“I believe there’s been a misunderstanding, sir. My name is Delilah Shepherdssin, and I’m here to meet my fiancé.”
“Yeah chi, and who’s ya man?”
“Lucas, Lucas Beaumont.”
“Julian, who’s that at the door asking about mybeau bébé?” a woman called out.
“Une belle fille,” the man said in a guttural form of French.
Delilah offered a shallow curtsy of thanks, though she was beyond being impressed with men who thought her beautiful. The only man’s opinion that mattered was Lucas’s.
A woman wearing an indecently short champagne-colored slip with cream lace edging at the bottom, pushed past the large man as if he were an overgrown pup. Placing her back to the man’s chest, she curved a hand over her hip. Her long nails looked as if they’d been painted with someone’s blood. The possessiveness in the woman’s stance, the jealousy lurking in her vibrant green gaze, dared Delilah to challenge her place in the older man’s affections.
Poisonous creature, Delilah thought.
At five feet eight, the older woman was slightly taller than Delilah and had long sable hair—dyed, no doubt—that flowed in waves over her shoulders and down her back. Like the whore, the woman had an earthy quality,taintedearth. Something about the woman was repulsive.
“You tryin’ to step out on me, Julian? Got you a new young t’ing, yeah?” The woman asked in a voice as thick and rich as chocolate molasses. “You here trying to put a shine on my old penny, aim to put him in ya pocket and steal him away from me?”
Oh, good Lord, Delilah thought,what level of hell have I descended to?
In lieu of a verbal response Delilah gave the woman a bland smile and tried to look beyond the pair, hoping to see some sign of Lucas in the house’s messy interior.
“Don’t fret ya’self, dawlin’, this here’s li’l Luc’s woman. Seems we finally gave that boy good reason to come see ’bout the ones gave him life.”
“That right?” the woman asked Delilah. “You my boy’s woman?”
“His fiancée,” Delilah corrected.
“Well, ain’t you the lucky one?” The woman smiled. Delilah knew she was being mocked. She didn’t like these people. At all. But the possibility of getting them to intercede on her behalf kept her there, standing in seething undercurrents she didn’t yet understand.
“I’m very lucky. Lucas is the best man I know.”
“Yeah, he was my best boy, but they took him from me, denied his mama the right to see him grow, and that wasn’t right, all those years denied me, my boy…”
Julian wrapped a thick arm around the woman’s chest and held her. The woman, Lucas’s mother, swiped at the tears that spilled down her tanned checks. Her grief seemed real, it clung to her as oppressively as the humidity clung to Delilah’s skin.
“Don’t fret ya’self, Emilia, you’ll see the boy in due time.”
“But has he forgiven us, Julian?” Emilia looked at Delilah. “You his woman, you tell me, has he forgiven us?”
Delilah assessed the pair and found it easy to imagine them as horrible parents undeserving of a child as precious as Lucas. Still, she wouldn’t convey those sentiments, not when there was the slightest chance she could use them in the fight against the whore.
“Lucas is a good man with a good heart. In time, I believe he can forgive you for any hurt you’ve caused. We’ve spoken about the importance of family at length and I know with a little more guidance, I can persuade him to accept you back into his life. I think in the end, it’s something he already wants…but he’s stubborn,” she said with a humorous groan.
“It comes to him good and honest,” Julian said. “By way of the blood, ya see.”
“Why isn’t my boy here with you now?” Emilia asked, suspicion replacing her moment of vulnerability. She was the one to be watchful of, the stronger of the two.
Delilah now understood that women were far more complicated, more discerning than the men she’d encountered. But Lucas was this woman’s vulnerability and Delilah had no qualms exploiting that knowledge.
“Quite honestly, Lucas isn’t here yet because of my stupidity. A woman I trusted, a woman I considered my friend, used me to get to him. I hadn’t realized how she’d manipulated us until I told Lucas it was time to come home and heal the past. She seduced him away from me, knowing that if she keeps him away from those who love him she can control Lucas. I can’t allow that to happen. I love Lucas more than any person in this world and I won’t see him destroyed by Stormy.” She wiped a tear from her eye and lifted her head in determination. “I believe he will do the right thing. I believe he will come here because he believes in our love. He believes in the future of our family.”
The animosity that both parents had greeted her with shifted to Stormy, the woman who could disrupt their happy reunion.
Got you, Delilah thought, fighting the desire to smile in triumph.
Emilia pulled away from Julian and hugged Delilah. “All will be fine, chi, all will be just fine, nothing to be upset about, no.” She guided Delilah toward the house’s interior. “Come on inside now and let us get to know each other and come up with a special homecoming for our boy.”
