Page 10 of One Last Smile

“That’s wonderful. Are you hoping to take pictures for magazines?”

He shrugs. “Probably. I’m sure I’ll need some sort of income. It’s an even chance Dad won’t leave me anything since I’m such a disappointment to him.”

He says this nonchalantly, as though he were mentioning that the weather’s a little warm for the season. My heart breaks for him. I don’t know what to say, but I can’t remain silent, so I say, “Many people make an excellent living as photographers. I’m sure your father will be proud to see you succeed in any career.”

He smiles at me, but there’s an edge to it. “You’re new here, Mary. You’re a good person, and I can tell that you want to believe the best in people, but there’s things about this family that you don’t know yet. You probably wondered why everyone was so shocked by Oliver’s joke last night.”

“I did, actually,” I reply. “It seemed harmless, if a little cheeky and immature.”

He chuckles, and the laughter has an edge just like his smile. “That’s Oliver for you. Cheeky and immature. Anyway, Dad left his first wife for my mother.”

I stammer for a moment, then say, “Well, that’s none of my business, dear. Why don’t we talk—”

“Then Mum left out of nowhere to South Africa for a while. I guess that’s where I was born.” He grins at me. “I’m a South African citizen.”

“Dual citizenship has many benefits,” I say. “You should be grateful.”

He shrugs. “I’ve never been to South Africa. I’ve asked Mum to go, and she only says, ‘Maybe someday.’ But it won’t happen. Not with her, anyway.”

“Maybe you could go on a picture-taking adventure one day.”

He grins. “Sure. One day.” His smile vanishes, and he says, “Eliza and Oliver don’t like me.”

When I recover from the shock of the sudden change in subject, I say, “That’s not true! I’m sure they love you very much.”

“You wouldn’t know,” he says, not aggressively, just stating a fact. “They think I don’t belong.”

I don’t know how to respond to that, so I’m grateful when he says, “Here, I’ll show you some pictures.”

He reaches behind and hands me a box. I open it and see hundreds of photographs, some of people, some of landscapes, some of animals both close up and from a distance. Some are of clouds and sunny skies, and one shows the taillights of a car heading from the estate in the dark of night.

I look through them, genuinely amazed at the talent the images show. “Lucas. These are wond…”

My voice trails off when I come across a photograph of the missing girl. She’s standing in the corner of the photo, which appears to have been taken from the east garden. She’s laughing at something someone has said off-camera.

It’s not her image that stops me, though. The resemblance to Annie is still uncanny, but the disturbing part of the image is the man standing behind the hedges. The look on his face is one of either hate or lust. It might even be both.

His gaze is fixed on Minerva, and a chill runs down my spine.

“That’s Niall,” Lucas says. “He’s the gardener. Scary-looking chap, isn’t he?”

I am still too stunned to do more than nod.

“Come on,” he says, “I’ll show you the hunting blind. Don’t worry. It’s not far.”

He scampers down the ladder. I replace the photograph and close the box, my hands trembling slightly.

Once more, I’ve found an image of the missing girl. A snapshot, as Lucas would say, of her life.

I don’t like what that snapshot suggests about the end of that life.

I follow Lucas down the ladder and push my concerns to the back of my mind. This time, I can’t completely push them away.

CHAPTER FIVE

I believe I am a reasonably fit woman for my age, but with Veronica not present to sap his strength, Lucas has every ounce of the energy that a healthy boy of seventeen should have. I soldier on as bravely as I can, but after three hours of scampering from place to place across the grounds, exploring the hunter’s blind, the “folly,” as Lucas calls the three-story miniature castle on the other side of the north woods, and several other locations that he proudly claims are unused and ignored by the rest of the family, I have to finally admit I am overcome. I tell Lucas that his first assignment is to create a photographic collage that will fully capture the spirit of the Carlton estate and send him ahead to complete it while I limp back to the house gasping for breath.

My body is overwhelmed, but my mind is more alive than it’s been in months, perhaps years. I laugh as I ascend the last of the hills between me and the manor. Look at me running around like a girl. I haven’t done anything like this in as long as I can remember.

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