Eternity (Montgomery/Taggert 17)

For a second Nora looked puzzled, then recovered herself. “But, darling, no money, no paper. You’ll never get your divorce if I don’t get the money, and you’ll never get to marry your little heiress.” She made it sound as though the only reason Josh would want to marry Carrie was for her money.

Josh put his arm around Carrie’s shoulders. “You know, Nora, I’ve been on my brother’s farm for one whole year now, and I can tell you that it’s been hell. I have to get up before dawn and spend the day hoeing weeds or burning fields or other disgusting things. I’ve hated every minute of it.”

“Of course you have, darling. I knew you would. Don’t you remember how hard I laughed when I heard the judge’s sentence?”

“Well, you were right, therefore I’ve decided to give up farming.”

Nora raised one eyebrow. “But the judge said the children would be taken from you if you didn’t live on Hiram’s farm for four years.”

“That’s another thing,” Josh said. “Come out here, you brats,” he said.

Carrie looked at him in disbelief as he grabbed an arm of each child and pulled them forward. Carrie’s disbelief intensified as she looked at the children. Minutes before, while standing outside the door, they had been clean and presentable, but now their hair was mussed, there was a streak of dirt on Dallas’s dress, and they both had tears running down their cheeks.

“When I told the judge I wanted them, I had no idea what I was saying. I guess I thought raising children would be easy, but they’re brats. They take all my time, they whine and complain, and they’re dirty little creatures. So, Nora, my dear, they are yours.”

Josh pushed the children toward Nora.

Thank heaven Carrie was in too great a state of shock to say anything.

“Papa,” Dallas screamed. “No, no, we want to stay with you. We’ll be good, we promise.”

“Josh, you can’t mean—” Nora began.

“Of course I can. The judge said that the children would go to you if I defaulted on my sentence, and I am going to default. I’m going back to the stage where I belong.”

“B…but what about her?” Nora asked, looking at Carrie. “What about the little love of your life?”

Before Josh could open his mouth, Carrie spoke up. She wasn’t going to be left out of this. “We are going to live in sin,” she said brightly. “We decided that sin was much more exciting than boring old marriage.” She gave Josh an adoring look. “As soon as we’re free of the children we’re going…Where was it, dear?”

“Venice,” Josh said, and there was admiration in his eyes.

“Yes, Venice. We shall use the thousands I receive from Warbrooke Shipping and go to Venice. Or would you rather go to Paris first? I do need some new clothes.”

“Wherever you want, my dearest.” Josh kissed her hand.

Josh turned back to Nora. “You see, my dear, it doesn’t matter if you and I are married or not. I have Carrie and her money and I no longer have the burden of those brats. Au revoir.” With that, he tucked Carrie’s arm in his and started for the door.

Behind them Dallas screamed, “Papa, don’t leave us. Please, please don’t leave us. We’ll do anything if you’ll let us stay with you. Anything.”

Josh had to hold Carrie’s arm firmly to keep her from turning back to the child. When they were outside the door, Carrie looked at Josh. “Is Dallas all right?” she whispered.

“No,” Josh replied. “She has a serious case of overacting, and I plan to talk to her about it. No child of mine is going to get away with that.” He smiled at Carrie. “You were excellent. Maybe we’ll make a liar out of you yet.”

“Josh,” Carrie said slowly, “the children were acting, weren’t they? And you were, too, weren’t you? You’re not going to leave them with her, are you?”

He looked at her. “What do you think?”

“I think you’d kill before you gave them up.”

Smiling, he kissed her hand. “Let’s go get something to eat. I missed lunch.” His eyes were twinkling, because it was Carrie who had served the inedible lunch.

In spite of Josh’s reassurances, Carrie was still nervous. She picked at her food at dinner and, later, when Josh took her to her dress shop, she wasn’t interested in it. Her employees had a hundred questions to ask her, but Carrie couldn’t think of the answers. Instead, she turned to Josh and said, “What if she wants to keep them?”

“You don’t know Nora.”

“Not as well as you do,” she snapped at him. “And at one time you thought she was a good mother.”

“I was younger and dumber,” he answered, trying to make her smile, or make her angry—anything but as scared as she was. Even when he told her that he wasn’t going to allow her to name their child, what with her propensity for names like Choo-choo and Paris in the Desert, he got no reaction from her.