The Heiress

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Jack nodded. “I had a summer job in the mailroom at Deveraux Shipping during the first days of Tom’s divorce from Grace, thirteen years ago. I know how miserable everyone in that family was back then. And in some ways, still is. Divorce hurts, Daisy—maybe even worse than being abandoned at the outset, because at least then you’re not really aware of what is going on.”

  Daisy had to admit Jack made sense, but only to a point. She squared her shoulders and continued to the outpatient services entrance. “If we divorce when the baby is an infant, the baby won’t know any better.”

  Jack followed Daisy through the automatic glass doors. He put his arm around her shoulders and guided her into a deserted alcove near the coffee shop. “You were abandoned when you were too little to know what was going on with your real parents. Does it hurt any less?”

  Bull’s-eye. Daisy ignored the sudden ache in her heart as she looked up at him and said quietly, “You are one difficult man. You know that?”

  Jack cupped a hand beneath her chin and gently tilted her face up to his. “I am a man who will always tell you the truth,” he said. “Even when that truth is uncomfortable for you to hear.”

  Daisy’s heart pounded as his lips lowered. She wanted very much to kiss him. But wary of where it would lead, Daisy pulled away, took a deep breath, then looked at the watch on her wrist. “We better hurry if we want to get up to the lab before it closes for the day,” she stated crisply.

  Jack acceded to her wishes promptly, but only, Daisy feared, because theirs was a discussion that could be continued later.

  THE BLOOD TEST WAS DONE quickly. Scant minutes later, they were back in the overheated red sedan. “So where does Connor live and just how much stuff do you have over at his place?” Jack asked casually.

  “Not that much,” Daisy said as she directed Jack to turn right out of the lot. “I like to travel light. And his loft is in a converted warehouse on Chalmers Street.” Daisy directed while Jack drove.

  “Interesting,” Jack said a short while later when Daisy had used her key and let them in. Connor’s loft was one of three in the building. His was on the third floor. The large space had distressed-brick walls and concrete floors, and had only one walled-off area—the bathroom. Everything else—bedroom, living, kitchen and dining areas—was completely open. There were no blinds on the plentiful multipaned windows, and the area was flooded with golden light. Daisy’s stuff—two suitcases and several boxes of clothes, shoes, books and portable stereo—were heaped in an untidy mess in the corner. “Just as I left it.” Daisy grinned, glad she could count on her older brother not to disturb her stuff.

  Jack braced his hands on his waist and considered the disorder with an amused shake of his head. “You’re messy, aren’t you?”

  “About some things.” Daisy couldn’t resist teasing him a little. “And you’re neat, obviously.”

  Jack nodded, eyes sparkling. “I’ll see what I can do about training you,” he promised as he lifted the first load of stuff. Daisy started to help, but he held her off. “Maybe you shouldn’t, you being pregnant and all.”

  “I won’t carry too much at once, okay? And nothing heavy. But there’s nothing wrong with me riding up and down in the freight elevator and walking across the parking lot. Besides, it’ll go faster if I help.”

  Jack conceded reluctantly. Together, they each took a load and headed back down. Just as they had finished putting her belongings in the trunk, Daisy’s luck ran out. She smiled at her brother, who had parked his Mercedes next to their sedan, and was walking across the parking lot toward them. “Connor.”

  “Hey Daisy.” Looking, as always, very handsome and self-assured in a classic Brooks Brothers suit and tie, the dark-haired Connor leaned forward to kiss Daisy on the cheek. “I didn’t know you were back from wherever you were.”

  “Well,” Daisy said brightly, hoping they could leave it at that, “I am.”

  Connor looked at Jack curiously. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”

  Daisy waved at the two men hastily. “Jack, Connor. Connor, Jack.”

  “Connor Templeton.” Connor extended his hand.

  Jack shook it warmly. “Jack Granger.”

  Connor’s eyebrows knit together. “I don’t believe we’ve ever met.”

  “I’m company counsel for the Deveraux-Heyward Shipping Company,” Jack said.

  Connor shot another inquisitive look at Daisy.

  “Also, Daisy’s new husband,” Jack continued before Daisy could prevent him. Daisy swore beneath her breath. Too late, she realized she should have asked Jack to let her tell her family about the marriage. But now the cat was out of the bag.

  “Connor’s in commercial real estate,” Daisy said, hoping to change the subject. “And he’s quite successful, too.”

  “That’s terrific,” Jack said.

  Connor nodded absently. “Thanks.” Connor’s glance fell to their wedding rings. Whatever he was thinking about the nuptials, Daisy noted, Connor was keeping it to himself. Which was typical, Daisy thought, as her brother tried never to take sides on any issue when he could mediate it instead. “Do Mother and Father know?” he asked politely.

  “Not yet,” Daisy said. “And I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell them, at least not this evening, because it’s already been a very long day. And I don’t want to have to deal with them, too.”

  Connor frowned, his affection for their parents evident. “You should really cut them some slack, Daisy,” he said.

  Daisy scowled. “Somehow I knew you would defend them, Connor.” Then again, Richard and Charlotte had never criticized him. They had saved all that for their “daughters.”

  “I’m not defending them—lying to you and trying to pass you off as an adopted child was wrong,” Connor retorted compassionately as he wrapped a brotherly arm around Daisy’s slender shoulders. “But I do understand they were trying to protect you.”

  Daisy shrugged off his grip and turned to confront him. “You knew all along, didn’t you?” she asked angrily.

  Connor shrugged, not about to lie to her. “I suspected something was wrong, I just didn’t know what exactly.”

  “And didn’t ask?” Daisy countered incredulously.

  Connor’s dark eyebrows knit together. “I was ten years old when they brought you home, Daisy. All I knew was that Iris was still in Europe, and that there had been a lot of fighting, a lot of tears before she left.” He ran a hand through the layers of his neatly shorn brown hair. “When she came back, she was engaged to be married to Randolph Hayes IV, and she was, if not exactly happy, relieved or content or something. And I was delighted to have you in my life. You were a real ray of sunshine, Daisy, and you still are.”

  Daisy didn’t doubt her older brother felt that way about her. Connor was a good guy who had more or less always gone his own way, popping up now and then to play peacemaker within the family, but he wasn’t like anyone in the family. Wasn’t stuffy and overbearing like Richard or a follower and worrier like Charlotte, or into the family antiques business and the old-money lifestyle Iris was, nor wild and reckless like herself. Connor, Daisy thought, was more of a regular guy, who appreciated the finer things in life but didn’t absolutely have to have them like the rest of the Templetons, save Daisy. What Connor did need was peace and tranquillity amidst those around him. Hence, his habitual absence from the Templeton mansion.

  “I love you, too,” Daisy said quietly. He was kind and gentle, and although he didn’t always or even often approve of what she did, he was a steady presence in her life, offering unconditional familial ties instead of trying to control her by cutting her off, emotionally and financially.

  Connor looked at her beseechingly. “Mother and Father should not have to hear about your marriage from someone outside the family, Daisy.”

  Daisy sighed. She knew a losing battle when she saw one. “Do whatever you think best, then, Connor. I know you will anyway.” Daisy gave him her permission to break t
he news for her and kissed his cheek. “But I’d appreciate it if you would wait until morning.”

  They all said goodbye and Jack helped Daisy into the car. “Maybe your brother’s right,” he said as he started to drive away. “Maybe we should tell Charlotte and Richard now.”

  Daisy disagreed. “I really think it would be best if the initial information came from Connor.”

  Jack continued to look skeptical. “You don’t know them like I do. They’re going to be very demeaning when they find out I’ve married someone without an ounce of blue blood flowing through his veins. Not that I mean to insult you,” Daisy added hastily.

  “You didn’t.” Jack fit the key in the ignition and started the engine. Frowning at the music coming from the CD player, Jack reached behind him, in the back seat, and brought forward a canvas case. He popped it open and began sorting through it, even as he continued in a low distracted voice, “It’s the truth. I’m the illegitimate grandson of a dockworker for the Deveraux-Heyward Shipping Company.” He gave her a look beneath the shadow of his eyebrows. “Technically speaking, anyway, there probably is no good reason you should be with someone like me.”

  Except for the fact that he was kind and strong and smart and decent, and not afraid to either go head to head with her or stand by her in the midst of a storm. How many men could she say that about? Daisy wondered. Not many. Aware he had mentioned his grandfather but no one else, Daisy said, “What about your parents?” Who had they been?

  Jack pushed a button and ejected the CD. “My father was a merchant marine who didn’t want any part of me or my mother. He split before I was born and my mom took off when I was three.”

  So, Daisy thought, making note of the veiled pain in his eyes, she and Jack had more in common than she knew. She watched as Jack shrugged and flipped open another CD case. He put the disk in the player and adjusted the volume.

  “Do you have any memories of her?” Daisy asked.

  “Any memories I have as a little kid start at some point after that.” Jack turned his attention to his safety belt. His manner abrupt as his mood, Jack demanded, “So where to next?”

  Wondering how much more there was to Jack that she didn’t know, would never guess, Daisy lifted both hands, palm up. “I guess we should go home so I can get moved in, and get back to work tomorrow.”

  JACK COULD SEE Daisy was nervous about the prospect of living with him. It was apparent from the way she dallied, requesting they stop at a popular fish shack for fried clams and coleslaw on the way home, the video store and grocery. Jack didn’t mind the errands, or even her nonstop chatter about nothing in particular, but he did worry about her increasing emotional distance. It was as if she was ill at ease about how much she had revealed of herself to him and needed to wall herself off, keep him not just from getting too close, but from getting close at all.

  Jack had lived his entire life like that, with people setting out conditions, letting Jack know exactly how close he could get and no closer. And Jack had put up with it because in most situations he had no choice. But Jack was damned if he was going to begin the only marriage he would ever have that way. For the sake of their baby, he and Daisy had to do their best to make this union a real one in every way. Starting tonight.

  IT WAS NEARLY FIVE O’CLOCK when Charlotte stopped her longtime housekeeper, Maisie, in the upstairs hall. “Did Mr. Templeton leave his tuxedo out for dry cleaning this morning?” she asked.

  Maisie stopped dusting the furniture in Daisy’s old room. “No, ma’am. Do you want me to get it?”

  “No, Maisie, you go ahead with this room,” Charlotte said. “I want to get several of his other suits out, anyway.” Charlotte didn’t know what was going on with her husband. Usually, Richard was meticulous about leaving his suits out for the twice-weekly 6:00 p.m. pickup by their dry cleaner. But lately, ever since Daisy had gone off to Switzerland, he had been careless in the extreme, with all sorts of things. Charlotte knew Richard was upset by the recent turn of events. They both were. But that was no excuse for him to be so wrapped up in his own activities, whatever they were, that he might as well have been on another continent himself, for all the time he spent with her.

  However, there were worse things than an emotionally distant husband, Charlotte thought as she stepped into Richard’s closet, removed several suits from hangers and began routinely going through the pockets, pulling out business cards, spare cash, an I’m a Grandpa cigar, and a… Thong? What in heaven’s name! Charlotte stared at the scanty silver lamé undergarment. Where would Richard have gotten this? And why was it in the inner pocket of his favorite glen plaid suit?

  Blood draining from her face, Charlotte dropped the crumpled material into the trash, then immediately thought better of it. She didn’t want Maisie seeing such an item. Who knew what conclusion the housekeeper might leap to? She could think Richard had been to one of the strip clubs in the seamy part of town. Or worse, had a trampy mistress.

  Charlotte knew better, of course. Richard was not only quite impotent, he did not approve of extramarital affairs. And he loathed slutty women. Why, even in the early days of their marriage, he had forbidden Charlotte to wear anything with even a hint of décolletage. When other women were raising their hemlines to a disreputable degree, Richard had made sure Charlotte’s remained at the knee. She hadn’t minded, she’d liked the fact that Richard hadn’t wanted other men ogling her.

  Which was why, Charlotte thought firmly as she wrapped the offending garment in tissue and took it back to her room, to hide for later disposal, she knew not to worry.

  A number of their friends had had grandsons getting married. Most had had bachelor parties of some sort or another, a few of which Richard had actually attended. No doubt this, Charlotte thought grimly, was simply a remnant of one of those tawdry, gentlemen-only affairs.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  AT 10:00 P.M., Daisy was sitting in an Adirondack chair on Jack’s deck, looking out at the ocean. It was a beautiful star-filled summer night and the air was warm and scented with the tang of saltwater. Sitting there, watching the tide roll in and listening to the sound of the waves crash against the beach, Daisy felt more content and relaxed than she had in a very long time. Until she heard the sound of the sliding door open, and soft male footsteps coming up behind her. Then it all came rushing back, the marriage she had embarked upon yesterday and the wedding night they had spent sleeping on the plane.

  Jack came to a stop beside her. Daisy was still wearing the clothes she’d had on earlier in the day, but he was wearing a pair of boxers and nothing else. The shadow of evening beard on his face, he smelled like mint-flavored toothpaste and cologne. “What are you thinking about?” he asked softly.

  That was easy. Refusing to look at his impossibly broad shoulders or the bare sculpted muscles of his chest, or remember how strong and warm his body had felt when he had held her in his arms, Daisy turned her gaze to the crescent moon in the sky above. “How funny it is that I’m married.”

  Jack sifted his hand through her hair, let his palm come to rest against the curve of her cheek, then hunkered down beside her so he could look into her face. He traced the bow-shaped line of her lower lip with the pad of his thumb in a deliberately sensual manner that made her shiver in the balmy evening breeze. “Come to bed, Daisy.”

  Four little words, and yet they held so much promise. Too much maybe. Daisy swallowed around the sudden tightness of her throat, and avoiding the sensual expectation in his eyes, the tingling of her body, she turned her glance back to the waves rolling onto shore. “I’m not sleepy,” she told him stubbornly.

  Jack dropped his hand from her face, closed his callused palm around hers and got to his feet once again. “You don’t have to be sleepy.”

  The breath hitched in her throat as she continued to play it cool. All sorts of erotic images filled her head, all of them of Jack and the one night they had spent together. A night that was already beginning to mean far too much. “Jack…” Daisy ca
utioned on a quiet sigh. How was she going to keep her heart intact if he insisted on behaving in such a sincere manner? She didn’t want to fall in love with him. Didn’t want to feel anything, except maybe friendship. And even that…

  Suddenly he caught her wrist and tugged her to her feet. Thrown off balance by the unexpectedness of his actions, Daisy stumbled into him. “What are you doing?”

  Jack’s smile spread even more enticingly as he rubbed his nose with hers. “Just living up to my end of the bargain, sweetheart.” Sliding one arm beneath her knees, the other behind her back, he lifted her up in his arms and carried her toward the open sliding glass door off the deck. “And giving us that wedding night we both so deserve.”

  Doing her best to hang on to her composure as her husband carried her into the house, Daisy looped both arms around Jack’s neck. Looking into his eyes, she murmured softly, “I thought we had a deal.”

  “You’re right.” Jack closed the door with his elbow and then continued through the informal living area, down the hall, to the only bedroom in the house. “We did.” Jack lowered her gently onto the turned-down covers of the king-size bed. Grinning, he summed up the gist of Daisy’s prewedding demands. “As I recall, I was to marry you and give our baby a name.”

  “And you’ve done that.”

  She watched, mouth dry, as Jack stepped out of his boxers and joined her, completely naked, on the bed, his body already in a state of obvious arousal. Jack undid the button at her waist. “So?”

  Daisy caught his hand before he could draw the zipper down. “So you don’t need to pretend this is anything more than a marriage of convenience,” Daisy stated breathlessly, aware he hadn’t even kissed her yet and already her heart was pounding, her skin covered with goose bumps.

  Turning his attention to her throat, he lifted her hair and traced a wickedly arousing pattern, from the U of her collarbone to just behind her ear, with lips and teeth and tongue. “Tell me that again in five minutes, Daze, and I’ll believe you.”