Page 15 of Nineteen Seventy-Six

Colleen slipped her hand through Noah’s and nodded toward the hall, where Rory and Carolina beckoned. They followed their friends into a parlor, where Rory closed and locked the double doors behind them.

“Where’s Clancy?” Noah asked.

Carolina answered. “With Colin.”

“Catherine,” Colleen said with a long exhale, not wasting time.

“She’s great,” Carolina replied. She looked healthy, radiant in her carnation gown. Colleen couldn’t help remembering Carolina of only two years ago, drained of color and health, on death’s doorstep. “Under the circumstances.”

“Ready to pop, if you ask me,” Rory added, and Carolina gave him a look that said, no one asked you.

“Has Charles called you guys?” Noah asked.

Colleen tried not to look at him; he was even more handsome than usual in his tuxedo and cummerbund. His bowtie sent her heart surging.

Rory and Carolina exchanged looks.

“No, why?” Rory asked. “He doesn’t know, does he? Tell me he doesn’t know!”

“No, no,” Colleen said quickly. She kept glancing back at the door, as if it might open, despite being locked. Charles appeared, red-faced and furious, in her imagination. “He doesn’t know anything. But someone told him I might know something.”

“Who?” Carolina asked.

“We don’t know,” Colleen said. “And it’s not a good idea for us to go asking around, under the circumstances. He’s been calling me, and even tricked Noah into meeting him so he could give him the third degree, too.”

Rory lifted his arms over his head. His groomsman jacket flapped at his sides. “This is not good. If Charles finds out what’s going on, this is over. The whole thing is off. Colin would kill me if he ever—”

Carolina stepped in front of him and seized his arms. “Rory, stop. Charles won’t find out, because only the four of us know. Remember?”

“Did you hear what they said?”

“I did, did you?” Carolina pulled his arms to his sides again. “They said Charles thinks he knows something. But unless he hears what’s really going on, from one of us, he knows nothing. Right?”

“I don’t know… this isn’t good.”

“It’s fine,” Noah said. “He won’t hear it from us, or you, so we have nothing to worry about. Colleen and I can handle Charles and his chest puffing. Just worry about Catherine, and the little girl she needs to bring safely into this world.”

Rory calmed with Carolina’s touch. “Okay, but you’ll tell us if you think he’s got the score.”

“We will,” Colleen assured him, “but he won’t. If he hasn’t contacted you already, then he never will.”

“It will all be over soon,” Carolina added, for her husband’s sake. “Once Robyn is born, we will help Catherine recover and then send her home.”

“You’ll have to tell Colin she was with you, you know,” Noah said. “After the fact.”

Rory blinked. Color drained from his face. “Colin would never forgive that.”

“Wrong,” Colleen said. “He’ll be sore that you kept it from him, but knowing his wife was safe with his brother is the best comfort we can give him after this long absence. You know that. If she wasn’t with you, then where was she? And with whom? Colin will believe you, and it will put his mind at ease. He deserves that, and if he thinks she was at some undisclosed place, he’ll never have peace about it, Rory. Never.”

“Colleen is right,” Carolina said. “We have to tell him, and we just say we were respecting Catherine’s right to privacy.”

“He’ll never forgive me,” Rory said again.

“It’s not about you, though, is it?” Noah answered. “You already have to come up with an excuse for not telling anyone Carolina was expecting. Combine them into one.”

“I don’t follow.”

“Your secrecy around Carolina’s ‘pregnancy,’ is about your worry for her,” Noah went on. He paced in front of the fireplace. Colleen fell in love with him over and over as she watched him; listened to him take control. “When Catherine asked for help, you decided Catherine could help you, too, by staying with Carolina and seeing her through her difficult time. If Carolina has no difficult time, you have no reason for keeping this news to yourself.”

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