Haunting Rachel by Kay Hooper

herself for the decision she had made sometime in the previous twenty-four hours. She couldn’t even say what had finally tipped the balance. All she knew was that the decision had been made, and that it felt right.
    It was Wednesday evening, and Rachel had spent the day helping Darby with the furniture inventories.
    Obviously trying not to sound as unhappy as he was, Cameron said, “So you’ll be keeping the breakfront and the Queen Anne chairs?”
    Rachel smiled at him. “No, I promised them to you. They’re yours. As for the rest, I’m going to let Darby continue to inventory the entire house, room by room. Itneeds to be done, and since she’s started, she should finish.”
    “What about the pieces you don’t plan to use, Rachel? Are you going to let her sell them to strangers?”
    “All the extra stuff has been collecting dust for decades, giving no pleasure to anyone.” Rachel’s tone was reasonable. “There’s no good reason to keep what I won’t be using.”
    “But, Rachel—”
    “Don’t worry, Cam. If there are other pieces you can’t bear to see sold, we’ll work something out. But how much room do you have in that house of yours?” Cam had been staying here since shortly before his older brother had been killed, but home was a lovely old town house in San Francisco, currently being renovated. Since he was a moderately successful artist, he could live anywhere he chose, and the West Coast had been his home for more than twenty years.
    “There’s enough room for a few more big pieces. But whether I can display things or have to put them into storage for the time being isn’t the point. I just can’t bear to see Grant family things going to strangers, Rachel, that’s all. One of us should keep them.”
    A little weary of the argument, she said, “Hanging on to history isn’t always the best thing to do.”
    He hesitated, then smiled and lifted his wineglass in a small salute to her. “So, you’ve decided to stay in Richmond. And—what? Take Duncan’s place at the bank?”
    “I haven’t decided whether to keep my interests in the bank, but I certainly won’t be working there. I don’t have Dad’s gift.”
    “You have your own. Some kind of fashion design, then?”
    She told him briefly about Graham’s suggestion thatshe open a boutique selling her own designs. “The idea appeals to me. I think I’ll give it a shot.”
    “That designer you work for is not going to like losing you.”
    “He won’t be too upset. He liked my work, but there was some friction between us.”
    The friction had consisted of Brian Todd’s unshakable belief that he was God’s gift to women of all ages, but Rachel didn’t feel any impulse to confide this to her uncle.
    “Your dad always said you’d come back herd,” Cameron said.
    Rachel was surprised. “He did? Was he—were he and Mom upset that I stayed in New York all those years?” Even though Graham had reassured her, it was something about which Rachel still felt profoundly upset.
    Before Cameron could answer, Fiona came into the dining room with dessert and said sourly, “They missed you. Of course they were upset.”
    “You were listening at the door,” Cameron accused.
    The housekeeper snorted. “How else am I supposed to find out what goes on around here?”
    Cameron had made several attempts to charm Fiona in the months he’d been living there, but she had resisted his blandishments. Since then, the two had observed a wary, occasionally bristly, understanding.
    They didn’t like each other.
    Rachel said, “Don’t you two get started. Fiona, I know Mom and Dad missed me. But they understood why I stayed away. Didn’t they?”
Tell me they understood.
    The housekeeper’s face softened almost imperceptibly. “Of course. And he’s right—about this, anyway. They knew you’d come back here to stay sooner or later.”
    Almost to herself, Rachel murmured, “I thought there’d be time enough. That I’d come back one day,