by Nora Roberts
accommodate her, it wouldn’t do to let it snap so quickly. “You’re very wrong” was all he said.
She sighed, almost indulgently. “I understand you have feelings for Laura. My son had them, too.”
The first chain on his temper broke clean in half. The rage could be seen in his eyes and heard in each precise, bitten-off word. “Don’t you ever compare my feelings for Laura with your son’s.”
Lorraine paled a little, but went on evenly. “I have no idea what she may have been telling you—”
“I told him the truth.” Before Gabe could speak, or move, Laura put a hand on his arm. “I told him what you know is the truth, that Tony was ill, emotionally unstable.”
Now it was Lorraine who moved, rising deliberately from her chair. Her face was flushed and pinched, but her voice was held at the same even pitch. “I will not sit here and listen to you defame my son.”
“You will listen.” Laura’s fingers dug hard into Gabe’s arm, but she didn’t give way. “You’ll listen now the way you never listened when I was desperate for help. The way you never listened when Tony was screaming for it in the only way he knew. He was an alcoholic, an emotional wreck who abused someone weaker than he. You knew he hurt me, you saw the marks and ignored them or made excuses. You knew there were other women. By your silence, you gave him approval.”
“What was between you and Tony was none of my concern.”
“That’s for you to live with. But I warn you, Lorraine, if you open the lid, you won’t be able to handle what comes out.”
Lorraine sat again, if for no other reason than the tone of Laura’s voice and the fact that for the first time Laura had called her by her first name. That one change made them equals. This wasn’t the same frightened, easily pressured woman she had known only a year before.
“Threats from someone like you don’t worry me. The courts will decide if some loose-moraled young tramp will have custody of an Eagleton or if he’ll be placed with those who can give him the proper upbringing.”
“If you refer to my wife in that way again you’ll have more than threats to deal with.” Gabe blew out a long, narrow stream of smoke. “Mrs. Eagleton.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Laura squeezed his hand. She knew he was on the verge of losing control. “You can’t make me cringe anymore, Lorraine, and you won’t make me beg. You know very well that I was faithful to Tony.”
“I know that Tony didn’t believe that.”
“Then how do you know the child is his?”
Absolute silence fell the moment Gabe spoke. Laura started to speak but was held off by the look in Gabe’s eyes. Color flooded into Lorraine’s face again when she found her voice.
“She wouldn’t have dared—”
“Wouldn’t she? That’s odd. You intend to prove that Laura was unfaithful to your son, and now you claim she wasn’t. Either way, you have a problem. If she had had an affair with anyone. Me, for example.” He smiled again as he crushed out his cigarette. “Or haven’t you wondered why we were married so quickly, why, as you’ve already asked, I accept the child as my own?” He let that thought take hold before he continued. “If she had been unfaithful, the child could be anyone’s. If she wasn’t unfaithful, you haven’t got a case.”
Lorraine clenched and unclenched her fingers on the arm of the chair. “My husband and I have every intention of determining the child’s paternity. I would hardly take someone’s bastard into my home.”
“Be careful,” Laura said, so quietly that the words seemed to vibrate in the air. “Be very careful, Lorraine. I know you have no concern for Michael as a person.”
Fighting for control she so rarely lost, Lorraine settled again. “I have nothing but the gravest concern for Tony’s son.”
“You’ve never asked about him, what he looks like, if he’s well. You’ve never demanded to see him, even a picture or a doctor’s report. You’ve never once called him by name. If you had, if I’d seen in you one ounce of love or affection for the baby, I’d feel differently about what I’m about to say.” The courage came without the need to muster it. “You’re free to draw up the papers and initiate a custody suit. Gabe and I have already notified our attorney. We’ll fight you, and we’ll win. And in the meantime, I’ll go to the press with the story of what my life was like with the Eagletons of Boston.”
Lorraine’s nails dug into the material on the arm of the chair. “You wouldn’t have the nerve.”
“I have that and more when it comes to protecting my son.”
She could see it, the calm, unshakable determination in Laura’s eyes. “Even if you did, no one would believe you.”
“But they would,” Laura told her. “People have a way of recognizing the truth.”
Lorraine’s face was set when she turned to Gabe. “Do you have any conception of what this kind of gossip could do to your family name? Do you want to risk your reputation, your parents’ reputation, over this woman and a child who isn’t even of your blood?”
“My reputation can handle it, and, to be frank, my parents are looking forward to a fight.” There was a challenge in his voice now that didn’t have to be feigned. “Michael may not be of my blood, but he’s mine.”
“Lorraine.” Laura waited until they were face-to-face again. “You lost your son, and I’m sorry for you, but you won’t replace him with mine. Whatever the cost to protect Michael’s welfare, I’ll pay. And so will you.”
Putting a hand under her arm, Gabe rose, keeping Laura beside him. “Your attorney can contact us once you’ve made your decision. Remember, Mrs. Eagleton, you’re not pitting yourself against a lone pregnant woman. You’re up against the Bradleys now.”
The moment they were in the hall, Gabe pulled Laura against him. He could feel the tremors coursing through her, so he held her a moment longer. “You were wonderful.” He kissed her hair before he drew her away from him. “In fact, angel, you were amazing. Lorraine still doesn’t know what hit her.”
The flush of pride was as warm and satisfying as anything she’d ever felt. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought,” she said with a sigh, but she kept her hand in his as they walked to the elevator. “I used to be so terrified of her, afraid to speak two words. Now I can see her for what she really is, a lonely woman trapped by her own strict sense of family honor.”
Gabe gave a quick, humorless laugh as the elevators doors opened. “Honor has nothing to do with it.”
“No, but that’s how she sees it.”
“Tell you what.” He pressed the button for the lobby. “We’re going to forget about Lorraine Eagleton for the rest of the day. In fact, we’re going to forget about her completely before long, but for now there’s a little restaurant a few blocks away. Not too quiet, and very expensive.”
“It’s too early for dinner.”
“Who said anything about dinner?” He slipped an arm around her waist as they walked out into the lobby. “We’re going to sit at a table over the water, and I’m going to watch everyone stare at my gorgeous wife while we drink a bottle of champagne.”
She loved him for that. Then her heart skipped a beat when he brought her fingers to his lips. “Don’t you think we should wait to celebrate until Lorraine gives us her decision?”
“We’ll celebrate then, too. Right now I want to celebrate being witness to an angel breathing fire.”
She laughed and walked outside with him. “I could do it again. In fact …”
“What?”
She swept her gaze up to his. “I’d like to.”
“Sounds as though I’m going to have to watch my step.”
“Probably.” She was giddy with success, but she was still practical. “I really shouldn’t have champagne. Michael—”
Gabe kissed her, and signaled for his car.
Chapter Twelve
“You look exhausted.” Amanda gave a quick shake of her head as she stepped into the house.
“Michael’s teething.” The excuse was valid enough, but
more than a fretful baby was keeping Laura from sleeping at night. “He’s been down all of ten minutes. With luck, he might make an entire hour straight.”
“Then why aren’t you napping?”
Since Amanda was already stepping into the parlor, Laura followed her in. “Because you called and said you were coming over.”
“Oh.” With a faint smile, Amanda took a seat, then tossed her purse on the table. “So I did. Well, I won’t keep you long. Gabe’s not home?”
“No. He said he had something to see to.” Laura sat in the chair facing her and let her head fall back. Sometimes small luxuries felt like heaven. “Can I get you some coffee, or something cold?”
“You don’t look as though you can get yourself out of that chair. And, no, I don’t need a thing. How is Gabe?”
“He hasn’t been getting a great deal of rest, either.”
“I’m not surprised. No word from Lorraine Eagleton or her attorney?”
“Nothing.”
“I don’t suppose that you’re able to take the attitude that no news is good news?”
Laura managed a smile. “Afraid not. The longer this goes on, the easier it gets to imagine the worst.”
“And if she takes this to court?”
“Then we’ll fight.” Despite her fatigue, her newly discovered power came through. “I meant everything I said to her.”
“That’s really all I wanted to hear.” Sitting back, Amanda adjusted the pin on her lapel. A little too thin, a little too pale, she thought as she studied Laura. But, all in all, she thought her daughter-in-law was holding up well. “When this is over, you and Gabe should be able to tie up a few loose ends.”
Laura caught herself before she dozed off. “Loose ends?”
“Yes, little things. Such as what you intend to do with the rest of your lives.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Gabe has his art, and you both have Michael, and however many other children you choose to bring into the world.”
That was something that made Laura sit up straighter. More children. They’d never discussed the possibility of more. As she began to, she wondered if Gabe even wanted any. Did she? She passed a hand over her now flat stomach and imagined it filled with another child—Gabe’s child this time, from the very first moment. Yes, she wanted that. Glancing over, she saw Amanda studying her quietly and with complete understanding.
“It’s difficult to make decisions with so much hanging over us.”
“Exactly. But it will pass. When it does, what are you going to look for? Since I spent more than two decades under the same roof as Gabe, I know that he can, when the muse in on him, lock himself in his studio for hours and days on end.”
“I don’t mind. How could I, when I see what he can accomplish?”
“A woman needs a solid sense of accomplishment, as well. Children can be the best of that, but …” She reached for her purse, opened it and took out a business card. “There’s an abuse clinic downtown. It’s rather small, and unfortunately not well funded. Yet.” She intended to correct that. “They need volunteers, women who understand, who know there can be normal life after hell.”
“I’m not a therapist.”
“You don’t need a degree to give support.”
“No.” She looked at the card on the table as the idea took root. “I don’t know. I …”
“Just think about it.”
“Amanda, did you go to the clinic?”
“Yes, Cliff and I went there yesterday. We were very impressed.”
“Why did you go?”
Amanda lifted a brow in a gesture Laura knew Gabe had inherited. “Because there’s someone we both care about who we wanted to understand better. Don’t get up,” she said as she rose. “I’ll let myself out. Give Gabe my love and tell him his father wants to know if they’re ever going to play poker again. The man thrives on losing money.”
“Amanda.” Laura pushed off her shoes before she curled her legs up in the chair. “I never had a mother, and the one I always imagined for myself was nothing like you.” She smiled as her eyes began to close. “I’m not at all disappointed.”
“You’re coming along,” Amanda said, and left Laura sleeping in the chair.
She was still there when Gabe came in. He tilted the bulky package against the wall. When she didn’t stir at the rattle of the paper, he walked over to the couch. He didn’t even have the energy to wish for his sketchpad as he stretched out his legs and almost instantly fell asleep.
The baby woke both of them. Gabe merely groaned and pulled a throw pillow over his face. Disoriented, Laura pulled herself up, blinked groggily at Gabe, then put one foot in front of the other to get upstairs.
A short time later, he went up after her.
“My timing’s good,” he decided when he saw that Laura was fastening a fresh diaper.
“I’m beginning to wonder about your timing.” But she was smiling as she lifted Michael over her head to make him laugh. “How long have you been home?”
“Long enough to see that my wife has nothing better to do than lounge around all day.” He plucked Michael from her while she pretended to glare at him. “Do you think if we kept him awake and exhausted him with attention he’d sleep tonight?”
“I’m willing to try anything.”
At that, Gabe sat on the floor and began to play nonsense games. Bouncing the Baby, Flying the Baby, Tickling the Baby.
“You’re so good with him.” Finding her second wind, Laura sat on the floor with them. “It’s hard to believe you’re new at this.”
“I never thought about parenthood. It certainly has its compensations.” He set Michael on his knee and jiggled him.
“Like walking the ten-minute mile at 2:00 a.m.”
“That, too.”
“Gabe, your mother came by.”
“Should I be surprised?”
She smiled a little as she leaned over to let Michael tug at her hair. “She left a card—from an abuse clinic.”
“I see.” He reached over himself to untangle her hair from Michael’s grip. “Do you want to go back into therapy?”
“No … at least I don’t think so.” She looked over at him. Michael was chewing madly at his chin. All the therapy she needed was sitting across from her. “She suggested I might like to volunteer there.”
He frowned as he let Michael gnaw on his knuckle. “And be reminded day after day?”
“Yes—of what I was able to change.”
“I thought you’d want to go back to modeling eventually.”
“No, I haven’t any desire to go back to modeling. I think I could do this, and I know I’d like to try.”
“If you’re asking for my approval, you don’t need to.”
“I’d still like to have it.”
“Then you do, unless I see this wearing you down.”
She had to smile. He still saw her as more fragile than she was or could ever have afforded to be. “You know, I’ve been thinking … with everything that’s happened, and everything we’ve had to think and worry about, we haven’t had much time to really get to know a lot about each other.”
“I know you take entirely too long in the bathtub and like to sleep with the window open.”
She took the stuffed rabbit Michael liked to chew on and passed it from hand to hand. “There are other things.”
“Such as?”
“The other night, I said that you could ask me anything and I’d tell you the truth, and then I’d ask you something. Do you remember?”
“I remember.”
“I never had my turn.”
He shifted so that he could rest his back against the daybed. They were avoiding speaking of the phone call they were both waiting for. And they both knew it. Perhaps that was best, Gabe mused as the baby continued to rub his sore gums against his knuckles.
“Do you want to hear about my misspent youth?”
Though she was plucking nervously at the rabbit�
�s ears, she smiled. “Is there time?”
“You flatter me.”
“Actually, I’d like to ask you about something else. A few days ago, when it rained, I went into your studio to close the windows. I looked through some of your paintings. Perhaps I shouldn’t have.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
