fragile. Besides, she had closed her eyes as soon as she lay down, giving her the space she needed. Her lids moved; I wondered what images flickered there. Gradually, the movements slowed, and she dozed off.
Cautious not to wake her, I eased off the sofa and crept from the room. She hadn’t said yes to coming to Devon. But I was packing her bag anyway.
Then doubt set in. Halfway up the stairs, I turned and sat. There were two major problems here. I had barely begun to work through them when Edward appeared at the foot of the stairs, and, for a split second, that startled me, too. No matter that we’d been in each other’s company since last night, for so long before this I had gone it alone. The idea that he was here for me, tall and dark, sensible and strong, still stunned me.
Sitting one step lower so that his head was that little bit closer to mine, he whispered, “It’s the right thing to do.”
“I know,” I whispered back, but my hands were clenched between my knees.
“You’re worried about exposure.”
“For starters.”
“That won’t happen, Maggie,” he whispered, looking sideways at me. “Nina was the only one who figured it out from The Devon Times piece.”
“That we know of.” And here I was today, AWOL with Edward. In theory, only Joyce and Kevin knew that, but theory only worked if no one else figured it out.
“Nina’s the exception,” he came back. “She’s from a world where suspicion is a player. You know her secrets, so she wants to know yours. The rest of the people in Devon? They’re not looking. You and your mother are Reids, but the accident involved a Cooper—and in Massachusetts, not Connecticut. There’s no reason for people to make the connection.”
“But I can’t tell Mom not to talk. All it would take is an innocent comment, like, Mackenzie had a bad time after the crash, and I’m outed.”
“She’ll only be with good friends. Would it be so bad if they knew?”
Yes, the frightened voice in me said, but his pale-blue eyes were a beacon in the shadowed stairway, guiding me somewhere new.
“Explain the situation,” he urged softly. “Ask her not to mention the accident.”
“She’ll say I’m hiding.”
“Confess to it. Be honest. She’s feeling things that you hadn’t known, like the religion thing, so maybe she’ll talk more if you do. Explain your fears. Get her invested in this. She’ll be pleased to be drawn into the loop.”
I wasn’t sure. The meek Margaret down there on the sofa was an enigma. And that was only one of my doubts.
Edward got the others, too. Propping an elbow behind him, so that he was angled my way, he whispered, “You’re also wondering where in the hell to put your mother in your house, because there’s only one bedroom, which is upstairs, and the downstairs is small. If Liam is there, he may get in the way, but if he moves out, she’ll feel isolated. Once you get past PT and doctor’s appointments and Spa treatments, she’ll be alone up there on your hill with not much to do or see and maybe or maybe not loving the forest like you do.”
“Not. When my Girl Scout troop did an overnight in the woods—”
“I didn’t know you were a Girl Scout,” he said, pulling back with a captivated half-smile.
Unable to resist, it was still so new, I ran a fingertip over his mustache. “I was more artsy than the other girls, so I didn’t really fit in. That’s why Mom volunteered for field trips.” I dropped my hand. “She didn’t fit in either. She did the cooking. That’s it. She’s never been into nature.”
He straightened and grinned. “Then she needs to stay at the Inn.”
The words came so fast on my thoughts about Mom in the great outdoors, that it was a minute before they sank in. “The Inn,” I finally said. “Oh, no. I was thinking I could rent a place in town.”
“Why? The owner’s suite is mine to use or not. I have my house, and if that weren’t a major mess, I’d have both of you stay there. It’s bigger than your place. But it’s still raw, and it would be just as isolating. The Inn is ideal.”
“That’s yours, Edward. We couldn’t—”
“Of course you could.” His pale blues were intent. “The suite has two bedrooms, so you could stay there with her. It has a living room, plus a kitchenette, which she could use or not.