The Unclaimed Baby (17 page)

Sharon Lynn couldn't prevent another flood of tears. Would they have been so kind, so generous if they knew the truth? she wondered. Probably so, because they loved her and whatever her reasons for marrying Cord, they wished her well.

“I love you all,” she whispered.

“Be happy, darling,” her mother said, hugging her fiercely.

“I'm going to be,” she said, surprised to discover that she actually believed it.

“Oh, my, look at the time,” Dani said. “We'd better get this show on the road. You can't be late. Harlan Patrick says Cord's nervous enough without being left to pace outside the judge's chambers.”

The next few hours passed in a blur. The ceremony was little more than perfunctory with its hastily spo
ken vows and cursory kiss at the end. She and Cord had given in on having a small reception for the family, but not at White Pines where it had been last time. Sharon Lynn had put her foot down about that. She would have been terrified to get in a car and leave when it was over. Obviously understanding why she was being so adamant, Justin and his wife had organized it at their place in town.

“Let me make up for giving you such a rough time,” he had pleaded and she had agreed.

He and Patsy had spared nothing. Grandpa Harlan's housekeeper had cooked a feast and the bakery in town had prepared a small but spectacular wedding cake. Sharon Lynn gazed into Cord's eyes as he fed her the traditional bite of cake and almost gasped at the longing she saw in his gaze.

So, she thought, her grandfather had been right. Cord did love her. Please, she prayed silently, don't let me let him down. Don't ever let me hurt him.

Because there was no honeymoon to rush off to, the family lingered at Justin's. Only when they could postpone their leaving no longer did Cord approach her.

“If we don't get out of here soon,” he said, leaning down to whisper the words in her ear as if they were a loving secret, “they're going to start to wonder if we're dreading being alone together.”

In truth, this
was
the moment she had been dreading. Walking out of here as Cord's wife, surrounded by good wishes and taunted by broad innuendoes
about the night ahead, she knew she was going to feel like the world's worst fraud.

“Buck up, darlin'. Let's give 'em the show they're expecting,” he said with a devilish glint in his eyes.

“What—?”

The word was barely out of her mouth, when he tucked his arm behind her knees and scooped her up against his chest. The short skirt of the white wool suit she'd worn for the occasion rode up her thighs. With an exaggerated survey of her bared legs and a wink at her family, he said, “If nobody objects, I'm taking my bride home now.”

“It's about time,” Grandpa Harlan taunted.

“Cord, put me down this instant,” Sharon Lynn demanded, only to be tucked more firmly against the broad expanse of his chest.

“And spoil their fun? I don't think so.”

He left the house at a pace that left no doubt that he was an anxious new husband. When they turned the corner out of view, Sharon Lynn once again pleaded with him to put her down. “There's no need now. They can't see us.”

“Doesn't matter. I kind of like having you cuddled up here next to me.” He gave her a wry look. “Could be the last time I get this close to you tonight.”

Sharon Lynn sighed. The remark had been made in jest, but there was a longing behind it that touched her soul. “I'm sorry,” she said, the words a soft whisper against his neck.

“Don't be sorry, darlin'. This is what I bargained for.”

“It's still not fair. This is your wedding night.”

“It's our wedding night,” he stated. “You said those vows, same as me.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Don't worry about it,” he insisted. “Nothing will change this being our wedding night. The rest will come when it comes.”

“You aren't disappointed?”

He paused on the steps to the front door and his gaze locked with hers. “Disappointed? Yes. I won't lie to you about that. I want you so badly I ache with it,” he told her with brutal honesty. “But I respect the deal that we made. I won't push for more.”

For just an instant she wished things were different, but then he was crossing the threshold and lowering her to her feet so he could pay Patsy Driscoll, who had baby-sat Ashley all afternoon.

When the teenager was gone, Sharon Lynn took Cord's hand in hers. “Let's go in and see the baby. Everytime I'm away from her, I'm scared to death she'll be gone when I get back.”

Cord gave her a look of complete understanding and walked with her to the bedroom. There, in the gathering dusk, they stood over the baby's crib and stared down at her. She was sleeping peacefully on her tummy, her little bottom poked into the air. She looked so precious, so innocent to have been caught up in such a tempest.

Gazing at her, tears ran down Sharon Lynn's
cheeks. She was thinking not just of Ashley then, but of Kyle, and of another tragic wedding night. When Cord saw the tears, he gathered her close.

“It's going to be okay,” he promised. “All of it, darlin'. It's all going to be okay.”

There, with his arms around her, his heart beating sure and true, she could almost believe it.

The next morning they were served with court papers indicating that Hazel Murdock had formally filed for legal custody of her granddaughter.

O
n the day set for the custody hearing—April 1, of all days—Sharon Lynn felt as if her world were being torn apart. She couldn't even look at the baby without tearing up. She couldn't touch a bite of the breakfast Cord had insisted on making for her, hadn't been able to eat much since the papers had been delivered the day after their wedding two weeks earlier.

Those two weeks had been consumed with preparations for the court date. Janet had taken on the case eagerly and no one was more fierce in a courtroom battle. Sharon Lynn should have found comfort in that, but right now nothing short of a positive custody ruling in their favor would calm her.

Cord had been wonderful. Though he'd continued to work at White Pines every day, he'd spent every spare second with her. He'd tried valiantly to antic
ipate her needs, to offer reassurance when she needed it most and a shoulder to cry on whenever she was overcome with panic. No man could have been more devoted. She would owe him for the rest of her life for standing by her as he had.

“You need something in your stomach,” Cord said now, watching with a disapproving scowl as she toyed with the oatmeal in her bowl. “Can't you eat just a little?”

“I'm sorry. I don't think I could keep it down.” She regarded him fearfully. “Cord, what if…?”

He touched a silencing finger to her lips. “Don't. Whatever happens, we'll deal with it.”

“I can't let her go with that woman,” she whispered. “She won't be safe.”

“The judge will see that,” he promised, moving behind her to massage her shoulders. His touch was like magic, soothing away tension.

“Do we dare take a chance that she won't?” she asked, unable to shake her sense of dread. “Maybe we should just pack everything up and leave Los Piños.”

His hands stilled on her shoulders. She could feel the tension that was now radiating from him.

“You don't mean that,” he chided. “We can't spend the rest of our lives on the run. What kind of home could we make for Ashley, if we did that? What kind of example would we be setting? And more than that, what kind of man would I be if I encouraged you to leave the family you love?”

“But Ashley would be safe. That's all that matters.”

“She will be safe,” he insisted. “The judge will leave her with us. I believe that with all my heart.”

“Then why do we have to take the baby with us to court?” she asked reasonably. From the moment she'd learned of that demand, there had been a terrible knot of dread in the pit of her stomach. “I'll tell you why. It's because the judge might decide to take her from us right then and there.”

Cord sighed heavily. “She could, yes, but darlin', I don't believe that's going to happen, not with the evidence we have about Hazel Murdock's fitness, not with your family there to testify to the care we've given the baby. We have to have faith.”

Sharon Lynn had plenty of faith. She believed that God had guided Vicki Murdock's boyfriend to her door that icy winter night. He'd been protecting the baby then. She just wished she could be as sure that the judge would be guided by God's wisdom. It had been her experience that humans sometimes made terrible mistakes with tragic consequences.

“Come on, darlin'. It's time to go,” Cord said quietly. “I'll get Ashley.”

“No. I will.” She needed to hold on to the baby as long as she could, especially since it might be the last chance she ever had.

Cord regarded her with understanding. Before she could rush from the room to get the baby, he placed his hands on her shoulders and forced her to meet his gaze.

“Darlin', I believe with every part of me that this will turn out all right.”

“I want to believe that,” she whispered. “I really do.”

“Whenever your faith starts to waver, put your hand in mine and hold on tight.”

She reached up and touched his cheek. “Thank you. I don't know if I could have faced this without you.” She wished she could say more, wished she could say the words she knew he wanted to hear, but she was afraid to, terrified to admit that she had come to love him for fear he would somehow be lost to her, too.

“You could have faced it, because you're an Adams. You come from a long line of strong people,” he said, his gaze warm and steady and reassuring.

“But I'm glad we're in this together. Ashley needs us both.”

She drew herself up, squared her shoulders and smiled bravely. “Yes, she does, and we're going to see to it that the judge recognizes that.”

Cord grinned. “That's the spirit.”

At the courthouse a few minutes later they were instantly surrounded by a whole slew of Adamses. Even Sharon Lynn had to admit that united, they presented a formidable force to be reckoned with. She was also reassured that the judge was an old friend of her grandfather's, a woman known for her fierce protection of the rights of children. Surely that would work in their favor.

Janet presented their case for retaining custody.
Calling first Cord, then Sharon Lynn, she led them through testimony about the brutally cold night on which they'd found the baby abandoned in the alley behind Dolan's.

“What did you think when you saw her there?” Janet asked Cord.

“That she'd been left there to die,” he said angrily.

“Not that she'd been dropped off in the hope that she'd be found by someone who'd love and care for her?” Janet persisted.

“No,” he said flatly.

“Do you agree with your husband's impression?” Janet asked Sharon Lynn when her turn came.

“I do,” Sharon Lynn said softly. “I didn't want to believe any mother could allow that, but there was no other way to look at it. The baby was left too far from the door.”

Tears welled up as she remembered. “The snow was coming down so hard by then. In a few more minutes, an hour at most, she would have been under a cold blanket of snow. She would have…” She choked back a sob, then drew in a breath and faced the judge, who seemed shaken by the testimony. “She would have died.”

When Sharon Lynn left the stand, Janet called witness after witness who could talk about the love and care Cord and Sharon Lynn had given to the baby in all the weeks since that terrible night, about the love they'd discovered in the process that had led them to marry.

And finally Janet called on witnesses who could describe Hazel Murdock's life-style.

“Your honor, I ask, is that the kind of situation in which you wish to see an innocent baby raised?” Janet asked passionately when the evidence had been presented. “I mean this as no disrespect to Mrs. Murdock. She has raised a daughter with little or no help from the child's father. But that daughter—this baby's mother—has vanished. Can Mrs. Murdock be expected at her age to raise yet another baby, this one her grandchild, with so few emotional and financial resources, especially when there are others capable and willing to give the child a warm, loving home?”

By contrast to Janet's well-organized and passionately stated presentation, the attorney handling Mrs. Murdock's case had little to offer the court in defense of his client. Even Mrs. Murdock herself seemed to be going through the motions on the stand, repeatedly citing her duty to rear the child, not her love for the baby she'd visited only once and never even asked to hold.

The judge listened to her intently, then interrupted her attorney's questioning.

“Mrs. Murdock, do you truly want to take on the job of rearing this child?” the judge demanded.

“I've said so, haven't I?” the older woman retorted with a defiant lift of her chin. “She's my kin.” She gestured across the courtroom. “They have no claim on her.”

“Other than love,” the judge replied quietly. She
uttered a sigh. “I wish I could end this matter right now, but there are any number of moral issues to be considered. Normally I would not rule against blood ties. And then there is the fact that the biological mother's whereabouts are not known. She could turn up here tomorrow wanting her baby back. Or she might never be heard from again.”

She glanced at Sharon Lynn, who had been holding the baby cradled in her arms ever since she'd left the witness stand. Cord was snugly by her side, his hand resting reassuringly on her shoulder. A smile seemed to touch the judge's lips for just an instant at the picture of a loving family that they presented.

“I think time is what's needed here,” she said. “Time for me to consider all the facts, time for the police to complete their search for Victoria Murdock and her boyfriend.” She gave a pointed look toward the woman fighting them for custody. “Time for Mrs. Murdock to consider thoroughly what is truly best for her granddaughter.”

Sharon Lynn's heart was in her throat as she waited for the judge's ruling. Cord folded her hand in his and squeezed.

“Therefore I am granting temporary custody to Mr. and Mrs. Branson. We will come back here on July first with any additional evidence that becomes available. At that time I will be prepared to rule on permanent custody.”

Sharon Lynn released the breath she'd been holding. Three months. They had three more months with Ashley at least. She would be teething in earnest by
then, crawling, maybe even trying to pull herself up to a standing position.

They had three more months for her to steal their hearts.

“I say we go celebrate,” Grandpa Harlan said, when the gavel had fallen and they'd left the courtroom.

“No,” Sharon Lynn said, casting a pleading look toward Cord. “I want to take her home. Just the two of us.” She turned to the rest of the family. “You don't really mind, do you?”

“Of course not,” her mother said.

Cord grinned. “Then that's what we'll do, darlin'. You all will excuse us, won't you?”

Despite everyone else's agreement, her grandfather regarded them with a troubled expression, but Janet stepped in and touched his hand. To Sharon Lynn's relief, that was all it took to silence him.

Cord turned to Janet and took her hand in his. “Thank you. You were terrific in there today. The legal profession lost a real treasure when you decided to retire. We owe you.”

“You don't owe me a thing,” Janet protested. “The past few months, we've all come to love that little baby and to think of her as one of us. She deserves the life and the love the two of you could give her.”

Sharon Lynn could hardly wait to get away from all the worried looks. She knew that everyone was wondering how she would have taken it if things had gone differently in the courtroom. Truthfully she
didn't know what she would have done if she hadn't been walking home with the baby in her arms and Cord at her side. The sun broke through as they walked, as if God were giving them His blessing on today's outcome. For now that would have to be enough. If she looked too far into the future, she'd never leave the house. She'd stay right there where she could keep a close eye on the baby hour after hour, savoring every memory in case it turned out to be all she had.

As soon as they were home, she put the baby down for her nap, then wandered into the kitchen to find Cord staring out the window, a cup of coffee cooling in his hand. He jumped when she whispered his name.

“Sorry, darlin',” he said, turning to her and putting the cup on the table to reach for her. “I was at least a million miles away.”

“I could see that,” she said, hesitating for only a heartbeat before stepping into his embrace.

“Where'd you go?”

“I guess I moved ahead in time, rather than going to a different place.”

“To July?”

He nodded. “It will only be harder if the decision goes the other way, then.”

“It won't,” Sharon Lynn insisted, struggling against tears. “It can't.”

“If I were a betting man, I'd say you're right, but it's the outside chance that worries me.”

“We can't think about that. I won't believe for a
single instant that we're not going to get custody of Ashley.”

“But what if we don't?” he persisted. “Will you be able to live with that?”

“I don't know what I'll do,” she confessed candidly, then searched his bleak expression. “But that's not all that's troubling you, is it?”

He gave her a weary, halfhearted smile. “When did you start reading my mind?”

“I don't know about reading your mind, but your face is transparent. Sometimes I look into your eyes and it almost breaks my heart.”

“Why is that?”

She drew in a deep breath and confronted the issue that they occasionally alluded to, but never discussed. “I know you love me. You've shown it in a thousand different ways. And you're scared to death that if the baby is taken away, our marriage will be over.”

He shot her a rueful look. “On the nose. That baby is what brought us together, what's keeping us together.”

It was time—way past time, probably—for her to own up to the feelings that had been growing for so long now, time to risk putting her heart on the line again. But could she do it?

“Ashley's not the only thing,” she insisted.

“What then?”

She searched her heart and came up with an answer that was as honest as she could make it, but in the end she settled for a safer half-truth.

“I care about you, Cord. How could I not? Look at all you've done for me. Look at how much you love Ashley, the way you are with her. You're a wonderful man, as decent and kind as anyone I've ever known.”

“High praise, considering the quality of the men in your family.” He sighed. “But you still can't say it, though, can you?”

“Say what?”

“You still can't say you love me.”

Her silence was answer enough. She could see that. The irony, of course, was that she was falling in love with Cord. With each day that passed, the feelings grew stronger, his hold on her deepened.