Sgt. Billy's Bride. Bonnie Gardner

wants to live on her own for a while before she gets tied down with marriage.”

      “Psh. It’s lonely livin’ by yourself. I should know. And I know too darn much about working odd shifts. I did enough of that at the cotton gin when you were growing up.” She smiled at Darcy. “At least, think about it, hon. I could surely use the company.”

      “Yes, ma’am. I’ll think about it.”

      “Well, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go on and set on the porch for a while. I do love to swing and smell the flowers while it’s cool in the mornings.” She pushed herself up out of her chair and slowly made her way toward the front door.

      “I thought we were going to straighten out this mess first thing in the morning,” Darcy hissed, the minute she thought Nettie was out of hearing range. “You can’t keep lying to your mother like this. The longer it goes on, the harder it’ll be for us to explain our way out of it.”

      “I know,” Bill said slowly. “I tried this morning before you got up, but damn it, she’s already gone and told Lougenia about it. Lou’ll probably tell somebody else, and so on and so on. If she’s told Earline, it’ll be all over the county by nightfall. I don’t know what to do.”

      “You tell your sister the truth,” Darcy said firmly. “She’s not old and sick. She can handle it.”

      As much as she hated lying, Darcy hated hurting Bill’s mother more. She liked this gentle woman who, in spite of her obvious poor health, had welcomed Darcy into her home with open arms. She’d offered Darcy her home, her love, and Darcy felt like a number-one heel for leading Nettie on like this. “We have to straighten this thing out, now.”

      Bill just sat there, an impassive look hardening his face and making him look more like the trained military man he was than the farm boy she’d first supposed him to be. Had he even heard anything she’d said?

      Darcy wanted to hit him.

      His face brightening, he looked up and grinned. “Think about this,” he said. “And I want you to listen to my entire proposition before you say anything.”

      “Something tells me I’m not going to like this,” Darcy said warily.

      “Just hear me out. It’s important to me.”

      “Go ahead.” Bill had done her a big favor; she might as well listen.

      “You know about my mother’s health problem. As a nurse, you know how precarious her situation can be.” He took Darcy’s hand, sending a tremor of…excitement?…running through her. “You with me so far?”

      Darcy nodded, still wondering where he was going with this. “Go on.”

      “My family has been trying to get Momma to allow somebody to come in and help her out, but she will have nothing to do with the idea. Says she doesn’t want some stranger in her house messing with her things. Earline does what she can, but she has her own family. She stops by on her way to work, and her daughter Leah—she’s twelve—comes in to sit with her and do some light chores after school, but there’s nobody here with Momma at night. Even with Leah here all day in the summer, we worry.” He met her eyes. “As you may not have noticed last night when we came in….”

      Darcy blushed, remembering how she had fallen asleep and slept all the way through Montgomery.

      “Anyway, we live a good ways from town. If Momma needed help, it would be a long time coming from Pittsville. And then she’d probably have to be transferred to Montgomery anyway.” He paused and looked at her as if trying to gauge her reactions.

      “What are you getting at?”

      “It would sure take a load off my mind if you stayed here. Momma wouldn’t have a stranger messing with her things, and you would have a place to stay until you got on your feet.” He looked at her, his face radiating hope. “What do you say?”

      Darcy stared at him, speechless. How could she possibly respond to this? Bill had promised her that they’d untangle this mess in the morning, not make it even worse.

      “I know it’s a lot to ask, but think about Momma. She needs you, even if she won’t admit it.”

      “I…” Darcy struggled for some kind of response. The thing he was asking her to do was…was…preposterous. “I’d feel like a heel for deceiving her. She deserves better than that.”

      “She deserves to be well and healthy enough to enjoy retirement after working two or three jobs to feed us.” Bill drew in a ragged breath. “But she won’t get that.” His voice broke. “At least, make her last days easier.”

      Talk about a guilt trip. But why should she feel guilty about this? Nettie wasn’t her mother. Why should she get involved at all? The last thing she needed was another fiancé when she’d just gotten rid of the last one. Even if Bill was only a pretend one.

      Darcy tried to consider all the angles, not easy to do with Bill sitting just across the table looking at her. He’d given her some of the most compelling reasons to stay. But they couldn’t justify lying.

      She’d been living a lie for the last six months. She’d been pretending to be someone she was not. Darcy did not want to have to do it again.

      Then she thought about Nettie Hays who had been so kind to her, so welcoming. The woman was ill. She didn’t have much longer to live. If it would make Nettie’s last days easier, maybe she could do it. After all, Bill would know that it wasn’t real.

      She knew it wasn’t real. Nobody was fooling anybody.

      Except Nettie.

      And, the reality was that Nettie needed someone to be with her, and Darcy needed a place to stay. A place to think about what she wanted to do with the rest of her life without the distraction of her parents, her uncle and aunt and Dick. Maybe Mattison was the perfect place to hide while she got her head together.

      She glanced out the kitchen window to where Nettie Hays sat swaying gently back and forth on the porch swing, humming a tune that Darcy couldn’t quite catch. She looked across the table to Bill.

      He must have sensed her wavering thoughts, for he reached across the table and captured her hand in his large, strong one. He squeezed it gently, almost seeming to telegraph his feelings through his touch. That’s when Darcy knew she’d agree to do this foolhardy thing. Bill seemed to understand her unasked question. “I promise it will be nothing more than a business arrangement. I won’t expect anything of you except to help Momma,” he said huskily.

      Bill needed her.

      He needed her to be his eyes and ears and to take care of his mother when he couldn’t. To be here for him when times were rough and he couldn’t come. Bill had helped her out when she needed him. What else could she do?

      Knowing she would probably regret this, she swallowed hard and looked at him. “All right,” she said, feeling the warmth of his hand on hers. “We can try it. After all, who could it hurt?”

      Chapter Three

      Darcy hung up the phone and sighed gustily. What had made her think that she’d be able to find someone to tow her car out of that roadside ditch and repair it, when she didn’t know the name of a single garage and tow company in south Alabama? And it didn’t help that she wasn’t exactly sure where the ditch containing her car was.

      She’d already spent a huge amount of time calling long distance trying to get somebody to take care of the problem, but she’d gotten the royal runaround. And she’d thought military bureaucracy was hard to circumvent. She’d never tried to work within the system of a small Alabama town, and she was doing it blind from a hundred miles away.

      At least she had been successful in getting an appointment for an interview with Dr. Williamson for the opening he had. It amazed her that he still kept his office open on Saturday mornings.