The Gentlewoman (39 page)

Two Years Later

Jackson ran down the corridor, yelling into his phone.
“Travis, bring the car around! We have to go now!” He skidded around a corner
and flew down the next hall.

Finally he came to the hearing room where Rory’s
subcommittee vote was taking place. He tried to calm himself as he approached
the door. No reason to alarm anyone.

Congresswoman Rory Morgan-Dorn had sponsored legislation to
increase funding to children whose parents were victims of domestic violence.
This legislation was important, she had said, as it would help with the
aftereffects and the recovery it takes to get over witnessing acts of violence.

She had been authoring a lot of legislation in the last two
years. Rory had sponsored many bills that meant a lot to her. Some helped women
and children and victims of violence and crime. Others had proposed new and
harsher penalties for human trafficking. She also did a lot for education and
job training, as well as mental illness and addiction.

And she still sat on Homeland. Jackson always laughed when
she didn’t take the annual “out” he offered her for her seat. He could tell she
secretly relished the ability to shape that legislation.

Jackson straightened his tie and ducked inside the hearing
room. He gingerly took a seat in the back of the room, sitting nervously with
his elbows on his knees. He listened for the end of the commentary. He didn’t
want to interrupt before the vote was passed to the full committee, but time
was of the essence.

He looked at Rory and was once again struck breathless by
his beautiful wife. He was in awe of her every day. He was so proud of the
woman she was, what she had overcome in her life and how she chose to live
every day to its fullest. He sat back and listened as she called the role.

It had been so hard after all the details had finally come
to light. Shane had been deeply disturbed, and Jackson had wanted to know how
that escaped the FBI’s attention. But Landon had been another issue altogether.
Very painful for Rory.

Landon McCollum had met the Sullivan family years before on
a trip to visit cousins in Ireland. He knew them to be petty thieves and
crooks. But when he was in trouble because he had embezzled money from the
party, he had reached out to them.

Thinking they would be a good source of untraceable money to
replace what he had stolen, he became indebted to them. And they had taken
advantage. They moved to Cleveland and set up business. To Landon’s dismay they
had forced him even deeper, insisting that he launder their money through the
party books. It was all unraveling at the end. Landon was in over his head.
Roan had been keeping up the pressure until it all broke loose.

Mayor Bruce Garrison as well as a couple other longtime
party loyals had gone to jail for their roles and ill-gotten gains along the
way. But Bruce had been helpful in the end. He at least accepted Rory’s visit
in jail and answered her questions about Landon. Questions that included
whether Landon knew anything about Aidan’s plan to abduct her and her father.
She had needed to know if he was complicit in any way or had any knowledge
beforehand.

Bruce and a few others had helped with information about
that. They told Rory how tortured Landon had been over what had happened. How
he had wanted to die himself. Landon had been helpless in the end to change
what had been put into motion. His involvement began and ended with his failure
to inform Rory of what kind of man Aidan Sullivan really was. That act made him
complicit in the attack and her father’s death. It changed things for Rory.

Rory had mourned and moved on, true to her word. She drew
strength in the aftermath. She helped appoint a new mayor, one she felt could
stand a chance of delivering for the region, instead of just for his own ego.
So far, things were working out.

And they had gotten married in a ceremony that included
friends and family, just how Rory had wanted it. Because it was important to
them both that his mother be involved, the wedding was held in Maine at his
parents’ estate. Rory’s cousins and friends were there, as well as Jackson’s
family and friends. His son had been his best man. It had been the happiest day
of his life. And he had been happy ever since.

The role call came to a close and the gavel was dropped on a
passed bill. Jackson stood, trying to get her attention. Mary Jo Jansen sat to
Rory’s left and smiled at him, raising her eyebrows in question. He smiled back
and nodded.

“Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please,”
Congresswoman Jansen said into the microphone. “At this time, I’d like to
adjourn in order to release Congresswoman Dorn to a more important engagement.”

Rory looked up from the paperwork she was signing. She
looked at Mary Jo as if she had ten heads. Rory cleared her throat and gave a
puzzled little laugh.

“If it pleases the committee, Congresswoman Dorn has no
prior engagement. I’m fine to run the rest of the agenda.”

Mary Jo cut her off mid-sentence. “I beg your pardon. Will
the gentlewoman from Ohio please surrender the gavel to the vice chair and join
her husband on his way out. I believe she is about to become a mother.”

Rory stood abruptly as her eyes flashed to Jackson in the
back of the room. He beamed at her. She looked back to Mary Jo, who stood and
hugged her. “Good luck, Congresswoman, we wish you the best.”

A round of applause rang out in the room as Rory quickly
grabbed her bag and jogged to where Jackson stood. Her eyes filled with tears
and her smile was wide.

“It’s time,” he told her gently.

“I’m ready,” she said as he put his arm around her and led
her from the room. “I’m ready,” she breathed out happily.

Four Weeks Later

Rory’s eyes sprang open and darted to the clock on her
nightstand. Five a.m. She crept out of bed and down the hall to the nursery. She
looked through the door and breathed a sigh of relief. Ryan was rocking the
baby gently as he gave her a bottle.

She smiled and leaned back on the doorjamb. “I wondered why
she didn’t wake me.”

He looked up, surprised, and gave her his shy smile. “I couldn’t
help it. She makes more noise than my drunk roommate.” He looked back down at
the baby. “But she’s much cuter.”

Rory smiled and watched them. Patricia Elizabeth Dorn had
weighed in at seven pounds two ounces but ate like a two-hundred-pound sailor.
She had thick dark hair and blue eyes. If you didn’t know better, you would
think both she and Ryan had come from Jackson and Rory. A wave of pride and
love washed over her as she watched her stepson and her daughter. Life was
good.

Over the four weeks since the baby’s arrival, Rory had
started calling her Lissy. Jackson was fine with that. Rory didn’t tell him it
was because it reminded her of the way her father had called her lassie. She
kept that for herself.

Lissy’s birth had been a blessing and Rory loved being her
mom. The college student who had given birth to her, and had chosen to let them
adopt her, had allowed them in the delivery room. She hadn’t held Lissy,
instead giving that honor to Rory, saying she was the baby’s mother. Rory
intended to keep contact with the birth mom, to help her out if it ever became
necessary.

When the doctor put Lissy into Rory’s arms, and she looked
down at that tiny pink creature, Rory knew she had once again arrived at a
destination.

Jackson reached his arms around Rory’s waist. “Good
morning,” he murmured, nuzzling her ear. She put her hands atop his and leaned
back into him, her eyes closing to savor the feel of her husband.

“Good morning yourself,” she whispered.

“If you two are going to be gross, do you have to do it in
front of the kids?” Ryan’s voice softened as he looked down at his sister.
“Right, Lissy? Parents, geez!”

“When did you sneak back in here? You spend more nights here
than at that dorm I’m paying for,” Jackson teased.

Rory knew he was teasing. The nights Ryan chose to stay with
them, instead of at his dorm on the Georgetown campus, were a source of pride
for Jackson, she could tell. And it made her happy as hell too. Since Lissy was
born, Ryan had spent almost every night with them. Unlike other parents, they
had gone from being empty nesters to a full house. And it was heaven.

Today was a special day for their family. Lissy was being
christened. Most of their friends and family were in town for the event.
Afterward they were coming back to the house for a celebratory luncheon. Rory
had really wanted it in Cleveland, but their schedules wouldn’t allow it. Ryan
was the godfather and Devon and Nicole were both godmothers. They were both so
important to Rory. She had to have them both, each of those women such
wonderful role models for her daughter.

“How about I go down and start breakfast?” Rory suggested.

Jackson and Ryan locked eyes.

“No, no, that’s okay,” Jackson said. “I’ll start breakfast.”

“Yeah, I think Lissy needs to be changed and she wants her
mommy,” Ryan suggested.

Rory crossed her arms and looked at them both with narrowed
eyes. “Is it that bad?” she asked, fighting her smile.

They looked at each other. “Yes,” they said in unison.

Rory had been attempting to learn to cook in the months
before Lissy’s birth. She had been nesting and had found some unique outlets
for that energy. She had decorated their beautiful new white colonial farmhouse
in the Virginia countryside. When that was complete, she had taken up learning
to cook. With no help or lessons, and the boys as her guinea pigs, it hadn’t
gone very well.

“Please, Rory, we’ve suffered enough,” Ryan whined. “I’m
worried for my sister.”

She raised her eyebrow. “Very funny. Fine, I won’t cook. You
boys can live on Chinese food for the rest of your lives,” she murmured as she
came forward and gently took her daughter from Ryan’s arms. She sat in the
chair he vacated and began to burp Lissy.

As Jackson and Ryan filed out laughing, she settled in with
her daughter. She loved this part of the day when it was just the two of them,
calm and quiet together. She held the baby against her shoulder, rubbing her
back, their cheeks together.

After a burp that a longshoreman would be proud of, Rory
turned the baby toward her. She saw Lissy was wide awake.

“Well, hello, beautiful. How is my Lissy girl today?” she
asked as she rocked her. Rory was blown away at the feeling of joy she felt
looking into that little pink face. The baby smiled up at her.

“Would you like to hear a story?”

She blew kisses on the baby’s cheek and settled her in her
arms, the best feeling in the world.

“Once upon a time, there was a sad, lost girl. She tried and
tried but she was so sad, because she couldn’t find her way back home…until one
day when she came to the United States Congress…”

Lisa Durkin has spent the past fifteen years working in
county government after completing her Master of Public Administration. After
becoming seriously jaded and cynical about the ways of politics, Lisa started
writing books as a way of staving off complete insanity. Thanks to her
daydreams, symptomatic of acquired severe attention deficit, and her failed
quest to find the perfect man (hot, sexy, brain in his head), Lisa enjoys
creating characters whom she would like to find herself involved with. (So if
any man resembles the characters in her books and is looking for a really good
time, email!)

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The Gentlewoman

ISBN 9781419994210

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The Gentlewoman Copyright © 2015 Lisa Durkin

Edited by Susan Edwards

Cover design by Allyse Leodra

Cover photography by Shutterstock

Electronic book publication August 2015

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