Father For Keeps

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.