âYou must hate me,â Sally insisted.
âI could never hate you,â he muttered. âYou were my first loveâ¦my best love.â
âDonât!â she cried. âYouâre in denial over Penelope. You donât want to accept that she betrayed you. You just need someone to hold on to, and I happen to be here.â
He wished it were so. It would make everything so much easier. But he was tired of pretending. Tired of trying to preserve a charade that had played itself out years ago.
âNot just anyone, Sally. Only you. You make me feel again. You make me want to live.â
She melted against him, her protests dying on a sigh. Who knew what might have happened next, if a too-bright light hadnât splashed against the window from outside?
âWhat the devilâ¦â Jake swung her behind him. But whoever had come sneaking up to the house had found what theyâd been seeking, and he doubted theyâd keep it to themselves. âIâm sorry, Sally. Iâm afraid whatever problems you thought you had before I showed up here tonight have just multiplied a thousand times over.â
EVEN without the bitter wind howling in from the Atlantic, the hostile glances directed at her as she joined the other mourners at the graveside were enough to chill Sally to the bone. Not that anyone said anything. The well-bred residents of Bayview Heights, Eastridge Bayâs most prestigious neighborhood, would have considered it sacrilege to voice their disapproval openly, before the body of one the townâs most socially prominent daughters had been properly laid to rest.
No, theyâd save their recriminations for later, over tea, sherry and sympathy at the Burton mansion. Except that Sally wouldnât be there to hear them. The blatant omission of her name from the list of guests invited to celebrate a life cut tragically short, was an indictment in itself, and never mind that her name had been officially cleared of blame.
âEarth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dustâ¦.â The minister, his robes flapping around him, intoned the final burial prayers.
Penelopeâs mother, Colette, gave a stifled sob and reached out to the flower-draped casket. Watching from beneath lowered lashes, Sally saw Fletcher Burton clasp his wifeâs arm in mute comfort. Flanking her other side and leaning heavily on his cane, Jake stood with his head bowed. His hair, though prematurely flecked with a hint of silver, was as thick as when Sally had last touched it, eight years before.
Seeming to sense he was being observed, he suddenly glanced up and caught her covert scrutiny. For all that she knew she was encouraging further censure from those busy watching her, she couldnât tear her gaze away. Even worse, she found herself telegraphing a message.
It wasnât my fault, Jake!
But even if he understood what she was trying to convey, he clearly didnât believe her. Like everyone else, he held her responsible. He was a widower at twenty-eight, and all because of her. She could see the condemnation in his summer-blue eyes, coated now with the same frost which touched his hair; in the unyielding line of his mouth which, once, had kissed her with all the heat and raging urgency perhaps only a nineteen-year-old could know.
A gust of wind tossed the bare, black boughs of the elm trees and caused the ribbon attached to the Burtonsâ elaborate wreath to flutter up from the casket, as if Penelope were trying to push open the lid from within. Which, if she could have, sheâd have done. And laughed in the face of so much funereal solemnity.
Lifeâs a merry-go-round, sheâd always claimed, and I intend to ride it to the end, and be a good-looking corpse!
Remembering the words and the careless laugh which had accompanied them, Sally wondered if the stinging cold caused her eyes to glaze with tears or if, at last, the curious flattening of emotion which had held her captive ever since the accident, was finally releasing its unholy grip and allowing her to feel again.
A blurred ripple of movement caught her attention. Wiping a gloved hand across her eyes, she saw that the service was over. Colette Burton pressed her fingertips first to her lips and then to the edge of the casket in a last farewell. Other mourners followed suitâall except the widower and his immediate family. He remained immobile, his face unreadable, his shoulders squared beneath his navy pilotâs uniform. His relatives closed ranks around him, as if by doing so, they could shield him from the enormity of his loss.