Free Warrior's Embrace by Peggy Webb

Candace.”
    “It’s your house.”
    “No, Candace. It’s
our
house. It
always has been and it always will be.”
    “Spare me that
two against the world
routine, Mother. I’m not a little kid anymore; I’m an adult.”
    Virginia studied her daughter. With her chin
thrust out and her back stiff, Candace was every bit as stubborn as
Virginia. In fact, she looked so much like her mother that Virginia
wondered when her child had become a woman. It had happened
overnight. Just yesterday Candace had been a chubby little girl in
pigtails, and suddenly she was a lovely young woman just beginning
to taste the fruits of love and romance.
    With an empathy given to all writers,
Virginia understood the confusion Candace had felt when she’d seen
her own mother ignoring convention. She had challenged everything
Candace thought was true, everything she’d seen in movies and read
in novels about boy meeting girl, falling in love, picking out
china patterns, getting married, buying a house and a dog and
raising two point five kids. More than that, Virginia had shaken
Candace’s ideas about what a mother should be.
    Virginia felt daunted. It was a feeling so
rare to her that she bought time by rearranging the fresh roses in
the cut crystal vase on Candace’s dressing table. Her daughter
watched her in silence.
    “Where’s Marge?” Virginia finally said, still
buying time.
    “In the guest room, working on a paper for
lit class, she said.”
    “I’ll see her in the morning, then.”
    “You can apologize to her,” Candace said.
    “Apologize?”
    “For making her feel like the other woman in
a love triangle.”
    “Did she say that?”
    “She didn’t have to say anything. It was
obvious.”
    Virginia sat in the blue silk damask chair
near the window. The top of the guest cottage was visible, silvery
and mystical in the moonlight. What was Bolton doing now? Was he
thinking of her?
    Candace flounced to the bed and jerked back
the covers.
    “You can’t even talk to me without looking
out the window for him.”
    “Candace, I’m not going to apologize to
Marge, and I’m not going to apologize to you. I’ve done nothing
wrong.”
    “Nothing wrong! For Pete’s sake, Mother. Do
you think you’re exempt from the rules just because you’re a famous
novelist?”
    “Whose rules, Candace?”
    Candace’s quick retort died on her lips. She
was intelligent and independent. Virginia had nurtured the
intelligence and encouraged the independence.
    “Touche’, Mother.”
    “This is not a game, Candace. It’s a
discussion of great importance to both of us.”
    “No. It’s not a discussion; it’s a
lecture.”
    “Call it what you want. I’m going to have my
say.”
    “You always do.”
    “So do you... thank goodness.” Virginia
smiled.
    An answering ghost of a smile played around
Candace’s lips. Besides intelligence and independence, Virginia
counted on her humor and her love to help them over this
misunderstanding.
    “All right, Mother. I overreacted.” Candace
sat in the middle of her bed cross legged. “One time making a fool
of yourself in public doesn’t mean the end of the world. I can live
with that. What I couldn’t live with is if you told me you’d fallen
in love with him and planned to marry him.” She studied Virginia.
“You aren’t going to tell me that, are you, Mother?”
    Was she so transparent? Virginia had been so
carried away by the way Bolton made her feel that she had forgotten
how such an unconventional match would look to her own daughter...
and to the rest of the world.
    Virginia was not the kind of woman who did
things halfway. Once she gave herself permission to begin a
relationship with a man, she’d opened the floodgates and let all
her emotions come pouring out.
    Falling in love was one thing, though, and
marriage quite another. It had never been a part of the picture for
Virginia.
    “Are you?” Candace repeated.
    “I’m not going to lie to you, Candace. Yes,
I’m in love with