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  Katherine fell silent for so long that Julie wasn’t certain she intended to go on, then she drew a shaky breath and continued, “After a while, Daddy, who knew how miserable I was because I was forever complaining to him, hit upon the idea that if I had a fabulous house to live in, I’d be a happier wife. I was childish enough to love the idea of playing hostess in a wonderful house of my own with a swimming pool and tennis court, but Daddy was worried that Ted was really inflexible about not accepting any financial support from him. I, on the other hand, foolishly believed that if we presented Ted with a fait accompli, he’d have no choice except to go along with it. So Daddy bought the land over on Wilson’s Ridge, and he and I met secretly with an architect and had the plans drawn up for my house. I loved every inch of that house, I planned every detail, every closet, every cabinet,” Katherine said, looking up at Julie. “I even started cooking meals for Ted and doing our laundry, and he thought I’d decided to be a wife after all. He was so pleased because I was happy, even though he didn’t understand the reason. He thought my parents were building the house on Wilson’s Ridge for themselves because they wanted a smaller place, because that’s what I let him believe. In fact, that’s what everyone in Keaton believed.”

  This time, Julie was unable to hide her shock, because there was a huge house on Wilson’s Ridge, and it was gorgeous—complete with swimming pool and tennis court. “That’s right,” Katherine said, watching her face. “The house that Dr. and Mrs. Delorik live in was supposed to be my house.”

  “What happened?” Julie asked because she didn’t know what else to say.

  “What happened was that when the house was almost finished, Daddy and I took Ted up there, and Daddy handed Ted the key.” With a slight shudder, Katherine said, “As you can imagine, Ted was furious. He was furious at the secrecy, the deceit, and my having gone back on my word before we were married that I’d live on whatever income he could provide. He told my father politely to find someone who could afford to live there and keep the place up, and he left us standing in the house.”

  Since that would have happened only months before their divorce was filed, Julie naturally assumed that Ted’s refusal to accept the house caused the final death blow to their marriage. “And that led to more fights that ended up breaking up your marriage,” Julie concluded.

  “No. That led to my banishing Ted from our bed, but it was already too late.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Katherine bit her lip and looked down. Her voice shook a little as she said, “A few days later—just before Ted and I split up—I took a bad fall off one of my father’s horses, remember?”

  “Of course I do,” Julie said. “You broke your arm.”

  “I also broke up my marriage that day along with my husband’s heart” She drew a long breath, lifted her gaze to Julie’s, and there was a sheen of tears in her eyes. “I was pregnant, Julie. I found out after Ted refused the key to the house on Wilson’s Ridge. I was two months’ pregnant and I was furious because Ted had refused the house, which had a lovely nursery, but I was even angrier because he was getting something he wanted badly—a baby. I went riding the next day, even though Ted specifically told me not to, and I didn’t take that horse for a gentle canter. I was racing him along the creek and jumping him over hedges when he threw me.”

  When she couldn’t seem to go on, Julie finished softly for her, “And you lost the baby.”

  Katherine nodded. “Ted was not only heartbroken, he was . . . infuriated. He thought I deliberately tried to miscarry, which isn’t surprising considering the way I acted when I found out I was pregnant. And the funny thing is,” she said, her voice filled with tears she was trying to blink away, “that was the only rotten thing in our marriage that I wasn’t actually guilty of doing, at least not intentionally. I always rode like a fury when something was bothering me, and I always felt better afterward. The day I took Thunder out, I didn’t believe for a moment I was risking a miscarriage. I’d been jumping him over those same obstacles for years and hadn’t ever had the slightest problem with him. The only difference that day was that, unknown to me, the vet had been treating him for a sprain and it wasn’t healed yet. You see,” she added shakily, “Thunder would have jumped off a mountain for me, and he never gave a sign that his foreleg was bothering him until he actually took the last hedge and went down on his knees. I ended up partially pinned beneath him. My father and I both tried to explain all that to Ted, but he didn’t believe us, and given our deceit about the house, who could expect him to? Besides, what sensible woman who was worthy of the title wife would have taken such a risk with her husband’s baby?” Her voice filled with shame and tears as she finished, “I didn’t decide to divorce Ted, Julie. When I came home from the hospital, he’d already packed his bags. But,” she added with a teary smile, “he was gallant to the very end, even when he was heartbroken, furious, and completely disillusioned: He let me divorce him. And he never told anyone about the baby he still believes I deliberately lost. I grew up the day I saw his suitcases in the hall and realized what I was losing, but it was too late then. You know the rest of the story—I went back East to college and got my degree, then I went to work in Dallas at the museum.”

  Julie got up, walked quickly across the hall, and returned with a handful of tissues from the powder room.

  “I thought,” Katherine said chokily, reaching for a tissue and dabbing at her streaming eyes, “that you’d gone upstairs to pack your bag so you could leave my revolting presence.”

  Wrapping her in a fierce hug, Julie whispered, “You’re still my best friend.” Then she let her go and moved to the opposite end of the sofa, blowing her own nose.

  After a few minutes, the two girls faced each other, wearing sheepish smiles and dabbing at the last of the tears lingering in their eyes. “What a mess!” Julie said.

  Katherine blew her nose. “What an understatement!” With a wobbly smile, she added, “I think what we both need is two weeks at my parents’ house in St. Barts. Can you plead exhaustion from your ordeal and get Duncan to give you a short leave of absence? We’ll forget all about men and toast ourselves in the sun. What do you say?”

  Drawing her knees up against her chest, Julie wrapped her arms around them and perched her chin on her knees. “I say,” she decreed, “that you’d better stay right here if you intend to win Ted back before it’s too late. He’s seeing a lot of Grace Halvers, did you know that?”

  Katherine nodded at the mention of the beautiful redhead. “I found out from Mr. Kealing when I took some laundry there last week because my parents’ washing machine was broken. Can you guess what he said when he saw me?” When Julie shook her head, Katherine provided miserably, “He looked at me like I was a useless child and said, ‘How many husbands are you going to have before you finally figure out how to use a washing machine?’ And then,” Katherine added, “he said, ‘I’ll bet Grace Halvers won’t make Ted Mathison do the laundry and shopping and cooking if she’s lucky enough to get him. Nor will Sue Ellen Jury if she beats Grade out of the running.’”

  Julie frowned in thought, then shook her head. “Despite what I said about Ted and Grace a minute ago, I don’t think Ted ever intends to remarry.”

  Instead of being reassured, Katherine seemed to wilt with guilt. “Ted should be married to someone, even if it isn’t me. He was the sort of sexy, tender husband that most women only dream of having for their own. It would be a crime if he never remarried. He was impossible to dominate or manipulate, which drove me crazy when I was young, but he was incredibly gentle, and on those occasions when I had enough sense to simply ask for what I wanted, instead of trying to demand or wheedle, he was amazingly willing to bend or yield.” A note of wonder crept into her voice as she lifted her gaze to Julie’s and finished, “We may have been terribly mismatched in a lot of ways, but we were in love with each other within hours of when we met. It was like—like spontaneous combustion.”

  “The two of you still ha