Society Wives: Secret Lives: The Rags-To-Riches Wife

“Sure you can,” Felicity insisted and straightened the skirt of her gown. She gave her a quick hug and a smile. “Just take a deep breath and think of Jack.” And before she could say another word, Felicity flew out the door as quickly as she had blown in.

The first notes of the bridal march started for the third time and Lily couldn’t move. She stood frozen in the powder room and wished she was Samantha from the old Bewitched TV show so she could wiggle her nose and disappear. She was still standing there wondering if she was going to be sick when the door to the powder room opened again. Only this time it was Jack who came in.

Her first crazy thought was that Felicity had been right. The man really should live in a tux. The black jacket made his shoulders look broad, his height towering. His black hair was thick, his blue eyes as dark as steel. His jawline was strong, his mouth almost elegant. There was something solid and commanding and, at the same time, dangerous about him—the very things that had drawn her to him that night at the ball.

“I wasn’t sure if you remembered to check your calendar this morning,” he said, his voice casual. “But according to mine, we’re supposed to be getting married right about now.”

“I didn’t forget,” Lily told him. Taking a deep breath, she looked up at him and into his eyes. “I’m sorry, Jack. I know how much trouble you and your family have gone to, but I can’t go through with it. I just can’t.”

“I see.”

I see?

It wasn’t the response she had expected. In truth, she had expected him to be angry. After all, the man had gone to a great deal of trouble and expense to arrange the wedding. He had at least three dozen family members and friends sitting outside waiting to see him take her as his bride. He’d even given her his grandmother’s ring. No question about it, Jack Cartwright had every right to be downright furious with her. Only instead of being angry, he took the bridal bouquet she was clutching in her still unsteady hands and placed it on the dressing table. Then he took her by the hand and led her to the bench by the wall.

“Why don’t we sit down a minute?”

She did as he suggested and said, “I’m not going to change my mind, Jack. I’m sorry, but I simply can’t go through with it. I can’t marry you.”

“All right,” he told her. He sat down beside her, took her other hand and held it in his. “So is there any particular reason you don’t want to marry me?” he asked calmly. And before she could find her voice, he continued, “Is it my nose? I broke it playing football in college and it never did heal quite right. Maybe you don’t want to be married to a man with an ugly nose.”

“There’s nothing wrong with your nose. It’s beautiful.”

“The hair then. You probably noticed that I’m starting to get a few gray hairs right around the temples. I know some women find that a turn-off—“

“There’s nothing wrong with your hair. It looks great. You look great,” she insisted.

“Hmm. It isn’t because I’m a lawyer, is it? I mean, I’ve heard all the lawyer jokes and I know we’re not the most popular people.”

He was deliberately being absurd to calm her, she realized. “It’s not any of those things. You’re handsome, charming, kind and one of the nicest men I’ve ever known.”

Jack winced. “You make me sound like my grandfather. I’d much prefer you thought I was sexy.”

Her lips twitched. “I do think you’re sexy—which you already know. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“But we are in this situation,” he said. “In four months, we’re going to be parents. And I thought we agreed that for the baby’s sake, we should get married.”

“I know we did. But we were wrong. I was wrong,” she told him and, unable to sit still, she stood. “I should never have agreed to it. It’s crazy to think this marriage would ever work. I don’t know what I was thinking to have agreed to it in the first place.”

“You were thinking about what’s best for our baby.” He rose and came up behind her. “Our baby needs a mother and a father, Lily.”

“He or she will have a mother and a father,” she insisted. “We don’t have to be married to be good parents. Lots of couples raise children without being husband and wife.”

“We already covered this, Lily. Neither of us wants our child to grow up being shuffled from one house to the other, splitting time between Mom and Dad on holidays and weekends. I want our baby to have a real home, a real family. I want our baby to have what you never had. I thought you did, too.”

She hated that he was right. She did want that type of home for her baby. She wanted the picture-perfect home for her baby that she’d always longed for, but had never known. The kind of home she’d read about in books when she was a girl where children were loved and felt secure. She wanted to sit at the dinner table together as a family, to decorate the Christmas tree as a family, to bake cookies together and have picnics in the backyard. She wanted her child to have a family and never, ever feel alone as she had. “I do want those things. Making sure my baby feels loved and secure it’s … it’s what’s most important to me.”

“To me, too. And we can make sure our baby is loved and secure by providing him or her with a real home with both of its parents.” He placed his hands on her shoulders, turned her to face him. “Our child can have that, Lily. All you have to do is marry me.”

He made it sound so easy, so logical. But it wasn’t. She knew it wasn’t. “What about love, Jack? You know you don’t love me.” And that was the problem. She couldn’t let go of the idea that she wanted to marry for love.

“And you don’t love me. But we both love our baby,” he pointed out.

“But what if that’s not enough? We’ll be trapped in a loveless marriage.”

“I don’t see marriage to you as a trap. I see it as a gift. I’ll be getting a smart, beautiful wife and the mother of my child.”

“And love? Don’t you even believe in love, Jack?”

“There are all kinds of love. Love of family, love of a parent and child, love of a friend.”

“What about love between a man and a woman, a husband and wife? Don’t you believe in that?” she asked. “Don’t you want that?”

“I believe that there are some people, like my parents, who find that kind of connection. I don’t know if it starts out that way or if it’s something that grows over time out of respect and caring for one another. What I do believe in is the power of hormones between a man and a woman,” he told her. He drew his fingertip down her cheek and Lily could feel her already nervous stomach flutter at his touch. “I still want you, Lily. And I think you want me.”

She swallowed past the knot that seemed to have lodged in her throat. “You’re talking about meaningless sex.”

“I’m talking about desire, passion. It’s still there between us. Just like it was that night.”

It was true, Lily admitted silently. The pull between them that had drawn her to him that night and that had led her to breaking all her personal rules by sleeping with him was still there. In fact, it was even stronger now that she’d gotten to know him better. “What if desire isn’t enough to make it work?”

“It’s more than a lot of people have,” he said. “I think we owe it to our baby to at least try.”

Once again he made the whole thing sound so simple, so logical. Jack was a good man, an honest man and she had no doubt that he would be a good father to their child. Yet, it felt wrong to start any marriage this way.

“It’s your call, Lily. You know how I feel, that I think the two of us marrying is the right thing to do for our baby’s sake. So what’s it going to be? Should I go out there and tell everyone that the bride has changed her mind and there isn’t going to be a wedding after all? Or do I go out there and tell the minister to get the show on the road before the ice sculptures melt?”

She took a deep breath and met his gaze. “Tell the minister to get the show on the road,” she told him.

“You won’t be sorry, Lily. I promise.”

She certainly hoped Jack was right, she thought as he disappeared out the door. When she heard the bridal march start once again, Lily picked up her bouquet. As she exited the powder room and started toward the garden where she would pledge to become Jack Cartwright’s wife, she prayed she wasn’t making a mistake that both of them would live to regret.

Six

As he returned to his position at the altar, Jack didn’t miss the looks and whispers that followed him. He glanced over at the front row on the right where his mother sat on the edge of her seat, her white gloves clasped tightly in her hands, a worried expression on her face. His father met his gaze and when Jack nodded, John sat back and took his wife’s hand.

“Everything okay?” Scott asked in a low voice.

“Everything’s fine.”

Despite what he told his friend, he wasn’t at all sure everything was fine. Lily had looked terrified when he’d found her in that powder room. She’d been hit by a major case of cold feet. He couldn’t say he blamed her. Her entire world was being turned upside-down. Not only was she pregnant with his baby, she was marrying a man she knew very little about and she was becoming a member of the Cartwright family. In his opinion neither of those things would inspire much confidence.

He wasn’t sure which was more daunting—marrying him or marrying into his family because, as much as he loved his family, he knew being a Cartwright wasn’t always easy. A lot of expectations and responsibilities came with the family name and the fortune. He’d had his entire life to learn to deal with both. Lily had had less than two weeks.

When the first chords of the bridal march sounded once again, he stared at the entrance. Despite the fact that she’d agreed to go through with the wedding, he wasn’t at all confident that she would. And just when he thought she had decided against marrying him after all, there she was—standing at the entrance beneath the flowered arbor.

She was beautiful, he thought as she stepped up to the end of the white runner. He’d heard the old wives’ tale about women who were pregnant having a glow about them. He’d never put much stock in it, never had reason to before now, he guessed. But Lily was living proof that it was true. She glowed. She’d put her hair up in some kind of twist thing, but little pieces had slipped free and fell around her face. The effect of the deep red strands against that creamy skin was striking. And just as he had done when he’d seen her for the first time at the ball five months ago, he was unable to take his eyes off her. There was something about her, something beyond her beauty and the physical chemistry that drew him to her, just as it had drawn him to her that long-ago night.

He could see the stress swirling in those ghost-blue eyes of hers as she started down the aisle. He didn’t miss the slight tremor in the hands that were holding the bouquet either. When she finally reached him, she looked as though she still might turn and run. So he reached out and caught her hand. Judging by the Reverend Lawrence’s frown, he’d just committed some kind of sin. Evidently touching the bride at this point in the ceremony was a big no-no.

Too bad, Jack thought. Rules or no rules, if holding her hand made any of this easier for Lily, then that’s what he intended to do.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony,” the minister began.

Jack could feel three dozen pairs of eyes on his back, watching him, watching her, watching them. He’d shocked his friends and business associates when he’d announced that he was marrying Lily … and that he was going to be a father. He’d known they had had some reservations, but they also knew that when he made up his mind about something, there was no changing it. So they’d wisely kept most of their reservations to themselves. Fortunately, his family had rallied behind him with their support.

“If there be anyone here who knows why these two people should not be joined in wedlock, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.”

Lily tensed beside him and he half expected her to object. Wouldn’t that be a first? he thought, amused at the image of the bride objecting to her own wedding. Talk about a scandal on top of a scandal. He could just see the headlines in Bunny Baldwin’s Social Diary. Jack Cartwright’s Bride Bolts from Shotgun Wedding. Poor Bunny, the lady must be giving them hell in heaven because she was missing some of the juiciest gossip to hit Eastwick in years.

His thoughts wandering, Jack felt Lily squeezing his hand. Shaking off his musings, he looked down at her, noted the anxious look in her eyes, the twin spots of color on her cheeks. He knew she was trying to tell him something. But what? That she was scared? That she had changed her mind?

“Jack. Jack.” The minister repeated his name.

Jack jerked his gaze over to Reverend Lawrence and realized then that he’d missed something.

“Do you, John Ryan Cartwright, take Lily Miller to be your lawfully wedded wife, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health? Do you promise to love her and honor her, forsaking all others until you are parted by death?”

“I do,” Jack said firmly.

“Then repeat after me. I, John Ryan Cartwright, do take thee, Lily Miller, to be my wedded wife.”

“I, John Ryan Cartwright, do take thee, Lily Miller, to be my wedded wife …”

“For richer, for poorer. In sickness and in health,” the minister continued.

“For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health,” Jack repeated.

“I promise to love you and honor you, forsaking all others, until we are parted by death.”

Repeating the vow, he never took his eyes from Lily’s face as he said, “I promise to love you and honor you, forsaking all others, until we are parted by death.”

After Lily repeated the vows to him, the reverend asked for the rings. Jack took the ring from Scott and turned back to face Lily.

“Repeat after me. With this ring, I thee wed.”

“With this ring, I thee wed,” Jack said and he slid the platinum band onto Lily’s finger as he pledged himself to her.

The minister turned to Lily, who took the ring from his sister, then, sliding the ring onto Jack’s finger, she said, “With this ring, I thee wed.”

Moments later, Reverend Lawrence said, “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

Jack kissed her. He’d meant for the kiss to be brief, a simple brush of his lips against hers. It was tradition. It was expected and he didn’t want to add to Lily’s stress by keeping her on display any longer than necessary. But when his mouth touched hers, he lingered. Only for a moment, but long enough for the taste of her to fill his head, long enough for his pulse to begin beating like a jackhammer, long enough for him to remember why they’d found themselves standing before a minister exchanging vows in the first place.

And judging by the look in Lily’s eyes, she was remembering, too.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Reverend Lawrence said. “May I present to you Mr. and Mrs. John Ryan Cartwright.”

It was done, Jack told himself as he and Lily turned to face the applauding guests. He and Lily were now man and wife. The pianist hit the keys again, and as the joyful tune rang out, he placed Lily’s hand on his arm and led her down the aisle.

An hour later, Jack decided he’d had enough. From the look on Lily’s face, she had, too. “Excuse me,” he told his longtime friend and fellow attorney Dan Granger. “I’d better go rescue Lily before my mother ropes her into joining her bridge club.”

“Sure, go ahead,” Dan told him. “But, Jack, I hope you won’t be too quick to rule out the senate race. With Carlton’s group behind you, you’d have a good shot at claiming that seat. And we could certainly use someone like you on Capitol Hill.”

“I appreciate that, Dan. But right now, my focus is on my new wife and our family,” he explained. While he hadn’t ruled out a run for office, after speaking with his father, he wasn’t sure he wanted to put Lily through the ordeal. He had absolutely no qualms or reservations about Lily’s unplanned pregnancy and their marriage. Nor did he feel anything but pride for where she came from and what she had made of herself. He knew from her comments that her lack of family and knowledge about her heritage bothered her.

“I understand. I shouldn’t have even bothered you about this on your wedding day. We’ll talk about it in a week or two. And congratulations again on your marriage.”

“Thanks,” Jack said, and, after shaking Dan’s hand, he headed across the patio to where Lily was standing with his mother and two women he recognized as part of her bridge group.

“Jack, darling,” his mother said and beamed as he joined them. “You remember Louise and Pamela from my bridge group, don’t you?”

“Yes, of course. Good afternoon, ladies,” he said with a bow of his head.

“I was just telling your mother what a beautiful bride you have,” the ash-blond Pamela told him.

“Thank you. I happen to think she’s beautiful, too,” Jack said and he stared directly at Lily. He didn’t miss the rush of color to her cheeks. “If you ladies don’t mind, I’m going to steal my wife away for a few minutes.”

He reached for Lily’s hand and as he was hustling her away, he spied his great-aunt Olivia Cartwright heading toward them. “Aunt Olivia at two o’clock. Come on,” he said and led her out to the center of the floor.

“Jack, what are you doing?” she asked as he took her in his arms and spun her around the stone patio floor in time to the music.

“Dancing with my wife.”

“But why?”

“Because my great-aunt Olivia considers herself the authority on everything from business to marriage to giving birth. Trust me, you don’t want her to start offering us advice.”

“Oh,” she said. “Did you say she was your great-aunt?”

“Yes. My grandmother’s older sister.” Grateful that the band was playing a slow tune, he held Lily close. It reminded him of the night at the ball when he’d held her in his arms for the first time. Just as on that night she felt soft and silky and as elusive as moonlight. He breathed in her scent, the hint of roses and sunshine and some mysterious scent that was hers alone. She fitted him perfectly and he was keenly aware of the weight of her breasts against his chest, the way her dress swished against his pant legs as they moved their feet in harmony. He was also aware of the roundness of her abdomen pressing against him.

“You have a lot of relatives,” she said, her breath whispering against his ear and causing that rapid beat in his pulse again. “What’s it like being a part of a big family?”

“Annoying,” he told her and tried to shake off his sexual feelings. The last thing Lily needed right now was for him to start making marital demands on her. Besides the fact that she was pregnant, she had had her entire life turned upside down. Now that she was a Cartwright her life would never be the same again. Right or wrong, the name Cartwright meant money and power. And while giving his name to her and their child would provide security and protection, it would also subject her to the curiosity, rumors and often the envy of others. Some of it had already started. He’d had a flurry of calls from friends, business acquaintances, members of the country club and even former girlfriends when the news had broken of his impending marriage. He didn’t doubt that the gossip mill was working overtime with the scandal of Lily’s pregnancy and their marriage. Of course, without Bunny Baldwin and her Social Diary to feed the frenzy, it might lose steam quickly. At least he hoped it would. Until then, he intended to shield Lily from it as much as he could.

Easing back, she looked at him. “I’d have thought it would be wonderful to have so many people related to you. You’d never be alone. There would always be someone to share the holidays with, to spend special moments with.”

He knew that Lily had spent most of her holidays alone, the outsider watching foster families celebrating. There was a part of him that ached for the lonely girl she must have been. He couldn’t go back and wipe away those unhappy memories, but he promised himself that he would make happy memories for her in the future. “I guess it is pretty nice most of the time—except at times like today when those well-meaning family members, like my mother, insist on getting in your business and hosting receptions like this one so that she can show us off.”

“It’s not that bad,” she told him.

“Shh. Don’t let her hear you say that or she’ll never let us out of here.” Lily smiled and it was the first real smile he’d seen from her all afternoon. Drawing her close, he moved her into a slow spin.

“We’re being watched,” she told him.

“Ignore them,” he said, not wanting to allow anyone to intrude upon the moment. It was the first time she’d come close to relaxing with him since they’d agreed to get married.

“That might be kind of hard to do. Your aunt Olivia is waving a napkin at us. I think she wants us to come over to her.”

“She’s our aunt Olivia now,” he informed her. He had indeed seen Aunt Olivia motioning them over. She’d been hard to miss since she was the only eighty-five-year-old woman with Lucille Ball red hair holding a glass of bourbon in one hand and a cane in the other. “You do realize that now that you’re a Cartwright, all these annoyingly wonderful relatives are yours now, too—including Aunt Olivia.”

“Um, Jack. I think our aunt Olivia is getting impatient.”

Jack glanced over to where his great-aunt had just slapped her glass down on a table and was insisting the young waiter help her to her feet. “We’d better go see what she wants.”

What she wanted was to give them both a lecture on what was necessary to make a marriage work. Since Aunt Olivia’s own marriage had spanned sixty years until the death of Uncle Charlie, she considered herself an authority on the subject. She’d lectured them on the importance of being good to one another, of respecting one another and of sharing the responsibility for raising the kids. She’d told them not to make the mistake of taking each other for granted. She also told them that they needed to make time for one another and to listen to what the other one had to say.

“You young people are big on the term communication. Well, communication is one of the keys to a good marriage. And that communication needs to start in the bedroom,” Aunt Olivia told them. She pointed her cane at him. “You keep your wife happy in the bedroom and the rest will take care of itself.”

Lily turned beet-red.

Jack coughed. “Thanks, Aunt Olivia, but I don’t think—“

“And you,” she said, turning her focus on Lily. “You need to remember that men are like little boys. Every one of them wants to be a super hero between the sheets. If you spend all of your time and energy on the children or the house, you’ll be too tired to let them do their super-hero act. Their fragile egos can’t handle it. So you make sure you save some of yourself for your man,” she continued. “Even if it means ordering takeout food or hiring a sitter for the kids, do it. Because when you close that bedroom door, you need to be a woman first. Understand?”

“Um, yes, ma’am,” Lily said, but Jack noted she averted her eyes.

“There’s no need for either of you to be embarrassed. From where I stand, it looks to me like you’re not having any troubles in the bedroom now. All I’m saying is make sure you keep it that way. Good sex is one of the most important things in a marriage. Why do you think Uncle Charlie and I made it for more than sixty years? It’s because we had a good sex life up until the day he died.”

Which was a lot more than he wanted to know. “Thanks, Aunt Olivia. We appreciate the advice.”

“Yes, thank you,” Lily said.

“Just doing my duty,” Aunt Olivia told them.

And before she started doling out any more advice on sex, Jack said, “You’ll need to excuse us, Aunt Olivia. It looks like Mother needs us to cut the cake.” Taking Lily by the arm, he hustled her across the room. “I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to get out of this place. What do you say we cut the cake and then head for home?”