Finding Grace: A Novel (24 page)

"Your songs of praise were indeed wonderful
to hear," he declared. "We would be so pleased to have an angel's
voice in our choir, one that can help lift the spirits of our
parishioners and bring them closer to God."

It was not within her to refuse the request
of a man of God, and so she smiled and politely accepted. It was
not long before she was standing among the members of the choir,
just as she had done so many times before at home. It might have
very well been just the same, except that as she sat quietly in her
place listening to the sermon, she could feel a certain pair of
eyes watching her. And heaven help her…weak, sad being that she
was…she found her own eye lifting, for just a moment, to meet the
gaze that met hers.

When the service was over, and they were
wandering out among the crowd, she was walking ahead with Alice
when she heard Jack’s voice behind her. He was talking to friends,
which was nothing of importance to her. But then she heard the one
voice that she did not want to hear…a voice that both thrilled and
petrified her. She turned to Alice and whispered.

"What are they doing? What are they talking
about?"

"I don't know," said Alice, casually turning
her head to look. "Victoria is standing with them. She is probably
on guard, you know. There are dangerous women about." And she
smiled a little at Grace, who just shook her head.

Then, Alice's expression grew serious.
"They're coming this way.”

Grace felt her nerves jump, but she did not
let on. She took a deep and calming breath. Looking away, she tried
to look calm. Jack came to stand beside them.

"Honey, I've invited Henry and Victoria to
supper tonight. We’re going out for Chinese. Your favorite.” He
smiled, turning to talk to a neighbor…unaware of what he’d just
done.

Grace turned a shade of white. Alice had to
reach out and steady her.

“
Breathe,” she
declared.

Grace did, holding up a hand to signal she
was well. At least in the physical sense. Her mental state was
altogether different…and she put her head in her hands, feeling a
strange need to weep.

“
Lord above, why is this
happening to me?” In a childish gesture she could not help, she
dropped her hands and suddenly stamped her foot, her frustration at
its breaking point. "I feel like Lizzie Bennett at Netherfield,
being forced to dance with Mr. Darcy and not being able to do a
thing about it.”

Alice smiled at the
reference to
Pride and Prejudice.
And while Grace played the part of Elizabeth, for
a moment she made herself into Lizzie's good friend, Charlotte
Lucas, and quoted a bit of the text.

"I dare say you will find him
agreeable."

Despite the tension, Grace couldn't help but
smile. She knew the text so well, and even under the grave
circumstances, Alice’s playfulness was infectious. So she did her
best to sound aristocratic and proper, just like Lizzie
Bennett.

“
Heaven forbid! That would
be the greatest misfortune of all! To find a man agreeable whom one
is determined to hate! Do not wish me such an evil.”

She tried to hold back a smile as she and
Alice looked at each other. And then they both erupted into
helpless rounds of laughter.

Chapter 12

“
A Night
Out
”

He stood in the hallway for a moment,
watching Victoria through the open door as she stood before the
mirror. She was dressed in a low-backed burgundy dress…one that
flowed in elegant proportion to her willowy figure. It was a
beautiful garment. And yet, he could find little beauty in the
woman wearing it. Her features were the same as they had always
been. Nothing about her outward appearance had changed. But he
could feel very little emotion as he looked at her now. There had
never been love in his heart - only heated affection and desire.
Now it seemed that the flame had gone out, leaving only a chilled
feeling of emptiness when he looked at her.

A cold and quiet manner had taken over the
house. They had not shared a bed in nearly two weeks now, since the
night of the party. She had taken her things and moved to the
bedroom across the hall, and somehow, he wasn't so disappointed
about the change. It was taking some time to get used to an empty
bed again, but he felt he was coping quite well. He wasn't about to
go groveling to Victoria to come back to it. The only connection
that seemed to remain between them was their relationship as
employer and employee. It was mostly business as usual when it came
to work, but even that relationship was strained. They hardly
spoke, and when they did, it was with much petulance and arguing.
It seemed she was intent on making his life as difficult as
possible, and it was working. It didn't surprise him that she would
be going along with John Langdon's invitation to dinner…just for
spite.

"Need I ask why you insist on going to
dinner?" he inquired. "Do you plan on making a public spectacle of
yourself? Or is it just me you wish to humiliate?"

"Our neighbor has invited us to dinner," she
answered, as she calmly donned a pair of ear bobs. "Is there
something wrong with accepting his invitation?"

His eyes were cold looking at her. "What a
cool liar you are.”

She turned on a smooth heel and looked at
him, her eyes flashing. "Why don't you stay home, if it makes you
so uncomfortable?" Then she smiled a little…a sly, knowing gesture.
"No, you won't stay home, will you? You're worried about what might
happen when you're not around."

He only scoffed. "Are you really so
insecure? You're intimidated by a little girl. A seventeen year
old, for the love of Christ. I find that almost laughable."

Victoria glared at him, and he knew he had
struck a sharp nerve with his words. But she had words of her own
for him, and she did not mince them.

"What's laughable is a thirty-one year old
man lusting after a child and making a fool of himself. That's the
only reason you are going to dinner tonight, isn't it, Henry?"

It was true. He wasn’t going to admit it to
her, but it was true. Despite his best intentions, all he’d been
thinking of was Grace. For the first several days after the
incident at the pier, he’d buried himself in books and paperwork in
an effort to erase her from his mind. And during the day the
distraction had worked. But at night, his dreams were full of her
image, and his imagination taunted him with happenings that went
far beyond a simple kiss. It wasn’t long before he realized that
forgetting about her was an impossible notion. And discovering
that, he knew he had to see her again. Only this time, he wanted to
meet on friendly terms. He wouldn’t tease her, or tempt her, no
matter how wild his impulses became when he got close to her. His
only trouble had been figuring out how to get near her without
making her flee, as she’d been prone to do before and would
certainly do now if he didn’t tread carefully. But to his
astonishment, and great delight, John Langdon had unknowingly
opened a door of opportunity.

His only concern now was whether Victoria
would behave herself. But any worry that he had he kept well
concealed, especially as he addressed her remark about why he was
going to the restaurant.

"Think whatever you wish. As far as I'm
concerned, I'm having a meal with friends. If you want to
misconstrue that, that's your business. I regret nothing that I've
done, and nothing I’ll do. Now if you’re ready, I think we should
go to dinner."

He stepped back a step, and gestured for her
to precede him. This she did, with head held high and defiant. He
followed along behind her, and they set out to meet the
neighbors.

* * * * *

They made their way down the street towards
the restaurant. As they neared the door, Henry stopped and took
Victoria lightly by the arm.

“
So,” he said, “Will you
keep your claws drawn? Or will I have to haul you out like a child
having a tantrum in a store?”

She looked at him with a cool, contemptuous
expression. She pulled her arm free from his grasp.

“
If you think I have such
little class, then you are sorely mistaken,” she declared, and she
walked ahead of him into the restaurant, without waiting for
him.

He knew he sat on a powder keg. He was no
fool, despite what Victoria might have thought of him. She was
plotting something, but he could not be sure what it was, and until
she made a move, he had to be fully on his guard. In the meantime,
he went through the motions of friendliness toward his neighbors.
He shook hands with John and Alice, and smiled. But when it came to
Grace, he put on his best air of detachment. He knew that everyone
was watching, and so he kept his manner cool and polite. He gave no
handshake, and only offered her a nod of his head as he greeted
her.

“
Miss Grace, it’s a pleasure
to see you again.”

It was all he said. He sat down beside
Victoria, and picking up the menu in front of him, pretended to
browse it. But it was all he could do not to raise his eyes and
search out the woman sitting across from him.

She looked better than he remembered, and
that was saying something. Her hair was up, for one thing…gathered
into an elegant twist at the back of her head. Her dress was a deep
shade of violet, and the color suited her beautifully, bringing out
the blue in her eyes. She looked so elegant, so sophisticated that
it was hard to imagine how he’d once thought of her as a little
bumpkin. How very wrong a first impression could be.

And as he’d been learning since that first
day, she was impossible to ignore. He was quite certain she didn’t
intend to draw attention to herself, but she was a delight to watch
with her endless curiosity and naïveté about the simplest things.
He couldn’t help but smile at some of her musings, and Jack and
Alice were just as entertained by her innocent curiosity. He knew
without looking at Victoria that she was not amused. But she was
silent, and he let her remain so. He was still wary of what she
might do, but he was so charmed by watching Grace, he found himself
paying Victoria very little mind.

He watched as Grace turned the serving wheel
slightly. “What is this for?”

Jack answered her with a little smile.

"When they bring the food, you use it to
pass the servings around.”

"Well if that don't beat all," she declared.
"I wish we would have had one of those at home. Better than asking
someone to pass the peas. If you want it, you just turn the wheel
and take it from under their nose."

When the tea was brought, and her little cup
was placed on the saucer before her, she looked at it with an odd
expression. Sheepishly she asked, “Where’s the handle?”

Alice looked at her. Taking her own cup in
hand, she showed Grace how to hold it and sip it. Grace gingerly
picked up her cup and followed suit, eliciting smiles from her
three observers. Henry found her innocence so entertaining and
appealing, he had trouble hiding his amused smile. On one hand, she
seemed as if she couldn’t help herself, and it showed in every
little thing question and gesture she made. But on the other hand,
she seemed hesitant each time she started to ask questions, as if
someone might chastise her for doing wrong. Or ridicule her. At one
point she looked at her brother, and saw him trying to suppress a
grin. Henry was quite sure John meant his sister no harm. He was
charmed, that was all. But Grace looked at her brother with a stern
expression, and Henry felt a thrill run down his spine as he saw
her eyes take on that wild flash of angry light he was coming to
know so well.

“
Don’t laugh at me,” she
told her brother, her eyes blazing.

“
I’m not!” Jack declared,
though his grin was hardly suppressed, and Alice reached over to
give his arm a firm slap.

“
Leave her alone, Jack.” And
she gave him a sharp look, which he hardly acknowledged.

When the meat and seafood platter arrived,
Henry could not keep himself contained any longer. He had to speak
to her, even it was only to explain to her what the little flaming
pot was in the middle of the wooden tray. She was staring at it
intently, and he couldn’t resist satisfying her interest.

“
That’s called a hibachi,”
he said, and he picked up a skewer of beef, putting it to the
flame. “You let the meat smoke, and it enhances the
flavor.”

“
Just like a campfire,” she
said with a slight smile, and she turned to her brother. “Remember
that, Jack, how we used to sleep out at night, and cook the fish on
the fire?”

“
Yep, I do,” he said. “Lord,
it seems like forever since I’ve done that. Maybe we should take a
trip somewhere and do that again. It would be fun. Hey, maybe we
could all take a trip together, the five of us.”

For the first time, Victoria spoke.

“
No thank you,” she said.
“I’m not an outdoor kind of girl. But I do like to travel very
much. In fact, I'm taking an extended trip very soon."

Henry looked at her. Something told him this
was the moment. He could see the malice in her eyes - like the eyes
of a coiled snake, preparing to strike. A cold hand of dread held
his throat.

"I'm going to California," she said. "I'm
going to be in pictures. My friend Hal has connections there, and
he thinks I can make a name for myself."

Henry didn’t know whether to believe her or
not. The idea of her taking off on some wild flight to Hollywood
sounded like a joke.

"You're ridiculous," he said.

"And you're an ass," she spat, and she
jumped to her feet. “Why don’t you just go ahead and sleep with
her? That’s what you want, isn’t it, you slimy son of a bitch?”