Cutler 3 - Twilight's Child (26 page)

"Are you kidding?" Philip cried out, laughing at my suggestion. "Mother would simply pile on her complaints and recommendations about the wedding. We would drive each other crazy. No, thank you."

"Well, I can't work with you just sitting there, Philip," I insisted. He nodded and rose from his seat.

"Your house is looking beautiful," he said, not with any real enthusiasm.

"Thank you."

"Actually, I'm kind of upset about it. Now that Clara Sue's gone and Mother's remarried and you're moving out, everyone will be gone from the family section but me," he complained.

"You have Betty Ann," I reminded him. "And I'm sure you will be raising a family. You should be happy you have all that privacy."

"Yes," he said, looking down at the floor. Then he looked up at me and smiled, but it was a queer, shadowy smile.

"You haven't asked me about it, so I imagine you don't know where we're going for our honeymoon, do you?" he asked.

"No." I sat back, a ripple of apprehension creeping up my spine. "Where?"

"The exact same place you and Jimmy went in Province-town on Cape Cod," he replied. "I got the information from Jimmy. I'm surprised he didn't tell you. Or did he?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. My heart began to thump in my chest. Jimmy hadn't told me because he knew it would upset me, I thought. "Haven't you been to Cape Cod?" I asked.

"Oh, I have, and so has Betty Ann, dozens of times. Matter of fact," he said, "her parents have a house in Hyannis Port."

"So why are you going there? Why don't you go someplace neither of you has been so you can see new things?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"When you're on a honeymoon," he said, his eyes twinkling, "you don't care about the surroundings, do you? Don't tell me you and Jimmy did a lot of sightseeing," he said, his eyes and his smile full of suggestion.

"We didn't have time to do much, if you will recall. Randolph had just died," I reminded him sharply.

"Uh-huh," he said, unflappable. He kept his eyes trained on me, a wry smile cocking his lips. "Is Jimmy a good lover?" he asked.

"That's not the sort of thing I care to discuss with you, Philip," I replied. My voice took on the steely edge of a razor, but his smile widened.

"I bet it was hard for you two, continually reminded of yourselves as brother and sister. How did you get over that, or didn't you?" he asked, his head tilted slightly, his eyes narrowing.

"I said I don't care to discuss it, Philip," I flared. He stared at me a moment and then nodded.

"Okay," he said. "I'm sorry. I guess I'm just nervous. Maybe I will follow your suggestion and take a ride up to see Mother. I need the amusement," he said. "Sorry I bothered you." He turned and headed for the door. After he opened it he paused. "But I meant what I said about being lonely in the family section now. I'll miss you, miss listening to you move about your suite." He raised his eyebrows. "I can hear almost everything through those walls, you know."

I reddened.

"Not that I'm trying to listen. I don't have my ear up against the wall," he added quickly. "It's just that after a while you get used to certain sounds." He shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe someday soon Betty Ann and I will be in a house, too, and not far from you and Jimmy. Then the only one left living in the family section will be Grandmother's ghost," he added with a laugh.

I stared, feeling a scream in my throat that just stayed there. He shook his head and walked out, closing the door softly behind him. The silence that rained down around me filled me with a terrifying chill. I embraced myself and sat back. It was as if the cold was coming from inside me, as if an ice cube in my stomach was building and building. Finally I had to get up and go outside into the warm sunlight. I walked around the hotel and found Jimmy talking with some maintenance men who were about to wash windows.

"Hi," he said, seeing me approach. He took one look at the expression on my face and his face became somber. "Something wrong?"

"Oh, Jimmy," I said. "I want to move into our new house right away—tomorrow, if we can."

"Tomorrow?" He started to laugh.

"Yes, tomorrow," I insisted.

"But I don't have all the plumbing fixtures, and we haven't even connected our phone lines, and—"

"Well, when can we move in?" I demanded.

"We're on schedule, but I suppose I could rush a few things and get us in comfortably in, say, a week. Why? What's the rush?" he asked.

"Nothing. You were right about living in the hotel," I said quickly. "I need to feel I'm in my own place."

"Okay. I'll see what I can do to rush it even more. In the meantime, maybe you ought to start thinking about packing our things, getting that part organized."

"I will. I’ll see Mrs. Boston and Sissy about it right away.

Thank you," I said, kissing him on the cheek. "I don't mean to be a burden."

"You're no burden; you could never be a burden. A pain in the you-know-where once in a while, but a burden—"

"All right, James Gary Longchamp," I chastised playfully. He laughed, and then I felt the cold and the trepidation lift out of my body. It was so good having Jimmy. He was my strength, the rainbow at the end of every storm, the sunlight breaking through every cloud.

I returned to the hotel to resume my work and put all my dark concerns at the very bottom of my trunk of thoughts where they belonged.

But dark thoughts and trouble seemed to have a way of finding my doorstep. Two days before Philip's wedding I had an unexpected visit from Clara Sue and Charlie Goodwin. I was in the office reading Mr. Dorfman's weekly financial report and recommendations when my door was thrown open and Clara Sue appeared like the queen of nightmares, wearing the same tight-fitting violet silk dress she had worn the last time we had been alone together. For the rest of my life I would never forget any of the details of the nightmarish day when Clara Sue had stolen my most precious possession: my unborn baby. The horror would haunt me until the day I died.

At first, because of the way she stood there with her hands on her hips, I didn't see Charlie Goodwin behind her; but when she stepped in he appeared, hat in hand, that sly smile cutting a crooked line from the corners of his mouth through the sides of his lean cheeks.

"Well, look at how you've changed Grandmother's office!" Clara Sue exclaimed. "I bet this cost a pretty penny to do, and for what? Just to make you happy, I suppose."

"It's my office now, Clara Sue," I said, glaring back at her. "What is it you want? Make it quick. I've got work to do."

"Me and Charlie want to talk to you, right, Charlie?" she said, turning back.

"Uh-huh," he said, continuing to smile.

"Charlie's a businessman," Clara Sue bragged. "He knows about all this stuff," she added, waving at the walls of my office as if they were covered with Wall Street ticker tape.

"Talk to me about what, Clara Sue?"

"About the hotel. What did you think?" She plopped herself down in one of the red leather chairs and crossed her stockinged legs. "Sit down, Charlie," she commanded. Charlie took the other chair quickly.

"So how's business?" Clara Sue demanded.

"We're doing well," I said. "If you have any—"

"You know," Clara Sue said quickly, leaning toward me, "Grandmother Cutler loved me the best. She wanted me to be the real owner of this place some day."

I sat back and smiled.

"I hardly think so, Clara Sue. Whatever I say about Grandmother Cutler, I will never say she was stupid," I replied. My comment had the effect of slapping her across the face, and I relished the look of outrage washing over her features. She snapped back in her seat, her smile washed away.

"That's what you say, but I had many a talk with her before you came here and ruined our lives," she insisted.

"I don't want to go through this with you again, Clara Sue. You and I have nothing to say to each other. I'm really going to have to ask you to leave. I'm busy."

"I'm not leaving so fast. We've still got unfinished business. And I've told you before, Dawn"—her eyes glinted maliciously—"especially that last time we spoke, not to try giving me orders." A sly smile twitched across Clara Sue's lips. "You remember our last conversation, don't you, Dawn? Surely you haven't forgotten the details of that day." She laughed cruelly. "We were in your bedroom, and I was wearing this exact same dress—"

I cut Clara Sue off before she could continue. "Don't you
ever, ever
mention that day to me again, you murderer!" I lost control of myself as my rage toward Clara Sue and what she had done to me suddenly burst forth. "As long as I live I will
never, ever
forget that day or forgive what you did to me. The only reason I can tolerate the sight of you is that I know it was all a tragic accident. You didn't know I was pregnant, yet what happened that day could have been avoided if only you would let go of the hatred you hold against me. I've never tried to hurt you, Clara Sue."

"Accidents happen," she sneered. "My heart was broken when I heard the news. To think I missed out on being an aunt again. By the way, how's the brat? Does she miss her Auntie Clara Sue? I'd love to see her. I've got some stories I'd love to tell her. One's about a princess named Dawn and a big bad wolf named Michael." Clara Sue grinned at me wickedly.

"Get out!" I shouted, outraged at the audacity of her threatening to tell Christie the truth about her parentage before she was ready to hear it. "Get out before I have you thrown out! How we can even be related is beyond me."

"I'm not leaving," Clara Sue spat in a steely whisper. "Not until you hear what Charlie and I have to say, right, Charlie?" She turned sharply on him, and it was as if she held some string attached to his head. He straightened up quickly and nodded.

"She's right, Mrs. Longchamp," he said.

"Call her Dawn, or better yet, Eugenia," Clara Sue said, smiling maliciously. "That's what Grandmother Cutler wanted her to be called."

"What is it you have to say, Mr. Goodwin?" I asked. It was my turn to be demanding.

"Well, Clara Sue's been telling me about the situation with the hotel—the wills and all—and, well, to be direct, Mrs. Longchamp, it sounds to me like she hasn't gotten her fair share of things. I'm familiar with estates and wills and deeds and—"

"Clara Sue knows very well that we have an attorney, Mr. Updike, and if she has any legal complaints to make, those complaints should be directed to him," I said curtly.

"He's just going to do whatever you want him to do," Clara Sue hissed. "You've managed to fool him the way you've fooled everyone else."

"I would hardly do anything other than what my attorney recommended, Mr. Goodwin," I said, ignoring Clara Sue completely. "So if you feel you want to present something on her behalf, he is the man to call. be glad to give you his phone number," I said, opening a drawer to get one of Mr. Updike's business cards.

"We don't want his phone number," Clara Sue snapped. "Tell her, Charlie," she demanded.

"Tell me what, Mr. Goodwin?"

"Well, I discussed Clara Sue's situation with my own attorney, and he says there's real cause for contesting the wills, especially the grandfather's will that leaves a majority interest in things to you.

"I don't mean any disrespect," he continued, "but facts are facts, and the fact is that you're a child born out of wedlock, whereas Clara Sue here is a legitimate child. It seems to us she should be getting a bigger piece of the pie," he concluded.

"Is that so?" I said.

"Yeah, that's so," Clara Sue said, smiling. She looked at me triumphantly.

I looked from her to Charlie Goodwin and suddenly realized what it was that drew this man to her. Surely she had described her family situation to him, and he had thought there was gold to dig. Now that Charlie Goodwin believed he was so close to getting his hands on some big money, he looked like he could taste it. The tip of his tongue moved over his lips in anticipation of my surrendering some lucrative percentage of Cutler's Cove to Clara Sue.

"I'm afraid it isn't so, Clara Sue," I said. I rose from my chair, ready to divulge my own little surprise.

As I moved around the desk I couldn't help but recall the way Grandmother Cutler had looked down at me and spoken to me that first time we had met. Queenly stiff, she rained her orders and commands over me with a torrent of authority and power that made my knees knock. As slight as she was in build, she had a tremendous aura of authority about her and looked as if she could command the sky to clear or the clouds to storm. She wore her confidence like a steel rod in her back and filled her voice with strength and superiority. To challenge her seemed futile, even dangerous.

"What isn't so?" Clara Sue cried. I leaned back on my desk and folded my arms comfortably.

"That I'm illegitimate and you're legitimate."

Clara Sue started to laugh.

"I'm not kidding," I said quickly. Her laughter ended. "For years you've called me a bastard, and all along you've been no different yourself."

"What the hell are you saying?" she demanded. She rose up in her seat, ready to confront me.
"What the hell are you saying?"
she shrieked as my words sank in.