrs. Delacourt laughed. “I’m not shocked, if that’s what you’re thinking, though I do hope it’s a prelude of things to come.”

“What things?” Maddie asked, afraid that she already knew.

“A wedding, of course. Perhaps later this summer?”

“I don’t think so, but perhaps you should discuss that with Tyler,” Maddie said. “To be perfectly honest, I don’t know what to make of your son.”

Helen Delacourt looked genuinely perplexed by the comment. “How can that be? Tyler has always been a very straightforward man, at least until recently.”

Maddie knew exactly what that was about, but it wasn’t up to her to enlighten Mrs. Delacourt about Tyler’s loss. She shrugged the comment off, then used the topic to slide toward her goal of discussing the Delacourts’ marriage. “Perhaps it’s just me. I don’t have a lot of experience with relationships. I haven’t had the time.”

“No past loves?”

She shrugged. “None of importance.”

“Well, you couldn’t do better than my son. Tyler is a unique man,” she said, clearly prepared for an enthusiastic hard sell of her son. “He has a mind of his own, much to his father’s dismay, but then all of our children do. They blame that on their father, but the truth is, I am capable of my share of stubbornness when something matters to me. Seeing Tyler settled down is one of those things that matters.”

Unfortunately, Maddie knew that all too well. She
decided the time had come to get into a sensitive area. She just prayed she had the finesse to carry it off without arousing suspicion.

“You’ve had a long and happy marriage,” she said to the older woman. “That’s so rare these days. How have you managed it?”

When her question drew an evasive look, Maddie sensed that she was, in fact, onto something. Perhaps it was no more than uneasiness at discussing something so personal with a virtual stranger.

“I’m sorry,” she said sympathetically. “Have I said something I shouldn’t have?”

“Of course not,” Helen Delacourt said with a rare display of testiness. “All marriages have their ups and down, I suppose. Mine no more than others. If you’re committed to the marriage, you work things through.”

“Surely it was never anything serious?”

“I’m not sure what you mean by serious. Even little annoyances can take on a life of their own unless they’re nipped in the bud.”

“I suppose I was thinking more of the really big things that can happen, a genuine betrayal, for instance. I can’t imagine what I’d do if my husband cheated on me.”

A faraway look came into the older woman’s eyes, then she blinked and it was gone. “I suppose that would depend.”

“On?”

“How important the marriage was to you,” she said at once. “Betrayal can knock the wind right out of you, but if your family matters at all, you pick yourself up and make peace with it. You put your
family first before your own feelings. That requires tremendous strength, but in the end it’s well worth it.”

Was that what she had done? Maddie wondered. Found a way to make peace with her husband’s affair?

“Then you never thought of separating?” she asked, then covered quickly for her insensitive bluntness. “I’m sorry, that’s far too personal. I have no right to ask. I have this terrible habit of poking my nose into other people’s business. If your husband cheated on you, I’m sure it’s all in the past.”

Mrs. Delacourt turned absolutely ashen. “Why would you even say such a thing?” she demanded indignantly.

“I’m sorry,” Maddie said again. “It was rude of me. It’s just that I’d heard…Well, I should know better than to listen to gossip.”

“Yes, you certainly should. My husband is the most honorable man I know. He would certainly never dream of cheating on me,” Mrs. Delacourt told her with surprising vehemence. She put her napkin on the table with trembling fingers, then stood. “I really think I’d better go. Suddenly I’m not feeling well. We’ll do this another time.”

“Of course,” Maddie said, furious with herself for not easing into the topic more subtly. Now she had scared the woman off. She doubted she would ever get another chance to ask such probing questions. She was a little taken aback by the fierce denial that Bryce Delacourt had ever had an affair, but what else was his wife supposed to say? Following the protesting-
too-much philosophy, wasn’t such a firm declaration tantamount to an admission?

She regarded Mrs. Delacourt worriedly, a reaction she didn’t have to feign. “You look pale. Shall I come with you?”

“No, you stay,” Tyler’s mother said politely. “Enjoy your lunch, dear.”

Back straight, Helen Delacourt strode from the dining room, nodding politely to her friends, a mask of composure firmly in place. Maddie could only guess at the torment she must be suffering as she relived painful memories.

Memories that Maddie had deliberately resurrected, she thought guiltily. She felt like the sleaziest of tabloid journalists, a media Peeping Tom, seeking headlines at the expense of another’s peace of mind.

What kind of woman was she? Maddie wondered despondently as she pushed the remainder of her salad away. What kind of person had she become? Even for the sake of avenging her father, how could she prey on a woman who’d been willing to welcome her as a daughter-in-law? How could she betray a man like Tyler, a man whom she could love with very little effort at all?

Would Mrs. Delacourt tell Tyler about her uncomfortable meeting with Maddie? If so, Maddie had no doubt that he would be furious. He might even kick her out in a justifiable rage. Maybe that would be for the best, she told herself.

But if it was, why did she feel as lost and alone now as she had when her beloved father had died?

I
t was nearly midnight when Tyler called Dylan. He’d grown tired of waiting up for Maddie, and he needed to do something constructive to get the answers he wanted. On his own, all he’d accomplished was to stir up more questions. Her failure to turn up at O’Reilly’s—which had become their nightly haunt—unsettled him. And the fact that she still wasn’t home aroused in him an uneasy mix of anger and panic.

Had something happened to her? Or had she run out on him? And what the devil had she been doing with his mother? It might not have surprised him to learn that his mother had arranged to see Maddie, but Helen had made it clear that their lunch was at Maddie’s instigation.

Was Maddie off on another fishing expedition, as
she had been in Baton Rouge? By now didn’t she already know everything there was to know about him? Or did she have some other agenda he couldn’t imagine?

“I need you to run a check on somebody for me,” he told Dylan before he had a chance to reconsider.

Even though his brother had obviously been asleep before the phone had rung, Dylan sounded wide-awake at once.

“Name?” he asked with brisk professionalism.

That was what Tyler liked about his oldest brother. Dylan didn’t waste a lot of time asking the kind of questions Tyler didn’t want to answer. Dylan simply knew Tyler wouldn’t come to him unless it was important.

“Maddie Kent,” he said with obvious reluctance.

“
Your
Maddie?” There was no mistaking the shock in Dylan’s voice. “I thought…”

Tyler sighed. “I know what you thought. I’m sure you’ve gotten an earful lately from Mother and Jeb and who knows who else, but I’m not sure she’s mine,” he said wearily. “To be honest, after today I’m not sure who she is at all.”

“What happened today?” Dylan asked, beginning what was bound to be a litany of questions, now that he knew this involved a woman Tyler cared about. Professionalism had clearly given way to brotherly concern. It was pretty pointless to try to evade the questions.

Resigned to satisfying his brother’s ingrained curiosity, Tyler filled Dylan in on what he’d learned earlier when he’d searched the entire neighborhood
where she’d claimed to live and come up with not one soul who’d ever heard of Maddie Kent.

“I see,” Dylan said when he’d finished. “Tyler, are you sure you want to do this? Shouldn’t you talk to her first? Ask her what the hell is going on?”

“I would if I could, but she’s disappeared. Besides, what’s to keep her from telling me another pack of lies?”

“Are you so sure they
are
lies? Maybe she did live in that neighborhood, just not on the blocks you covered. Maybe she kept a very low profile. That area’s not the best, even though you claim it’s going to boom anyday now. Maybe she didn’t want to get to know her neighbors.”

“Dylan, I covered a lot of blocks. Besides, she was always very careful never to let me pick her up at home. You have to admit that that in itself is suspicious. She had a million excuses, but I think the truth is that she didn’t live anywhere near O’Reilly’s.”

“Why would she lie about something like that?”

“I wish I knew. To throw me off, maybe…keep me from finding out more about her. For all I know, Maddie Kent isn’t even her real name.”

“Are you thinking that she deliberately set you up in some way, that she came to O’Reilly’s specifically to meet you?”

“It’s crossed my mind.”

“It’s possible, I suppose,” Dylan said thoughtfully. “You are one of the most eligible bachelors around and—though I certainly can’t see it—I have it on good authority that you’re handsome as sin.”

Tyler chuckled. “Don’t sound so disgruntled. Kelsey picked you, anyway.” He paused, then added,
“Of course, maybe that was because she hadn’t met me yet.”

“Leave my wife out of this. It’s our baby sister who thinks you’re good-looking, and she’s prejudiced. As for Maddie, she wouldn’t be the first woman to try to snag a wealthy man by making it a point to put herself in his path.”

“True, but I honestly don’t think it’s my money she’s after. She’s been having a tough time financially, but she wouldn’t take a dime from me.”

“But in refusing, she stirred all your protective tendencies and,
bam,
now she’s living with you.”

“It was a platonic arrangement,” Tyler said defensively. “Because she was in a bind. It was all my idea.”

“It
was
platonic?”

“It’s changed,” he said tightly. “Just stop with all the analysis and do this for me, okay?”

“Whatever you say. It’s your call. I’ll get on it first thing tomorrow. If she gets home, talk to her. Meantime, if you change your mind, call me back.”

“I won’t change my mind,” Tyler said firmly. “I’m not sure of much these days, but I am sure of that. Just do whatever you have to do.”

He sighed heavily as he hung up. That was it, then. He was having a woman he cared about investigated. What did that say about the future potential of the relationship? How much trust could they possibly have if he felt driven to have his brother go digging around in Maddie’s life? Would trust ever be possible once she learned what he’d done?

At least a dozen times he told himself to call Dylan in the morning and tell him to forget it. At least a
dozen more times he reassured himself that he had no choice. He had to know the truth about Maddie, even if he didn’t like what he discovered.

If his tumultuous thoughts hadn’t been enough to keep him awake, Maddie’s absence from his bed would have been. Her scent was everywhere. Finally, driven by pure frustration, he got up and changed the sheets, then settled back down, but sleep continued to elude him.

He stilled when he finally heard the front door ease open, then debated going to confront her. When he heard her quietly go into the room across the hall and close the door, he decided to wait until morning when they’d both be rested. Tempers tended to flare out of control when people were exhausted.

When the phone rang just after dawn, Tyler assumed it was Dylan. Instead, it was his father, and he was spitting mad.

“Who the hell is this woman you’ve been seeing?” he demanded before Tyler had managed much more than a groggy hello. “What’s she up to?”

“Dad?”

“Of course it’s me. Now answer my questions.”

“Maybe we’d better start over. Are you talking about Maddie? What’s she done?”

“Are you seeing any other woman?” his father retorted sarcastically. “Of course that’s who I’m talking about. As for what she’s done, that’s what I’m asking you.”

“I haven’t spoken to her since yesterday morning,” Tyler said.

“What do you mean you haven’t spoken to her? I thought she was living there.”

“She is, but she got in after I’d gone to bed. What is it you think she’s done?”

“I’m telling you I don’t know, but she’s got your mother over here sobbing her eyes out. She’s been up half the night. If she keeps it up much longer, she’s going to make herself sick. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I don’t like it, son. I don’t like it one bit. Nobody messes with your mother and gets away with it.”

“If she was this upset after she saw Maddie, why didn’t you call me sooner?”

“Because your mother told me not to. She insisted she needed time to think. Think about what, I ask you?”

Tyler didn’t like the sound of this. It was one thing for his mother to work herself into a state. It was quite another for his father—the king of calm—to panic like this. More was going on here than his father had said.

“I’ll be right there,” Tyler said. “Don’t worry, Dad. I’ll get to the bottom of this. I’ll see what I can find out from Maddie before I leave here.”

He pulled on his clothes and headed for the door. To his surprise Maddie met him in the hall, looking groggy and more desirable than he wanted her to.

“Come with me,” he said tersely, hauling her toward the kitchen. He put on a pot of coffee as she sat at the table and watched him warily.

“Is something wrong?” she asked finally.

“What was your first clue? The phone call at the crack of dawn or my mood?”

“Tyler, if there’s a problem, just spit it out. Who called?”

“My father.”

Was it his imagination or did her complexion turn pale?

“Oh? Is everything okay over there?”

“Apparently not. It seems my mother has been upset ever since she saw you yesterday afternoon. You wouldn’t have any idea why, would you?”

He poured them both a cup of steaming, strong coffee, then sat across from her. “Well?”

Her gazed clashed with his. “I don’t think I like your implication or your tone.”

“Well, there’s a whole lot right now that I don’t like, but let’s stick to this for the moment. What went on between you and my mother?”

She stared at him silently, and for the longest time he wasn’t sure she was going to respond. Finally she said defensively, “I met her at the country club. We had lunch. She said she wasn’t feeling well and she left. End of story.”

“Did you happen to chat about anything that might have disturbed her?”

“Tyler, what did she say? Did she blame me for upsetting her?”

“No, but my father seems to have pieced that theory together from the timing of her hysteria and from what she
has
said.”

“I’m sorry. I like your mother, and I really am sorry if I did or said something that made her uncomfortable. It wasn’t intentional.”

Tyler listened for a false note, but he didn’t hear one. She seemed to be sincere. “I want to believe that,” he said.

Hurt registered in her eyes. “But you don’t,” she replied, her tone flat.

“How can I? My father doesn’t tend to overreact, and he’s practically bouncing off walls. My mother’s been crying for hours. I’m just looking for answers.”

“Well, I don’t have any.”

“Dammit, Maddie, you were the last person she saw. I’ll ask you again, what did you talk about? Be specific.”

“You and me. Marriage. That sort of thing.”

“Did you tell her that you and I were just friends, that there was no wedding on the horizon?” he asked, wondering if that would have been enough to set his mother off. She hated to have her plans thwarted.

“I told her she’d have to discuss anything like that with you.”

“You did say you talked about marriage, though?”

“Just in general. What it takes to make a good one, that sort of thing.”

There was nothing in that to set off hysteria, at least not that Tyler could see. This wasn’t getting him anywhere, and it was evident from Maddie’s tight-lipped expression that she didn’t intend to reveal anything more.

“I’d better get over there.”

“Would you like me to come? I’d like to help if I can.”

Tyler shook his head. “I don’t think that would be such a good idea, not until I get to the bottom of this.”

“Tyler, I really am sorry,” she said, looking at him with apparent regret.

He put his empty coffee cup into the sink and au
tomatically filled it with water. Then he slowly turned back to Maddie. “Are you absolutely certain you don’t know what this is about?”

“Even if I did, it wouldn’t be my place to tell you,” she said.

He stared, trying to interpret her response. “What the hell does that mean?”

She returned his gaze, defiance mixed in with obvious misery. “Just go.”

He made it as far as the door before he turned back one last time. “If you and I are going to have any sort of a future, it would be better if you told me everything, rather than make me drag it out of my mother.”

But Maddie just shook her head. “I can’t. It’s not up to me,” she repeated.

There it was again, that same vague hint that more had gone on than what she’d admitted to thus far. “What isn’t up to you? Blast it all, Maddie, what did the two of you get into at lunch? Did you fight?”

“No.”

“What then?”

“Please, Tyler, just go. She obviously needs you.”

Since that was exactly what his father had said, he knew he couldn’t stick around and try to get the truth out of Maddie. Clearly she didn’t intend to say another word.

“I’ll be back,” he said in a tone that could only be interpreted as a warning. He had the uneasy sense, though, that Maddie might not be there when he returned.

The quiet click of the front door sent a shudder through Maddie. She pulled her knees up to her chin
and stretched her oversize T-shirt over her legs.

“What have I done?” she murmured. Obviously she had opened up a hornet’s nest in the Delacourt household. What confused her, though, was that Bryce Delacourt didn’t seem to understand why his wife was so distraught. Surely if Maddie had ripped the scab off the wound of his old affair, Helen Delacourt would have lashed out at him about it.

Was he genuinely at a loss over his wife’s distress? Had Maddie somehow gotten it wrong about the affair? Tyler’s mother hadn’t actually confirmed that there had been an affair, not in those precise words, though Maddie couldn’t see any other way to interpret either what she did say or her reactions.

“She denied it,” she reminded herself aloud. “In no uncertain terms.”

Was it possible that Maddie really had gotten it all wrong? If so, then why was Mrs. Delacourt so distraught now?

Maddie would have given anything to go with Tyler just to see Bryce Delacourt squirming. It would have been the perfect opportunity to get every last piece of evidence she needed to publicly humiliate him. But she hadn’t been able to bring herself to force the issue when Tyler had refused to let her come along. And the truth was that she wasn’t sure she could stomach it if her presence brought Helen Delacourt any more pain.

When the phone rang a few minutes later, she grabbed it, hoping it was Tyler with an update. Instead, an unfamiliar man’s voice said, “Maddie?”

“Yes.”

“This is Dylan. Tyler’s oldest brother.”

“Oh, hello.”

“Is my brother there?”

“No, he had to go out.”

“At this hour?”

“Your father called and asked him to come over.”

“Why? It wasn’t his heart again, was it?”

“No, I believe your mother was feeling a little under the weather,” she said, proud of the innocuous way she managed to make the early-morning visit sound. “Shall I have Tyler call you when he gets back?”