“We can break it off when she leaves, if we have to go that far.”
Her heart was going mad. He didn’t know what the thought of being engaged to him did to her. She loved him almost desperately, but it was obvious that he had no such feeling for her.
Why did he need someone to help him get Miriam to leave him alone? she wondered. Maybe he still loved Miriam and was afraid of letting her get to him. Arabella closed her eyes. Whatever his reason, she couldn’t let him know how she felt. “I’ll go along, then,” she said. “I’m so tired, Ethan.”
“Get some rest. I’ll see you later.”
She opened her eyes. “Thank you for coming to see me. I don’t imagine it was something you’d have chosen to do, except that Dad asked you.”
“And you think I care enough for your father’s opinion to make any sacrifices on his behalf?” he asked curiously.
“Well, I don’t expect you to make any on mine,” she said coolly. “God knows, you disliked me enough in the old days. And still do, I imagine. I shouldn’t have said anything to you about Miriam—”
She was suddenly talking to thin air. He was gone before the words were out of her mouth.
* * *
Ethan was back with Coreen and Mary later that day, but he didn’t come into the room.
Coreen, small and delicate, was everything Arabella would have ordered in a custom-made mother. The little woman was spirited and kind, and her battles with Ethan were legendary. But she loved Arabella and Mary, and they were as much her daughters as Jan, her own married daughter who lived out of state.
“It was a blessing that Ethan was home,” Coreen told Arabella while Mary, Arabella’s best friend in public school, sat nearby and listened to the conversation with twinkling brown eyes. “He’s been away from home every few days since his divorce was final, mostly business trips. He’s been moody and brooding and restless. I found it amazing that he sent Matt on his last one.”
“Maybe he was out making up for lost time after the divorce was final,” Arabella said quietly. “After all, he was much too honorable himself to indulge in anything indecent while he was technically married.”
“Unlike Miriam, who was sleeping with anything in pants just weeks after they married,” Coreen said bluntly. “God knows why she held on to him for so long, when everyone knew she never loved him.”
“There’s no alimony in Texas,” Mary grinned. “Maybe that’s why.”
“I offered her a settlement,” Coreen said, surprising the other two women. “She refused. But I hear that she met someone else down in the Caribbean and there are rumors that she may marry her new man friend. That’s more than likely why she agreed to the divorce.”
“Then why does she want to come back?” Arabella asked.
“To make as much trouble as she can for Ethan, probably,” Coreen said darkly. “She used to say things to him that cut my heart out. He fought back, God knows, but even a strong man can be wounded by ceaseless ridicule and humiliation. My dear, Miriam actually seduced a man at a dinner party we gave for Ethan’s business associates. He walked in on them in his own study.”
Arabella closed her eyes and groaned. “It must have been terrible for him.”
“More terrible than you know,” Coreen replied. “He never really loved her and she knew it. She wanted him to worship at her feet, but he wouldn’t. Her extramarital activities turned him off completely. He told me that he found her repulsive, and probably he told her, too. That was about the time she started trying to create as many scandals as possible, to embarrass him. And they did. Ethan’s a very conventional man. It crushed him that Miriam thought nothing of seducing his business associates.” Coreen actually shuddered. “A man’s ego is his sensitive spot. She knew it, and used it, with deadly effect. Ethan’s changed. He was always quiet and introverted, but I hate what this marriage has done to him.”
“He’s a hard man to get close to,” Arabella said quietly. “Nobody gets near him at all now, I imagine.”
“Maybe you can change that,” Coreen said, smiling. “You could make him smile when no one else could. You taught him how to play. He was happier that summer four years ago than he ever was before or since.”
“Was he?” Arabella smiled painfully. “We had a terrible quarrel over Miriam. I don’t think he’s ever forgiven me for the things I said.”
“Anger can camouflage so many emotions, Bella,” Coreen said quietly. “It isn’t always as cut-and-dried as it seems.”
“No, it isn’t,” Mary agreed. “Matt and I hated each other once, and we wound up married.”
“I doubt if Ethan will ever marry anyone again,” Arabella said, glancing at Coreen. “A bad burn leaves scars.”
“Yes,” Coreen said sadly. “By the way, dear,” she said then, changing the subject, “we’re looking forward to having you with us while you recuperate. Mary and I will enjoy your company so much.”
Arabella thought about what Coreen had said long after they left. She couldn’t imagine a man as masculine as Ethan being so wounded by any woman, but perhaps Miriam had some kind of hold on him that no one knew about. Probably a sensual one, she thought miserably, because everyone who’d seen them together knew how attracted he’d been to Miriam physically. Miriam had been worldly and sophisticated. It was understandable that he’d fallen so completely under her spell. Arabella had been much too innocent to even begin to compete for him.
A nurse came in, bearing a huge bouquet of flowers, and Arabella’s eyes glistened with faint tears at their beauty. There was no card, but she knew by the size and extravagance of the gift that it had to be Coreen. She’d have to remember to thank the older woman the next day.
It was a long night, and she didn’t sleep well. Her dreams were troubled, full of Ethan and pain. She lay looking up at the ceiling after one of the more potent dreams, and her mind drifted back to a late-summer’s day, with the sound of bees buzzing around the wildflowers that circled the spot where the creek widened into a big hole, deep enough to swim in. She and Ethan had gone there to swim one lazy afternoon…
She could still see the butterflies and hear the crickets and July flies that populated the deserted area. Ethan had driven them to the creek in the truck, because it was a long and tiring walk in the devastating heat of a south Texas summer. He’d been wearing white trunks that showed off his powerful body in an all-too-sensuous way, his broad shoulders and chest tapering to his narrow hips and long legs. He was deeply tanned, and his chest and flat belly were thick with curling dark hair. Seeing him in trunks had never bothered Arabella overmuch until that day, and then just looking at him made her blush and scamper into the water.
She’d been wearing a yellow one-piece bathing suit, very respectable and equally inexpensive. Her father’s job had supported them frugally, and she was working part-time to help pay her tuition at the music school in New York. She was on fire with the promise of being a superb pianist, and things were going well for her. She’d come over to spend the afternoon with his sister Jan, but she and her latest boyfriend had gone to a barbecue, so Ethan had offered to take her swimming.
The offer had shocked and flattered Arabella, because Ethan was
