Secrets by Jude Deveraux Page A

playdates to spend time with me?”
    Most children wouldn’t want to spend time with an older woman, but Elsbeth wasn’t like other children. “Oh, yes,” she said, her eyes wide as she looked at a pile of hats that covered the centuries from the 1700s to the 1970s.
    â€œI think Elsbeth will do quite well here,” Althea said, eyeing the child with approval.
    â€œBut I don’t know if Jeff will like this,” Cassie began.
    â€œAnd does he disagree with you often?” Althea asked.
    â€œNo, not usually. Actually, not ever. But Thomas…I make lunch for him.”
    Althea smiled. “Do you think I’ve forgotten Jefferson’s handsome father? Rosalie is already working on a rather splendid lunch for him.”
    Dana and Cassie looked at each other in wonder. It seemed that everything had already been settled—and settled the way Althea wanted it, which they soon learned was always the way with her. Within two hours of arriving, Dana and Cassie were hard at work. By Tuesday afternoon, they had established a routine. And while Dana and Cassie worked like drudges upstairs, Althea and Thomas and Elsbeth spent the day downstairs, their laughter floating up to the women in the attic. From the second day on, the three of them went out to lunch together and didn’t return until evening. Cassie and Dana ate a sandwich while continuing to work.
    When Cassie put Elsbeth in the tub at night, she’d ask, “Where did you go today? What did you do?” but the child never told anything except uttered vague phrases. “To a restaurant,” she’d say. Or “to look at some old buildings.” That about covered every inch of Williamsburg, Cassie thought, frustrated that she couldn’t get much out of Elsbeth.
    She got no more out of Thomas. “Sightseeing,” he said.
    At dinner with Jeff, which had been cooked by Althea’s housekeeper, Rosalie, and carried home, Elsbeth and Thomas wouldn’t so much as mention what they’d done during the day. So Cassie followed suit. It wasn’t as though they were keeping a secret from Jeff; they just left out Althea from their talk.
    As for Cassie and Dana, they were loosening in their attitudes toward each other. It started on Tuesday when they were both sweating and dirty, and they heard more laughter from downstairs.
    â€œSo how much are we being paid to do this?” Dana asked, standing up and stretching her aching back.
    â€œI think it’s four million an hour,” Cassie said, deadpan.
    â€œWe should ask for a raise.” Dana held up a green velvet dress. “Do you remember this one?”
    â€œ Watching You, ” Cassie said. “It’s when she sees him off at the pier.”
    â€œWasn’t that movie made in the 1940s? And wasn’t it in black-and-white?”
    â€œYes.” Cassie looked at her in question.
    â€œSo how do you recognize a green dress and how do you remember which movie, even which scene it was in?”
    â€œChalk it up to a boring childhood spent alone with my very own video player and an account at a local video store.”
    â€œRich kid,” Dana said, holding up a pair of black and white shoes.
    â€œPlease tell me that you don’t remember these shoes.”
    â€œ The Last Night . She leaves one behind when he pushes her out the window of the stone tower.”
    There was another burst of laughter from downstairs. “I can understand why he did it,” Dana said, putting the shoes back in the trunk. “I think she should get a professional in here. I really don’t understand how I got rooked into doing this.”
    Cassie was sitting on a chair that looked as though it had been used in a play about Cleopatra, with a clipboard on her lap. “It must be nice to have the choice of not taking a job,” Cassie said, “but I need one. I’m about to be out of employment and a place to live, remember?