Part Three

She Said

Helen took her eyes off the sturdy figure who was working his way around the furniture to check on his baby sister. Verena’s tiny form lay curled up on the fluffy rug that Jim had provided, fast asleep. Helen smiled, remembering a time when two of her own brood had been this small. It was true that Mart had been walking independently at the age of this boy, but the little girl’s temperament was very like Trixie’s at a similar age. If today was anything to go by, they both had the tendency to keep focussed on whatever interested them until sleep claimed them. Helen had not dared to move the little girl once she was asleep, for fear of waking her.

From the bottom of the drive came the sound of an approaching vehicle. That will be Jim, she thought. I’d better tidy up. Helen roused herself and began to pack away the children’s belongings, ready for their departure. The car was parked, doors closed and the sound of voices approached. Helen stopped what she was doing and stared towards the back door. I’m the parent, she reminded herself, as she deduced the owners of the voices. This is my house and I can do as I please in it. She schooled her features into their usual expression and waited.

“Moms?” Brian called, tapping on the door. His sister was less patient, throwing the door open and coming inside before they received an answer.

“Are you here, Moms? I need my spare car keys.”

“In the living room,” their mother replied, as quietly as was practical. As they entered, she explained, “I’m doing a little bit of babysitting.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the fury on her son’s face and the discomfort on her daughter’s. Trixie was the first to break the silence. “These are Jim’s kids, aren’t they?” It barely qualified as a question. It was obvious that she knew the answer.

“That’s right,” Helen answered. She felt that her voice sounded too bright, but it seemed impossible to speak in a natural manner. “He should be here any moment to collect them. In fact, I thought that was him when I heard your car.”

Silence stretched once again, broken only by the little boy’s happy burbling. Another car entered the driveway and Helen found herself wondering whether Jim’s arrival would improve the situation, or make it worse. Across the room, Trixie began to look like a trapped animal, searching in vain for an escape route.

“I’ll just go and let him in,” Helen announced, rising and heading for the back door. “Brian, you can keep an eye on Madoc, please.”

She had no time to decipher the look that crossed his face. Her one aim was to warn Jim before he stepped into this situation. Outside the back door, she found her young neighbour staring in dismay at the other car that was parked nearby.

“I’m sorry,” Helen said, softly. “I didn’t know they were coming.”

“They?” he asked, his voice filled with dread.

There was no easy way to break the news. “Trixie’s here, too.”

Jim shot a look of despair towards the house, but squared his shoulders and started in that direction. “If it’s all right, I’ll just get the kids and go. I’m sorry to have been so much trouble.”

In a flash, he strode across the yard with Helen following in his wake. She saw him steel himself before opening the door. She followed slowly and waited in the background as the young adults sized each other up.

To one side of the room, Brian and Jim glared at each other in open hostility. Trixie ignored both of them, letting her gaze wander around the room as if she was alone. None of the three seemed to remember that Helen was even there, for Brian began to quietly berate Jim. “I thought I told you to keep away from here. We had an agreement.”

“I didn’t have any choice,” Jim replied, his voice strained. “Do you think I’d do this if there was any other option? I live next door, for crying out loud! And, anyway, you’ve had weeks. It’s not my fault that you’re procrastinating.”

Helen noticed a change in her daughter’s stance. For the first time, Trixie really looked at the sleeping baby. Her steady gaze travelled from the little girl to the toddler and back again. Helen could practically see the thought processes. Trixie’s eyes narrowed and she focussed on the two men across the room from her.

Meanwhile, their argument was continuing. With typical impatience, Trixie broke in, saying, “Brian, could you go and see if I’ve left something in the car? My bag tipped over and I think something might have rolled under the seat.”

Her brother looked confused for a moment, then realised that he was being sent away. “Fine. I’ll go check,” he muttered, shooting Jim an angry look.

Helen retreated into the kitchen, knowing that she should leave the two alone, but unwilling to leave Jim completely at her daughter’s mercy, or to give up the supervision of the two little ones. From here, she could hear whatever was going on, but could not be seen. She hoped they would forgive her, if they ever realised what she had done.

Inside, Trixie’s voice sounded harsh as she made the first sally. “So, you’ve been sharing lovers with Brian, have you?”

“What?” Jim replied. “No! Of course not.”

“You don’t honestly expect me to believe that they’re really your kids, do you? They’re the spit and image of my brother. So, unless the two of you have been sharing lovers …”

“They are my kids,” Jim ground out. “I have taken full responsibility for them. End of story. Now, if you’ll let me collect them, I’ll be leaving. It’s been so nice to see you, Trixie.”

From the sound, she had delivered quite a stinging slap. “How dare you? You can’t lie to me like that, Jim Frayne. I can see that you’re lying. Brian just about exploded when we got here and found them. This is one lie too many.”

“I didn’t lie to you that other time.” He sounded beaten, discouraged. “And while I will admit that, biologically speaking, you’re right, they are still mine. I have taken legal responsibility for them.”

When she spoke again, her voice was filled with confusion. “But, why? If you knew they weren’t yours, why?” Some silent communication must have taken place in the interval before her next words. Her voice became sharper and more emotional. “I told you that you didn’t have to do that. It doesn’t matter.”

“But I promised.” His words were so faint that Helen could barely make them out.

“No,” Trixie whispered. “That can’t be right. Please don’t say that. As much as I’ve hated you these last few years, I don’t want that on my conscience.” Her voice, when she continued, was shaky. “We’ll get it fixed. I’m sorry that I didn’t think of that before. I’ll start it, if you like.”

“No,” he replied. “It doesn’t make any difference at all to me. I wouldn’t cooperate, even if you did, and it wouldn’t affect my future actions, or my current situation.” There was a long silence. Jim murmured, “I should go.”

A few moments later, he passed through the kitchen with a bag of belongings slung over his shoulder, the little boy kicking strenuously on one hip and the baby snuggled in the other arm. He once again thanked Helen for her trouble and added another round of apologies, before slipping outside.

From the living room came the sound of sobbing. Completely forgetting the fact that Jim had gone in exactly the direction she had last seen Brian, Helen headed inside to comfort her daughter. She had sunk onto the sofa and her head was in her hands. Her shoulders shook with each breath she took.

Helen sat next to her and drew an arm around her little girl. She gently rubbed and murmured soothing words, waiting for the violence of emotion to pass. After a time, Trixie’s crying eased and she finally spoke.

“I never expected him to remember,” she whispered, between sobs. “He made me a promise, but I didn’t expect him to keep it after we broke up. He can’t do this to me! I don’t want to be responsible for that.”

“Promises are very important to Jim,” her mother reminded her. “You can’t expect him to change who he is, just because your relationship to him has changed.”

“But he’s denying himself the things he wants the most!” she cried. “I don’t want him to keep his promise. Why can’t he see that?”

“The way I see it,” Helen answered slowly, “that’s his choice. You can’t change it; with things as they are, you probably can’t influence it, either.”

Trixie opened her mouth to argue, then snapped it closed. She digested the idea for a minute then conceded its truth.

“Just let him do what he thinks is right,” Helen counselled. “And do what you think is right. It’s the best all of us can do.”

“You’re right, Moms,” Trixie answered, shame-faced. “I just wish that I could.”

He Said

“That cat’s out of the bag,” Brian noted, with some bitterness in his voice.

Jim shrugged and opened the car door. “She already knew, without having to be told. I’m pretty sure she knew the first day that I brought them home.”

“My mother?” Brian gave a short, humourless laugh. “Of course she knew. I meant Trixie.”

“It saves you telling her.” Jim moved around to the other side, to fasten the other car seat. “Maybe you should consider telling the rest of our friends, rather than letting them figure it out for themselves.”

Brian swore under his breath, a circumstance that caused Jim to stare at him in surprise.

“Why can’t you just get it over with?” Jim wondered.

“It wasn’t supposed to be this way!” Brian burst out. “I asked for anonymity! They weren’t ever supposed to be here, interfering with my life.”

Jim looked away. “They’re children, not annoyances.”

“I know that. I just didn’t think it would happen this way.”

“Well, it has and you’d better deal with it,” Jim answered, getting into the driver’s seat. “I need to go.”

Brian nodded, but did not answer. Jim scowled as he turned the car and drove down the drive. Before he had even reached the road, he made an effort to put the matter aside. He did not have the emotional capacity to deal with Brian’s problems as well as his own and he knew it.

She Said

Liv paced as she waited in the clubhouse, half-dreading the coming confrontation and half-wishing it was already over. She had asked Brian to meet her there, but the agreed time had not yet arrived. She had nowhere to use as neutral territory, so she had chosen the clubhouse as somewhere a little out of the way.

He arrived, just on time, wearing an expression of expectation. Obviously, he had no idea that she was upset with him – but then, why should they meet here if she wasn’t?

“Hello,” he greeted, pulling her against himself. Moments later, he pulled back, apparently having noticed her lack of enthusiasm. “What’s wrong?”

She looked into his face and wondered how to begin. “I’m not sure that we know each other as well as we should.”

He looked confused. “But we’re talking. I’m finding out more about you all the time.”

“You still have secrets,” she pointed out, trying and failing to keep the hurt out of her voice. “How do I know that I’m not getting myself into something I don’t want to be in?”

“Ah. Well, we all have secrets,” he answered.

“I’ve had enough of secrets!” she snapped.

He hesitated. “Ah. Actually, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

“Brian, if you’re wanting to admit your involvement in the conception of Indira’s children, you’ve left it a bit late.”

He gulped, hearing the sharpness in her tone. “Who told you?”

“No one. I figured it out for myself.”

He sank onto a chair and put his hands over his face. “I’ve been dreading this conversation. And none of the versions I thought of started out this bad.”

She laughed. “You think this is bad? I’m about to tell you a whole lot of home truths.”

“I haven’t had a very good relationship with the truth lately,” he admitted.

“Yes, well, that’s the first one: you need to admit what you’ve done. Your family deserve to know about that scar, for instance.”

“But then I’d have to tell everyone what happened back then, and I don’t want to do that. They’re better off not knowing.”

“I think you’d better reconsider that opinion, if you want this relationship to continue,” she retorted. “No more secrets. Not from me. Not from your family. Not from your friends. It’s not worth the pain and suffering they cause.”

“I’m working on it,” he muttered. “I can’t just help thinking that the past is best left in the past.”

“The past comes back to bite us if we don’t deal with it,” she countered. “Please, Brian. You’ve bottled these things up long enough. It’s time to let some of them out.”

He looked down. “I’m afraid of what will happen if I do that.”

She stared at him, but he did not meet her eyes. “I’m glad you admitted that, at least. It gives me some context for what seems to be a completely unreasonable attitude.”

“It’s not completely unreasonable,” he argued, then wiped his hand across his face. “It is completely unreasonable, isn’t it? But that doesn’t make this any easier.”

“I never suggested it should be easy, only that you should do it.”

He nodded and fell silent. A moment later, he asked, “Does it make a difference? About the children, I mean.”

Liv could see fear in his eyes. She shrugged. “I’m not sure, yet. I need some time to think.”

While his posture remained the same, something in his face seemed to sag and his eyes showed his disappointment with her answer. In short, she thought, he looked like he had just lost hope.

He Said

“What is it this time?” Jim asked, as he entered the barn’s loft where Brian paced.

His best friend glared at him, but stopped pacing. “I’m having extreme difficulties here and that sounded a lot like condescension.”

Jim shrugged. “I have two sleeping children in the house. I’m not staying here more than ten minutes. The clock is ticking.” He softened slightly. “Or you can come in the house. I’d rather that anyway.”

Brian hesitated a long moment, then nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”

As he followed his friend down the steep stairs, locked the old barn and walked back to the house, Jim noted the jerkiness of movement, the tenseness in Brian’s shoulders and his deep scowl. They entered through the back door and Brian began to pace inside the house instead.

“So, what’s the problem?” Jim prompted, taking a seat. “And what caused it to be a crisis?”

Brian shook his head. “It’s not a crisis. It’s more … I’ve completely failed again, and this time before I’ve really started.”

Jim thought for a moment. “You mean, with Liv?”

“She knows. About the children. A little about – another thing. She knows I have secrets and she’s not okay with that.”

“Then tell her!”

Again, Brian shook his head. “It’s not that simple. She wants me to tell everyone. It’s not enough just to let her into the secrets. She wants there to be no secrets.”

“Then what are you waiting for?”

Brian stopped short. The scowl had disappeared, to be replaced by a forlorn expression.

“I don’t think I can do it,” he admitted, at last. “It’s been too long.”

“I think you can do it. You just don’t want to!” Jim goaded.

Anger flared on Brian’s face. “If you had secrets, you wouldn’t be so quick to judge!”

Jim looked away. “I do have secrets. And if I could, I’d tell them in an instant.”

“What secrets?” Brian demanded.

“If I could,” Jim repeated. “I’ve pinned my hope on that day coming, but it’s nowhere in sight.”

With a thump, Brian sat down. “You really do know what I’m talking about.”

Jim nodded. “Just tell your parents, Brian. Then, just tell the Bob-Whites. No one’s going to condemn you. I won’t have that luxury, but I’ll tell anyway, if I ever get the chance.”

Brian nodded. “Thanks. I’ll see myself out.”

She Said

“Moms?” Helen heard from the direction of the door. Turning, she smiled at her eldest son and bid him enter.

He looks nervous, she noted, while offering him refreshments and, when he refused them, taking him into the living room to sit down. She watched him fidget – something atypical for him – and waited for him to fill the silence.

“I didn’t mean for this to happen.” Brian spoke so softly that his mother could barely make out the words.

She raised an eyebrow at him, not entirely pleased with his recent behaviour. “What, exactly, did you not intend?”

There was a long pause, as he seemed to gather his thoughts. “I didn’t mean to argue with Jim in this house. I didn’t mean to draw Trixie into the private disagreement between Jim and myself. I didn’t mean to let Trixie find out about certain things in this way.” He paused once more. “Trixie tells me that she guessed those children’s actual biological parentage this afternoon. I suppose you have, also.”

For a moment, Helen wondered how blunt she should make her reply. In the end, she settled on the middle ground. “I guessed that long ago, before I ever saw them.”

Her son swore under his breath, then had the grace to apologise. “I didn’t mean it to be this way,” he repeated. “I didn’t think it would ever come to this, to be honest. I never imagined that she would die before they grew up, much less while they’re so little.”

Helen considered keeping her silence and letting him fill it, but decided on a more direct approach. “Would you like to tell me how this came about?”

He cringed. “No,” he admitted. “The reason Jim was in this awkward position today was simply because I did not want to admit to my own actions. I put off telling you and I know I ought to be ashamed of myself, I can’t help feeling that I still don’t want to tell you.”

He did not immediately continue. This time, Helen left him to fill the gap in the conversation himself. Eventually, he obliged.

“You know, don’t you, that Indira has only ever been a friend to me? We were close, and she was always brutally honest with me, but there never was anything else between us. A couple of years ago, she approached me about being a sperm donor for her, in a private arrangement. After quite a lot of discussion, I agreed to her request. She told me that she had a family history of early menopause and that she felt she could not wait for the right relationship in order to have a child. I told Jim and he disapproved of my decision, especially since Indira did not have close relationships with any of her family. He went to talk to her – I thought to talk her out of it – and came back to me with a scheme to make a legal arrangement where he took responsibility for the child if something happened to her.”

He drew a shaky breath, running his hand across his face. “I thought he was mad! I thought it must be some kind of emotional response, linked to his parents’ deaths. But I didn’t have any good reason why they shouldn’t do that, so I let them and after I got used to the idea, it actually became a relief that there was something in place for the worst case scenario. About a year later, Indira wanted another baby and the three of us repeated our arrangements.”

“What happened next?” Helen prompted gently. To her surprise, she noticed tears standing in her son’s eyes.

“A few weeks back, I heard the news that she was dying. She lied to me, Moms. She never told me that she had a serious medical condition – a potentially terminal condition. I never would have done this if I knew. She told me that she’d had all of the necessary tests and that the results were fine. She knew that there was a very real possibility of her condition deteriorating, especially if she didn’t have treatment, and she deceived me deliberately.” He took another shaky breath. “If she hadn’t done this, she might still be alive now. She refused treatments for all that time she was either pregnant or trying to get pregnant. She should have been trying to prolong her life, not to bear two children to leave motherless. And when I think about those children, about Jim, about Indira and her shortened life, I feel so guilty, Moms.”

“Finally,” Helen breathed. Brian looked up in astonishment.

“Wh-what did you say?”

“Finally,” she repeated. “Finally, you’ve turned the corner. Finally, you’re taking some responsibility for your actions. Finally, you might just tell me the whole truth.”

He looked positively frightened, now. “The whole truth?”

“About your back,” she clarified, firmly. “Can you please admit, now, that it didn’t start in that car accident? Can we talk about what really happened in Africa?”

The tears which had glistened in his eyes now began to course down his cheeks. “How did you know that? What did I say, what did I do, to give it away? I’ve been trying, all this time, to keep it a secret and now you tell me that you know?”

Helen shed a tear or two of her own. “You were different when you came home. And you were so protective of your back. You were so careful not to let me see bare flesh and you flinched slightly if I touched your shoulders, even. I knew that something had happened, but at first I thought you’d just gotten a tattoo or something and were ashamed to let me see it. After the accident, when you were so secretive, I knew that there had been something else and that some of the other things I’d noticed were clues. It didn’t take a genius to deduce that the real reason you were having problems stemmed from your time in Africa and not a relatively minor car accident.”

He nodded, eyes downcast. There was a long silence before he spoke once more. “We were just packing up for the day. It had been quiet. Not a lot had been happening in the area. The fighting was a long way away; they tried to keep us a fair distance from any danger, but it kept flaring up in different places. The region where we were stationed had been relatively peaceful for a very long time, much longer than I’d been over there. I had my back to the door. I was strapping down the lid of one of the boxes we used to transport our gear. There was a shout in the distance, but I didn't take any notice. The next thing I know, all hell has broken loose out there and I'm lying on the dirt floor in agony.”

His eyes squeezed shut. “The doctor I had been assisting dragged me behind a table, which he turned over to protect us a little and patched me up as best he could while the gunfight continued outside. I don’t really remember how long we were there. After a while, the shooting stopped and we decided it was safe enough to come out.”

“You were shot?” Despite her assertion that she knew what was wrong, Helen was deeply shocked by the admission.

He shrugged off her obvious concern. “It wasn’t a bullet. It was just shrapnel. They use all kinds of weapons out there, whatever they can get their hands on. We never were really sure what had hit me, but they dug out some bits of metal. I had x-rays when I got back, Moms. No bullets. Nothing even remotely like that. Anyway, we got back to the compound where we were staying and they cleaned me up. I didn’t really feel like travelling and it was so close to the time I was supposed to come home that we decided not to change my travel plans. I stayed in the compound until it was time to go home. I hadn’t healed quite as well as I’d hoped, but I decided to brave it out. I had further treatment when I got back – including those x-rays I mentioned.”

“So, what went wrong?” she asked. “You were struggling before the accident. In hindsight, I could see it.”

Reluctantly, he nodded. “At that time, I was still having pain. It was hard to deal with it and keep up with my studies, so I decided I had no real choice but to have some further treatment, in the form of surgery.” He continued quickly. “They’d done the best they could at the time, but the damage was so close to the spinal column and it’s such a delicate area. There was a chance that I could return to normal and I thought that was worth any small risks associated.”

“You had surgery and you didn’t tell me,” she accused, then cursed herself for being so weak.

“I did.” He did not look proud of himself. “I wonder, now, whether it would have been more successful if it wasn’t for the accident, even though I know intellectually that it did not make much difference. I’d been out of hospital for less than half an hour when it happened. The impact was just behind me, on my side of the vehicle. When the worst happened and I found that the operation had not improved matters enough, it seemed the easy option to blame the accident.”

She nodded, but did not speak. She could not trust herself to do so. Her emotions were so out of control that she did not know what would come out of her mouth should she happen to open it.

“I’m sorry, Moms,” he whispered. “I should have talked to you and Dad at the beginning. And I’m going to make a time soon to confess to everyone else.”

Smiling her acceptance, she cupped his cheek with one hand, feeling the dampness of his tears and the slight roughness of almost a day’s growth of beard. “It’s all right,” she whispered in response. “I love you, Brian, and nothing will change that.”

He Said

“More news,” Matthew greeted, when Trixie entered his home office. “I think we’ve got enough, now, to terminate the director’s employment. What have you got since we talked?”

She dropped a messy pile of papers onto the desk in front of him. “A little more. Liv’s given me a few clues to what’s been going on. And I’ve pulled some documents off the network. It’s more evidence that he isn’t doing what he’s supposed to.”

He looked through the pile, nodding now and again.

“This will be a good back-up, but I think we’ll go with clause 27b.” Seeing her incomprehension, he explained, “That’s the one we can use regarding his forged credentials. We can have him out of there by this time tomorrow.”

“But how do I do that?” she asked, clutching at her curls. “I wish I was down there! I can’t do anything from here.”

“You couldn’t physically remove him anyway. Leave arranging that to me,” he answered. “We’ll get someone to deliver him the letter, take his keys and escort him from the building. And after that, we’ll have the locks changed, and the passwords, and the PIN for the security system. We’ll need to issue instructions to the rest of the staff, too. You start drafting a letter to them. Maybe Liv can help you. We need to get on to this fast.”

“You’re right, of course.” She drew a breath. “Okay. Anything else I need to do?”

“Put out a memo to the stakeholders. Tell them that the new director’s contract has been terminated and that an emergency meeting will be called as soon as possible. Keep it as short as possible – but hold it until that man is actually out of the building.”

“Got it. Okay. I guess I’ll talk to you again soon.” She sighed. “I’m really sorry about this.”

“Not a problem. It happens to the best of us.”

“I bet it never happened to you,” she answered, gloomily.

He laughed. “How do you think I know what to do? Now, get on with it. We have a foundation to save.”

She Said

Trixie – who had arranged for a day off to deal with the foundation’s crisis – spent the next few hours on tenterhooks. Liv had just started a new job, so she wasn’t around to help with the work that needed to be done. By the time it was finished, however, she had arrived home. When a call came through, relating what had happened in Corbin, Trixie began to calm down, but her friend, who could not hear the conversation, became more tense. She ended the call and turned to Liv.

“What happened?” Liv demanded, grabbing her arm.

Trixie screwed up her nose. “Apparently, he yelled the roof down, but the guys that Mr. Wheeler sent were good and they got him out.”

“So, they’re both gone?”

Trixie nodded. “Did you want your old job back? I guess I could give it to you, if you want it.”

Liv looked away. “Uh, no. I don’t think I do.”

“But I promised to help you find something here and nothing I’ve tried has worked out! Aren’t you tired of all this?”

A meditative look settled on Liv’s face. “No. Not exactly.”

“But you hated the job I found you.”

“The one I found for myself is better,” Liv answered.

“But not as good as the one you left.”

Liv shrugged. “It wasn’t as much fun after you left the foundation. And you know that I only went full time there to be your assistant. Before you came, I was working three part-time jobs to make ends meet.”

“Has this got something to do with my brother?” Trixie asked, suddenly catching on. “Why didn’t I think of that in the first place?”

Liv grinned. “I don’t know, Trixie. Maybe because you shut your eyes every time you see him near me.”

“I do not!”

“You do.” She stopped smiling. “It wouldn’t be very fair of me to just run back to Kentucky at the first opportunity. And what would I go back to? I don’t have anywhere to live. None of my family actually live there any more – though, I think I’ll always call Corbin my home town. That jerk is still there, ready to cause me more trouble, even if we’re not working together – not to mention the bastard ex-boyfriend who ‘accidentally’ cut me with a broken bottle. And I’d have to deal with all the troubles that are bound to turn up at the foundation while they rebuild. That doesn’t sound attractive at all!”

“No, I guess not.” Trixie sat down and dropped her chin into her hand. “I’m not sure I’m doing the right thing by rebuilding. People are going to remember this episode forever. And the staff are going to be unhappy, which undermines anything that we try to do there.”

“I’m not sure about that,” Liv answered. “I’ve talked to a couple of people and they think they’d be happy if you could just get things back to normal.”

“Well, I’m going to try.” A sudden thought occurred to her. “I guess I have to; it’s all part of the conditions of the legacy. At least, it’s part of my interpretation of the conditions, which amounts to the same sort of thing, almost.”

“I’ll believe you. Millions wouldn’t.”

Trixie laughed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. Now, what do we do next?”

“You’d probably better do something to reassure the rest of the staff and let them know what’s going to happen,” she suggested. “They’ll have that first memo by now, I guess, but you’re going to need to follow up on it.”

“Draft it for me?” she asked, with a hopeful look.

Liv laughed and shook her head. “You’re not my boss any more!”

“I’ll pay you, of course,” Trixie answered. “I guess I should have mentioned that.”

“One memo. And my rate of pay has gone sky-high!”

“Deal,” Trixie replied, laughing. “Hey, do you want a part-time job? It looks like the foundation does need me after all. But I’m going to stay here. It’s home.”

Liv considered for a moment. “Okay. That sounds good.”

Trixie grabbed her hand and shook it. “Then it’s a deal. We make a good team.”

“Yes,” Liv answered. “You have the ideas and I do the work!”

Her friend tried to look offended, but in the end they both laughed.

He Said

The doorbell rang for the second time as Jim strode towards it. He had to wonder who, exactly, might think it a good idea to keep ringing it when there might be children sleeping, He was astonished to find that the caller was his sister.

“Honey! What’s wrong?” he asked, as she pushed her way inside.

“I just heard what happened and I can’t believe you!”

His jaw dropped. “Me?”

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, while poking him in the middle of the chest with one finger. “You know I’m here for you. Why didn’t you call me when you needed a sitter? I would have helped you.”

Jim looked away. “I … mixed up the days. It wasn’t until the last minute that I knew I needed one and when I called your place, you didn’t answer.”

Her brow furrowed. “Mixed up the days?”

“In all the confusion. I’m sorry.”

Honey was still staring at him, her lack of understanding clear on her face.

“I thought the meeting was next week,” he explained. “I’m sorry. I thought I had time to figure something out.”

His sister sank into a chair. “But, Jim!”

He felt his face reddening. “I know, okay? I’m not acting like myself. You don’t need to point it out to me.”

“Let me help you. Please.” She looked up at him with an expression he could not read.

Jim nodded and sat down next to her. “I need it, for sure.”

A smile teased her lips. “If you’re going to go around forgetting things like important meetings, yes.”

He wiped a hand across his face. “I can’t let that happen again.”

“So, let me see your calendar, then. I’ll fit my week around what you need. We can get two extra car-seats, so I don’t have to keep shifting them in and out.” Her eyes took on a pleading expression. “I’m at home with Joshie all day anyway. It’s not like you’d be inconveniencing me.”

After a moment, Jim nodded. “Thank you, Honey. That’s very generous of you.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s not really.”

Something inside him lurched. “Maybe Indira should have left her kids to you, rather than me. I don’t know why I didn’t suggest that to her.”

Honey looked away. “She told me to get over myself and have IVF.”

He did a double take. “She told you what?”

“You heard me.” She sighed. “Since I’ve admitted that much – though, I never did to Indira and I don’t know how she knew – I might as well admit that we’ve never used birth control, but we’ve never accepted medical intervention, either, even though I really wanted more children, only they don’t seem like there ever will be and Joshie will always be an only child, when I really wanted for him to have siblings.”

“Oh.” He could think of nothing to say in response.

“But you don’t have to feel sorry for me, Jim, even if I do feel just a little bit jealous, because I know that you’ll be a good Dad to Brian’s kids, even if Brian won’t admit that they’re his.”

“Does everyone know all about this?” he blurted, before he could stop himself.

His sister shrugged. “I don’t know. But Mart figured it out weeks ago, not long after Verena was born and, once he was sure, he told me that Brian was the father, no matter what Brian said about it. I haven’t talked about it with anyone else,” she hurried to add. “I just thought it might help to know that I know, even if I’m not supposed to.”

“Brian is supposed to be owning up to the family and friends. I suggested he do it the day I took custody, but he’s been putting it off.”

“I doubt that many people will be surprised.”

Jim shook his head. “I think the only person surprised so far has been Trixie.”

To his surprise, his sister blushed. “That might be my fault.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it wasn’t until after I talked to Trixie that day – the day you got the kids, I mean – that Mart told me his theory about their parentage, because he wasn’t really sure until he saw Madoc for himself, and if you look at him and look at the Beldens’ baby photos, you’ll see what I mean.”

He frowned, not catching her point. “But what does that have to do with this?”

Honey must have noticed his avoidance of her name, for she gave him a sympathetic look. “I mean that I might have speculated to Trixie that they might be yours, instead of some random stranger like Indira always said.”

He closed his eyes a moment. “I guess that does explain some things. But then, maybe the grapevine isn’t working too hard on this and other people might still be surprised by the news.”

She shot him a look of pity. “No one tells Trixie things about you, any more than they tell you things about her – except in cases like this, when we can’t really avoid it.”

He frowned again. “I suppose not.”

Honey patted his hand. “Please. Let me help you.”

He nodded. “Thanks, Honey. I will.”

She Said

The same evening, Trixie went to Manor House to meet up with Matthew Wheeler and discuss the progress at the foundation. She brought with her copies of all the communications she’d sent to or received from various other people and explained the details of some more recent events.

“And I’ve convinced the old director, who retired when I went down there, to pick it up in the interim,” she concluded. “She didn’t really want to, but when she heard what had happened, she decided to help.”

“That’s good,” he answered. “We know we can trust her.”

Trixie nodded, feeling down. “I just wish it hadn’t happened this way.”

“Have you learned anything from it?” he asked.

She looked up and nodded. “Loads. Like being more careful with reference checks. I don’t think I’ll trust a written answer without calling to check on it ever again!”

“That’s probably a good thing to take away from this,” he agreed.

“And I won’t ignore my instincts, either. I just knew that guy he was hiring was trouble.”

“Also a good lesson.”

“And I’m always going to run my staffing choices past you before I make a final decision.”

He laughed. “I’m not so sure that’s a guarantee of good decisions, but I’ll take the compliment.”

“Well, it seems like I’m not all that good at this stuff after all.”

Matthew looked at her for a long moment. “We all make bad choices sometimes. But what matters is whether we stick by them. You saw that you’d made the wrong choice and you took steps to correct the problem. It’s the same when the choice that used to be right no longer is right. Manage your decisions and manage change – that’s what you have to do to keep on top of this.”

Trixie nodded, knowing in that instant that she could ride out this storm.

He Said

“Are you okay?” Brian asked Liv. He had noticed her distraction and he wondered if there was something serious behind it. While they had sorted out their differences over the secrets he had kept from her, he worried sometimes that the difficulty might not yet be over.

“The man I ran away from has been fired,” she explained. “And the new director – the guy who hired him. Trixie even offered me my old job back.”

“I’ll understand,” he told her, looking away. “You only came here because Trixie almost forced you.”

“I’m not going back.”

His head snapped around. “You’re not?”

Liv shook her head. “No. I have more reasons to stay than to leave. I’m not intending to abandon you so quickly.”

He pulled her close and kissed her.

“Thank you,” he told her, at length. “I’m glad.”

A smile teased her lips. “Eloquent.”

He shook his head. “You missed out on Mart. You’ll have to put up with terse, boring and straight-laced.”

She snorted. “You’re not terse or boring.”

“Are you accusing me of being straight-laced?”

She dodged away from him. “Maybe. What if I am?”

“I might have to prove to you that I’m not.”

“You’re the one who said it in the first place.”

“It doesn’t do to listen to stereotypes.”

“Whether you are or you aren’t, I’m willing to take the risk,” she teased.

Brian smiled. “Glad to hear it. And I’m glad you want to stay.”

She Said

“Oh.” Trixie opened the front door to find her best friend waiting, a determined look on her face. “I wasn’t expecting you, Hon.”

“No, otherwise you’d have made sure you were out,” Honey answered with a smile.

“Why?”

Honey’s smile widened. “Because we’re going to finally finish unpacking all your boxes.”

“What? Oh, no!” Trixie wailed. “I’m fine how I am. I don’t need to do any more unpacking.”

Honey placed her hands on her hips. “Are you leaving soon?”

Trixie shook her head.

“Then, unpack!” Her voice softened. “I’ll help.”

Trixie sighed. “Okay, I guess. Let’s get this over with.”

She dragged her feet as Honey led the way to the corner of the dining area, where a stack of boxes still stood. Honey heaved the top one down and ripped off the tape.

“What is this stuff?” she wondered, pulling out something that looked like a sack.

Trixie screwed up her nose. “A lot of old junk, mostly. Things I don’t really want, but can’t really throw away. Though, that sack is mostly just packing.”

“And you carted this stuff to Kentucky and back?” Honey wondered, screwing up her nose.

“Uh, not all of it. Some of it Moms sent over for me to look at. She wanted it out of her attic if it wasn’t important. Maybe you should try that next box first.”

Honey nodded and opened the next box. In it, she found some much more useful items, many of which Trixie exclaimed over, along the lines of “So, that’s where that went.” As they worked, they chatted about a range of topics, from Joshie’s latest antics to the happenings among their various friends to things Trixie had done at work.

“I’m just glad I don’t have to do the filing,” Trixie observed, with screwed up nose. “I thought I’d die of boredom in that last job – not the last job that I just left, but the one before; you know, the one before I left for Kentucky, which has to have been the worst job I’ve ever had. I–”

“What have you got there, Trixie?” Honey interrupted.

“This?” Trixie frowned at the metal disc she held, so like a coin. “Uh … I’ve never really known. It was inside that fake clock that Lucius Englefield left me. I just found it now, in this box.”

“May I see it?”

As she handed it over, Honey’s eyes went wide. “You don’t know what this is? Trixie! I’m pretty sure this is a kind of society token – probably not a secret society, but maybe a semi-secret one. I’ve never seen one in person, but Dad showed me a picture of one that looks just like this. It could be worth … well, I don’t know how much, but a lot.”

“That’s not what the note said,” Trixie argued.

“What note?” Honey shook her head. “I can’t believe you never told me about this.”

Trixie shrugged. “I don’t know why I didn’t. You were probably busy having babies, or something.” She gasped at the look of pain that flashed across her friend’s face and covered her mouth. In that instant, she understood something which had previously evaded her. “Oh, Honey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean …”

Honey squeezed her hand and gave a wry smile. “It’s okay. Now, what did the note say?”

For a moment, Trixie thought. “It was something about the value of this … or maybe of the clock … about it not being monetary value, but what it could tell me. I kind of figured that since the clock was a fake and the coin was a fake that he was trying to tell me that something – or someone – else was fake, too.”

“But this isn’t a fake – at least, I don’t think it is.”

“But then, what does the message mean?” Trixie wanted to know. “If it’s not about fakeness …”

Honey looked at her. “If this is what I think it is, it can get you access to things that you never would be able to get otherwise – information, people, influence, that sort of thing. If they thought something this valuable was hidden inside, it’s no wonder the family were after that clock. Now … Lucius Englefield thought that you needed some sort of information … but what?”

Trixie paused, deep in thought. “I guess the answer to that might depend on when he left it to me – like, before he ever met me, or during or after the whole curse thing, or later, just before he died.”

Honey shook her head. “I don’t know if we can find that out. He might have put the token inside the clock at any time. And does it matter? Why don’t we find out which organisation the token belongs to? That might give us a clue.”

Trixie handed it over. “How about if you see what you can find out about it? I’ve had it years without getting anywhere and you’ve gotten this far in two minutes.”

Her friend smiled. “Okay. Can I show it to my Dad? Maybe he’ll be able to tell me some more about it.”

“That sounds like the best idea,” Trixie answered, pushing her box away from herself. “Can we stop now?”

Honey shook her head. “We’re going to finish this, Trixie. No more boxes in the living room!”

Continue to part four.