Chapter Nine #3
Her face fell as reality came rushing back. “You don’t really want a child, Blake,” she said sadly. “You’re doing the right thing, offering to marry me. But it wouldn’t work.”
“You don’t know that,” he said. “A lot of couples start out with less than we have. I said some stupid things on the phone, and you heard them. But I’m still in the early stages of this.
You’ve had time to think about the baby.
I haven’t.” He stuck his hands in his trouser pockets.
“I don’t react well to change,” he said flatly.
“I have to have time to work through what it’s going to mean. ”
Violet sighed worriedly. “Yes, but you’d feel trapped.”
He shrugged. “Honestly, maybe I do, a little,” he confessed. “But that’s temporary. I just need a little time, Violet.”
“I know that. So do I.” She turned and went back to her desk, to the box she was packing up. “Duke’s willing to let me come back. I’m going. In a few weeks, when you know what you want, we can talk.”
“In a few weeks, you’ll be showing, Violet,” he replied shortly.
She turned. “I’m plump,” she said without heat. “I won’t show for a while.”
“Plump.” He smiled gently. “Womanly is a better adjective. You look lovely.”
Her eyebrows arched.
“I’m not trying to win you over,” he said when he saw her expression. “I actually mean it. There are a lot of things about you that I like. Besides, the cats like you.”
“Does that win me points?” she ventured.
He chuckled. “They don’t like many people. And they attacked a pizza delivery guy one night, one cat climbing up each leg. I have to pay extra now to get him to come back. And I have to promise to lock up Mee and Yow before he pulls into the driveway.”
“Ouch.”
“It could have been the anchovies, I guess,” he said in hindsight.
He eyed her quietly. “All right, if you’re determined to leave again, I won’t stand in the way.
But you have to do some thinking yourself.
The person we both need to consider is the baby.
He, or she, has no choice at all about this. ”
She grimaced. “I didn’t think about…precautions.”
He smiled slowly. “We were both a little preoccupied. Both times.”
She flushed.
He laughed. “It was very good. I imagine I could search for the rest of my life and never find a woman who suited me so well, physically.”
She shrugged. “I thought men could find pleasure with anybody.”
“So they say. But I’ve stopped looking.”
The way he was looking at her made her toes curl in her shoes. He seemed to be genuine about his feelings. But he didn’t love her. And she did love him. It would be a poor match.
“I plan to call you, often,” he said. “I’m giving advance notice. Don’t think because I’m agreeing to let you leave, that it means I’m giving up on you. I’m not.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh.”
“And I’d prefer it if you didn’t tell your mother we’re having problems,” he added. “She doesn’t need any more upsets.”
“Yes, I know. I won’t tell her,” she agreed, her head bent over the box.
“There’s a rumor that Duke’s wife may be coming down with their son, for a quick visit,” he added. “It may be for legal reasons, but I think she’s heard about the new lady vet who’s working for Wright.”
Her eyes twinkled. “Jealousy?”
“Who knows? But it would be nice if they could patch up their differences. A child needs two parents,” he added firmly, and he wasn’t talking just about the Wrights, Violet guessed.
“Yes. A child does need two,” she agreed.
He moved forward and picked up the box for her. His eyes were solemn. “I should have gone with you, the afternoon you left sick,” he said unexpectedly. “I was going after you when the phone rang and I had to placate a frightened client.”
“You were?” she exclaimed, surprised.
“I was. Open the door.”
She did, and he followed her through to the outside.
* * *
She eased her mother past the fact that she was going back to work for Duke Wright with a simple explanation—she and Blake weren’t getting much work done staring at each other, so she was solving their problem until they got married and settled down.
Her mother gave her an odd look, but she smiled and let it go.
True to his word, Blake called Violet every day. She was shy at first, but he related the day’s happenings and the office gossip, and after a couple of days, it was very nice to have someone to talk to who knew everything that was going on around town.
* * *
But then Janet Collins was arrested in San Antonio and charged with the murder of Violet’s father.
As he had when the autopsy results on Mr. Hardy came in, Blake didn’t phone Violet. He went to Duke Wright’s house and delivered the news in person.
Violet’s expression wasn’t easily read. “What now?” she asked slowly, her hands poised over the keyboard of the computer.
“Now she gets formally charged with first degree murder. She’ll be arraigned next Monday in San Antonio.”
“Should Mother and I go, do you think?” she wondered, hoping not. It would be an ordeal to have to see the woman who’d killed her father.
“That’s not necessary,” he replied. “Although your mother will probably have to testify at the trial in order for us to get a conviction.”
“What good will that do?” Violet asked miserably. “It will only upset her. She never saw Janet with my father, anyway.”
Blake held up a hand. “I’m afraid she did,” he replied, watching her expression turn from worry to shock. “She never told you, but she walked in on them in the motel, just before your father collapsed and was taken to the hospital.”
“That’s where police got the trace evidence that linked her to poison,” Violet recalled, still battling shock about her mother’s secrecy all these years.
“Yes, and it was fortunate for us that your mother did walk in on them, because she’s not only an eyewitness, but her very presence shocked Janet into running for her life.
In the process, she left behind the glass the poison was in.
Her fingerprints are on it,” he added, “although nobody knows that except the crime lab, the police, and me. And now you,” he amended.
“There’s more than enough evidence to convict her of murder.
Your mother will provide the motive and eyewitness identification that links Janet to the motel room, your father, his bank account and her penniless state.
They’ll try to introduce evidence from the previous poisoning of a patient in a nursing home who left her his estate.
The old man’s son is more than willing to testify. ”
“You’ve been busy,” she exclaimed, when she realized that he’d been investigating the status of the case against Libby.
“I have, indeed.” He slid his lean hands into his slacks pockets, smiling slowly at Violet in a way that made her toes curl up in her shoes.
Harley Fowler walked in with Duke Wright, talking about a bull Harley’s boss, Cy Parks, had bought and sent Harley to transport, when they spotted Blake.
Duke’s big fists curled at his sides. “What are you doing in my house?” he demanded of Blake.
Blake glanced at him with a rueful smile. “Just talking to the mother of my child,” he said, dropping the bombshell. Just as well, he was thinking, to get two birds with one stone, especially since both men were temporarily single. No way was one of them going to mess around with his Violet.