Julia uttered a panicked noise and her father released her, his hands on her shoulders slid down to hold her firmly by her upper arms. They had to look, for all intents and purposes, like the happily reunited father and daughter and this thought made Julia want to scream.
For some reason she could not fathom, her eyes searched for Douglas, but he was no longer at her side. She didn’t want the kids to be involved in this, yet somehow in those vital seconds, she had been rendered speechless.
Sam, Oliver and Charlie were staring at the scene openly, obviously bemused by this highly-charged turn in the so recently convivial state of affairs.
The children had entered the room and were watching in silent confusion. Before Julia could pull herself together, she realised Douglas had moved toward them.
“Lizzie, take your brother and sister into the kitchen.” His deep voice ordered then Julia saw Mrs. K bustle up the long room. “Mrs. Kilpatrick, please take the children to the kitchen.”
“What’s happening?” Mrs. K, who normally would not say a word in response to any command of Douglas’s (except “Yes, Lord Ashton”), took one look at Julia’s stricken face and her own became a mask of concern.
Julia finally found her voice.
“Please,” she implored and Mrs. K became all business. She quickly hustled the children out, pulling the dining room doors closed behind her.
Julia heard Ruby’s shout, “Who’s that man?” and Julia’s eyes closed in despair as she pulled herself free of her father’s hands.
“Julia, my dear, I know this is a surprise. I was stunned to get your mother’s letter telling me what happened to Gavin. So young, so full of life.” Her father was speaking to her and when she opened her eyes, she couldn’t meet his, couldn’t get a handle on her careening thoughts. His words were so inane, the kind of thing you’d say about someone you didn’t know.
But then, he didn’t know Gavin.
She caught Monique in her line of vision, the other woman’s face alight with vicious glee while she stood taking in the scene. After fifteen years, Monique knew that Trevor Fairfax had no place in his first family’s life and still she contacted him, invited him there, on Thanksgiving.
Julia’s bewildered panic began to give way to anger. She felt rather than saw Douglas position himself behind her, very close behind her. So close, she could feel the heat from his body. For some reason, this emboldened her.
“So full of life?” she whispered, as if to herself, emotions surging through her and she lifted her eyes to her father’s. Gavin would have likely looked like him, if he’d been given a few more decades, and that thought drove away all vestiges of panic and replaced them with blinding fury.
The likes of Trevor Fairfax, who could cheat on his wife and turn his back on his children, rarely seeing them, never paying child support, never giving them a kind word or a loving touch, could live happily into his sixties. But a good man like Gavin, who was full of love and fun and enjoyed life to its fullest, didn’t even make it to forty years of age.
At that thought, Julia’s rage exploded.
“How do you know what he was full of?” she snapped. “You hadn’t seen him in fifteen years, hadn’t sent a single Christmas card, hadn’t looked upon his children or ever met his beautiful wife! He could have been dying of cancer at the time of the accident, brought low with diabetes, had his legs crushed in a freak accident involving a tree,” she declared wildly, her voice rising.
She felt Douglas’s hand touch the small of her back and feeling it there gave her even more courage.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded hotly.
“Julia, I don’t think…” Monique started a reprimand but surprisingly it was Trevor who interrupted her.
With a look at his audience, his eyes showing nothing but polite irritation at her outburst, the very soul of the patient father, Trevor asked, “Perhaps we can have some privacy?”
“Yes, perhaps we should all go to the kitchen,” Charlotte offered quietly from somewhere behind Julia.
“No!” Julia cried, panicked, wanting her friends around her, feeling she couldn’t face this loathsome man alone, not without Patricia there, not without Gavin there. Tears began to fill her eyes, tears she resolutely refused to shed.
Douglas moved even closer. “Oliver, please take the women into the dining room and begin the meal.” His voice rumbled, so close, it sent vibrations down her back and her head twisted, her eyes flying to his.
Don’t leave me, she silently begged.
Douglas spared her only a glance before he said, “We’ll go into the library.”
She saw that Douglas’s eyes were blank, gone was the anger she had seen in his face earlier, gone was the teasing man she was with last night. Now, it was pure Douglas, unaffected and calm.
Even in the face of that, she felt a sense of relief that he said the word, “we”.
The others bustled quickly into the dining room, closing the door behind them as Douglas swung out his arm toward the library, cordially inviting them to move forward, the picture of the gracious host.
Trevor hesitated. “Could I speak with my daughter alone?”