Luke finally met her gaze evenly. “With you in court beside me, there’s far less likelihood of that. What judge would take a boy away from a happy, whole family and turn him over to a drifting single father?”
Katie swallowed hard against the bile that rose in her throat. There it was, the whole truth, spelled out plain as day. He’d wanted a wife to take into court. Any woman would have done.
Yet Luke had handpicked her to be his son’s mother, not because she was so special, but because he had guessed that she was the one woman on earth who couldn’t deny him anything. She was his insurance in court. The last of her illusions about their marriage shattered like so much spun glass.
Worse, she knew that even knowing the whole bitter truth, she couldn’t walk away. He’d chosen well. Katie would stay by his side. She would see to it that he didn’t lose his son to his ne’er-do-well brother.
And, if there was a God in heaven, Luke would never know what staying cost her.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Katie?”
Luke had to repeat himself twice before she finally looked up. The desolation in her eyes was almost his undoing. If there had been any other solution to his problem, he would have released her from her commitment to him on the spot. Something deep inside told him, however, that if he gave her up now, he would regret it the rest of his life. With circumstances as they were, he could only vow that he would make it up to her someday if only she would stick with him. He hoped that promise would be enough.
Though why she should believe anything he had to say at this point was beyond him.
“Katie,” he began again now that he had her attention.
Apparently guessing that he was about to offer more empty words, she cut him off. “Don’t worry,” she said tersely. “I’m not going to walk away now.”
A sigh of relief shuddered through him. “Thank you. I knew I could count on you.”
“Good old Katie,” she muttered under her breath.
Luke heard the hint of resentment in her voice and regarded her warily. “What was that?”
She shook her head. “Nothing,” she said wearily, then added more briskly, “What do we need to do to get ready to fight Tommy?”
“For starters, we have to be sure that no one guesses that this is anything less than a perfect marriage,” he said slowly, watching her closely.
“Meaning?”
Her cold, impersonal, matter-of-fact tone worried him. He would almost have preferred to have her shouting at him. This docile acceptance was thoroughly out of character. He felt personally to blame for having drained all of the spirit out of her.
Or perhaps it was simply exhaustion. She had a right to be physically and emotionally tired after what she’d been through. By tomorrow she’d probably be screaming at him at the top of her lungs. Ironically, for once he had a feeling he’d welcome the change in her mood.
In the meantime, though, he recognized that this was definitely not the time to mention that Mrs. Jeffers had found a new boarder whose arrival would necessitate making new sleeping arrangements for him and Robby. He was determined that at least to all outside observers, he and Katie would appear to be typical newlyweds. If they were sharing a room, no one would know for certain what went on behind the closed door. If they weren’t in the same bedroom, who knew what people would make of it.
“Maybe we’d better talk about it in the morning,” he suggested. “I’ve given you enough to absorb for one night.”
“I think I’d rather get everything out in the open now,” she countered in that same flat tone. “Come on, Luke. Lay it all out on the table so I know exactly what I’m up against.”
Luke was literally saved by the bell. The front door chime was being punched with a great deal of what he recognized as childish fervor. Robby, no doubt, but what the devil was he doing back here tonight? Torn between gratitude for his timing and panic, Luke jumped up. “I’ll get it.”
When he opened the door, he wasn’t exactly surprised to find Robby and Peg on the threshold. Still, his whole body tensed. He knew it would have taken some sort of major calamity for Peg to intrude on them.
“Well, hi,” he said with forced cheer. “I wasn’t expecting you two back tonight.” He studied Peg’s expression for some hint about why they’d returned.
“I had a call from your brother,” she explained.
Her tone gave away nothing, but Luke knew at once the call must have shaken her or she would never have come back to the boarding house.
“Really?” he said, his tone just as bland. “What did he want?”
“He said he was planning to arrive in Clover tonight and hoped to see...” she glanced down at Robby, but said “...you. I thought you’d probably want Robby to be with you when he arrives.”
“What on earth made him call you?” Luke muttered, though nothing Tommy did should startle him after all these years of seeing his brother’s canniness in action.
“Obviously someone here in town is keeping him up-to-date on Robby’s whereabouts,” Peg replied. “Any idea who that might be?”
Luke shook his head. “I can’t imagine who would be in touch with him.”
“What about your ex-wife?” Katie said from behind him. “Or her parents?”
Luke had been so absorbed in digesting Peg’s news that he hadn’t even been aware that Katie had joined them in the foyer.
Robby, who was clutching his favorite fire engine and a ragged teddy bear, seemed to pick up on the adults’ tension. “Is Mommy here?” he asked, looking up into Luke’s face.
“I don’t think so, sport. When you talked to her last week, she was still in Seattle, remember?”
“Oh,” Robby said flatly, clearly disappointed, but trying valiantly to hide it.
“Maybe you’d better be getting to bed,” Luke told his son. “Why don’t I take
