Free Forgotten Girls, The by Alexa Steele

stopped by to speak to you
about Joslyn Freed. We assume you have heard the news?” Mack asked. Bella’s lip
curled at his too-delicate tone. What was up with the guy?
    They were standing in the huge
dining room now, at the tip of a table set for eighteen. A fireplace stood in
the middle of one wall and eighteen Louis XIV chairs flanked a wooden inlaid
dining table. A blue Persian rug, stretching from one end of the room to the
other, covered the floor. In the middle of the table stood a stone statue of a
lion with a mouse in its mouth.
    Bella tried not to stare at
Jenna’s choice of table decoration, but it was all she could see while Mack, despite
himself, appeared overwhelmed with the grandeur.
    “Quite a home,” he said to Jenna.
“Love your taste.”
    “You’re too kind,” Jenna replied
flirtatiously. “And yes, of course I have heard the news. I am beside myself.” She
wrapped her arms around herself tightly.
    Bullshit, Bella thought.
    “Is there somewhere we can talk?”
Mack asked gently, smiling down at her.
    “Yes, yes, of course, come into
the living room, but can I at least get you something to drink?”
    She batted her eyes at him,
oblivious to Bella’s presence. Bella noticed an elaborate lunch was laid out on
one end of the table as though she were expecting guests.
    Mack saw it too. “You are expecting
guests?” he said, pointing to the food.
    “No, no, not at all—it’s just brunch.”
    She waved her hand in the air as
she said this and walked away, motioning for them to follow. Not knowing what
that meant, they obeyed and allowed themselves to be led into an even larger
room. Two separate seating areas filled the space. Each had two couches and
three-side upholstered side chairs, with a large glass and gold leaf coffee
table in the center. The furniture in the room was fluffy and perfectly color
coordinated down to the last stitch. No originality at all, Bella thought. It
looked like she bought the entire room out of a catalogue; an expensive one,
but a catalogue nonetheless.
    The windows in the colossal room had
floor to ceiling draperies, and a grand piano held court in the corner.
Bookshelves covered the walls, but were devoid of books. Only photographs of
the Jordan family, picture after picture, lined the shelves—the same four
people over and over, smiling, wearing white.
    “Who plays piano?” Mack asked, as
he sat down on one of the sofas.
    “No one,” answered Jenna,
giggling. “I needed something to fill that corner and the piano seemed to work.
I wasn’t going to go get another couch!”
    She laughed again and twirled her
hair. Mack went along with her. “Very good choice,” he said with an easy smile.
“And chess?” he asked, pointing to a table on the far side of the room.
    She looked over her shoulder at
the chess table and waved her hands as if to say, who cares? “Doug used
to play. It was a gift from his grandmother,” she said.
    “Would your husband happen to be
home?” Bella asked, now that she mentioned good old Doug. Jenna had just sat down
next to Mack on the sofa and clearly didn’t want to move.
    “He is actually,” Jenna answered a
bit warily. “Although normally not, as it’s Thursday,” she said, pronouncing
THURSDAY with a happy lilt in her voice. “But today with the rain…” She shook
her head and looked out the window, hugging her chest. “And of course, last
night…”
    The lilt was gone. A hushed
silence filled the air between the three of them.
    “Can you ask your husband to come
join us, please? Doug is his name, you said?” Bella asked as sweetly as she
could.
    “Yes. Douglas, but he goes by Doug,”
Jenna replied. With a skeptical look at Bella, she rose to go find him.
    Alone with Mack for a moment,
Bella widened her eyes but one second later Jenna and her barking dog were back
in the room.
    “Fangsy, be quiet! I’ve asked
Flora to bring us drinks,” she notified Mack. “Doug will be right down,” she added,
as an