What She Doesn't Know by Beverly Barton

would be expected. She sincerely hoped that he had left Clarice enough to live well for the rest of her life. Of course, Clarice still had some money of her own from when she’d sold her dress shop twenty years ago. Yvonne knew to the penny exactly how much. She and Clarice had no secrets. Not now. Not ever.
    As she made her way through the back parlor, she heard Clarice’s voice, slightly agitated, the pitch an octave higher than normal.
    “But you must stay here,” Clarice pleaded. “It’s ridiculous that you checked into the Sumarville Inn when there’s more than enough room for you at Belle Rose. After all, this is your home. Your old room is just the way you left it.”
    “There’s no point in my leaving the inn,” Jolie said. “I’m returning to Atlanta in a few days, maybe even tomorrow, unless something in the will requires me to stay on.”
    “Of course there will be something in Louis’s will that will require you to stay on. You’re his daughter. I’m sure he’s left an equal share of everything to you.”
    “I doubt he did that. He had a new family to think about, to take care of. I’m sure he put their needs first in death as he did in life.”
    Clarice slipped her arm around Jolie’s waist. “You’re still so bitter.” Clarice tsk-tsked and shook her head sadly. “Audrey was like that. Unable to forgive. Unable to understand human foibles. You mustn’t be this way, dear, dear Jolie. Don’t you know that in the long run hatred turns on you and causes you pain?”
    “I’m sorry if you can’t understand why I feel the way I do, but I can’t accept the fact that Georgette took my mother’s place in this house less than a year after her death or the fact that she took my mother’s place in my father’s bed before Mama died.”
    “Hush up!” Clarice tapped her index finger over her lips. “Someone might hear you.”
    Yvonne hated seeing Clarice upset, and if this conversation went any further, she’d have a difficult time dealing with Clarice later. Everyone in the household made an effort to keep things on an even keel for Clarice, to keep her content and smiling. She simply wasn’t emotionally strong enough to deal with confrontation. Everyone here at Belle Rose was aware of that fact. Why wasn’t Jolie? It was for this very reason that Max hadn’t already kicked Nowell Landers’s ass from here to Jackson and back.
    “Clarice, Mr. Landers is looking for you,” Yvonne said as she approached. A little white lie to calm the situation was in order.
    “Nowell is looking for me?” Clarice’s eyelashes fluttered, youthful flirtation in the gesture.
    Yvonne hadn’t seen Clarice react this way to a man since Jonathan. “Come on. Let me take you to him.” She hoped that Nowell Landers wouldn’t contradict her.
    “But I haven’t persuaded Jolie to stay here at Belle Rose. She’s checked herself into the inn and says she’s leaving Sumarville in a few days.” Clarice hugged Jolie to her side. “Now that she’s home again, we can’t let her leave.”
    “I’ll tell you what—you go find Mr. Landers and I’ll talk to Jolie,” Yvonne said. “How will that be?”
    “Yes, of course. What a good idea. You have such a persuasive way about you.” Clarice kissed Jolie’s cheek, then released her and shook her finger in Jolie’s face. “You listen to Yvonne. Do you hear me? You won’t disappoint us, will you, sweet child?”
    Jolie offered her aunt a weak half-smile. “I promise I’ll listen to Yvonne.”
    That statement seemed to be enough to pacify Clarice, who waltzed off into the throng of partying mourners in search of her adoring suitor.
    Yvonne turned to Jolie. “Would you like a breath of fresh air?”
    “What do you have in mind?”
    “I thought maybe we could escape to the back porch. Hopefully no one else has made it out that far, yet.”
    “Are we going to have a come-to-Jesus talk?” Jolie asked.
    Yvonne smiled. “So, you remember those little talks