Julianna clung to the woman, face buried in her neck. Words muffled and tear soaked, she choked out, “I can’t believe what you did tonight. The risk you took . . .”
Cassie only patted Julianna’s back.
Julianna lifted her head and cupped her hands on either side of Cassie’s face. “What you did made all the difference,” she said firmly. “If you hadn’t stopped us at the door, things would not have come together the way they did. The timing of things was perfect.” She looked up and scanned the sky with its endless parade of stars. Reverently, she continued, “Actually, the timing was miraculous, Cassie. Divinely orchestrated.”
Cassie smiled and followed Julianna’s heavenward gaze. “He moves in mysterious ways.” She gently touched the gash on her head. “Very mysterious.”
Julianna flinched. “Oh, your head.”
“Not to worry. The poor curio took it worse than I did.” She cuddled Julianna in another embrace. “I’m just so thankful you’re here for me to hug on.”
“Your bravery inspired me,” Julianna told her. “It gave me the courage to run when I had the chance. If you hadn’t stopped us at the door, though, nothing would have turned out. The policeman out back wouldn’t have had time to get around front, Jace and Sheriff Moll would have walked up just after Leyton and I left . . .” Realizing what a difference a few minutes had made, Julianna shuddered in fear and amazement.
Cassie nodded toward Jace. “Is that . . .”
“Yes.”
Cassie released Julianna and gave a firm, all-business nod as she took Audrey by the arm. To Julianna, she said, “I’ll take her inside and explain everything.”
“Did Julianna just call him Jace?” her mother asked, sounding perplexed. “There’s only one Jace that I know of.”
“Yes’m, she did, and it’s a little complicated, Miss Audrey,” Cassie said. Julianna watched as she steered Mother toward the porch, but veered to the farthest edge of the walk when they neared Leyton’s body.
“Ick,” Julianna heard her mother say, sounding as though she was fighting the urge to gag. “Death certainly doesn’t flatter him.”
Julianna laughed lightly at the remark, an attempt at comic relief amid a very tense night. She recoiled when she actually looked at Leyton, though, this former source of so much misery. Even lifeless, his eyes seemed to want to torment her when she glanced at them. They stared from their empty shell, haunting in their stone coldness.
Jace shrugged out of his jacket and draped it around her shoulders, then turned her away from Leyton. She rested her head against his chest, listening to police and ambulance sirens wail in the distance. She knew they were headed this way, and that Leyton’s body would soon be lifted onto a stretcher, his face covered, and taken from their sight. Would she ever be able to look at the walkway again? A ghostly memory would always mark the spot where Leyton made his last stand.
Julianna had longed for Leyton’s reign to end but had never imagined death. And while she cried no tears for Leyton and was glad his power had ceased, his death didn’t make her want to sing from the mountaintops. He had made himself into the man he was, conducted his life as he chose, and died a miserable death brought on by his own vile actions. When Julianna put it all together, there was only one word to sum up Leyton, a man who could have been so much better than he was if only he had made the choice.
Tragic. Leyton Drakeworth was a tragic man.
Jace led Julianna around the hedges and behind a towering evergreen that blocked their view of the walkway. He cupped her face and admired her beauty beneath the silvery moonlight. His dark eyes touched her soul with even more intensity than before, reflective of what time—less than two years—had witnessed and brought forth. And that included Mari. Julianna had seen him in their daughter’s eyes, but now she saw their daughter in his, a connection that helped draw her from the dreamlike fog of this night and unite her with the reality of him standing before her.
“There’s so much I need to say to you.”
“Shhh.” She put a finger to his lips. “We have all the time in the world.” She only wanted to look at him, to marvel that he was solid and real. She slipped his hands from her face and clasped them tightly in her own then stepped back just enough to take him in, the way one absorbs the whole of a sculpture. He was still like a work of art to her, tall and well built as she remembered, with every feature and angle of his face seemingly chiseled to masculine perfection. She moved in closer to him, released his hands, and pressed her fingertips gently against the chest she had rested her head on so many times. Next, they traveled to his shoulders, broad and strong, and finally played gently in the dark hair that matched the eyes. “No, you’re not a ghost,” she said.
“Just one thing you have to know now—I only found out tonight that you thought I was dead.”
Sensing an apology, she shook her head. “Tucker explained why you never got in touch.” She took his hands again. “I understand, Jace. I would have felt the same way.”
“When I saw Leyton chasing you . . .” His voice trailed and Julianna saw a quick bolt of anger flash across his eyes, knowing that he was remembering the day Leyton had pursued her on the beach. “Anyway, I began to question my silence, to wonder if I had done the wrong thing for the right reasons.” He managed to grin. “I have a history of that, you know.”
She thought of Jace the bank robber and how that seemed like a lifetime ago. “All I know, Jace, is that everything before today is water long gone. And so are those who sabotaged us.”
He pulled her to him, arms wrapped tightly about her waist and his chin resting atop her head, just as he had done beneath the star-filled sky on the first night they met. “I’m proud of you, Julianna,” he said. “Life has thrown some things at you. Things that could have poisoned you and given you every reason to be angry or afraid. But you just want to look ahead, which shows me your spirit has won.” Now he leaned down and pressed his forehead against hers, their lips almost touching. “With God as my witness,” he vowed, “I’ll spend the rest of my days making up for lost time.”
She wanted him to kiss her, to gather her in his arms, wrapping her in their strength as he put his lips to hers. She wanted him to leave her stunned and breathless, feeling as alive as she had the first night they ever kissed.
She could see from his eyes that he was thinking the same. In the next moment, he tilted her chin toward him and brushed his lips across hers, feather-soft.
As if in agreement, they both pulled away. They read each other’s minds, they felt each other’s hearts, and knew a kiss of reunion was worthy of better surroundings. Never could the memory be marred by a backdrop of sirens, of a man who lay dead.
Their love was too alive.
She was the first to break the trance, “I have a lot to tell you, too,” she said with a smile. “I’ve heard you should save the best news for last, but this can’t wait.”
Curious, he followed her as she turned and walked back to the house. Before going inside, he hesitated, his hand resting on one of the white porch columns. “I stole from the man who owns this house,” he said, eyes taking in the porch and the elaborate stained-glass door. “Until I make retribution, I can’t feel at ease under his roof. And maybe not even then.”
“Please, Jace. You won’t be sorry you came inside.”
He shrugged and went in behind her, stepping into the foyer where her mother was getting ready to go upstairs. She appeared a little pale and tired, but other than that, she was holding up despite the chaotic night. Seeing Jace, her face conveyed many emotions, and she looked as though she wanted desperately to say something, though she wasn’t sure what.
He broke the silence. “I’m sorry we’re meeting under these circumstances, Mrs. Sheffield.” When she didn’t answer right away, he laughed uncomfortably, glanced at the floor, and then returned his eyes to her. “Maybe you’d be happier if we never met at all.”
“No, it isn’t that,” she said, timidly placing a hand o
n his arm. “You saved Julianna’s life tonight.” Her face puckered and her bottom lip trembled. She bit it to force back tears. When she spoke again, her voice was just above a whisper. “You tried to save her life once before, didn’t you?”
“It’s all in the past, ma’am.”
She sighed and turned to Julianna. “I know there is much to talk about, dear, but we’ll save it for later. Right now, go make your introductions.”
Julianna grabbed Jace’s hand and pulled him up the staircase then down the hall to the former guest room now converted into a nursery. It was warm and saffron, lit only by a small Tiffany lamp on a corner table.
Jace paused in the doorway. Julianna watched his look of surprise when he saw the room was a nursery. His eyes took in the stuffed animals and the stack of diapers on the dresser, then rested on the crib. Julianna led him forward.
“Whose baby?”
Julianna watched his face carefully as she answered. “Yours.”
His eyes sprang wide open and his head shot back like someone had delivered him an unexpected punch.
“Sheriff Moll didn’t tell you?”
“Not a word.” Jace sounded dazed.
“I guess he felt it was my place.” She bent over the crib and rolled Mari from her side to her back, allowing Jace to see the sleeping, angelic face. “This is Mari, our daughter.”
“I didn’t think we could—”
“We did anyway.”
He looked at the baby, his eyes suddenly damp.
“Can I hold her, Julianna?”
She gave him a teasing grin. “Have you ever held a baby?”
“No,” he admitted, “but I think I can figure it out.”
“Go sit in the rocker,” she suggested. “I’ll hand her to you.”
Jace sat down and watched Julianna lift Mari from the crib, carefully so as not to wake her from her dreams. He tried to grasp the fact that Julianna had become a mother, that she had carried his child, that she had given life to someone who was part of him. And then, he did what he thought was impossible.
He found that he loved her even more.
Mari stirred as Julianna handed her to Jace, sleepy eyes opening and looking into a face she had never seen. Strangely, or maybe not so strangely, she didn’t cry but simply drifted back to sleep, comfortable and secure as though sensing that she belonged in the arms that held her.
If only I’d known, Jace thought as he watched his daughter sleep. What, though? Would it have changed his decision to stay silent? Or would he have felt even more compelled to let his enemies believe him to be dead? He closed his eyes, refusing to search out the answer. It was over with now. From this night on, only tomorrow mattered.
Julianna sat at the foot of the rocker, her head resting against Jace’s leg. She breathed deeply, enjoying the soft scent of Mari’s talcum powder.
I’ve got them both now.
A shiver of excitement radiating through her, she reached over and squeezed Jace’s calf. “Just making sure you’re really here,” she whispered.
“Figments of your imagination can’t do this,” he said as he raked her hair through his fingers, lifting it and letting it fall.
“What do you think?” she asked. “Of holding a baby in your arms?”
“I think I’d like to hold her a while longer.”
Julianna nestled closer and shut her eyes, thanking God for the two miracles she was sitting with. Here they were, the three of them—a family.
He’s gorgeous! Virginia mouthed the compliment to Julianna after being introduced to Jace the next morning.
Fletcher was by her side, looking quite the man in his new suit and stylish haircut. But like everyone who came through the Dreamland doors this morning, he showed signs of having been jostled about by the mob of reporters clamoring outside. Julianna knew they were hungry for any morsel of information the family might decide to toss out the door.
“Oh, they’re everywhere!” Julianna’s mother complained as she stole a peek through the lace curtains in the drawing room. “Like ants on a crumb.”
“You should go back to bed,” Nurse Roberta advised sternly. “You’re tired.”
“And you’re fired.”
Roberta rolled her eyes. “That’s the fourth time you’ve fired me since yesterday.”
Audrey’s lips twitched as though she was trying not to smile. “One of these times I’m going to mean it.” She waved her arms about the room. “I can’t sleep with so much excitement, so I’ll sit on the sofa.” Settling against the arm, she looked at Julianna. “Darling, must you go out this morning?”
“I have to tell Father everything that’s happened,” Julianna said. “And he’ll be furious if he isn’t told as soon as possible. The nurses said he’s awake and alert, already complaining because none of us are there to visit.”
“Shouldn’t I be the one going?”
“No!” Roberta yelled.
Julianna shook her head. “Mother, it’s my story, and I want to be the one who tells it.”
But all those reporters—they’ll maul you like bears.”
“Jace will be with me,” Julianna said, smiling at how good those words sounded. “Sheriff Moll, too.”
The sheriff would be returning to Ambrose Point, having spent the night in one of Dreamland’s guest rooms, then treated to a fine breakfast prepared by Cassie. Flapjacks and raisin biscuits, sausage links and hominy with lots of butter. He patted his stomach, indicating that it was happy and full. “I’ll get Jace and Julianna past all those bears before I get on the road to home.”
Julianna was also going to drive Jace to the Downtown Panache, where he would take a room for now. They had spent last night in the mansion talking and making plans, but he was adamant that he could not stay in Richard’s home another night, not until he made amends. He told Julianna that it didn’t feel right to him, that it rang of disrespect, like a slap in the man’s face.
After that, Julianna would go to see her father alone, to tell him about Leyton, but also about Jace. It was time he knew the entire story, from beginning to end.
She looked at her watch. “We should go.”
“Not yet!” Cassie called as she emerged from the kitchen. Jimmy Mac and Chester followed behind, and all three were carrying pots of dishwater, cold and dirty.
“Those reporters have been pecking at my kitchen door all morning,” she complained “Been bothering Jimmy Mac and Chester, too. Can’t get their chores done.”
The trio marched upstairs, and Julianna knew they were en route to the balcony that overlooked the walkway. A few minutes later, disgusted cries exploded from the newspaper and radio men gathered outside, as suits, notebooks, and cameras were caught in the filthy cloudburst from the balcony.
Returning to the drawing room, Jimmy Mac and Chester shook with guffaws, but Cassie looked more irritated than when she first came through. “I don’t think it did any good,” she snapped. “Before, we had reporters. Now we’ve got wet reporters. It doesn’t look like they’re leaving.” Then completely changing gears, she looked at Julianna’s mother and said softly, “I’ll be heading out soon.”
“Thank you, Cassie,” Audrey answered. “You’ve taken a burden off this family.”
“Where is she going?” Virginia asked after Cassie left the room.
“To the house on River Drive,” Julianna said. “She’s going to choose Leyton’s clothes for the viewing and burial.”
Virginia gasped. “You’re giving Satan a funeral?”
Julianna’s mother gestured helplessly. “We must do something with him.”
“How about the river?” Virginia fired up a cigar and fanned at the billowing smoke. “Let it sweep him downstream with all the other debris that gets dumped in.”
Fletcher cleared his throat and patted Virginia’s shoulder. “You’re understandably upset, but the family is only trying to follow the rules of propriety.”
“I suppose,” she relented. “But it’s good that Cassie agreed
to the task. If it had been given to me, I’d dress the man in horns and a stick a pitchfork in the casket.” She took a long draw on her cigar and spoke while exhaling. “That’s what I’d do.”
“I find it pretty amazing,” Julianna said. “Leyton never had a nice word for Cassie, but there at the end, when he was dying on the sidewalk, it was Cassie who tried to help him.”
They all fell quiet for a minute, Julianna’s words sinking in. Cassie had reached out to the enemy, and now, when all was said and done, it was she who was tending to his final needs.
“She’s a better woman than I am,” Virginia admitted. “And I’ll tell you something else—I’m not going to his funeral.”
“I wonder if anyone will,” Julianna said, looking at her watch again. “I have to go see Father.”
She, Jace, and Tucker turned to leave, blessed by a chorus of “Good luck” from those staying behind. They opened the front door of the mansion, the reporters’ voices rising like excited pennant-waving fans at a sporting event. Heads lowered, the trio pressed through the zealous newsmen, ignoring the questions shouted from all directions.
“Mrs. Drakeworth, can you give us a statement?”
“Did you know your husband was capable of this?”
“Are either of you men the bystander who saved Mrs. Drakeworth?”
Tucker made it safely to his car, Jace and Julianna to hers. They sped away, leaving the reporters with nothing to do except turn their smacking lips back to Dreamland.
Her father was propped in bed when Julianna arrived at the hospital. Awkwardly, she bent down and kissed his forehead. Clumsily, he patted her shoulder.
“How are you feeling?” she asked as she pulled a chair up next to his bed.
“I’ve had better moments,” he said, “but they tell me I’m lucky to be alive.”
“You are,” she confirmed. “Had someone not come along when they did, you probably would have died from internal bleeding.”
He appeared to mull over his close encounter with death. “Maybe a missing spleen isn’t so bad.”
Seeking the Shore Page 24
