“You mean bought off, don’t you?”
“Please, Miss Adams, I think you are misinterpreting the purpose of my clients. They are financially able to rear the child in an opulent environment. Surely you want what’s in the best interest of the child?”
“The mother felt it in her child’s best interest that I rear her.” Wisely she refrained from telling him of the handwritten instructions.
“I’m sure the father’s wishes would have differed greatly.” Katherine hated his condescending attitude. “Besides, this discussion is academic. I’m sure no court would award guardianship of a child to a single working girl with indeterminate morals, when such an illustrious couple as the Mannings are more than willing to take responsibility for their only grandchild, the heir and offspring of their eldest son.”
The insult to her character was so unethical that Katherine didn’t honor it with a comment, but she knew that he was threatening her. She could well imagine him saying words to that effect in a courtroom, and it chilled her to the bone to predict what the outcome of such a custody hearing would be.
Katherine stifled her initial panic and tried to reason through her predicament. Uppermost in her mind was the determination that Allison would not grow up under Eleanor Manning’s influence and power. They must have many friends in high places. She and Allison had to get away from them. Plans were made and she carried them out with dispatch.
The pediatrician agreed to release Allison from the hospital a few days earlier than he had originally planned with the condition that Katherine bring the infant to his office the following week. Katherine hated lying, but solemnly promised she would have the baby there.
She called a realtor and discussed the sale of her house. Whatever monies were made were to be put into a savings account in Allison’s name. That could be collected later along with any interest accrued. All the furnishings in the house were to be sold, except what Katherine would take with her. The realtor could keep that money in payment for her trouble.
Katherine rented a safety deposit box and, after making a copy of the pitiful paper-towel document, lovingly folded it into the metal box.
She didn’t answer her telephone and covered her movements well. Her car was parked away from the house, and she sacrificed the use of lights after dark. Fearful of being presented with a subpoena, she strove for invisibility.
She packed everything she possibly could in the small compact car. Her emotions were running high as she picked up Allison from the hospital.
Katherine gently lay her in the car bed that was strapped by the safety belt onto the front seat of the car. She leaned over and placed a soft kiss on the velvet forehead.
“I don’t know much about being a mother,” she whispered to the sleeping child. “But then you don’t know a lot about being a baby either.”
Gazing down into Allison’s sweet face that so reminded her of Mary, she felt at ease for the first time since hearing of Peter’s death.
As she left Denver, she allowed herself no poignant backward glances toward the mountains or thoughts about selling the house that had been the only home she remembered. She thought of the future, hers and Allison’s. From now on, they had no past.
* * *
Katherine straightened her back and hunched her shoulders to stretch the cramped muscles. She was sitting on the newspaper-lined living room floor of her garage apartment. For the past half-hour she had been painting a chest of drawers for Allison’s room. The evening before she had applied the final coat of glossy blue to the wood surface and was now adding a contrasting yellow stripe. The yellow paint had spotted the newspaper and a few drops had landed on Katherine’s bare legs.
Dipping the fine brush into the paint can, she sighed with contentment. Everything had turned out well for her and Allison. Under any circumstances, traveling halfway across the country by oneself with a newborn baby in tow would be an intimidating project. Katherine had left Denver under the grimmest of circumstances, yet the trip had gone smoothly. Allison was an angel of a baby, sleeping every minute that Katherine wasn’t changing or feeding her.
Katherine never remembered living in Van Buren, Texas, but her family had lived in the small town before her father’s insurance company had offered him a better job in Denver.
Katherine remembered her mother reminiscing about east Texas and its verdant landscape and deep woods. The pictures she painted of it belied the stereotypical depictions of Texas that portrayed vast barren landscapes with tumbleweeds being tossed about by incessant winds. Katherine, after driving through miles of country like that in west Texas, was surprised to find that Van Buren was just as her mother had described it—a peaceful, quaint college town nestled in the piny woods.
Glancing out her wide windows now, Katherine delighted in the sight of the six pecan trees that grew in the yard separating her garage apartment from Happy Cooper’s house.
Her new landlady had proved to be a godsend. Katherine had reached Van Buren just as the college’s spring term was ending and was lucky enough to secure the apartment which for the past two years had been shared by two Van Buren College coeds. The apartment, having two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, and bath, was spacious.
Katherine lay her paintbrush aside and walked on silent bare feet into the room she had designated as Allison’s, though they both slept in it. Leaning over the repainted crib she had found in a second-hand store, she looked at her niece. The infant’s rapid growth was amazing. In the two months they had been in Van Buren, she had gained weight and filled out to become a plump, happy baby despite her inauspicious birth. Katherine smiled at Allison and scooted a stuffed bunny from under a chubby hand before settling a light blanket over her.
Katherine enjoyed her days off when she could be alone with the baby. She had miraculously secured a job in the public relations office of the college, but was concerned about Allison’s care during the day. Much to her surprise, Happy had timidly offered to keep the baby. When Happy made the unexpected suggestion, Katherine had stared at her, smiled, laughed, then to her own amazement and Happy’s alarm, began to cry.
What would she have done without Happy, who was a frustrated grandmother who rarely got to see her grandchildren? She had two grown daughters who lived with their families on each coast, and a son who lived and worked in Louisiana. He was still single, and Happy mourned his marital status at least once a day. Having been married for forty-three years before being widowed, Happy couldn’t imagine anyone voluntarily living alone.
Yes, everything was going well. Katherine’s job was surely more interesting than what she had been doing in Denver. Her boss sometimes struck her as odd, for he had the annoying habits of staring, perspiring, and licking his lips. But overlooking his peculiarities, she liked her work.
Scratching her nose absentmindedly, she unknowingly smeared yellow paint across it. Then softly humming to herself, she rose from the floor to answer a knock at the door. It wouldn’t be Happy. She usually didn’t take the time or effort to knock.
Katherine tugged on the bottom of the short, ragged cutoffs she was wearing, hoping that whoever was at the door wouldn’t be offended by her appearance.
“Yes?” she said, opening the door.
Had she been about to say anything else, it would have been impossible. The man who filled the doorway was the most spectacular-looking man she had ever seen. If his size weren’t enough to distinguish him, certainly the raven black hair and startling blue eyes would have been.