Trouble Don’t Last Always (21 page)

There was no use denying his words. He had spoken the truth. “I was desperate, yes, but I also wanted to help you.”

“Spare me the humanitarianism. The longer you stayed, the more you earned. I was a meal ticket.” His laugh was bitter. “To think I thought ...” His voice trailed off, his head lowered.

“Dr. Wake—”

His head came up sharply. “You’re fired.”

“What?” Her eyes widened with shock.

“Get your things and get out. I want you gone within the hour. You hear me? Get out!”

She wouldn’t cry. Lilly told herself that, but it didn’t stop the silent tears flowing down her cheeks. Her fault again for believing, for letting her guard slip even a tiny bit. She had only herself to blame for the ache in her chest.

She shouldn’t have let herself care about him as a person. Men weren’t to be trusted. They played with your emotions. Shutting the suitcase, she dragged it from the bed and left her bedroom. She met an anxious-appearing Eleanor on the stairs.

“Lilly, Nicole called. She said Adam became upset when she mentioned your salary.”

“He fired me.”

Eleanor’s eyes widened and she came to Lilly and placed her hand on her trembling arm. “He’s upset. He’ll calm down once he’s had time to think this through.”

“He doesn’t want me here.” That admission hurt. Hurt badly.

“Yes, he does. He’s just too upset now to realize it,” Eleanor said. “I had no idea he’d be so upset about your salary.”

Lilly worked her shoulders. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll be going. Thank you for trusting me to take care of Dr. Wakefield.”

“Lilly—”

“I’m not staying. I won’t be treated like this again. Myron was enough.”

“Myron?”

There was no reason not to tell her. “I lied. I was married. I filed for divorce and left my abusive husband the day my car broke down. I left there with no firm job prospects, few clothes, and very little money. That’s why I didn’t want to have a reference check. I didn’t want him to find me.” She spoke past the stinging in her throat. “Mother Crawford wasn’t my mother; she was my mother-in-law. She and my stepson, Rafe, were the only good thing to come out of my marriage. When I left Myron, I promised myself that I’d never be subjected to that kind of treatment again. I deserve better.”

“Lilly, I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault. Good-bye, Eleanor. Please tell Dr. Delacroix good-bye for me.” The lump in her throat threatening to choke her, she stepped around Eleanor and quickly went down the stairs.

Eleanor went down the stairs behind Lilly, but her destination was the study. His shoulders bent, his head resting in the palms of his hands, Adam sat behind his desk. The sight tore through Eleanor, but she refused to let his dejected appearance dissuade her. “What did you say to her?”

“Not now, Mother.” His voice was tired.

“Yes, now. Lilly came here afraid of her own shadow and I just learned why, an abusive husband, but she stayed and stuck it out to help you. She almost didn’t take the job because Jonathan wanted a reference check. Even with the offer of a thousand dollars a week, she chose to sit in a broken-down car. That took fear and courage.”

“But she took the job, didn’t she? The money was too good to turn down.”

“It might have been initially for the money, but I saw the look on her face when she came from your room the first time. She cared and she’s shown me she cares time and time again. I stayed in the cottage to ensure that I wasn’t mistaken about her. Do you think for one instant that if I thought she was only here for the money I wouldn’t have hired someone else?”

Adam rocked back in his chair. “Just proves she’s a good actress. She annoyed me.”

“And by doing so she got you to forget that you were blind and act instead of react. After she got you to eat and get cleaned up, I would have let her stay in any case. In fact, I told her as much. She had a job, regardless. But she kept trying to think of ways to help you. Everything from the tapes to the clothes was her idea. Not mine. And you just kicked her in the teeth!”

Slowly his head came up. “I didn’t know.”

“And you didn’t ask. You just struck out the same way you’ve been doing since your blindness. I’ve been disappointed, even hurt, by your actions, but I’ve never been ashamed of you until this moment.”

He flinched at the cutting remark but knew it was deserved. “Mother, I’m sorry.”

“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to.” Eleanor wasn’t in a forgiving frame of mind.

For an endless moment, Adam sat there; then he stood and hurried around the desk and straight into the Chippendale armchair.

“Damn!” He and the chair both toppled.

“Adam!” Eleanor rushed to him, then hesitated. In the past he had never wanted help.

“Mother, could you please help me up and show me to the garage?” He reached out his hand to her. “I think it’s time I became the man you raised me to be.”

Brushing tears from her eyes, Lilly opened the door of her car, tossed her suitcase on the front seat, and slid in beside it, chastising herself as she did so. She had no reason to cry. She had money in her pocket; her car was running. She had nothing to cry about. It had just been a job.

And she had come to care about Dr. Wakefield more than she should.

Tears fell harder. Clutching the steering wheel, she leaned her head against it and cried.

“I thought I told you not to waste tears on me.”

Stunned, she jerked her head up to see Adam standing beside the open door of the car she had forgotten to close. “How…“ she began, then saw the answer to how he had found his way to the garage. Eleanor stood a short distance away. “Go back inside, Dr. Wakefield.”

“Ordering me around again.” It was more of a statement than a question.

“I never ordered you around,” Lilly told him, wishing she didn’t recall when that had been a joke between them. “Please move so I can close the door.”

He moved closer. Reaching out, he touched her shoulder, then slid his hand down to grasp her hand and tug. “Come on; let’s go back into the house.”

“No, I’m leaving.”

“I’m sorry, Lilly. Sorrier than you’ll ever know.”

“Some hurts can’t be mended with words.”

His breath hissed in sharply. His mouth tightened. “I’d never abuse you like he did.”

“You hurt me,” she said softly, her voice thick with unshed tears. “Don’t you think I know how it feels to be used? How it feels not to be wanted for yourself? Myron did that to me for six years.”

Anger shot through Adam. “I’m not that slime of a husband.”

“Then you think I’m a user like he was?”

“Never. You’ve got to believe me.” Adam raked his hand over his head in growing frustration. “Oh, hel—heck, Lilly. Never that. Never that.”

“Do you have any idea how you made me feel?” she asked, her words so quiet he had to bend his head to hear them. Then he wished he hadn’t.

She sounded defeated, lost. Guilt ate at him. His only defense was the truth, a truth that would leave him as defenseless as she.

“Do you think I wasn’t hurt? No matter how much I pushed you away, you always came back. No one ever did that, except my family. Besides Jonathan, you’re the only person who never caved in or acted differently. You never treated me as if my blindness diminished my intelligence.” He paused and drew in a deep breath. “I thought it was more than a job. I thought you…hell, I thought you cared about me like I care about you.”

He cared.

His words rushed though her like a healing balm. He cared. He’d cursed, but it was out of frustration, not hatred or disrespect.

“Please stay,” he continued, his hand gripping hers tightly. “You haven’t finished reading
The Third Degree.
I doubt if Mother will read it to me, as upset as she is with me.”

The joy spiraling within Lilly took a nosedive. “That’s what you want me for, to read, cook, and clean?”

“No. I could hire someone to do that,” Adam told her. “I want you for what no amount of money can buy. As a true friend. Please stay.”

Lilly sniffed and brushed the last lingering tears from her eyes. A true friend. She’d only had one in her entire life. “On one condition?”

“Name it.”

“You teach me to really play the piano.”

“It’s a deal.”

Eleanor was waiting for them when they emerged from the garage arm in arm. “I’ll just go to the cottage and get the mail.”

“You can’t carry that much by yourself,” Adam protested. “I’ll go with you.”

Both women traded worried glances. Lilly spoke first. “The path is smooth, but I don’t think you should carry a big box.”

“I didn’t intend to. Mother probably has a handled shopping bag or two that we can use.”

Eleanor glanced at Lilly for guidance. Getting Adam out of the house and down the steps to the garage had been awkward for both of them. The winding path to the cottage was twice that distance.

Adam, his jaw clenched, spoke into the growing silence: “I’m not helpless.”

“We never thought you were,” Lilly said, praying she was making the right decision. The worst thing they could do was discourage Adam’s emerging confidence with their own fears. “While you two are getting the mail, I’ll take my things back upstairs.”

“Come on, Mother,” Adam said, reaching for his mother’s arm and feeling her tremble. He leaned over and whispered, “Think of this as helping me take my first baby steps. I might have fallen, but I got up and I learned.”

“You certainly did,” Eleanor said, her voice steadier. “Lilly, we’ll be back in a little bit.”

Lilly watched them trying to find a rhythm to their steps and knew they were going to be all right when Adam bumped into his mother and almost fell. Instead of reacting with embarrassment or anger, he had laughed. He wasn’t afraid of trying and failing. He’d come a long ways from the angry, frightened man she’d met when she arrived.

And she’d helped. No one could take that away from her. She was good at something.

Grabbing her suitcase, Lilly went inside. She was passing the telephone stand in the hallway when the phone rang. Pausing, she picked up the receiver. “Wakefield residence.” The line clicked dead.

Shrugging, she hung up the phone and continued upstairs to her room. Deciding unpacking could wait, she came back downstairs and went to the kitchen and started to finish cleaning up. She wanted all the household duties out of the way so she could help Adam if he needed her. She’d just finished when the phone rang again. “Wakefield residence.”

There was no answer, but she could tell there was someone on the line. Myron? Her stomach knotted in fear. “Who’s there?”

“I want to speak to Adam.”

Nicole.
Lilly recognized the silky voice and the bad attitude immediately. “Why do you dislike me?”

“I asked to speak with Adam.”

Lilly’s fingers flexed on the phone. Nicole had the same demanding way about her that Myron had. “Unless you answer my question, you aren’t going to.”

Nicole’s quick intake of breath echoed through the phone. “Why, you. You’re just the hired help!”

“If I were just that, I wouldn’t bother you so much,” Lilly said, sure she was right.

“Don’t give yourself more importance than you have,” Nicole said tartly. “Adam admires sophisticated, beautiful women. Even blind, you can’t possibly think he’d want you.”

“You’re jealous,” Lilly said, the unbelievable thought taking root in her brain and sprouting like a dandelion after a hard spring rain. She laughed at the absurdity of it and the undeniable pleasure it gave her.

“I’d be a fool to be jealous of you!”

“You won’t get an argument from me,” Lilly said. “Those things you think so highly of don’t mean squat to Adam now, and although you may not be aware of it yet, he’s a better man for it. Surface means nothing to him, and that’s what worries you, isn’t it, Nicole? You’re all show.”

“How dare you speak to me that way. Wait until I tell Eleanor and Adam.”

“After you hurt Adam, do you think either of them will want to speak with you? You tried to paint me in a poor light, not once thinking of how it might make Adam feel. You might be beautiful and sophisticated, as you said, but you’re selfish and unsure of yourself with Adam.”

“You—”

“Instead of calling me names, Nicole, your time would be better served trying to think of a way to apologize to Adam and his mother for causing trouble. They’re nice enough to forgive you and think you acted out of love and concern for him.” Lilly’s tone cooled. “I know better. I’ve known someone just like you who gave everyone the impression of being kind and generous but who was actually mean and spiteful. I’ll tell Adam you called.” She hung up the phone, feeling proud of herself until she felt a presence behind her and turned.

“Dr. Delacroix!” Her heart threatened to beat out of her chest.

This time it wasn’t his build that intimidated her but the sharpness in his brown eyes. “What was that all about?”

Nervously Lilly rubbed her hand against the side of her leg. She and Dr. Delacroix were on better terms now, but she was well aware she had no right to speak to Nicole that way. “Nicole and I had a difference of opinion.”

His long legs carried him too quickly from the doorway to within a few feet of her. “What about?”