To Marry McKenzie

'She didn't say,' Karen responded. 'But she sounded a bit—distracted, I

thought,' she added helpfully.

'If she calls again, put her through, hmm?' Logan in: structed before going

through to his own office.

So Darcy had telephoned him three times in the last three hours? No doubt

to apologise once again. Well, she could stew on her apology for a bit

longer; he had no intention of putting her out of her misery by returning her

calls!

Logan had told Darcy his luncheon appointment had been for one o'clock,

and at almost four o'clock, the time of her last call, he still hadn't returned to

his office. No doubt her earlier suspicion that it wasn't a business luncheon

had been a correct one; Logan had probably been meeting the current

woman in his life.

Oh, she felt miserable, Darcy acknowledged at just after five o'clock as she

cleared away in the kitchen following lunch. Things had been bad enough

before between herself and Logan, but she was sure he was never going to

forgive her for tipping egg-white all over him.

What on earth had possessed her to do such a thing?

She had asked herself that question a dozen or more times since Logan had

left earlier, and she still didn't have an acceptable answer. It simply wasn't

good enough that she had been so angry with his pigheaded stubbornness

concerning attending their parents' wedding that she hadn't been able to

even think straight, had only been able to act. She had no doubt it wasn't an

excuse Logan would accept either...!

She had no idea what she was going to say to him when she saw him again,

she only knew that she had to apologise to him properly for what she had

done to him earlier. Whether or not he would accept that apology was

another matter!

What a family they were going to make: mother and son barely talking,

stepson and stepfather not particularly on friendly terms either, and as for

stepbrother and stepsister—! What a way for their parents to start a

marriage!

'I can't ask whether or not you have a home to go to,' her father teased as he

strolled back into the kitchen after checking that the dining-room was ready

for this evening, 'because I know you do!'

Of course she did, she just didn't feel like going back there at the moment.

Maybe Logan would return her telephone calls once he returned to his

office, and if she went home she would miss him. Or maybe he would come

back here himself—

And maybe pigs might fly, she told herself with a self- disgusted shake of

her head.

'Just forget about it, Darcy,' her father advised after watching the different

emotions flickering across the openness of her expression.

She grimaced. 'Do you think Logan has forgotten about it?' she asked

miserably.

Her father smiled. 'I doubt that young man ever forgets anything,' he said

with feeling. 'Look how long he's kept up his grudge against Meg.'

Logan's feelings over that situation weren't exactly a grudge, Darcy knew.

He had been a young boy of twelve when his mother had remarried, an age

when he'd been on the very brink of manhood, a time when he had needed

his mother's love and understanding. Instead he had been given a stepfather

whom he'd hated, and who had loathed him. Given his young age, the

resentment Logan felt towards his mother for ever putting him in that

position was perfectly understandable.

'I don't think that's quite the same thing, Daddy,' Darcy told her father

firmly. 'Admittedly, it was a long time ago, but it's no less painful to Logan

for all that.'

Her father raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. 'Margaret is going to be

very upset once she knows he isn't going to attend the wedding. In fact,' he

said worriedly, 'she may even decide to call the whole thing off until he will

agree to attend.'

Margaret Fraser was perfectly capable of doing that, Darcy knew; the other

woman's own love for her son had never changed, no matter how cutting

Logan might have been to her over the years. But Darcy also knew that her

father couldn't bear that uncertainty a second time where the woman he

loved was concerned.

It had been a painful thing for Darcy to realise that her father had fallen in

love with another woman only a year after her mother had died, but she had

accepted it now, and she was well aware of how much her father loved Meg

and needed her as his wife.

Her father was looking thoughtful. 'Maybe Margaret doesn't have to know,'

he muttered. 'You and Logan appear to have become friends, so perhaps you

could try talking to him again once—'

'Oh, please, Daddy,' Darcy protested. 'Would you still have friendly feelings

towards someone who had tipped egg-white all over your head?'

And cried all over him. Three times. Kicked him in the shin. Once. And

threatened to throw wine all over him! Again, once...