Beyond Midnight (45 page)

Peaches decided to free Mrs. Lagor to do her mischief.
"
I promised the person who told me this that I wouldn
'
t say anything,
"
she told the goggle-eyed mother,
"
so
—"

"
Naturally. I understand.
"

Of course you do, you self-righteous blabbermouth. And it won
'
t make a damn bit of difference, will it?

Peaches laid her hand lightly on the woman
'
s arm.
"
Thank you so much,
"
she said in a confidential murmur.
"
I feel such relief, now that I
'
ve been able to tell someone. It
'
s a terrible thing to have to keep to oneself.
"

"
Well, something
'
s going to have to be done about it,
"
said Mrs. Lagor grimly.
"
But don
'
t worry,
"
she added.
"
I won
'
t bring you into it.
"

You couldn
'
t if you tried,
thought Peaches. But she smiled bravely and said,
"
Th
ank God for parents like you."

****

Peaches was chatting with a young mother when a child exploded in a howl of pain that ripped through the laughter like the crack of thunder.

"
Oh, dear,
"
said Peaches with a gasp.
"
Not a scraped knee, that
'
s for sure.
"

A few seconds later, they had their answer. One of the toddlers had fallen and gashed her leg on a piece of broken glass that lay hidden in the grass.

"
Oh, no,
"
Peaches said, visibly upset.
"
She must not have picked up all the pieces.
"

The young mother wanted to know:
"
Pieces of what?
"

"
It was nothing, really; a little gift I brought back with me from
England
. It had such an interesting history, and I thought Mrs. Evett would be charmed by it.
"

She added lightly,
"
Have you ever heard of a witch ball?
"

Naturally the mother had not. Peaches said,
"
It
'
s a glass ball that folk
l
orists say you hang in your home to protect you from evil. I thought it was a quaint, rather pretty little gift. I was surprised, and a little hurt, that Mrs. Evett didn
'
t agree. She seemed quite upset—almost offended—when I handed it to her.
"

"
Really? That
'
s so rude,
"
said the mother, surprised.

Peaches shrugged and said,
"
Well, whatever. She dropped it as if it were a hot coal, so of course it shattered—it was very fragile—and I suppose one of the pieces got separated from the rest.
"

There wasn
'
t a doubt in Peaches
'
s mind that it had; she
'
d dropped it precisely where someone was bound to roll over it. It was even easier than making sure the glass ball slipped through Helen
'
s hand.

The mother—young, pretty, and usefully naive— frowned and said,
"
Well, if there
'
s broken glass around, I think we should
'
ve been told.
"
She went off to collect her child and spread the warning.

Peaches turned to check on Nat. He was behind her, with Katie in tow.

"
Would you mind taking over, Peach? I want to ask Helen if anyone needs a ride to the emergency room.
"

"
Someone said it was just a scratch,
"
Peaches said in a quick lie.
"
And the parents are here, after alL
"

"
Not the dad, and he
'
s got the car,
"
he said shortly, and walked off.

Peaches stared after him. This morning a cook, now a
chauffeur. What the hell next?

****

Helen had finished bandaging poor Sarah and was saying good-bye to the little girl and her mother when Nat strode in with an offer of a ride.

"
Ah, thanks,
"
she said with more emotion than she
'
d intended.
"
But James
'
s parents were leaving now, anyway.
"

"
How bad was it?
"

"
Deep enough to bleed, not big enough for stitches, thank God. I still feel awful about it. I had Becky go over the grass so carefully. That
'
s why we never allow glass outside,
"
she said, disgusted with herself.

"
Hey, c
'
mon,
"
he said, surprised by her intensity.
"
Don
'
t go beating yourself up over this. Accidents happen.
"

She wondered whether he
'
d feel that way if it were Katie who
'
d fallen on the shard.
"
I don
'
t believe in accidents,
"
she said stubbornly.
"
Ask my kids.
"

He smiled and said,
"
I keep forgetting. You
'
re a psychology major. I suppose you think the shard got overlooked on purpose. Isn
'
t that what Freud would say?
"

"
Laugh if you want to, Nat, but I mean it. I take this place absolutely seriously.
"
She put the bandages and
antiseptic
back into the medicine locker that was built into the bathroom of her office.

"
I still don
'
t know how I could
'
ve dropped it,
"
she said, closing the locker door.
"
I was so aware that it was glass
—"

"
Stop,
"
he said, touching his finger lightly to her lips.
"
Stop.
"

Helen looked into his eyes, so blue, so intense under the shock of brown hair, and said,
"
Okay. You
'
re right. I will let it go.
"
She took a deep breath and forced herself to sound light.
"
So other than the bloodcurdling screams, did you have a nice time?
"

"
Yeah,
"
he said, sounding surprised by his own answer.
"
I did. This has been the first full day off I
'
ve had in a long time.
"

"
Now wait. Be fair. Su
btract the time you spent cook
ing.
"

"
Why? That was fun.
"

"
Plus, the day
'
s not over,
"
she reminded him.
"
You may yet end up in your study.
"

He had an oddly serene smile on his face.
"
I have no desire.
"

"
Yeah, but the
...
the
...
stock market opens bright and early tomorrow,
"
she said, totally hung up on the way he
'
d said
"
desire.
"

"
It
'
ll open whether I work tonight or not,
"
he said without lowering his gaze from hers.

They were apparently in some kind of contest. He wanted to show he could be ordinary; she was determined to make him prove it.

So she hit him with the big one.
"
Your shareholders,
"
she murmured in a low, perverse taunt.

"
Oh. Them.
"
He sighed heavily, like the old woman who lived in a shoe.
"
Well
...
I
do
have my eye on a new company. It has a good price-earnings ratio
...
a high barrier to entry
...
and an ability to generate a lot of cash. I think.
"

"
You think?
"

He shrugged.
"
Corporate managers lie.
"

"No!"
She was truly shocked.

"
They do. You look pretty when your face gets flushed that way. So we ask the same questions over and over, and then we search through the answers for inconsistencies. That
'
s what I
'
d planned to do tonight.
"

"
Oh,
"
she said, flushing still more as he drew nearer.
"
And now?
"

"
—I
'
m not so sure. What are you doing tonight?
"

Her back was to the heavy paneled door, originally designed for a bank officer
'
s privy. In a faint, faint voice, she
said,
"
You
'
re asking me to help you look for lies in your notes?
"

He laughed softly.
"
You, spot a lie? I doubt it.
"
He leaned his arm on the door, over her head. He wasn
'
t exactly cornering her; but he wasn
'
t exactly not cornering her.

He began to lower his mouth to hers in a kiss. Helen could
'
ve mumbled something perfectly reasonable about it being the wrong place for that sort of thing, but instead she blurted,
"
I can
'
t do this! It would be cheating!
"

That made him blink.
"
Cheating? On whom?
"

"
On
...
on Linda. On her spirit—the memory of her, I mean.
"

"
That
'
s nuts—and more than a little ironic,
"
he added. He surprised Helen by tilting her chin up and going through with the kiss; but there was an edge to it that made her back away from it perceptibly.

With a quick, exasperated exhale he said,
"
Look. We need to put some things behind us. And we will. But for now—can
'
t you see?
"
he said in a voice that begged for understanding.
"
I
'
m attracted to you because you
are
so scrupulous.
"

He cradled her face in both his hands and said softly,
"
You
'
re a breath of fresh, clean air in my life, Helen. Everything else is stale and dirty.
"

"
That
'
s so cynical,
"
she said to him, distressed.
"
You have Katie, for one thing. And besides,
"
she felt bound to add,
"
you don
'
t know me enough to say if I
'
m fresh or if I
'
m stale.
"

And yet she knew—with hardly any specifics at all— that she loved him.