But, of course, he was now hers as he had never been Diana’s or Francie’s. She had her own acknowledged claim on him, and not only from the language of passion of the night just past. The best moments of my life… the air and the sun. Moments of innocent friendship, and to this man, so terribly betrayed by the woman he loved, friendship had become more important than love. Still, the best moments? Shouldn’t his best moment be like hers, the moment he first held his child?
Richard’s hand moved the stick lightly, and the airplane began to bank.
But Julie was not his child.
Laura felt a mental jolt at the thought.
And, then, from the past, she remembered that moment in time.
~•~
Diana was coming home from the hospital with her baby. Peggy had gone up to Charlottesville the day before, so Laura and Francie had ridden up with Philip and Dominic. Francie had spent the entire ride buried in a book. “Aren’t you excited?” Laura had asked, and Francie had shaken her head sharply.
Okay, so Francie wanted to sulk. Fine. She was thrilled. She was now a bona fide aunt, and no longer the youngest one in the family. And a girl! Just as well. Diana, intensely feminine, wouldn’t know what to do with a son, and Richard would adore a daughter. She couldn’t wait to babysit her niece.
Everyone went to the hospital to visit before Diana was discharged, and strangely, Richard had not been in the room with his wife. Laura went in search of him, and some instinct drew her to the nursery window. He’d been standing there alone, hands jammed in his pockets, staring through the glass. The spinning wheels of fortune had carried him farther away from her than ever. Her Prince Charming was now not only a husband; he was the father of his very own little princess. His world now only tangentially intersected with hers.
But she’d never expected anything else.
“Richard,” she’d whispered, touching his arm, and in the second before he turned to face her, she’d realized that he wanted to be alone.
“Laurie,” he’d said quietly, and gave her a half-smile. “Great to see you.” And he’d meant it. Whatever solitude he’d sought, he seemed eager to cast it away. “Where’s everyone?”
“They’re in Di’s room.” They stood companionably side by side, and she looked for a bundle tagged “Ashmore.” “Which one is she?”
“Second from the right, last row.” He pointed. “Can’t see very much of her from here.”
She’d pressed close to the glass, trying to see this small scrap of life that was, amazingly, her own sister’s baby, and she was only vaguely aware that Richard had stepped back. She had the most discomforting feeling then, almost a disappointment in him, because surely he ought to seem happier or more interested in his own child, and he certainly shouldn’t have left his wife alone in her hospital room. Was he upset because Julie was a girl? Maybe he’d wanted an heir for Ashmore Park, and Diana had failed to deliver the goods.
The notion of Richard as Henry VIII in modern dress made her giggle, and she turned around to share the joke with him. He’d laugh and tell her what a silly goose she was, and the tension she’d felt would vanish. Instead, her sense of unease increased as the three grandparents came walking down the hall and Richard moved to greet them, with that grave expression still on his face. Peggy and Philip made a beeline for the window, but Dominic stopped in front of his son-in-law and held out his hand.
And Richard pointedly ignored the gesture and walked past him.
Later, at the small apartment Richard and Diana called home, she found time to talk to him again. Most of the family gathered around Diana and the baby, leaving him apart and alone. Diana seemed in high spirits, not at all exhausted from childbirth, and more than willing for everyone to take turns holding her baby. She held court on the sofa, letting Peggy tuck a blanket around her, accepting Lucy’s offer of a cup of tea, and apparently not minding at all that her husband was sitting alone across the room. Unable to compete with Diana’s undeniable triumph, Francie spoke briefly to her and retired to her book, so Laura went to sit by Richard while Lucy and Peggy argued over who got to hold Julie next.
“What’s it like?” she asked. “You know, to be a dad?”
Richard gave her a curious look. “I don’t know yet,” he said slowly. “I’m still getting used to it.” As if he hadn’t had nine months warning. “Why do you ask?”
She said honestly, “Because it must be the most tremendous feeling, to know there’s this little person and you’re the center of the universe to her. I envy you and Di.”
“You’ve never talked like this before, Laurie.” Richard seemed more relaxed now, not so stiff and distant. “Don’t tell me you’re going to chuck your great operatic career for kids. I thought you were going to set the world on fire, not tie yourself down,” and his voice sounded strained, “to motherhood.”
That last phrase told her a great deal. Diana must have complained that a baby might thwart her career plans. She said quickly, “So who says I can’t do both? Have kids and set the world on fire? Women can do it all these days.”
“I’d better not hear of you having kids any time soon.” This from the college senior who had just become a father. “And you watch those boys in your class, Laurie. Not a one’s good enough—”
Peggy came over to them, Julie nestled in her arms, and sat down. That stopped his warning dead in its tracks, thankfully before she had to admit that she was still too young to date. He must have forgotten that she wasn’t even sixteen yet. And she forgot him, as Peggy put Julie in her arms.
She gazed down into Julie’s tiny pink face and fell in love. Not only was this little creature Richard and Diana’s offering to the future, this was her own flesh and blood. And how lovely and natural it felt to hold Julie against her. She knew she was glowing as she never did, she knew that Francie might mock her later for her sentimentality, but she didn’t care. She loved holding her niece, and someday, she was going to hold her own child just so.
She turned to Richard eagerly. “Oh, she’s just perfect!”
He had been sitting companionably beside her, shoulder to shoulder, as they used to sit on their Saturday mornings at the lake. But then his shoulder was no longer touching hers, and she saw in bewilderment the bleak look on his face. She couldn’t fathom what flashed across his face for a moment, but was it – resentment? Good heavens, was Richard jealous? Of his own daughter?
Certainly not because he had to worry that Diana was going to love Julie more than she loved him. Diana hadn’t looked over once to see where Julie was. Poor little scrap, her mother was totally self-absorbed and her father had withdrawn into himself. Or, Laura thought, trying to excuse his mood, maybe he was just apprehensive. He had never been around babies, and he probably didn’t know what to do. So she said softly, “Richard, why don’t you hold her for a while? We’ve all monopolized her.”
She saw his deep in-drawn breath, his search for words. “I’d better not,” he said. “I might drop her. She’s pretty fragile, isn’t she?”
So he was nervous. Laura drew on her years of babysitting and said gently, “Oh, you do it like this,” and she laid Julie in his resisting arms.
For a moment, she was afraid that he would indeed drop Julie, but instinct came to the surface, and he caught the baby as she started to descend to his lap. Laura showed him how to support that tiny head, and it came to her then that this was really, truly, the first time Richard had held his child in his arms.
She leaned towards him to arrange Julie’s receiving blanket. And so Peggy caught them on film forever, Richard making his first acquaintance with his daughter, and Laura by his side in loving support.
~•~
Julie had always enjoyed the contrast between her Aunt Lucy’s public and private faces. In public, Lucy always appeared the consummate corporate attorney, in her correct navy blue suits and polished professional demeanor. How could anyone facing her in contract negotiations ever know that her favorite room in the house was her littl
e study, with its feminine wallpaper and lush fabrics and African violets? And that the formidable Ms. Maitland became this comfortable woman in her drawstring pants and lacy camisole top and bare feet?
Julie wasn’t sure if she felt closer to Lucy than to her father, but she did know that, with Lucy, she didn’t have to be quite so perfect all the time. They could curl up in this gorgeous room with hot tea and cookies and gossip the day away. Lucy could lounge on the sofa with her feet propped up, and Julie could sit sideways in a big easy chair, her legs dangling over one arm, while they talked about anything and everything. Lucy could tell her about sex frankly and realistically, and she could ask the questions she wouldn’t dream of asking her father. She could tell Lucy about making out with the one boy she had dated more than once, and Lucy wouldn’t immediately ponder locking her up until she was thirty.
Today, they were discussing the unexpected turn in Richard’s love life.
“All night. Hmmm.” Lucy stirred her tea. “Well, that’s very interesting. And he hadn’t mentioned this antique fair till this morning?”
“No,” said Julie. “And I can’t believe he’s left for the whole weekend. I’m going to music camp next Sunday, and you know what he was like last year. He stuck to me like glue that whole week before I left, and now he doesn’t even care that this is his last chance to go riding with me for two weeks?”
Lucy leaned her head back against a pillow and closed her eyes to think. “Well, well,” she said finally, “and to think I was worried – never mind. I wonder where he met this newest one. Has he bought any books recently?”
“Books?” Sometimes Julie had trouble following her aunt’s thinking. “Well, he goes to the bookstore a lot, but I haven’t seen him bring home anything new for the last couple of weeks.”
“I say that,” said Lucy, eyes still closed, “because they always seem to be connected with books, and you know how he loves to read. I think that’s how he meets them. There was Jennifer with the rare books – and I’ll lay you money he met her at one of those antique fairs! – and the librarian he met at the library fundraiser – that’s the one I saw, wasn’t it? – and didn’t we figure out that the other one worked in the bookstore at the visitors center? So this one is probably a writer or something.”
“Wow.” Maybe going to law school taught you to look for connections like that. Or maybe Lucy was just thinking out loud. “This has come up so suddenly, though. Do you think he just met her?”
“Who knows.” Lucy stretched out. “But this is very good news.”
Oh, really? Just wait. You won’t like this at all. “But he must be really serious about her. To meet her this fast, and go off for the weekend, and file for divorce?”
Lucy’s eyes flew open. “What?”
“Didn’t you hear?” Julie said innocently. “I thought you knew already, since you’re Dad’s lawyer. He told Tom to go ahead and start divorce proceedings.”
~•~
“He’s filing for real? And when did you plan to tell me?”
It was one of the rare moments when Lucy wished she had never given up her safe corporate position in the law firm to go into practice with her husband. She had wished more often that she had never agreed to do any of Richard’s legal work. She should have seen this coming, she thought as she drove at high speed to their offices, she should have known that inevitably Richard and Diana’s tangled personal lives would force her to choose one over the other.
Tom was no help. He had his priorities straight. He was Richard’s lawyer, and it was Richard’s lawyer who surveyed her calmly and told her to sit down and catch her breath.
“All right.” Lucy dropped into the chair closest to his desk. “Okay. I’m catching my breath.” She laid her hands on the desk. “Tom, how could you not tell me? You knew I had to find out!”
Tom leaned back in his leather chair and looked at her steadily. Oh, she hated that look, she knew what was coming, and she resented Richard putting her in the position where she was going to have to hear this. “How’d you find out about this? He hasn’t told anyone except me, as far as I know. Did Julie hear something she wasn’t supposed to?”
“Never mind.” She had to protect her niece. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Lucy,” her husband said patiently, “there’s hardly been time to tell you. He decided late last night, after you went to bed. You were still asleep this morning when I came in to draft the petition. I had every intention of showing it to you this afternoon—”
“I hear he’s filing Monday morning. Why the rush?”
Tom paused a moment, and an alarm rang in her mind. She watched as he opened a manila folder and slid a document across the desk to her. “Here,” he said. “Read that, and then you tell me.”
Lucy took the subpoena and started to read, and her heart sank. “Oh, no,” she murmured, and she looked up at him. “Oh, no. I don’t believe this. Why didn’t you tell me as soon as this got filed?”
“Because,” Tom said flatly, “my policy is that you don’t get upset, Lucy. Not while you’re pregnant. I’m fed up with you rushing off to rescue Diana all the time.”
Lucy swallowed hard. There was some truth to his comment. She seemed to spend a lot of time trying to put Diana back together. “I’m feeling fine, really I am. Tom, I don’t understand this. What makes her think Laurie will cooperate? And what documentation does she have? Don’t tell me Richard sent Francie love letters?”
Tom avoided answering that question. “Richard mentioned some music journals. Any chance that’s what Diana is after?”
Lucy was reading through the deposition notice again, but she shook her head. “No way. Dominic read those journals. Francie couldn’t have been stupid enough to write down details where he could read it whenever he wanted.” She reached for a pad of paper. “Laurie must not have seen this yet, or she’d be calling me. Look, Tom, I know Richard must be furious, but let me try to reason with Di. I can. She won’t pursue this if I tell her to back off—”
Tom was already shaking his head. “No, Lucy. You can’t. You can’t even talk to her about this. You’re part of this firm, and we’re about to sue her for divorce on behalf of our client. Richard has the right to expect our complete support, and that includes you not running off to mop up her tears.”
There was no answer to that. He was right. Lucy swallowed hard and handed the folder back to him. “What about talking to Laurie? What’s our position on her?”
“Well, as far as I know,” Tom said, “she doesn’t know yet. Once she’s served, she’ll want her own attorneys representing her. Now, technically, we should deal with them, but—” he shrugged, “she’s your sister, and she’s not an adversarial party. Yet. That may change.”
“Oh, Lord.” What a mess. She wondered, not for the first time, why Diana had chosen this spring of all springs to challenge Richard again. Diana ought to be thanking her lucky stars she wasn’t facing trial for murder instead of pursuing legal actions that she wasn’t going to win. “So what’s the game plan, or can I know that? Are we just going to file, or do we make an offer?”
“Of course you can know.” He picked up a pen and started to balance it between two fingers. “Neither Richard nor I want to keep you in the dark. We know that you’re going to bear the brunt of Diana’s reaction. We’re going to file first, then let them approach us for an offer.”
“Richard already knows what he wants to do, I suppose.” She hadn’t dealt with her foster brother all these years for nothing. She came around Tom’s desk and stood behind him as he pulled up the petition on his monitor. “Okay, that’s fine… sort of mild, I guess, I expected something stronger than irreconcilable differences… property division looks okay. Custody looks standard. I don’t know if we can get the good-behavior clause past the judge, though. Won’t that be considered restraint of action?”
Tom seemed more relaxed now that the threat of emotional disruption seemed past. “Well, look at the compensation she’s getting
in return for behaving for five years.”
“Yes, but whose definition of behaving? Richard’s? Di will contest that. She’ll say that an ex-husband doesn’t have the right to set her standards of behavior.”
“He faxed over a three million dollar appraisal for Ash Marine. Surely even Diana can keep from getting arrested or slicing up her wrists for that kind of money.”
“That’s his biggest disposable asset. And he could use the money. I wonder why he isn’t stopping her allowance when Julie turns eighteen.” Lucy bit her lip. “Slicing her wrists? Isn’t that a little strong? That was years ago.”
“That’s his condition. He specifically mentioned it.” Tom moved his shoulder to give her access to Richard’s faxed notes. “He had a couple of ancillary demands – drop the subpoena against Laura – here it is. No fake suicide attempts. Those are his words.”
“I wonder why.” Lucy wandered over to the window and leaned against the sill. Her husband turned his head to look at her. “Tom, is something going on here that I need to know about?”
He settled back in his chair. “What do you mean?”
Oh, she hated that, answering her question with another, and meaningless, question. “I mean that this is out of the blue. Why now? All he has to do is wait two years, and he’s home free on custody, and he can get out without paying Di a thin dime.” She gestured towards his desk. “That offer feels like a man trying to buy a quick divorce. Richard needs that money for other things. What’s the urgency? Does he have a girlfriend applying pressure? Is there some female he doesn’t want brought to Di’s attention?”
That last was a shot in the dark, but she caught the flicker of Tom’s eyes and knew she had scored. Her instincts went on alert. “Look, I know he’s seeing someone new. He’s been traveling a lot this spring – lots of trips to Raleigh and Charleston on business. Maybe he’s met someone down south? Or maybe it’s the woman from London that he claims is such a figment of my imagination.”
All Who Are Lost (Ashmore's Folly Book 1) Page 45
