Maggy's Child (32 page)

Maggy had been too wrapped up in Nick to identify either car or driver. But Nick’s tone made her laugh, though her laugh was shaky. With both hands she reached up to wipe the incipient tears from her eyes. She felt as though she’d already shed enough tears to last a lifetime. She certainly wasn’t crying any more today.

“I’m glad I have you guys to kick around with again,” she said in as light a tone as she could muster. “It’s been boring around here with you gone.”

“Oh, so that’s all we’re good for, eh? Comic relief?”

Maggy poked him in the ribs. Nick flinched away from her fingers, flicked a glance at her, and smiled.

T
he Corvette was parked in front of the farmhouse when they pulled up, and every light in the house appeared to be on. Nick made a face as he cut the engine and doused the lights.

“If we’re lucky, he’s alone,” he said.

“And if we’re not?”

“He’s got a bevy of babes with him. He says that the Corvette is better for attracting ’em than a six-inch-thick roll of hundred-dollar bills.” Nick glanced at her and grinned. “But he wouldn’t bring chicks like that around with you here. I don’t think.”

“Great. You’re giving me so much to look forward to.” Maggy scooted away from him and reached for the door handle.

“Magdalena,” he said softly, catching her arm.

“What?” She glanced around.

“Wait a minute, would you please? I meant to save it till we got inside, but Link’s being here killed that. I want to know what Lyle did to scare you of sex.”

Maggy’s hand froze on the handle. “I don’t want to talk about it, Nick,” she said in a tiny voice. “Please.”

“
Querida
, can’t you tell me?” His voice was very gentle.

Maggy took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see the pictures in her mind again—but she was going to tell Nick. It was inevitable. If not now, then soon, and it might as well be now. Then she would have
it over and done with, and maybe, just maybe, without his constant irritation of the wound she could once again bury the nightmare deep in her subconscious where it had dwelt for so long.

“He beat me up, held me down, and let his brother-in-law rape me,” she said in a flat voice. Then she pulled her arm free of his slackened grip and got out of the cab. The cold air caught her in its icy fist. She never even felt it.

Nick was beside her before she had gone two feet.

“Magdalena.” He caught her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. “My God, Magdalena, do you mean Hamilton Drummond?”

“The very same.” She laughed bitterly. “Can you believe it? I couldn’t. Sometimes I still can’t.”

“My God,” he said again, sounding nearly as stunned as she’d felt all those years ago. But she wasn’t going to remember how she’d felt. She wasn’t going to let herself remember. She slammed a mental door on the reel that was starting to unfold of its own volition in her mind, crossed her arms over her chest to ward off the memories as much as the chill, and averted her face from Nick. She couldn’t stand to watch him as she spoke.

“I’m going to tell you this once, and then we’re never going to talk about it again, understand?” she said in a fierce whisper that was all she could force out past her aching throat. “During my pregnancy, Lyle never touched me. No sex, understand? I thought it was because he was afraid of hurting the baby, or maybe because he was repelled by my body. Who knew? While I was pregnant, it was no big deal. Afterward, I was so wrapped up in David that I never thought about it for about eight months. Then I started to worry. I wanted my marriage to work, and how could it work if Lyle never touched me? He was not physically abusive then—I was being a good girl, doing everything he said, being meek and quiet and adoring, and of course there was David—and I foolishly thought he was holding back to spare me. Well, I
wasn’t in love with him, but I thought that if our marriage was normal, I might learn to. So I started trying to seduce him. You know, slinky nighties, the whole bit. Nothing worked. One night I put on this fancy black negligee, did my hair and makeup, doused myself in perfume, and went along the hall to his room. It was about two o’clock in the morning, and my grand plan was to climb in bed with him and turn him on so much that he would stop thinking about me solely as David’s mother. He always slept with his door locked—I knew, because I had tried the midnight seduction bit once before—but I had taken care of that. I conned a key out of Louella.”

Maggy took a deep breath and focused on the light that was pouring out through the farmhouse’s front window. She hugged herself tighter, but not because of the cold. Memories were flooding her mind, jumbled images of horror, and she couldn’t look at Nick in case her reaction was mirrored in his face. He stood as unmoving as she, his hands curled around her shoulders, his eyes fixed on her averted face. She knew they were, because she could feel the weight of them. But as she spoke she never once looked at him. She could not, would not look at him. It was all she could do to continue speaking.

“Quiet as a mouse, I unlocked his door and slipped inside. He has a suite, you know. A sitting room with a bedroom adjoining it. The sitting room was dark, but there was a faint light under the bedroom door. I thought he might be reading in bed. I thought it was kind of sweet, if he was. I almost chickened out because he was awake, but then I decided to go for it. For David’s sake, I really wanted to be a wife to my husband.”

Maggy paused again, steeling her courage, then plunged on. “I crept across the sitting room, opened the bedroom door as quietly as I could—and nearly died there and then. Lyle was awake, all right. He was standing in a corner of the room, naked, watching as Ham humped one of the teenage gardener boys in his bed.”

Nick made an indecipherable comment under his breath. Still unable to look at him, Maggy gripped her own elbows and took a deep, shuddering breath. “They saw me—how could they not? I would have run, but Lyle grabbed me. The boy snatched his clothes and left. I said some things to Lyle—I don’t remember what, I was pretty much in shock—and he slapped me. I hit him back, and then—he beat me up. And—and the rest.”

“He let his brother-in-law rape you.” Nick’s words were a mere thread of sound, but incredulity and rage both came through.

“Yes. He—he watched, telling Ham what to do, cheering him on the whole time. Af-afterward, Lyle told me that if I told anyone, he’d kill me. By that time, I believed him. When they—let me go, I crept back to my room. I was in shock, I guess, because I don’t remember much. I know I got dressed and put on a coat and shoes and got my purse, which had some money in it. Then I went along the hall to get David. I wasn’t going to leave without David. It was just dawn, because light was starting to filter in through the window at the top of the stairs. Lyle caught me coming out of the nursery. He took the baby, slapped me around, told me that I could leave if I wanted but not with the baby. The baby was his, and I would never see him again if I left him. And he went back in David’s nursery and locked the door.”

Maggy closed her eyes. “How could I leave without David? I couldn’t. I went back to my room, meaning to try to slip away the next day, or the next, whenever I could sneak David out of the house. But Lyle knew what I was going to do. He hired a woman, a dragon-lady type, named Miss Hadley. She was to be David’s nanny. Lyle told her not to let the baby out of her sight, that I was a little deranged and might do him harm. Miss Hadley guarded him night and day. She was always, always with us.”

The memories were coming back now, thick and fast.
Maggy’s stomach churned, and her mind shrank from the images that whirled through it. “I called a lawyer, anonymously, and asked what my legal situation was. Lyle found out—he always finds out everything—and told me that if I started spreading malicious gossip about him, he’d have me committed to a mental institution. He would, too. And he could. Still.”

Her voice shook on the last word, and she jerked away from Nick and headed toward the house. Whether he followed or not she didn’t know, because she broke into a run. Link, probably anticipating their arrival, had left the front door unlocked. She burst through it, stumbled past a surprised-looking Link, and barely made it to the toilet before she vomited.

Maggy stayed in the bathroom for a long time, kneeling in front of the toilet, eyes closed, head resting back against the cool tile wall as the spasms subsided. Weakly, she wished that she could empty her mind as easily as she emptied her stomach.

But the memories of that night were never going to completely go away. All she could do was rebury them and hope that the passage of time continued to dull their impact. How long had it been already? Ten years? And she had finally told someone, told Nick. She hadn’t even cried.

Maybe, given enough time, the terrible wound might heal.

The fear that raised its head on the heels of that thought was as ugly as any that had gone before: would Nick feel differently toward her, now that he knew?

No, not Nick. Her heart knew it instantly, instinctively. Nick would be outraged for her, not with her. As he had said, he was on her side.

Still, it was a long, long time before she finally got up the combination of strength and nerve that she needed to leave the bathroom.

Nick was sitting in the living room, the big easy chair
moved from its previous position so that he could see the bathroom door, a floorlamp behind the chair providing the only light. The TV was on. She heard its noise, though she couldn’t see it from where she stood. All she could see was Nick. He was watching the bathroom door as she emerged, and he looked tired and drawn as he met her gaze.

“It’s all right, baby,” he said, getting to his feet and coming swiftly toward her. With shaky knees she crossed the small space that separated them to meet him halfway. As she reached him his arms opened for her, and with a wordless murmur she collapsed into them. They closed around her, hugging her close, while he buried his face in her hair. Then he swept her up off her feet and walked back into the living room with her, where he sat down with her cuddled on his lap.

For a long time they stayed like that, holding each other, unmoving, unspeaking, as the TV blared in the background. If Nick had any idea what was on, it was more than Maggy did. But she didn’t think he knew any more than she.

“Run her a bath, would you?” Nick said after a time. Maggy hardly stirred, certainly did not look around, but she knew he was talking to Link. Link’s reply was inaudible, but moments later she heard the hum of water rushing through the pipes overhead as water filled what was presumably an upstairs bath.

“Magdalena,” Nick said then, as if Link’s entry into the room and then the sound of the water running had brought him back from wherever his thoughts had taken him. “You know I love you.”

Maggy nodded, her face still hidden against his shoulder. She’d always known that.

“You trust me, don’t you?”

Again she nodded.

“Then listen here: you don’t have to be afraid of Forrest or any of that bunch anymore. I give you my word.
Something’s coming down—don’t ask me what, because I can’t tell you—that’s going to take care of the problem. They are going to get, maybe not what’s coming to them, but close enough. You won’t ever have to see Forrest again. And he won’t be in any position to argue over custody of David.”

“Nick …” Maggy absorbed all that, frowned, and sat up. “What are you talking about?” A dreadful suspicion popped into her mind. She had known Nick almost all her life, and, while he was not a quick-tempered man, his anger, when it was aroused, was formidable. And he never forgot anything. Not any kindness, not any insult. Certainly not something like what Lyle had had done to him all those years ago, let alone Lyle’s offenses against herself.

“You’re not going to murder him, are you? Or hire a hit man?” she asked anxiously.

Nick actually laughed. “It’s tempting,” he said. “Real tempting.”

“But if you get caught … Nick, I couldn’t bear it if you got caught.”

“Relax. I’m not gonna get caught, because I’m not going to murder anybody. Forrest and his cronies are going to be taken care of another way. Perfectly legally.”

“How?”

“Now that I can’t tell you. You’ll just have to trust me,” Nick said. “I wouldn’t have told you anything about it, but I don’t want you to be afraid anymore. No more, do you hear?”

“Are you sure—about Lyle?” Maggy whispered, wanting but hardly daring to believe.

“I’m sure. Trust me, Magdalena. I’m sure.”

“Bath’s ready,” Link called from upstairs.

Nick glanced toward the open living room door, then back at Maggy’s face. Pale and tousled and woebegone and unattractive as she knew she must be, his eyes still softened when they looked at her. His hands came up to smooth the hair back from her forehead and cheeks, and
then his arms were sliding around her back and under her knees as he stood up with her in his arms.

“I can walk,” Maggy protested as he headed toward the hall with her.

“I know,” he said mildly, and when she would have protested more, he silenced her by dropping a kiss on her parted lips.