Passions of Chelsea Kane Part 20

She F wasn't playing by the rules. The rules said that she should do her work the way she'd promised, show up when she was supposed to show up, and have her baby without asking anything from anyone. "Twelve-thirty?"

She moaned. 421 ZArbara DCfiusiw "Are you sick?"

"All night. I didn't fall asleep until dawn." He pulled the covers aside, then the tangle of her hair so that he could see her face. She looked totally washed out.

He hadn't seen her looking that way since the very beginning, when she'd had morning sickness. Of course he hadn't known she had morning sickness, or that she was pregnant, just that there were mornings when she looked like she'd had a bad night. Just like she did now. More gently he asked, "What happened?" She still had her eyes closed, still lay on her side curled up under the covers. "I don't know. I was fine until nine or ten, then my stomach got upset. It was awful. I've never been so sick." He touched her skin. It felt cool enough and soft, b.u.t.ter soft. "Fever?"

"It broke." Her hair was soft, too. He drew strands of it away from her ear. She had pretty ears, delicate ears. There were two tiny gold hoops in the one he could see. They were delicate, too. So was her nightgown. It was flannel, with a high neck and little flowers.

Surprising, but there was nothing at all sophisticated about it. "I had the chills, too," she explained. Without a second thought he ran a hand under the quilt, down her arm. She felt warm enough. His hand went to her stomach. "Is the baby okay?"

"It's kicking up a storm. I don't think it liked what I ate any more than I did." He retrieved his hand, but his palm continued to feel what it had. Her stomach had been hard. Small, but solid. He knew, intellectually, that there was a 422 ere. Feeling it was something else. The had done it he'd been in pain. The pain felt this time was different. did you eat?" he asked, gruffly again because the tightening in his groin. -Nothing special," she said in that same hoa.r.s.e ce. "Apples. Lots of apples. Maybe there was a in one. ' did you get the apples?" Some of the local hards used insecticides. He hadn't gotten sick in the apple pie she'd made, and he'd eaten more it than he'd ever let on. Leo hadn't gotten sick, ither. But those apples had been peeled and ked. She might have had a reaction if she was eating them raw.

Galante," she said, reading his mind. "He "Farmer spray, and anyway, I washed everything first." She burrowed under the covers. "I'm going iback to sleep."

"You missed your conference call." He figured hat if anything could get her up, that would. She didn't move a muscle.

"It'll hold." Worried in spite of himself, he stood by her bed for another few minutes, during which time she didn't budge. Then he left the room, went into the kitchen, and reached for the phone. There was no dial tone. He jiggled the hang-up b.u.t.ton. Still no dial tone. He returned to her bedroom and picked up the phone there. It was dead.

"Your phones are out," he said. Chelsea didn't respond. He looked over the mound of covers. Her eyes were closed. The quilt was moving rhythmicallyvery slightly, but moving-with her breathing. He stayed to watch for a minute, fasci nated by the 423 Definsw sheen of her skin. Then, dismayed by his own whimsy, he strode out of the room and the house. The hospital was a ten-minute drive. He went straight into Neil's office, explained what had happened to Chelsea, called the telephone company and Fern on the hospital line, then drove right back to Boulderbrook. Chelsea hadn't moved an inch in the time he'd been gone. He watched for her breathing again. It was as rhythmic as before.

He slouched on the chair on the far side of the bed, favoring his shoulder, which had started to ache, and didn't take his eyes off her until he heard a knock at the front door. "Took you long enough," he grumbled when he let Neil in. Neil shrugged out of his coat. "Twenty minutes. Relax, Judd."

"I don't want two deaths on my conscience."

"They won't die.", He gestured. "Lead the way." By Judd's eye, Chelsea still hadn't moved. Neil drew the covers back to her hips, took her wrist, and measured her pulse. "She's some sleeper," he mused. "She's sick."

"I've seen her look better, I'll give you that." He opened his bag and within minutes had a stethoscope pressed to her back. "Sounds okay here." He put a hand on her stomach, let it sit, moved it, let it sit, moved it.

"What do you feel?" Judd asked. "It's either a half-bushel of apples or a baby." Chelsea stirred. She s.h.i.+fted her legs. She covered Neil's hand with one of hers. Then she came awake with a start. "Neil," she said, breathless with fright. "What are you doing?" Her eyes went to Judd.

"You brought 424 The pa.s.sions of chermw AMC here? But I'm fine." hing happens -you've got a baby in there. If somet to it, I don't want it on my conscience." . Neil rolled his eyes. To Chelsea he said, "Tell me everything you told Judd before." ,'I'm fine." -Tell him," Judd ordered.

As soon as he was sure that she would, he left the -room and went down to the front porch. The cool air felt good. While he was there, the telephone repair truck pulled up. "Can't find anything in the central office," the k here." repairman said. "Goin' ta take a loo Judd motioned for him to get to it. A short time later Neil joined him on the porch.

He was putting on his coat. "She's fine. The baby, too. Pretty strong, all ,.,..-',things considered. Whatever it was must have pa.s.sed. And don't tell me that's good, that you -didn't want anything on your conscience, because you're full of s.h.i.+t, Judd. Face it. You like her, so you were worried." Judd didn't see the point in arguing. Neil already had his mind made up. "She's G.o.dd.a.m.ned bullhead- Do you know that she's still doing aerobics? "She does it gently. Judd, pregnancy isn't an illness. It's what the female body was made for." Judd had a pithy comment on the tip of his ngue when the telephone repairman came around X- he corner of the house, looking smug. Saving the Rhy comment for another time, he said, "That was t."

"Don't take long to spot cut wires." t, "Cut?" Judd's insides went cold. "Sn ipped in two," the man said, and started off for 425 the truck, calling, "No problem, though.

I'll have the phones working in no time." Judd looked at Neil, who for once looked concerned. "Cut wires are a deliberate act."

"Like mysterious phone calls. Maybe even a burned barn. Something's odd here, Judd. I'll stop by Nolan's on my way back to the hospital and send him out." "Thanks," Judd said, but he was distracted as Neil left. He didn't like the idea that someone was after Chelsea. He didn't like the idea that she was alone in Boulderbrook. He wished she'd go back to Baltimore while Nolan checked things out, but he doubted she would. Her father still didn't know she was pregnant. Suddenly that fact struck him as being insane. Remorselessly he returned to the kitchen, opened her purse, then her Filofax. She had Kevin's new address listed there. He picked up the phone, realized it was still dead, slammed lt down.

Promising himself he'd be back, he went to her bedroom. She was awake, lying on her side with the covers more neatly arranged than they had been before. Moving only her eyes, she watched him approach. "Neil says you're okay."

"I know."

"I forgot to ask if you were supposed to eat anything special."

"Only what I want."

"What do you want?"

"Nothing." He wanted to remind her that even if she didn't feel like eating, maybe the baby did. He didn't say it, though. He guessed that her insides were still pretty raw. 426 The Fa.s.slom Of 0whma Arowe P did say, "The phone lines were cut." eyes widened. "Neil is sending Nolan out. Maybe he can get a lootprint." To her credit, she looked properly shaken. "Cut?"

"Someone wants you spooked, Chelsea. It's gone ;,@Wt the point of being funny. I think you should Uke off for a while."

"Leave here? No way."

"Just for the weekend even. Just to give it a break. Go see your father.

That's long overdue." . He saw a sadness creep into her eyes. "I can't," she whispered. "Not yet." . "If not now, when? Thanksgiving? Christmas?

After the baby's born?" She rolled over, putting her back to him. "Yo!

Anyone home?" came a call from below. The phones are fixed!" When Chelsea didn't respond, Judd set off for the kitchen to make his call.

The repairman was gone. In his place was Hunter. He was standing at the counter by the phone, holding Chelsea's wallet. ' "What are you doing?" Judd asked. He was still annoyed t at Hunter had disappeared. Oliver had been on his back about it. And then there'd been his shoulder. He could have used the help. Hunter held up her driver's license. "Looking at the picture. It stinks." He slid the license back into the wallet just indolently enough to tick Judd off. "Did you cut the phone lines?" R :1ex Hunter leveled him a stare. "Then what are you doing here?"

"I heard she was sick."

"She's better now." "Too bad," he said. Raising the collar of his 427 Mbwbarn Definshy leather jacket, he took his gloves from the counter and started for the door. "We're not keepin' real far ahead of her. It's about time she had a little bad luck." He disappeared into the hall. Judd took off after him. "What in the h.e.l.l's that supposed to mean?" Hunter went out the front door. "Did you cut those lines?" Hunter stopped, looked at the ground, then over his shoulder at Judd. "Nah. Someone else got to it first." He strode on. Judd let him go. He recognized bravado when he heard it. Hunter liked Chelsea. He wouldn't do anything to harm her. Yes, something was eating at him, and Judd would find out what it was. But not now. Now he had more immediate things on his mind. Returning to the kitchen, he punched out Kevin's number. He couldn't tell the man that his daughter was pregnant. That was Chelsea's job. But he could tell him that she was in danger. Kevin was her father, and she adored him. If anyone stood a chance of talking sense into her, he was the one. There was no answer. He went back into the bedroom to find Chelsea sitting on the edge of the bed with her hands braced on either side. Her head was bowed. He was drawn to her, now more than ever, but he staunchly kept his distance. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. "Who would cut my telephone line?"

"Any number of people." In a smaller voice she said, "Hunter was here, wasn't he?"

"Briefly."

"He was angry with me. I'm not sure why, but I'm 428 The of that's why he disappeared. He wouldn't have e it, would he?" *He could have, he knows his way around wires, I doubt he did." @'.!She blew out a breath.

With an effort she pushed r self to her feet. Her nightgown was wrinkled the night she'd spent; still, it moved gracefully h her body when she went to the closet. She rged with a small bag. After setting it on the she scooped her hair back from her face and at Judd. "I'll go to Newport. Dad doesn't go there this late the season, so I'll have the place to myself. Just r the weekend. Then I'll be back." Judd would have hugged her for her good sense if e weren't afraid of never letting go.

He knew what was about her that attracted him-she was one lady, pregnant or not-but that didn't make it ny easier to control. For the hundredth time he shed she were as cold and slick and ambitious as anine. Then he might be able to sustain scorn. But , wasn't Janine by a long shot, standing there with her long hair a reckless foil for her pale skin and her body willowy in her long granny gown. She looked vulnerable. He was a sucker for vulnerability. So why was he fighting it? he asked himself, and proceeded to list the reasons. One, she was pregnant by another man.

Two, she had deliberately kept that information from him. Three, she was in the Notch under false pretenses, since what she wanted far more than Plum Granite was to learn the truth of her parentage. Four, and most important, she just wasn't the woman for him. He wanted someone s weet, someone soft, someone totally devoted. He wanted someone who saw him as her 429 Delftwby profession, not building buildings or negotiating divorces. He was stuck in the Notch because Leo was here, but Leo wouldn't be around forever. Come that time, Judd wanted to decide where to go and what to do, knowing that his woman would go right along with him. Old-fas.h.i.+oned. Yup, he was that and proud of it. And part of being old-fas.h.i.+oned was being n.o.ble to the point of occasional self-sacrifice.

At least that was what he told himself an hour later when he hit the highway with Chelsea. Being with her was a torment. But he couldn't let her go alone. "This is really unnecessary," she said as she'd been saying for half an hour, but the more she said it, the more determined he was to do it. "I could have driven myself." He grunted his disagreement. "You look like a light breeze could blow you over."

Wearing jeans, a sweater, and an oversize parka, with her hair in a ponytail and her face free ' makeup, she also looked sixteen years old. He couldn't believe that she was thirty-seven and an almost mother.

"You'd have been more useful with Leo," she said. "Leo has a sitter. You need a driver."

"But your arm still hurts."

"Not while I'm driving it doesn't.'"

"It did while you were putting your bag in the trunk. I saw the look on your face. It hurt."

"The st.i.tches just came out, so it's stiff. That's all."

"You have zero mobility. You can't even get it up.

You can't even get it up. He should only be so lucky. He gave her a dry look and was marginally 430 Ibc Pa.s.sions of chels" Kanc ed to see color rise on her cheeks. ou know what I mean," she murmured, and k Into her parka. Her face was hidden from him, he could tell when she fell asleep by the relaxn of her limbs. She awoke in time to direct him : house and lead him inside. Then she disaped into her bedroom, pulled up a thick afghan, d went back to sleep. ;".-.Judd explored the house. It was large, old, and prisingly unadorned. Its two most noticeable fea res were the porch that wrapped completely und it and the dock that protruded over the er. He sat at its end for a while, breathing the an air, thinking that the sh.o.r.e might not be a place to settle someday.

He'd always been landked. Here he felt a sense of release. ' on the wave of that release, he got back @nto the car and drove around for a while. He'd been Newport, years before. Nothing had changed, cludina the location of the supermarket. Given at he hadn't had lunch, that daylight was waning, d that the Kane refrigerator was empty, he opped for food.

When he returned, Chelsea was itting on a rocking chair on the porch, wrapped in er afghan, staring out at the darkening sea. He rched on the edge of the thick wood railing with Is back against its post. "How do you feel?"

"Better." From what he could see above the folds of the an, her color had improved. She was staring out r the water, looking wide awake. "I always loved it here," she said on a wistful te. "It was a less formal life than in the city. We ad more fun. There were lots of families like us 431 Awbarn Deffirsaw who came every summer. The kids all hung around together." . did you do all day?" Judd asked. He couldn't imagine doing nothing for weeks on end. He had never had that luxury, probably wouldn't know what to do with it if it suddenly came his way. "We sailed-naturally," she added with a sheepish smile. "We sat blithely in the sun without a thought to skin cancer. We swam and played tennis at the club. When we were old enough, we made nuisances of ourselves on the roads. It was goodnatured fun."

"Carl's family was here, too?"

"Uh-huh." She wrapped the afghan more tightly around her.

The wind off the water was picking up at the same time that the air cooled. He wondered if she was warm enough. "Do you think about him much?" he asked. "About Carl?" She shrugged. "I try not to."

"Do you miss him?"

"As a friend. No other way. It's weird, though. I mean, this is his baby and he's married to Hailey. Everything makes sense in my mind, how it happened and all. But when I think of it bluntly like that, I feel cheap."

"If anyone should feel cheap, he should. He was the two-timing b.a.s.t.a.r.d." Her brows gave a shrug that said she wouldn't argue. Then she caught his eye. "Judd, is Matthew Farr having an affair with his sister-in-law?"

"Where did you hear that?"

"At the library tea yesterday afternoon. Is it true?"

"Probably. Matthew isn't the most scrupulous of men. He's been In love with Joanie for years." 432 me Pa.s.sions Of chehma KOW frowned. "Why did he marry Donna?" se Joanie was taken. And because his parau were after him to get married. He was in his irties and single. People were saying he was ey don't say that about you, and you're sin- o," he said, and couldn't resist a dry half smile.

don't." Because that sounded c.o.c.ky, he "I've been married. Besides, I'm in a different e from Matthew. The standards that apply. to a don't apply to a Streeter. I do what I want." A in point was this weekend.

There would be talk he wasn't at the quarry in the morning. But he n't give a d.a.m.n. @'What about Donna's hearing?" Chelsea asked. did she go deaf?"

"I'm not sure," Judd answered honestly. "M argaret said it was a sudden illness. The man I talked with said it was Margaret.". He had heard rumors to that effect. It made se, given Margaret's subsequent breakdown and e way the woman had hovered over Donna in the s since.

Guilt had a way of making people hover. "There's no proof of anything."

"What could Margaret have done?"

"I don't know. I was just a kid when it happened."

"Was Donna hospitalized?"

"For a while. Then she went away to a special school. When she came back, we didn't ask ques-, '." "I feel for her," Chelsea said, looking stricken. *Matthew treats her terribly. How can Oliver stand by and watch?"

"Oliver sees what he wants to see and doesn't see 433 Barbwa Demnsky The pa.s.sions Of cheis" A441W what might make him uncomfortable."

"Is Hunter his son?"

"Probably."

"Will he ever recognize him?"

"Not as long as Margaret is alive. She'd be hurt and humiliated."

"Just like Hunter has been all these years," Chelsea said. "I didn't say it was right. But that's the way it is."

"Why doesn't Hunter fight it more? He's a rebel. He could pin Oliver down. If I were in his shoes, it would drive me crazy not knowing if the man was my father."

"It drives Hunter crazy.- "Then why doesn't he do something about it?"

"Why don't you?" Judd shot back. The question had been nagging at him. "What do you mean?" she asked quietly. "You've been in the Notch for four months, and you've known a lot longer that you were born here. Why haven't you done more to find out who your parents are?" She frowned. Her gaze skipped to the ocean and lingered there. At last she said, "It's hard. One part of me wants to know the whole truth.

The other part is satisfied just being in the Notch."

"What's with the key?" She had mentioned it when they'd argued In August. He had wondered about it ever since. "What does unlock?"

"I don't know." He couldn't believe she hadn't tried to track it down.

"Maybe a safe-deposit vault?"

"Oh, no. It isn't that kind of key. It goes to a music box." An image materialized in Judd's mind. He stared 434 hard for a minute. Then he shook his head. at?" she asked. ,"There's a clock at Zee's. When little kids are d to have their hair cut, Zee bribes them with promise of winding the clock." Chelsea had e alert on her chair, so he said quickly, "But re's no way you're Zee's. He was part of the ian resistance to the Third Reich. He was injured d can't have kids." She remained alert. "Are you sure?" "He told my dad more than once. When Dad was about having no wife, Zee said he was lucky at t to have a child, because Zee couldn't have any Chelsea settled back on the rocker. "So what are you going to do about the key?" ",'udd asked. The way he figured it, if she could solve mystery of the key, she could solve the mystery f her parentage, and if she could do that, she A, uld feel free to leave the Notch. She claimed to ke the place. It would be interesting to see how ng she'd stick around when she no longer had se to. "I don't know," she said quietly. "Want me to track it down?" Call it help, call it a fittle push, same difference. "I wouldn't mind." She was surprised at first, then thoughtful. He sweetened the pot. "I wouldn't have to say it yours. "You'd do it quietly?"

"Veryshe thought about it for a while.

"Mat have you got to lose?" he asked. "It's my job."

"Well, you haven't been doing it." He pushed him- 435 self off the railing. ' all you know, whoever sent your mother that key could be alive this month and dead next month. That what you want?"

"No." On his way to the back door, he said, "I blew it with my father. I came back when it was too late for any meaningful dialogue. Don't make the same mistake, Chelsea." He opened the door. "I'm getting something to eat. When you're hungry, come on in." Chelsea didn't do much thinking for the rest of that day. She had been washed out by whatever it was that had made her so sick the night before and wasn't up to anything deep. She woke up the next morning, though, thinking about what Judd had said, and she knew that he was right. She shouldn't be procrastinating. Life took twists and turns.

The longer she waited to track down the source of the key, the more mired the path might become. It wasn't until later that afternoon that she thought of Judd's admonition in a different light. Having spent several hours on the end of the dock watching the boats gusting in from the bay, she and Judd were making hot chocolate in the kitchen when the door suddenly opened and Kevin walked in. Chelsea broke into a surprised smile, as did Kevin, and for a minute she had the wild hope that everything would be all right. Then he saw her stomach. He looked utterly blank at first, then confused. Slowly his eyes widened. His smile faded. His expression darkened. There was a storm rolling in. It was one of the 436 ts and turns life took, and there was no outrunng it this time. Resigned, even relieved, Chelsea Pj*sed her chin and met Kevin's stare. -j 437 twenty i T'S DUE IN FEBRUARY," CHELSEA SAID, AND waited for Kevin to react. She wanted him to smile. She wanted him to be as excited as she was. He was her father, this was her child. She wanted harmony between them. But he continued to look confused, dismayed, stunned. She knew just what, was happening. Disciplined man that he was, he was trying to figure out when she'd conceived, to remember where she'd been then and with whom, and to get over the shock of it, all at the same time. She was trying to decide where to begin with her story when Judd came up from behind. He didn't touch her, just stood by her shoulder in a supportive way. "it happened very quickly," he said. "It always does," Kevin mocked. His eyes held Chelsea's. "February. This is October. You're more than halfway through the pregnancy. Why didn't I know sooner?" The question echoed in her mind, she'd heard it so often, it seemed. But she'd done her best. She had made decisions that she felt were right at the 438 e. "I wanted to tell you. I would have on the urth of July, but you wouldn't meet me here. I Id have on Labor Day, but you had other plans, and you wouldn't come to my open house in the Notch. I wanted to tell you in person, not on the phone."

"How did you know I'd be here this weekend?"

"We didn't," Judd put in before she could speak.

"It was a calculated guess. You didn't answer the phone in Baltimore, and Chelsea didn't know of your plans to be anywhere else." Chelsea shot Judd a curious glance. Kevin, too, directed himself that way. "Was this pregnancy an intentional thing?" he asked. "Not originally," Judd replied. Kevin scowled, again predictable. He was a blackand-white man all the way. "It either was, or it wasn't."

"It wasn't. But the baby is wanted." To Chelsea Kevin said, "You told me you didn't want children until you knew who you were. Have you suddenly found out?"

"No."

"Still you got pregnant." He looked disgusted. "I don't see a ring." He eyed Judd. "Will the baby be illegitimate?"

"Not if Chelsea doesn't want it to be." Chelsea looked at Judd even more curiously. She couldn't marry Carl, and he knew it. "She doesn't always know what's best for her," Kevin was saying. "Yes, I do," she protested. He turned on her angrily.

"I expected this when you were seventeen and running around with that hippie crowd, not now. You're supposed to be an 439 adult now. You're supposed to be a responsible individual. Is this responsible, having a child out of wedlock? Is this how you honor your mother's memory?"