Twice Loved (copy2) by Lavyrle Spencer Read Free Book Online

think? You haven’t even asked me. Instead, she replied tonelessly, “Dan’s seen him, too. Rye came to the house.”
    “To the house ... oh my ...” Dahlia’s fingertips fluttered from her temples to her quivering lips. “Whatever will I say to people?”
    Insecurity had always been Dahlia’s fundamental problem. Laura realized her folly in expecting her mother to analyze a situation in which security was clearly personified by Daniel Morgan, who had been the stalwart in Laura’s life for so long, while Rye had gone away and left her “high and dry,” as Dahlia had often said. But Laura couldn’t help herself from admitting, “I’ve already talked to Ezra Merrill and found out Dan is still my legal husband.” She raised troubled eyes that needed comfort. “But I ... I still have feelings for Rye.” Immediately, Dahlia presented her palms. “Shh! Don’t say such a thing. It will only cause trouble. You shouldn’t even have  seen  him!”
    Laura became exasperated. “Mother, it’s Rye’s house. Josh is his son. I couldn’t possibly keep him away.”
    “But he could ... could take everything from you!” “Mother, how could you think such a thing of Rye!” How
    typical of Dahlia to be concerned about such a thing at a time like this. Laura sprang to her feet and began pacing.
    “Laury, you mustn’t get yourself worked up. Are you feeling all right? I’ll have to speak to Dan about getting you some drops to calm this—”
    “There’s nothing wrong with me!”
    But to a woman who could conjure up a convenient ache at the mention of anything disagreeable, it seemed imperative to discover an ailment. She came forward, attempting to press a palm to Laura’s forehead, but Laura adroitly sidestepped.
    “Oh, Mother, please.”
    The fussy hand dropped. The pinched face with its everpresent expression of suffering seemed to take on several new wrinkles. Frustrated by her mother’s inability either to cope or sympathize, Laura felt perilously close to tears.
    Oh, Mother, can’t you see what I need? I need reassurance, your cheek against my hair. I need to go back with you into the past so that I can sort out the present.
    But Dahlia had never been a calming influence; whatever had possessed Laura to believe she would be now? Dahlia’s flustered twittering only made things worse, and Laura was not surprised when her mother drifted to a chair, rested the back of her hand against her forehead, and said, “Oh, Laury, I fear I have a frightful headache. Could you mix up a tisane for me? There ...” She fluttered a hand weakly. “On the shelf you’ll find some valerian root and anise. Mix it up ... with some water ... please.” By now she was breathless.
    Thus, Laura found herself administering to her mother instead of being comforted, and by the time she left the house on Brimstone Street, she herself had a headache. She returned home to pass a tense afternoon reflecting upon the past and worrying about the future.
    When Dan returned at the end of the day, his eyes scanned the keeping room as if he half expected to find Rye there. He hung up his jacket and caught Laura’s glance from across the room, but neither of them seemed able to speak.
    Dan’s stare followed Laura as she put supper on the table, but throughout the meal the strained atmosphere remained while they avoided the subject of Rye Dalton.
    But in the evening, Josh, with the intuitive accuracy of a child, shot a question that hit two marks at once. Dan was sitting at a small oak desk with a pen in his hand when Josh leaned across his lap and asked, “Why did Mama get scared today when that man was here?”
    The entry on the ledger sheet went awry. Then Dan’s hand stopped moving over the page, Laura’s over her crocheting. Their eyes met, then Laura dropped her gaze.
    “Why don’t you ask Mama?” Dan suggested, watching the red creep up Laura’s cheeks while he wondered again what had gone on between the two of them when Rye