her to the press, she’d have had an abortion. She left him just after Amanda was born. She was killed several years later in an automobile accident. A tragic affair, all around.”
“Did Amanda know her at all?” Merlyn asked.
“No. Marcia considered Amanda a liability, not an asset. She’s not the most beautiful child in the world, despite her sweet nature and kind heart. Although I doubt Marcia would have wanted her anyway. She just didn’t have any maternal instinct at all.”
“How sad,” Merlyn said quietly. “And it’s even sadder that her father gives her so little of himself. He’ll regret that one day.”
“He probably will. But he doesn’t listen to advice, my dear.”
“I noticed,” Merlyn replied dryly.
“Keep right on ruffling him, Merlyn,” the older woman said. “Maybe it will help.”
“Oh, that doesn’t take much effort—ruffling him,” she assured her colleague. “I have a feeling my very existence is enough to do the trick.”
***
They were hard at work, discussing possibilities for fictional characters during the reign of Henry VII, the founder of the Tudor line, when Amanda came downstairs. Lila was right, Merlyn thought. The little girl favored her father, and she was nobody’s idea of beautiful. God bless her, she was gangly and thin and nervous, and those huge eyes swallowed her face. Probably when she grew up, she’d surprise everybody by being a beauty, though. Often it was the ugly ducklings who made the most beautiful swans—simply by taking advantage of what they had and making the most of it.
“Good morning,” Merlyn said brightly, and smiled.
Amanda smiled, too. It was hard not to, when their visitor had such a contagiously sunny disposition.
“Good morning, Miss Merlyn,” she said. “Good morning, Grandmama.”
“Have you had breakfast?” Lila asked the child.
“No, ma’am,” Amanda murmured. She sat down on the glider, her hands folded on her skirt, her long hair in neat pigtails, her blouse spotless.
“Why not?” Lila prodded.
“I didn’t like to ask Mrs. Simms to fix it just for me,” Amanda said shyly.
“Nonsense,” Lila said. “Tilly doesn’t mind. And, Amanda, it isn’t as if we don’t pay her. Now go and ask for what you want.”
“But I’m not hungry,” the child insisted.
Lila sighed heavily. “Oh, Amanda, you’re just skin and bones.”
“She certainly is,” Cameron boomed, joining them. His dark, unsmiling eyes studied his daughter’s thinness. “Get in the house and eat,” he said curtly.
“Yes, Father,” Amanda said in a subdued tone. She got up without raising her eyes and went back into the house.
“My, what a way you have with children, Mr. Thorpe,” Merlyn said sweetly. “All the diplomacy of a rocket launcher, in fact!”
“Shut up,” he told her coldly, his dark eyes daring her to make another statement.
She got to her feet “Look here,” she said, “you may order Amanda around, but I’m a big girl. I’m here to work, not to…”
“Then why don’t you work, Miss Forrest, and leave my daughter’s upbringing to me?” he asked coolly.
“Mr. Thorpe…!” she persisted.
“Your duties include research, I believe, Miss Forrest, not child psychology?” Cameron went on, not giving his mother a chance to interfere.
Merlyn’s green eyes glittered at him. “My father used to be just like you,” she said angrily. “All work, all ice. I grew up on the mercy of neighbors. I wonder how you’re going to feel when Amanda is old enough to leave home, and if she’ll say the same things to you that I said to my father?”
He gave her one last glare before he turned and went back into the house, slamming the door behind him.
“Oh, my,” Lila murmured.
“Sorry,” Merlyn grumbled as she sat back down. “He makes me so mad! I did have a lot of terrible things to say to my father at one time. We’re good friends now, but we weren’t always. He and your son would get along just fine.”
“Yes, well, I’m sorry about all this,” Lila said. “He isn’t the most relaxing person to work around, even if he is my son.”
“I had no right to say those things to him,” Merlyn said after a minute, cooler now. “I’ll apologize, if you like.”
“And make him even more smug than he already is?” Lila exclaimed. “You will not!”
Merlyn laughed. “All right, then.”
Amanda came back minutes later, looking puzzled yet happy. “Daddy sat with me while I had breakfast,” she said. “He hasn’t done that in a long time. He even talked to me.”
Merlyn and Lila exchanged shocked, faintly amused glances before they got back to work.
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