THE ALEXAKIS BRIDE by Anne McAllister

by Anne McAllister

  CHAPTER NINE

  'are you sure you'll be all right if I go to East Hampton tomorrow for the weekend? " Kate asked her sisrer-in-law, who was sitting placidly on the sofa next to the window overlooking Central Park. She wanted Sophia to say no. Sophia gave an airy wave. "Of course. I'll be fine. Mama is surprisingly helpful, really. Damon isn't going to be happy, though." Kate hoped she was right. Damon didn't know about her proposed trip to East Hampton. He'd still been at a late-night board meeting when it had come up, and when he had got home there had been far more interesting things to occupy them! Anyway, she'd hoped that a quick glance through her files would find her the replacement nanny she needed and she wouldn't have to go at all. No such luck. And the Barlowes, early and valued clients, deserved a perfect stand-in for their beloved Charlotte who'd broken her leg on a skiiing holiday. No, the only thing for it was to go out there and see to things herself, then find the right woman to fill in. Unless Damon said no. She hoped that he would object. She hoped he would tell her in no uncertain terms that she wasn't going anywhere five days before Christmas, that she belonged at home with him. But for the time being, "It's my job," she reminded Sophia. "I don't understand why you persist in doing it. Good heavens, it isn't as if Damon can't afford to support you!" "I need to do it. For me." Which was as close as she dared come to explaining that there might be a time when Damon would no longer be supporting her. Their marriage was working out far better than she'd ever dared hope, but so far she'd never ventured a word about extending it, making it permanent, and Damon hadn't either. She had fallen in love, but she didn't know that he had. He liked her, he liked the sex they shared. Beyond that. . Kate hoped. She dreamed. She was afraid to ask. Maybe when she told him she had to leave, he would say something. Maybe he would give her some hint about how he felt. "You're going to miss the Christmas party!" Sophia remembered suddenly. She looked at Kate, stricken. Kate had already realised that. The Alexakis Enterprises Christmas party had been the topic of much conversation recently. Though Greeks traditionally celebrated Christmas at the feast of Epiphany in January, the Alexakises had, ever since Aristotle had begun the main US branch many years ago, taken this opportunity to share the joys of the season with all the people with whom they did business. Kate remembered Damon saying his father had never met a holiday he hadn't had a use for. She smiled. But, as much as it had begun as a purely business event, it had grown to become a family occasion, too. And this year was to be the first they'd all attended in five years. Recently one sister or another had been missing each year. Once Damon's mother hadn't been able to come. Three years ago Damon himself had had an unavoidable conflict and had been unable to make it. But even though they might not always get there, they always tried. It had to do with being there for one another, being a part of the family. Sophia had explained it to her. So had Helena. And Pandora. And Daphne. That was perhaps why, Kate thought, her proposed trip to East Hampton might prompt him to share some indication of how he felt. Would he care if she missed the party? Did he really want her to be part of his family? Or was she no more than a playmate who happened to be his wife? "Damon won't let you miss it," Sophia said positively now. Kate gave a little shrug and tried not to let Sophia see how she felt. "You'll see," Sophia promised. Kate didn't because, ultimately, she didn't see Damon. He called when she had gone to take the girls skating at Wollman Rink. "He said he's flying to Montreal," Sophia told her disgustedly when she and the girls returned. "Some crisis or other. It was Stephanos's account actually, but Damon didn't think Stephanps should go right now. Because of the baby being almost due," she added apologetically. "I understand," Kate said. She did. And she shouldn't be disappointed. She wasn't a child, after all. She was an adult. She should know by now she had to make her own decisions. And anyway, Damon wasn't letting their marriage stop him going places. "Did he say when he'd be back?" Sophia shook her head. "Like everything else, it depends." Kate managed a wan smile, knowing how true that was. There were a thousand vagaries connected with exports and imports. Weather. Shipping schedules. Trade agreements. It wasn't surprising, and it was, of course, the right thing for Damon to do. She had better do the same. "You'll stay here tonight, then, won't you? Mama will be alone with the girls while Stephanos and I go to a play. She'd love to have you, and there's no sense in going home if Damon's not there." No, there wasn't. It would be lonely as anything rattling around the big apartment alone. But Kate didn't really want to stay at Sophia's either. With Helena alone this evening, there would be lots of conversation, lots of dissembling, lots of worry that she might say the wrong thing. Kate still felt guilty about deceiving her mother-in-law. "I think," she told Sophia, 'that I'll head on out to East Hampton. " He went to the party straight from the airport. So what if he wasn't wearing the dinner-jacket still hanging in the closet in the apartment? Who cared that his trouser cuffs were wet from the new snow? What difference did it make if he didn't stop to shave? Why worry about what all the dealers and company reps thought? None of it mattered as long as he could be with Kate. Damon wasn't quite sure when he'd begun to realise that. Maybe it had begun to crystallise when he'd found out that Stephanos had fouled up yet another account and the only way to settle it was to go to Montreal and take charge. He hadn't wanted to go. It was a first. Ordinarily, troubleshooting was what Damon liked most. He sometimes thought he relished his brother- in-law's screw-ups because they gave him a chance to do what he did best: rush to the rescue and save the day. This time he'd wanted to send Stephanos. He couldn't. Sophia was due the first week in January, slightly less than three weeks away. Damon didn't necessarily imagine that she would go into labour the moment Stephanos left the country, but his sister was high strung the baby was active, and Sophia had already had several occasions of false labour pains. He considered sending Arete, then rejected it. Tension between Arete and Stephanos was already high. Each of them continually vied to be considered Damon's second-in-command. It would only make things worse if he allowed his sister to step into Stephanos's territory. So if they weren't going to lose the account, Damon would have to go himself. And that was when he'd thought of taking Kate along. Would she go? He'd thought she might. She didn't seem to be able to get enough of him. And he damn sure couldn't get enough of her, he'd thought, smiling as he'd dialled Sophia's nrmber. But Kate had been out with the girls. They wouldn't be back until right before supper, Sophia told him. Hell, he'd thought. Damn. So much for snatching her away and taking her with him. "Tell her I have to go to Montreal," Damon had said. He'd tried to call her later when he'd got to Montreal. She wasn't home. Neither was Mrs Vincent these days. He and Kate had given her weekends off and she usually went to visit her daughter in Philadelphia. He'd called back to Sophia's, but only his mother was there. She didn't know where Kate was. He tried again for the rest of the evening between meetings with Monsieur Belliard. The only voice he heard was his own on the answering machine. It had been past midnight when he got back to his hotel room. He'd tried one last time, got nothing and dialled Sophia again. Stephanos had answered. "What's wrong?" "Where's Kate?" S "Damned if I know," Stephanos had grumbled sleepily. "Ask Sophia." "She's sleeping." "Wake her up." "Not on your life! She gets little enough sleep these days with that baby, and I'm--' " Wake her up! " Stephanos did. He came back a few moments later. "Kate's in East Hampton. Business, Sophia says. Now go to sleep." He hung up. So did Damon. He didn't sleep. He lay awake missing her, thinking about the way she curled so comfortably into his body, about the silky smoothness of her skin, the soft luxuriance of her hair, the little moans and gasps of pleasure she made when he loved her. It was the first night he'd spent without her since he'd come back from Paris. It was the first time he'd slept alone since they'd made theirs a real marriage. Was it a real marriage, then? The question caught him by surprise. Did he want it to be? Did he want to love and honour and cherish Kate for the rest of his life? Did he want to take the vows he'd made as a business proposition and turn them into a lifetime commitment? Did she? He was on th
e phone to Sophia at the crack of dawn. "Where in East Hampton is she?" "I haven't a clue," Sophia said sleepily. "Don't fret. You ran out on her first." "I didn't run out on her!" Damon almost shouted. "Whatever. Can I go back to sleep now? I need my rest, Damon. You'll understand better when you have children." Something else he hadn't thought about. He swallowed. "Yeah. I've got one long meeting this afternoon with Belliard, then I'll be home. Tell her. " It hadn't been his most successful rescue attempt, but he'd managed to do a fairly creditable job. It was over, that was what counted. He shook hands with Belliard, caught a taxi, cursed the snowstorm blanketing the east, bullied his way through the Christmas crowds at the airport. First class tickets, usually no problem to come by, were at a premium due to the holiday. Economy had long since been sold out. "We're doing the best we can, Mr Alexakis," the counter attendant assured him. "The snow is slowing us down and everyone wants to get home for Christmas." Not the way he did, Damon had thought, and was sure that God was on his side when an hour later there was a vacant seat. He made it to La Guardia caught another taxi. This one slipped and slid its way through the snow directly to the posh East Side hotel where the party was already in progress. He didn't stop until he set foot inside the festively decorated room. And then his eyes searched the premises for Kate. Arete appeared out of nowhere and took his arm, drawing him with her as she spoke. "You might've shaved, and why didn't you change? Well, at least you're back. Just in time to charm Mrs Fredericks, too." She steered him towards the wife of one of their main shipping contractors. "Where's Kate?" Damon demanded. Arete shrugged. "How should I know?" "Have you seen her?" "No. But I haven't looked." She turned him forcibly and shoved him in the direction of Martha Fredericks. "Charm," she commanded. He did his best, all the while scanning the crowd for the sight of his wife. He thought he saw her once near Sophia. But then the woman turned his way and he saw that he was wrong. '. . hear you got married recently," Martha Fredericks was saying. "Love to meet her. Like to get a glimpse of the woman who brought you down." Had she, Damon wondered, brought him down? Was that what had happened to him? He still couldn't find her. Mrs Fredericks rabbi ted on. He smiled vaguely, spotted Pandora and another woman coming their way and reached out to grab them. He'd been charming. It was their turn. "Tell Mrs Fredericks about your trip to Italy," he commanded his sister. Pandora, who had been smiling, looked as if she was about to burst into tears, and Damon suddenly remembered why she'd gone to Italy, with whom, and that the skunk had dumped her when her money ran out. "Sorry," he muttered. "I mean, tell her about the Knicks game you went to." Pandora didn't look particularly mollified, but she shrugged. "Sure. And you can get Eleni a glass of champagne. You remember Eleni, don't you? " The woman with her, she meant. And yes, now that he looked at this Eleni, he did remember her vaguely. A tall, striking young woman with thick dark hair and lustrous brown eyes. A beauty, certainly. He remembered her as something less. "You were a--uh--school friend of Pan's?" Eleni smiled. "I was. She used to bring me home sometimes for holidays. You know my father, Nikos Vassilakis." "Of course. How is he?" He led Eleni over to the table and snagged two glasses of champagne, not really listening as she talked about her father, his business, his hopes for the future. He still hadn't found Kate. Hadn't she come back yet? Finally he dumped Eleni on Electra and asked once again for his wife. Ask Sophia Electra advised. His sister was holding court on an elegant white silk sofa that Arete had arranged for her. Stephanos was, thankfully, hovering over her, making sure she was comfortable, making sure she was protected from jostling and cigarette smoke, being the sort of husband he should have been all along. " " Where's Kate? Isn't she back? " Damon asked his sister. Sophia gave him a sympathetic look and shook her head. "I'm sorry." Damon was, too. He sagged down on to the sofa next to her. Why had he hurried? Why had he busted himself to get here? What difference did it make? None, obviously, as far as Kate was concerned. Kate opened the door quietly, unsure what to expect, knowing what she wanted to find but fearful just the same. She'd spent the entire day yesterday with the Barlowes, had got a feel for their children, and had realised that the best possible interim replacement would be Ellie Partridge, the sixtyish lady she had in mind for Sophia after the baby was born. Her own replacement. Ellie had, bless her heart, been willing to come. In fact, at Kate's urging, she'd caught a late train out from Manhattan and had arrived last night. But by the time Kate had introduced her to the family, it was too late to head back to the city herself. Early this morning, however, Ned Barlowe had got up and taken her to the station. She'd fidgeted and fussed, her mind totally consumed by Damon, daydreaming about him all the way home. She wasn't sure he'd even got back yet. But in the best of all possible worlds, he would be waiting for her when she came in. He would open sleepy eyes and smile at her, reach for her and pull her into bed with him, making love to her with the passion she relished. And she would love him. Then he would tell her that he'd missed her, that he loved her, that he wanted their marriage to last forever. And that would be as good as or even better than his not wanting her to go to East Hampton in the first place. She hung her coat in the cupboard, slipped off her shoes and padded down the hall towards the bedroom. Her pace quickened when she heard water running in the master bathroom. She reached the door, then slowed, wondering what his reaction would be. The door to the bathroom was slightly ajar and she could see Damon's back as he stood facing the mirror. He wore a pair of dark wool trousers, but nothing else, and as Kate watched him shave she could see the muscles flex in his back. She felt a quickening inside her, a need to touch him, to run her hands over that smooth bronzed skin. She moved forward, wanting to go to him and put her arms around him. He either heard her or caught a glimpse of her in the mirror for quite suddenly, he turned, the razor still in his hand, one side of his face still lathered. "You got back," she said and smiled, walking towards him. "When?" "Last night." His tone was even. He didn't smile. He didn't act lover like at all. Kate stopped. "Oh," she said brightly. "Then. . you got to the party after all?" "I was the host," he reminded her shortly. "But you had to go to Montreal. I thought Sophia and Stephanos. . ." But what did it matter, really, who was the host? He had been there and she hadn't. "I- I'm sorry. I wanted to be there. But I had this crisis come up. The Barlowes --' " Don't worry about it. " He turned and went back to shaving, concentrating on his reflection, ignoring her. Kate watched him, dismayed. She felt shut out, frantic. She swallowed and bit her lip. "I missed you," she offered after a moment. Damon made a non-commit al sound and kept on shaving. "You had work to do," he said after a moment, excusing her. And it didn't sound as if he cared at all. Kate felt her throat tighten. She stepped back into the bedroom. "Shall I--shall I fix us some breakfast?" He shook his head. "I've eaten. I have to get to the office." "It's Sunday." "I have work to do." And, fifteen minutes later, he left. He didn't even come into the kitchen to say goodbye. She heard the door shut and, by the time she ran to open it the lift door was sliding shut and he was gone. Kate closed the door and slowly dragged herself back to the kitchen. Last night's storms had disappeared, leaving a cloudless blue sky. Bright winter light still shone in the wide glass, but it seemed to Kate as if a cloud had blotted the sun. After breakfast she went to Sophia's. She didn't want to be alone and, even though she knew that going to Sophia's would get her more deeply involved with the family, she told herself that Sophia would appreciate help with the girls. Sophia was, in fact, delighted. "They're driving me crazy," she admitted. "They're getting so excited about the holiday. They were allowed to attend the first half- hour of the party last night. It was supposed to mollify them. I think it was a mistake." "If I'd been there I could have kept them away," Kate said. "No, if you'd been there, Damon would have monopolised you." Sophia smiled. Kate doubted that. He hadn't seemed to care at all. She wondered if he'd even noticed she was gone. "Would you like me to take the girls to the park for a while?" "Would you? Just for an hour or so." Sophia yawned. "The baby didn't give me any rest last night." Sophia retired to her bedroom
while Kate bundled the girls into their jackets and mittens. The door to the study opened as they were leaving. Stephanos smiled at them. "You're back," he said to Kate, and he seemed more pleased to see her than Damon had. "Kate's going to take us skating again. Papa," Leda told him. "Can you come, too?" "Please, Papa," begged Christina. "Girls, your father has plenty of work to do," Kate said quickly, but Stephanos shrugged. "Why not?" Kate opened her mouth to protest, then realised she couldn't. Not in front of the girls. Stephanos seemed to know what she'd been going to say, though, for he gave her a brief smile. "Don't worry," he told her, "I've learned my lesson." "What lesson. Papa?" Christina demanded. Stephanos shrugged into his jacket and opened the door for them. "It's not important, little one," he said gently. "Let go." The girls were delighted to have their father along. And as they walked to the park, Kate felt less self- conscious and apprehensive in his presence as well. Stephanos had come a long way from the lecherous man who'd sought a nanny and something more. Damon had been right: he'd never made a move on her again. In fact, over the past couple of months Kate had seen him grow increasingly more doting when it came to Sophia. And now his interest seemed to extend to the girls as well. He^helped them lace up their skates, then stood back and watched, a proud father expression on his face, as they let go of his hands and skated away. "Amazing," he said after a moment. "One minute they're babies, the next they're off to school. I missed a lot of it." Kate didn't say anything, just stood watching the girls. Privately she agreed, but she didn't imagine he wanted to hear it. "I owe it to you, waking me up," he said. "You and Damon." Then she did look at him. "What?" He had the grace to look embarrassed. "Watching you two fall in love made me take another look at Sophia. At what I'd had with her and was in danger of losing." Kate could feel her own cheeks warm. She looked away, not wanting Stephanos to see the guilt on her face. "I'm not saying this to embarrass you," he told her. "I'm trying to say thanks." "You're welcome," she mumbled. "When I married Sophia, I was in love with her. Desperately in love. I'd have done anything for her. Including going to work in her family business, which was what. she wanted. Including always coming in second to Damon. " Kate shot him an oblique glance, interested in what he was saying, edging closer, still however, keeping most of her visible attention on the girls. "I don't like admitting it, but it began to get on my nerves. Everything I did, everything I tried, it seemed as if the whole family thought Damon could have done better. I got mad. And--' he raked a hand through his hair- I started staying away. Going out on my own. Finding my own friends. What the. hell? I thought. What do they care? I figured I was a disappointment to Sophia. " "She never said that to me," Kate told him quickly. "I think she loves you very much." "I do, too," Stephanos admitted. "But it took you to make me see it." He dug his toe in the newly fallen snow. "I thought Damon was only marrying you to make sure I kept my hands off. I thought, good, serves him right, getting in a marriage like that, him so bound and determined to do everything right. And then I saw that he really loved you." Kate bunked. "You did? When?" "Everywhere. Right from the first. The way he looked at you. How attentive he was. How he didn't let you out of his sight on the island." Sex, Kate told herself. It was because he valued her physically. But somewhere deep inside she felt a shaft of hope. "And if you'd seen him last night when you weren't there." "What happened last night?" "He came rushing in late straight from the plane from Montreal. He didn't even change. And he wanted to know where you were." "And that shows how much he loves me?" Kate knew she might be betraying her doubts to Stephanos, but she couldn't help it. She needed to know what he knew. "If he didn't, he'd have been drooling all over Eleni." "Who's Eleni?" "A friend of Pan's. Gorgeous woman. Her father was a colleague of Mr Alexakis. Bleni's got a business of her own now--something in textiles--but Pan says she'd give it up in a minute if the right man came along." "Damon?" Stephanos scowled at her. "Of course not. He's married to you. Oops, there goes Leda, right on her nose!" And Stephanos took off across the ice rink to rescue his daughter. Damon loved her. Kate wished she could believe it. With all her heart and all her soul, she wished that the man she loved loved her. Sometimes, like in the middle of the night when he turned to her in passion or in the middle of Christmas afternoon when he walked behind her chair and brushed a hand across her hair, she could almost believe he did. Or maybe then she was just better able to fool herself. For certainly other times he seemed preoccupied, distracted, as if he really wasn't a part of her world at all. Still, Kate was loath to believe otherwise as long as she had a chance. And she thought she did, until the day that Nestor Stephanos Adropolis made his appearance in the world. It was the day after New Year's. Sophia had awakened before dawn with a faint backache. She hadn't wanted to bother anyone, she told the family later, so she'd waited until the vague ache had escalated into contractions five minutes apart. Then she woke her husband. "You have to come now! Now!" Stephanos was frantic when Kate picked up the bedside phone. TO be right there. " "Tell him to relax," Damon said loud enough for his brother-in-law to hear. "I'll tell him that when you're having your first," Stephanos said roughly to Kate. "Get over here now." "We will," Kate promised in her best soothing voice and hung up. "Come on. It's time." Sophia, for all that she began her labour quickly, got most of the way there, then slowed down. Kate, at home with the girls, waited by the phone for what seemed like hours until, at last, the call came at five that evening. "It's a boy," Stephanos told her, and he sounded exhausted enough to have given birth himself. "Congratulations," Kate said. "How's Sophia?" "Tired. Fine, but tired. We both are. We'd thought about having you bring the girls up tonight to see him, but I think it would be better if you wait until tomorrow." "Of course," Kate agreed, though she was eager to see the baby herself. "Damon will bring you the Polaroids." "He was there?" "Waiting in the hall the whole time. You didn't imagine he'd let the next generation arrive without him, did you?" Stephanos teased. "No," Kate said. "Of course not." Stephanos was right, of course. The baby would matter a lot to Damon. As much as he might grumble about his mother and his sisters and their problems, he was always right there to solve them or at least to lend moral support. Kate had often thought about what a good father he would be. She tried to imagine a child they might have, then stopped. It was far too tempting. Damon came bearing Polaroids and Chinese take away The girls were so excited to see photos of their new brother that they only picked at the sweet and sour pork. It took Damon's most determined stern father look to get them to settle down and eat. "You won't be able to go see him tomorrow," he told his nieces, 'if you don't eat a good dinner and get plenty of sleep tonight. " The girls calmed down enough to eat. After an hour of television and three bedtime stories, they allowed the light to go out. Eventually they even slept, leaving Damon and Kate alone together. For days it seemed they'd done nothing much more than pass in hallways and chat inconsequentially over meals. There'd been nights of passion, of course, but the closeness Kate had sensed building between them seemed to be eluding them now. She told herself that it would pass. She knew Damon had a lot on his mind with the problems in Montreal, and she knew more work than ever was falling on his shoulders, especially since Stephanos was preoccupied with his wife and new arrival. But ever since her conversation at the ice rink with her brother-in-law, Kate had told herself that it would work out, that she had reason to hope. Damon loved her. Now she came back into the living-room to find Damon concentrating on a magazine. "He's lovely, isn't he?" she asked, carrying the pictures as she came back from checking on the girls. Damon glanced up briefly. "Wrinkled and red, actually." His dismissive tone surprised her. She laughed. "All babies are. They improve." Damon shrugged. "Good thing." He went back to his magazine as if it were far more interesting than she was. Deliberately Kate sat down on the sofa next to him, edging close, hoping he would put his arm around her and draw her into an embrace, hoping that Nestor's birth would spark a paternal instinct in Damon, would make him want sons of his own with her. He stiffened slightly, then stood up and rubbed a hand agains
t the back of his neck, leaving her alone on the couch. "I've got work to do," he muttered. "All those hours at the hospital. . ." He didn't even look at her, just crossed the room and grabbed his briefcase which was still by the front door. "I'll use Stephanos's study." When Stephanos came home about ten he was still there. Kate listened to her brother-in-law, bubbling and eager to talk about his new son. She smiled, praised, said all the right things. Then she went to bed in the guest-room where she and Damon had agreed to spend the night. Damon was still working. It was past midnight when he came in, but she hadn't slept; she'd thought. And she was still thinking as she watched him strip off his clothes in the dark and slip into bed beside her. "Damon?" she touched his arm. He tensed for an instant, then turned to her, took her into his arms and kissed her. It was a hungry kiss. Almost, Kate would have said, a desperate kiss. And then he loved her, shattered her. . and then he slept. She saw Nestor Stephanos the next afternoon. He was wrinkly and red and very, very beautiful. Simply seeing him made her ache with maternal longings. She sat beside Sophia's bed and held him in her arms and cooed down at him, marvelling at the way his dark eyes tried to focus on her, at the way his tiny hand gripped her finger so fiercely. She looked over at Sophia and smiled. "He's gorgeous!" Kate looked up to see Helena, Pandora and a dark- haired woman she didn't know standing in the doorway. Behind them, looking at her, was Damon. He ushered them in as Helena looked at the unknown woman with grandmotherly disdain. "Of course he is, Eleni," she said. "How could you possibly think otherwise?" The dark-haired woman, obviously the Eleni that Stephanos had mentioned, laughed and crossed the room to stand by Kate and smile down at her and the baby. "May I?" Reluctantly Kate gave him up, watching as the other woman cuddled the baby close. "Isn't he precious?" Eleni asked. "Don't you wish you had one of your own, Damon?" She slanted a glance at her friend's brother. And Kate, looking at Damon, saw an expression on his face that she'd never seen before: a wistfulness, a hunger that sent a shaft of yearning right through her. And then he looked at her and something happened. The wistfulness faded, the hunger died. His expression closed. He shrugged. She couldn't lie to herself any longer. She couldn't pretend that their marriage would ever be more than the sham Damon had offered her at the first. No matter what she'd begun to hope, they had a marriage of convenience, nothing else. The passion, the sex, the joy they'd taken in each other's bodies was physical release and nothing more. Of course he'd taken her when she'd been willing. He was a man, wasn't he? Men were quite willing to share sex without love. And, despite what Stephanos had claimed, he didn't love her. If he did, he wouldn't withdraw from her. He would talk to her, share with her, confide in her. He wouldn't brush her off and walk away. He wouldn't pretend un interest in children when it was clear he wanted some of his own. What was even more clear was that he didn't want them with her. Did he want them with Eleni? Kate didn't know. Maybe. Maybe not. Certainly he'd looked enchanted at the sight of Eleni holding the baby. But it really didn't matter whether it was Eleni or some other woman that he some day fell in love with. It only mattered that he didn't love her. It was cowardly, and she knew it, but she couldn't live the lie any longer. She waited three days, until the Barlowes' nanny Charlotte was back on her feet and able to cope. Then she called Mrs Partridge back from East Hampton and settled her in with Sophia, the twins and a far less red and wrinkled Nestor. It was nothing more or less than what she'd intended to do all along, she told them and herself. She kissed the baby and hugged the girls. She smiled. She waved. "You're not leaving forever," Sophia said. "You're only going home to Damon." Kate smiled again as she backed out of the door and blinked back the tears. She did go home to Damon's, but only long enough to leave him a note. Then she packed her bags and left.