The Earl Takes A Bride (Elbia Series Book 2)

by Kathryn Jensen

  Most of the money was recovered within twenty-four hours of Thomas confronting the man. He’d stood the bastard up against a wall of windows and told him what he thought ought to be done to a man who took food from the mouths of children. They were fifteen floors above the asphalt of Fifth Avenue, and apparently the fellow took the implied threat seriously.

  Which left Thomas free to return to Europe the next day.

  But he couldn’t stop thinking about Diane. He didn’t sleep that night.

  At five the next morning he found himself walking the beach at Nanticoke, looking out at a gray dawn over Long Island Sound. It had rained overnight, and the sand was wet. Gulls picked at the flotsam that had been washed up in the dark. He felt hopeless, alone, adrift.

  A single figure appeared at the far end of the beach. He could tell it was a woman from the stride and the pale outline of a ponytail swinging behind her head as she ran. Elly Shapiro, the baby-sitter who had taken the children to Florida. She tilted her head to one side as she approached, then smiled when she recognized him.

  “You out for exercise, too?” she puffed, jogging in place.

  “Just a short stroll,” he said. “I’m sorry your time in Florida got cut short, Elly.”

  “Oh, it’s okay. Thank you for paying me my full salary for just half the summer. I got another job when I came home. Dad says my college fund is looking great!” She grinned but continued hopping from foot to foot.

  “How are Mrs. Fields and the children?”

  “Pretty good, I guess,” Elly said. She giggled. “She sure can get steamed.”

  “Steamed?” he echoed.

  “Yeah, you know…she’s got a temper. Not at me, of course.”

  Thomas assumed she was talking about the effect he’d had on her. “Yes, of course.”

  “You didn’t hear?” Elly asked, her pretty green eyes wide and full of delight at a chance to gossip.

  “About the Fields getting back together?” he said morbidly.

  “No, silly. Mr. Fields came by one day, pretending he was all jazzed about seeing his kids again. But he was really trying to blackmail Mrs. Fields,” she whispered in a conspiratorial voice.

  Blackmail her? Thomas scowled. Either the girl had a strange imagination or Gary Fields was worse than the typical philandering husband.

  He rested his hands on the teenager’s shoulders to bring her jogging to a stop. “Elly, what are you talking about?”

  “Mr. Fields came to the house, and her oldest boy told me exactly what his father said. He wants to start a business and he was asking Mrs. Fields for money, like umpteen thousand dollars, and she said she didn’t have it, and he said she could get it from the king, since he’s so rich, and Mrs. Fields told him to get lost!” She finished her story with a satisfied grin. “Isn’t that cool?”

  Thomas released the girl and smiled down at her. His heart suddenly felt lighter. “Yes, cool indeed.”

  Nine

  Diane finished giving the children their breakfast and had just sent them off to get dressed when the doorbell rang. She glanced at the clock. It wasn’t yet seven. The other children in the neighborhood didn’t usually come around quite so early. Frowning, she peeked out the window in the kitchen door to see Elly in her pink warm-up suit.

  “Hi, Mrs. Fields. We thought we’d give you a break,” Elly said cheerfully when Diane opened the door.

  We? she thought. Then she saw the tall figure behind her. Thomas.

  She shot him a cold look. “We’re doing just fine, Elly. Why don’t you come back around noon, as we’d planned.”

  Thomas shook his head at the teenager, then turned to Diane. “Let her take the children down to the beach for the morning,” he said, stepping through the door despite Diane’s attempt to block his way. “It’s my treat.”

  “Did Jacob send you again?” She would definitely have a word with her brother-in-law about his meddling.

  “In a manner of speaking, yes. But this wasn’t his or my intended destination.”

  She groaned. “Just leave. We’re not going through this again.”

  Thomas ignored her. “Elly, do you know where the children’s beach towels and bathing suits are?”

  “Yes, sir,” the teenager said brightly.

  “Then why don’t you get them changed and hit the beach.” He pulled a couple bills from his pocket. “Here’s something for snacks, if they get hungry.”

  Diane stared at him, aghast. “Listen. I don’t want your help. We’re doing just fine.”

  He watched Elly disappear into the living room. A second later three squealing voices exuberantly welcomed her. Thomas turned back to face Diane. “I understand you and Gary aren’t getting back together.”

  “Which is what I said when I left Elbia.”

  “Yes, I know, but—” he hesitated “—I thought you might have, anyway.”

  “Not while there’s warmth in this body.”

  He smiled. “Fair enough. Elly tells me you have a job.”

  “That’s right…and a good one,” she said with emphasis. “I have health benefits, paid vacation, the works.”

  “And minimum wage?”

  She scowled at him. “My income is my business, no one else’s.”

  “Is it enough to make your mortgage payments and buy food for four?”

  She drew in a sharp breath and was about to spout a few choice words she never used in front of the children, but they trooped across the kitchen, carrying their favorite beach toys.

  “We’re off!” Elly proclaimed, giving Thomas a conspiratorial wink as she marched her charges out the door.

  As soon as it closed behind them, Diane rounded on Thomas. “You have no right barging into my home, ordering my children about and criticizing my job choices!”

  He smiled complacently down at her. “I’m your friend, Diane. Won’t you let me help you?”

  She shook her head at him, so angry she was unable to speak. The worst part of it was, even as she ached to clamp her hands around his muscled neck and choke the life out of him, she felt overpowered by his presence. She’d forgotten, or at least tried to forget, how easily he filled a room and made every other object in it seem inconsequential, a miniature of before. His dark eyes fixed on hers, and she found she couldn’t look away.

  “I don’t think we can be just friends, Thomas.”

  “No?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because…because…” Because, she wanted to shout, I’m in love with you, you idiot, and I can’t deal with your not loving me! “It just won’t work.”

  “Because we’ve slept together?”

  “That certainly has something to do with it. Now, will you please leave?”

  She started to turn away, but he overtook her in two easy strides and turned her round to face him. His expression was stormy, threatening, black. He looked frustrated that she wouldn’t listen to him, then something else crossed his face that was far more frightening to her.

  “Don’t…oh, Thomas,” she cried, “don’t even think about that!”

  He didn’t speak, only gazed longingly into her eyes, struggling against some unseen force. With quiet resolution, he lowered his mouth and captured her lips in a kiss that seemed to never end.

  Diane opened her lips and savored him. How she’d missed this man!

  “I’ve missed you,” he said, miraculously echoing her own thoughts.

  She nodded, incapable of speaking.

  “Let’s not give up yet,” he said, his voice gravel rough with emotion. “I was thinking…maybe a long-distance relationship? I’ll come whenever I can. I’ll tell Jacob and assure him and your sister that I’ll take care of you in every possible way. It will be almost as if we’re married.”

  “Almost,” she murmured numbly.

  “You won’t have to work at all, unless you want to,” he promised. “Let me take care of the bills. I’ll buy you a bigger house, anywhere you like.”

  She s
ighed. “Sounds as if you’re offering to make me a kept woman.”

  “I don’t mean it like that. You know it.”

  She took a moment to think about what he’d said, but his words couldn’t change what she knew was true. “I would never be comfortable with an arrangement like that. A long-term affair with a man who doesn’t love me?”

  She looked up questioningly into his deep brown eyes, hoping for the sign she needed, the words that would make everything all right for them. He didn’t say them. Three simple words, and he couldn’t say them to her. Her world hit bottom.

  “I’m sorry, Diane. I’ve told you who I am.”

  “I know.” She pushed herself up, stood unsteadily, then walked to the kitchen counter and held on. They’d come so close to returning to where they’d been—a passionate limbo where neither her heart nor her soul could rest comfortably. But it seemed to be as much as he was able or willing to give her. “You’d better leave now,” she whispered, turning away from him.

  Although the next two months were a challenge, Diane managed to function during the days. She continued interviewing for corporate positions and even got a few offers. But in the end she turned those down because they required a long commute and extended work hours, and she couldn’t justify leaving her children for so much of every week. Instead, she threw herself into her job at the grocery store, and it wasn’t long before her energy was noticed. She was moved up into an assistant manager’s position, which meant more money and better benefits.

  The nights were the difficult times. Loneliness hurt all the more fiercely after having known Thomas. There was no one to share her days’ small triumphs or disasters with. She spoke with Allison at least once a week, and she sensed that although there might be news of Thomas, her sister was being careful not to mention his name. Diane didn’t ask about him.

  It was near the end of September when she first became suspicious. Her usual feminine cycles had always been unpredictable. So she ignored her body’s shenanigans all summer until it occurred to her one autumn afternoon that she hadn’t had anything close to a real period for nearly three months.

  But surely, this couldn’t mean she was… Absolutely not! She’d been with no one other than Thomas…and they’d always used protection. At least, she was pretty sure he’d always—No, wait, she thought, her stomach knotting at the cloudy memory of a day in a sunny meadow. There was that one time. The first time she and Thomas had made love. But he’d removed himself before he’d—

  Or at least she’d thought he had left her in time!

  What if…?

  She didn’t dare think of it. But she had heard that no method of birth control, especially that one, was foolproof.

  The next day Diane carefully selected a test kit from the pharmacy. During her break, she used the first strip. It came out positive. She told herself it was a fluke and tried the second in the packet. Positive.

  Her heart pounded in her chest all afternoon. Sometimes she felt as if she couldn’t breathe. She brought the third strip home with her and tested one final time after the children were in bed.

  Sighing, she sat on the edge of the bathtub and stared at the colored scrap. No longer could she deny the results. She touched her breasts, and they felt tender, full. She closed her eyes and thought to herself, Well, that’s it, then… But strangely enough she didn’t feel sad. Yes, there would be another child. But she’d always loved the months of growing a baby inside of her. And this would be a special child. Thomas’s baby. Somehow, she’d manage.

  “You have a telephone call from Frau Fields, in the United States,” Jacob’s secretary informed Thomas over the intercom in crisp German.

  Thomas’s heart gave a lurch. He counted to three to make sure his voice didn’t come out as a pitiful squeak. “Put her through.” When the phone on his desk rang, he took a deep breath and slowly picked up the receiver.

  “Hello, Thomas, this is Diane.” She didn’t need to say her name; he would have recognized her voice anywhere.

  “Yes, Diane. How are you?” He tried to sound distantly polite, nothing more.

  “I’ve been quite well.” The hesitation in her voice was almost undetectable. “I wondered when you might be planning your next trip to the States.”

  He stopped breathing and felt certain his heart missed a good three beats. She had sent him away, and he had accepted that as her final word. Was she now, after all this time, reconsidering his proposition?

  He cleared his throat and began cautiously. “There was—is, actually—a possibility of a trip sometime within the next month. The timing isn’t crucial.”

  “I see,” she said.

  “Is something wrong?”

  “Not wrong, really. I just would like to talk with you about something that affects both of us. I’d rather not do it over the telephone.”

  Now he knew! She was about to welcome him back into her life, on his own terms! But she wanted to negotiate details, possibly find ways to protect herself. That was fine by him.

  “I’ll arrange the business end of the trip around you. Will next Saturday be soon enough?”

  “Yes,” she said, “just call to let me know what time you’ll arrive.”

  He loved the soft timbre of her voice; it was so soothing, so accepting of life. But she hung up before he could tell her how happy he was they’d be together again.

  It was a typical fall day in New England—gray, raining, a snapping cold wind off the ocean—when Thomas pulled the sedan up in front of her house. He went to the kitchen door and knocked. She opened it almost immediately.

  Diane was wearing an oxford-style shirt over her jeans, her dark hair pulled back with a stretchy thing Allison called a scrunchie. She looked fresh as the new day, her cheeks aglow as if she’d just scrubbed them. Her eyes were bright, but seemed a little sad when she greeted him. He was glad it would be only a matter of minutes before he’d be able to set them sparkling again.

  “I’ve made coffee,” she said, swerving away from him when he stepped toward her, expecting to take her in his arms. “It’s decaf.”

  “That sounds good.” He took a seat at the kitchen table, resigned to waiting until she was ready to be held. She’d set two places. He liked the cozy feeling of the room, sunshine-yellow with sunflowers on the oven mitts, the dish towel and refrigerator magnets. He could feel comfortable in a little room like this, with her…and he would as often as he could.

  He had to stop himself from grinning in anticipation of the next few hours they’d spend together, working out their relationship, making up for lost time in her bedroom. The children were nowhere in sight; she must have sent them off somewhere with Elly. He felt himself respond to his imagination’s suggestions of how she would look when she took off that neatly pressed blouse for him.

  Diane set a steaming mug of coffee in front of him and slid a plate of fresh muffins within his reach. “I’m glad you’ve had a change of heart,” he said softly. “I’ve missed you.”

  She sat down and frowned at him. “I’ve missed you, too, Thomas. But before you say anything else, I need to tell you something.”

  He smiled good-naturedly. “Fire away.” Nothing could dampen his mood. Nothing. He had her back.

  “I’m going to have your baby, Thomas.”

  He could have sworn he’d misheard her. There was a strange echo effect in the kitchen. Or perhaps he was so overjoyed at seeing her again, his imagination was playing tricks on him.

  “Did you hear me?” she asked.

  “I…well, I’m not sure that you said what I thought you said.” His smile teetered a bit.

  “I said, I’m pregnant with your child.”

  The coffee mug floated halfway between his lips and the tabletop. “That’s impossible.”

  “I would have thought so, too.”

  She explained her theory of the possible moment of conception. He listened numbly and could think of no argument. His mind simply went blank.

  “You’ve verifie
d this with a physician?”

  She nodded, cupping her hands around her own mug and gazing down into the rising steam. “I’m a little more than three months along. The baby should be born in March. The twentieth, if I’m on time.”

  “Dear Lord.”

  Diane looked up at him, her eyes snapping with sudden anger. “That’s all you have to say?”

  “I’m just— It’s a complete surprise. I’m sorry, I—”

  She waved off his stammered apologies, and her eyes softened. “I guess I didn’t exactly break the news gently. Listen, it’s not a catastrophe. I’m fine with being pregnant. More than fine. I love children, and four will be no more work than three. The older ones can help out, too,” she added, her energy seeming to grow as she spoke. “Of course, it will take some time for my parents and Jacob to deal with this, particularly when I tell them who the father is. Allison will support me no matter what, but—”

  A sharp stab of terror ripped through him. “You intend to tell Jacob?”

  “Of course. Do you think I’m going to keep something like this a secret from my family?”

  He put down the mug and dropped his head into his hands, slick with sweat he hadn’t felt until then. “No, of course not. Forgive me I don’t know what I was thinking. But Jacob…” He sighed. She was carrying a child because of his carelessness. He was responsible, and he would face up to his duty. “I will, of course, do what’s right by you and the child. We can marry as soon as you—”

  “No!” she cut him off. “This isn’t about forcing you into marriage.”

  “But you…the baby should—”

  She gripped the edge of the table and looked him square in the eyes. “I don’t need a long-distance husband…or boyfriend. But I do need help with medical bills. That only seems fair, don’t you think?”