Shadows on the Ivy by Lea Wait Page B

very sick, but it was not certain that she would die. And, should she die, she had left custody of Aura to Maggie. Not to Dorothy. Aura should be with the person her mother had named in her will.
    Besides, Dorothy was obviously used to getting her own way and might not be able to give Aura the freedom she would need to grow up. Grow up to be herself—not a replacement for another little girl who was no longer there.
    “Dorothy, Sarah made me Aura’s guardian. And although I never dreamed that this situation would come up, I did promise Sarah that I’d love Aura and care for her as though she were born to me.”
    “You can’t, Maggie. That’s why I told you my story. She’s my flesh and blood.”
    “But unless you can prove that—which means everyone will know Sarah was your daughter—then you have no legal right to question Sarah’s will.”
    “But you’ll do the right thing, Maggie. You’ll relinquish custody of Aura to Oliver and me. You’re not married; you work two jobs; you have no time for a child. I’ll make sure any needs you have are met. Oliver and I can give Aura everything she would ever want. For Aura’s sake, you will give her to me.”
    Maggie stood up. “Sarah’s not going to die. I can’t have this conversation. We mustn’t even think of anything but how to get Sarah well again.”
    Neither of them noticed Dr. Stevens approaching until he spoke. “I’m glad both of you are here. I just saw Sarah again, and there’s been no change. But it hasn’t even been twenty-four hours. We have to wait this out. At least there’s been no change for the worse.”
    “There is no way of predicting?” said Dorothy. The only sign of her earlier emotional story was her slightly swollen face and a trace of black mascara smudged beneath her left eye.
    “We may know more when we identify what poison she swallowed. I’m hoping those test results arrive very soon. Now we can just monitor her closely and hope for the best.” Dr. Stevens was clearly sticking to a middle ground. He was neither holding out hope nor accepting defeat. “I’ll let you know as soon as I learn something.”
    “I should be home by midafternoon.” Maggie glanced at her watch. “Right now I need to get back to campus. I have a class at one o’clock.”
    “Remember what I said.” Dorothy reached out her hand as though to stop Maggie, but Maggie kept walking.
    “I’ll remember.”
     
    There was no chance of her forgetting, Maggie thought as she drove back to campus. She swerved around the remains of several smashed pumpkins. What was Dorothy really asking—or telling? Did she expect Maggie to hand Aura over to her on the basis of a story that, much as it sounded credible, was at this point just a story? Would that even be legal? And was Dorothy offering to bribe her?
    Maggie still hadn’t sorted the situation out when she reached her office and picked up her classroom notes. Social, political, and economic reasons for the American Civil War. She had given that lecture often enough that she didn’t need to prepare for it. Which really isn’t fair to the students, she thought guiltily as she gathered up her notes and shooed Uncle Sam out from under her desk. Claudia must have left her office door open again.
    She had ten minutes before class.
    She sat down at her computer and started typing a note to Will. She hadn’t answered this morning’s e-mail, and she needed to communicate with someone who was not involved in this whole mess. But she couldn’t say anything about Aura, or about Dorothy’s confession. Not only had she promised Dorothy she wouldn’t tell anyone, but Will had made it clear that he didn’t want to have children. How would he react if Maggie suddenly had custody of Aura? Would fulfilling her dream of becoming a mother move her away from the one man she cared about?
    Maggie looked down at her right hand. She’d once mentioned to Will that she’d always loved nineteenth-century “posy” or