The Kincaids: Southern Seduction: Sex, Lies and the Southern Belle. Kathie DeNosky

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      She smiled wistfully. As a child, whenever she had passed by the stately double house, she had imagined how wonderful it would be to stand in the cupola on top of the tall roof and pretend to be a princess, surveying her kingdom below. And now the home she had thought to be as grand as any castle was actually hers.

      What on earth was she going to do with it? It was such a big house and she didn’t need all that space. Of course, when the baby came there would be the two of them, but it was still going to be much more room than they would need.

      As she pondered what to do with the mansion, she was reminded of her father’s warning. What had he meant when he told her that she would meet with opposition from Charlotte Addison? What was that all about?

      Deciding she wasn’t getting anything done anyway, Lily left her art table and walked over to the laptop on her desk. With everything being accessible online these days, she should be able to find out some of the mansion’s history and the connection that Daniel’s mother had with the place. A few of the homes in the Battery had been passed from one generation to the next, never being occupied by anyone outside of the family who built them. A sense of dread began to settle in the pit of Lily’s stomach.

      Her suspicions were confirmed when the first link she clicked on was a twenty-year-old article on homes in the Battery. According to the reporter from the Post and Courier, Charleston’s newspaper, the mansion had been in Colonel Samuel Beauchamp’s family since it was built in the late 1700s. It went on to read that the home had been passed down to his descendants and, at the time the article was written, belonged to Mrs. Charlotte Beauchamp-Addison, who anticipated keeping it in the family when she eventually passed it on to her son, Daniel.

      A chill traveled the length of Lily’s spine. No wonder Charlotte Addison had treated her so poorly when she had shown up with Daniel at the dinner party. She obviously resented the fact that Reginald Kincaid, one of the nouveau riche, as the woman had called him, had purchased her ancestral home. Lily had been condemned simply because she was his daughter. If the mansion had meant so much to her, what could have possibly caused Charlotte to sell it to him?

      Lily suddenly caught her breath. Did Daniel know about all this? Was he aware that her father had bought the home he was supposed to own one day and could that be the reason he had become interested in her to begin with? Had he hoped to somehow use his association with her to get the Beauchamp mansion back into his family?

      Frowning, she nibbled on her lower lip. She didn’t think that was the case. He had told her on more than one occasion that he loved the new condo he’d bought after his divorce. It was close to the Addison Industries office building and within walking distance of Charleston’s French Quarter.

      Trying to unravel her tangled thoughts, Lily jumped when the phone rang. “Hello Matt,” she said, recognizing her brother’s office number on the caller ID.

      “Lily, could you do me a favor and watch Flynn one night a week for the next several weeks?” Her brother sounded rushed and she could only imagine the tremendous amount of stress he was under after hearing that Jack Sinclair was going to be in control of The Kincaid Group.

      “Of course,” she said, smiling. “You know how much I love my nephew.”

      “Great. RJ and I are going to be working late for who knows how long and I’m trying to line up babysitters,” Matt explained.

      “What nights do you need me?” Lily asked. She loved spending time with Flynn and found that playing with him had inspired some of her best illustrations.

      “Are you free Thursday evenings?” he asked. “Laurel is watching him Mondays and Kara has Tuesdays and Wednesdays covered.”

      “That’s fine. What about the weekends?”

      “He’s going to spend Friday nights and all day on Saturdays with Mom.” Lily heard him shuffle papers and realized Matt was trying to work and arrange child care at the same time. “I’ve already told RJ that Jack Sinclair can wait on the reports he wants until hell freezes over if need be, but Sundays are mine with Flynn and I’m not going to give that up for Sinclair or anyone else.”

      “Good for you,” Lily said, meaning it. “Is there anything else I can do to help?”

      She heard her brother sigh heavily. “Not unless you can figure out a way to add several more hours to the day.”

      “Sorry, Matt, but I don’t think anyone has figured out how to do that just yet. What time do you need me on Thursday evenings?” When he named a time, she added, “Please take care of yourself. Whatever is going to happen, it’s not worth sacrificing your health.”

      “Thanks, sis,” he said, sounding tired. “I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

      After ending the call, Lily started to return to her worktable to try to get something done, when the phone rang again.

      “Good afternoon, sweetheart,” Daniel said cheerfully. “I’m about five minutes away. Would you like to start setting the table for lunch?”

      “Daniel, I’m not sure—”

      “Have you eaten yet?”

      “No, but—”

      “Then set the table,” he said, breaking the connection.

      Lily stared at the phone in her hand for several seconds before placing it on the desk to go set the table. She thought about calling Daniel back and insisting that he respect her wishes to be left alone. But she did need to talk to him and try to find out how much he knew about the sale of the Beauchamp mansion to her father as well as try to find a way to tell him about the baby.

      Maybe then she would know more about what kind of battle her father had gotten her into with the Addisons. And how Daniel was going to react when he learned about the baby.

      As Daniel steered his Mercedes around the Kincaid mansion to the carriage house in the back, he couldn’t help but smile. After having lunch with Lily, she had asked him to stay for a bit so they could talk, but he’d had to decline because of an afternoon meeting with the president of the dockworkers’ union. He had, however, managed to convince her to let him pick her up after the meeting for a trip to check out the most recently renovated exhibit at the aquarium, then have an early dinner at the little bistro she loved in the French Quarter. As far as he was concerned, that was progress in getting things back to the way they had been before his mother’s dinner party.

      Parking the car, he hesitated before opening the driver’s door. Everything had been going great between them until the night of the party. But immediately afterward, Lily had decided to be conveniently busy whenever he asked her out. Could his mother have possibly said something to Lily that evening, causing her to have a sudden change of heart about seeing him? Or had the thirteen-year difference in their ages suddenly become a problem for her?

      He dismissed the latter thought outright. Surely he would have had an indication if age had become an issue. They both enjoyed most of the same things and there had never been any sort of gap in conversation when they discussed the kind of music they liked to listen to, the books they had read or type of movies they preferred. No, the problem had to have been generated СКАЧАТЬ