Father For Keeps

“Lyle Wentworth? The banker’s son who used to lord it over you girls about growing up poor in the mountains?”

Jennie nodded and rolled her eyes. “He’s been sweet on Kate since we were children.”

“You’d never know it the way he treats her. I can’t believe she even suffers him in your home.”

Jennie bit her lip and looked at him with a pained expression. “Well, Lyle was a help during Kate’s pregnancy when we had to take her to a special hospital. We were all by ourselves, you know, after Mama and Papa died…” Her voice trailed off.

Sean finished for her, “And with the father of her baby gone.” His face grew tight. “Why didn’t she contact me, Jennie? She knew my family was prominent in San Francisco. It wouldn’t have been hard to find me.” He stopped speaking as Kate appeared in the back of the hall at the door that led into the kitchen.

“You don’t know me very well, Sean Flaherty, if you think I would go crawling to a man who left me with nothing but a terse note,” she said.

Jennie turned around, startled. “He knows about the baby, Kate,” she told her sister in a rush.

Kate walked toward them, grim faced. “I know. I’m afraid it was impossible for me to keep some of the more embarrassing aspects of motherhood from revealing the secret last night.”

Sean stepped around Jennie and held the flowers out to Kate. “I’ve come to try to start over, Kate. I know you’ve been through a lot and there’s no reason for you to forgive me, but I’m asking you to let me try and make it up to you.”

Her face was as calm and hard as a statue. “Caroline’s my baby, Sean. You forfeited any right—”

“I can help you, Kate. I want to help our child.” He looked around the hall, his eyes resting on the faded parlor curtain. “I have money, as you know.”

Jennie stepped back to allow him to move closer to Kate, who stood with her hands on her hips, bristling, making no attempt to take the flowers he was offering. “I don’t want your money, Sean, or your flowers. Caroline and I don’t want any part of you. I haven’t changed my mind since last night. You can just pack up your bags and head back to your papa’s business and your fancy big-city friends.”

Sean sighed and turned to hand the flowers to Jennie. “Would you mind finding somewhere for these?” he asked with a touch of exasperation. “And give me five minutes alone with this stubborn, beautiful sister of yours.”

Kate’s face had colored at the compliment, in spite of herself, and Jennie’s worried expression lightened slightly. She took the flowers in both arms and headed back toward the kitchen, saying over her shoulder, “You two might as well go sit in the parlor instead of standing in the hall shouting at each other like fishwives.”

Sean put his hat on the hall table and gestured toward the curtained doorway. “Shall we?” he asked.

Kate gave a reluctant nod and led the way into the parlor, where she sat on one of the high-backed chairs. Sean took the seat nearest to her on one end of the settee. He sank into the cushions, which left his head lower than hers, making him feel at an immediate disadvantage.

“Why didn’t you let me know, Kate?” he asked, his voice gentle. “I would have come. You could have had the finest doctors in San Francisco.”

Kate sat stiffly, her hands clasped in her lap. “It seems to me that I’m the one who has the right to ask the questions, Sean. You’re the one owing the explanations. Why did you leave? Why didn’t you come and tell me you were going? What happened to you?” Her voice trembled a little at the end.

Sean had a sudden urge to draw her into his arms as he had so many times during the passionate three months they’d been together. Instead he cleared his throat and said, “I’m not making excuses, Kate. It was wrong of me to leave without seeing you. But it’s just that I’ve never been too good at goodbyes. I thought it might be easier on both of us…”

“To leave me to have our baby alone?”

“I had no idea about the baby. Surely you believe that much anyway. I thought we’d tried to be careful. I’ve never had anything like this happen…ah. before.” He stammered a little as he realized the import of his words. Kate did not hesitate to call him on them.

“You mean none of your other women has ever had the effrontery to present you with a child? You’ve led a charmed life, Sean Flaherty. I’m sorry to have been the one to spoil your record. But, as I’ve been trying to tell you since last night, you don’t need to worry. Caroline and I are making no claim on you whatsoever.”

Sean blew out an exasperated breath. “Damn it, you’re a stubborn woman, Katie Marie Sheridan. Yes, I left. It was wrong, and I’m sorry. But now I’m back. I’ve come back for you and for our daughter.” His voice softened. “The truth is, sweetheart, I’ve never stopped thinking about you in all these eighteen months.” As he said the words, he realized that they were the absolute truth. Even before he’d received Jennie’s letter about the baby, Kate had been in his mind night and day. He’d had other women, but they’d been pale in comparison to the spirited, lithesome blond beauty he’d left in the mountains.

Kate was silent for a long moment. He couldn’t tell if she’d been moved by the obvious sincerity of his declaration or if she was thinking of yet another way to send him packing. But before she could speak, there was a rustling of the parlor curtain. Sean looked up to see Jennie standing in the archway. In her arms was a moppet with black curly hair and blue eyes that mirrored his own.

Chapter Two

Kate jumped to her feet and crossed the room to take the baby from her sister.

“I’m sorry,” Jennie said with worried eyes. “She was fussing, and I have to head up to the mine.” Although the financial situation had eased when Jennie had married Carter, she still went up to the mine each day to prepare the noon meal for the silver miners, the job she had obtained when they’d needed money to keep Kate in the hospital in Virginia City before the birth.

“That’s fine. You run along,” Kate told her, clasping Caroline tight against her.

Jennie looked doubtfully from her sister to Sean. “Will you be all right?”

Sean stood and took a step toward them. “I’m not a monster, Jennie. Your sister is perfectly safe with me.”

“I didn’t mean to be insulting, Sean. It’s just that…” She glanced at her sister, then back to Sean. “Well, good, then. I’ll leave you to get acquainted with your daughter.” She leaned over to give Kate a quick peck on the cheek, then darted out the curtain into the hall.

Sean walked over to Kate and the baby, a look of wonder on his face. “She has black hair,” he said, his voice choked.

Kate looked up at him, her eyes glazed. Her voice came out in a whisper. “Yes.”

He reached out a hand and ran his finger over Caroline’s silky hair. Safe in her mother’s arms, the baby watched him, eyes wide. “Does she…ah…is she healthy?” he asked. “Does she have everything she needs?”

Kate looked down at the baby tenderly. It was the first time he’d seen her smile since he’d been back. She was smiling at Caroline, not at him, but the expression slid straight into his midsection.

“She’s healthy and happy. Aren’t you, precious?”

Kate’s voice went up in pitch, her eyes lit with a special glow that was answered by a gleam in the baby’s own eyes. Sean watched the mother-daughter communication with awe. His own mother and father had always been too busy with their high-society world to pay much attention to the parent-child bond. Sean was totally unprepared for the wave of love that swept through him at this first sight of his daughter. Tears welled at the base of his throat.

A minute fist came up toward his finger. He twisted his wrist to let the baby’s hand close around his thumb. The back of her hand was no bigger than a quarter and felt as smooth as a polished stone. “She’s…beautiful,” he said finally.

Kate looked up, and this time the smile was for him. “Yes, she is. We produced a beautiful child, Sean. And she’s smart, too,” she added eagerly. “She’s already talking.”

Some of Sean’s fascination with the baby was diverted by Kate’s sudden abandonment of her hostility toward him. It appeared that when she was talking about the baby, she was so intensely positive that there was no room left for old resentments. “Is she now?” he asked with the light brogue he sometimes adopted when he was flirting. “I didn’t think babies could talk this young.”

Kate was swaying back and forth in a natural, rocking motion to keep the baby content. She seemed to not even be aware of the movement. “Well, not exactly talking. But she makes sounds. And I think they mean something. She says a special goo goo that I think means ‘mama.’“

Kate shifted her gaze upward again, her eyes laughing. Sean stared at her, entranced. “Mama, eh?” he said softly. “Well, now we’ll have to get her to start working on ‘papa.’“

All at once, Kate seemed to realize how intently he was watching her, how close he was standing, and that the hand that had been stroking the baby now gripped Kate’s arm. She pulled away and walked past him toward the settee.

“If you want to visit her while you’re in town, I won’t prevent you, Sean,” she said, sitting on one edge of the couch and laying the baby along the rest of it so that there was no room for Sean to resume his seat. “But I’m going to ask you to come back and do so when Jennie’s here. I don’t intend to spend time with you.”

Sean’s eyes darkened. “I want to spend time with my daughter, Kate, but you’re the one I need to see. I didn’t come all this way to visit for a day or two.”

Kate looked up at him. All the glow from her interaction with the baby had left her face. She was pale again. “How long will you be here?”

Sean’s eyes went to the baby. “As long as it takes to convince you to marry me,” he answered tersely. The minute he said it, he knew it had been a mistake. He’d started out on the right path this morning with the flowers, the gifts for the baby, trying to get Jennie on his side. But meeting his daughter had rattled him. Suddenly it had become more important than he’d realized that he be able to stake his claim on her and on Kate.

Kate made no reply for a long moment. Finally she leaned over, gathered the baby into her arms and stood. “Be prepared for a long stay then, Sean, because I’ll never agree to marry you. I loved you, I won’t deny it. I was young, and a fool. I thought poetry and flowers and pretty speeches meant that a man had a heart. Now I’ve learned that the sign of a true heart is someone who’s willing to work hard for his family. Someone who’s there when they need them. You weren’t here when I needed you, Sean. And now I don’t need you anymore.”

The quiet dignity of her tone left Sean feeling for the second time that day like a chastised schoolboy. So far his visit had not gone as he’d anticipated when he left San Francisco. He’d expected that Kate would be somewhat resentful over his abrupt departure, but once she’d given him a chance to explain and turn his charm on her again, he’d figured that they would resume the relationship where they had left off a year and a half earlier. She’d been a sweet, sensitive girl and he’d been her first romance. She’d been desperately in love with him, which he’d found stimulating and intoxicating. But it appeared she’d changed in more ways than one. If she was still in love with him, she was hiding it well. And the rub of it was, the more time he spent witn her, the more he realized that he was as intoxicated as ever.

He looked down once again at his daughter. She was no longer interested in the stranger and had begun instead to squirm and pat at Kate’s full breasts. “I wasn’t around when you needed me, Kate,” he agreed. “But I’m here now, and I don’t intend to leave either you or my daughter to face the world alone again.”

Kate shook her head, juggled Caroline in her arms and looked as if the tears she’d been staving off would finally fall.

Sean brushed his hand briefly over the baby’s curly hair, then said softly, “Go ahead and feed our daughter, Katie Marie. I’ll see myself out.”

It started that afternoon with Barnaby slamming into the kitchen out of breath to announce that Irving, the odd-job man from the dry goods, had just left a mountain of packages on the front porch.

“A mountain!” he’d repeated, gulping air. Barnaby was the thirteen-year-old orphan who had been living with the Sheridans since he’d been taken in by their parents about a year before their death. He helped around the house, especially now that it had been turned into a boarding establishment, but his position was more of an adopted younger brother than a servant.

“What are they? Where did they come from?” Jennie had asked. But Kate had merely rolled her eyes. She’d expected something of the sort ever since Sean had left her standing alone in the parlor that morning. He’d had that look in his eyes that she’d seen before, a determination that sooner or later he’d get what he wanted. She’d seen the same look the spring he’d come to town and wooed her with such intensity. That time, he had gotten what he wanted, but, she resolved to herself firmly, he was not going to get it now.

When they went out to the porch to examine the packages, Jennie seemed to be taking Sean’s side once again. “They’re for his daughter, Kate. He has a right to give her something.”

But after they’d opened the tenth package of expensive, heavy cloth, even Jennie had to admit that Sean’s largesse had been excessive. “What in the world could one child do with so many clothes?” she asked.

“I’ll keep four of the lengths,” Kate announced, “and then I’m going to send the rest off to the hospital in Virginia City. There were plenty of babies there who could use something warm for the winter.”

Jennie had nodded her approval and the paperwrapped pieces of cloth had been neatly stacked at one end of the porch awaiting transportation to their new home.

That evening when Sean had once again shown up after supper and been informed of Kate’s proposed disposal of his gifts, he’d frowned and said firmly that the cloth was for Caroline. In addition, he told Jennie, he’d see that money was wired the following day from Flaherty Enterprises to the Virginia City hospital. “Enough to clothe a hundred babies,” he said angrily. But Kate had refused to see him that evening and the next and the next.

Over those three days flowers arrived regularly, morning and evening. A case of champagne had been delivered for Jennie and Carter with a card: “In belated celebration of your marriage.” Amanda Hill, the town milliner and seamstress had arrived saying she’d been hired to sew frocks for little Miss Caroline. By the third evening, when a huge box of sweetmeats had arrived for their evening supper, even the silverheels were urging Kate to give Sean an audience.

“If for no other reason than to make him stop,” Dennis Kelly told her as they sat around the big dining room table while Barnaby and Jennie cleared away the dishes. “The man’ll drive you daft, lass.”

“He’s driving me daft already,” Kate replied.

Dennis chuckled, jiggling the jowls under his muttonchop whiskers. “Aye, but it’s a nice way to go. Showered with attention.” Of Irish descent himself, Dennis’ speech sometimes reminded Kate of Sean’s slight brogue. And both knew how to use blarney to their purpose.

“If you really have no desire to take up with him again, Kate, you may have to see him one more time just so you can convince him of that,” Carter added. “And, of course, if he really wants to see his daughter, you may not be able to stop him.”

Kate looked up sharply. “You mean he might be able to see her whether I want him to or not?”

Carter nodded. “He’s the father. He has certain legal rights.”

Jennie swung through the kitchen door. “I don’t know why you’re so set against seeing him, sis. He did come back for you.”

“Yes. And he only waited a year and a half to do it.”

“Ah, lass, don’t be too hard on him. Some laddies are just slower than others,” Dennis Kelly urged.

The other two miners had been silent throughout the discussion, but finally the youngest one, Brad Connors, spoke up. “I’d throw the bastard out on his ear if I was you, Miss Kate. Excuse my language.”

“I agree,” chimed in the third boarder, Humphrey Smith, who had never been called anything but Smitty.

Kate suspected that neither Brad nor Smitty was being objective, since both had all but admitted warm feelings for her themselves. But it felt good to have someone taking her side. She gave both men a smile.

“If you keep turning him away, he might decide he has no recourse but to go to the courts,” Carter warned.

“And what would the courts do?”

Jennie went to put a hand on her husband’s shoulder as he looked gravely at Kate and answered, “They can’t make you agree to see him, but they could make you allow him to see Caroline. He’s a rich man, Kate. With the right lawyers, he could even win custody of her.”

Kate gave a little gasp of horror. “They could take her away from me?”

Carter gave a grim nod. “With the lawyers the Flahertys could muster, I reckon they could.”

Kate looked around the table at the three miners, then at her sister, standing behind Carter. All were watching her with concern. She swallowed hard. “No one’s taking my baby away from me,” she said. “I’ll see him tomorrow morning.”

Sean was pleased but not totally surprised when young Barnaby, the orphan living with the Sheridans, showed up at his hotel room early in the morning with the message that Kate wanted to talk with him. He’d figured she needed time to calm down and enough courting to soothe her pride, but he’d never doubted that eventually she’d give in. Some women just needed more coaxing than others. He’d calculated it might take up to a week, so four days was more than satisfactory.

He whistled as he set off toward Elm Street, his mood buoyant. What did surprise him a bit was how much he was looking forward to seeing her again. With any luck she might have softened enough for him to take her in his arms, perhaps kiss her. The very idea made his blood race in a way it hadn’t for months. And the second surprise was how much he was looking forward to seeing Caroline. He’d never been one to pay much attention to babies, but he found himself daydreaming about his daughter’s sweet little face and curly black hair. He flexed his hand and remembered the feel of her tiny fist around his finger. He wanted to see them both.

But once again it was Jennie who answered the door, and her smile was not as welcoming as it had been the other day. His glance went to the huge arrangement of flowers on the table, overpowering in the small hallway. They’d come from him, of course, but Jennie made no reference to them.

“Kate’s waiting to speak with you in the parlor, Sean. She asked me and Carter to join you.”

A family gathering wasn’t exactly what Sean had had m mind, but he smiled pleasantly and said, “Fine,” and followed her through the curtain into the parlor.

Kate and Carter were together on the settee. Carter stood when they entered, but Kate remained seated. She looked tired. There were circles under her eyes, and her cheeks were even paler than when Sean had first arrived. He frowned with concern. “Are you feeling all right?” he asked her without preliminaries.

She met his gaze directly. “I’ll be feeling better when you leave town.”

“Kate!” Jennie exclaimed at her sister’s rudeness.

Carter gave a half smile and extended his hand toward the visitor. “Kate’s interested to know the purpose for your stay in Vermillion, Flaherty.” The two men shook hands. “What exactly are your intentions here?”

Sean looked around the group. Jennie walked over to stand next to Carter, who slipped an arm around her waist. Kate glared up at him from her seat on the settee. There was less warmth in the room than in an icehouse at midwinter.

“I came back to see Kate, to see if we could resume…if we could find…” He stumbled over the words, then cleared his throat and started again. “Of course, now that I know about my daughter, it just makes it all the more urgent.” He shot Jennie a glance to make sure that she realized that he was keeping her part in his return a secret. He wouldn’t reveal that he’d learned of Caroline’s existence from Jennie’s letter.

“Caroline’s my daughter,” Kate began, her voice shaking. Carter put a steadying hand on her shoulder.

“No one will deny that you are the father of Kate’s child,” Carter said in a lawyerly tone. “We’ve asked you here today to discuss the ramifications of that admission.”

This was not the discussion Sean had expected. He’d hoped Kate had come to her senses. He’d hoped for some kind of tender reunion, had even pictured taking her back to his room at the hotel to rekindle the passion they’d been so quick to find eighteen months ago. He felt awkward standing before her as if at some kind of tribunal.

“May I sit down?” he asked, gesturing to the highbacked chair.

“Of course.” Carter sat down again on the settee, and Jennie sank to a low stool beside him, leaving her hand in his.

As Sean took his seat, Kate spoke again. “You’re not taking away my baby, Sean.”

He looked up in surprise. “Is that what you think of me, Katie?”

“We just want to get this straightened out,” Carter explained. “As the father, you might have certain rights.”

“By all means, let’s get it straight,” Sean replied. He was beginning to get angry. “I have no intention of taking Caroline away from anyone. A baby belongs with her mother. But she belongs with her father, too. I’m here to try to make that happen.” He shifted his gaze directly to Kate and spoke intently. “I want us to be together, Kate. I’m asking you to forgive me and to give me—to give us—that chance.”

There was a long moment of silence during which it was obvious to everyone in the room that Sean’s words had somehow reached their target. Kate’s expression had softened and there was a look of something like longing in her clear eyes.

Finally Carter stood, pulling Jennie up with him. “I think I hear the baby,” he said.

Jennie gave him a puzzled glance. “Barnaby’s with her.”

Carter lifted an eyebrow and gave a slight nod toward Sean. “Maybe we’d better go check to be sure,” he said.

Jennie looked from Sean to her sister, then back to Carter, who nodded again. “All right.” She let him lead her across the room and out the curtain. “We’ll be close by if you need anything,” she told Kate. Then the couple ducked through the curtain and Sean and Kate were alone.

“Did you really come back for me?” Kate asked finally. “To try again?”

Sean wasted little time in moving in at what appeared to be a wavering of the opposing forces. He got up and swiftly crossed the room to sit next to Kate on the settee. “I haven’t stopped thinking about you in all these months, Kate.” This much he could say with complete sincerity.

Kate’s gaze became unfocused and drifted toward the window. “I couldn’t believe it when you left,” she began slowly. “We were so happy. My world had become a paradise, and then suddenly you were gone. You didn’t even come to say goodbye, just that cold letter…”

He took her hand. “Ah, Katie, if it sounded cold it was because I was writing it with a broken heart. I didn’t know what to tell you.”

“You said you had to go back to your family’s business.”

“I was forced back by my father. He said he was tired of my foolish whim to play prospector. If I hadn’t gone home, he might have disowned me.”

“And he forced you to leave so quickly you couldn’t even come to tell me in person?”

Her voice was growing cold again. Sean looked down at the floor. “No,” he said m a low voice. “That was sheer cowardice. I think I knew if I had to look into those beautiful eyes of yours to say goodbye, I’d never be able to leave.”