Shannon's Daughter (42 page)

“Oh,
don’t worry, she will.
 
Now, let’s see if
I’m still man enough to carry you up a flight of stairs.”

Her
head drooped to his shoulder again.
 
“I’m
sure I could walk if you’d put me down.”

He halted
on the bottom tread, fixing her with the fiercest scowl he could manage.
 
“Will you please be a good girl for once and
let me take care of you?
 
Stubborn won’t
cut it this time.
 
And I won’t have it on
my conscience if you get seriously ill.”

He
fully expected her to come back with another objection, but instead she closed
her eyes sighing, “Fine.
 
Have it your
way.”

He left
her resting, doubting she would take Reggie’s advice and stay there for the
remainder of the afternoon.
 
The best he
could extract was a promise to eat the sandwich Alice brought, and keep her
feet up for a while.
 
Downstairs, the
crowd was thinning at least.
 
Another
hour and they’d have the house to themselves.
 

Reggie’s
words insisted on echoing in his head.
 
Had their family and friends really begun to assume he and Peg were
headed for the altar?
 
If the damage was
already done, how would he explain it when she went back to New York and he
continued his life as he must, single and celibate?
 
As if Reggie’s comments hadn’t been enough to
unsettle him, he was soon cornered in the kitchen by his mother, who had
apparently been engaging in the same sort of speculation.
 

“Kendall,
dear, what are your plans now?”

“I have
to be back at Glyndebourne on Sunday.
 
Until then, I’ll stay here and try to clear up a few things.”
 
He stared at the teacups he’d just set afloat
in the dishpan, hoping against hope that would satisfy her.

“I mean
your long-range plans, darling.
 
Your plans with Peg.”

“I
don’t know what you mean.
 
Peg will go
back to New York next month.
 
She still
has a year of university to complete.”

“And
after that?”

He
managed to look her in the eye, hoping to appear genuinely innocent of her
implication.
 
“We haven’t any plans,
Mother.”

“But
you’re obviously fond of her.
 
And she
seems very devoted to you.
 
A girl
doesn’t give up her summer abroad to help a man the way she has you in this sad
situation unless she’s in love with him.
 
I’m not blind, Kendall.
 
I see
what’s going on between the two of you.
 
You’ve
been practically inseparable all summer.
 
I just hope you know what you’re getting into, if you
are
planning to marry her.
 
And even more importantly,
if you aren’t.”

He took
a deep breath, starting to count to ten, but by six he was seeing red.
 
“Mother, you’re completely out of line
here.
 
In the first place, yes, Peg and I
are very fond of one another.
 
In the
second, what we plan to do or not to do is no one’s concern at this point but
ours.
 
We’re both adults, capable of
managing our own lives.”

“Michael
would like nothing better than for her to marry you.
 
Or so he told Patrick.
 
Are you aware of that?”

“Yes.
 
He’s said as much to me.”

“Would
it surprise you to know I wouldn’t object to having Peg for a
daughter-in-law?
 
As
long as she made you happy?”

His jaw
dropped.
 
He could feel the incredulous scowl
twisting his face.
 
“Mother. . .”

“I can
see it would.
 
Don’t look so shocked,
darling.
 
I know this is a terrible time
for you.
 
I’m grateful you have Peg to
stand by you, to help you through this.
 
If you decide,
when
you
decide, to let us in on your plans, I just want you to know, you’ll have our
blessing.”
 
She brushed a kiss on his
cheek.
 
“We’re going to be leaving
soon.
 
I hope Peg is feeling better.
 
Reggie said she must have eaten something
that upset her.
 
The poor girl looked
rung out.
 
Tell her we missed saying our
goodbyes, but I’m sure we’ll see her in town soon.”
 
She left him staring at the soapsuds, shaking
his head and wavering between laughter and tears, either of which he suspected
would have been uncontrollable.
 

By four
o’clock the door closed on the last of the guests.
 
Leaving Alice and Hammonds under the
supervision of Mrs. Beatty, who insisted she’d rather stay busy than sit out
the rest of the afternoon, Kendall gave a few brief instructions, expressed his
gratitude for at least the tenth time and took himself upstairs.
 
Cautiously creeping into the darkened
bedroom, he stood over Peg for a moment, marveling that she’d actually fallen asleep
above a house full of people.
 

Rounding
the bed, he shed his shoes and stretched beside her, propping on one arm to study
her profile in the dimness until she stirred.
 
“What time is it?”

“Almost
five.”

Her
eyes flew open.
 
“Oh
my
gosh
, Kendall!
 
Why did you let me
sleep so long?”

“Because
contrary to what you might believe we were managing just fine without you.
 
Feeling any better?”

Scrubbing
her hands down her face, she moaned.
 
“No.
 
Now I just feel guilty.
 
Has everyone gone?’

“Almost.
 
Alice and Hammonds are helping Mrs. Beatty with the last of the
cleanup.
 
They should be on their way in
another hour.”

“On
their way where?”
 
Hands pausing in midair, she blinked up at
him.

“Back
to London.”

“But I still
need them here!”
 
When she attempted to
sit, he pulled her into his arms.

“No you
don’t.
 
You have me.
 
And I want a few days of relative peace and
quiet here with you.
 
We’ve earned it,
don’t you think?”

“I
suppose.”
 
After a moment of weak resistance,
she snuggled into his side.
 
“
It’s
times like this I really resent being female.”

He
chuckled against her hair.
 
“Well, I for
one am very thankful you are.
 
Our
relationship wouldn’t be nearly so exciting otherwise, I’m sure.”
 

“That’s
not what I mean.
 
I don’t mind being a
woman.
 
I mind being laid low every
thirty days.
 
How would you like if your
body refused to behave normally and your emotions played nasty tricks on you
several days every month?”

“Hmm.
 
I never thought about it quite that way.”

“Yes,
well if men had to go through this, at least it would make things more even
between the sexes.
 
As it is, you guys
just roll along the same every day and we women bounce up and down like yoyos.”

“Hardly
seems fair, but on the other hand, we men are slaves to our hormones in other ways.
 
Ladies can at least conceal their lusty
response to a handsome bloke without too much effort.
 
Men can’t control their physical reaction to
a nice pair of legs nearly so well.
 
When
the blood flow heads south, there isn’t a thing we can do about it.”

Peg
laughed softly.
 
“Legs, huh?
 
Is that your weakness?”

“I’m
afraid so.
 
Yours for instance, drive
every rational thought from my brain.
 
The first time I saw you in New York, I remember you were wearing that
little tennis skirt and I very nearly fell down the stairs.”

“We had
fun then, didn’t we, getting to know each other?
 
That seems so long ago now.”
 
She buried her face in his shoulder and
sighed.
 
“This is nice though, just being
with you here.
 
I could get used to it, I
think.”
 
  

He held
her for a time, stroking her shoulders and trying to think no further than the
rare, sweet calm of the moment.
 
Time
enough to discuss the improbability of many more of these moments, or how they
were going to deal with the depth of the hole they’d blithely dug for
themselves
.
 

“Kendall?”

“Yes,
love?”

“What’s
wrong?”

He drew
back to look down on her face.
 
“Why do
you ask?”

“Because
I can hear your heart beating.
 
One minute it’s calm and slow, the next it
speeds up, thumping like you’ve been startled.
 
Since there’s nothing out here that would cause that, I can only guess
it has to do with what’s going on there.”
 
She gently touched his temple.
 
“So what’s wrong?”

“You
are far too perceptive for your own good.
 
I was planning to keep my ‘startling’ thoughts to myself for tonight.”

“Sorry.
 
Now tell me.
 
Please.”

“Um.
 
Where to begin?”

“How
about just getting to the heart of the problem?”

“No
stalling, eh?”

“No.”

He took
a deep breath.
 
“It seems our friends and
families are already planning our wedding.”

Her
head came up abruptly, eyes wide and incredulous.
 
“What?”

“Oh,
good.
 
At least you’re as surprised as I was.
 
I was a bit concerned you were in on it and
just sparing me.”

“What
are you talking about?
 
And
who
exactly are you talking about?”

“In the
course of an hour, both my best friend and my mother felt compelled to bring up
the subject of our pending nuptials.”

“Kendall,
stop being silly.
 
Everyone thinks we’re just friends.
 
Well, maybe Agnes knows there’s more, but she
would never tell on us.”

“It
didn’t take Agnes tattling to put them on to us, sweetheart.
 
As Mother pointed out, she
isn’t blind and neither apparently is anyone else.
 
When you took your little turn in the
kitchen, Reggie pulled me aside and after pointing out what a terrible patient
you are, he advised me to see that you take better care of yourself if we ever
plan to start a family.”

“Oh!
 
He didn’t!
 
Why would he. .
 
?”

“Because
he can see how I feel about you.
 
He’s
right, you know, in thinking that I’d want to marry any girl I cared this much
for.”

With a
moan, she dropped her head on his chest.
 
“And your mother?”

“You’ll
be relieved to know she’s all for the match.
 
And your father, too.
 
He told Patrick as much.”

“What
are we going to do?”

“Nothing.”

“But we
can’t just let them think we’re planning to get married.
 
Between my father and your mother, they’ll
have everything arranged down to the old shoes and rice without even consulting
us.”

He chuckled,
struck by the truth of that statement.
 
“Probably.
 
But if we
say anything, or do anything to try to convince them otherwise, it will likely
lend credibility to their suspicions.
 
Our only course, the way I see it, is to go about our lives as we should
in hopes they’ll get bored with the idea and leave us alone.”

“And
just how are we going to do that?
 
And
still spend time together?”