The Mirror (The Lost Bride Trilogy #2)

“As if I could.” Corrine gave Deuce’s hand a quick smack.

“The girl keeps rolling, doesn’t she?” Ace gave an approving nod. “While we can’t discuss any of the legalities of her inheritance here, I’d like to know how she’s doing outside her work. Trey?”

“She just keeps rolling. I have to admit, before I met her, I doubted Collin’s decision to leave her the manor and what goes with it. I didn’t think she’d meet the terms of her inheritance, even stay to the end of the year. But she’s no pushover, whoever or whatever’s doing the pushing.”

“Since we didn’t speak as attorney/client,” Deuce began, “I’ll tell you she plans to go to Ogunquit and speak to Gretta Poole. Or try to.”

“Oh dear.” Paula’s eyes clouded with concern. “I can understand why she feels she must or should, but I’m afraid she’ll be disappointed.”

“Very likely,” Ace agreed. “I doubt Gretta’s capable of adding anything to the family history for her. Or anything else, for that matter.”

“She was always weak-willed,” Paula murmured. “Looking back, I wonder that I believed she’d met someone, gotten pregnant. She never once in my memory went outside the lines, and certainly never stood up to her mother. Then, few did.”

“You did.” With obvious pride, Ace beamed at her.

“That’s old business.” She waved it away like a pesky fly. “Ancient business.”

“And as fresh as ever.” Grinning, he blew her a kiss. “Collin had just come into his inheritance—the manor and the rest—and decided to open it again, live there.”

“I remember.” Deuce picked up his water glass, smiled into it. “I was nearly as excited as he was. We’d managed to sneak in plenty as boys.”

“Sneakisn’t accurate,” his mother said dryly. “I knew what the two of you were up to.”

“Did you?” Amused, impressed, he angled his head. “You never tried to stop us.”

“Trying to stop two young boys from exploring a haunted house?” She gave a light laugh at the thought. “I’d have failed, so why not let you think you were getting away with something? I wasn’t the least surprised when Collin decided to move there. But apparently Patricia was.”

“I never met her,” Seth said, “but I’ve heard tales—my parents have a few. I think this is going to be a good one.”

“She came knocking on our door—”

“Now, Ace.”

“Now, my own darling. This house,” he continued. “We were still living here. I wasn’t home, and that’s a shame. Though my own darling took care of the old… I’ll use anotherBword. Bully.”

Shifting in his chair, Deuce turned to his mother. “She came here, to you, about Collin living in the manor?”

“All right then.” Paula threw up her hands. “More about you, Deuce. At first very polite, in that cold, cutting way she had. She believed you had influenced Collin to make this move, and she expected I would speak to you, demand you remove that influence. My response didn’t suit her.”

“Which was?” Trey wondered.

“Basically, that both her grandson and my son were of age, and knowing Collin as I did, I believed he made his own decisions. When her continued soft-pedaling—as I’m sure she saw it—didn’t move me, she threatened my family.”

“Uh-oh,” Anna murmured.

“She would ruin us in Poole’s Bay, see that we were ostracized, that Ace was disbarred and my son disgraced so he would never have his law degree.”

“Let’s go back to that firstBword,” Trey suggested, and got a wide grin from his grandfather. “She could never have done any of that.”

Paula took a delicate sip from her water glass. “She may have believed she could, or that I would wilt under such threats. She was in an absolute rage.”

“My own darling told her to get the hell out of our house, that she would never be welcome there again. And—my favorite part—to stick her threats up her skinny ass. If she tried to harm our family, she’d find out just what the Doyles were capable of.”

“Go, Grandma!” Anna applauded.

“You never said a word,” Deuce spoke softly. “Not a single word about any of this.”

“I wasn’t nearly as pleased with my own language and temper as your father. Not once I’d calmed down in any case. And we agreed, your father and I, not to say anything that would worry you or Collin.”