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That would be Ashley’s strategy from here on out.
“Hi!” Ashley shouted as they walked through the front door of his house moments later. “We’re home. Sheila!”
As Cord followed her inside, the other woman appeared on the elegant staircase dressed in an apricot brocade robe that molded to her willowy body and brought out the sheen of her blond hair.
“I had no idea you’d be arriving this early.”
That’s right, Sheila. You didn’t know which way the wind was going to blow.
“Cord got back sooner than expected.” Ashley preempted anything her husband might have said. “And I was starving. I thought I’d order pizza with extra cheese and all the toppings. Do you want some with us?”
Ashley wished she had a camera so she could have captured the startled look on Sheila’s face.
“No, thanks,” she said in a tone of distaste. “I don’t intend to put on any weight with this pregnancy that isn’t absolutely necessary.”
“Your morning sickness must be pretty bad to pass up pizza. I’ve got some medicine in one of my bags that will help. As soon as I’ve unpacked, Cord will bring you the bottle.
“All you have to do is take one pill every night and you feel great the next day as long as you eat some crackers and drink some Coke before you lift your head from the pillow. I swear it works like a charm. Darling?” She turned to Cord who was going along with her act, but she didn’t miss the stunned expression coming from his eyes before they narrowed.
“I’m going upstairs and take a nice warm shower. Will you please bring the pizza when it comes? We can eat it in bed. I’ll order Coke in case you want to join us for a little family get-together, Sheila. Our two favorite British sitcoms are going to be on TV in a while. We don’t want to miss them.”
So saying, she hurried up the stairs, chugging past Sheila in the hope of reaching the next floor before she laughed hysterically in the older woman’s shocked face.
But for that
little show of bravado, Ashley ended up in Cord’s bedroom out of breath and moaning over leg cramps that almost incapacitated her. When she finally got her second wind, she phoned for pizza.
With that important detail out of the way, she slipped out of her clothes and went into the ensuite bathroom to relax under the spray. To be able to act any way she wanted around his stepmother and not be nervous was so liberating, she could have squealed for joy. Not even the sight of Sheila’s shampoo in the shower, or one of her see-through peignoirs hanging on the bathroom door hook had the power to shake her.
Ashley knew enough that if Cord were still intimately involved with Sheila—he’d come home earlier today to be with her before showing up at St. Anne’s—he still wouldn’t have allowed Sheila to leave those items around for Ashley to discover.
The more she thought about it, the more Ashley wondered if Cord’s stepmother wasn’t just the slightest bit worried that nothing she’d done so far had driven him and Ashley apart.
“What are you up to now?”
While she’d been in the shower, either Cord’s mood had improved somewhat or else she had imagined the trace of amused irony in his tone as she emerged from the bathroom in her white granny nightgown with the peignoir and shampoo in hand.
“Umm… I smell pizza.” The aroma was coming from the box on the marble-topped double dresser.
Not batting an eye, she handed him the items, then rummaged around in her train case for a certain vial of pills. “Ah, here it is. Will you please see that Sheila gets this medicine along with her other things?” She lifted her gaze to his. “She must have forgotten to take her personal belongings with her.”
A look of pained admiration flared in his eyes. The ache in her heart deepened and she wheeled away from him.
If he truly turned out to be the enemy, then heaven help her because he was loved and beloved, and there didn’t seem to be anything she could do about it.
Refusing to entertain thoughts of Cord and Sheila together, Ashley ignored him by reaching for a large piece of pizza. She sensed rather than saw him finally leave the bedroom. As soon as he’d gone, she turned on the TV and got under the covers.
It felt so good to lie down she couldn’t believe it. Though hunger battled with fatigue, by the time she’d consumed the first slice, she was too tired to get up for a second piece. The last forty-eight hours at the orphanage had taken their toll.
At some point Cord finally came to bed but she was scarcely coherent. She heard him say Dan’s name, but she only caught snatches of random words before she felt his lips brush her cheek and oblivion take over.
“It couldn’t be nine-thirty!” she cried out the next morning when she awoke to an empty king-size bed. No telling how early Cord had gotten up.
He’d said something about Dan last night. Maybe they had agreed to meet early at the office.
She carefully worked herself out of bed, noticing that his green robe had fallen to the floor. Ashley pulled the nightgown over her head and deposited it on top of the robe. In a few minutes, she would gather up everything they’d brought home from the hospital and start a wash.
While she was in the bathroom freshening up and putting on a clean maternity outfit, the phone rang. Assuming she was alone in the house, Ashley moved as fast as she could to the bedside table to get it.
