The Firebrand by Susan Wiggs

Author:Susan Wiggs [Wiggs, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-09-22T07:36:09+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Rand had known that starting Maggie on her new life was not going to be easy. He'd expected it to bother him when she clung to Lucy and begged, "Please don't make me go!" He understood that, blood ties notwithstanding, his daughter was bound by the heart to Lucy Hathaway.

He thought he'd braced himself for a wrenching transition. But he wasn't prepared for how helpless he felt.

He was, by nature, a problem solver. He was the sort to fix things, find remedies. But as he regarded the wailing little girl who clutched at her mother's skirts, he had no idea what to do.

Miss Lowell, the governess he had engaged to look after Christine, had admonished him to be firm with the girl, to ignore any childish objections and get on with the business of bringing her back where she belonged. Miss Lowell, who had twenty-five years' experience managing children, had made it sound so simple. But how could it be simple to tear a child away from the only mother she knew?

He caught Lucy Hathaway's eye over the head of the weeping child. Lucy appeared pale but calm as she held Maggie and kissed the top of her head and made soothing sounds. But Rand knew that inside she must be breaking apart.

He imagined that, in this moment, Lucy was like a shipwreck in a storm—her destruction slow and violent, inexorable, sinking into coldness. He knew, because that was how he'd felt when he'd lost Christine.

She is Maggie now, he told himself. With all the other upheaval, he would not try to force a strange name on her.

Viola Hathaway sat very still, the only motion a steady stream of tears down her cheeks.

He still could not believe how easily Lucy had ceded custody of Maggie. Now, as he watched her holding the little girl, he understood why. It wasn't that Lucy had something to hide, or that she wished to shed herself of the cumbersome inconvenience of a child. Quite the opposite. She lived and breathed for Maggie. Lucy had known that any resistance to Rand's suit would hurt Maggie, and so she'd surrendered quickly and completely.

She must have understood from the very start that it would come to this. So why had she come forward, when she could have let him go on believing his daughter dead? Why wouldn't she let him go on year after year, sitting with an old photograph and drinking a single bottle of champagne on Christine's birthday?

He knew now, and the understanding humbled him.

After what seemed like a long time, Lucy put Maggie on the floor, held her by the shoulders and gazed solemnly into the miserable little face. "This is the way it has to be," she said. "Before there was me, there was your papa, and he needs you now."

Maggie shot him a look over her shoulder. "He doesn't need me. He's got Ivan and his old grandmama and that giisat big hou e."

Rand held her gaze. "You're wrong, Maggie. I need you very much.

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