Great. Alex braced himself and his load by putting a boot against the bed rail and settled down as com fort ably as possible with the babies waiting for their turn to nurse. Three babies, a wife who didn’t want to be married to him and a mother-in-law in residence.
Bad odds for a man who’d drawn a supposedly lucky three of a kind.
Chapter Three
“Hello, Mrs. Way,” Alex said congenially.
Daphne could tell by the look on his face that he wasn’t pleased her mother had come to stay. But she needed her help, needed someone on her side.
“Hello, Alex,” Danita Way replied warily.
“Put Mother’s things in the room down the hall, please, Sinclair,” she instructed.
He nodded and left the room. Daphne continued to nurse, trying to stay relaxed so her milk would flow. Her mother reached to take one of the babies from Alex and sat down, cooing to it.
“I think I’m ready to switch,” Daphne told Alex. She handed him a nicely soothed baby, noting how swift he was to hand off the agitated, hungry child.
“Is there enough left for the other two?” Alex asked.
Daphne smiled tightly. “For now, yes. In the next couple of days, we’ll know.”
“Daphne’s gotta be relaxed,” Danita Way stated, with a meaningful look at him. “She needs six full weeks to recover just from having the babies, and then probably a whole year to get back up to strength. She doesn’t need to be upset.”
“Mother,” Daphne protested mildly.
“I don’t want to upset her, Mrs. Way,” Alex began.
“Danita,” she informed him. “I’m here to help. We can all work together if need be. But last I heard you and Daphne was getting a divorce. Don’t think much of ’em myself, but if that’s what you want to do, it ain’t none of my business. However, these babies are, and I won’t have you up set ting my daughter. Or my grandbabies.”
“Mrs. Way!” Alex’s boot slid from the bed rail to the floor. The baby in his arms, who had been so nicely soothed, flailed her fists momentarily and peered at him.
“Danita,” she reminded him.
“Danita, the last thing I want is to upset your daughter. In fact, I don’t even want to divorce her. I want to stay married. The divorce is her idea. At this point, I’m going along with whatever Daphne thinks is best, but I’m definitely not trying to upset her, even though I intensely dislike the idea of not being married to her.”
“He telling the truth?” Danita speared her daughter with a stare.
Daphne stirred un com fort ably, holding a baby against her as if she were a shield. “It isn’t the way he makes it sound.”
“So how is it?”
Daphne shrugged helplessly, refusing to meet Alex’s gaze. “We can’t stay married.”
“Why can’t we?” Alex demanded.
“Because of the babies.” She could hardly bear to look at him, sitting in the rocker holding her child so gently. Why did he have to be so difficult? She couldn’t stand knowing that she couldn’t give him what he wanted. A woman wanted to be everything to her man. She couldn’t be his dream come true.
“I was happy when I discovered we were having a child, Daphne. A bit sooner than we’d planned, and the fact that there were three did surprise me, but who can plan these things? I just always wanted you here with me.”
“So what’s the problem, Daphne?” Her mother eyed her suspiciously. “The man sounds serious to me.”
“You don’t under stand,” Daphne protested weakly. “He… Alexander Senior bought Daddy’s live stock at a highly inflated price to help him out financially. It was a dowry. An expensive, twentieth-century dowry. Alexander Senior thought he was getting a good deal, Mother. Genes, basically. I can’t bear staying married knowing it.”
“Whoa, Daphne,” Alex protested. “You’ve got this all wrong.”
She shook her head at him. “No, I don’t. I heard you talking to your father the day I came to tell you I was pregnant. You said then you weren’t sure if the marriage would last.”
“Did you say that?” Danita demanded.
“I don’t know,” Alex said slowly. “That’s been many months ago. Daphne, I think I only meant that we needed time to be together, time to get to know each other without having the passel of kids Dad wanted under foot.”
“Well, it didn’t quite work out that way.” Daphne raised her eyebrows at him in an exasperated manner.
“No, it didn’t. But that doesn’t mean we can’t work it out. Not all marriages start on a perfect foundation. We at least have good materials to start with.”
She stared at him, wishing he weren’t everything she’d always wanted in a man. Completely aware that her mother watched her with eagle eyes, Daphne decided she couldn’t say what was bothering her the most. Sometime when she and Alex were alone, she would tell him exactly what had been the crowning blow in her decision to leave. But not right now. It hurt too much to say in front of another human being. Especially her mother, whose feelings would be hurt if she knew that Cos Way had been so under handed as to sell his worst live stock to Alexander Senior. Daphne hadn’t even been worth his good live stock. Cos had laughed himself silly over the “runt cows” he’d sold Alexander Banning. Over hearing her father’s celebration, Daphne had burned with shame. Her father was under handed, dishonest, a snake-oil salesman.
Alex had been forced to marry her on this foundation. Shaky it was, indeed. He’d only done it for his father, who had been so ill at the time.
Too bad they couldn’t have foreseen Alexander Senior’s rapid recovery. It could have saved them all a lot of heartache.
“Sounds like a tempest in a teapot to me, Daphne,” her mother pronounced. “Alex has got his head on straight. He’s a fine man. You just make up yer mind to stay married and quit all this gibbering about him not understanding the problem.” As an aside, she said to Alex, “She may have baby blues. It’ll go off in time, but it’s darn wearing while you got ’em. Makes ya hysterical and overly weepy.”
“Mother!” Daphne ex claimed. Her hope of support was vanishing right before her eyes as she watched her mother siding with the enemy. “I don’t have baby blues. I’m not hysterical nor weepy!” She burst into tears.
“Oh, no, Daphne, don’t do that,” Alex said, getting to his feet instantly and shifting the sleeping baby in his arms to one of the cribs. “Honey, don’t cry.”
She jerked away from the comforting arm he tried to put around her. “Don’t patronize me.” Sniffling, she wiped her nose on her gown sleeve.
Alex quickly called for Nelly, who must have been hovering outside because she quickly popped into the room. “Yes, Mr. Alex?”
