A Man to Call My Own

Chapter 57

Marian didn't recall much about getting back to the hotel. Chad must have found them a carriage for hire because she vaguely recalled sitting in one. She was just too dazed. So many thoughts were racing through her mind. How could it be possible? Nothing fit. It didn't make sense! Everything kept coming back to one glaring fact. He knew her, and still kept right on going.

And he'd spoiled the happiest day of her life. That was the only thing that had happened today that didn't surprise her. So typical of her father, but so utterly ironic, since for once, he didn't do it deliberately.

Chad escorted her straight to Kathleen's room. And her aunt only had to see her face to ask in alarm, "What happened?"

Chad answered, after he sat Marian down on the sofa, "She thought she saw her father."

"That isn't possible."

"I know, but the resemblance must have been close enough to—"

"It was Papa," Marian interrupted quietly, glancing up at her aunt. "He looked directly at me, not a foot away from me. It was Papa."

Kathleen sighed. "Well, I can't say I'm delighted to hear it. The best thing Mortimer ever did for you gals was to the. So he couldn't even do that right?"

Marian was coming out of her daze. She shot to her feet in agitation. Her aunt had been alone in her room when Chad brought her there, but it was getting close to the dinner hour when the rest of their party would be joining them. Kathleen's room was larger than the other rooms so a dining table had been set up in it.

"Mandy is going to go crazy over this news," Marian predicted.

Kathleen disagreed. "She'll probably be too happy to ask for explanations."

"I thought y'all buried him?" Chad said.

"We did, but it was a closed casket. I never thought to ask why."

"So the wrong man got buried, and your father has been missing all this time. Amnesia?" Chad guessed.

"That would certainly explain it," Kathleen agreed.

"I suppose it would," Marian added, frowning deep in thought. "Except—he would have had to only just gotten his memory back today, or within the last couple days."

"Why?"

"Because Albert's sister is living in our old house, which means Albert is, too," Marian said. "Papa probably doesn't know that yet."

"And how'd you find that out, when you were supposed to be lying low?" Kathleen asked.

Marian made a face. "I went for a walk. I didn't intend to go in that direction, I just wandered there aimlessly and happened upon Albert's sister coming home. But I took precautions," she added, tapping the veiled bonnet that was still on her head. Then she removed it. "No one recognized me."

Kathleen nodded, and said, "You know, there's another explanation that just occurred to me."

"What?"

"The man you saw might be your father's twin."

"He didn't have one."

"Maybe he did. They run in our family. And I wasn't around when he was born, to know one way or the other. There could have been two of them. Our mother was certainly selfish enough, and lacking in motherly love, to have given one of her babies away if she didn't want to be bothered with two."

"That's a bit far-fetched," Chad said.

"Yes, it is. But crazier things have happened," Kathleen insisted.

"Except he knew me," Marian reminded them.

Kathleen blinked, then said in exasperation, "That's right, you said you were standing right next to him. So what did he have to say about all this?"

"He didn't stay to chat, and I was too shocked to follow him again. I got his annoyed don't-bother-me-now look that he always reserved just for me."

Chad patted the seat next to him on the sofa to lure Marian back down. She obliged, and they both got a raised brow from Kathleen when his arm went around Marian's shoulder and she didn't shrug it off.

"There's more news to impart today?" Kathleen wanted to know.

"Yes," Marian said, with a slight blush and a grin. "But now isn't the best time to mention it.

Kathleen chuckled. "Congratulations anyway."

"For what?" Amanda asked as she sashayed into the room without knocking, Spencer close on her heels. Before she got an answer, she said, "Dinner isn't here yet? I'm famished."

"You ate enough for two people at lunch, and the sun hasn't even finished setting yet. What have you been doing to work up such an appetite?"

Kathleen had asked the question in all innocence, but Amanda blushed furiously, while Spencer stood there smirking. "Oh," Kathleen said, then quickly got back to answering Amanda's original question with a grin. "Mari and Chad have finally figured out that they like each other."

"Thanks to my help," Amanda crowed.

Kathleen and Marian both stared at her incredulously, but Chad whispered in Marian's ear, "I'll tell you about it later, but she is actually responsible for my persistence today."

"Amanda doing me a good turn?" Marian whispered back with a soft snort. "When cows learn how to—"

"You're procrastinating, darlin," he cut in. "Just tell her and get it over with."

Marian blinked. He did know her very well. She was anticipating that her sister would throw a serious fit over this, because of all the traveling and bother she'd been put to—unnecessarily. It was yet another thing she didn't want to witness on the happiest day of her life. But there was no way of getting around it. Amanda couldn't be kept in the dark.

"Papa's alive, Mandy. I saw him today in town. There was no mistake, it was him. We've already concluded he must have lost his memory and only just now regained it."

"But what did he have to say for himself?" was all Amanda asked.

Marian frowned. Amanda's reply was way too calm under the circumstances. And then she recalled that her sister hadn't been shocked over the news of their father's death either.

"You knew!?" she accused her.

"No, I just never accepted that he was dead," Amanda said with a shrug. "It didn't feel real, if you know what I mean. And now I know why, since he wasn't dead at all. You really think he lost his memory?"

Marian was too amazed at Amanda's tepid reaction to answer immediately. "There isn't much else that can explain why we buried the wrong man."

"You didn't bury anyone," Stuart said as he entered the room.

Kathleen swung around to face him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"The coffin was empty."

Kathleen gasped, her eyes wide with alarm. "My God, you didn't dig it up, did you?"

He snorted at her. "Didn't have to. Just got back from a visit to the local police. They laughed in my face when I mentioned Mortimer Laton died a few months ago. Looks like Mortimer and his cohorts kept that funeral pretty quiet, and all traces of the burial were removed after the gals left town. The whole thing was a total sham. Mortimer Laton has been here all along, going about his business as usual."

"That isn't possible," Amanda insisted, shaking her head firmly. "Albert must have found someone who resembles him to impersonate him, to make it easier for him to get his hands on everything. But Papa's back now. It doesn't matter where he's been or why Albert thought he was dead. He'll make them pay—if he hasn't already."