A Perilous Eden (4 page)

“No, sir,” Ted agreed. He hesitated a moment. “He's in Washington now. I called him about a ceremony to honor his old unit. He should have come in just about—” he paused to look at his watch “—an hour ago.”

The president glanced at Ted with some surprise, then he smiled with slow and rueful admiration. “When is the ceremony?”

“Tomorrow at two.”

“I assume that my schedule is free, and that I'll be able to attend?”

“Yes. You'll be able to observe Mr. Tchartoff before you meet with him.”

The president nodded, satisfied. “Let's just hope, shall we, that he's still angry enough to accept our bait. Does he know our latest intelligence?”

“That the Death Squad was responsible for the bomb that killed his wife?”

“Yes.”

“I don't know. He may have suspected.”

“But we have proof.” The president sat back. “I'm looking forward to meeting Mr. Tchartoff.” He smiled. “I hear that someone else is due in today.”

Ted felt a wide grin form. “Yes.” He glanced at his watch. “Amber should have arrived this morning. She said that she wanted to explore the Smithsonian, then she would come to lunch.”

“I'd like to see her. Can the two of you come to dinner this evening?”

“I'm sure that Amber will be delighted.”

“Good.”

Amber Larkspur stared at the giant elephant in the center of the rotunda of the Museum of Natural History. As many times as she had come here, she still loved the place. Just as she loved the Museum of the American People and the art museums and the Air and Space Museum and everything else about the entire Smithsonian Institution.

There was no place quite like Washington, D.C. She had missed it.

A group of schoolchildren came running out of the hallway leading to the sea creatures. Laughing, they raced for the elephant.

Amber carefully stepped out of their way, smiling. As an army brat, she'd done a lot of moving around. But what time she had spent in one place had been here—or, really, Alexandria, Virginia. As a kid she had come on field trips here, just as these kids were doing now. Life had been so simple then—and, of course, she hadn't had the good sense to appreciate it. Not the simplicity, not the beauty. She smiled to herself, remembering the old saying—youth was wasted on the young.

Not that she was old, she reminded herself. But she had just turned twenty-nine, and she couldn't deny that it was knowing thirty was just around the corner that had made her change her life so drastically last week.

A young couple looking around a little bit helplessly caught Amber's attention. She smiled, realizing that they wanted to be together in a picture. She stepped forward, offering to snap a shot for them.

“Oh, will you?” The young woman, a pretty little brunette, flushed. “Thank you so much. This is our honeymoon, and we haven't got a single picture together so far.”

“What a shame!” Amber said, smiling. “You should just ask. People here are great. Honestly. They'll be happy to help you.”

She took a few pictures for them, then glanced at her watch. She wasn't due to meet her father for a half hour yet. Not enough time to see another museum, but too much time for hurrying.

The couple thanked her, then asked her advice on the city. She suggested an itinerary for them, then saw them off with a wave.

Babies, she thought. Neither one of them could be over twenty. And they were married and off on a honeymoon. Just like playing house, only it was the real world.

Amber stepped outside. May was such a beautiful month here. The sky was mostly clear, with only a soft puff of cloud visible here and there. The cherry blossoms were out, the grass was green, and the world was beautiful.

She stuck her hands into the pockets of her blazer, crossed the street and idly began to wander along the grass toward the subway station. It felt like summer was here; even on a workday, it was evident. A young man tossed a Frisbee to a dog. Two women—office workers, perhaps, judging by their fashionable dresses—picnicked on the lawn. There was a softball game going on about a hundred yards away. All around her she could hear laughter, and it was nice.

“This is the world,” she murmured to herself. “All you have to do is open the door and step into it.”

She smiled and picked up the tempo of her walk, her shoulder bag swinging beside her. She passed by a park bench with a man sitting on it.

She didn't know why, but when she had passed the man, she turned back to look at him.

He was just sitting there. He looked like a million other men on a warm day in the park. He was wearing jeans, sneakers and a denim shirt. His arms were stretched out along the back of the bench, and his face was turned to the sun, as if he was savoring the warmth.

Even as she stared at him, he looked up, staring straight at her in return. It was uncanny. He had sensed her. She wasn't moving, she hadn't uttered a word, but he had known that she was watching him, and he had known exactly where she was standing.

She flushed, but though she meant to, she didn't draw her eyes away from his immediately. He was too intriguing. She couldn't begin to judge his age, except that he was still young enough—though young enough for what, she wasn't sure. He wasn't handsome; he was arresting. His features were rugged and strong, his eyes mesmerizing. They were light, she thought. She couldn't really see them, but they were light, and he was reading her quickly, like an open book, instantly storing away whatever he saw, whatever he thought. There was a brooding intensity about him, she thought. An energy that lingered beneath his pose of lethargy.

Then he smiled. It wasn't a lascivious smile—not the type of smile she might have expected from a strange man who had caught her staring at him in the park. It was just an interested smile, and maybe a slightly amused one. If he didn't smile, she thought, he might be the type of man to make a person tremble. He wasn't a man she would want to cross.

“Hello,” he said.

Amber felt a little like a fool. She nodded, then smiled in return. He was an intriguing man, but Washington was full of them. Powerful men, ambitious men. She felt that this one was powerful, but maybe not so ambitious. Or maybe he just didn't have the same ambitions as other men. It didn't matter, she assured herself. She was standing there staring at him, which was rude, and the least she could do was say hello back.

“Hello,” she returned. Then she swung around quickly and started for the subway station. As she walked, she felt that he was still looking at her. She turned around. He
was
watching her. And he didn't pretend to look elsewhere when she caught him; in fact, he waved. She waved back, then kept walking, more quickly. She even ran down the steps when she reached the subway.

Once she was seated on the train, she tried to think ahead to lunch with her father, but the face of the stranger kept coming back to her.

It would fade, she assured herself.

By the time she reached the restaurant, she had almost forgotten his face. She wanted to tell her father the truth about what she was doing. She didn't want him to feel sorry for her—she didn't want him to say, “I told you so,” and she didn't want him to worry. But neither could she forget five years of her life, and she didn't want to pretend that what she was going through wasn't heartbreaking.

They had arranged to meet at Zefferelli's, a hole-in-the-wall not too far from the Capitol building. Amber arrived first. She was pleased when Zefferelli recognized her and led her to a small booth in the back with a single glowing candle and a spotless white cloth. Amber ordered wine, then sat back to wait for her father.

He arrived within five minutes. She saw him enter and speak with Zefferelli. She jumped to her feet, waving. She was so proud of him. He was a handsome man, with a distinguished touch of gray at the temples and his lean, straight form. He meant everything in the world to her, now more than ever.

He weaved his way among the tables and came over to her. She hugged him enthusiastically, curiously near crying as she did. She laughed, and her eyes watered, and they broke apart at last and sat across from one another.

After they ordered, Amber began by asking him about life in the White House. He told her about the president's granddaughter, an eighteen-month-old, who had been left with the goldfish for a moment. She had taken all the pretty little creatures out and laid them on the table. The poor baby had been heartbroken to discover that they had all died.

Amber laughed; then Ted told her with a sigh that things weren't going very well. They'd had another diplomat kidnapped in Rome the other day.

“How terrible!” Amber cried softly. “Did he have a family?”

Her father swallowed a sip of water. “Two little girls, a young, pretty wife.”

“It makes my problems seem rather shallow,” she murmured.

Ted Larkspur took his daughter's hands in his own. “Nothing about you has ever been shallow, sweetheart. What's going on? I've been worried sick since you called.”

“I left Peter, Dad.”

Ted absorbed the information silently, nodding. “For good?”

She shrugged. “Maybe I didn't really intend to at first. I don't know. Maybe I was dreaming. I might have thought that if I actually walked away—packed my bags, stored my belongings—he would realize that I wasn't bluffing.” She smiled ruefully, picking up her wineglass. “We all just keep on believing in Prince Charming, I suppose. I thought he'd run after me and swear that he understood. So far, it hasn't happened.”

Ted looked at Amber. He didn't want to say, “I told you so,” but his values had been right in this case.

“Maybe you never should have moved in with him.”

Amber smiled. She had been expecting this. “Dad, I still believe that a forced marriage would have been a far worse thing.” She laughed. “But marriage wasn't the point. It's my age, I think. It's the old biological clock. I'm almost thirty.”

Ted smiled. She might have been mentioning the fact that she was coming up on her centennial.

“I do believe that Peter loves you. I don't think I could ever have endured that living arrangement if I didn't believe that. Do you think he'll come after you?”

Amber thought about the night—just two nights ago—when she had walked out of her home of five years. Over the past two years she had contemplated the move. Peter didn't want marriage; he didn't want to raise a family. He did love her, and more: he needed her.

He was five years older than she was, a good-looking man with dark hair and bright Irish eyes, a deep barrel chest, dimples and an easy smile. She'd fallen for him the moment they had met—in a bowling alley. He'd been seeing someone else at the time, and she had lain awake night after night praying that he would eventually call her.

He did. Casual dates at first—she knew that he was still seeing the other woman. She had refused to enter into a sexual relationship with him until she was the only one in his life. She was far from world-weary at twenty-five, but she knew that if she began a relationship that way, it would never change.

She should have been savvy enough to realize that the same thing applied to their living arrangements. Peter was a sweetheart. He was charming, and he would do anything for her—except make a complete commitment and agree to children. He loved her, he needed her, but he really had to keep thinking about children.

Well, he had been thinking for years.

Amber smiled sadly. He still didn't believe that she was really gone, she was sure. She loved Peter, but she wanted children, and she didn't believe in tricking any man into something that he didn't want. Children deserved to be loved and wanted—by both parents.

She didn't want a place to live—she wanted a home. She wanted a big backyard with some ridiculously huge German shepherd to slobber all over them. It didn't seem like so much to ask out of life. All her friends envied her, she knew. She was well traveled, well educated; her father was a key man at the White House; she and Peter both made good money.

She had everything. Except for kids. Except for a simple gold band around her finger.

“Amber?”

“I'm sorry, Dad. I was wandering, I suppose.”

“I said, do you think he'll come after you?”

“I don't know. Maybe. But I'm already wondering if it would be enough.”

Zefferelli came over with their tortellini. Amber told her father that she had resigned from the magazine where she had been an associate editor. Ted remained silent as she told him that she planned to take some time off, then see if she could get a job with one of the Washington papers.

“It will work out,” he told his daughter.

She smiled, and he wondered how any man could let a woman escape when she had a smile like that and a heart the size of Kansas. And a mane of hair like a lioness, blue-green eyes like the Caribbean and a slim, shapely form to rival any man's fantasy.

He was prejudiced, of course. He was her father. He would have liked to drag Peter Greenborough to the altar with a shotgun. But that wasn't what she wanted, and he knew it. Well, it was her life.

“By the way, the president has asked us to dinner.”

“How nice!” Amber exclaimed. She was lying. She didn't want to go to dinner at the White House. They wouldn't be alone. There would be senators, other politicians. They would pair her off with some eligible man, and she would be miserable all night.

One way or the other, she would be miserable. But at the moment she just wanted to be miserable alone. She wanted to imagine Peter's face and dream that he would come for her, ready to convince her that he couldn't go on without a real commitment, either. That he was dying for children. Twins, triplets …

Amber paused suddenly, frowning. She wasn't imagining Peter's face, not the face she loved, not the face she had just left behind.