Ties That Bind Read online

  Something else Jenna had noticed immediately was the fact that all the women present were fair-skinned compared to her chocolate brown complexion. It was perfectly clear to her after tonight that she was definitely out of her element around the women and there was no way she could ever fit into Randolph’s world.

  Jenna lifted her head off the pillow when she heard a knock at the bedroom door. “Yes?”

  The door opened slowly and Julia Fuller appeared. “I think we should have a talk, Jenna.”

  Jenna sat up in the bed and nodded. “Yes, I think we should have a talk, too.”

  Julia came into the room, closed the door behind her and then leaned against it. “There’s no doubt in my mind that you’re a nice person, Jenna, but you’re not the right person for Randolph. He will need a wife who will be an asset to him.”

  “And you don’t think that I will?” she asked, feeling awful.

  “No, I think you would try but society as it is would not accept you since you don’t have a good family background. I agree it may not be fair but that’s the way things are. Do you want him to suffer because of it?”

  Jenna held her head down. “No.”

  Julia smiled. Convincing her to bail out of the picture was easier than she thought. The chit really did love Randolph. What a pity. “Then I hope you’ll find it in your heart to do the right thing. He fancies himself in love with you and can’t see how messed up his future will be if he continues to pursue a relationship with you. Randolph marrying you will bring down the Fuller family’s name. It will be up to you to call things off, Jenna, then stick to your guns. In time he will get over you, and I do appreciate what you’re doing for him.”

  With tears filling her eyes Jenna stared at the woman who wanted her out of her grandson’s life. She was so different from Mattie Denison, who had accepted her with open arms and had acted like she was the best thing to ever happen to Randolph. “You want him to marry Lena Weaver, don’t you?”

  The older woman didn’t hesitate in answering. “Yes, but I doubt Lena’s parents will approve of him getting back with Lena after the way he has treated her. But there is another woman out there who is far more suitable for him than you are. And I will get them together.”

  Jenna wiped at her tears. “Don’t you think Randolph has a right to choose his own wife?”

  Julia shook her head. “No. He doesn’t know what he needs as a helpmate for his career. I do. I’m one of the main reasons my husband is as successful as he is. I came into our marriage with a strong family background and connections. You have neither.”

  She sighed then, evidently weary of the conversation. “Randolph and Ross went with their grandfather to take A. Philip to the train station. I suggest you leave while they’re gone.”

  “Leave?”

  “Yes. Leave. The Weavers are returning to Washington tonight and they have agreed that you can ride back with them.”

  Jenna nodded. Randolph’s grandmother was letting her know she was no longer welcome in her home. “What about Randolph? What will you tell him when he returns?”

  “That you made the right decision about your relationship since he couldn’t.” She stared hard at Jenna. “He’ll eventually contact you to try and work things out, but you have to be strong and do the right thing. Understand?”

  Jenna sighed deeply. “Yes. I understand. I understand more than you will ever know.”

  Angela tiptoed back to her room after having stood at the door eavesdropping on the conversation between Julia Fuller and Jenna. She couldn’t help but smile. The older woman was letting Jenna know in no uncertain terms that she would never be accepted into the Fuller family. The girl would be a fool to try to hang onto Randolph now.

  Angela’s smile widened. With both Lena and Jenna out of the picture, things would be smooth sailing from here. Now, if she could only come up with a plan to rid herself of Ross in such a way that would assure her of having Randolph.

  She would have to bide her time and come up with an opportunity, but under no circumstances would she let Ross break things off with her. She knew he was annoyed with her after what she had said tonight. If she didn’t know better she would think he was kind of sweet on Jenna himself. But she knew to accuse him of it without sufficient proof would be a mistake.

  As she went into the bathroom to take her shower she wondered just how Randolph would react when he came back and discovered Jenna was gone.

  “Jenna?” Randolph whispered her name a second time and when she didn’t answer, he pushed open the bedroom door. The room was empty. Jenna wasn’t there.

  He went down the hall to his grandparents’ room and knocked. His grandfather opened the door.

  “Yes, Randolph, what is it?”

  “Jenna isn’t here. Ask Grandmother if she had to go out or something.”

  “She’s left.” His grandmother’s voiced carried from within the room, behind his grandfather.

  Randolph knew both men’s expressions reflected surprise. He quickly moved past his grandfather and entered the room. “What do you mean she’s left?”

  Julia was sitting up in bed reading like nothing was bothering her, especially the fact that Jenna had left. “Jenna decided to leave,” she said.

  Anger, immediate and to a degree he had never experienced before, raced through Randolph. There was no way Jenna would have up and left unless his grandmother had said something to her. He took a few steps to stand in front of the bed. “What did you say to her?”

  His grandmother lifted her head from her book, hearing the tone of voice he was using on her. “Do not raise your voice to me, Randolph. Robert, tell him not to raise his voice.”

  Robert Fuller glanced away from his wife to his grandson. “Don’t raise your voice to your grandmother, Randolph. Please let me do the honor.” He then turned back to his wife. “What did you say to her, Julia?” he asked in a very loud voice.

  Julia gasped. Her husband had never raised his voice to her before. “Robert, please, we have guests in this house and I—”

  “Answer my question, damnit!”

  Julia stopped talking immediately. Her husband had never spoken to her in such a manner. “Robert, please calm down. I won’t tolerate you speaking to me that way.”

  “And I won’t tolerate you sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong any longer, Julia. For years I sat back and did nothing while you tried to meddle in our son’s life. He loved Adrianna, and you knew it but you couldn’t be happy for him. Instead you made it nearly impossible for him to come home to even visit. You made him choose between us and the woman he loved and he chose her, and to this day you have never forgiven him for it.”

  “Ross Senior was my son. I loved him and only wanted what was best for him.”

  “What was best by your holy standards, Julia, not his. Now you’re trying to do the same thing to Ross and Randolph. Ross may go along with your foolishness to keep peace but Randolph won’t, and I commend him for it, just like I commended Ross Senior for standing up to you. Now it’s time I put my foot down before you do any more damage. I want you to listen to me and listen to me good,” he said, leaning over the bed into her face. “If you want us to continue living under the same roof, I would suggest you answer my question and answer it now!”

  Julia swallowed. She moved her gaze from her husband’s stormy face to that of her grandson’s. The look he was giving her was just as angry and filled with bitterness. “Jenna went back to Washington.”

  “How did she get back to Washington?” Robert Fuller almost growled the question.

  Julia swallowed again. “With the Weavers.”

  “What did you say to her, Grandmother?” Randolph spoke for the first time since his grandfather had interceded.

  Julia turned her attention to Randolph. “I made her see reason. I told her that she would never benefit your career as your wife since she didn’t bring a strong family background. I also made her see that in marrying you all she would do would be to bring do
wn the Fuller family name. Now she fully understands why the two of you could never have a future together.”

  Randolph stared at his grandmother, not believing she had said those things to Jenna, and not sure if he would ever forgive her for doing so. “I’m leaving, going back to Washington and will try to convince Jenna that we can have a future together. And you better hope that I can, Grandmother Julia, because I won’t set another foot in this house again if I can’t. And the Fuller name that you’re so proud of, I will disown.”

  She placed a hand over her heart. “You can’t mean that.”

  “Yes, I do.” He then walked out of the bedroom.

  Julia met her husband’s angry gaze. “You have to stop him, Robert.”

  “No, Julia, in fact I plan to drive him to Washington tonight myself.”

  “But—but, it’s late and tonight’s your birthday.”

  “Yes, and it’s the worst birthday I’ve ever had because of what you’ve done. For the first time in my life, Julia, I can look into your face and say that you have truly disappointed me and a part of me regrets the day I married you. Have you ever thought of the fact that maybe you weren’t my choice for a wife, either?” He then turned and walked out of the room.

  “Hey, what’s all the commotion about?” Ross asked, entering his brother’s bedroom. He frowned when he saw Randolph packing. “Where are you going?”

  “After Jenna.”

  Ross raised a bemused brow. “After Jenna? But isn’t she in the bedroom down the hall?”

  Randolph angrily shook his head. “No, Grandmother Julia said something to her about not being the woman for me and then conveniently sent her back to Washington with the Weavers.”

  At first Ross was too shocked to speak. Then he said, “Grandmother Julia has gone too far this time.”

  “Yes, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive her for it. Dealing with me was one thing, but deliberately going after Jenna and hurting her was another. She didn’t deserve that. I knew I should not have brought her here tonight. Even Angela was rude to her.”

  Ross nodded. “Yes, I know and I apologize for that.”

  Randolph stopped packing and stared at his brother. “You shouldn’t be the one apologizing. Angela is a grown woman who’s responsible for her own actions.”

  Ross shrugged. “I think she’s jealous of Jenna.”

  “Why on earth would she be jealous of Jenna?”

  Ross sighed. “When she made a comment about Jenna, I stood up for Jenna in such a way to make her think that I thought Jenna was very special to me as well. I don’t think she liked me sticking up for Jenna the way I did.”

  When Randolph didn’t say anything, Ross continued. “You and Noah were right. There is no passion between Angela and me. But I’ve accepted things as they are, Rand, since I don’t need love and passion anyway. But you do. You need love and passion and you need Jenna. I hope you can work things out with her. She’s been dealt a bad hand. Grandmother Julia had no right to do what she did.”

  Randolph nodded in agreement as he closed his luggage.

  When Jenna reached the dorm the only thing she wanted to do was go to bed and cry. Although the Weavers hadn’t been deliberately mean, they had practically ignored her during the entire trip.

  She was glad she was alone. Leigh was probably spending the night over at Noah’s and she figured Ellie was someplace with Tyrone.

  She had barely settled into bed when the phone began ringing. She placed her pillow over her head to drown out the noise. She refused to answer it in case it was Randolph. She wasn’t ready to deal with him yet. Tears rolled down her face as the telephone kept ringing. Ignoring it, she closed her eyes and forced her mind into sleep.

  The next morning Jenna had just finished brushing her teeth and washing her face when the phone rang. Feeling like she was in a better frame of mind to deal with Randolph, she picked it up. “Hello.”

  “Are you alone?”

  She recognized his voice immediately. “Yes.”

  “Are you dressed yet?”

  She lifted a bemused brow and said, “No.”

  “Then put on some clothes, I’m on my way over.”

  Jenna’s heart began beating rapidly. “On your way over? Aren’t you still in Virginia?”

  “No, I came home last night. Did you think I wouldn’t come after you, Jenna?”

  She closed her eyes. Deep down she should have known that he would. “I just assumed you would wait.”

  “Well, you thought wrong. Put on some clothes. Or if you prefer you can keep them off. Either way I’m on my way over.” And with that last statement he hung up.

  Jenna nervously licked her bottom lip after placing the phone back in its cradle, thinking that was the angriest she had ever heard Randolph sound.

  Jenna was fully dressed when she opened the door for Randolph less than ten minutes later. He walked past her and entered her dorm room, closing the door behind him. When he turned to face her his features indicated he’d had a very sleepless night. His features also indicated he was indeed angry.

  “How dare you let my grandmother do this to us, Jenna! We had an agreement that no one would ever come between us,” he said in an irritated tone of voice.

  “Randolph, don’t be mad, please. She only made me realize I would never fit into your world. And she’s right.”

  He said nothing for the longest time, then he took a step toward her. With shaking fingers he reached out and captured her face in his hand. “Don’t you know by now that you are my world, Jenna? Don’t you know that the only way I can be happy is with you? We’ve pledged our lives together. You are already mine in every sense of the word. In my heart you are already my wife. I chose you a long time ago and in my heart and in the eyes of God, I made it official last week on Glendale Shores. It doesn’t matter what my grandmother wants for me. The most important thing is what I want for myself, and I want you.”

  Tears sprang into Jenna’s eyes. “Oh, Randolph.”

  He leaned down and kissed her wet cheeks. “I love you, Jenna,” he said in a voice thick with love. “Don’t ever doubt my love for you and don’t ever think that something will come up between us that we can’t work out. Don’t let my grandmother, or anyone, come between us.”

  Jenna hesitated only a second before she nodded and said, “I won’t.”

  He then leaned over and kissed her deeply and thoroughly. She readily accepted the thrust of his tongue and her body arched against his. When he lifted his head, he smiled and said huskily, “Besides, it’s not definite that you aren’t pregnant, is it?”

  Jenna shook her head. “No, it’s only been a little over a week and too soon to tell. But like I told you, I feel certain that I’m not pregnant.”

  He nodded. “And if you are, I meant what I said, Jenna. We’re getting married with or without anyone’s blessings. All right?”

  She gazed at him with so much love in her heart. “All right.”

  She didn’t hesitate going into his arms when he devoured her lips again. The need to be connected to him in the most elemental and primal way was what she wanted, and she could tell from the way he kissed her that it was what he wanted as well.

  Knowing it would be later that day when Leigh and Ellie came home, she began walking backward and pulled Randolph down on the bed with her. In Randolph’s arms was where she would always want to belong.

  Twelve

  As Jenna predicted, she had not gotten pregnant during the week they had spent at Glendale Shores, and since she and Randolph would be apart during the summer months, she decided to wait until returning to school in the fall before going on birth control pills.

  With less than two months left before the school year ended, Randolph and Jenna spent most of their time studying and working on various reports they had to turn in. They had put the episode involving his grandmother behind them. He still had not returned home to Virginia, too angry with his grandmother to see her. Although Jenna wanted him
to forgive her and put the incident behind him, he hadn’t yet found it in his heart to forgive nor forget.

  On April the fourth Jenna turned nineteen and Randolph became twenty-one. They celebrated their birthdays together in the privacy of a hotel room in an upscale area of Washington. He gave her a beautiful charm bracelet and she gave him a nice set of cuff links. Their relationship was going smoothly. They enjoyed the time they spent together and since they had become intimate, were closer than ever before. It was obvious to anyone who was around them for any length of time that they were truly in love.

  The same held true for Leigh and Noah. Leigh was to return to Miami during the summer to work in her mother’s beauty salon, and Noah planned to join Ross after graduation and volunteer his time and services to assist Martin Luther King, Jr. in the voter registration drive. Both Noah and Ross decided that although they opposed the war, they would enlist instead of waiting to be drafted. If they enlisted as law school graduates they could enter the armed services as officers. Noah had his eye on the air force and Ross was looking at the marines.

  Noah made a decision not to mention his military plans to Leigh yet. He knew the thought of him going off to war was something she would not be able to deal with right now. After losing her brother she would go bonkers if he went anywhere that would place his life in danger.

  News about the war for the past few months hadn’t been that encouraging. The air war had increased and the ground war was still reporting a high number of American casualties. Demonstrations against the war were held on a number of college campuses. Howard University had held one such demonstration. Led by a group that called themselves BOTTW—Blacks Opposed To The War—it had been a peaceful demonstration of over two thousand students. Noah and Leigh, as well as Randolph, Jenna, Ellie and Tyrone had all participated.