A Prince for Jenny (13 page)

Afterward they sat on the sofa, holding each other and sharing tender touches.

"You rescued me, Jenny."

"And you rescued me."

 "I wish it could always be like this."

 "It will."

Daniel almost believed her. But the ugly truth was, he knew things that she didn't know.

"Claire's back. She wants the children." He pressed his face into her hair. How could he tell her all Claire's ugly accusations without destroying her? "I'm afraid for them, Jenny. Afraid for you."

"Why?"

"She made threats. I don't know what she's going to do."

"I'll be brave."

"I know you will." He cupped her chin and turned her face to his. "I'm going to hire a bodyguard for you and a security guard for your house."

"No."

"Jenny, don't fight me on this. I can't risk something happening to you."

"I'm not fighting you, Daniel. But I'm fighting for myself. All my life somebody has watched over me. I want to make my own decision about this."

He knew she was right. If he wanted Jenny to emerge from her cocoon of over protectiveness, he had to let her emerge all the way.

"I'll be careful, Daniel. I promise you. A mother has to stay safe for the sake of her children."

He rested his forehead against hers. "Jenny, do you know how much I love you?"

"I know, Daniel. But I wouldn't mind if you showed me again."

He laughed. "In a little while, Jenny. A man has to recover, you know."

"I'm learning."

 o0o

Six days later Claire's lawyer filed a motion in the courts of Florence, Alabama, to bring forward and modify custody and visitation. She wanted her children, back.

Daniel would have been relieved that she'd chosen legal means to fight him if he hadn't been so worried. There was no way in heaven or in hell he could keep Jenny from being involved in the custody suit.

"If she's going to be their stepmother, she's pivotal to this case, Daniel." His attorney fixed Daniel with a hard stare. "The best interests of the children will be the judge's only concern. He can't make that decision without questioning Jenny."

Fear squeezed Daniel's heart, fear for Jenny and fear for his children.

"Is there any way we can keep Jenny out of this?"

"Yes ... only one." Lawrence Blakestone didn't have to elaborate. Daniel knew what that one way was: give up Jenny.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "Never."

"Are you sure you know what you're doing, marrying this woman?"

“I’m sure.”

Heartsick, he left the attorney's office. In claiming Jenny, would he lose his children?

Chapter Eleven

Daniel couldn't keep the custody suit a secret from his children. According to law, their best interest could only be served by a guardian ad litem, their own lawyer. Her name was Margaret Case, a motherly woman who was a cuddly teddy bear with the children and a tiger in the courtroom.

She didn't try to hide her presence when she came to visit their home, but instead made herself a part of the family.

"This is wonderful soup," she said. Daniel sat at the head of the long table with Jenny on his right and the children on his left. Margaret sat beside Jenny so she could see the faces of the children.

"I made it," Megan said.

"All by yourself?" Margaret didn't approve of child labor.

"Course not. I'm just a little kid. But Jenny lets me help when she cooks."

"Do you like to cook, Megan?"

"Sometimes. I like games better."

"What kind of games?"

"Football and soccer and hopscotch." Megan was proud of her athletic abilities.

"Jenny falled playing hopscotch," Patrick volunteered. "Show your skint knee, Jenny."

"Maybe later." Although Jenny had told Daniel she would be brave, she knew she wasn't. She twisted her napkin into a wad, and it lay in her lap like a lump of coal. Daniel was smiling, but his smile didn't touch his eyes.

What if she was making a terrible mess of things? What if he lost his children because of her?

"Jenny's a great artist, you know," Daniel told Miss Case, "but she's never too busy to leave her work and play with the children. They love it."

"We love it," they said in unison, as if they'd been coached.

Jenny's spirits fell. She and Daniel and the children were wonderful together. What was happening simply wasn't fair.

"She did the portrait of the children that's hanging over the mantel." Daniel was too anxious on her behalf. Even Jenny saw that.

"It's beautiful," Miss Case said. Jenny could tell from the tone of her voice that she was not interested in art.

"Thank you." Jenny knew she sounded like a simpleton. When she was nervous, she always had a harder time making her words come out right.

Helplessly she looked at Daniel. He smiled, trying to tell her everything was all right, but she knew better.

Things might never be all right again.

 o0o

After he drove her home, they slipped upstairs to Jenny's bed.

"Let's get married now," he said.

"No."

"We can put together a fancy wedding in a few days."

"It's not the fancy wedding …"

She didn't have to say anything else. Daniel knew.

He pushed her gown from her shoulders, levered himself over her, and slid home. There was love in the way he moved inside her, and so much tenderness that she wanted to cry.

But not yet. Daniel might not understand.

She'd save the tears for after he was gone. For now, she would dance to this ancient music and smile, smile, smile.

 o0o

Daniel had grown accustomed to the disruption of his life. Margaret Case didn't give warnings; she merely appeared, hoping to catch them in an unguarded moment, he supposed.

His muscles bunched along his neck and back as he stood at the mantel watching her observe Jenny and the children. He needed a massage. He needed peace. He needed Jenny.

The children had begun to relax around their audience, but Jenny hadn't. With each successive visit she became more and more tense. Her limp worsened, and sometimes she tripped over words she'd always found perfectly easy to say.

"Bedtime, children," Daniel said, glad the ordeal was almost over.

"We want a bedtime story," Patrick said.

"Of course." He went to the bookcase and pulled out two of their favorites, the Christopher Robin stories of A. A. Milne and Barrie's Peter Pan. "What would you like to hear?"

"This one." Megan plucked the A. A. Milne from his hands and handed it to Jenny. "Will you read it to us, Jenny?"

"Yeah, Jenny!" Patrick crawled into her lap, and Megan leaned on her knees.

The look Jenny cast him broke his heart. She was the best mother his children could possibly have, loving, sensitive, patient, kind. And yet she was made to feel unworthy... all because of Claire.

"Why don't we give Jenny a break, children?" he said. "She's been painting portraits all day."

" 'Cause she does Kanga better than you, Daddy. Piglet too." When Megan got that stubborn look on her face, it was dangerous to cross her. Besides, Daniel didn't want to make an issue with Margaret Case looking on.

"Which story do you want?" Jenny asked as she took the book.

"The one about the Woozle," Megan said.

It seemed to take forever for Jenny to find the right story. The silence in the room was deafening. Daniel wanted to take Margaret Case by the collar and escort her to the door, then he wanted to bundle up Jenny and his children and take them to Switzerland.

"Here it is." Jenny's obvious relief almost brought tears to Daniel's eyes. "Ready, children?" She touched their hair and smiled into their upturned faces. Only a fool would believe that she wouldn't make a good mother.

Daniel prayed that Margaret Case was no fool.

When Jenny started to read, he held his breath. With her fingers moving across the page, she read with excruciating slowness, halting frequently over words that any child would know.

Once, Megan leaned close to whisper the word Jenny stumbled over.

If he stopped the torture, Daniel would be damning Jenny as inadequate, and if he let it continue, he would be leaving her at the mercy of the woman sitting on the edge of her chair.

Jenny's hands trembled and her eyes were filled with despair.

Margaret Case be damned. Daniel couldn't stand by any longer. He'd started across the room when Jenny's chin came up. She closed the book, then took his children's hands.

"Would you like to hear the story in a new way?"

"Like what?" Megan, the little skeptic, asked.

"If you'll get my pad and pencil off the desk, I'll show you."

"I'll get it, I'll get it." Patrick raced off and was back in record time with the things she'd requested.

Jenny began to draw, and as she sketched the familiar figures of Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin and Piglet, her confidence returned. And with it the music of her lilting voice. She told the story as only Jenny could, in her guileless, straightforward way.

Megan and Patrick were spellbound.

"Look," Patrick shouted. "Jenny made a terrible Woozle."

"And the Wizzles too." Casting off her role as resident skeptic, Megan hopped up and down in her excitement. "Draw another one, Jenny."

"Yeah! Another one."

There was magic in the room. Daniel felt it; Margaret Case saw it. The three bent over the sketch pad had transcended the real world and entered into an enchanted place peopled with Wizzles and Woozles and filled with the happiness of childhood.

"Well, I guess I'll be going," Margaret Case said when the story ended. She didn't try to hide the tears in her eyes. Taking her handkerchief from her purse, she wiped her cheeks, then blew her nose. "My, I loved that story as much as the children did."

"I'll read one to you anytime."

There was no doubting Jenny's sincerity. Margaret took her hand.

"My dear, this has been a very special evening. In my line of work I rarely run across pure love and total innocence. I've seen them both here tonight."

After Margaret Case left and the children were upstairs in their beds, Jenny held Daniel's hands and danced around in her excitement.

"Daniel, we've won ... we've won."

Bodyguards watched over the children as they slept, and somewhere in Atlanta, Claire was consulting with her attorney about the best way to prove Jenny's unfitness to be a mother.

They hadn't won yet, not by a long shot. But he couldn't bear to tell her so.

"You were wonderful, Jenny." He held her close. "Absolutely wonderful."

"And brave too." She smiled up at him. "You forgot brave."

"Yes. And brave too."

"Daniel, do you think I can start picking out a wedding dress now?"

"I want you to pick out the prettiest wedding dress in all of Florence."

"I used to dream about having a wedding of my own. We're really going to be a family, aren't we, Daniel?"

"We'll be a family, Jenny. I promise."

He'd see Claire in hell before he broke his promise to Jenny.

 o0o

Sarah never dreamed that she'd be shopping for a wedding gown for her firstborn. She and Gwendolyn sat in satin-covered chairs waiting for Jenny to come out of the fitting room.

Victoria emerged first, her unruly black hair slipping from its French twist and her green eyes sparkling.

"You ought to see my sister. It was worth the trip from Dallas." She'd left her law practice for the specific purpose of helping her half sister shop for the most important gown of her life.

"I can't wait," Gwendolyn said. "Come on out, honey. We want to see."

"Just a minute. I'm nervous."

"Lordy, what will she be on her wedding day?" Gwendolyn said.

Sarah and Victoria exchanged glances. They were both thinking the same thing. Would there be a wedding day for Jenny? Victoria knew the law. Although there was no presumption that Jenny would be an unfit mother, any lawyer worth his salt would use her condition to try to prove that she was not only unfit but also a danger to Daniel's children.

One big question loomed in the minds of Jenny's family: If Daniel lost his children, would he still marry Jenny?

The curtains to the dressing room parted, and out stepped Jenny. Tears sprang to Sarah's eyes, and Gwendolyn surreptitiously sniffed into her handkerchief. Only Victoria remained calm.

"You're beautiful, Jenny," she said. "You're going to take Daniel's breath away."

"You really think so?"

"Come out to the mirror so you can see for yourself."

Jenny could hardly believe that she was the woman in the mirror. The gown looked like something Cinderella might have worn to the ball. It transformed Jenny from a woman with vast limitations to a woman with endless possibilities. Wearing the gown, she looked as if she were going off to meet her prince.

"I want to show Daniel."

"Are you sure, Jenny?" Sarah asked. "The tradition is to keep the bridal gown a secret from the groom until the wedding day."

"People are more important than tradition." Daniel needed something beautiful in his life right now. Jenny caught Victoria's hand. "Will you help me get it off and into a box?"

Sarah and Gwendolyn cried openly after the sisters went back into the dressing room.

"Gwendolyn, what will we do if there is no wedding?"

"You hush talking like that." Gwendolyn adjusted her cowboy. She wore it everywhere, sometimes even to church. "I thought you and Jake Townsend would never get together, and look how all that turned out."

With her heart-shaped lips and her blue eyes, Sarah looked almost as young as her firstborn. Jake Townsend was her hero. Always had been and always would be.

"You're right, Gwendolyn." Sarah blew her nose on a pink tissue. "How silly of me to worry so."

 o0o

Claude Sullivan hadn't expected a warm reception from his son, but he'd expected better than he was getting. Daniel's eyes were pure ice, and if faces could start wars, his would.

"There's no need for this animosity, Daniel. I'm merely offering advice."