Beachcombing in the Bahamas (Once Again #11)

Chapter 5 – Adeline

5

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ADELINE

I sit with Lorna in the conservatory a few days after Thanksgiving. “My dear girl, you should stick up for what you want. I’m sure you’d like to live in your own home by the time you have the baby. The gatehouse is perfect. You shouldn’t let Trevor speak for you.”

“I love the big house, Adeline. Especially now that Brock has given us his suite.”

I pour the silly twit another cup of tea. She’s such a vapid little thing, ten years younger than Trevor, with mousy brown hair and brown eyes like a sad puppy. And always smiling no matter what anyone says, as if she doesn’t truly understand what’s going on around her. I can’t imagine why Trevor married the girl. Just like I couldn’t imagine why Pierce had married that woman.

I let my thoughts take over as I add sugar and cream to the cup and slide the tea across to her. The girl likes it far too sweet, but then I’m trying to be sweet to her.

But oh, how the thoughts come. Why do the men in my family champion that woman at every turn? First, Harris just had to bring Yvette into the company. Then Pierce fell for her. Now Brock is suddenly standing up for her. And Trevor isn’t even bothering to push her out when it’s in his best interests to do so.

So I have to deal with this daughter-in-law, who is having a girl, for God’s sake.

Doesn’t she understand that I’m creating a dynasty? Both Yvette and Lorna are spoiling my plans by having girls. I want to be like the Habsburg Queen Maria Theresa, who’d had sixteen children and married them off to the kings and queens of Europe so she had dominion over all.

At least I have Brock’s boys. Garth is working for the company, and I’m already steering him to the right girl, one who will be advantageous to the family and, more importantly, to the company.

I’ll just have to make advantageous marriages for those two girls. If only I can get them to stay in the house the way I want. And get rid of their mother.

I look at Lorna, who sips her tea.

Good God, I’ll be dead before I can do anything with Lorna’s child. That’s Trevor’s fault for not marrying years ago.

“We can remodel the gatehouse in any way you like,” I tell her. I’ll hate to remodel the old house, but if I can displace Yvette, which is the most important thing, I’ll be happy. “We can make it more of an open plan. We can tear down a wall between two bedrooms so you’ll have a larger nursery for the baby.” I smile. I don’t like myself when I smile. For some reason, I can never make it appear genuine.

Lorna, thank God, appears to fall for it. “That’s so kind of you, Adeline. But there’s no need to go to that kind of expense. Trevor and I are happy up here at the big house.” She smiles. It’s a disgustingly sweet smile.

I want to slap it right off her face. But then I’m being friendly today.

Because I have only one goal and that’s to get rid of that woman, who’s been the bane of my existence since Harris took a liking to her. Actually, since he’d taken a liking to that damned chauffeur and worse, his family.

Even firing the man didn’t stop Harris from running down to their house as if he preferred it to his own.

But it was Yvette’s fault that Pierce was dead. She drove him to all the drinking and gambling. Before she came on the scene, he’d been sewing a few wild oats, yes, but nothing more. He’d have gotten over it. But then she trapped him into marriage by getting pregnant.

I’d had such a wonderful future mapped out for him, with a woman worthy of the family. But Yvette ruined everything. That’s why he took to the drink, because of her.

And I hate the woman for it.

I’m not ashamed of saying that Pierce was always my favorite. Every mother has a favorite. They just won’t admit it.

And she was responsible for his death. She’d wanted to send him to rehab, for God’s sake. No Donnelly has ever gone to rehab, because they’ve never been the problem. It’s always the people who surround them. I gave Pierce everything he wanted, everything he needed. And what was a little carousing? That’s what young men did back then. But now it’s a sin, for God’s sake, when really it was just boys being boys. And there was more than enough money to bail him out of any scrape he got himself into. I always took care of everything for him.

But there’d been no way to buy off that girl. And that was Harris’s doing. He was the one who insisted Pierce break off his engagement and marry Yvette. What on earth had Harris been thinking?

That woman, she had all the men in this family fooled.

And here I am now, saddled with another of her ilk. This one is greedy, too, I know full well. She wants to make sure that Trevor becomes the favorite.

“Honestly, Adeline, please don’t put yourself out. Trevor and I would love to raise our children here. Look at the garden.” Lorna sweeps her arm out, encompassing the massive floor-to-ceiling windows of the conservatory. The lush gardens are manicured to perfection, the azaleas and camellias and rhododendrons all deadheaded after their season. The new buds are already forming and will be magnificent in the spring.

Did this girl think her baby would be allowed to run around my yard? The child will ruin it. Just as Brock’s boys had ruined it.

I didn’t mind, though. After all, they were boys. And boys will be boys.

But the silly twit won’t budge.

As Lorna leans forward for a biscuit, I say, ever so sweetly, “Should you have another cookie, dear?” I smile. It feels as if it could be a genuine smile. But then it takes the beholder to judge. When Lorna stills her hand, I go on. “You don’t want to gain even more weight.” I give that heavy emphasis. “Baby weight is so hard to get rid of. And you need to maintain your figure to keep your husband’s interest.”

Poor Lorna looks stricken. I was always scrupulous about losing my baby weight. After three strapping boys, it would have been hard if I’d allowed myself to gain as much as Lorna has. Although admittedly, she’s probably on target for her pregnancy month. “I have a regimen of isometric exercises that I can give you. They worked wonders for me.”

“Yes, yes,” Lorna stammers, her face crestfallen the way I intended.

If I can’t get Lorna to agree to push Yvette out, I’ll just have to make her life so miserable that she’ll beg Trevor to move down to the gatehouse.

I won’t mind at all if Trevor goes. Brock can take over his suite again. And he’ll never leave. Besides, Trevor was always my least favorite. Every mother plays favorites, if she’s honest enough to admit it. And I am scrupulously honest. At least with myself. I’m honest enough to say that Trevor has the worst taste in spouses. And sadly, so did Pierce.

Corrine was the only one who was worth anything at all. She’d known the score. She’d known what was best for her. And she had the boys. I’ve always suspected she somehow assured that every one of her babies carried to full-term was a boy. Yes, Corrine was a woman after my own heart. Until she made the colossal error of falling for another man. What on earth was wrong with her? I suspect she was perimenopausal at the time and needed to affirm her beauty through a male’s eyes. But to divorce Brock? What had the woman been thinking?

No, my sons are a lost cause. But my grandsons, they’ll be different. With the proper training, of course.

I will have my dynasty before I shuffle off this mortal coil, as Shakespeare would say.