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Jack, struggling through his second year in law school, was in love with Dorothy Rae, too, but he couldn’t even think about marriage until after he finished school. His daddy expected him not only to graduate, but to rank high in his class. His daddy also expected him to be chivalrous where women were concerned.

So when Jack finally succumbed to temptation and relieved Dorothy Rae Hancock of her virginity, he was in a quandary as to which had priority—chivalry toward the lady or responsibility toward parental expectations. Dorothy Rae spurred him into making a decision when she weepily told him that she was late getting her period.

Panicked, Jack figured that an untimely marriage was better than an untimely baby and prayed that Nelson would figure it that way, too. He and Dorothy Rae drove to Oklahoma over the weekend, wed in secret, and broke the glad tidings to their parents after the fact.

Nelson and Zee were disappointed, but after getting Jack’s guarantee that he had no intention of dropping out of law school, they welcomed Dorothy Rae into the family.

The Hancocks of Lampasas didn’t take the news quite so well. Her elopement nearly killed Dorothy Rae’s daddy. In fact, he dropped dead of a heart attack one month after the nuptials. Dorothy Rae’s unstable mother was committed to an alcohol abuse hospital. On the day of her release several weeks later, she was deemed dried out and cured. Three days later, she ran her car into a bridge abutment while driving drunk. She died on impact.

Francine Angela wasn’t born until eighteen months after Dorothy Rae’s marriage to Jack. It was either the longest pregnancy in history or she had tricked him into marriage.

He had never accused her of either, but, as though in self-imposed penance, she had had two miscarriages in quick succession when Fancy was still a baby.

The last miscarriage had proved to be life-threatening, so the doctor had tied her tubes to prevent future pregnancies. To blunt the physical, mental, and emotional pain this caused her, Dorothy Rae began treating herself to a cocktail every afternoon. And when that didn’t work, she treated herself to two.

“How can you look yourself in the mirror,” she demanded of her husband now, “knowing that you love your brother’s wife?”

“I don’t love her.”

“No, you don’t, do you?” Leaning close, she poisoned the air between them with the intoxicating fumes of her breath. “You hate her because she treats you like dirt. She wipes her feet on you. You can’t even see that all these changes in her are just—”

“What changes?” Instead of hanging his pants on the hanger in his hand, he dropped them into a chair. “She explained about using her left hand, you know.”

Having won his attention, Dorothy Rae pulled herself up straight and assumed the air of superiority that only drunks can assume. “Other changes,” she said loftily. “Haven’t you noticed them?”

“Maybe. Like what?”

“Like the attention she’s showering on Mandy and the way she’s sucking up to Tate.”

“She’s been through a lot. She’s mellowed.”

“Ha!” she crowed indelicately. “Her? Mellowed? God above, you’re blind where she’s concerned.” Her blue eyes tried to focus on his face. “Since that plane crash, she’s like a different person, and you know it. But it’s all for show,” she stated knowingly.

“Why should she bother?”

“Because she wants something.” She swayed toward him and tapped his chest for emphasis. “Probably, she’s playing the good little senator’s wife so she’ll get to move to Washington with Tate. What’ll you do then, Jack? Huh? What’ll you do with your sinful lust then?”

“Maybe I’ll start drinking and keep you company.”

She raised a shaky hand and pointed her finger at him. “Don’t get off the subject. You want Carole. I know you do,” she finished with another sob.

Jack, once more bored with her inebriated rambling, finished hanging up his clothes, then methodically went around the room, switching off lamps and turning down the bed. “Come to bed, Dorothy Rae,” he said wearily.

She caught his arm. “You never loved me.”

“That’s not true.”

“You think I tricked you into marrying me.”

“I never said that.”

“I thought I was pregnant. I did!”

“I know you did.”

“Because you didn’t love me, you thought it was okay to go after other women.” Her eyes narrowed on him accusingly. “I know there have been others. You’ve cheated on me so many times, it’s no wonder I drink.”

Tears were streaming down her face. Ineffectually, she slapped his bare shoulder. “I drink because my husband doesn’t love me. Never did. And now he’s in love with his brother’s wife.”