"You mean split the inheritance?" Lucinda asked in bewilderment.
"Give the house to her and the financial holdings to you?" She sounded shocked; that had never been done. Davencourt and all it entailed had always been kept intact.
"No, I mean leave it all to her. It should be hers anyway." Roanna needed a home. She had told him so herself-, she needed something that was hers, that could never be taken away from her.
"She's never really felt as if she belonged anywhere, and if you leave everything to me, she'll feel as if she wasn't good enough to have Davencourt, even if she did agree to the terms of the will. She needs her home, Lucinda. Davencourt should have Davenports living here, and she's the last one."
"But ... of course she would live here." Lucinda looked at him uncertainly.
"I never thought that you would make her leave. Oh, dear. That would look funny, wouldn't it? People would talk." "She told me that she plans to buy her own place."
"Leave Davencourt?" The very idea shocked Lucinda.
"But this is her home."
"Exactly," Webb said softly.
"Well." Lucinda sat back, mulling over this change in her plans. Except it wasn't a change, she realized. It was simply leaving everything as it already stood, with Roanna as her heir.
"But ... what will you do?"
He smiled, a slow smile that lit his entire face.
"She can hire me to handle the financial dealings for her," he said lightly. Suddenly he knew exactly what he wanted, and it was like a light being turned on inside him, "Better yet, I'm going to marry her."
Lucinda was truly speechless now. It was an entire minute before she could manage a squeaky "What?"
"I'm going to marry her," Webb repeated with growing determination.
"I haven't asked her yet, so keep it quiet." Yes, he was going to marry her, one way or the other. It felt
as if a piece of the puzzle had suddenly been placed in its correct position. It felt right. Nothing else would ever be as right. Roanna had always been his-and he had always often Roanna's.
"Webb, are you sure?" Lucinda asked anxiously. ,"Roanna loves you, but she deserves to be loved in return. He gave her a level look, his eyes very green, and she fell silent in astonishment.
"Well," she said again.
He tried to explain.
"Jessie-I was obsessed with her, I up pose and in a way I loved her because we grew up together, but it was mostly ego on my part. I never should 11ave married her, but I was so locked into the idea of inheriting Davencourt and marrying the crown princess that I didn't realize what a disaster our marriage would be. Roanna, now ... I've loved her for as long as she's been alive, I reckon. When she was little I loved her like a Mother, but now she's all grown up, and I'm damn sure not tier brother." He sighed, looking back over the years at how relationships had gotten tangled up with inheritances.
"If Jessie hadn't been killed, we'd have gotten divorced. I meant what I said that night. I was fed up, through with her. And if we'd been divorced, instead of things happening the way they did, I'd have been married to Roanna for a long time now. The way Jessie died split us all apart, and I've wasted ten years because of a grudge."
Lucinda searched his face, looking for the truth, and what he found made her sigh with relief. "You really do love per. 11 "So much it hurts." Gently he squeezed Lucinda's fingers taking care not to hurt her.
"She's smiled at me six times," he confided.
"And laughed once."
"Laughed!" Tears welled again in Lucinda's eyes, and this time she let them fall. Her lips trembled.
"I'd like to hear per laugh again, just once more."
"I'm going to try real hard to make her happy," Webb laid.
"When do you plan to get married?"
"As soon as possible, if I can talk her into it." He knew Roanna loved him, but convincing her that he loved her in return might take some doing. Once she would have married him under any circumstances, but now she would quietly turn stubborn if she thought something wasn't right. On the other hand, he wanted Lucinda to be at their wedding, so that meant it had to happen quickly, while she was still able to attend. And there might be another, more private reason for a quick wedding.
"Oh, posh!" Lucinda scoffed.
"You know she would walk through fire to marry you!"
"I know she loves me, but I've learned not to think she'll automatically do anything I ask. Those days are long gone. I wouldn't like having a doormat for a wife anyway. I want her to have the confidence to stand up for what she wants."
"The way she stood up for you."
"The way she's always stood up for me." When no one else had been there, Roanna had been at his side, slipping her little hand into his and offering what comfort she could. She had been far stronger than he, strong enough to make the first move, to reach out.
"She deserves the inheritance," he said.
"But besides that, I don't want her to ever feel that she had to please me in order to stay in her home."
"She might feel the same way about you," Lucinda pointed out.
"Whenever you're nice to her, she might think it's only because she holds the purse strings. I've been in that situation," she added dryly, no doubt thinking of Corliss.
Webb shrugged.
"I'm not a pauper, Lucinda, as you know damned well, since you had me investigated. I have my Arizona holdings, and they're going to be worth a good sized fortune before I get through with them. I assume Roanna read the same report you did, so she knows my financial situation. We'll be equals, and she'll know that I'm with her because I love her. I'll take care of the financial dealings if she really isn't interested; I don't know if she'll .319