The Heiress (10 page)

Jack climbed in behind the wheel. “Who?” he asked as he fit the key into the ignition.

“Tom,” Daisy replied as she tried to get her lap belt on without burning her hand on the hot metal. As Jack started the car, hot air streamed out of the AC vents and they both lowered their windows. “I saw the way he looked at you when we told him about us,” Daisy continued as Jack began to back out of the space. “He was really disappointed in both of us for getting married, but especially you. Although I suppose marrying me has to be better on some level than just using me and walking away.”

Jack hit the brakes so hard, she bounced against the seat. He turned to face her, expression grim. “I didn’t just screw you, Daisy. We made love.”

Daisy understood why Jack wanted to make it seem romantic, in retrospect—she did, too. What they had done was a lot easier to accept that way. But she knew how sordidly the encounter had begun, she knew how angry and disillusioned and in need of some comfort she had been. She knew their baby hadn’t been created out of love. Which she supposed was another great irony, since their baby’s mother hadn’t been conceived in love, either.

“Call it what you want.” Daisy sighed. “The end result is the same.” Because of their mutual impetuousness, in nine months they were going to have a baby. And they had to deal with that, openly and honestly, as they tried to figure out their future and the finances involved in having and supporting a child. “Tom’s initial reaction to our elopement was fury.”

“So?” Jack appeared to be concentrating on the downtown-Charleston traffic.

“So is he going to fire you?”

Jack gripped the steering wheel with both hands. “I don’t know.”

Even though Jack was doing his best to act as if it didn’t matter to him either way, Daisy could tell how much Jack’s job—and Tom’s approval—meant to him. She knew from things that Amy and her brothers had said that Jack really liked working for Tom and Deveraux-Heyward Shipping. And as much as Daisy would’ve liked to get under Tom Deveraux’s skin and pay him back for the way he had hurt her in the past, she didn’t want to hurt Jack, who had obviously been dragged into this by way of his employment. Which meant she was going to have to create some sort of firewall between the men that separated their business and personal lives.

She looked at Jack, wondering if Jack, who usually seemed to be at least two steps ahead of her in this situation, had already been thinking that way.

Before she could stop herself, Daisy turned to Jack with cheerful abandon. “In that sense, I suppose marrying me was a good insurance policy on your part.” She spoke as if she fully applauded his highly political maneuvering behind the scenes. “Tom can’t fire you now that you’re my husband. That’d be akin to throwing us both out on the street. Although—” Daisy stopped, bit her lip, as the next even more disturbing thought occurred to her.

“What?” Jack turned into the outpatient services lot and parked in the first available space.

Daisy whipped off her seat belt and pushed open the passenger door. “If Tom gives me a significant trust, under the community property laws, as my husband you’d be entitled to a chunk of it, too.”

Jack met up with her at the rear of the car and took
her hand in his. “That’s assuming we divorced and Tom was foolish enough to have the family’s trust attorneys set the fund up so I could have access to the money in the event of a dissolution of our marriage.” Jack leaned down so he was speaking directly in her ear, carefully emphasizing every word. “I assure you, Daisy, Tom would never be that shortsighted.” Jack leaned back so she could see into his eyes. His hand tightening on hers, he continued tranquilly, “Even as your husband, I will never be able to touch anything he gives you.”

And Jack looked as if he were not only very much okay with that, but wanted it that way, Daisy noted with relief. But wary of being too quick to trust and getting burned again, Daisy countered just as knowledgeably, “That’s probably true—his attorneys would protect both me and Tom on that score. But they can’t control everything. For instance, if we stayed married after the baby was born, you could certainly enjoy the benefits of all that money.”

“I didn’t marry you because you were once an heiress and could conceivably be so again, if Tom decides to settle some money on you, or Richard and Charlotte reverse their decision to disinherit you and give you renewed access to Templeton-family funds,” Jack said hotly. “And what do you mean
if
we stayed married after the baby’s born? I thought that was a given. I thought we agreed how important it is for us not to desert our baby.”

Being so close to him was suddenly overwhelming. Daisy withdrew her hand from his and edged away from him so she was walking even closer to the cars. “We can be good parents to our child without remaining yoked to each other for the rest of our lives.” Daisy
couldn’t think that far ahead! She just wanted a husband for the transition, while she gave birth and got used to being a parent and settled in. She just wanted her baby to have a name, to be legitimate, with no question about where or from whom he or she came.

“Ask any kid of divorced parents if that’s true. Ask Amy, Chase, Gabe and Mitch. They know what it’s like to have their parents split.”

Daisy slanted Jack a curious look. Taken aback by the unaccustomed emotion in his voice, she slowed her steps to his, wanting to hear what he had to say about this. “I’m gathering by the way you’re speaking you were witness to that?”

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.

T
HE 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,” Con
nor 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 the 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 be
neath the shadow of his eyebrows. “Technically speaking, anyway, there probably is no good reason you should be with someone like me.”