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Elaine moved forward to touch the white blanket surrounding Sophie. “Is this our little Rose Elizabeth?”
The moment of weakness fled. Her mother had insisted Jenna name her baby after two matriarchs of the Carrington family, considering her choice far more fitting than anything Jenna suggested. Elaine had even preenrolled Sophie in an elite private school under that name and against Jenna’s wishes.
“Her name is Sophie Joy.”
Elaine drew back, startled that her will had been questioned, but as “befitting one of her station,” she quickly masked her real feelings.
“Sit down, darling. You look terrible.” She glanced at Parm, head of Carrington security for as long as Jenna could remember. “Don’t you agree, Parm? She’s clearly been ill.”
Parm inclined his head, agreeing as always with his employer.
“I’ve never been healthier, Mother.”
“Don’t try to hide the truth from me, darling. I know when something’s wrong.” She tilted Jenna’s face upward and studied her as if she were a painting. “If you would only have told your father or me how distraught you were over Derek’s death and—well, that other distasteful affair, we would have gotten you the help you needed.”
Leave it to mother to consider death and adultery as equally distasteful. “The situation with Derek was only one of the reasons I left. I don’t expect you to understand. But I do expect you to get in your car, return to the airport and go home.”
“Not without you and my granddaughter.” Elaine smoothed the back of her skirt and reseated herself. “You’re ill. You have been for some time.”
“You want me to be ill so you can control me. And Sophie.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Genevieve, darling, do you have any heart at all? Don’t you realize the terror and despair your father and I experienced when we realized you were gone? We thought our worst nightmare had finally come to pass.” She paused, pressed a pampered hand to her heart and closed her eyes. “I wept for days, waiting for the ransom call, certain some vicious monster had stolen my only child.”
Jenna’s conscience pricked. The Carringtons feared kidnapping above all things. “I left a note.”
“A note could have easily been forced from you at gunpoint. Even Parm was deeply concerned that something untoward had occurred.”
Jenna swallowed. “I’m sorry, Mother. I never meant to worry you.”
“Don’t you see, darling, your behavior has been unbalanced, a danger to you and my grandchild.”
“I’m a good mother.”
“Your love is not in question, but your emotional health is. Now that I’m here I see for myself how desperate the situation is. You look dreadful, exhausted, weathered like a common street urchin. And those hands, your once-beautiful hands…” Her mother’s voice trailed away as she stared at Jenna’s chipped fingernails.
“I work for a living.”
Elaine placed the back of her hand against her forehead as if a migraine was coming on. “Clearly another symptom of how ill you are. Our kind do not work for a living. We serve others in charitable duties. Jenna, child, as difficult as it may be for you to think rationally, consider the things you’ve done. You engaged in an ill-begotten alliance with a gold-digging philanderer and got yourself pregnant. That alone shows very poor judgment. Then only days before that baby’s birth, you disappeared, putting both your child and yourself in jeopardy. Anything could have happened. Dear heavens above, you gave birth to the Carrington heir on the side of the road. You could have died. Don’t you understand how terribly ill you must be to have done such a dangerous thing?”
Jenna’s heart sank lower than the Texas sun. She had never looked at the situation quite this way. Was Mother right? Had running away been the sign of a mental illness?
“I’m sorry, Mother,” she said again and heard the voice of a little girl who had always apologized and obeyed. Five minutes in the company of her mother and Jenna was a child again. Growing more confused and uncertain by the minute, she felt herself weakening.
Perhaps she should go home. Perhaps she wasn’t well. Sophie deserved to grow up in a healthy environment. She reached down to smooth the soft cap of blond curls and stared into her baby’s eyes. What was the right thing to do for Sophie?
Elaine touched her shoulder, though Jenna hadn’t seen her leave the chair. “Come on, darling. Let’s get your things and leave before that cowboy person returns.”
Like a remote control doll, Jenna rose, clutching Sophie to her breast. “I have to say goodbye.”
