Perfect (Second Opportunities 2)

Julie struggled to keep her face from betraying her surprise at such a hopelessly unfair marital arrangement, but Katherine was so busy condemning herself that she wouldn't have noticed anything. "Ted pointed out the obvious impracticality of such a marriage and added that even if he were willing to live like that, he couldn't possibly afford to send me to Brookline. So I went running home to Daddy to ask for the money, even though Ted had made it plain to me that if I married him, he would never take a penny of Daddy's money. Daddy, of course, told Ted that he would be happy to pay for all my expenses at Brookline, but Ted refused, which made me furious. I retaliated from that day forward by refusing to lift a finger at home. I didn't cook another meal for him or do his laundry. So he did the cooking and grocery shopping, and he took our laundry over to Kealing's Cleaners, all of which made everybody in town start talking about what a lousy wife I was. Despite that," Katherine said, "he never gave up hope that I'd grow up soon and behave like a woman instead of a brat. He felt guilty, you see," Katherine added, looking directly at Julie, "for marrying me when I was so young and hadn't had a chance to really live. Anyway, the only wifely duty I performed during the rest of our first year of marriage was lovemaking, which," she added with a soft smile, "was definitely not an awful chore with your brother."

Katherine fell silent for so long that Julie wasn't certain she intended to go on, then she drew a shaky breath and continued, "After a while, Daddy, who knew how miserable I was because I was forever complaining to him, hit upon the idea that if I had a fabulous house to live in, I'd be a happier wife. I was childish enough to love the idea of playing hostess in a wonderful house of my own with a swimming pool and tennis court, but Daddy was worried that Ted was really inflexible about not accepting any financial support from him. I, on the other hand, foolishly believed that if we presented Ted with a fait accompli, he'd have no choice except to go along with it. So Daddy bought the land over on Wilson's Ridge, and he and I met secretly with an architect and had the plans drawn up for my house. I loved every inch of that house, I planned every detail, every closet, every cabinet," Katherine said, looking up at Julie. "I even started cooking meals for Ted and doing our laundry, and he thought I'd decided to be a wife after all. He was so pleased because I was happy, even though he didn't understand the reason. He thought my parents were building the house on Wilson's Ridge for themselves because they wanted a smaller place, because that's what I let him believe. In fact, that's what everyone in Keaton believed."

This time, Julie was unable to hide her shock, because there was a huge house on Wilson's Ridge, and it was gorgeous—complete with swimming pool and tennis court. "That's right," Katherine said, watching her face. "The house that Dr. and Mrs. Delorik live in was supposed to be my house."

"What happened?" Julie asked because she didn't know what else to say.

"What happened was that when the house was almost finished, Daddy and I took Ted up there, and Daddy handed Ted the key." With a slight shudder, Katherine said, "As you can imagine, Ted was furious. He was furious at the secrecy, the deceit, and my having gone back on my word before we were married that I'd live on whatever income he could provide. He told my father politely to find someone who could afford to live there and keep the place up, and he left us standing in the house."

Since that would have happened only months before their divorce was filed, Julie naturally assumed that Ted's refusal to accept the house caused the final death blow to their marriage. "And that led to more fights that ended up breaking up your marriage," Julie concluded.

"No. That led to my banishing Ted from our bed, but it was already too late."

"What do you mean?"

Katherine bit her lip and looked down. Her voice shook a little as she said, "A few days later—just before Ted and I split up—I took a bad fall off one of my father's horses, remember?"

"Of course I do," Julie said. "You broke your arm."

"I also broke up my marriage that day along with my husband's heart." She drew a long breath, lifted her gaze to Julie's, and there was a sheen of tears in her eyes. "I was pregnant, Julie. I found out after Ted refused the key to the house on Wilson's Ridge. I was two months' pregnant and I was furious because Ted had refused the house, which had a lovely nursery, but I was even angrier because he was getting something he wanted badly—a baby. I went riding the next day, even though Ted specifically told me not to, and I didn't take that horse for a gentle canter. I was racing him along the creek and jumping him over hedges when he threw me."

When she couldn't seem to go on, Julie finished softly for her, "And you lost the baby."

Katherine nodded. "Ted was not only heartbroken, he was … infuriated. He thought I deliberately tried to miscarry, which isn't surprising considering the way I acted when I found out I was pregnant. And the funny thing is," she said, her voice filled with tears she was trying to blink away, "that was the only rotten thing in our marriage that I wasn't actually guilty of doing, at least not intentionally. I always rode like a fury when something was bothering me, and I always felt better afterward. The day I took Thunder out, I didn't believe for a moment I was risking a miscarriage. I'd been jumping him over those same obstacles for years and hadn't ever had the slightest problem with him. The only difference that day was that, unknown to me, the vet had been treating him for a sprain and it wasn't healed yet. You see," she added shakily, "Thunder would have jumped off a mountain for me, and he never gave a sign that his foreleg was bothering him until he actually took the last hedge and went down on his knees. I ended up partially pinned beneath him. My father and I both tried to explain all that to Ted, but he didn't believe us, and given our deceit about the house, who could expect him to? Besides, what sensible woman who was worthy of the title wife would have taken such a risk with her husband's baby?" Her voice filled with shame and tears as she finished, "I didn't decide to divorce Ted, Julie. When I came home from the hospital, he'd already packed his bags. But," she added with a teary smile, "he was gallant to the very end, even when he was heartbroken, furious, and completely disillusioned: He let me divorce him. And he never told anyone about the baby he still believes I deliberately lost. I grew up the day I saw his suitcases in the hall and realized what I was losing, but it was too late then. You know the rest of the story—I went back East to college and got my degree, then I went to work in Dallas at the museum."