The Heiress

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Grace leaned toward Tom confidentially. “You don’t think she’s pregnant, do you?”

  Daisy and Jack’s actions would make sense if Daisy was carrying Jack’s baby. But Jack hadn’t said so and Tom would have expected Jack to have come right out and done that if that was indeed the case. Tom shrugged in open frustration. “If she is, they’re keeping mum. Although, I wouldn’t put it past Daisy to have forced or talked Jack into this marriage simply to get under the Templeton family’s skin. Jack Granger is an excellent attorney, and aside from this mess-up, a fine man.” One Tom respected. “But Jack Granger isn’t what Charlotte and Richard would have wanted for Daisy, that’s for certain.”

  “LOOKS LIKE WE’VE GOT company,” Jack said as he and Daisy drank coffee together the next morning. Her whole body still tingling and alive from the night of nonstop lovemaking, Daisy glanced out the living-room window and swore like a longshoreman. Oh, no, she thought, vaulting up off the sectional sofa. No…

  Jack, who was just about ready to leave for work, anyway, arched a teasing eyebrow her way. “Not very ladylike, Daze.”

  Daisy smiled at the endearment he’d adopted for her, even as she sighed in unmitigated dread. “You want ladylike, you’ve got the right person coming up the front walk.” Ducking beneath the view of the picture window, she grabbed Jack and pushed him toward the visual cover of the foyer. “Let’s just pretend we’re not here,” she hissed, even as the doorbell rang. “Or we’re still in bed or something.”

  Already tying the tie he had carelessly looped around his neck, Jack headed for the door. “No sense putting off for tomorrow what can be done today.”

  Jack opened the door, and Daisy looked at the woman she had called “Mother” for as long as she could remember. Only, Charlotte Templeton wasn’t just her adoptive mother, Daisy reminded herself firmly. The silver-haired, beautifully put-together Charlotte was also her biological grandmother.

  Daisy could tell by the way she was dressed, in a lovely lavender suit and matching low-heeled shoes, that Charlotte was on her way to a steering committee breakfast meeting or one of the many charities she supported. No one worked harder to raise funds for the less fortunate, and Daisy couldn’t help but respect Charlotte immensely for that, even as she braced herself for the inevitable confrontation that always came when Daisy did something Charlotte and Richard had not preapproved.

  Deciding it was better to be the aggressor than the victim, Daisy demanded brusquely as Jack ushered her mother inside, “What are you doing here?” Daisy knew she had every right to refuse to see Charlotte at all. After all, Charlotte and Richard had not only lied to Daisy for years about her parentage, they had disinherited her to try and manipulate her behavior. So Daisy knew she didn’t owe them anything. But the need to be unconditionally loved and accepted by the family who had reared her, made her want to at least listen to what Charlotte had to say, in the vain hope that something—anything—would have changed for the better, in light of her discovery. Because she didn’t enjoy fighting with her family or feeling so chronically misunderstood.

  Charlotte stepped over the portal and took a brief unhappy glance around before returning her attention to Daisy. “Connor came over to see us last evening and told your father and I about your elopement.” The gently disapproving look Daisy knew so well was back in Charlotte’s pewter-gray eyes. “Your father asked me to come and talk to you this morning about your actions.”

  Which meant, Daisy thought, she was about to get blasted with Richard’s words coming out of Charlotte’s mouth. “Don’t you mean grandfather?” Daisy asked sweetly. “Grandmother?”

  Charlotte didn’t blanch at her rudeness, merely said in the same cordial tone, “Darling, don’t be difficult. It isn’t becoming.”

  “Would you like to come in and have a cup of coffee with us, Mrs. Templeton?” Jack asked.

  “Yes, I would. Very much.” Charlotte smiled at Jack in the way people smiled at each other as they moved down a receiving line of relative strangers. Daisy reluctantly introduced the two. Then, while her limousine and her driver, Nigel, sat at the curb, Charlotte followed Jack down the hall to the breakfast nook. Jack helped Charlotte with her chair while Daisy dutifully found a mug, paper napkin and spoon, and put them in front of her. Sitting ramrod straight in the sling-back chair, Charlotte continued in a pleasant but serious tone. “Daisy, your father wants you to annul this marriage.”

  No surprise there, Daisy thought, although she was willing to bet those were not the words Richard Templeton had used. “And what about you?” Daisy asked casually as she poured and Jack brought out the sugar and cream. “Are you in agreement with Richard on this?”

  Charlotte sighed audibly as she stirred in a tiny amount of cream and set her spoon on the paper napkin beside her plate. “If you want an annulment, if you’ve made a mistake, we can make this all go away. But you need to understand, Daisy darling, that if you decide to stay married to Jack, you will be married to him for life.” Charlotte paused to look solemnly at them both. “There are no divorces in this family.”

  “I don’t want a divorce,” Jack said as he refreshed his own coffee then pulled out a chair for Daisy and autocratically motioned her into it.

  Jack sounded so sure, Daisy thought, sliding reluctantly into the seat next to her mother. Too sure for Daisy’s comfort, when her feelings were so confused. Yes, she wanted their baby to be born legitimate and have both a father and a mother in his or her life. But did she really want a husband? Or just a lover and a friend?

  “What about you?” Charlotte asked Daisy steadily. “Are you ready and willing to let Jack be the head of your household? Are you willing to gear your life to what he wants and says?”

  Daisy would have laughed out loud at the outrageousness of the idea had her mother not been so serious. “Marriage doesn’t have to be a dictatorship,” Daisy countered stubbornly. In fact, that was one of her major frustrations, that Charlotte always deferred to Richard’s wishes, even when Daisy could see Charlotte not only disagreed but was in the right.

  Charlotte took a delicate sip from the faded Vanderbilt Law School mug. “Your father and I expect you and Jack to either come to your senses immediately and annul this quickly and quietly—”

  “Or what?” Daisy asked, knowing full well there was more. Lots more to the ultimatum being delivered to her.

  Charlotte set her mug back on the table and regarded Daisy evenly. “Or act like rational adults and show the world this is indeed the real deal.”

  Daisy didn’t even have to ask what Richard and Charlotte wanted. Her “father” wanted her to wed only on his timetable, to whatever moneybags he personally selected for her, and the disappointed look in Charlotte’s eyes gave her mother’s feelings away. “You want me to end it, too, don’t you?” Daisy guessed quietly.

  Charlotte hesitated and glanced at Jack as if not wanting to offend him, when he at least had been so cordial to her. Turning back to Daisy, Charlotte said gently but bluntly, “Honey, a life without the kind of money you are used to is no life at all.”

  Meaning, Daisy thought, as long as she was married to Jack, her parents would not reinstate her trust fund, or give her access to her multimillion dollar inheritance. She’d have to live off what she and Jack earned, and while that was certainly more than adequate, it wasn’t the same as being an heiress.

  Daisy glanced heavenward, almost too exasperated to speak. “And what would you know about that, Mother?” Daisy baited emotionally, annoyed to find herself having to defend her actions to her exceedingly uptight adoptive parents yet again. “You and Father were both born with silver spoons in your mouths. You both come from very old money.”

  “Well, I suppose technically that’s so, but—”

  “But what?” Daisy asked when her mother stopped in midsentence.

  Charlotte glanced at Jack cautiously.

  “You can trust him, Mother,” Daisy said impatiently. “He’s not just my husband, and as such the newe
st member of the Templeton family, he’s a company counsel for the Deveraux-Heyward Shipping Company. He knows how to keep a secret.”

  Jack nodded, letting Charlotte Templeton know this was so. “Nothing said here today will leave this room.”

  Charlotte took a deep breath and pushed on reluctantly, wringing her hands all the while. “I’ve never told you this, Daisy. I’ve never told anyone, but our life was not always luxurious.”

  “Meaning what exactly?” Daisy said in mounting frustration.

  “Meaning,” Charlotte continued in a strangled voice, “unbeknownst to Richard and I, both your father’s family and mine were slowly going broke when they arranged for us to marry. Our mutual near poverty was a cruel irony we discovered only after we had married, in one of the biggest and most lavish weddings Charleston had ever seen.”

  Daisy recalled seeing the photos. Both Charlotte and Richard had looked ecstatic at the time, so different than they looked today.

  Appearing determined to bring Daisy around to her way of thinking, Charlotte continued her recitation sadly, “For years we struggled, amassing more and more debt as we tried to keep up appearances and hold on to both Rosewood, your father’s family estate, and our home in the city, which was my family’s residence. It was such a relief when we finally got things turned around.” Charlotte paused, biting her lip emotionally. “I never wanted you to have to suffer that way, darling.”

  Daisy could tell by the look on Charlotte’s face that it had indeed been difficult for a woman accustomed to having only the very best, but that didn’t mean that Daisy agreed with Charlotte. In fact, Daisy thought her mother was dead wrong. “We’ll be fine,” Daisy returned.

  Again, Charlotte shook her head. She looked even more distressed. “Daisy, you’re used to fine things, designer clothes. The money to travel and do whatever you like. Whether you realize it or not right now, those things are the key to your happiness.”

  Wrong, Daisy thought. She would have traded it all when she was growing up—the money, the social position, the entrée to all the best schools and parties—to live in a house filled with love and laughter with parents who were warm and loving and understanding. Where what mattered was sticking up for each other through thick and thin instead of worrying about what the others in blue-blooded Charleston society would think. Without trying to have the most luxuriously decorated houses, the most exclusive parties, the best lifestyle, the most lavish vacations. But that would never be the case in Charlotte and Richard’s home, where separate bedrooms for the mistress and master of the house were the norm, and Charlotte filled her emotional needs by doing good deeds for others.

  Charlotte leaned forward earnestly and caught Daisy’s hand. “It’s still not too late, Daisy. Your father and I can make a good match for you, just like we made a good match for your sister, Iris.”

  Daisy just bet they could. She wasn’t, however, about to let them. She pulled her hand away from her mother’s and bolted from her chair. “Randolph Hayes IV was an old goat,” she declared flatly.

  Charlotte looked as horrified as always by Daisy’s outspokenness. “Daisy, I won’t have you talking that way about such a fine man.”

  Daisy made a face as she continued to pace the breakfast room. “That man was thirty years older than Iris, Mother! He spent the last fifteen years of their life together in a wheelchair, surrounded by a bevy of male nurses.” What kind of marriage was that for someone as young and vital as Iris? Daisy wondered, upset. Especially when there was no love, no companionship or true friendship whatsoever involved, at least not that she could see.

  Charlotte glared at Daisy. “Randolph was also very very good to Iris financially. And unlike many lusty young husbands, he didn’t run around on her.”

  With good reason, Daisy thought. There was no way Randolph Hayes had been capable of the sex act in his frail condition. Absolutely no friggin’ way. Not that sex seemed to matter at all to Iris after what Daisy now knew was Iris’s failed love affair with Tom. No, Iris had seemed content to live the life of a dedicated career woman, albeit a very rich and privately lonely one. Just as Daisy probably would have done if she hadn’t met Jack and learned just how great lovemaking with a handsome, virile, kind man could be.

  Not that she should let herself get used to such incredible pleasure, in any case, Daisy reminded herself wearily. Not when she and Jack were together because of a night of reckless passion, and the baby who’d resulted, and that was all. Not when—like everything else important or valuable in her life—it could all be taken away from her at any moment. Leaving her bereft and alone.

  “What are you thinking, dear?” Charlotte asked while Jack looked at Daisy as if wondering the very same thing.

  That I could tell you about the pregnancy, and the cries for an immediate end to my marriage to Jack would probably stop. But Daisy didn’t want to make things even worse than what they were, because contrary to popular opinion, she did not enjoy fighting with Richard and Charlotte, or bringing their considerable disapproval down on her shoulders. Not at all.

  Aware Charlotte and Jack were both still waiting for her answer, Daisy drew a deep, bolstering breath and looked her mother straight in the eye. “I’m not going to get an annulment, Mother. I made the decision to marry Jack and I’m sticking to it.”

  Charlotte took a moment to absorb that. She handled the news with amazing tranquillity. “Well, then—” Charlotte gave them both a bracing smile “—I guess we move forward with the official announcement of your marriage.”

  Daisy held up a hand, stop-sign fashion. “There’s no need for that, Mother. Word will get around.”

  As always when she disagreed, Charlotte simply ignored Daisy’s protests and charged on. “Your father and I were already planning a soiree tonight with one hundred of our dearest friends. We will simply use that party to honor you and your new husband,” Charlotte said calmly. Charlotte looked at Jack. “The dress is formal. I assume you have a tuxedo?”

  Jack nodded, suddenly looking, Daisy thought, every bit as tense and wary as she felt.

  “Please be sure you wear it, then.” Charlotte smiled at Jack, then turned to Daisy as she rose with quiet dignity and prepared to take her leave. “Cocktails will be served at eight. We would like you both there then.”

  “THAT WAS IT?” Jack said moments later, as soon as Charlotte had left. “Your parents are going to accept our marriage just like that?” He seemed stunned by Charlotte’s about-face.

  Well used to her parents’ defensive actions by now, Daisy shrugged and leaned back against the kitchen counter. She folded her arms in front of her. “They don’t want a scandal. They’ll do anything they can to avoid that, even if it means sweeping their true feelings about what we’ve gone and done under the rug. They are both ever so efficient at that.”

  Jack studied her with a half smile. Finally, he shrugged. “Do you want to even go to the party then, knowing they aren’t sincere?”

  As if it were that simple, Daisy thought with no small trace of irony. Doing her best to keep the bitterness out of her voice, she said, “I have to.”

  “Why?” Jack cupped gentle hands around her shoulders. “If it’s going to stress you out and make you unhappy?”

  Oh, she liked how this man thought, how he constantly wanted to protect her, even if his approach was wrong, wrong, wrong. Aware he was waiting for an answer, as well as an explanation, Daisy released a beleaguered sigh and let him take her all the way into his arms. “Because they won’t give up on the idea until they do publicly honor us in some way. They have their reputations to maintain, you see, and if we don’t show up, it will only make gossip worse. Which in turn will cause Charlotte to hound me, and sic both Connor and Iris on me, as well. And, as if all that were not enough, I would then be called in to receive some stern lecture from my adoptive fath—from Richard.” Daisy let her head fall forward to rest on the solidness of Jack’s chest. “It’s easier to just go tonight and get it over with, and be don
e with it.”

  “Is that the only reason?” Jack asked, rubbing his hands soothingly up and down her back.

  Daisy cuddled closer to Jack’s warmth. “It’s not like they could disinherit me,” she murmured against his chest. “They’ve already done that. They cut off my access to my trust fund months ago when I refused to call off my search for my birth parents.”

  Jack tucked a hand beneath her chin and tilted her head up to his. “You know what I mean,” he said softly.

  When they were close like this, Daisy found it hard not to smile. “Actually, I’m not sure I do.”

  Jack inclined his head slightly to the side. “Maybe now that you do know the truth about yourself, and why they did what they did, even if it was misguided,” he suggested softly and compassionately, “you’d secretly like to make up with them. Let bygones be bygones. They are your family, after all.”

  How had he known? Daisy wondered. And why did it bother her so much that he did see that vulnerability in her, the need to be liked and loved and accepted by Richard and Charlotte, the way she had always longed to be, and had never been in the past. Even when she was seven and too young and too sweet and too innocent to cause much trouble at all. Even then, her family had—with the exception of her decade-older brother Connor—looked at her as if there was something wrong with her that only they could see, something not quite acceptable. And Daisy had felt their mute disaffection to her bones.