Dream Baby. Ann Evans

the refilled water bottle into the crow’s cage. Then he said in a tone that sounded almost sympathetic, “Does that include adopting her baby?”

      She leveled a look at him. “You make it sound like I’m only doing it to help her out of a jam. I assure you it wasn’t a quick decision.”

      “Isabel’s very young. Probably confused about what she really wants—”

      “She’s not confused at all,” Nora countered. “Perhaps she was at first, and certainly she was frightened, but she’s very clear on what she wants now.”

      “So you had nothing to do with her plan to give you her baby?”

      The conversation was deteriorating rapidly. “What are you suggesting?” she asked in what she meant to be a chilling voice.

      “I’m not suggesting anything,” he said. “I’m pretty much stating it up front. I think this decision to give her baby away is too hasty. Perhaps she saw it as the only way out of a difficult predicament.”

      “If she found herself in a difficult predicament, your brother was the one who helped put her there. He washed his hands of the problem and even suggested an abortion. Are you aware of that?”

      He nodded. “I am. Isabel’s telephone call threw him for quite a loop. That doesn’t excuse him, but I do know that he came to regret that suggestion almost immediately after he made it.”

      “And yet you’re the one who’s come here, when it should be him—”

      “My brother is dead, Miss Holloway. He died a few days after he received Isabel’s phone call.”

      He said the words in such a matter-of-fact way that at first Nora thought she’d heard incorrectly. She looked at him, trying to gauge his feelings, but his features were expressionless. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

      His broad shoulders moved uneasily, and she suspected he wasn’t comfortable with her sympathy. His hands roamed over a line of bottles and cans that sat upon the counter, as though he had real interest in containers of peroxide and liniment.

      “He was working with me in Nigeria, building a bridge. A group of bandits attacked one of my field crews. Bobby hung on for a while, but...” He broke off, turning away from the counter suddenly. There was an odd twist to his mouth, as though he’d said too much and wished he could call back the words.

      “Have you told Isabel?” Nora asked softly.

      “Yes. She took it well, I think.” He grimaced. “I know Bobby’s initial reaction to her telephone call hurt her pretty badly. I don’t believe she’s been entertaining pleasant thoughts about him all these months.”

      “Still, I should go to her.” Placing the last of the medicine in the refrigerator, Nora washed and dried her hands. She turned to face him suddenly. “You said Bobby came to regret his decision?”

      “I sat by my brother’s hospital bed for almost two days before he died. He wanted to come home, find Isabel and tell her he’d made a huge mistake. There’s no doubt in my mind he would have married her and given his child a name.” Jake expelled a long sigh. “Toward the end he knew he wasn’t going to... He asked me to make sure she was all right. That she’d have enough money to support herself and the baby. That’s why I’m here. Of course, everything’s changed now.”

      Nora’s heart cramped suddenly. “What do you mean?”

      Jake gave her a hard, level look that didn’t reassure her any. “I’m sorry, but I can’t go along with what Isabel wants. I can’t let you adopt my brother’s child.”

      CHAPTER FOUR

      IT WAS ABSOLUTELY as bad as she had feared. Her dream was disintegrating. A sudden weariness dropped over Nora like a second skin.

      Please don’t do this to me, she wanted to beg. Not again.

      It was an effort to keep her lips from trembling, but somewhere in the past she’d learned the trick of shielding herself. Somehow she managed to find enough voice to say firmly, “The decision has been made.”

      Jake shrugged. “It can be unmade. I understand no adoption papers have been signed yet.”

      “They will be. Isabel is not going to change her mind.”

      “We’ll see. I’ve asked her to give me a week to convince her otherwise.”

      “Mr. Burdette, did Isabel tell you about her plans for the future?”

      “No. I suppose that’s one of the things we’ll need to discuss. We barely covered the basics. She told me the child was a boy, but little more than that.”

      Nora snorted in derision. “I’m afraid you’re in for quite a disappointment. Isabel may seem rather... scattered right now, but she has very specific goals for herself, and they don’t include raising a child.”

      Her hands were shaking, and to find something for them to do she began reorganizing the items on the counter, tilting bottles this way and that as though they were intended for some sort of display.

      Jake observed her silently for several long moments, then he reached over to place one hand on top of hers.

      “Miss Holloway,” he said in a surprisingly gentle tone. “Nora. I’m sorry. I’m sure you’re a very nice person—”

      She snatched her hands out from under his and jerked her head up to glare at him. “You don’t even know me.”

      “By the end of the week I intend to know everything I need to know about you.”

      The sudden steely tone in his voice made her heart buck in rebellion. Her eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to intimidate me?”

      “There’s no need to be defensive.”

      She clamped her jaw around a few harsh words that came to mind. Giving him the same hard, level look he had given her only minutes ago, she said with biting courtesy, “Mr. Burdette, I’ve waited a long time to have a child. Now that it’s about to become a reality, I’m not willing to just politely step aside. I want this baby. It’s Isabel’s intention that I have this baby. The wishes of the mother hold a considerable amount of sway in the eyes of the law.”

      He appeared completely unperturbed. If anything, something in his stillness became more ominous. “Yes, they do,” he agreed in a quiet tone. He pushed away from the counter and headed toward the door. Before he left the room, he turned to look at her one last time. “But I doubt very much that the courts would completely ignore the concerns of a blood relative.”

      

      ISABEL PLEADED a headache when Nora returned to the lodge, and she allowed the girl to escape into her bedroom for the evening. Tomorrow was soon enough to find out if all her hopes and dreams for this baby had been for nothing.

      But in the morning, Isabel was already gone when Nora woke. A note on the kitchen counter indicated she’d gone into town with Jake Burdette and would return by mid-morning. Instead of trying to drum up an appetite for breakfast, Nora began working on the baby’s quilt the two of them had been piecing together. She wanted desperately to believe that one day her child would lie under it.

      By ten o’clock, when she head the front lobby door of the lodge open and shut, her nerves were as tight as each stitch she had pulled through the pastel material.