He was serious.
“About what?”
“For openers, I never had any intention of telling you about Yvette.”
Surprised, Kellie sat all the way up in the bed. He propped himself on his side with the pillow and eyed her somberly.
“Until she showed up at my office, I’d honestly believed that what had happened between us in Chamonix was the result of her close call with death. But the fact that she waited until her eighth month to come forward made me realize she had a mercenary side to her nature which I hadn’t suspected.
“When we reached her apartment, my plan was to tell her that I would get in touch with my attorney who would order DNA tests done once the baby was born. In my gut I was ninety-nine percent sure it would prove Jean-Luc wasn’t mine.
“If it turned out I was the father, then I would be financially responsible for it and try to be the best father I could. At that point I would tell my wife the truth. But until the tests were done, she was to say nothing that could ever get back to you.
“I was so shaken to think she was in my life for any reason, let alone that she’d shown up on the night of our first month anniversary, I never saw that other car coming. The accident changed all my best-laid plans.”
“That was such a horrible night,” she whispered.
“When you came in the cubicle, you looked like a vision. I had a struggle with my conscience. Should I take my chances on your not finding out, knowing Yvette was in the same E.R. room with us?
“Or, should I bare my soul to you and pray you loved me enough to take as much of the truth as I thought you could handle?
“What would be worse? A lie I could be caught in before the night was over, one you might never forgive? Or the pain I would cause you when you heard the truth?
“I chose the latter, holding on to the belief that once you’d endured your initial anguish, you’d still be able to find it in your heart to love me.”
She shook her head. “I could never stop loving you. It wouldn’t be possible. My letter explained the issues that drove me away.”
He grasped her hand, almost crushing it between both of his. “Do you know that before she came to the office, I could hardly contain my excitement because I had a special gift for you.”
Her eyes searched his. “What?”
“The royal deed to our home. Raoul gave me the Château des Fleurs for the small part I played so he could get out of his betrothal to Princess Sophie and marry Lee. He put it my hands before I followed you back to Washington.”
“I don’t believe it!”
“When I told him I couldn’t accept his gift, he told me he would never forgive me if I didn’t. He said he’d always wanted a brother, and if he could have chosen one, it would have been me.”
“Everyone loves you, darling.”
He caressed her cheek. “Raoul went on to say that if it would make me feel better, I could donate something to one of the charities he sponsored.”
Kellie’s mind was reeling. “So that means all those houses we looked at with Monsieur Penot—”
“It was pure bluff. I paid him a handsome tip to pretend in front of you.”
“Philippe!”
“There’s more, but first I have to apologize for accusing you of using Raoul. He knew when he came to my apartment that I was on the verge of some kind of breakdown.
“After I’d recovered from my operation enough to return to the apartment, Marcel helped me inside. I saw the table you’d prepared for our special dinner. I hobbled over to it with my crutches and read the message you’d left on my plate.
“By the time I’d opened the box and examined the cuff links you’d made me with the flowers I’d given you, I was in agony because I knew how much the truth would have hurt you.
“But it was when I read your goodbye letter that I lost it, Kellie. I really lost it. Marcel called my doctor. He came over and gave me a sedative.
“After everyone left, I went to bed. When I got up, I didn’t particularly care whether I lived or died. Marcel phoned my brother to come and fill in until I was fit for work. I refused to see anyone. But Raoul had a way of breaking me down until I finally let him in. You know the rest.”
Kellie wrapped her arms around him. They rocked back and forth.
“It wasn’t until yesterday when I ended up on his doorstep that he set me straight about sending Lee to bring you home to me.”
“I’m so thankful she came!” Kellie blurted. “Poor Claudine had tried to stop me from sending those divorce papers, but I was so full of my self-righteous ideas of what you should or shouldn’t do, I wouldn’t listen to what your sister was trying to tell me.
“It took hearing Lee’s voice, looking into her eyes, to make me realize what a horrible thing I’d done to you. I couldn’t get back to you fast enough. When Raoul picked us up in Geneva, he let me know in his own kind way that I’d really hurt you. I’m indebted to them both.
“But the truth is, if I hadn’t heard anything before too much longer, I would have phoned Claudine to find out information. The result would have been the same. I would have flown back to Switzerland, but I would have found a different way to approach you.”
“Mon Dieu—when I saw you in the chalet kitchen, I almost went into cardiac arrest.”
“So did I. Your appearance was so changed, I was terrified I’d never be able to get through to you.”
His white smile turned her heart over. “You got through to me all right. I bolted up those stairs to give myself time to think, but my leg was slow to react.”
“Raoul was so delighted to hear you’d fallen and couldn’t go climbing.”
Philippe nodded. “He’s the best, but it’s you I don’t deserve,” he muttered, kissing her fingertips. “You’re going to hate me for what I’m about to tell you now, but at this point I have to get it all off my chest.”
She smiled at him. “What else did you do that’s so terrible?”
“I put Honore up to calling your home because I had to know how you were and what you were doing. When he found out you were in Nyon, I sent him on a mission, then blamed you for contacting him.”
Kellie lowered her mouth to his. “I forgive you. Your machinations have only proved to me how much you love me.”
“I’m not through confessing,” he admitted sheepishly.
“Go on,” she urged, loving him all the more for unburdening himself.
He threaded his fingers through her caramel blond hair. “Dr. Bruchard shouldn’t have been subjected to a custody suit, not when I knew full well Jean-Luc wasn’t mine.”
“How could you have known without a test?”
“I bribed one of the nurses in the pediatric ward to let me see the baby when Analise didn’t know about it.”
“Oh darling,” she half-laughed, half-cried. He answered with a rueful grin.
“I examined him carefully. He had a look of Yvette, but no traits of my family. None. Don’t get me wrong. I loved Jean-Luc and would have loved him forever if he’d turned out to be my flesh and blood.
“That’s when I conceived of the custody suit so I could get you to live with me. I was convinced that I had done so much damage to you in Zermatt, I might have driven you away forever. I needed a reason to keep you at my side.”
“None of it was necessary,” she assured him. “I was ready and willing to act on the smallest whisper of hope if it meant I could be with you again.”
“The closer the court date came, the more I panicked because I’d planned to withdraw the suit during the hearing and feared you’d run off the moment there was no more Jean-Luc.
“I thought if I could bribe you with the idea of setting up your own French restaurant, you’d have to stay with me until I could get you to fall in love with me again.”
She cradled his unforgettable face in his hands. “You married a girl with an enormous hang-up. Yvette’s unexpected entry forced me to examine my life and grow up to be a real woman at great cost to our marriage.
“I remember.” His voice grated.
Her green eyes gazed into his. “That was a very naive question on my part. Whoever penned that original marriage vow understood there would be dark times with the good. We got a taste of those dark times one month into our marriage. Something I wasn’t prepared for. But we’re back together now.
“Much as we don’t want to say it, much less think it, throughout our lives there will be other dark times among the joyous ones. I’m going to make you a vow that from here on out, I’ll stand by you forever—because I’ll love you forever,” she said against his lips.
Overcome with emotion, Philippe pulled her back down to him. It wasn’t until much later in the morning that they stirred.
“I have one more confession to make.”
Sated temporarily by his lovemaking, she raised adoring eyes to him. “How much longer is this going to go on?” she teased.
“This is the last. I swear it.”
“I believe you.”
“Yesterday when you told me you were pregnant, I took off just like I did on those stairs at the chalet. It threw me to hear news that filled me with so much joy when our marriage was still in shambles. I needed time to think. By the time I reached Raoul’s, I realized that running away was becoming a pattern with me. One I didn’t like or admire in myself.
“After I told him we were expecting, Raoul offered me his congratulations, then sat there and looked at me like I’d lost my mind to be at his house instead of home with my adorable wife.
“It hit me then that all I ever wanted in this life was to be in your arms again. Prepared to beg and go on begging until you took me back, I shot out of the chair to hurry home to you. Before I reached the front door, Raoul caught up to me and told me he’d just been informed of a severe storm warning over our region.
“We took off together to secure our boats, then I planned to hold you captive in the tower until you would agree to be my wife again in the fullest sense of the word.
“But another nightmare awaited us when we pulled up by your car. The boat was missing. We searched the rental car and discovered the receipt on Claudine’s credit card. That meant you’d gone out on the lake. I swear when I saw that waterspout—”
His whole body started shake. Kellie nestled closer in his arms to comfort him.
“If I’d lost you and the baby, I wouldn’t have wanted to go on living, Kellie, and that’s the truth.”
“Don’t think about it, Philippe. It’s over. I’m just so thankful you were at Raoul’s instead of out on the highway where you might have had an accident.
“I called Claudine in desperation. She was my last hope. I was prepared to use her in any capacity to get my husband to love me again.”
“What a fool I was not to get down on my knees to you when I discovered you at the chalet. Because of my inflexible pride, I’ve lost precious months watching our baby grow inside you. From now on I plan to take care of you, go to the doctor with you. I long to be your husband again. I’ve missed you, mon amour,” he whispered emotionally.
“Thank heaven we don’t have to miss each other anymore. With our baby on the way, we need to start thinking about names. If it’s a boy, I already have one picked out.”
“I do, too,” he murmured.
“Let’s say it together and see what happens.”
Philippe burst out laughing.
“On three, all right?”
“Whatever you say.” He stole a kiss in a certain spot, almost causing her to forget what she was doing.
“Un, deux, trois.”
“Raoul!” they both said at the same time.
Philippe nuzzled her neck. “Have you thought about a girl’s name?’
“Yes, but I have this feeling we’re going to have a boy.”
Her comment coincided with the ringing of the phone. Her husband leaned across her to pick up the receiver.
When he said, “Hello, Claudine,” Kellie whispered that she wanted to talk to his sister.
He kissed her shoulder. “We were just discussing names for the baby. Want to put in your choice if it’s a girl?” he teased.
Whatever she said caused him to chuckle. “Here’s Kellie.” He handed her the phone.
“Claudine?”
“Sorry if I’m interrupting your second honeymoon, but I’m not the only one over here dying to know if you two are back together again, as in officially.”
“The answer is a definite yes.”
“Merci Dieu. Now I can call the family. Everyone’s waiting for the news. Even our intrepid Honore has been nervous.”
“You can tell our dear friends and family we’ve never been as happy.”
“I can hear your happiness.”
“Thank you for being my friend,” Kellie’s voice caught.
“You can show your appreciation by naming your daughter after me.”
“If we have a girl, I’m planning on it. Grandpa loved you. He’ll be thrilled if he has a great-granddaughter bearing the name of his favorite French woman. He’ll be even more thrilled when you phone him one day with the news that you’re getting married.”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen, but we’ll discuss it on another day when my brother isn’t panting to get you all to himself. Which will probably be never,” she added.
Heat swept over Kellie’s body.
Philippe noticed at once and took the receiver from her. “This conversation has been enchanting, dear sister. Speak to you again soon.”
He put the phone back on the hook, then smoothed the hair from Kellie’s brow.
“What did she say to make you blush like that?”
“Oh, the kinds of things sisters say who know their brothers very very well.”
“Are you going to tell me?”
“No.”
“You want to make a bet?”
“No.”
His smile was as exciting as it was wicked. “Because you know you’re going to lose.”
“I think it’s time I made you breakfast, or maybe it’s lunch.” She tried to get out of bed but he was too quick for her.
“Not so fast, mon amour,” he murmured against the back of her neck. “You’re going to have to stay in this bed until I get an answer out of you.”
That’s what she was hoping he’d say. “Then we’ll be here a long, long time.”
He turned her in his arms, crying her name softly before possessing her once more.
EPILOGUE
“MADAME DIDIER? Let’s get one photo of you alone on the grass with your son. Then we’ll be through.”
“This royal photo shoot is getting to be a royal pain,” Philippe whispered in her ear. He bit her lobe gently before getting up to join Lee and Raoul standing a few yards away out of range of the camera.
The prince was holding golden-haired Christine, named after Lee’s mother. Their beautiful daughter, born one month after baby Raoul, had been a perfect little princess throughout the picture taking.
Kellie wished she could say the same about Raoul whose angelic black curls were deceiving. In reality he had a fun loving, adventurous nature and displayed a strong will of his own, just like someone else she knew.
Today little Raoul wasn’t in the mood to have his picture taken, again reminding Kellie of someone else she knew. Talk about the acorn not falling far from the old oak tree…
“I think I want you kneeling, madame. We’ll have you stand your son next to you.”
“Come on, Raoul, sweetie. Show everybody how well you can balance.”
He thought they were playing a game. As soon as she stood him up, he would sit down and laugh. Their thirteen-month-old had inherited Philippe’s long, lean build and was as playful a
s his father.
The next time she tried to get him to remain standing, he started falling forward into her lap. Everyone laughed except for the photographer.
“Shall we try that one more time?”
Kellie had an idea the man was losing patience in the hot summer sun. She forced Raoul to stand and look at the camera, but he decided to swing backwards and fall. At this point Philippe walked over and hunkered down a few feet away from them.
His dark eyes gleamed with amusement as he and Kellie shared a private moment. “Raoul? Come to Papa.”
Like magic, his father’s voice caught Raoul’s attention. His green eyes lit up to see his daddy. He got to his feet and toddled toward him.
The photographer nodded. “I got a nice shot. That should do it.”
“Thank goodness,” Kellie muttered to Lee before they both burst out laughing. While the men changed the children into their bathing suits, Kellie followed Lee to the table and chairs set beneath the trees on the east lawn of the Château D’Arillac. It was much cooler there.
After they sat down, Lee poured them some icy cold lemonade. Kellie drank half a glass without taking a breath.
“Oh that tastes good.”
“It does.” Lee was already pouring herself a second round.
A new little plastic swimming pool had been filled with water. By now the sun should have warmed it. Like Lee, Kellie couldn’t wait to see how the children would react. She’d brought a pocket camera, ready to take pictures for their baby book.
Pretty soon Raoul and Philippe walked them over to the pool and carefully lowered them in the water. Christine didn’t like it one bit. She started to fuss and held up her hands to get out. Her daddy pulled her back on the grass and let her walk around the pool, holding on to the rim.
Raoul, of course, was just the opposite. He plopped right down in the middle of the water and began to play with some toys.
It really was funny to watch. The men must have thought so, too. They both started to chuckle. Pretty soon they came over to the table and sat down to have some punch.
After a few minutes Christine tried to lift her leg over the side of the pool. It looked like she’d decided to get in. But she couldn’t quite make it. Her lower lip wobbled and she began to cry.
The Baby Dilemma Page 15
