Lea frowned. “But you liked me back when I was facing a nasty divorce and poverty.”
He smiled. “And you were willing to live on my salary as a butler.”
“I rather liked the thought of you and me and Kate living with Mrs. Meyers. I adored her. It would have been lovely.”
Randal didn’t look happy. “But now things are different. You are rich in your own right. And contrary to popular belief, I have nothing.”
Lea nodded in seeming agreement with him, but then she moved to stand in front of him. “I understand how you feel. Everyone will say that you’re after my money.” With serious eyes, she slipped off a strap of her gown. “Which part of my money do you like best?” She showed her bare shoulder. “This million?” She exposed her other shoulder. “Or this million?”
Randal sat in stunned silence for a moment, then his eyes turned dark. “I likeallthe millions you have. Every penny of them.” They fell on the bed together.
It was hours later when they lay in the bed, their bodies entwined, half-asleep, that Lea brought up the wordblackmail.
“I knew he was up to something besides trying to get Mrs. Meyers’ rich granddaughter to marry him.”
That ugly idea woke Randal up. “Rachel? She was a teenager then. And she’s quite pretty. Derek was a toad.”
Lea didn’t disagree. “What did he have on the people? Besides Barbara, that is.”
Randal hesitated. He knew Sara wouldn’t like it if he revealed anything. “That’s what we hoped you’d know.”
“Sorry,” she said. “He never confided in me about anything. But when we were here, I used to hear him moving things about.” She nodded toward the door to his bedroom.
Randal put his hands behind his head. “If he was blackmailing people, he must have had some proof of whatever he had on them. He couldn’t just say ‘I know what you did. Give me money not to tell.’ He had to have visible proof.”
“I wonder where he kept it.”
He turned toward her. “That’s a question I should ask you. Did you look in your house?”
“Not specifically for blackmail paraphernalia, but I can tell you that there is no box of papers that incriminated anyone.”
“You’re sure? It’s been over twenty years.” He raised on his elbow. “Do you have the same house?”
“Yes. It’s an old place so Derek would look like he’d always been rich. It was cheap because it was in such bad shape. I remodeled it. There were termites in the walls and bees in the chimney. It was major work. If there was a hidden safe or secret cabinet, we would have found it.”
He sat up. “When you left here, what did you do with his clothes? Were they in his room?”
“Yes. I packed them, but that was normal. I always packed and unpacked for him.”
“Surely he had documents in his room. He needed something to threaten people with.”
“That’s true. Derek was a believer in paperwork. I never thought of it before, but he probably did have documents hidden somewhere. Knowing him, he’d love flaunting them in a person’s face.”
“So where are they?”
“A bank? But I never received a bill for a safe-deposit box.”
They looked at each other, then Lea spoke. “Could they be hidden in this house that has never been remodeled? Not structurally, anyway.”
His eyes lit up. “The house that is exactly the same as it was when Derek was here?” He looked at the door to his bedroom. “I think I’ll look for a bit. You go to sleep.”
Lea rolled out of the other side of the bed and put her arm through a robe that matched the nightgown that was now on the floor. “I’m going to help.”
Randal was never one to turn down help. “Just do me a favor, will you? Don’t show me any more of your millions or I’ll stop searching and...”
“I promise. For an hour or so, anyway.”
Smiling, they went into Randal’s bedroom and in between kisses, they searched.
