“Is she having cramps?”
“She didn't say so. Do you suppose that's why she's been crying? Maybe she knows something's wrong and she doesn't want to tell me.” He looked suddenly panicked, as the water for her tea started to boil. “I'm going to call the doctor.”
“Now, calm down.” Teddy took the kettle from him and set it back on the stove. “Why don't you ask her first. Find out if she has cramps or she's had any bleeding.”
“Oh, Christ.” Brad looked pale at the thought. “If something ever happened to her or the baby …”He didn't dare finish the thought, but Teddy put a hand on his arm.
“Nothing is going to happen to Serena, or the baby either, most likely. So just stop getting yourself worked up. Why don't you go upstairs and see how she's doing, and I'll bring her tea up in a second. All right?” Brad looked at him with immeasurable affection.
“You know something, you're even better than you were as a kid. You're going to be some doctor, Teddy.”
“Shut up. You're embarrassing me. Now go take care of your wife. I'll be right up.” But a few minutes later, on his way up, Teddy ran into his mother in the hallway.
“Where are you off to? And drinking tea? Good Lord, that's a new one!” She smiled at him in amusement.
“It's for Serena. Brad says she doesn't feel well.” He had been about to make light of it, but as he said the words he saw his mother's face.
“Well.” He decided not to stall any longer. “I'll let you know if she needs to see a doctor.”
“Do that.” But she had asked not a single question as to how Serena was.
Teddy knocked on the door of their bedroom, and Brad pulled it open quickly and stepped aside.
“Something wrong?” He could see the look in Teddy's eyes, but the younger brother only shook his head and covered his own concern with a smile.
“No. Nothing. How's she feeling?”
“Better, I think. Maybe she's right. Maybe she's just exhausted.” He lowered his voice, she was combing her hair in the bathroom. “She says she hasn't had cramps or bleeding, so maybe she's all right. But Christ, Ted, I'd swear she'd been crying all morning.” The conversation was cut short as Serena emerged from the bathroom, looking radically different than she had half an hour before. Her hair was combed, her face washed, her eyes were bright, and she was smiling at Teddy, with her pink satin robe wrapped around her, and little fluffs of pink slippers peeking beneath the hem.
“My God, Serena, you look gorgeous.” He kissed both her cheeks, took her hands, and sat down next to her on the foot of the bed. “Brad said you weren't feeling so hot, but you look terrific to me.” And then with an almost professional air that made his brother smile, remembering when he had been a nine-year-old terror breaking windows, “Are you feeling all right, Serena? You have us both worried.”
“I'm fine.” She shook her head emphatically, but as she did so her eyes filled with tears, and a moment later, as though she couldn't stop herself, she reached out to Brad and sobbed in his arms. She was mortified at the scene she was creating, but she was unable to stop, and he looked at his brother over her shoulder in desperation, until at last the sobs subsided and she blew her nose in the handkerchief Teddy handed her. He patted her hand gently with a smile and looked into her eyes when she turned toward him.
“It happens to everyone sometimes, you know, Serena. You've had a lot of new experiences in the past few days, a lot of new people, it's a lot to handle. Even if you weren't pregnant, I think it might wear you out.”
“I'm sorry.” She shook her head and dried her tears again. “I feel so stupid.”
“You shouldn't.” He handed her the cup of tea, then Teddy looked up at his older brother, cocked his head to one side, and gave him a boyish grin. “If I promise not to play doctor with her, do you think you could leave us alone for a minute, Big Brother?” But he had such a disarming way of asking that there was no way Brad could resist. He nodded after a moment, and slipped out the bedroom door, promising to be back in a few minutes with two more cups of tea. Teddy waited until he knew his brother would have reached the stairs and then he turned toward Serena again. He took her hand in his own and looked into her eyes. “I want to ask you something, Serena, and I'd like to know the truth. I swear I won't tell Brad.” He had already guessed that if what he suspected was true she wasn't going to tell him. “Will you tell me the truth?”
She nodded slowly. She felt no need to be on her guard with Teddy. Even more so than with Brad, whom she wanted to protect.
“Does my mother have anything to do with your being upset?”
She hesitated and bumbled, and blushed furiously as she pulled her hand away from his and began to walk around the room. All of her actions gave her away at once as he watched her.
“Did she come to see you today, Serena?”
“Yes.” She turned to him quickly. “But just to see how I felt before she went out to lunch.”
She was playing the same game as his mother and he knew it, but he decided to call Serena's bluff. “She didn't go out to lunch today, Serena. And she told me that she hadn't seen you at all. So both of you are lying.” He looked at her pointedly, but without accusation. “Why?” It was a simple open question, and when she saw the look in his eyes, she began to cry again.
“I can't tell you.”
“I already told you that I wouldn't tell Brad.”
“But I can't … it would—” She sat down on the bed and began to sob again and this time it was Teddy who took her in his arms. She felt so soft and warm and delicate against him that it almost took his breath away as he held her. For a mad moment he wanted to tell her that he loved her, but he remembered all too quickly that this wasn't why he was holding her in his arms.
“Serena … tell me … I swear I'll help you. But I have to know.”
“There's nothing you can do. It's just that—” She paused and then blurted it out. “She hates me.”
“That's ridiculous.” He smiled into her hair. “What makes you think that?”
And then suddenly, for no reason except that she trusted him, she decided to tell him about the confrontation the night before, the awful contract, and finally the paper she had signed.
“You signed it?”
She nodded. “Yes. What difference does it make? If he leaves me, I don't want his money anyway. I'll take care of the baby myself.”
“Oh, Serena.” He gave her a hug. “But that's crazy. You'd have a right to support for you and the child. And if he dies—” Serena stopped him with her eyes. She wouldn't even hear about it.
Teddy wanted only to ease her pain. “He'd never leave you and the baby unprovided for. But what a stinking thing to do.” He stared miserably at Serena, “Welcome to the family, love. Sweet, isn't it? Christ.” He looked at her again and then put his arms around her. “Poor baby.” And then with a serious look in his eyes he looked down at her gently with an odd smile. “If anything ever does happen to him, Serena, and he doesn't have a will, I'll take care of you and your children, I promise.”
“Don't be silly …” And then with a little shudder, “Don't talk about that.” She looked at him gently then. “But thank you.”
“I do think you should tell Brad though.”
“I can't.”
“Why not?”
“It would make him furious with his mother.”
“As well he should be.”
She shook her head again. “I can't do that, to either of them.”
“You're crazy, Serena. She deserves it. That was a stinking, sick, rotten thing to do.” But he didn't have a chance to go any further, Brad had just opened the door and came in carrying a tray with three fresh cups of tea.
“How's my wife? Any better?”