She woke when her father made a sharp turn and eased to a stop in front of a guard house. He rolled down the window, and a blast of cold air alerted Hannah to the fact they’d arrived at their destination. She straightened and looked around. Although she’d never been on one before, she recognized immediately that they were entering a military compound.
“Dad?” she quizzed. “Where are we?”
“Bangor,” he announced a little too loudly. “We’re meeting Riley Murdock.”
* * *
In Chaplain Stewart’s office Riley sat, ramrod straight, across the room from Hannah Raymond and her stern-faced father. Riley’s gaze narrowed as he fired a look in her direction. Not once did she deign to glance his way. She sat, her back as rigid as his own, but although she held her head high, her gaze refused to meet his. Perhaps it was just as well.
First thing the previous morning, Riley had been called before his commanding officer. When he arrived, he’d discovered Chaplain Stewart and Lieutenant Commander Steven Kyle.
“Do you know a woman by the name of Hannah Raymond?” the chaplain had asked him.
Riley had reacted with surprise. For three months he’d been frantically searching for her, spending every available weekend combing the Seattle waterfront, asking if anyone had seen a woman of her description. He’d followed the leads, but each one had led to a frustrating dead end. He’d gone so far as to contact a detective agency, but they’d offered him little hope. All Riley knew about her was her first name and the fact she had shiny brown hair and dove-gray eyes. There simply hadn’t been enough information, and the agency had been discouraging.
“I know her,” Riley admitted.
“How well?”
Riley had stiffened. “Well enough.”
“Then you may be interested to learn she’s pregnant,” Chaplain Stewart stated abruptly, looking at Riley as though he were the spawn of the devil.
Riley felt as if someone had knocked his feet out from under him, and then, when he was laid low, viciously kicked him.
“Pregnant,” he repeated, stunned, as though he’d never heard the word before.
“She claims the child is yours,” his CO explained. “She maintains it happened during Seafair, which means she’d be about three months along. Does that time frame gel with you?”
Fury and outrage twisted inside Riley until he couldn’t speak. All he could manage was a sharp nod. He clenched his powerful fists at his sides until he was sure he’d cut off the blood supply to his fingers.
“At Seafair?” the commanding officer pressed.
Again Riley nodded. “That would be about right.” The woman had put him through three months of living hell, and he wouldn’t soon forget or forgive that. “When did she contact you?” he asked his CO.
It was Chaplain Stewart who answered. “She didn’t.”
“Then who did?” he demanded.
“George Raymond, Hannah’s father. He’s had an extensive investigation done on you, as well.”
Great. Wonderful. Now Riley was going to be left to deal with an irate father. That was exactly what he needed to start his day off on the wrong foot.
“George and I attended seminary together,” the chaplain had continued, and it was clear from the way he spoke that the two men had been good friends. “When Hannah confessed that the father of her unborn child was in the Navy, George contacted me, hoping I’d be able to help him locate you.”
Riley couldn’t believe this was happening. The desire to wring Hannah’s scrawny neck increased by the minute.
Hannah was pregnant! If he had any luck, Riley swore, it was all bad. Okay, so he was being mildly unreasonable. But she was the one who’d come on to him. He’d assumed, at least in the beginning, that she must be using protection. If he’d believed otherwise he would have taken care of the matter himself. It wasn’t until after he’d discovered she was a virgin that he had briefly wondered. And worried. He’d admit now that the deed was staring him in the face.
“What does she want?” Riley demanded. Support, medical bills, maybe even an allotment to cover her expenses while she was unable to work. Riley had no intention of sloughing off his duty. He was the one responsible and he’d own up to it.
Chaplain Stewart stood and walked across the room. He paused and then rubbed his hand along the back of his neck, as if he needed extra time to shepherd his thoughts.
“As I told you earlier, George Raymond is a minister. In his mind there’s only one thing to be done.”
“And that is?” Riley demanded, remembering he’d left his checkbook at his apartment.
“He wants you to marry his daughter.”
“What?” Riley was so shocked he nearly laughed out loud. “Marry her? Hell, I don’t even know her.”
“You know her well enough,” the chaplain reminded him, throwing Riley’s own words back in his face. “Listen, son,” he continued thoughtfully, “no one’s going to force you to marry the girl.”
“You’re damn right about that,” Riley returned heatedly, slightly amused that he’d gone from Satan’s spawn to “son” in a matter of a few minutes.
“Hannah’s not like other women.”
Riley didn’t need to be reminded of that, either. No one else he’d ever kissed tasted half as good as she had, or smelled so fresh and lovely. No other woman had loved him nearly as well, Riley reminded himself regretfully; her untutored responses haunted him still. He’d felt engulfed by her tenderness, awed by her beauty and jolted by her hungry need. She’d been so tight and so hot that even now, he couldn’t think about their night together without wanting her again.
“You have to understand,” Chaplain Stewart went on to say, “Hannah’s been raised in the church. Her mother died when she was in her early teens, and she took over the family responsibilities then. Her older brother’s in the mission field in India. This young woman comes from as traditional a background as you can imagine.”
That was all fine and wonderful. She’d cared for her family, and he didn’t doubt she possessed more than one admirable trait, but Riley wasn’t convinced marriage would be the best solution to the problem. Not only weren’t they acquainted, Hannah’s life couldn’t have been less like his own had they sat down and drawn up a composite of opposite family types.
“Wanting to protect those she loves, not wanting to shame her family, Hannah’s apparently opted to move away.”
“Where?” Riley demanded, instantly alarmed. He had the feeling he was going to end up following this woman halfway across the country before this was over.
“I’m hoping her leaving the area won’t be necessary,” Chaplain Stewart said pointedly.
“What the chaplain is saying,” Lieutenant Commander Kyle stressed, “is that if you married the young lady it would solve several problems. But I want it understood, that decision is yours.”
Riley stiffened. No one was going to force him into marrying against his will. He’d rot in jail before he’d be pressured into wedding a woman he didn’t want. At his silence, Riley’s CO leafed through his file, which was spread open across the top of his desk. Riley would be up for Senior Chief within the next couple of years, and the promotion was important to him. Damn important.
“Think about what Chaplain Stewart has said,” Lieutenant Commander Kyle urged. “The Navy can’t and won’t force you to marry the woman.”
“That’s true enough,” the chaplain added. “But from everything I’ve seen and heard, I believe it’s the only decent thing you can do.”
Both men were looking at him as if he’d enticed Hannah Raymond into his bed. They weren’t likely to believe she’d been the one who’d seduced him!
Riley had brooded over the meeting with Lieutenant Commander Kyle and Chaplain Stewart all night. Hannah was pregnant with his child and the chaplain was breathing down his back like monster dragons exhaling fire. Although his CO hadn’t said it, Riley had the impression his promotion might well hang in the balance. Everyone else seeme
d to know what he should do about it. Everyone, that is, except him.
Now that he saw Hannah again, Riley was even more uncertain. He remembered her as being a lovely creature, but not nearly so delicate and ethereal. She was thin—thinner than when he’d met her that July night—and so pale he wondered about her health.
Riley feared the pregnancy had already taken its toll on her, and he couldn’t help being concerned about her well-being. The urge to protect and care for her was strong, but Riley pushed it aside in favor of the anger that had been building within him for the past several months.
He had damn good reason for being furious with her.
“Are you convinced the child is yours?” Chaplain Stewart directed the question to Riley.
The room went still, as though everyone were on tenterhooks anticipating his reply. “The baby’s mine,” he answered firmly.
Hannah’s soft gray gaze slid to his as if she longed to thank him for telling the truth. He wanted to leap to his feet and remind her that she’d been the one to run out on him. It hadn’t happened the other way around. If anyone’s integrity was to be questioned, then it should be hers.
“Are you prepared to marry my daughter?” demanded the thin, graying man Riley could only assume was Hannah’s father.
“Dad?” Hannah gasped, pleading with her father. “Don’t do this, please.” Her voice was soft and honest, and Riley doubted that many men could refuse her.
Reverend Raymond looked at Riley as if he fully expected him to sprout horns and drag out a pitchfork. If that were the case, it was ironic that the minister was demanding that Riley marry his daughter.
“As your father, I insist this young man do right by you.”
“Chaplain Stewart,” Hannah said, coming to her feet, ignoring her father. “Could Riley and I talk for a few minutes…alone?” The last word was added pointedly.
The two older men seemed to reach a tacit agreement. “All right, Hannah” the Navy chaplain agreed, coming to his feet. “Perhaps that would be for the best. Come on, George. I’ll pour us a cup of coffee and we’ll leave these two to sort out their problems in their own way. I have faith young Murdock means well.”
Riley waited until the door had closed before he leaped to his feet. He glared across the room at Hannah, not knowing what to do first—shake her until her teeth rattled or gently take her in his arms and demand to know why she was so deathly pale. Before he had the opportunity to speak, she did.
“I’m terribly sorry about all this,” she murmured. “I had no idea my father had contacted you.”
“Why’d you leave?” he bit out the question between clenched teeth, still undecided about how he was going to deal with her.
She frowned as if she didn’t understand his question. Her brow creased until she understood, and then it creased even more. “I suppose I owe you an apology for that, as well.”
“You’re damn right you do.”
“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
“Obviously,” he retorted, trapped in his anger. “No one in their right mind would do this to themselves. The question is, what the hell are we going to do about it now?”
“Oh, don’t worry. It isn’t necessary for you to marry me. I don’t know what ever made Dad suggest that.”
She seemed so damn smug about it, and that riled him all the more.
“Apparently your father feels differently. He seems to think my marrying you would salvage your honor.”
She nodded. Her hair was tied at her nape, giving Riley a clear view of the delicate lines of her face. As pale as she was, she resembled a porcelain doll, fragile and easily breakable. She looked dangerously close to that point right then.
“My father is an old-fashioned man with traditional values. Marriage is what he would expect.”
“What do you expect?” His tone was less harsh, his concern for her outweighing his irritation.
Hannah placed her hand on her smooth stomach as though she longed to protect the child. Riley’s gaze dropped there, and he waited a moment, trying to analyze his own feelings. A child grew there. His child. Try as he might, he felt nothing except regret mingled with a healthy dose of concern.
“I…I’m not sure what I want from you,” Hannah answered. “As I tried to tell you before, I feel terrible about dragging you into this mess.”
“It takes two. You didn’t create that child on your own.”
Her smile was shy. “Yes, I know. It’s just that I never meant to involve you…afterward.”
That didn’t set any better with Riley than the implied threat from his commanding officer. “So you intended to run off and have my child without telling me?”
“I…didn’t have a clue as to how to find you,” she argued.
“Your father didn’t seem to have much of a problem.”
She looked away as though she wanted to avoid an argument. “I didn’t know if you wanted me to contact you.”
She sure the hell had a low opinion of him. It rankled Riley that Miss High-and-Mighty would make those kinds of assumptions about him.
“Next time don’t assume anything,” he barked. “Ask!”
“I apologize—”
“That’s another thing. Quit apologizing.” He held both hands to his head, hoping the applied pressure to his scalp would help him think.
“Are you always this difficult to talk to?” she asked. He was pleased to hear a little mettle in her voice. It told him he hadn’t been wrong about her. This woman had plenty of spirit. It also assured him her health wasn’t as bad as he suspected.
“I am when I’ve been backed into a corner,” Riley stormed.
She stood and reached for her coat. “Then let me assure you I’m not the one forcing you into a marriage you obviously don’t want.”
“You’re right. It isn’t you. It’s the United States Navy.”
“The Navy? I…don’t understand.”
“I don’t expect you to,” Riley barked. “It’s either do right by you or kiss a promotion I’ve been working toward for the last several years goodbye.” Lieutenant Commander Kyle had implied as much in a few short words.
“Oh, dear. I had no idea.”
“Obviously not.” He rammed all ten fingers through his hair, then dropped his hands to his sides. “My career could be on the line with this one, sweetheart.” That was an exaggeration, but in some ways Riley felt it could be true.
Hannah grimaced at the derogatory way in which he’d used the term of affection. “But surely if I spoke to them…if I were to explain…”
Riley laughed shortly. “Not a chance. Your father made sure of that.”
“I didn’t know.”
“The way I see it,” he said with thick agitation, “I don’t have a hell of a lot of choice but to go ahead and marry you.”
Hannah’s head snapped up at that. “You…can’t seriously be considering going through with a wedding.”
“I’ve never been more serious in my life.”
Chapter Three
In a matter of hours, Hannah was scheduled to become Mrs. Riley Murdock. She sat on the end of her bed, wrestling imaginary crocodiles of doubt and indecision. They might as well be real, she mused, clenching and unclenching her hands. She felt as though there were powerful jaws snapping at her, jagged teeth tearing at her confidence and determination.
It was Jerry she loved, not Riley. Nothing would ever make the hard-edged sailor into another seminary student. Hannah wasn’t foolish enough to believe the Torpedoman Chief was likely to change. One look at his cold, dark features the afternoon of the meeting at Bangor reminded her what a rugged life he led. There was nothing soft in this man. Nothing.
The day of the meeting, he’d been both angry and restless, stalking the room, thundering at her every time she attempted to apologize. In some ways she was convinced he hated her.
Yet it was his child growing within her womb. Hannah flattened her hand across her abdomen and briefly closed her eyes. D
espite the complications this pregnancy had brought into her life, Hannah loved and wanted this baby.
Hannah knew that Riley wasn’t marrying because of the pregnancy. By his own admission, he was doing so for political reasons. Both her father and Chaplain Stewart had seemed relieved when Riley had announced they had agreed to go through with the wedding.
Hannah had agreed to no such thing. She’d been trapped into it, the same way Riley had. She wasn’t sure even now, sitting in her room, dressed for her wedding ceremony, that she was making the right decision.
They were so different. She didn’t love him. He didn’t love her. They’d barely spoken to each other—and it was because they had nothing in common except the child she carried. How a marriage such as theirs could ever survive more than a few weeks, Hannah didn’t know.
“Hannah,” her father called after politely knocking on her bedroom door, “it’s time we left.”
“I’m ready,” she said, standing. She reached for the two suitcases and dragged them across the top of her bed. This was all she would bring into their marriage. The pot-and-pan set, the dishes, silverware and other household items she’d collected over the years were gone. She’d donated them to the Mission House the evening she’d met Riley. The irony hadn’t been lost on her. Nor had she forgotten how Reverend Parker had announced that God works in mysterious ways. Her entire life felt like an unsolved mystery, and she’d long since given up on deciphering the meaning.
She opened the bedroom door and found her father standing on the other side, waiting for her. He smiled softly and nodded his approval. “You look beautiful.”
She blushed and thanked him. She didn’t feel beautiful in her plain, floor-length antique-white dress, but having her father smile and tell her so lent her some badly needed confidence. The fact he seemed so sure that marrying Riley was the right thing helped a great deal. She’d always trusted her father and had never doubted his wisdom.
Debbie Macomber's Navy Box Set Page 82