Heavenstone 02 - Secret Whispers

might forget them, that’s all.”
    “Like what? What are you doing?” I persisted.
    “It’s a report I promised Lucille,” he finally confessed. “Sort of an efficiency report. All businesses should do it periodically if they are to be well run.”
    “So, you’re like Lucille’s spy right now? Is that what you’re telling me?”
    “I wouldn’t call it that, Semantha. It’s not for a competitor. It’s our own internal evaluation.”
    “You haven’t been here long enough to be doing that, Ethan.”
    I could see my comment cut him deeply, but I couldn’t help resenting the fact that a promise to Lucille was more important than being with me, even if I was asleep.
    “Lucille feels I can do it,” he replied, as if that was all that needed to be said about it.
    “Only my father knows who can and cannot do such a thing,” I insisted.
    “Well, he must know about it if she asked me to do it, don’t you think, Semantha?”
    “Maybe.”
    “It’s not a big deal. Don’t be so upset. Why would you be so upset, anyway?” He rose and came to me. He took my hands into his and smiled.“C’mon, don’t ruin a perfectly wonderful secret honeymoon.”
    “You wouldn’t work on your honeymoon, would you?” I countered.
    His smile faded. “All right. I’ll shut down the computer and come up.”
    “Do what you want,” I said, pulling my hands from his and leaving Daddy’s office.
    He was up and beside me minutes later, kissing me and rambling on and on with one sort of apology after another. Finally, to get some sleep myself, I told him I wasn’t upset, just surprised. I’d be fine. He accepted that and went to sleep himself, but it left me with an uneasy feeling. There were new currents running under Heaven-stone. I could hear the rumbling, and it kept me awake almost until the morning.
    I forgot all of this until the day Daddy and Lucille returned. Ethan didn’t do any more work at home the remainder of the time, and the fun we had been having returned. We had just finished dinner when they burst in, both of them with armfuls of gifts for both Ethan and myself. I was surprised that Daddy had not bought anything for Mrs. Dobson and Doris. Before, whenever he returned from a trip bearing gifts, there had always been something for them.
    Even though their trip sounded wonderful, we could see how happy they both were to have returned. While Daddy, Ethan, and I sat in the den and listened to his summary of the trip, Lucille went about the mansion and even checked on things outside. Daddy remarked that holding her down was like trying to lasso a comet.
    “She dragged me into every department store in every port so we could see how things were being run in different places. At times, I thought we were on a business trip, but that’s my Lucille.”
    My Lucille, I thought. Every new expression, every time he referred to her, made me wince. Not her time here before, or the wedding, or the honeymoon had driven it home as much as Daddy’s including her in most references to himself. They were now truly one, and she was beyond any doubt firmly and completely Mrs. Heaven-stone, my stepmother.
    Neither Ethan nor I had any hint as to what Lucille had been doing or had seen during her tour of the house or the grounds. She said nothing when she returned to the den. She was more interested in what I had been doing, how I had spent my time.
    “I’ll hear about what Ethan’s been doing tomorrow,” she said, and turned her attention to me.
    It didn’t take me long to finish my account of our days. Without comment, she declared that she was tired and did, after all, have a big day back at work tomorrow. She reminded us about the Citizen of the Year award dinner on the weekend and then yawned and stretched. It was a signal to Daddy as well, who rose to go up with her.
    Ethan said it was time for him to get to sleep as well. It was as if whatever Lucille decided, she decided for everyone, except me, of course. I was a little tired, but, perhaps to show my independence more than anything, I remained downstairs for another hour watching television. When I went up later and saw that the lights were low and the house was quiet,I realized our little pretend honeymoon was over and the new regime had begun. I expected some changes would take place, but I had no inkling of how deep and how dramatic those changes would be.
    I didn’t go down to breakfast with everyone. Ethan came by to tell me he was leaving and was going