by Leanne Banks
Bridget covered her hand in comfort and the Lafitte men arrived, filing into the front row of chairs reserved for Amelie’s family. Seconds later, the minister stood at the front of the group and began to speak.
He delivered a heartfelt message with touches of humor as he described Amelie as a child and how she seemed to have held on to her sense of wonder despite life’s trials. Nic then read a message his mother had written for the occasion. The sight of him so strong delivering his mother’s last words wrenched at her. She knew he had to be suffering but wouldn’t reveal it. Pippa wished with all her heart that she could help him.
As the service drew to a close, Pippa noticed Bebe, the proprietor of Amelie’s favorite creperie, move toward the front of the crowd. “Please forgive the interruption, but Amelie was such a joy. We were so thrilled to receive a visit from her a short time ago and she was just as beautiful as ever. Several of us who knew her have asked and received permission to plant some buddleia in her honor. We’ve planted one already. It’s over there,” Bebe said, pointing to the flowering bush to the left of the crowd.
Eve gave a loud sniff. “Now that could make even me cry. A butterfly bush.”
“And look,” Bridget said. “There are butterflies.”
Pippa saw the beautiful butterflies fluttering and met Nic’s knowing gaze. Amelie had often said she wanted to be a butterfly. In that moment, she felt the bond between Nic and her solidify. They would always remember, together.
* * *
Nic asked her to come to the cottage after the service. She had arranged for a catering service to bring food. With all the turmoil of the past few days, Nic, his brothers and his father might have forgotten to eat, but their hunger would remind them soon enough. When she arrived, they were silently eating. Nic introduced her to his brothers and they all responded politely. Moments later, they all scattered except Nic.
“It was a beautiful service. I believe Amelie would have approved,” she said.
“Yeah, especially with those butterflies. That caught me by surprise,” he said, shoving one of his hands into his pocket. He’d pulled off his necktie and opened his shirt. Dark circles rimmed his eyes. Pippa knew he hadn’t gotten much sleep.
“What else can I do for you?” she asked.
He pulled her into his arms. “Oh, hell, Pippa, you’ve already done more than I could imagine. The rest is up to me. I’ll pack up my dad and we’ll head out tomorrow.”
Surprise rushed through her. She’d known he planned to leave soon, but not this soon. “Tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I need to get him away from Chantaine. I’ll send in a team to clean up the cottage,” he said.
“I can make those arrangements,” she said.
“No, you’ve already done enough. Too much,” he said and sighed. “When I said fate would bring you and me together, I had no idea it would be for this. Or that it would turn out this way.”
Pippa felt a twist of nerves at his words. “What do you mean ‘turn out this way’?”
“Well, I’ve got to leave now. I’ve got to get my dad straight. There’s no one else to do it,” he said.
Alarm shot through her. “Are you saying goodbye?”
“No. I’m just saying I’m not free to be here with you right now. When I get my Dad settled, we’ll see if you’re still interested,” he said.
Pippa stared at him in disbelief. “Of course I’ll still be interested. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Your family still hates the Lafittes,” he said. “In their eyes, I’ll never be good enough for you.”
“My family is rethinking their stance on the Lafittes. Besides, what’s important is how I feel about you, not how they feel about you.”
“We’ll see, darlin’. You’ve taken a lot of heat for me. You deserve a break to decide if I’m worth the trouble,” he said.
“But, Nic,” she began and he covered her mouth with his index finger.
“Trust me. This is for the best,” he said and lowered his mouth to kiss her.
* * *
Two weeks later when Pippa hadn’t heard from Nic, she wasn’t at all sure this break, or whatever Nic called it, was for the best. Plus, there was the matter of her increasingly regular nausea. When she counted the number of days since her last menstrual period, she broke into a sweat and got sick to her stomach again.
Even though she’d known she was late a couple weeks ago, she figured it was due to stress. After all, Nic had always used protection. So nothing could happen, right? The combination of her symptoms and that strange conversation she’d had with Amelie just before Nic’s mother had died gnawed at her.
It took several more days for Pippa to work up the nerve to take a pregnancy test. She even dragged out the old disguise of the hated gray wig and ugly clothes and paid cash at the pharmacy so that no one would recognize her. She nearly fainted at the result. Positive. Perhaps she should get another test. She did, three of them, actually, from different pharmacies. The results were all positive.
She knew she needed to tell Nic, but this wasn’t the kind of news she could give over the phone. It wasn’t as if she could send a cheery little text saying Guess who’s going to be a daddy? She knew he must be terribly busy making up for lost time with his businesses and helping his father create a new life, but the lack of contact from him only fueled questions and doubts inside her.
She and Nic had never discussed marriage, and she really didn’t like the idea of him proposing just because she was pregnant. She wanted Nic to propose marriage because he didn’t want to live without her.
Pippa rolled her eyes at herself. As if Nic Lafitte would ever allow himself to want a woman that much.
Suffering more and more each passing day, she avoided her family. Her older sister Valentina may have gotten pregnant without the benefit of marriage, but she’d had the good sense not to tell Stefan until she was on another continent. Pippa didn’t want to even think about how to break the news to her brother.
She plunged herself into her studies and made progress that impressed even her. At the rate she was going, she could wrap up the last of her dissertation within a couple months. She wondered if she would be showing then. Another week passed and she hadn’t heard from Nic. What did this mean? Had he forgotten her? The possibility made her ill. What if this had just been a fling for him? What if he hadn’t fallen as deeply for her as she had for him? What if she was truly alone? And now with a baby on the way… Even with all the hours she’d been putting in for her dissertation, she was sleeping for only a few hours each night. She avoided looking in the mirror because she knew she was looking more tired and miserable with each passing day.
Pippa had successfully begged off two family dinners, but when Stefan called for an official meeting of all adult Devereauxs, she could no longer hide. The meeting was held in Stefan’s office, which indicated potentially serious business. As Pippa entered the office, she noted the additional chairs. Bridget, her older sister Ericka, who lived in Paris, and her younger brother, Jacques, who’d responded to Stefan’s missive by leaving his soccer team mid-tour. Ericka and Jacques were both talking on their cell phones.
“Pippa, there you are,” Bridget said, then frowned at her. “Oh, my goodness, you look dreadful. What have you been doing to yourself? You need to let me set up a day at the spa for you.”
“I’ve just been trying to make up time on my dissertation. Burning the midnight oil,” she said.
“Well, don’t burn any more. How are the Lafittes?” Bridget asked. “I apologize for not calling sooner. I’ve been so busy with the building of our ranch and both the twins got sick.”
“I know you’re busy. Nic and his father have gone back to the States. They both had a lot to do after Amelie’s death,” she said.
“Hmm,” Bridget said, her mind clearly whirling. “He’s been
in touch, though, hasn’t he? He hasn’t just abandoned you after you helped his family.”
“He hasn’t abandoned me,” Pippa said, even though she felt that way. “He’s just terribly busy right now. Do you know why Stefan has called the meeting?”
“No,” Bridget said.
“It must be big if he insisted that both Jacques and I come immediately,” Ericka said and gave Pippa a hug. “I hope no one is ill.”
Jacques turned off his phone and approached his sisters. “We’re all here except Valentina. I’m stumped about this one. Stefan can go over the top easier than most, but I don’t know—”
He broke off as Stefan and Eve entered the room. His assistant closed the door behind him. “Please be seated,” Stefan said, his face, devoid of humor.
Pippa’s stomach clenched at his expression.
Stefan gave a heavy sigh and sat on the edge of his desk. “As you all know, our father wasn’t perfect. We can be thankful to him for our lives, our positions. Nothing will change that. However, he had a mistress for several years. She was a small-time actress. Her name was Ava London.”
Pippa felt a stab of surprise, not that her father had stepped out on her mother, but that Stefan knew the identity of this woman. She slid a sideways glance at Bridget, whose mouth gaped open.
Stefan gave another heavy sigh. “During their affair, Ava gave birth to two children.”
Pippa and her siblings gasped in unison. Her mind whirled at the implications.
Stefan nodded. “According to the advisers, this development shouldn’t affect succession. The son, Maxwell Carter, is thirty years old and is living in Australia. The daughter, Coco Jordan, is a—” He cleared his throat. “She’s a nanny in Texas.”
Pippa felt her stomach roll with the news. She couldn’t help thinking about her own unborn child. “What else do we know about them? Did Ava raise them? What—”
Stefan shook his head. “Ava made an agreement with my father. He would support her until her death if she gave her children up for adoption and didn’t reveal their existence. Ava passed away two weeks ago and her attorney is determined to follow her wishes, which are to ensure that her children know that they have Devereaux blood.”
“Great,” Bridget muttered. “This sounds like a public relations nightmare.”
“It is,” Stefan said. “The two children may also have some rights to an inheritance.”
Bridget scoffed. “But they haven’t had to perform any duties,” she protested. “We’ve spent our life serving.”
“True, but our attorneys have not been able to determine the legalities concerning their inheritance,” he said.
Pippa skipped over the money issues. She had tried to be aware of economics ever since Stefan had begun to complain about frivolous costs. Her biggest expense had been the cost of her degree and she’d been fortunate to receive scholarships. “What are they like?”
She felt Bridget stare at her. “What do you mean what are they like? They’re illegitimate Devereauxs.”
“But they’re people, human beings,” Pippa said. “She’s our half sister. He’s our half brother.”
Eve met her gaze and smiled, giving her a thumbs-up.
“Leave it to Pippa to bring in the human element,” Stefan said and gave a half smile. “Both of Coco Jordan’s parents have died. She’s finishing her education after taking care of her mother during a terminal illness. Her parents left her no inheritance, so we’re not sure how she’ll respond to the news that she could gain financially from being a Devereaux. The advisers and public relations staff want to control the release of this information, so we will be inviting her to Chantaine as soon as possible.”
“Mon Dieu,” Ericka said. “You’re going to bring her here? Why will you not pay her off and bury this information?”
“Because in a contemporary media environment, we have learned it’s impossible to bury this kind of information. Our goal is to take this distressing news and to somehow make it work for us.”
“We call that taking lemons and making lemonade,” Eve said in her Texas drawl.
“So what’s our new brother like?” Jacques asked sarcastically. “Knowing our luck, he’s a drug dealer or something.”
“Not that bad,” Stefan conceded. “His adoptive parents live in Ohio. He graduated with a degree in engineering and has been working in Australia for the past few years.” He paused a half beat. “He hasn’t responded yet to our communications.”
“Has the daughter?” Bridget asked.
“Yes,” Stefan said. “But she hasn’t yet accepted our invitation to come to Chantaine.”
“Do you think this is a strategy to make us give her money?” Jacques asked.
“Jacques,” Pippa said, “must you be so suspicious? Maybe this has taken her off guard, too. If she stuck with her mother during an illness, she can’t be all bad.”
The room turned silent because they all knew that Pippa had just helped the Lafittes during their difficult time. Pippa’s stomach continued to churn. The realization that her father had denied his own children hit too close to the bone with her. She hadn’t been able to talk to Nic yet. How would he respond to the news about her pregnancy?
Suddenly, her feeling of nausea overwhelmed. “Excuse me, I need to leave,” she said and ran for the toilet connected to Nic’s office. After she was sick, she splashed her face and mouth with water. Glancing into the mirror, she braced herself for what she would face on the other side of her door.
Taking several deep breaths, Pippa opened the door. All of her siblings were standing, waiting. Bridget crossed her arms over her chest, tapping her foot. “Do you have something you want to tell us?” she asked.
Pippa bit her lip. “Not really,” she said.
Eve chuckled and the sound eased something inside her.
Stefan narrowed his eyes. “Pippa,” he said.
She sighed. “Eve’s not the only one who is pregnant,” she said.
Stefan’s face turned to granite. “Lafitte,” he said in disgust. “I’ll make him pay.”
Her stomach turned again. “No,” she said and raced for the toilet again.
Bless her Texan heart, Eve saved Pippa from a grueling discussion with Stefan. Pippa decided she needed to thank the heavens for Eve on a more regular basis. Eve had come through for her in several critical situations.
Pippa returned home and breathed a sigh of relief. She wished, however, that she would hear something, anything, from Nic. She finally gave in, called his cell and left a message. “Hope you and your father are okay,” she said. “I need to talk to you when you get a chance.”
Less that twenty-four hours later, she got a return call. When she saw the caller ID, her heart hammered so fast she could hardly breathe, let alone speak. “Hi,” she said.
“Hey,” he said. “It’s been nuts here. My father took too many sleeping pills and he’s been in the hospital. He’s in rehab right now and I’m working on interim housing for him. How are you?”
How could she top his troubles? “I’m fine. I just thought we should touch base,” she said, pacing the small den of her apartment.
A short silence followed. “You sound different. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes,” she said. “I’m fine.”
“I would have called you, but I’ve been slammed with my dad’s issues.”
“I understand,” she said, adding as much backbone to her voice as she could muster. “I’m sorry he’s struggling.”
“Yeah. I could have predicted it. The good news is my youngest brother has started checking in on him,” Nic said.
“That’s wonderful. I know your brothers’ relationship with your father has been, well, precarious,” she said.
“That’s a nice way of saying their relationship with him was
in the toilet. Flushed repeatedly,” Nic said. “My two other brothers don’t appear to give a rip, but Alex is working at it. There’s hope anyway.”
“That’s good,” she said. “I’m glad.”
Another awkward silence stretched between them. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” she insisted.
“How are the Devereauxs?” he asked.
“In perfect health,” she said.
“Good to hear. Stefan breathing down your throat?” he asked.
“No more than usual,” she said.
“I need to go,” he said. “I’ll call you in a couple of days. I’m glad you called. It’s so good to hear your voice.”
The call was disconnected and it took several seconds before she began to breathe again. His last words vibrated through her. It’s so good to hear your voice.
He called and left a message the following day. She missed it, damn it, because she was in a meeting with her professor. Three days after that, there was a knock at her door. She looked out the peephole. It was Nic. Her heart hammered against her rib cage. She felt a jolt of nausea rise from her belly.
“Just a moment,” Pippa called. She willed her stomach to calm down. Turning away from the door, she took several breaths and told herself she would get through this. She walked to the door and opened it. “Hi,” she said.
“Hi,” he said, studying her. “Are you okay? You don’t look well,” he said.
“It’s good to see you, too,” she said and headed for the toilet. Moments later, she returned to her small den where Nic stood with a brooding expression on his face.
“You’re not sick, are you?” he asked.
“Not really,” she said. “I’ve just had some nausea lately.”
He frowned. “That was one of my mother’s symptoms,” he said.
Her heart softened. “Oh, it’s not that. I’m not sick that way, Nic.”
“How can you be sure?” he asked.
“I just am. Trust me,” she said.
He searched her face for a long moment. “Then what is it?”