Eight.

Deeply troubled by the discovery about Annie, Alex paid a visit to her parents the following morning. After being shown into the parlor, he took a seat in a wing chair near the hearth so he might face Edie and James, who sat together on the horsehair sofa. Not exactly sure how or even where to begin, Alex pressed his fingertips together and studied the rose-patterned carpet to collect his thoughts, which at the moment seemed as difficult to gather as dust kittens in a high wind.

In the end, he decided that coming right out with it was his best course of action, and he recounted the events of the night before. He finished by saying, "After seeing Annie interact with my housekeeper, I am convinced she may be more intelligent than any of us thought."

At Alex's words, Edie went deathly pale. After a moment of silence that seemed to crash against his eardrums, she said, "Stuff and nonsense. Our daughter was beset by a high fever that rendered her mentally disabled, Mr. Montgomery. We've explained that to you at length!"

"And you may be absolutely right. The question is, how severe is the mental disability? Have you ever tried to find out? The girl is capable of conceptual reasoning, Mrs. Trimble.

A true imbecile is not." Moving forward to the edge of the chair, he gestured vaguely. "James, you're an educated man.

Surely you understand what I'm saying. Your daughter can note a relationship between two seemingly unrelated events. If she were as feebleminded as you both believe, how would she be able to do that?"

Her spine snapping taut, Edie stood. "We both understand what you're saying. We simply do not agree."

"I'm not placing blame here," Alex a.s.sured them in a more soothing tone. "Please don't misunderstand me. I'm simply saying that Annie's affliction may not be as severe as you think. I'd like to take her to Portland. Have a few tests done.

There are some excellent physicians up there who might-"

"No!" Edie cried shrilly. She glanced resentfully at her husband. "I feared this would happen! I begged you to arrange for her to be sent away until the baby was born. Now look! He wants tests!"

She said the word tests as though it were a vulgarity. Alex sighed. "Just a routine examination, Mrs. Trimble. Nothing extensive. What harm can come from that?"

"What harm?" she asked thinly. "It's just the beginning. The next thing we know, you'll be wanting to keep Annie at Montgomery Hall and never let her come home."

James reached up to clasp his wife's hand. "Now, Edie.

Alex hasn't said that. You're jumping to conclusions. Isn't she, Alex?"

A suffocating sensation filled Alex's chest. "Well, actually, James, I would like to talk to you about-"

"I knew it!" Edie tore her hand from James's grasp. Glaring at Alex, she cried, "You gave your word, sir! A temporary arrangement, you said. In name only. You promised!"

Alex rubbed a hand over his face. "That was before I realized-"

"Before you realized what?" she demanded. "How dare you? You have the girl for three short days, and suddenly you think you know more about her than her own mother? You're thinking about making the marriage permanent? How dare you!"

"I only want what's best for Annie," Alex said softly. "If she isn't as r.e.t.a.r.ded as you believe, Edie, imagine the heartache she'll suffer if I separate her from her baby."

"What's best for Annie?" She gave a bitter laugh. "Shall I predict the future if you act on this madness, Mr.

Montgomery? After it's too late, you'll discover I am correct, that our daughter is indeed an imbecile. And in the end, you'll do the easy thing and have her stuck away in one of those terrible sanitariums. She'll be locked in a room and tended as though she's an animal. I've spent fourteen years doing everything I can to prevent that."

"I would never put Annie in an inst.i.tution."

"Wouldn't you? You're a young, attractive man. One day you'll meet a normal young woman you'd like to marry. What will become of Annie then?''

"I have never broken my word in my life," Alex retorted. "I certainly won't begin with my marriage vows. Annie will always have a home at Montgomery Hall."

"You're breaking your word right now," she shot back.

"You promised to return my daughter to me, and now you're shilly-shallying."

"James," Alex said wearily, "talk some sense to her. Please?

If there's a chance, no matter how minute, that Annie may be trainable, how can we ignore it? What harm can a few tests do?"

The judge avoided looking directly into Alex's eyes. "Do you really believe that we would neglect to have our daughter tested if we believed, even for a moment, that there was hope?

The only person I'll try to talk some sense into is you, Alex.

Edie is Annie's mother. She has cared for the girl since she was a newborn babe. Who knows better than she how severe Annie's disabilities are?"

Under ordinary circ.u.mstances, Alex couldn't have argued with that. But because of the judge's previous candidness, he knew there was a whole lot more involved here than met the eye. Hereditary madness. They were ugly words and const.i.tuted the Trimbles' greatest fear. A fear so overwhelming that neither of them could acknowledge it, both for different reasons, James because of his career, Edie out of guilt.

If Annie were tested ... if it were discovered that her mental disorder was due to hereditary madness and not from the effects of a high fever, then both of them were afraid they would pay a price, Edie in her marriage for deceptions she'd perpetrated thirty years before, the judge by losing his political credibility. Rather than take that risk, they kept Annie, their guilty secret, hidden from the world.

"We could keep the trip to Portland confidential," Alex tried.

"No one need ever know a physician examined her."

"I will not give my approval for any tests," James said firmly.

Alex didn't need the man's approval, and the Trimbles both knew it. He didn't feel it was circ.u.mspect to say as much, however. "I see."

"Please trust that we love our daughter," James added.

Drawing his lips into a grim line, Alex regarded this man, whom he'd once admired so greatly. If he thought he loved his daughter, then he had an entirely different definition of the word than Alex did. It wasn't just his reluctance to have the girl tested, but everything else that had gone before-the drab wedding ceremony, the garden party taking precedence over Annie's needs, and a dozen other things Alex couldn't immediately call to mind. Love? That Trimble even used the word was a travesty.

"If we thought tests would bring anything new to light, anything at all," James continued, "we'd have taken Annie to Portland ourselves years ago."

Silence. A throbbing, accusing silence. In that moment, Alex knew that the Trimbles would fight him to their dying breath to keep Annie from being seen by any doctors. If he bucked them, things were going to get ugly. Very ugly.

He needed to think things through carefully before he reached any decisions, not because he particularly cared about safeguarding his relationship with his in-laws, but because Annie's happiness might rest in the balance. If, as Maddy suspected, the girl was capable of feeling affection, then she undoubtedly loved her parents, whether they deserved it or not.

For her sake, Alex didn't want to cause a rift, not without good reason.

Evidently mistaking his silence for a change of heart, Edie had regained some of her composure. In a quieter, more reasonable voice, she said, "I know how deceiving Annie's behavior can be, Mr. Montgomery. On occasion she can display a measure of what may seem to be normal intelligence, but then she immediately regresses. Trust me on that. Though I detest the word, my little girl is an imbecile. All the wishing in the world can't alter that."

Exhausted beyond words, Alex sighed and ran a hand over his face again. He'd scarcely slept a wink last night. Annie ...

with her sweet face and bewildered blue eyes. He couldn't get her off his mind. Maybe he and Maddy were grasping at straws. But, d.a.m.n it, he had to be sure.

"I'm sorry," he hedged. "I guess I shouldn't have come. I've upset you both, and if you're right, I've done so for absolutely no good reason. It's just that I-" He shrugged. "Last night-watching her-I was so sure there might be some hope."

Looking into Edie's eyes, Alex could see her pain and knew she believed with all her heart that her daughter had inherited a strain of madness from her side of the family. Could it be she believed in it so strongly, and was so consumed with fear that her husband would divorce her over it, that she was blind to any other possibility?

"There is no hope," she said shakily. "G.o.d knows I wish there were. For Annie's sake, you've got to put all these doubts out of your mind."

For Annie's sake. Alex ground his teeth to keep from saying anything he might regret.

"In the s.p.a.ce of three days, her condition has already begun to deteriorate," Edie pointed out. "And to such a degree that she physically attacked her nurse. Allowed to continue, that sort of behavior will land her in an inst.i.tution, Mr.

Montgomery. I know you came here this morning with all the best of intentions and that your heart is in the right place. But you must trust me absolutely in this. I didn't dream up a bunch of rules for Annie to follow because it pleased me. I did it to safeguard her future. To do likewise, you must enforce them, just as you promised me you would. Otherwise she will become uncontrollable and all my years of work will go for naught. I don't want my little girl in a madhouse."

"That's the last thing I want as well. Please believe that."

"Of course we do," James inserted.

Alex pushed to his feet. "I'm sorry that I've intruded on your morning."

"Nonsense," Edie scolded. "Annie is our daughter, and we love her."

There was that word again. Love. Alex longed to ask these people if they even understood what it meant.

James rose and slipped an arm around his wife. "Exactly so.

I'm glad you came directly to us with your concerns. Neither of us would want it any other way."

As Alex made his farewells to the Trimbles and left their home, his head was swimming with questions, none of which seemed to have easy answers. Were Annie's parents so wrapped up in their own concerns that they had become blind to Annie's? Or was it he and Maddy who were tilting at windmills?

"Mr. Montgomery! Mr. Montgomery! Wait, please!"

Alex heard the voice just as he gained the road at the end of the Trimbles' driveway. Reining his black to a stop, he turned slightly in the saddle to see Edie dashing from the shade of a sprawling oak to cross the lawn, her ankle-length, flared skirt whipping like a blue flag behind her. From a distance, with her sable hair and slight build, he could almost believe she was Annie. At the thought, his throat went dry. If Edie was correct, Annie would never speak, much less call out to anyone.

At the drainage ditch alongside the road, she drew up, one hand pressed to her midriff as she struggled to regain her breath. Alex waited patiently for her to speak. Even after running such a distance, she was still pale, he noticed. Her eyes pleaded with his as she sought his gaze.

"I couldn't let you leave without speaking with you about a matter of great concern to me," she finally managed.

"I see. And what is that?"

The muscles in her throat grew distended as she swallowed and hauled in another ragged breath. "I must ask a great favor of you, Mr. Montgomery. In future, please don't ask questions about Annie's condition in front of the judge. If you have concerns, you must consult with me privately."

"Why must I keep my concerns from the judge?" he asked, trying without success to read her expression.

"My husband is not well. He mustn't be bothered with such trifles."

Trifles? It was all Alex could do not to turn the air blue.

Annie's future was a trifle? To protect her position as the estimable judge's wife, just how far would this woman go?

Alex had a feeling he didn't care to know. Not when Annie was the lamb she sacrificed. "I'm sorry," he said stonily. "I didn't realize the judge was in poor health."

"Yes, well, it isn't something he wants talked about. He has his career to consider, after all."

Oh, yes, the judge's d.a.m.nable career. How could he have forgotten?

"I'm hopeful that James will grow better with proper treatment and rest," she went on. "For the time being, however, it would be best if he doesn't become overset. I'm fearful that turmoil of any sort, especially regarding Annie, may cause him to have a relapse."

Looking into the woman's eyes, Alex saw fear, all right, but he suspected it was for herself, not her husband. She had her secret to protect, after all. The irony of it was that her husband already knew that madness might run in her family and, for reasons beyond Alex, had neglected to inform her of it. Alex supposed that Trimble must be a believer in the old adage that to acknowledge something was to lend it strength.

How could two people live in the same house, make love, create children, and yet have so little honesty between them?

All Alex wanted was to get away from both of them. Away so he might think. He had some decisions to make. d.a.m.ned important decisions. For Annie's sake, he had to be sure he made the right ones. "I'll bear the judge's poor health in mind before approaching either of you with my concerns again. As I said, I had no idea he was ill."

Edie closed her eyes briefly. When she lifted her lashes, tears spilled onto her pale cheeks. "I know you think badly of me, Mr. Montgomery. You think I'm a poor excuse for a mother, don't you?"

That didn't say it by half, but Alex could see no point in wounding her. She was already so pathetic he could scarcely bear to look at her. "I am not a man to make snap judgments about anyone."

"No matter how it may appear, I've done what I thought best for my daughter," she said shakily. "Always. It hasn't been easy. The rest of my family demands my time as well. But I've kept her at home, never once begrudging her the hardships she has caused me. I believe many mothers would have taken the easy way out."

Alex didn't doubt that. He supposed that Edie in her own pitiful way had made her share of maternal sacrifices. She blinked and brushed at her cheeks. Something in her expression-Alex wasn't certain what-almost made him feel sorry for her.

"I'll bring my concerns to you from now on," he promised her. With that, he tipped his hat and started to nudge his horse into a walk. "Good day, Mrs. Trimble."

She threw up a hand. "Wait! Please. A moment more of your time, and then I'll let you be on your way."

"Yes?"

She caught her lower lip between her teeth. After a moment, she ceased worrying it to say, "I know you've given your word that Annie will be returned to us after the birth of the baby. But meanwhile there are some things about her you should know, things that I didn't mention the other night in front of the judge.

Because of his poor health, you understand."

"And what might those things be?"

Wringing her hands, she blurted, "Whatever you do, don't ever allow Annie to be around a cat without supervision. And should you have guests in your home who have young children, you should never leave her alone with one of their infants. Not under any circ.u.mstances."

"Would you care to explain why?"

"Isn't it obvious? She wouldn't do it on purpose, you understand, but I can't help but be afraid she might do a small child or animal unintentional harm." Fresh tears sprang to her eyes, and the corners of her mouth started to quiver. "Just heed what I say. Please!"

With that, she whirled away and retraced her path across the yard. For a long while, Alex stared after her.

After returning to Montgomery Hall, Alex retired to his study where he hoped to find some solitude. Maddy had different ideas. Before he could get comfortably settled in his chair, she tapped at the door and then entered without permission. One look at her told Alex that she would settle for nothing less than a complete recounting of his conversation with the Trimbles.

"Well?" she said.

Alex rose and stepped to the sideboard where he poured them each a measure of brandy. Because he seldom imbibed so early in the day, the housekeeper's eyebrows lifted when he handed her a snifter. "That bad?"

Taking a turn before the multipaned windows that looked out onto the west gardens, Alex replied, "Let's just say that after speaking with Annie's parents again, I'm more confused than ever." He stopped for a moment, running a critical gaze over the sculptured shrubs that bordered the rose beds. "d.a.m.n it, Maddy. I was so hopeful last night. I lay awake until daylight, a hundred possibilities racing through my head-that she's not as r.e.t.a.r.ded as her parents think, that maybe the fever affected her in some other way we haven't even considered.

Her ability to speak, perhaps? Or her hearing."

Looking as frustrated as Alex felt, Maddy said, "Well, it isn't her hearing, rest a.s.sured of that. Most of the time when I call her name, she turns at the sound." With a thoughtful frown drawing her brows together, she rubbed her gla.s.s between her palms. "I thought that was the whole reason fer wanting to have her tested, Master Alex, to find out exactly what's the matter."

Alex laughed bitterly. "If I decide to have her tested or even so much as suggest that I'd like to keep her in residence here after the baby's born, I'll have a battle on my hands."