Who Loves Them? (Who--? Series) (15 page)

Christina
thought a moment.  She wondered what her father would think.  She smiled as she realized that he would probably love it.  He knew just as well as she did that she had no way out of the marriage, but he would appreciate her standing up for herself and showing her spirit.

That settled it
.  “Okay, I’m in,” she told Gordon.  “How do we approach your aunt?”

Gordon hugged her and gave her a quick kiss
.  “I’ve been thinking about it, and I think we should come clean about our relationship with her, tell her our plan, and then plead for her help.  What do you think?”

Chris
thought about it.  Jacqueline seemed like a very straight forward type of person, so it would likely be their best bet to get her on their side.

“Alright
.  Do you want to tell her tonight after dinner?  It might be best to tell her when we have nightcaps in the library,” Christina added.

Gordon looked at his watch
.  “We have to get back or Aunt Jackie will wonder why we were gone so long.”

Christina
nodded, and then decided she needed to tell him about Lilly before they approached Jacqueline with their crazy idea.  She held his hand firmly.

“There is something else I need to tell you….”

So she told him about Lillian Baltimore.  “Lillian is one of my best friends.  We have known each other for a very long time.”

Gordon nodded
.  “Do you think she would disapprove of us eloping?”

Christina
shook her head.  “No…Lilly is coming here, to the cabin, today, because she needs my help.  You see, she’s been forced into an arranged marriage…but it’s different with her.”

Gordon shrugged
.  “Is she barren or something?”

“No…Lilly doesn’t want to get married
.  Ever.  She wants to live out her life as an old spinster and have a billion lovers.”

Gordon smiled
.  “Don’t we all?”

Christina
slapped his arm playfully.  “I’m serious.  She doesn’t ever want to get married.  But that is not the main problem.  The thing is…she’s not attracted to men, so even if she were to get married, she wouldn’t be interested in sleeping with a man to produce an heir.  She has a string of female lovers.  Well, two actually.  Angelique and Ginger…except she wants to be with Angelique and doesn’t want to break Ginger’s heart.”

Gordon’s cheeks grew rosy in embarrassment
.  “Really?  She’s…”

“Yes
.  Now you see the problem?”

Gordon nodded
.  “I guess she could grow to love…what is his name?”

“
Peter Von Willem.  But that is not all….”

Gordon frowned, wrinkling his forehead
.  “What else could there be?”

Christina
sighed.  “She said the reason she doesn’t want to marry Peter is because he beats her, not because she’s only attracted to women.  How is his family, and more importantly how is he, going to react to this?  I’ve met Peter a handful of times, as I am sure you have, and I am pretty sure he doesn’t beat women.  He seems pretty generous….always giving to charities.”

Gordon nodded
.  “She’s gotten herself into a bit of a pickle.  I have no idea what to do.  Obviously we’ve got to get the two of them together and sort it all out.”

Christina
shook her head.  “No way!  If he learns what she said about him then I’m pretty sure he
will
beat her!  What if I said that about you?”

Gordon’s face creased in worry
.  “You didn’t, did you?”

“No!”

He smiled in relief.  “Maybe we ought to talk to Jacqueline about it when we get back?”

Gordon nodded and tussled her hair affectionately
.  “Yeah, ok.  When’s Lilly coming?”

“For all I know
, she’s here already.”

Christina
dry-swallowed, feeling apprehension well in her stomach.  “Well she likes horses…I guess that is something she and Jacqueline can agree on.”

Christina packed up the blanket and basket while Gordon phoned the taxi.  When they reached the lodge, they told the taxi driver he could have the picnic supplies and the blanket, or he could throw them away.  Gordon paid the driver and they walked separately into the lodge.

Jacqueline was in the kitchen when they came in
.  She noticed that they were still keeping their distance from one another, and they didn’t seem to be talking.  She wondered if the whole day had been that way.

Christina
got a bottle of water from the refrigerator, and Gordon sat at the table.  “He can tell you all about it.  I will be in my room until dinner.  I’m not feeling well.” Christina said as she took a drink of the water and headed back out the kitchen door.  She was just glad that Lilly was not there already.

Well, that is not a good sign, Jackie thought
.  She wondered if her nephew had been his obnoxious self again.

“Well, what
did you do to her?” Jackie demanded when the door had closed behind Christina.

“What do you mean, what did I do to her
?  I didn’t do anything to her.  I was perfectly pleasant all day.  It isn’t my fault she didn’t want to talk to me,” Gordon said defensively.  “She’s stressed about other things.”

Jackie gave him a look.

“Okay, maybe I was a bit harsh in the beginning, but I was on my best behavior today.  She chose to ignore me.  She shopped all day.  In and out of stores, and didn’t end up buying anything,” Gordon grumped.  “Who does that?”

“I told you before, and I will say it again
.  You two need to learn to get along.  There is nothing you can do to get out of the situation, so you need to deal with it, and move on,” Jacqueline lectured.

“I know
.  I know.  I’m going to my room until dinner, too.  Despite what you think, I was quite charming today and now I am going to actually get some work done before dinner,” Gordon responded.

Wow, these two are so tense around each other you can almost see it in the air
.  But tension could be a good thing,
Jacqueline thought.  Several times she thought she had seen Gordon looking intently at Christina when he thought she was not looking.  Chris seemed to be oblivious to Gordon, except she would occasionally peek at him from under her lashes.

Well, well, maybe there is something there after all
.  If they could just get over this initial awkwardness and resentment, they might get along very well.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door
.  Jacqueline frowned, wondering who could be visiting the cabin.  Not a lot of people knew they were out here.  She glanced at the cutlery drawer, knowing she had a weapon if she needed it.

She opened the door slowly, and let out a sigh of relief, albeit suspicion
.  “Lillian Baltimore?”

Lilly smiled and tried her best to curtsy in the doorway
.  Her blonde hair was curled neatly, and her plain short-sleeved plum-colored dress was a little flat from the wind.  “Hello, ma’am.  I assume by your surprise that Christina didn’t tell you I was coming?”

Jacqueline narrowed her eyes
and said nothing.  Lilly smiled and walked across the foyer area.  “Where are Christina and Gordon?”

“
Chris and Gordon are upstairs.  I’ll call them down.” She walked to the foot of the stairs and called their names.  As soon as Chris spotted Lilly, her heart thudded and she realized just how much she had missed her friend.  She ran down the stairs two at a time and hugged her friend around the waist.  “I’m so glad you’re here.  I just wish it was on better circumstances.”

Lilly nodded
.  “Well, so do I.  Hello Gordon.”

Gordon
smiled and leaned forward, kissing both of her cheeks politely.  “It is good to see you.  We were just going into the dining room.  If you’d care to join us?”

Jacqueline went upstairs to relieve he
rself, and when she came back, she saw that Gordon was seated at the table with a glass of red wine, and Chris was standing at the window, also with a glass of wine.  Lilly was sitting at the end of the table, fiddling with the end of the tablecloth. 

Might as well join them,
she thought.  She went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of wine.  The cook told her it would be fifteen minutes until dinner.

“All right everyone, dinner will be in fifteen minutes
,” she said as she swept back into the dining room.  Gordon had been staring at Chris as she looked out the window, but he quickly averted his eyes when Jackie came back into the room.

Jacqueline sat down at the table and said, “So, how was your day out together?”
She looked first at Gordon, ignoring Lilly’s presence.

Instead of responding, Gordon looked at
Chris.  She turned to look at him, and they both smiled.

“Well, well, it must have gone well, if those smiles are any indication.” Jacqueline said somewhat smugly.

Gordon pushed his chair back and Chris walked over, put her glass down, and sat on his lap.  Jackie looked at them in surprise with both eyebrows raised in question, but she didn’t say anything else.

“Well, Aunt Jackie, we have actually been together for several days now
.  We discovered that we really liked each other, and we are not really adverse to getting married at all.  We just didn’t want everyone else to know.” Gordon stroked Christina’s back a little as he was talking.  She was getting distracted by him, so she kissed him on the cheek, got up and sat beside him in her own chair.

Lilly looked at them with a smug grin, happy that
Christina had found someone she truly loved.  She only wished things were easier with her.

“You see,”
Christina said, “we decided that we would give it a chance, and we found out that we like the idea of getting married to each other, even if it was not our choice originally.  Some things are just meant to be.  We wanted to have a couple of days to ourselves, without the expectations, so we have been sneaking around.”

Finally, Jacqueline found her voice, “But from me
?  Why would you keep it from me?”

Gordon responded, “We liked the idea of having a secret
.  It made us feel like we had a little control over our circumstances anyway.”

“Naturally, I told Lilly,”
Christina interjected.  “But that is not why she is here.”

“Oh my God, I am so happy
!” Jacqueline said, ignoring Lilly.  “I was so very worried that you two wouldn’t be able to get along.  I knew you were stuck, so I really hoped it would work out.  This makes the whole situation so much better.” Jacqueline fell silent, and then looking thoughtful, asked, “So, why tell me now?  Did you decide you had enough secrecy?”

“First, we are happy too
.  Neither one of us wanted to be married to someone we couldn’t respect, and it turns out that isn’t a problem,” Gordon explained as he stroked the back of Christina’s hand.  “However, we do have something of an ulterior motive for telling you, but you have to swear secrecy.”

“Gordon, you know me better than that
.  I am not swearing secrecy before I know what it is.  You will have to live with that, or just keep your secret,” Jacqueline explained as she stood and strode to the window.

“Besides, if you are going to be telling me this important news, you need to go tell the cook to hol
d dinner for a few more minutes,” she told Gordon.

Lilly narrowed her eyes
.  “This is news to me.”

Gordon got up and went into the kitchen
.  He returned a moment later and took his seat.  Gordon looked at Christina, and with a slight nod of her head, they decided to go ahead and tell her about their plans to elope.

“Promise to hear me
out before you say anything, okay?” Gordon asked as he looked at Jacqueline who was still by the window.

“That goes for you, too, Lilly,”
Christina added.

Lilly nodded.

Jacqueline smiled tensely.  “Fine, I promise to hear you out.  Now, what is this terrible secret you just have to share?” she asked.

“Well, you know that
Christina and I have no choice in this marriage.  We have to fulfill the contract.  Even if we really like each other, the fact remains that we are being forced into getting married.  We both know that there is no way out of this contract, and we aren’t sure we would have taken it there, although time to date would have been nice,” Gordon went on.  “So, Christina and I talked about it, and we are going to elope.  We cannot do anything about actually getting married, but we can stand up for ourselves and show our families that we will not just follow meekly with what they want.”

Jacque
line was quiet for several minutes as she continued to stare out the window.  Slowly she turned around, “You do know that this will drive your mother crazy, right?  She will be so worried about what this type of scandal will do to their reputation.” She turned next to Chris, “and what about your family?  Are they going to be happy that you didn’t get the huge society wedding that you are supposed to have?  Won’t your mother be angry?”

Christina
responded first.  “Of course, she is going to be angry.  She has probably already planned my wedding down to the color of the candles.  She wouldn’t care at all what I wanted.  It would be her wedding, not mine; even though I would be the one getting married.” Christina was a little surprised to hear the bitterness in her voice, but she continued on.

“They put us in this impossible situation
.  If they don’t like the way we handle it, then they should have thought of a few more restrictions when they drew up the contract--without our consent.” Christina finally calmed a little.

“As for me,” Gordon said, “I don’t really care
.  They got the money they so desperately needed.  It is up to me how I get married.  If they don’t like the scandal, that is just too bad.  Besides, they’ll be reeling from another scandal…”

Jacqueline
ignored his last comment, surveyed them both for a moment, and then she smiled.  “I think this is going to be an excellent marriage after all.  While I felt like I had to bring up the issues with your families, I have never been one to stick too closely with tradition.  After all, if I had, I would be married and have two children by now.  Ugh.  I cannot abide the thought.” She stopped for a moment, and looked at the two of them again.

“So, I suppose since you told me your plans, you need me to help you
with them?” Jacqueline asked them shrewdly, looking back and forth between the two of them.

“What exactly are your plans, anyway
?  You DO have plans, don’t you?”

Christina
and Gordon looked at one another and grinned sheepishly, “Well, not exactly,” Christina said. 

“We were hoping you could help us with the plan, too,” Gordon responded quickly, looking hopeful
.  “And you too, Lilly,” he added.

Lilly nodded
.  “Of course.  I will do everything in my power to make this work.”

Jacqueline shook her head and smiled at the two
.  “First, yes, I will help you two because you deserve it.  You two were put in a terrible position with no way out and you have obviously made the best of it.  Second, I’m not doing anything until we have had dinner.  Let’s go eat and we can talk about our plans afterward.” She stood and began walking toward the kitchen, “I will just let the cook know we are ready for dinner,” she said turning back to the room.  “Oh, and you two can give up the acting, at least while we are here.”

Dinner was a nice affair, considering the change of topic
.  Lilly was silent for a few minutes until Chris finally coaxed her into talking with enough eye rolls to last a century.

“What is this new secret?” Jacqueline demanded
.  “You must tell me.”

So Lilly told her
.  “I’m engaged to marry Peter Von Willem.  But it will not be the same as Christina and Gordon.  You see, Peter hits women if he doesn’t get his way.  I’ve heard it from countless girls.  They all tell the same story.  I wouldn’t mind being in an arranged marriage if the only problem was worrying about producing heirs, but this problem is much worse.  The reason I have shied away from men all this time is because I wanted to save myself for Peter, as I’ve always known both of our parents wanted us to marry, but now I know how he treats women, I just…I don’t know what to do.”

Jacqueline was stunned
.  She had turned a paler shade than white, and frowned deeply.  “I’m sorry, dear, I didn’t know.”

“How can I possibly marry a man who would hit me
?  And what would happen if he hit me during my pregnancy?  I could lose the child, and his heir.  You must help me.  I knew you were the only one I could turn to.  I really am sorry for barging in, but as I said, I am at a loss of what to do.”

Jacqueline nodded
.  “I completely understand.  This needs to be sorted straight away.  You can not marry someone who could threaten the safety of your child.  I’m so glad you came to me, but I question why you did not go to your own mother.”