The Sapphire Brooch Katherine Logan (best beach reads TXT) 📖

“Indirectly, but let’s talk about it when I can tell it to everyone at once.”

Meredith turned her attention back to the road. “Okay. Well, since it’s too early to go shopping, why don’t we go back to the farm? Mrs. Collins was making homemade biscuits when I left. We can eat first or have a yoga or spin class or go for a run. Whatever you’d like to do. Ted, my trainer, is working my butt off right now. He’s available to work with us this morning if you’d like to burn off some of the fear.”

“A run around the farm might be—” Charlotte tried to be enthusiastic but failed miserably. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She dug into her clutch for a package of tissues and dabbed at her eyes. “It’s bad, Meredith. It’s really bad.”

Meredith squeezed Charlotte’s hand. “No matter what has happened, Elliott and David can fix it. The extent of their creativity and resources boggles my mind.”

“This might be beyond even their capabilities.”

“One day something might come up which is beyond Elliott’s reach, but nothing will ever be beyond David’s.” A ghost of a smile crossed Meredith’s face, although her eyes grew dark with concern.

“I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who had so much faith in another person,” Charlotte said.

“It didn’t come easy for me, but Elliott, David, and even Kevin, have never failed me. I wouldn’t have made it through breast cancer and childbirth without them. David supported Elliott while he propped me up, and we all three yelled at Kevin.”

Meredith chuckled. “Poor Kevin crawled over broken glass for us, and we were so mean to him. We laugh about it now, but we all went through a very trying time for several months. Elliott and I both had moments of doubt, but it all worked out, and we have little James Cullen to show for it. As the saying goes, it takes a village. Elliott is the center of an incredible village of loving and caring people. You and Jack are part of our village now.”

“For the longest time, it’s only been Jack and me. I’ve never had a circle of friends and family.”

“I didn’t either,” Meredith said. “I married into Elliott’s inner circle, and once you’re there, you’re never alone again.”

“You better call Elliott and tell him I’m bringing a problem for him to solve.”

“Elliott and David were in a closed-door meeting when I left. Something is going on with them, but Elliott will stop whatever he’s doing to help you out. Don’t worry.”

Charlotte closed her eyes and breathed in the scents of the countryside along Old Frankfort Pike—horses and spring grasses and freshly turned earth, and she let her breath go with a sigh. For a few minutes, she would relinquish fear and worry and enjoy the company of a friend who had been to hell and back herself, and found the love of her life along the way.

75

MacKlenna Farm, Lexington, Kentucky, Present Day

Thirty minutes later, Meredith, Elliott, and David sat around the conference table in Elliott’s office in MacKlenna Mansion. David had set up a video camera to record Charlotte’s statement. As Elliott explained, no one would interrupt her, and she was to start from the beginning and describe everything that had happened to her until the moment Meredith picked her up at the airport.

“Everything?” Charlotte asked.

“Ye don’t have to go into intimate details, just tell us what and when and if any promises were made,” David said.

Mrs. Collins came in with a tray of fruit in one hand and a basket of egg and cheese biscuits warm from the oven in the other. “You call me when you run out of food. I’ll bring in lunch.”

Three hours later, David and Elliott were both rubbing their noses and Meredith was wiping away the tears streaming down her face. Water bottles, empty plates, and half-filled coffee mugs littered the table, along with pages of notes. Reliving the horror of Richmond and the terror she experienced when she discovered Jack was gone had drained Charlotte completely. She slumped in the swivel chair, barely able to hold herself upright.

“I have a question,” David said. “Do ye intend to rescue Jack or prove his innocence?”

Charlotte’s head jerked up as if a puppeteer had yanked her strings. “Rescue him. Get him out of prison as quickly as I can.”

Elliott slid across the table the copy of Jack’s letter she had brought with her. “David’s question stems from this. Do ye have a family cemetery or a homeplace?”

She straightened in her chair, shaking her head, knowing exactly where Elliott was going with his question. The same one had niggled at her since she first read the letter. “No. After Jack hit the New York Times best seller list, he bought a condo on the river, and we sold our parents’ house in downtown Richmond. When I came back to practice medicine, I bought a place of my own, too.”

“That’s what I thought,” Elliott said.

David took the letter and added it to his notes. “Jack’s execution has changed yer family’s history.”

Charlotte fixed David with a direct look, and clearly enunciating each word for emphasis, said, “I don’t care.”

“Ye might, if ye knew what it was.”

“Nothing matters but Jack. I need to get him out.”

Elliott frowned and rubbed a knuckle slowly down the long, straight bridge of his nose. “Ye’ll have to tell him.”

“Tell him what? That there’s no homeplace or family cemetery. Do you think he’ll care? No, he won’t. His freedom will be all that matters.”

“Ye might be surprised,” Elliott said. “But here’s something else to think about. If Jack disappears from prison, how will they explain his escape? The government and the public will blame the warden and guards. There’ll be another manhunt. They’ll never find Jack. The country will be left with an unsolvable mystery, and the Mallory name will be as sullied as Doctor Mudd’s.”

“Do you think I care about