Free Running With The Big Dogs: Sybil Norcroft Book Six by Carl Douglass Page A

are unsure, a simple, ‘I don’t know’ will suffice.”
    Drake nodded.
    “Are you and Cerisse serious? Are you exclusive with each other?”
    “Yes to both questions, Mr. Daniels.”
    “I’m glad to hear it. I guess that leads to the next things I would like to know. What are your plans for your future education and how do they include Cerisse?”
    “That’s something of a tough one, Mr. Daniels. If it were a perfect world, I would like for us to get married at the end of this school year. We’ll both be twenty at that time. I’ll be frank with you and answer a question you have been too polite to ask. We have not had intimate relations with each other. I am crazy with desire for her, and I think she feels the same way about me. We want to be virgins when we get married; but we are only human; and we can’t wait a whole lot longer. Therein lies the rub. My family is not at all well-to-do. We are comfortable. I work outside school, but I can’t afford to get married and finish my undergrad work and get into medical school. At best that would bog Cerisse and me down with debt before we ever got started and would probably derail my education and also hers. We are planning to have a serious talk this week about what we are going to do. We are on the horns of a dilemma.”
    “Drake, you said that you and Cerisse want to remain virgins until you are married. I applaud that. But I have to ask an indelicate question. Are you aware of our little girl’s childhood in the Congo?”
    “Mr. Daniels, I am aware of everything. Cerisse stopped me from having even another date after it began to look serious for us. She told me that she had to tell me something and that she would understand if I didn’t want to have anything more to do with her. I was kind of stunned, but told her that nothing but her happiness mattered to me. Then, she poured it all out. I understand that I am the only person other than the two of you she has ever told.”
    “How did you react, Drake? That had to have been a shocker.”
“It was. It might sound silly or girlish to you, but I cried. She looked into my face to see what my tears meant, and it was clear that they were an expression of my sympathy, my deep hurt that she had been so maltreated. She cried too. I told her that none of it—none of it—mattered. None of it was her fault. She is a virgin to me. That was really important to her, and I would never violate her in the slightest degree now that we have shared such a profound secret and pain.”
    He looked directly into Charles’s eyes.
    Charles shed a few tears. He had no further questions for Drake. The young man had won him over completely. Cerisse and her parents would be privileged to have a man of Drake Farrer’s depth of character to be Cerisse’s husband.
    “Drake, it has to be obvious to you that Sybil and I accept you whole heartedly. We could not have asked for a better man for our precious little girl. She has been through a lot; she is tough and resilient; but there is a tender core in the girl. If you nurture that core, she will be the best wife a young doctor could ask for. If you treat her well, I will do all in my power to help you realize your dreams, if you will let me.”
    “I’m not sure what you’re saying, Mr. Daniels. I do very much appreciate your wholehearted acceptance of me and of Cerisse and my intentions—as murky as they are—for the moment.”
    “I would like to clarify some of that murkiness. I know something of what it takes to be a doctor, especially to become a neurosurgeon. The hurdles will be all that much greater with both of you getting your educations. I would like to make you an offer.”
    “Yes, Mr. Daniels?”
    “I understand and appreciate your passion and your dilemma. Of course Mrs. Daniels and I will always think our little child is too young to get married, but we can be objective enough to learn differently. If the two of you decide that marriage is the best thing for you, and