Once in Every Life

"Go? You don't mean?"

She crushed the paper in her fist and rammed a pointed finger against his chest. "

We're going to see the teacher."

Stark, icy desperation washed over him. He backed away, shaking his head. Not this.

"Hitch up the team. I'm going to go feed Caleb, and then we're leaving."

Panic clawed through his enforced calm. He couldn't go with her. Not now. Not until he found some way to control his emotions. God knew if he heard that bitch call his Katydid stupid, he'd probably belt the woman.

Amarylis would see his weakness, his love for Katie, and use it to hurt them all.

"I won't go."

"No?" A grim, humorless smile curved her lips. It was an expression he knew well. Determination turned her eyes into cold brown chips. "Thirty minutes, Jack." Then she pivoted and strode out of the barn.

"Damn it, Amarylis, I can't." She didn't even turn around.

Tess sucked in her breath and held it. With shaking fingers she wrenched the corset-strings together and tied a knot.

168

A small squeak escaped her lips as she tried to exhale.

Stumbling sideways, she clutched the wooden bedpost and tried to remain standing. Scorching pains coiled around her rib cage and squeezed until she was dizzy and panting for air.

She collapsed onto the bed and lay perfectly still, wondering how long a human could live without air.

Ha. Ha. Ha. Each carefully taken breath sounded like laughter in the quiet room.

Gradually the white dots crept out of her field of vision and the aching pain in her lungs subsided. Cautiously she rolled onto her side. Then, inch by agonizing inch, she eased to a sitting position.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Barely lifting her feet from the floor, she shuffled to the armoire and got dressed. The lovely forest green muslin gown she'd selected earlier settled around her shoulders and fell to the ground in folds.

Breathing a little easier, she moved to the mirror. If she'd had any breath in her body, her reflection would have taken it away. She looked ... beautiful.

Smiling in spite of her discomfort, she turned swiftly. Too swiftly, she realized immediately as stars once again careened across her eyes. She clutched the washstand for support.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

"I'll ... just stand here ... for a minute."

She needed to come up with a plan of attack anyway. She couldn't just waltz?all right, she conceded, hobble? out to the barn and whisk Jack off his feet. It would take a plan of some sort to get his help. And by God, she would get his help. This time he was going to be a part of this family whether he wanted to or not.

"Okay," she said to the exquisitely beautiful woman in

ONCE IN EVERY LIEE 169

the mirror, "how shall we handle this? It won't be easy. He won't want to go."

No, she realized, that wasn't quite right. It wasn't that he wouldn't want to go. It was that he was afraid to go. Whatever water there was under the bridge of Jack and Amarylis's marriage?and the word tsunami came to mind?it kept Jack from being the parent he wanted to be. He was afraid to show an interest in his children. Still, the old bat schoolteacher had called Katie lazy, and Tess couldn't let that pass. It was the sort of thing that scarred a child for life. Tess knew. So, how to enlist Jack's aid without causing a fight? It had to be a nonconfrontational meeting, she decided. One that wouldn't get him?or her?riled up. No more temper outbursts like she'd shown today. Angry demands were what he expected of his wife, and Tess knew she had to do the unexpected.

She had to keep the discussion light. Not a hint of anger or even irritation could surface. Keep it light.

Yes, that would work. No matter what he did or said or didn't say, she'd keep smiling.