Sins of the Flesh - Fern Michaels

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reaching the desk and getting his equipment for boot camp. The long journey overseas, wide-eyed and full of adventure and shaking in his new army-issued shoes and leg wraps. And then the trenches and the bitter realities of war—death and death. There didn’t seem to be anything else but a thousand ways to die. He’d been reduced to a trembling mass of raw, exposed nerves until Reuben Tarz had entered his life and taken him under his citified, knowing wing like a big, kindly, loving brother. The brother he’d never had. They’d shared rations and fears, the pain of an emotional past and then almost identical physical pain—gassed and blinded in the same overwhelming moment. Recovery at Soissons; the makeshift hospital was like a double-edged sword. Will I be blind forever, and if I recover, will that mean that I’ll be sent back to the front again? To die this time? Reuben had been just as green, just as scared as he’d been underneath that swaggering, city-boy arrogance. He remembered one night in particular when he and Reuben, both scared out of their wits, sat through an unusually fearful blitz. Daniel almost laughed now at the memory. How could you distinguish one night from another? Then he remembered how the body of a young boy had been thrown at him, bleeding open and steaming at the same time, the mingled stench of gunpowder and burning flesh. When Reuben had extricated him from the mutilated corpse, they had stared at each other and voiced the same overpowering fear—that they would die on strange soil with no one but the other to care. They’d shared their youth, their dreams, and their innocence over the next few hours, looking deeply into each other’s souls. When the sun came up they shook hands in open acknowledgement of their friendship. Who could ever forget the unbreakable bond they’d formed that fearful night? It was Reuben who put his ass on the line—or was it his body?—to get them out of the tail end of the war.

      Michelene Fonsard was benefactress to half the United States Army, or so they said. It didn’t take Daniel long to discover that the insinuations concerning her sexual prowess were half-truths. Yes, she was generous; and yes, she was vital; but he could never think of her as promiscuous. That simply was not the way he knew her. Beautiful, kind, wonderful Mickey had taken a shine to Reuben and worked her special brand of magic to get both of them mustered out before the Armistice was signed. They would never have to face the dreaded front again with its death and destruction. She’d taken them to her château and nursed them back to health. She’d royally fed and clothed them as they had never been fed and clothed before. She’d educated them, turned them into gentlemen, and shared her life with them, and she never asked for anything in return except Reuben’s love—and that he had given freely. Daniel knew now, as he had known then, that Reuben had insisted on a package deal before accepting Mickey’s offer. She had told him early on that Reuben had refused to go anywhere without his best friend.

      Daniel loved Mickey, but not the way Reuben loved her. She’d provided them with everything they could have dreamed of needing in those days and months after the war. Incredibly wealthy thanks to her late husband’s lucrative wine business, she shared and gave as though money were no object. She had provided a tutor…an old man with a mind so sharp that by the time they’d been well enough to travel to Mickey’s Paris town house, Daniel had learned enough to study at the Sorbonne, which Mickey and Reuben insisted he do. Orphan that he was, the knowledge that two such wonderful people cared about him, about his future and his well-being, was overwhelming. He’d have done anything they’d asked, but of course, they’d asked nothing in return, except his love. That was the true friendship that existed between them.

      Things changed when Mickey’s niece Bebe Rosen arrived on the scene. Daniel’s eyes clouded at the thought. He almost didn’t want to continue his musings. Get another drink, he urged himself. While he fixed it, he realized it took all the pieces to finish the puzzle. He decided he had to go on.

      Sixteen years old, beautiful, spoiled, and hot to trot, Bebe Rosen set her cap for Reuben the minute she laid eyes on him. But she was just a precocious adolescent! Daniel laughed at the realization that he still tried to defend Bebe, some twenty years later. From what he could remember Mickey felt the same way, but she also felt maternal and jealous at the same time. But he remembered Reuben handling Bebe roughly, refusing to dance to her whims and outrageous demands. Instead he’d paddled her and made her toe the line. After finding himself manipulated by her on several occasions, Daniel had grown to have mixed feelings about Bebe. But, above all, it was Bebe’s determination to have Reuben at all costs that shadowed the end of their days with Mickey.

      Daniel strained his memory to figure out what had actually happened. Before Bebe had arrived, the relationship between Reuben and Mickey had seemed to nourish them heart and soul. Daniel was sure Reuben had asked her not once but several times to marry him, but Mickey had refused. In the hope of changing her mind, Reuben had begun to learn the wine business while he, Daniel, studied at the Sorbonne. According to Reuben, she had refused his offer of marriage to secure his freedom; his whole life loomed ahead of him, she’d explained, and she wanted him to return to America to make something of himself. But never would Daniel forget the joy-filled delight they took in each other, their secret overflowing glances, the way their hands always seemed to meet, and how their eyes always seemed to dance when they were together.

      They’d stayed for two full years, two wonderful years Daniel wouldn’t have traded for anything on earth. Besides molding lifelong friendships out of sincere caring, the time he’d spent in France had formed the bedrock that enabled him to build a life for himself—solid, secure, enduring. But whenever things are too perfect, something is bound to go wrong, and that something was Bebe Rosen.

      Daniel frowned. Maybe he wasn’t being fair to Bebe; it was, after all, Reuben who had raped her. This was where it always got sticky in his mind, and to this day he’d never pressed Reuben for details. He supposed when he got to France, if he got there at all, Mickey would tell him the rest of the story.

      Philippe must be the child born of that rape; nothing else made sense, and even that didn’t make sense to Daniel. Maybe Mickey had had a child after he and Reuben returned to America. He groaned aloud. That was preposterous. He knew Mickey too well; she’d never do such an insane thing. It made more sense that she would take in Reuben’s flesh and blood. But why remain silent? And now, after all these years…

      “Goddamit to hell!” Daniel barked. His lawyer’s mind ground to a halt. How can you come to a concrete conclusion without concrete facts? Impossible. Especially when you haven’t slept for an eternity. Daniel looked at his watch—an hour until dawn. He hunkered down, but his muddled thoughts gave him no peace.

      The moment the first gray streaks appeared on the galley steps, he was off the bunk and up on deck. He leapt onto the pier and sprinted for the house, tearing at the yellow slicker as he ran. In the hallway he dropped the thick oilskin on the floor and raced for the steps leading to the second floor. He stopped short when he saw his wife at her dressing table, marveling, as he always did, at her appearance. She’d been out all night and most of the day before and still looked as perky as a fresh mint. Not a hair was out of place; her makeup was superb, her lips glossy and perfect. Gold winked at her ears and on her neck. The sea-green sheath with the slender straps was sleek and unwrinkled. Even the matching shoes were dry. As always, Daniel wondered how this was possible. For the life of him he couldn’t remember if she’d been wearing the same dress yesterday when she’d left the house. He nodded curtly as he headed for the bathroom.

      “What were you doing out so early this morning, darling?” Rajean asked with idle unconcern.

      “I spent the night on the boat,” he answered. He knew she wasn’t really interested; this was an old game between them.

      “Oh…Darling, I think Cornelia and I will stay on a few extra days if you don’t mind. The city is so beastly hot right now, and everyone, but everyone, is gone. Maybe we should think about staying on here for the summer and you could come on weekends…. Daniel? Answer me….”

      Daniel turned on the shower and walked naked into the bedroom, ignoring the look of distaste on his wife’s face. They were married, for Christ’s sake. “I think you should discuss it with Nellie. Do what you like, Rajean. I’ll leave the car at the ferry. I really don’t have time to talk now. Look…there’s every chance I’ll be…I might have to go out of town…it’s not definite…I’ll call you.”

      “You

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