Ted turned to Rebekah once the guests had left and his mother had retired to her room. "Would you like a nightcap?"

"No…I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go straight to bed."

"You handled this evening very well." He said. "I was worried that Olivia was going to make a scene. She was sending you some rather strange looks to begin with. What did you talk about when you left the room during dinner?"

"Nothing much, just girl talk."

"Randy has been worried about her for weeks. She has apparently been on edge ever since she heard about us meeting up again."

Rebekah avoided his eyes. "I expect she wondered if I had changed."

"In what way?"

She gave a little shrug. "Who know? Perhaps she was watching to see if I was going to pilfer the family silver or something."

He stood watching her for so long that Rebekah began to feel her heart pound in the silence. "Olivia knows nothing about the sculptures."

"Kelly was her best friend." She said, mentally kicking herself. "Perhaps they discussed it some time."

He shook his head. "No. Kelly gave me her word she would not tell anyone. I cannot believe she would have let me down in such a way."

"Lucky you to have such a devoted and trustworthy sister." She remarked with a touch of irony.

Ted frowned. "What is that supposed to mean?"

She turned to look at him. "Do we have to talk about this now?"

"Yes, we do." He said. "Have you some reason to believe that Kelly spoke to Olivia about this?"

Rebekah couldn't think of a way to answer without breaking her promise to Olivia. She stood in silence, feeling the burning heat of his blue eyes as they probed her soul.

"Answer me, Rebekah."

"I would like to go to bed."

"You will go to bed when I say you can."

She threw him a defiant glare. "Don't push me too far, Ted." She warned him, her voice rising in anger. "I've had just about enough of your caveman tactics."

"You only defy me to get me to subdue you. You like to goad me into losing control. I can see the challenge in your eyes."

"What you can see is my dislike of you."

He had the gall to smile. "So the love you confessed to me earlier has suddenly been downgraded to dislike. I knew you were lying. You wanted me to confess similar feeling so you could ridicule them."

"That's not true!"

His blue eyes glinted cynically. "I know how your mind works, Rebekah. It would be the ultimate revenge, would it not, for you to hear me confess my love for you, only to reject me as I once did to you."

"Unlike you, I don't have such a ruthless disregard for people's feelings." She threw back. "Don't judge me by your own appalling standards."

There was a sound at the doorway and Rebekah turned to see Emily standing there with a bundle of bed linen almost as tall as her gathered in her arms, her bottom lip trembling. "I did a wee-wee in my bed…" She said and began to cry.

"Oh, darling." Rebekah rushed to her and held her close. "Don't worry about it. I'll get you some new sheets and pajamas."

Emily's little shoulders shook with sobs. "I heard you fighting with Daddy." She said. "He won't' stay with us if you're angry at him. Dat's what happened to Sophia's daddy. He went away."

Guilt knifed through Rebekah as she encountered Ted's gaze over the top of Emily's head. "We're not really fighting." She said soothingly. "It was more of a discussion, really."

"You were shouting." Emily said with a little sniff as her thumb crept up to her mouth. "I heard you…"

Ted crouched down to his daughter's level and hitched up her tiny wobbling chin. "You are right, little one. We were fighting, but it is over now. It is normal for adults to sometimes disagree. But as long as they say sorry, no harm is done."

"Are you going to say sorry?" Emily asked with big crystal tears still clinging to her sooty lashes.

He smiled at her tenderly and brushed a tear off her tiny cheek with the pad of his thumb. "Of course I am little one?"

Emily gave another little sniff, her tiny chest rising and falling with the effort to control her sobs. "Now?"

He immediately straightened and turned to Rebekah. "I am sorry for being so pig-headed and arrogant. You do not deserve to be spoken to like that. Will you forgive me?"

Rebekah swallowed against the ridge of emotion in her throat. He had sounded so sincere. If only he really meant it.

"Of course I forgive you…" She mumbled self-consciously.

"Mommy always kisses me when she says sorry." Emily said. "Don't you Mommy?"

"Er...yes..."

"Then I had better kiss, Mommy so she knows my apology is genuine." Ted said. "What do you think Emily?"

"I think that's a berry good idea." Emily said with a beaming smile.

Rebekah tensed as Ted's arms came around her but as soon as his mouth brushed against hers she felt her whole body soften. Her eyes closed on a little sigh of pleasure as his lips came back from another whispering touch, her arms snaking around his neck, her hips pressing against his where she could feel his blood quickening.

It took an effort but somehow she managed to step back from him and reach for her daughter's hand. "Come on, Emily." She said. "Let's get you into some fresh things so you can go back to sleep."

"I don't have to wear a diaper again, do I?" Emily asked as Rebekah gathered up the bed linen. "I'm too big to wear one. You said I am."

"No, of course not, poppet." She said, stooping to pick up a trailing edge of the sheet.

"I will see to these." Ted said, stepping forward. "You change Emily while I bring some fresh linen to her room."

Rebekah felt the brush of his hand against her breast as he took the linen from her arms. "Thank you." She said, briefly meeting his eyes.

He smiled a slow smile that warmed his blue gaze. "We should have done this much earlier." He said in a low, deep tone.

She gave him a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"

"Forgiven each other?" He said. "It is about time, don't you think?"

She couldn't quite hold his look. "I forgave you years ago, Ted." She said softly as she turned and led Emily from the room.

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