He was both awed and alarmed by her fierceness, equally admiring of and angered by her declaration. “I never meant to hurt you, Thea, and I certainly never considered you an experiment.”
“Didn’t you, Peter? Didn’t you marry me to prove to yourself you could be a hero? A champion of misfits?” She ran out of steam then, and the tears threatened to spill, but with more poise than he’d ever imagined she would have, she blinked them back. “Look, I don’t want to talk about this. I appreciate what you did for me, Peter. I do. But I don’t want you to feel you’re responsible for me, so I called Chip yesterday and told him to file the annulment papers as soon as possible. You’ll need to sign them, but that’s mostly a formality. It should be done in a few days.”
“Thea,” he said, feeling suddenly desperate. “I don’t want an annulment.”
Her sigh was deep and resolute. “It’s better this way, Peter. I’ll deal with Grandmother and the trust. You have given me the confidence I needed to make my own decisions. I can never repay you for that but, for what it’s worth, thank you.”
She stepped around him, moving in a warning rustle of silk, leaving him angry and bewildered and frustrated. He should stop her, but he’d already said he loved her and for the life of him, he couldn’t think of another thing to say.
“Oh, and Peter?” He heard her stop and waited, hoping she had changed her mind, hoping she felt his heart reaching out to her, hoping so hard it was a physical pain. “Congratulations on winning the Pierce Award. You deserve the best.”
Then she was gone, disappearing into the lights and the noise of the party within, leaving him outside alone in the cold, sea-scented wind.
It didn’t take five minutes before he went after her.
“THEA?” Davinia’s voice caught her before she could make it into the lady’s room and privacy. “I will have a word with you now, Thea.”
Thea dropped her hand from the doorknob, and told herself this was a public place with people all around. Her grandmother wouldn’t make a scene. Not here. Gathering her courage all over again, she turned and came face to face with her grandmother and all the things, both bad and good, that had made up her life before Peter came to her rescue. “Hello, Grandmother,” she said. “You look very nice.”
Coolly critical, Davinia’s eyes raked her from head to foot. “You look like…Elizabeth.”
It didn’t sound like a compliment, but Thea chose to consider it one. “Thank you,” she said.
“That was not a compliment.”
Davinia’s frown had always struck Thea with acute agony, but amazingly, she discovered that when met with a lift of her own newly stubborn chin, her grandmother’s disapproval lost some of its edge. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Grandmother, because I like the way I look. And I have no intention of going back to the way I was before.”
Davinia sniffed. “I wish for you to return home, Theadosia.”
That sounded like a command, but Thea chose to believe it wasn’t. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can do that.”
“You can and you will, because Grace Place is your home.”
She didn’t have a home. She didn’t belong at Grace Place anymore and she’d never belonged at Braddock Hall. But someday soon she’d have a place of her own. A home with flowering shrubs and bright paint and a welcome mat. A home where she and her cats could be happy. “I will come and visit you, Grandmother,” she said. “We need to discuss a great many things.”
“I suppose you want money. That’s all Elizabeth wanted from me, too. But I won’t bend on this, Thea.”
The very fact that Davinia Grace Carey would mention money in a public setting was proof she was very upset. Thea felt sorry for her, but she knew she had to stand strong now or forever let her grandmother browbeat her into silence. She clenched her hands to keep them from shaking. Be brave, she told herself. Be brave. “I want what is rightfully mine,” she said. “I also want to have a relationship with you. I don’t believe I should have to give up one for the other.”
“You have obviously made that choice already.”
“No, but I will if you force me. Don’t do that, Grandmother. Please, don’t do that.”
“I imagine it’s that Braddock boy who has put you up to this. I did warn you he couldn’t make you happy, Thea. He married you to get you away from me and to lay some legitimate claim to the blue blood of the upper classes. You can’t believe it was a love match. Or ever could be.”
“You’re wrong about that, Mrs. Carey.” Peter spoke from behind Davinia and Thea’s heart skipped a beat and then another. Her mouth went dry and she reached behind her for the doorknob because she needed to hold on to something as her grandmother flushed with anger and Peter’s eyes sought Thea’s with a look so tender, so honest, she thought it must be the truth. “Thea and I are a love match. And it has nothing to do with who our mothers were, or who anyone else thinks we are, or taking her away from you, or how she looks tonight, or any other reason except that I love your granddaughter with every breath I take. I love the way she smiles first thing in the morning and I love the way she drinks her orange juice. I love the way she pours her heart into her sketches and I love the way she loves her cats. I love that she dances when she’s happy and I love it when she wears my shirts. I am proud of the man I am when I am with her and I am proud of the woman she is becoming. I will love her to the day I die and, if she can love me at all, I swear I will spend the rest of my life making her happy.”
Thea was afraid the rest of her life might not last very long because she couldn’t breathe at all and her heart was racing and her palms were sweaty. But from somewhere in the depths of her newfound confidence, she managed a soft, wondrous whisper. “I love you, Peter. I do love you.”
“I’m glad,” he said. “Because I love you so much it hurts.”
It was the last thing she heard before she fainted.
Epilogue
Archer looked around the dining table, past the Thanksgiving Day cornucopia, the turkey and the trimmings, to the family gathered on this holiday at Braddock Hall. Katie and Adam to his right, Ilsa and James next, then across from them at the table were Bryce and Lara, then Peter and Thea to Archer’s left. At the opposite end, on a pillow to give him height in the chair, sat Calvin, all gap-toothed smile at being invited to sit with the grown-ups.
The conversation was a mix of plans: Adam and Katie’s plans to move back to the Hall before Christmas and begin setting up their nursery; Bryce and Lara’s—and Cal’s—plans to sail to Florida and visit Disney World; Peter and Thea’s plans to build a house near Boston with lots of windows, a colorful array of shrubs and a room especially for the cats; Adam’s plans to rejoin Braddock Industries as CEO after the first of the year; Katie’s plans to renovate an old building in Sea Change and open a tea room, along with taking a seat on the town council; Bryce’s plans to head up the new Braddock Family Foundation; Lara’s plans to help her sisters complete their educations; Peter’s plans for the design of the new house; Thea’s plans to open an art school for underprivileged children; Calvin’s plans to meet Mickey Mouse; James and Ilsa’s as yet unofficial plans for a wedding.
Another wedding.
Archer was hoping they’d marry at Christmas and give the family four weddings in less than twelve months, which would be a fitting end to a quite extraordinary year for the Braddock family. It was also quite fitting, Archer thought, that the extraordinary matchmaker of IF Enterprises had met her match in a Braddock man. And James, at last, had found in Ilsa the love he had sought for so long.
It was a good day to be thankful.
“A toast.” James rose, as did each one of his sons, raising their glasses. “To the ladies of Braddock Hall. Katie, Lara, Thea and Ilsa. What took you so long?”
Everyone laughed and then Katie lifted her glass of grape juice with a teasing smile. “We couldn’t get you Braddock men to listen!”
“Or be serious!” Lara joined in.
“Or realiz
e what you’d found,” Thea said, blushing with the newness of being loved.
“Or maybe,” Ilsa said with a small, secret smile, “we just wanted you to see the possibilities for yourselves.”
Calvin, not wanting to be left out, grabbed his Donald Duck cup and stood up on the pillow. “Rub-a-dubdub. Thanks for the grub. Yea, God. Let’s eat!”
The laughter went around the table again, comforting Archer with its warmth and ready affection. One for all. All for one. He couldn’t have been more proud of the family he and Jane had made…with just a little help from Ilsa.
As Calvin’s parents got him settled back in his seat, cautioning him gently about remembering his manners, Adam leaned over to whisper in Katie’s ear, James made a private toast with Ilsa and Peter kissed Thea, his bride.
Archer smiled and got a bit misty-eyed with gratitude. Ah, Janey. Look what our love has created, look at the legacy we’re leaving behind.
And even before the Thanksgiving prayer was begun, he was certain he felt the brush of her angel kiss on his cheek.
It was, indeed, a good day for thanksgiving.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-6829-9
THE BLACKSHEEP’S ARRANGED MARRIAGE
Copyright © 2002 by Karen Toller Crane.
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*The Magic Wedding Dress
†Billion-Dollar Braddocks
The Blacksheep's Arranged Marriage Page 19
