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“No?”
“No.”
“What was all that, about you caring how things once were between us?”
Joanna’s shoulders slumped. “I was just babbling. Besides, it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“The hell it doesn’t!” He caught her face in his hand and forced her eyes to meet his. “Does it really matter to you, how things used to be?”
She stared at him, warning herself not to let go, to hang on to what little remained of her self-respect…but it was too late. The words were there, bursting from her heart and her lips.
“Damn you, David,” she cried, “I’ll always care!” Color stained her cheeks, giving her a wild, proud look. “Do you feel better, now? Wasn’t it enough that I couldn’t live up to your standards?”
“What the hell are you talking about? What standards?”
“Your wealth. Your status. Your friends. You married me without really thinking about whether or not I’d fit into your life, and then you woke up one morning and realized that I didn’t.”
“You mean, I woke up one morning and discovered that my beautiful Gypsy had changed into a…a…” David let go of her, flung up his arms and paced across the room. “I don’t know how to describe what you’d become! A woman who cared more about other people than about me, who was determined to turn this damned house into a mausoleum, who didn’t want me to touch her—”
His words faded way. He looked at her, and suddenly Joanna could see the anguish in his eyes.
“Why, Jo? Why did you turn to ice whenever I tried to make love to you? More than anything else, that damn near killed me.”
“Because…because…” Joanna took a deep breath. It was a moment for truth, and she would see it through. “Because I was ashamed of…of how I was, whenever we…we made love.”
David stared at her in disbelief. “Ashamed? My God, why?”
Joanna’s head drooped. Her voice came out a whisper. “She never said anything, not about that. I’d never mentioned—I would never talk about something so intimate.” She laced her hands together to stop their trembling. “But…but she’d hinted. About certain things that I might do or say that would seem coarse…”
David crossed the room with quick strides. “Who?” he said through his teeth. “Who hinted?”
“I did try, David. To do what she said. To be the right wife for you.”
“Who told you these things, Joanna?” But with gut-wrenching swiftness, he knew, and he could feel the blood heating in his veins. “Who told you that you weren’t what I wanted in a wife?”
“Morgana,” Joanna whispered. “She tried so hard to help me make myself over, but it was useless.”
David’s arms swept around her. “Listen to me,” he said. “And look at me, so you’ll know that what I’m about to tell you is the truth.” He waited until she raised her head and then he took a deep breath. “I never wanted you to change, Gypsy. I loved you, just as you were.”
“But Morgana said…”
“She lied.”
“Why? Why would she have lied, David? She was so kind to me. Even this week, when I had nowhere to go, she took me into her apartment…”
David’s eyes darkened with rage. “You spent this week with Morgana? I was tearing this miserable city upside down to find you and she had you tucked away all the time?”
His voice was cold as stone, and just as hard. It sent a shudder down Joanna’s spine.
“Yes. After she told me about the divorce, after I remembered everything…” Joanna caught her breath. “Did you say you’d tried to find me?”
David drew her closer. “I went crazy this past week,” he said gruffly. “Don’t you know how much I love you?”
Joanna sighed. She lifted her arms and looped them around his neck.
“No,” she said, with a little smile. “You’re just going to have to tell me.”
“For the rest of our lives,” David said, and just then the door burst open.
“Mr. David?” Mrs. Timmons said, “are you…?” Her eyes widened. “Mrs. Adams. I didn’t know you’d come back, ma’am. I’m terribly sorry to disturb you, but—”
Morgana pushed the housekeeper aside and came sweeping into the room.
“David,” she said importantly, “I’ve seen Joanna, and I think you should know…” Her face turned white with shock but she recovered quickly. “She’s here already, I see. David, I don’t know what she’s told you but I assure you, it’s all lies!”
David put his arm around Joanna’s shoulders. The green chips of sea ice that were his eyes told the whole story.
“If you were a man,” he said softly, “I’d beat the crap out of you and smile while I did it.”
“Please, David, I can explain—”
“Get out!”
“This snip of a girl isn’t for you. She’s…she’s…”
David let go of Joanna and took a step forward. “You lying bitch! If I ever see your face again, I won’t be responsible for my actions. Now, get out of this house and out of our lives or so help me, I’ll throw you out!”
Morgana drew herself stiffly erect. “You’ll regret losing me some day, but it will be too late then. I’m giving you one last chance to come to your senses—”
She cried out as Mrs. Timmons grasped the back of her collar and hustled her out of the room. The door slammed shut. There was a cry of outrage, then the sound of the front door opening and closing, and then there was silence.
“David?” Joanna looked up at her husband. “Do you think she’s all right?”
David drew his wife into his arms. “I don’t really care,” he said. His mouth twitched. “Yes, I’m sure she’s fine. But after this I’ll think twice about ever crossing Mrs. Timmons.”
Joanna laughed softly and linked her hands behind his neck.
“Have I told you lately that I love you, Mr. Adams?”
David smiled. “Welcome home, Mrs. Adams,” he said softly and then, for long, long moments, there was no need for either of them to say anything at all.
EPILOGUE
Five years later
“KATE? Benjamin? Where are you?”
Joanna sighed as the sound of childish giggles spilled from the old-fashioned country kitchen behind her.
“Your daddy’s car is going to be coming up that road any minute and if you want to be ready to go outside and greet him, you’d better show yourselves and let me get your boots on.” She waited. “OK,” she said, “I’m going to count to three and then whoever’s not standing right in front of me is going to have to wait in the house. One. Two. Th—”
“Here I am, Mommy.”
A little girl with dark hair and eyes the color of violets raced like a whirlwind into the living room.
“That’s my girl,” Joanna said. She hugged her daughter close and gave her a big kiss. “Now, where’s that brother of yours?”
“Here, Mommy,” her son sang out, and hurled his chubby, three-year-old self into her outstretched arms. “Daddy’s gonna be here soon.”
“That’s right, darling. Sit down and let me get these boots on.”
Benjamin collapsed on the carpet next to his twin sister.
“He’s gonna bring me a truck,” he said importantly, “with big wheels and a horn that goes beep.”
Joanna laughed. Her son was the image of his father, with his dark hair and his green eyes. He had his father’s passion, too, for anything on wheels.
“There we go,” she said. “Almost ready. Just let’s button you guys up…”
“Ugh,” Kate said.
“Ugh,” Benjamin echoed.
“Yes, I know, but it’s cold out and there’s lots and lots of snow…”
A horn sounded outside the snug Connecticut farmhouse. The children screeched happily and flew out the front door, trundling down the steps clumsily in their boots and snowsuits just as a black Land Rover pulled up. The door opened and David stepped out.
“Hey,” he said, grinning as he squa
tted down and opened his arms. The children raced into them and he kissed them both, then scooped them up, one in each arm. “Did you miss me?”
Kate laughed. “Silly Daddy. You were only gone one day.” Then she leaned forward and planted a wet kiss on his cheek. “I missed you every minute,” she whispered.
“Me, too,” Benjamin said, and delivered an equally sloppy kiss on the other side of his father’s face. Then he craned his neck and peered over David’s shoulder. “Did you bring my truck, Daddy?”
“Let’s see,” David said thoughtfully, as he set his children on the ground. “Did I bring Benjamin a truck? Well…I think maybe I did.” He pulled a gaily wrapped package from the Land Rover and handed it to his son, who promptly sat down in the snow and began ripping it open. “There might even be something in here for Kate…yup, by golly, there is.” Wide-eyed, his daughter accepted a box almost as big as she was. She plopped herself down beside her brother and set to work. “And there might even be one more thing in here someplace…”
For the first time, David looked up at the porch where Joanna stood framed in the doorway. After nine years of marriage and two babies, she was more beautiful than ever and his heart did what it always did at the sight of her, rose straight up inside his chest until he felt as if he could float.
“Hello, wife,” he said softly.
Joanna smiled. “Hello, husband.”
