Free Shackled by Morgan Ashbury Page A

investments.”
    “I suppose that being an administrative assistant is a lot like being a wife and mother, isn’t it?” Jonathan smiled when Beth’s eyes widened.
    “You know, it really is! Don’t get me wrong, I love my children, but—”
    “You’re a bit burned out in the caretaker department. Tell me about Connie.”
    Bethany’s response came fast, and he didn’t miss the edge in her tone—slight, but there. “Why on earth would you want to know about Tim’s sister? Do you know her?”
    “I’ve never laid eyes on the woman. I want to know about her because when I asked you if anyone needed to know you’d be away from home, you mentioned her, and the look on your face at the time was similar to what I imagine you’d look like if you realized you’d just stepped in dog shit.”
    Beth burst out laughing. Jonathan just smiled and waited.
    “Nothing gets past you, does it?” she asked him.
    “Not much. Don’t let that worry you, sweetheart. I’m on your side.”
    “Yes, I know you are.” Jonathan liked the soft tone and even softer look she gave him. “Well then, Connie, whom I admit I call Connie and not Constance, because it annoys her. She’s Tim’s sister, older than him by two years. For most of our marriage, which would be during the first three of hers, she ignored us completely, in line with the rest of the Craig family.”
    “I recall that Tim’s father had disowned him when he married you,” Jonathan said. He remembered the details of her life she’d shared in the past. She’d told him that she and Tim had been careless having sex and Beth had gotten pregnant. Likely the only decent thing Timothy Craig had ever done in his life was to man up at that point and marry Beth.
    “You have a good memory. Yes, the senior Timothy Craig wanted nothing to do with me while Tim was alive, as my family wasn’t listed on the social register of the city. Marrying me was the first time Tim had defied his father, and then he showed he was as stubborn as any Craig by refusing to back down.”
    Jonathan rather thought that had been the entire point, but he could see no reason to bring that up. “And Connie began to come around when?”
    “I guess about a month before Tim died. I didn’t know at the time that her father was ill. She never mentioned it. I thought at the time that as she was getting older, and her third marriage had failed, she was feeling…I don’t know, repentant.” Beth shook her head.
    “Not true?” Jonathan knew something about her sister-in-law bothered Beth. He waited to see if she’d tell him what.
    “I never did like Connie. Even before I married Tim, I thought she was sly, selfish, and manipulative. I should have held on to that analysis with both hands.”
    “She’s been giving you trouble?”
    “Constance Craig Marshal Hancock Wellington thinks her brother died under mysterious circumstances . And she’s been sharing that opinion with anyone who will listen to her.”
    Jonathan didn’t like the sound of that. “That seems like a strange thing for her to say. No one is listening, are they?”
    “I have no idea. I know she has a lot of friends—you know, the whole social club member, upper echelon, movers-and-shakers group. They’re people who have nothing to do with my life, and so I have no idea if anyone is listening to her or not. What bothers me is she’s been cozying up to Erica and Daniel. I don’t want her spewing her nonsense to them. I mean really, what’s the point?”
    “That’s what I’m wondering.” Jonathan didn’t belong to any clubs—well, except for Reckless Abandon—but he knew people, and the people he knew had connections with others.
    He got that Beth thought her sister-in-law was just being a bitch, but Jonathan knew there was no such thing as human behavior without reason. He’d have to ask a few questions, see what he could uncover.
    “Tim’s father died after him, didn’t he?”
    “Yes, about a month.” Bethany shook