To Marry For Duty

“You live alone?”

She nodded. “In a basement apartment here in Kingston. The three of us shared it after Daddy died in the spring.”

“You have no extended family?”

“No. Our parents were both older when they married and their families have all passed on.”

“So you’re virtually alone now.”

Her throat started to close up with pain. “Yes. I sound like a big baby, don’t I?”

“Not at all. Most people have some relatives living in the same country at least. Where do you fit in your family constellation?”

Piper thought she understood what he meant. “I’m the middle child, but that may sound misleading since my sisters and I are nonidentical triplets.”

“Ah…” That was all he said, but apparently it answered some questions for him.

“I’ve never been completely alone like this before. I’m not talking just the physical separation from my sisters. It’s a mental thing.”

“The reign of the Three Musketeers has come to an end?” he supplied.

“Yes!” she cried. “It’s exactly like that. All for one, one for all. Now they have husbands and nothing will ever be the same again.”

“Are you angry about that?”

Her head was bowed. “Yes. I know that’s an awful thing to say.”

“You’re wrong. It’s the honest thing to say. If you’d said anything else, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

“It’s my fault they’re married, so I don’t have anyone to blame but myself.”

“You mean you held a gun to their husbands’ heads when they proposed to your sisters?”

She laughed in spite of her tears. If only he knew the extent of the machinations involved. “No.”

“So how could their marriages be your fault?”

“It’s a long story.”

“We have twenty more minutes.”

Meaning she’d better get to the point fast. “Greer’s the oldest. She always told Olivia and me what to do. She was the one who talked us into starting our Internet business after college. It was her plan that we become millionaires by the time we were thirty, so she said none of us could get married or it would spoil everything.

“Olivia and I didn’t care about becoming millionaires and figured we needed to get her married off first so we could meet a man and settle down to be happy like our parents.

“Dad worried about Greer’s attitude too. Before he died, Olivia and I came up with a plan for him to leave any money to us in a special fund we called the Husband Fund.

“The one legal stipulation was that we could only use the money to find a husband, and for no other reason. Of course Daddy, who approved of the idea wholeheartedly, didn’t let on to Greer that we were behind it.

“In June we planned a trip to the Riviera, the perfect place for all of us to meet an exciting man. The whole point was for Greer to meet one who would cause her to forget about becoming a millionaire.

“Greer went along with it because she was carrying out Daddy’s last wish. But she had no intention of getting married, only of getting a playboy to propose to her while we were on vacation. Then she would turn him down flat for the sheer fun of it.

“We pretended to go along with her plan. Then to our amazement she met Maximilliano di Varano of the House of Parma-Bourbon, the man of her dreams, and she ended up proposing to him! They were married inside of six weeks, and now live in Italy.

“That was terrific. It meant Olivia and I could go back to New York and do our own thing. But then,” her voice shook, “Olivia fell in love with Max’s first cousin, Lucien de Falcon, also of the House of Parma-Bourbon. They were just married a few days ago and will be living in Monaco.”

The doctor nodded. “So now you’re free to do your own thing.”

A sob got trapped in her throat. My own thing. “I don’t know what that is anymore.”

Dr. Arnavitz sat forward. “The end of the Three Musketeers may be the end of your girlhood, but it’s the beginning of Piper Duchess’s life as a woman with new worlds to conquer. Europe is as near as the next plane ride.”

“I know,” she said in a dull voice.

But Nic was there. After the way he’d rejected her, she refused to give him the satisfaction of thinking she was aware of his existence.

“Are you still working at your Internet business?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I’m an artist. I draw illustrations for wall calendars with slogans that appeal to women. You know like, ‘If you need to get it done, ask a woman.’ Greer thought up the slogans, and Olivia did the marketing.”

He smiled. “Does it provide you with a good living?”

“Yes. They’re selling well throughout the U.S. and are going to be distributed in a couple of cities in Europe.”

“Lucky you. Why don’t you turn the tables on Greer?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your sister wanted to be a millionaire by the time she was thirty. You wanted to get married. So get busy seeing how much money you can make by the time you’re thirty.

“Broaden your horizons. There’s always South America, Australia, the Far East. Set up office space. Hire staff. Become a tycoon. Make it into an empire. Who knows what the future holds in store for you?

“If you stay in that basement apartment and remain angry, no one will feel sorry for you. Not every woman has your intelligence, your talent, your health, your lovely blond looks, your ability to do whatever you want. There’s nothing to stop you except your own unhealthy self-pity.”

Ooh.

Dr. Arnavitz knew how to hit where it hurt. But that’s what she was paying him $200.00 a half hour for.

Speaking of half hour, her time was up. She thanked him for seeing her and told him she’d think hard about what he’d said.

On the drive back to the apartment in her dad’s old Pontiac, the doctor’s admonition kept swirling around in her head.

Become a tycoon, he’d said. Hire staff.