“I thought you might know him, Jess being a writer and since you both went to Bailey. He’s looking for a caretaker for the estate. A couple, preferably. He’s not paying much, but it’s free rent and I’d think it would be a wonderful place to write. It could be just the thing for your . . . circumstances.”
I glanced at Katrine, reassessing her. Beneath the highlighted blond hair and fake English country getup and plastered-on Realtor’s smile she was smart, smart enough to see through our dithering over the aluminum siding and cracked linoleum to realize we couldn’t afford even the cheapest houses she’d shown us today.
“But you wouldn’t get a commission on that,” I pointed out, half to give Jess a chance to get ahold of himself. The last person who’d mentioned Alden Montague around him had gotten a black eye for his trouble.
“No,” she admitted, “but if someone was on the grounds fixing up the place it would sell for a lot more when the time came—and if that someone planted a bug in Mr. Montague’s ear to use a certain Realtor . . .”
She let her voice trail off with a flip of her blond hair and a sly we’re-all-in-this-together smile that I was sure Jess would roll his eyes at, but instead he smiled back, some of that golden light returning to his face.
“In other words,” he said in the silky drawl he used for interviews, “you don’t give the old man much longer to live and you want an accomplice on the inside.”
To her credit, Katrine didn’t even sham surprise.
“I wouldn’t put it quite like that. But the word around town is that Mr. Montague is a pretty sick man. I have no intention of taking advantage of that, but I did think the situation might be mutually beneficial . . .”
Jess grinned. “Why then, by all means, set up the interview. I’d give good money to see Old Monty on his deathbed.”
Praise for Carol Goodman and The Widow’s House
“Carol Goodman is, simply put, a stellar writer.”
—Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of The Red Hunter
“Blends a perfect gothic premise . . . with modern mysterious twists. . . . I couldn’t put it down but I didn’t want it to end.”
—Wendy Webb, bestselling and award-winning author of The Vanishing
“Foreboding and moody. . . . As you’re pulled deeper into its crumbling corridors and gothic history, you’ll never guess where its true threats lie.”
—Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, New York Times bestselling author of Bittersweet and June
“Goodman expertly melds the psychological thriller and academic mystery into a compelling story.”
—Associated Press
“Goodman pushes the needle over into the red zone and keeps it there through page after page of suspense.”
—Chronogram
“[Goodman] offers puzzles and twists galore but still tells a human story.”
—Boston Globe
“Goodman combines gripping suspense with strong characters and artistic themes. Those who read Anita Shreve or Jodi Picoult are likely to become fans.”
—Library Journal
“Goodman specializes in atmospheric literary thrillers.”
—Denver Post
Also by Carol Goodman
The Lake of Dead Languages
The Seduction of Water
The Drowning Tree
The Ghost Orchid
The Sonnet Lover
The Night Villa
Arcadia Falls
River Road
The Widow’s House
CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG ADULT
Blythewood
Ravencliffe
Hawthorn
The Metropolitans
AS JULIET DARK
The Demon Lover
The Water Witch
The Angel Stone
AS LEE CARROLL (WITH LEE SLONIMSKY)
Black Swan Rising
The Watchtower
The Shape Stealer
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.
THE OTHER MOTHER. Copyright © 2018 by Carol Goodman. Excerpt from THE WIDOW’S HOUSE © 2017 by Carol Goodman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Cover design by Elsie Lyons
Cover photograph © Elena Bovo / Trevillion Images
FIRST EDITION
Digital Edition MARCH 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-256265-4
Version 02272018
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-256264-7
ISBN 978-0-06-281983-3 (library edition)
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