The Proud and the Prejudiced Read Online Free

back in thirteen
months.”
    “That’s over a year.”
    “It will go by quickly. You’ll see. I want you
to stay as busy as possible and not think about where I am so the time will
pass faster.”
    “What if something happens to you?”
    “Nothing is going to happen. Don’t worry.” He
kissed a tear under my eye. “But I want to talk to you about something I think
you should know.”
    We sat on a couch in the airport, and he took
both my hands and looked into my eyes. “Lexie, after Mama had me, she and Dad
really wanted another baby – more than anything in the world – but I gave her a
hard time in the delivery room. The doctor said it would be dangerous for her
to have another baby, but she didn’t care. She wanted a baby, and so she got
pregnant.”
    “Why are you telling me this?”
    “She got pregnant, Lexie, but it was a
difficult pregnancy. She miscarried in the seventh month, and she had to have a
hysterectomy.”
    As what he said came together in my mind and I
started to make sense of it, I began to cry. “Why are you telling me this now?
You said nothing was going to happen to you.”
    “They still wanted a baby. So they adopted
you.”
    I shook my head back and forth. “No. No, I
don’t believe you.”
    “It’s true, Lex. I went with them to New York
to get you.”
    “So then who is my real mother?”
    “I don’t know. She was a young actress in New
York, but I never knew her name. And they fixed it so your birth certificate
had Mama and Dad’s names. I don’t even know if they went through an adoption
agency.”
    “I suppose that explains why I love acting.”
    He wiped at my tears with a handkerchief. “I’m
sorry to tell you like this.”
    “I…I don’t suppose it matters. I mean, I was
adopted by Marlene anyway. Does she know?”
    “I don’t think so. You know, something happened
a long time ago between Marlene and our mother that made them stop being
friends. I think Mama would have told her if she wanted her to know.”
    “I just wish you weren’t telling me now because
I know why you’re telling me.”
    “Lexie, nothing is going to happen to me, but
just in case, I thought you had the right to know.”
    Then they called his flight and he kissed me
goodbye. “I love you, Alexandra.”
     
    *****
     
    “Come in,” Alice said without looking up from her
book.
    “Mrs. McGillicutty, we need to talk about –”
    At the sound of Peter’s voice Alice raised her
head, and he broke off. She frowned. “Mrs.?”
    “It’s you,” he said, frozen in the doorway.
    “Not if you are looking for Mrs .
McGillicutty. Why would you presume I am married?”
    “I – well…with a name like McGillicutty, I
assumed…”
    “So you assume every female McGillicutty emerges
from the womb married?”
    The shock from recognition fell away as his face
relaxed. “No, of course not. I apologize if I offended you, Miss McGillicutty.”
    She pointed at a chair with her pen. “Alice will
do. You have something to discuss?”
    He closed the door and took the offered seat. She
was too pissed off at him to be star-struck, and she had prepared for this
conversation.
    “I saw you on the set,” he said. “I assumed you
were an actress on the show.”
    “You assume quite a lot, Mr. Walsingham.”
    “Peter. You can call me Peter.”
    “What an honor,” she said. “Now, why are you
here?”
    “Yes. About my character. Tristram.”
    “Tristan.”
    “Tristan. Right. I don’t want that role.”
    “Oh? And why might that be?”
    “He was lost at sea and declared dead. The premise
is ridiculous.”
    “No, it isn’t; it happens all the time.”
    “Like when?”
    “Well, there’s My Favorite Wife; Move Over,
Darling ; Gilligan.”
    “That’s fiction. I mean it’s not realistic.
Besides, Move Over, Darling is a remake of My Favorite Wife .”
    Although amused at his knowledge of old romance
movies, she would not let it divert her. “Realistic? So you really are a war
veteran slash