"He's working. Locked himself in as defense against the little German girl who kept wandering into his room." She smiled over it. "He's a darling with children. He played Chutes and Ladders with her last night, so she's fallen in love with him and won't leave him in peace."
"And you're thinking what a fine father he'll make."
Brianna pokered up. "I didn't say that. But he would. You should see how he-" She broke off when she heard the front door open. "If that's more guests, I'll have to give them my room and sleep in the parlor."
"You can just stop playing musical beds and sleep in Gray's," Maggie commented, then winced when she recognized the voices coming down the hall. "Ah, perfect. I'd hoped she'd changed her mind and stayed in France."
"Stop it," Brianna warned and took out more cups for tea.
"The world travelers are back," Lottie said cheerfully as she trailed Maeve into the kitchen. "Oh, what a fine place you have there, Maggie. Like a palace it is. What a wonderful time we had."
"Speak for yourself." Maeve sniffed and set her purse on the counter. "Bunch of foreign half-naked people running around on the beach."
"Some of the men were built beautifully." Lottie giggled. "There was an American widower who flirted with Maeve."
"Dallying." Maeve waved a hand, but her cheeks had flushed. "I paid no mind to his kind." Sitting down, Maeve gave Maggie a hard stare. She covered the spurt of concern with a curl of the lip. "Peaked you are. You'll soon appreciate what a mother suffers when you go into labor."
"Thank you so much."
"Ah, the girl's as strong as a horse." Lottie's voice was bracing as she patted Maggie's hand. "And young enough to have a half dozen children."
Maggie rolled her eyes and managed a laugh. "I don't know which of you depresses me more."
"It's nice you're back in time for the gallery opening tomorrow." Brianna tactfully changed subjects as she served the tea.
"Hah. What would I be doing wasting time at some art place?"
"We wouldn't miss it." Lottie aimed a stern look in Maeve's direction. "Maeve, you know very well you said you'd be pleased to see Maggie's work, and the rest."
Maeve shifted uncomfortably. "What I said was I was surprised there was so much fuss over bits of glass." She frowned at Brianna before Lottie could embarrass her further. "Your car wasn't out front. Has it fallen apart at last?"
"I'm told it was hopeless. I've a new one, the blue one out there."
"A new one." Maeve set her cup down with a clatter. "Squandering your money on a new car?"
" 'Tis her money," Maggie began heatedly, but Brianna cut her off with a look.
"It's not new, except to me. It's a used car, and I didn't buy it." She braced herself. "Grayson bought it for me."
For a moment there was silence. Lottie stared down at her tea with her lips pursed. Maggie prepared to leap to her sister's defense and fought to ignore the twinges.
"Bought it for you?" Maeve's voice was hard as stone. "You accepted such a thing from a man? Have you no care for what people will think, or say?"
"I imagine people will think it was a generous thing, and say the same." She set aside her frosting knife and picked up her tea. Her hands would shake in a moment. She knew it, hated it.
"What they will think is that you sold yourself for it. And have you? Is that what you've done?"
"No." The word was frigidly calm. "The car was a gift, and accepted as such. It has nothing to do with our being lovers."
There, she thought. She'd said it. Her stomach was clutched, her hands fit to tremble, but she'd said it.
White around the lips, her eyes burning blue, Maeve shoved away from the table. "You've whored yourself."
"I haven't. I've given myself to a man I care for and admire. Given myself for the first time," she said and was surprised that her hands remained steady. "Though you've told it differently."
Maeve's gaze cut to Maggie, full of bitterness and temper.
"No, I didn't tell her," Maggie said calmly enough. "I should have, but I didn't."
"It hardly matters how I found out." Brianna folded her hands together. There was a coldness inside her, a horrible chill, but she would finish this. "You saw that I lost whatever happiness I might have had with Rory."
"He was nothing," Maeve shot back. "A farmer's son who never would have made a man. You'd have had nothing with him but a houseful of crying children."
"I wanted children." An ache shot through the ice. "I wanted a family and a home, but we'll never know if I would have found that with him. You saw to that and dragged a good, fine man into your lies. To keep me safe, Mother? I don't think so. I wish I could think so. To keep me tied. Who would have tended to you and this house if I had married Rory? We'll never know that, either."
"I did what was best for you."
"What was best for you."
Because her legs felt weak, Maeve sat again. "So, this is the way you pay me back for it. By giving yourself in sin to the first man who strikes your fancy."
"By giving myself in love to the first and only man who's touched me."
"And what will you do when he plants a baby in your belly and goes off whistling?"
"That's my concern."
"She's talking like you now." Enraged, Maeve turned on Maggie. "You've turned her against me." "You've done that yourself."
"Don't bring Maggie into this." In a protective move Brianna laid a hand on her sister's shoulder. "This is you and me, Mother."
"Any chance of getting a ..." High on an afternoon of successful writing, Gray breezed into the kitchen and trailed off as he spotted the company. Though he felt the weight of tension in the room, he tried a friendly smile. "Mrs. Concannon, Mrs. Sullivan, it's good to have you back."
Maeve's hands curled into fists. "Bloody bastard, you'll burn in hell with my daughter beside you."
"Mind your tongue in my house." Brianna's sharp order shocked them all more than Maeve's bitter prediction. "I beg your pardon, Gray, for my mother's rudeness." "You'll beg no one's pardon on my account." "No," Gray agreed, nodding at Maeve. "There's no need. You can say what you like to me, Mrs. Concannon." "Did you promise her love and marriage, a lifetime of devotion to get her on her back? Do you think I don't know what men say to have their way?"