Low Country Liar Read online

  Low Country Liar

  Janet Dailey

  An [ e - reads ] Book

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, scanning or any information storage retrieval system, without explicit permission in writing from the Author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locals or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright 1978 by Janet Dailey

  First e-reads publication 1999

  www.e-reads.com

  ISBN 0-7592-0138-3

  Author Biography

  Janet Dailey was born Janet Haradon in 1944 in Storm Lake, Iowa. She attended secretarial school in Omaha, Nebraska before meeting her husband, Bill. Bill and Janet worked together in construction and land development until they "retired" to travel throughout the United States, inspiring Janet to write the Americana series of romances.

  In 1974, Janet Dailey was the first American author to write for Harlequin, her first novel was NO QUARTER ASKED. She has since gone on to write approximately 90 novels, 21 of which have appeared on The New York Times bestseller list. She has won many awards and accolades for her work, appearing widely on Radio and Television. Today, there are over three-hundred million Janet Dailey books in print in 19 different languages, making her one of the most popular novelists in the world.

  Other works in Janet Dailey's Americana Series also available in e-reads editions

  Dangerous Masquerade

  Northern Magic

  Sonora Sundown

  Valley of the Vapours

  Fire and Ice

  After the Storm

  Difficult Decision

  The Matchmakers

  Southern Nights

  Night of the Cotillion

  Kona Winds

  The Travelling Kind

  A Lyon's Share

  The Indy Man

  The Homeplace

  The Mating Season

  Bluegrass King

  The Bride of the Delta Queen

  Summer Mahogany

  Bed of Grass

  That Boston Man

  Enemy in Camp

  Giant of Mesabi

  A Tradition of Pride

  Show Me

  Big Sky Country

  Boss Man from Ogallala

  Reilly's Woman

  Heart of Stone

  One of the Boys

  Land of Enchantment

  Beware of the Stranger

  That Carolina Summer

  Lord of the High Lonesome

  The Widow and the Wastrel

  Six White Horses

  To Tell the Truth

  The Thawing of Mara

  Strange Bedfellow

  Dakota Dreamin'

  Sentimental Journey

  Savage Land

  A Land Called Deseret

  Green Mountain Man

  Tidewater Lover

  For Mike's Sake

  Wild and Wonderful

  With A Little Luck

  Darling Jenny

  Preface

  When I first started writing back in the Seventies, my husband Bill and I were retired and traveling all over the States with our home — a 34' travel trailer — in tow. That's when Bill came up with the great idea of my writing a romance novel set in each one of our fifty states. It was an idea I ultimately accomplished before switching to mainstream fiction and hitting all the international bestseller lists.

  As we were preparing to reissue these early titles, I initially planned to update them all — modernize them, so to speak, and bring them into the new high-tech age. Then I realized I couldn't do that successfully any more than I could take a dress from the Seventies and redesign it into one that would look as if it were made yesterday. That's when I saw that the true charm of these novels is their look back on another time and another age. Over the years, they have become historical novels, however recent the history. When you read them yourself, I know you will feel the same.

  So, enjoy, and happy reading to all!

  Introduction

  Introducing Janet Dailey's AMERICANA. Every novel in this collection is your passport to a romantic tour of the United States through time-honored favorites by America's First Lady of romance fiction. Each of the fifty novels is set in a different state, researched by Janet and her husband, Bill. For the Daileys it was an odyssey of discovery. For you, it's the journey of a lifetime.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Low Country Liar

  Chapter One

  WITH A RELAXED SIGH Lisa Talmadge leaned against the curling backrest of the chair. It was a beautifully restored antique, reupholstered in a patterned brocade of rust, orange and brown. It complemented perfectly the solid rust-colored chair her aunt sat in.

  Lisa felt she had been talking nonstop since she arrived, bringing her aunt up-to-date on the latest family happenings. Soon it would be time to get down to the true reason for her visit, which was more than just a wish to see her favorite aunt. Her aunt seemed to be of the same mind.

  "We've gotten rid of the preliminaries, Lisa, I now know you've had a safe trip from Baltimore. Both your parents are fine. Your brother is having girl problems as usual. You have a drink in hand to loosen your tongue, so why don't you tell me what really brought you to Charleston?"

  At fifty-two, Miriam Talmadge was warm, vivacious and darkly brunette. The latter fact Lisa would never have questioned her hairdresser about. She knew that Mitzi, as Miriam Talmadge was affectionately known by those who loved her, would grow old as gracefully as she stayed young at heart.

  It had been several years since Lisa had last spent any time with her aunt. Not since Mitzi had moved back to her home town of Charleston, located on the southern end of the coastal flatlands that were known to all South Carolinians as the Low Country.

  Lisa didn't try to hide the smile her aunt's pointed question had prompted. "Believe it or not, Mitzi, you brought me to Charleston."

  "Me? Goodness, that's quite a burden." A wry smile deepened the corners of her mobile mouth. "I hope you haven't sought me out about man problems. Considering the mess I made of my marriage, I'm the last one to run to for advice."

  "You can't claim sole responsibility for the failure of your marriage. Uncle Simon had a part in it somewhere." Lisa dismissed the statement with a shake of her silver blond hair, a gold hooped earring glittering through the long silk strands.

  "That's what Slade says, too," Mitzi Talmadge sighed.

  Quickly Lisa lowered her head, her jaw tightening at the name. Her aunt had just put a name to the reason Lisa had come. For the time being, however, that was Lisa's secret until she could find out what was really going on.

  "But you must remember," Mitzi was continuing, and Lisa concentrated on what she was saying, "that I was raised in an era where divorce was a scandal and a woman was supposed to make the marriage last no matter what. It's understandable, I suppose, that I should have guilty feelings regarding the failure of mine. Simon and l just weren't suited at all." There was a reflective look in her dark eyes as she smiled, her cheeks dimpling. "I married him because he was so quiet. And I divorced him because he was so quiet," she laughed. "Which proves what an eternal romantic I am at heart, doesn't it? I was all caught up in the image of the strong, silent type when that wasn't what I really wanted
or needed. Poor Simon didn't get any bargain with me either. I was so disorganized when it came to anything outside of my writing that it drove him to distraction. He wanted the unobtrusive, homemaking kind of wife who always had a delicious meal ready at promptly seven o'clock. I could barely boil water without a crisis. Ours was a very sad mismatch, but I'm glad he had a few happy years with his second wife before he died," she concluded.

  "What about you, Mitzi? You've had time to meet somebody new?" The question was put innocently, but there was a sharp edge to the look in Lisa's olive green eyes. "Tell me about the men in your life."

  "Men in the plural? You make me sound like a femme fatale. At my age!" Mitzi shook her head laughingly, a bright twinkle in her eyes. "You're going to be awfully good for my morale, Lisa. And exactly how did the subject get around to my love life when I asked about yours?"

  "I thought I'd dodged the question rather expertly." Lisa smiled broadly. "The fact is at the present time I don't have a love life."

  "I find that extremely hard to believe. You've grown into a beautiful woman, Lisa Talmadge, with your mother's cheekbones and her blond hair. Those green eyes are definitely from the Talmadge side, outlined with sooty lashes just the way Simon's were. They're definitely your most striking feature. But you're sidetracking me again," Mitzi scolded with mock reproof. "Now why have you come? Did you break up with some special man?

  "No. There isn't anyone 'special.'" Lisa raised her hands, making mock quotation marks with her fingers. "I'm escaping from nothing but work," she insisted.

  "And that young man you were engaged to?" Mitzi prompted, tipping her head slightly downward to watch Lisa's expression closely.

  "Michel? That was over three years ago when I graduated from college." Lisa picked up her cocktail, touching a forefinger to the lime wedge floating on top and watching it bob in the liquid.

  "What really happened between you two?"

  "A conflict of careers. He wanted a country-club wife and I wanted to work — that's why I'd got my degree. He didn't see it that way. To him, my education was supposed to be just a safeguard for my future in case anything ever happened to him. In the meantime he wanted me home taking care of him and raising a family." Lisa shrugged. The bitterness had long since fled. "I didn't object to that as much as I objected to him telling me that was what I wanted. It's just as well, because it would never have worked between us."

  "You're not sorry, then?" Mitzi prompted.

  "Not a bit," Lisa returned without any regret. "Now I just steer clear of the strong, masterful types like Michel with their super male egos that constantly have to be fed."

  "You said you were escaping from your job. Hasn't it turned out to be what you wanted?" The older woman relaxed in the cushioned chair, its rusty orange a pleasant contrast to her dark coloring. "Your last letter seemed fried with complaints about staff and management."

  "I think you can mark that up to almost a year and a half without a vacation rather than the job," Lisa stated, following her aunt's suit and leaning back in her chair. "Since the television station gave the go-ahead on the new show a year ago, it's been hectic, to say the least, but very rewarding and satisfying. I'd only worked as an assistant on other shows. This is the first one I've produced myself, so I put in a lot of hours to prove myself, postponing my vacation, certain the show would fall apart without me. Finally I realized I would fall apart if I didn't get away for a while."

  "So you came hero." Mitzi's curiosity over Lisa's choice was still evident.

  "I couldn't think of a better place than Charleston. Time seems to pass so leisurely here. Plus, I have you for company," Lisa concluded, keeping to herself the other very pertinent reason for her choice.

  "For whatever reason, I'm glad you're here for a few weeks. I only hope you don't find it too boring after the exciting life you've been leading working in television." Before Lisa had a chance to refute her aunt's statement, Mitzi Talmadge made one of her lightning changes of subject. One thought often triggered off another in Mitzi's mind; it was a trait that was characteristic of her personality. "Do you remember the letter you wrote me when you first went to work for the broadcasting company? I can't help laughing when I think about it. You'd put in your application and were so irate when they called you back to hire you as their weather girl."

  "At the time, I was a very militant feminist," Lisa agreed with a laughing smile. "I hope I've mellowed with age."

  "Mellowed with age — and you're all of twenty-four," her aunt mocked.

  "You don't know how vocal a Women's Libber I was," Lisa declared. "When I think of the lecture I gave the company about their weather-girl job, I wonder why they ever hired me!"

  "That's what Slade said. I told him about the incident when I heard you were coming for a visit."

  The mention of his name set Lisa's teeth on edge. She attempted a bright smile. "I'm dying to meet this paragon you call Slade Blackwell. You've mentioned him half a dozen times in your letters." A half a hundred would have been closer.

  "I would have invited him to dinner this evening, but because it's your first night here, I thought it would be best with just the two of us. I promise you that you'll meet him soon. Maybe tomorrow night," suggested Mitzi Talmadge as the idea began to form in her mind.

  "I believe you said he was the son of an old family friend?" Lisa's tongue felt almost honey coated as she made the casual inquiry — too sweet to be sincere — but Mitzi didn't seem to notice.

  "Mmm, yes," Mitzi sipped her drink, replying absently. "I met him quite by accident shortly after I moved back here to Charleston when my divorce from Simon was final. If you remember, my mother died soon after my divorce, so I really had a very trying few months."

  "I can imagine," Lisa murmured.

  "But Slade was wonderful," Mitzi continued, not hearing Lisa's low comment. "I never had a head for business — not that I'm as stupid as some people, but I just find it very tedious and dull. Anyway, things became quite complicated with the divorce and the settlement of the family estate. Slade simply took over for me and handled everything. You know how I loathe details, Lisa," Mitzi smiled at herself. "Now that Slade is looking after everything I don't have to be bothered with them. He makes out all the checks and all I have to do is sign them."

  With sinking heart, Lisa felt as if her worst suspicions had been confirmed. How could her aunt be so gullible? Her letters this past year had been filled with "Slade said," "Slade suggested," or "Slade told me." He had been quoted as a veritable authority on anything and everything.

  It was at Slade Blackwell's instigation that Mitzi had reopened the family home in Old Charleston. Lisa remembered that it also had been the interior decorator he had recommended who had been given the task of renovating the mansion.

  Her green gaze swept the living room with its high ceilings and rich cypress woodwork. Lisa was unable to find fault with the completed product. The decor was a smooth mix of antique and modern. It invited a guest to sit back and relax, instead of giving a museum effect that said, Fragile, Keep Off.

  Yet it grated, just as it grated to know that Slade Blackwell had suggested the landscape architect for the walled garden outside the colonnade portico. In the waning hours of a March dusk, it was ablaze with spring flowers — azaleas and camellias and the magnolia trees budding, the scent of honeysuckle drifting in the air. Magnificent spreading oaks dominated it all with their elegant draping of silvery beardlike moss.

  The same company that designed the garden still maintained it. Lisa couldn't help wondering what kind of a kickback Slade Blackwell made out of the deal. Those two items were just the obvious ones; she guessed there were many other small deals as well. Now Mitzi had informed her that Slade Blackwell made out the checks for her signature. Lisa doubted if Mitzi even verified what she was signing. The man was probably stealing her blind.

  "Does this Mr. Blackwell handle all your money?" There was a faint challenge in Lisa's question. She simply couldn't keep it out even th
ough she tried.

  "All except some that I keep in an account of my own. I call it my mad money." An impish smile made the woman appear even younger.

  Heaven only knew how much was in that account! Heaven or Slade Blackwell — Lisa wouldn't even hazard a guess. She did know that her aunt had received a considerable amount from Simon Talmadge when they had divorced. Lisa's father had understood that Mitzi's mother had been quite wealthy and Mitzi had been an only child.

  Plus, there was the income Mitzi made writing romance mysteries. The latter wasn't a large sum, but combined with the other, it was probably a sizeable amount that Mitzi Talmadge was worth.

  "Aren't you worried that you're a bit too trusting, Mitzi?" Lisa set her glass on the ornate coaster sitting atop a marble inlaid table, trying to disguise the sharpness of her tone.

  "Do you mean where Slade is concerned?" There was faint surprise in the woman's answering question. Then she laughed, a gay melodious sound. "A more honest, dependable man couldn't be found. You haven't met him yet, but when you do, I know you'll like him." Mitzi hesitated, her gaze sharpening. "On second thought, maybe you won't."

  "Oh?' Lisa was instantly alert. "Why?"

  "You said a moment ago that you have an aversion for the strong, masterful type. I'm afraid those adjectives would fit Slade. Of course, he can be very charming and gracious, too."

  When it suits him to be. Lisa added the qualification silently. An older woman probably seemed an easy target to Slade Blackwell. Mitzi didn't have any close family — her parents dead, no aunts or uncles living, the husband she had divorced gone, too. What money he didn't steal from her while she was alive he probably hoped to inherit on her death.

  "What did he say when he learned I was coming for a visit?" Lisa asked.

  "I don't recall that Slade said anything in particular except that he was glad Simon's family hadn't forgotten me."

  "We didn't forget you," Lisa protested quickly. Anger against this Slade Blackwell slowly began to grow hotter. No doubt he wanted Mitzi to be isolated and totally dependent on him.