Chapter 3 #2
"Enough!" His eyes glittered impatiently.
"Julianne is the most independent woman I know.
She never asked for anything and is in fact uncomfortable whenever I try to give her anything.
" He shook his head. "I think I might have made a mistake letting her go before and I don't intend to make that mistake again.
You're going to have to deal with it." Without another word, he strode from the room, closing the door behind him.
Barbara sat there in the chair, her hands clasped so tightly together that her knuckles showed white.
A wave of helpless rage washed over her, making her feel impotent and shaken.
She had thought she had succeeded in ridding her son of the parasite that had followed him back home after setting her sights on him.
Men had a way of being blinded by a beautiful face and a nubile body in bed.
She had been plagued by that fact her entire life.
Her husband had taken lovers indiscriminately and had finally fallen for a woman of color, a low-born woman who had beguiled him as soon as she arrived.
He had given her everything, put her up in one of the townhouses and lavished her with attention, money and expensive gifts.
He had been with her when he died. They had both been on their way home from a Broadway play in New York when tragedy hit and the plane went down, killing them instantly.
The humiliation had been complete, and everyone had read about her disgrace.
Now it was happening all over again. Her son had been taken in by a colored woman, but this time, she was not going to stand helplessly by and do nothing. She was going to act.
*******************
Julianne stretched languidly, her eyes flickering open.
As soon as they did, the memories came flooding back and had her sitting up.
He was gone. Of course he was. Bryson had a ranch to run, and she had not expected him to stay in the first place.
The tray was gone from the bedside table and in its place, there was a note.
Reaching over, she picked up the piece of folded paper and opened it. His precise handwriting had her smiling slightly. He had told her the story behind it, and it was not a pretty one. Biting her lip, she scanned the three lines. It was terse and to the point.
"I will be back later. Have some things to sort out first thing this morning. Kindly allow us to have a conversation. You owe me that. Bryson."
Reading it again, she folded the paper and put it in the drawer. Yes, they were going to have a conversation alright. And nothing he said or did was going to change her mind. She would be leaving at the end of the week. Brian had called as soon as she settled, and she had told him just that.
"I just feel in my bones that you will not be returning right now," he had predicted.
"Well, your bones are wrong. I will be leaving. We will talk, Bryson and I, like reasonable adults, and come to some sort of agreement and that's that."
And she meant every word. Shoving the sheets off her, she could not help but remember how he had cradled her in his arms and put her to bed, nor the fact that he had prepared a meal for her.
The feel of his strong arms around her had brought back the memories of what it had been like in the past. Shaking the memories off, she rose and rubbed her stomach.
At least she didn't feel as if she was going to throw up her stomach lining.
She might attempt to have some proper breakfast after all.
******************
Sara-Lee patted the neat chignon at the back of her head nervously, her eyes going to the doorway as she awaited the arrival of the woman who had always had the power to scare her to death.
From the conversation on the phone two hours ago while she was dealing with some matters in her office, she presumed that it had to do with Bryson and that it was serious.
Sara-Lee knew that the woman of his past was back in town; nothing went on here without it being plastered all over the place.
She was also aware that he had never gotten over her.
She had hoped that with the passage of time he would come to love her, not with the wild abandon he had for Julianne Merrywood (their love affair had set tongues wagging!).
And Sara-Lee had seen them together. She had done everything she had been told to do, tried to behave in a way that would ensure the relationship would lead into something permanent.
Hadn't she moved in as soon as the woman had left town, lending a supportive ear and a shoulder to lean on, offering friendship and such?
Not that Bryson had accepted a shoulder and he had certainly never brought up the woman's name.
She had tried to get him to talk about the break up and he had curtly shut her down.
So, she had stayed away from that topic and made herself available.
She had offered and he had taken. Now the woman was back, and Sara-Lee feared that there was going to be a big problem.
She was jarred from her musing when the ma?tre D of the posh tea room hurried forward to guide Barbara McNab towards the table that was situated cozily at the back of the lush flower-filled bower, with palm trees waving in the breeze.
Abandoning her light summer jacket to the man, Barbara waited for her chair to be pulled out and took her seat.
"We will have the mint julep and your garden salad." Her green eyes touched on Sara-Lee briefly. "I presume you have not yet ordered?"
"I was waiting for you." Sara-Lee had known to wait for the other woman's arrival. From past experiences, she realized that Barbara McNab expected to always be in charge, even something as trivial as a lunch menu.
"Splendid. That will be all." She dismissed the man and waited until he was out of earshot. "You're looking lovely, my dear."
"Thank you. So do you. That teal blue color is..."
"Now that we've dispensed with the small talk, let's get down to it." Her green eyes bored into Sara-Lee's blue ones. "You've been calling Bryson since last night. Has he called you back?"
Sara-Lee nodded and reached for the glass of water. "He said he had something to discuss with me later."
"That's all he said?"
She nodded again.
"Nothing else?" Barbara prodded.
"No. That's it. Is something wrong?"
"Of course something is wrong," she said sharply. Picking up her own glass of water, she took a fortified sip. "I'm about to impart some news and will have to prevail upon you to keep it to yourself. The only reason I'm discussing this is because of the dire nature."
Sara-Lee stared at her in alarm. "What's the matter?"
Putting her glass down, she waited for the drinks to be served before resuming the conversation. "That woman, as you know, is back in town."
"I'm aware."
"We had an agreement, you and I. You were supposed to make my son fall in love with you and eventually propose. I stressed that as a matter of importance."
"I've tried to..."
"Not hard enough!"
The conversation was halted again as the ma?tre D came forward with their salads. The man stood there as usual as Barbara examined the vegetables to ascertain their fresh crispness, before he was summarily dismissed.
"I've done everything you told me..."
"Which has not been enough." Barbara took a sip of her mint julep and nodded in satisfaction.
"I don't know what you expect..."
"That woman is back in town because she claims she's carrying the heir to the family's fortune!" Barbara hissed.
Sara-Lee recoiled. It was not just the tone of voice, or the bitterness underlying the sentence; it was the words themselves.
Julianne Merrywood was pregnant? What did that mean to her and Bryson's relationship?
It had not been on the most solid foundation in the first place, but with this, something so significant and life-changing, it meant he was going to go running back to her.
Sara-Lee had always been a substitute for the other woman and a poor one at that.
She always had the feeling that he made love to her out of a sense of duty, if that was the proper term, and that he had been detached and distant.
"Is it... she went away. She could have been with another man." She was grasping at straws and she realized it.
"He claims she has not been with anyone else." Even discussing the matter was making her riled. "I tasked you with one simple job: get my son interested in you and get him to propose and you failed at it."
Sara-Lee wished she could rebel. She wished she could put the obnoxious woman in her place.
But she didn't dare. Aside from the fact that she relished the idea of being Mrs. Bryson McNab, no one dared speak a word against the woman seated across from her.
The McNabs had all the power in this county and beyond.
They owned most if not all the resources in the town and had the power to change lives.
Sara-Lee was from a very good family, one of faultless bloodline, and she had the feeling that's why she had been chosen by Barbara McNab as the perfect spouse for Bryson.
She was also aware of the stain on the family's name caused by Barbara's husband. Everyone knew where he had spent his time and it had not been in his wife's bed. Everyone also knew he had been seeing a 'colored' woman exclusively up until his death.
"Tell me what you want me to do," she murmured in a subdued tone.
The irate look on Barbara's face dissolved to be replaced by a rare, charming smile. "I'm glad you asked."