A Knight in Shining Armor (Montgomery/Taggart #15)

For a whole year, Dougless had worked on planning the trip, which she’d come to think of as their honeymoon. A “pre-honeymoon,” she called it in her mind. “The decision maker,” she said to herself, then smiled. She made reservations at the most romantic, most exclusive country house hotels England had to offer. When she had asked Robert’s opinion of a hotel, he’d winked at her and said, “Spare no expense for this trip.” She had ordered brochures, bought travel books, read and researched until she knew the names of half the villages in England. Robert’s only stipulation had been that he wanted an educational trip as well as fun, so she’d compiled a list of many things to do that were close to their lovely hotels—which was easy to do, since Great Britain is like a Disneyland for history lovers.

Then, three months before they were to leave, Robert said that he had a surprise for her on this trip, a very, very special surprise that was going to fill her with joy. His words had made Dougless work even harder on the plans, and she found their little game of secrecy exciting. As Dougless planned, she thought, Will he propose here? Or maybe here. This place would be nice.

Three weeks before they left, she was balancing Robert’s household-accounts checkbook when she saw a canceled check for five thousand dollars made out to a jewelry store.

As she held the check, tears of happiness came to her eyes. “An engagement ring,” she’d whispered. That Robert had spent so much was proof that even though he was a tad stingy on small things, when something really counted, he was generous.

For the next few weeks Dougless had walked on clouds. She cooked wonderful meals for Robert and had been especially energetic in the bedroom, doing everything she could think of to please him.

Two days before they were to leave, Robert punctured her bubble a bit—not enough to burst it, but it had certainly been deflated. He had asked to see the bills for the trip, plane tickets, advance reservations, whatever she had. He had then added the amounts and handed her the calculator tape.

“This is your half of the cost,” he’d said.

“Mine?” she’d asked stupidly, not understanding what he was saying.

“I know how important it is to you women today to pay your own way, so I don’t want to be accused of being a male chauvinist pig,” he’d said with a smile. “You don’t want to be a burden to a man, do you? You don’t want to add to all my responsibilities at the hospital and to my ex-wife, do you?”

“No, no, of course not,” Dougless had mumbled, feeling confused, as she often did when confronted with Robert’s reasoning. “It’s just that I don’t have any money.”

“Dougless, baby, please tell me that you don’t spend everything you make. Maybe you should take a course in accounting.” He lowered his voice. “But then your family has money, doesn’t it?”

That was one of the times Dougless’s stomach had begun to hurt, and she remembered the doctor’s warning about giving herself an ulcer. She had explained to Robert about her family a hundred times. Yes, her family had money—lots of it—but her father believed his daughters should know how to support themselves, so Dougless was on her own until she was thirty-five; then she’d inherit. She knew that if there was an emergency, her father would help her, but a pleasure trip to England hardly counted as an emergency.

“Come on, Dougless,” Robert had said with a smile when Dougless didn’t reply to his question. “I keep hearing what a paragon of love and support that family of yours is, so why can’t they help you now?” Before she could speak, Robert raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. “Ah, baby, please try to get the money. I so much want us to go on this trip because I have such a very, very special surprise for you.”

Part of Dougless had wanted to shout that he wasn’t being fair. He should have made it clear that she was going to be required to pay for half of the trip before she’d made reservations at such expensive hotels. But another part of her asked why she’d expected him to pay for her share. They weren’t married. They were, as Robert often called them, “partners.” “Sounds like John Wayne and a sidekick,” Dougless had muttered the first time he’d said that, but Robert had just laughed.

In the end Dougless couldn’t bear to ask her father for money. It would be like admitting defeat to him. Instead, she’d called a cousin in Colorado and asked him for a loan. The money had been given to her freely, no interest, but she’d had to endure her cousin’s lecture. “He’s a surgeon, you’re an underpaid teacher, you’ve been living together for a year, but he expects you to pay for half of an expensive trip?” her cousin had said. Dougless had wanted to explain about Robert’s mother, who had used money to punish her son, and about his cold ex-wife, who had spent everything Robert earned. Dougless had wanted to explain that money was just a small part of their lives and that she was pretty sure that Robert was going to propose marriage on this trip.

But Dougless said none of that. “Just send the money, will you?” she’d snapped.

But her cousin’s words had upset her, so, during the few days remaining before they left, Dougless gave herself several little lectures. It was only fair that she pay her own way, wasn’t it? And Robert was right: it was the day of the liberated woman. Her father, by not dropping millions in her lap before she could handle them, was teaching her to take care of herself and, now, so was Robert. And, most of all, she told herself that she had been an idiot for not realizing beforehand that she was supposed to pay her own way.

After Dougless had contributed her half to the bills, for the most part, she recovered her good humor, and by the time she’d packed their suitcases, she was again looking forward to the trip. Happily, she filled her tote bag with necessary toiletries, travel books, and as many gadgets as she could cram into it.

In the taxi on the way to the airport, Robert had been especially nice to her. He’d nuzzled her neck until she’d pushed him away in embarrassment when she saw the taxi driver watching.

“Have you guessed the surprise yet?” he asked.

“You won the lottery,” Dougless answered, still playing the game and pretending ignorance.

“Better than that.”

“Let’s see . . . You’ve bought a castle and we’ll live in it forever as lord and lady.”

“Much better than that,” Robert said seriously. “Do you have any idea what the upkeep on one of those places is? I’ll bet you can’t guess anything as good as this surprise.”

Dougless had looked at him with love. She knew just what her wedding dress would look like, and she imagined all her relatives smiling at her in approval. Would their children have Robert’s blue eyes or her green? His brown hair or her auburn? “I have no idea what the surprise is,” she said, lying.

Leaning back against the seat, Robert smiled. “You’ll soon find out,” he’d said enigmatically.

At the airport Dougless dealt with checking the luggage while Robert kept looking about the terminal as though he were searching for something. As Dougless tipped the porter, Robert threw up his hand to wave to someone. At first Dougless was too busy to realize what was happening.

She looked up at the cry, “Daddy!” and saw Gloria running across the terminal, a porter trailing behind her pushing a hand truck loaded with six new suitcases.

What a coincidence, Dougless thought as she checked the tags the baggage handler gave her. Imagine meeting Gloria at the airport. Distractedly, Dougless watched as Gloria flung herself on her father. Moments later they broke apart, Robert keeping his arm tightly around his precious daughter’s plump shoulders.

Once Dougless had finished with the bags, she gave her attention to Robert’s daughter, and it was difficult to keep the frown off her face. Gloria was wearing a fringed jacket and cowboy boots, and a too-short leather skirt. She looked like an overweight stripper from the sixties.

Where was her mother and how could she allow the child to dress like that? Dougless thought as she glanced about the airport for Robert’s ex-wife.

“Hello, Gloria,” Dougless said. “Are you and your mother going somewhere too?”

Gloria and her father nearly collapsed with laughter at Dougless’s words. “You haven’t told her,” Gloria squealed.

It took Robert a moment to sober himself. “This is the surprise,” he said, pushing Gloria forward as though she were some huge trophy Dougless had just won. “Isn’t this the most wonderful surprise you could imagine?”

Dougless still didn’t understand—or maybe she was too horrified to want to understand. All she could do was stand there and stare at the two of them, speechless.

Robert put his other arm around Dougless and drew her close to him. “Both of my girls are going with me,” he said with pride.

“Both?” Dougless whispered, her throat closing down on her.

“Yes,” Robert said, his voice joyous. “Gloria is the surprise I’ve been hinting at for weeks. She’s going with us to England. I knew you’d never guess! You didn’t, did you?”

No, Dougless had not come close to guessing. And now that she was finally understanding that the beautiful, romantic trip she’d dreamed of wasn’t going to happen, she wanted to scream, to yell, and to refuse to go. But she did none of those things. “All the hotel rooms are just for two people,” she’d managed to say at last.

“So we’ll have a rollaway bed brought in,” Robert said in dismissal. “I’m sure we’ll manage, because we have love going for us and that’s all we need.” He dropped his arm from Dougless’s shoulder. “Now for business. Dougless, you won’t mind getting Gloria’s luggage checked in while I catch up with lambykins, will you?”

Dougless could only shake her head. Numbly she went off to the ticket counter, the porter and the suitcases following her. She had to pay two hundred and eighty dollars in overcharge for Gloria’s four extra bags, and she had to tip the porter.

They didn’t have much time to spare before the plane took off, and Robert and his daughter were absorbed in each other so, thankfully, Dougless wasn’t asked to speak. If she had been asked anything, she wasn’t sure she could have answered. With each passing minute, she saw one dream after another disappear. Champagne dinners gave way to fast food eaten in the car. Afternoons spent lazily strolling on wooded paths turned into visions of arguments about “finding something Gloria can enjoy, too”—a request that Dougless had already heard too many times.

And then there was the privacy issue. The three of them would share one room. When could she and Robert be alone?

It was when they boarded the plane that Dougless saw that Robert had put quite a bit of work into Gloria’s trip. Her boarding pass said she was in the same row as they were, in the aisle seat.

But Robert set Gloria between them, so Dougless ended up on the aisle, which she hated because no matter where she put her arms or her legs, she was always told by the flight attendant that she was blocking the passage of the cart.

It was during the long flight that Robert, smiling, had handed Dougless Gloria’s ticket. “Add this to our list of expenses, will you? And I’ll need a penny by penny—or should I say shilling by shilling,” he added, winking at Gloria, “accounting of all the money spent. My accountant thinks I can deduct this whole trip.”

“But it’s a pleasure trip, not business.”

Robert frowned. “Dougless, please don’t start on me already. Would you please just keep track of the money we spend so that when we get home, you and I can split the expenses in half?”

Dougless looked at Gloria’s ticket she was holding. “You mean in thirds, don’t you? Me one third, two thirds for you and Gloria.”

Robert gave her a look of horror as he put his arm around Gloria protectively, as though Dougless had tried to hit the kid. “I meant in half. Gloria is for you to enjoy, too. Money spent is nothing compared to the joy you’ll receive from her company.”

Dougless turned away. She wasn’t going to get into an argument now; they’d discuss this further later—when they were in private and Gloria wasn’t watching them with interest.

For the rest of the long flight, she read while Gloria and Robert played cards and ignored her. Twice Dougless took a tranquilizer to keep her stomach from eating itself.

Now, in the car, Dougless rubbed her aching stomach. In the four days they’d been in England she’d tried to enjoy herself. She’d tried not to complain when the first night in their beautiful hotel room, Gloria had moaned so much about the trundle bed the hotel had put in the room—after the owner had crossly lectured Dougless about not having expected Gloria—that Robert had asked Gloria to get into their four poster with them. After nearly being pushed out of bed twice, Dougless had ended up sleeping on the trundle bed. Nor had Dougless complained when Gloria ordered three entrees at the expensive restaurant. “I just want my baby to have a taste of everything,” Robert said. “And, Dougless, please stop being so stingy. I don’t know what’s come over you. I always thought you were a generous person,” Robert said, then handed Dougless the enormous bill that Dougless was to pay half of.

Dougless managed to keep her mouth shut by constantly reminding herself that she was the adult and Gloria was just a child. And Dougless consoled herself with the knowledge that somewhere in Robert’s baggage was a five-thousand-dollar engagement ring. The thought of that ring made her remember that he did love her. And she reminded herself that all the things he did for Gloria were done out of love, too.

But after last night, Dougless was finding it impossible to keep up her appearance of good humor. Last night at yet another hundred-and-fifty-dollar dinner, Robert had presented Gloria with a long blue velvet box. As Dougless watched Gloria open the box, she had a sinking feeling.

Gloria’s eyes lit up when she saw what was inside. “But it’s not my birthday, Daddy,” she’d whispered.

“I know, Muffin,” Robert said softly. “It’s just to say, ‘I love you.’”

Slowly, Gloria withdrew from the box a wide bracelet made of twisted wires of gold and silver, from which dripped diamonds and emeralds.

Dougless couldn’t prevent the gasp that escaped her, for she knew that her engagement ring was being fastened about Gloria’s chubby wrist.

Gloria held her arm up triumphantly. “See?”

“Yes, I see,” Dougless said coolly.