The Housekeeper's Daughter

by Laurie Paige

  There was the baby to think of. Every child needed a full-time father. Perhaps she should marry him, then try to reach the hidden parts of him, to win him with her love.

  But somehow, she felt sure this was something Drake had to do on his own. If they were to have a real marriage.

  She realized she was gambling with their future as much as Drake did each time he went out on a mission. “He must come to us,” she resolutely told the baby and held the terrible, terrible grief at bay with an effort.

  The ringing of the telephone jarred her. She answered reluctantly, still lost in sadness.

  “Maya, this is your big sister. Were you ever planning on telling me I am now an aunt?”

  “I meant to call, but…I’m sorry.”

  “Hey, it’s okay. So how’s our girl?”

  “Fine. An angel. And beautiful.”

  “Of course. She has designer genes,” Lana teased, then sobered. “How is Drake handling things?”

  Maya couldn’t hold back a sigh. “He thinks we should marry.” She explained everything that had happened.

  Lana was silent until she finished, then she, too, sighed. “I’ll be home soon. My job here is nearly done. My patient is settling in nicely with her sister. Her daughter lives nearby. The Homecare nurse comes by everyday. I’ll be coming back to Prosperino soon. Call me whenever you need to. Promise?”

  “I promise.” Maya said goodbye and hung up. She felt utterly alone for a moment. Then her daughter made a little smacking sound. She smiled, comforted by this small thing.

  Drake woke with a jerk from a nap. He’d been dreaming, but he couldn’t recall the dream. He didn’t want to. His dreams were all nightmares, anyway.

  Rising from his bed, he headed for the living room. No one there. His father wasn’t in the den, either. From the sunroom, he caught sight of Joe Senior outside, working on the fountain in the middle of the patio garden.

  He pulled on a jacket and went outside to help. “Is it broken?” he asked when he was close.

  His father glanced up with a start, then smiled in welcome. Drake wondered what the older man’s thoughts were.

  Family problems, he answered his own question. Trouble was reflected in the blue depths of his father’s eyes. Looking into them was like looking into his own soul. Both he and his father were haunted, it seemed, by the past and the present.

  “No, no,” Joe said. “I’m just puttering. It’s what old men do, you know.”

  “Ah, so that’s what I have to look forward to in my dotage,” Drake teased.

  He picked up the net and dipped some leaves out of the crystal water. His father cleared the spigot where the water usually bubbled. Drake cleaned the filter basket.

  “Ready to turn the water on?” Joe asked.

  Drake replaced the basket. “Yes.”

  The water gurgled, shot a spray up in a graceful arc, then plummeted into the circular pool where goldfish swished their tails and swam lazily through the icy-cold, spring-fed water.

  “Getting colder,” Joe said. “It’s supposed to rain tonight.” He scanned the sky and the clouds that darkened as the day lengthened into late afternoon.

  “Yes,” Drake said absently, his mind on Maya and the baby and the changes that a moment of unguarded passion could make in a life.

  Lives, he corrected. More than one life was involved in the present conundrum. His. Maya’s. Marissa’s. Even his mother and father were involved. After all, Marissa was their grandchild. He sighed, frustrated because he was unable to think through the situation and come up with a game plan. Maya wasn’t playing along with him, he admitted with a sardonic twist.

  Joe sat on the edge of the fountain. Drake propped a foot on it and frowned at the misty ocean.

  “I’m adding a codicil to my will,” his father announced. “To include your Marissa.”

  “You don’t have to,” Drake told him. “I’ve arranged for everything I have to go to Maya. She and the baby will be taken care of.”

  “I know you’ll take care of your own. This is something I want to do. Your mother and I,” he added quickly.

  Drake didn’t say anything to this last. He wasn’t sure his mother would ever acknowledge Marissa. She hardly seemed to know her own children were alive. Except for her on-and-off attention to Joe Junior and Teddy.

  “We were so thrilled when you and Michael were born,” Joe continued, obviously lost in his own thoughts of the past. “Such beautiful babies. And smart, too. Rand was a toddler then, full of spunk and curiosity. We were so proud of our little family. When Sophie and Amber came along, we thought it was perfect.”

  “Then the kids grow up,” Drake remarked dryly, noting the sadness that flashed through his father’s eyes.

  Joe nodded absently. “Life moves along, not always down the road you’d prefer it take.”

  “True. Maya isn’t cooperating at all.”

  Joe studied his son, seeing beneath the surface irony to the man inside, and beyond the man, to the boy who had lived with guilt and regret most of his life. Drake had been the most serious of his children, taking more than his share of responsibility for the family and its welfare. The tragedy of his twin’s death weighed on his soul.

  “We can’t make others conform to our wills,” he said, his thoughts going to the Meredith he’d known in the past, unable to keep from comparing her to the present woman who lived in his house but was a stranger to him.

  “I don’t expect Maya to conform, but we have a child to think of. I don’t want to be an absent father.”

  “A child needs both its parents.”

  “Yes, but when I told Maya I was going to resign my commission and take a regular job, she got furious about it. She said I decided without consulting her.”

  Joe suppressed a smile. Drake was frustrated in his attempts to do the right thing, but, man-like, he thought he could decide what was best and follow through. “I take it that Maya has her own thoughts about marriage and the running of it.”

  “She’s stubborn,” Drake admitted. “I never suspected how much.”

  This time Joe did smile. “I remember a quarrel your mother and I had during the early years. I sent you boys to bed without supper for some infraction. She didn’t think withholding food was right.”

  “What happened?”

  “No supper was served that night.”

  “Not to anyone?”

  “No one. She said food, like love, was a basic necessity. If part of the family was deprived, then all had to share in the sacrifice.”

  “I remember that,” Drake said, his eyes going warm with the memory. “We all ended up having supper in the kitchen.”

  “Right. Your mom and I caught each other sneaking food to you boys, so we joined forces and had an impromptu midnight run on the pantry.”

  Joe was relieved to hear Drake’s chuckle. This trip so far hadn’t resulted in the happiness for his son that Joe had expected. His chest contracted in worry. That was the one thing he wanted most of all—a full and happy life for his children. So far Rand and Sophie were the only two who had settled into married bliss.

  But then marriage wasn’t always blissful.

  He had thought often on the moment when his had gone wrong. Was it when Meredith announced she was pregnant with Teddy? No, before that, obviously, since she’d taken a lover. A picture of Teddy’s blue eyes and blond curls leaped into his mind along with one of Graham’s identical coloring.

  He swallowed hard. Surely Meredith, his beloved Meredith, hadn’t gone to his brother….

  But there had been someone. Betrayal. That was a fact he’d had to learn to live with.

  “A man has to learn to put hurtful things behind him,” he said to Drake. “You’ll have to forgive Maya for not contacting you. Sometimes a person’s pride gets in the way of happiness,” he suggested, trying to be helpful without putting in his own two cents worth.

  “It isn’t that. She says I’m living in the past, but I’m trying to think of the futur
e, to provide a home for her and the baby. I thought she’d be happy….”

  Drake trailed off, puzzled and irritated with Maya’s stubborn insistence that he find his soul before coming to her with his heart.

  “Women like to be consulted on these things,” his father said, obviously trying to be kind. “Talk to her some more. If you really want to settle down to an office job, Colton Enterprises has plenty of positions that can use a good mover and shaker.”

  “Thanks.” Drake managed to smile at his dad. “Things certainly aren’t going as I expected. I arrived home on the sixth, fully expecting to be a married man by the seventh. Here it is, twelve days later. I’m a father, but no closer to being a husband that I can tell.”

  “Is it a question of caring?”

  I love you.

  Drake shook his head. “She…cares. So do I. It’s more a question of seeing eye to eye about the future.”

  “Talk to her. Don’t let happiness slip through your fingers without fighting to hold on to it with all your might.”

  “I don’t intend to,” Drake assured the other man, feeling heartened by the conversation. He and Maya shared a child and a wild, sweet passion. She’d said she loved him. How could he make her see they belonged together?

  “The rain is starting,” Joe said. “We’d better go in. I have a conference call with Peter and Emmett in a bit. Emmett wants to expand our oil operations. Peter says it isn’t a good time because of overproduction among the OPEC countries.”

  “Speaking for myself, I’d listen to Peter.”

  “He’s a good man,” his father agreed as they headed for the sunroom door.

  The men went to the den for a brandy. Drake lit a fire and settled in an easy chair as the mist turned to a downpour.

  Louise Smith woke with tears pouring down her cheeks. Outside, the Mississippi night had turned stormy, just as it had the other night when she’d woken from a nightmare. This time, it wasn’t a little red-haired girl she’d seen in her dreams, but two baby boys, as alike as two peas.

  Twins.

  Somehow she knew they were hers. She’d had at least one child, the doctors had told her.

  Where, oh, where were those babies?

  She rocked back and forth, her heart locked in turmoil and pain. She couldn’t bear it. She had to know. She had to find the past and face whatever horror it held, no matter how much it hurt.

  Those babies…they needed her. Her sweet lost babies…oh, God, the babies…

  “Please, please,” she whispered. “My children…my husband—”

  She pressed a hand over her mouth as the dark man appeared in her vision, his expression that of one stricken with unhappiness. He was real. So were the babies.

  She’d been married. She had children. Once she had loved and been loved.

  “I know it! I know it!” she cried. “Where are you?”

  Only the howling wind answered. A torrent of raindrops hit the windows as if the world cried with her, echoing her grief.

  “Please, God, please help me find them,” she prayed, fearing she was coming to the end of her tether, that the insanity that had once claimed her would do so again.

  Lost in the darkness of her mind, she might never find her past…or the love she’d once known.

  Her husband. Her babies. The red-haired girl who was now a woman. Other faces of other people, some children, some adults. She needed them. And they needed her. She was certain of it. They were in danger, grave danger. She felt it to the depths of her soul. And only she could save them.

  “Oh, please…please,” she cried. “Heavenly Father, help me. Help them.”

  Lightning flashed with a tremendous brightness and thunder rolled over the land with a great roar that shook buildings and rattled windows.

  “Joe,” she screamed, but the fury of the storm drowned out the word. It was terrifying, but no worse than the storm within.

  Eleven

  On Monday, six days after Marissa’s birth, Maya resumed her full duties. After getting Joe and Teddy off to school, she read a chapter in a book on early childhood, then napped until lunch. After eating, she gathered Marissa, then headed for the Hopechest Ranch.

  Drake was waiting out front for her. “Ride with me,” he requested. “I told my father I’d look over the children’s ranch with an eye toward something we can do to improve it.”

  “You should talk to your sister. Amber knows more than anyone about the financial conditions and needs of the children.”

  “Good idea,” he said equably, helping her and Marissa into his truck. “You have any suggestions?”

  Before she quite knew how it happened, she was riding along with Drake, discussing the children’s needs at the Hopechest, which served as a foster home, juvenile retention center and school for kids with various hardships in their young lives.

  “Supplies,” Maya said as he parked near the classroom where she tutored her students. “Books, especially. That’s the main thing I think we need. The kids need books that show other kids overcoming sad lives and becoming successful citizens. Also art supplies—chalk and sketch paper. Oh, and workbooks in math would be good, too. Maybe we could get some of those self-tutoring computer programs?”

  “Sure.”

  Maya realized she was waxing on and on when Drake gave her an amused smile. She shut up and went into her assigned room. There, she directed Drake to deposit the baby carrier holding the sleeping Marissa beside the desk.

  “I’ll look up the Hopechest director,” he said, “and talk to him. I’ll pick you up at three to head back to our place. Okay?”

  She nodded, carefully not looking at him as she set out her folders and papers. Johnny met Drake at the door. The two males spoke in passing of the coming weekend and the plans for roping. Sighing, she admitted Drake was so good for Johnny and his younger brothers. He was someone they could look up to and emulate.

  Well, to a point. She didn’t want the boys to dwell on past misfortunes as Drake seemed to do. Most particularly, Johnny needed to move beyond his troublesome past to a secure future.

  “How did you do with the problems Mr. Martin gave you?” she asked, pulling a new novel for him out of her briefcase.

  “Fine. I think.”

  He gave her a self-satisfied grin, which told her he’d thought the assignment was an easy one. “Don’t get cheeky,” she told him affectionately, taking the homework paper.

  “Is this your baby?” he asked, bending over the sleeping baby.

  “Yes. Meet Marissa Joy…Colton.” She paused, then plunged on, knowing the news wasn’t a secret. “Drake is her father.”

  “Are you going to get married?”

  Maya studied the teenager carefully, sure there were other questions behind this one, but not sure she wanted to answer them. “We’re discussing it,” she at last said, which was an honest answer. “It’s difficult to know what to do. His job in the SEALs takes him all over the world, to places a wife and baby can’t go.”

  “So, couldn’t you stay here and he could come home between assignments? I had a friend whose dad was in the Navy. He was away for months at a time. I think they were mostly glad. He beat up on them when he came home.”

  Maya just shook her head at the matter-of-fact manner this news was delivered. How did children ever grow up to be decent, caring people in this crazy world? Johnny, for instance, was kind and enthusiastic and intelligent. How had his finer qualities ever survived his early years?

  “Some people need to take a course or two in anger management,” she said dryly.

  Johnny looked surprised. “There must be courses in everything. I’m going to get a college degree. I can work my way through, just like you, only maybe as a cowhand instead of a baby-sitter.”

  Her heart warmed as he cast her an admiring glance, then quickly looked away. These were the moments a teacher lived for—seeing the results of your efforts pay off in a student’s desire to learn more.

  Teaching was definitely the career
for her, so she’d done one thing right. It was the rest of her life that was in turmoil. She swallowed as yearning overcame reasoning. She wanted to follow her heart and forget the problems that, at midnight, seemed insurmountable.

  “Let’s get to work,” she said huskily. “I brought you a new book. The kids in this story have an interesting adventure. I liked the way their characters developed as the story progressed.”

  For the next two hours she concentrated on her tasks, putting aside her own worries as she taught her students how to decipher letters to make sounds, then words, then sentences that made sense. She was pleasantly surprised to see that Johnny had indeed handled the problems just fine.

  “Next time they’ll be harder,” she promised, giving him a narrow-eyed scrutiny that made him laugh.

  “She’s really tough,” Drake said, entering the room.

  “Yeah.” With another laugh, the teenager picked up the new adventure novel about three kids who got lost from their family and managed to find their way home, learning and growing as they worked together to make it.

  Before the trip back to the hacienda, Marissa awoke and demanded her lunch.

  “When does she eat?” Drake asked.

  “When she wants to. I’m following a feed-on-demand philosophy at present. When she’s a month old, I’ll gradually work into scheduled feedings. At least, that’s my plan. Putting it into action may be something different.”

  His chuckle warmed her heart. Lifting the baby, she unbuttoned her blouse and lowered the nursing bra. Marissa suckled in her usual noisy way, then fell into a light slumber. Maya tapped her on the cheek to remind her to stick with the business at hand.

  The baby roused with an irritated cry, then nursed again. Each time she fell asleep, Maya woke her.

  “Maybe she’s not hungry,” Drake suggested.

  “If she demands a meal, then she has to cooperate. I don’t want her to develop the habit of eating just enough to take the edge off her appetite, then falling asleep. I can’t nurse her every few minutes.”

  “I see.”

  “I’m lucky that I can have her with me while I work. It must be terribly hard on those parents who can’t.”