If it was, I’d have to live with it for the rest of my life.

Chapter 10

My mother greeted me with “What magic spell did you cast over this very wealthy and accomplished young man at the Wexler gala to bring him to our doorstep so quickly? Or has this something to do with your run for chairman of the board, Harrington?”

I glanced at my father. Apparently, he had told my mother a great deal more about Garland Foxworth than simply that he was coming to dinner; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been sure to say “very wealthy and accomplished.” Frankly, I was still quite surprised at my father for being so understanding when it came to Garland. I had nightmares about my father challenging him to a duel. There was surely much about Garland Foxworth when it came to the business and financial world that I didn’t know, couldn’t have known. Maybe he was very important to my father’s run for chairman of the board, but to think my father would make such a compromise, sacrificing me, was out of the question. Other fathers, perhaps, but not mine.

On the other hand, my father’s willingness to give him this opportunity to impress my mother caused me to question my share of the responsibility for what had happened. Was this how my father was thinking? Men, I thought, did tend to forgive each other faster than they forgave women.

“Me? Cast a spell?” I said, with my best innocent face.

“Oh, please, Corrine. Spare me the blameless look of a confused young girl. This is the same man with whom you dallied at the Wexler gala every chance you had, is he not?” she asked.

“I didn’t dally. We enjoyed each other’s company for a short time during the gala, but his appearance here today is just as surprising to me as it is to you, Mother,” I replied. There was nothing untrue about that.

I was sure that in her mind, Garland Foxworth was simply someone I did flirt with at the Wexlers’ and never saw or heard from again. For a moment, I wondered if my father’s insistence that we not tell my mother anything about my pregnancy was due partly to his wanting to avoid her blaming him for any part of what was happening now.

“Is it?” she asked. She glanced at me with a wry smile across her lips before she said, “Come down quickly after you change your clothes, and help set the table.” She looked at my father. “We’ll be using our best china and silverware. Your father likes to impress his more important business clients and associates, especially those who have a say in his future.”

My father’s face reddened.

“Our future,” he corrected.