Man Who Loved Pride and Prejudice (34 page)

   "Everybody makes mistakes."

   He nodded gracefully in acknowledgment. "It's true. But the result is that he has been adrift for several years now. I take my own share of responsibility for that. I was caught up in his brother's campaign and I wasn't paying enough attention to Calder. I'm trying to make up for that now. When I saw what was happening with you, I decided we needed to talk."

   He was good, very good, but she had to remember that Calder didn't trust him. "I'm listening."

   "I appreciate it, especially as I'm going to say some things I don't expect you to like. I can see why Calder was attracted to you. You're strong at a time when he needs strength, and you're giving him a new world to live in. I hope you're also strong enough to realize what he's doing with you is playing house. He's living in a make-believe world because he still can't face his real world. It may make him happy for the moment, maybe even for a year or two. But in the end, it's not going to satisfy him. I can tell you that. As I said, I've been there. Sooner or later he's going to start wanting a family of his own, and then he's going to realize all he threw away, and that despite everything you give him, there are things you can't do."

   "Such as?"

   Senator Westing's look of concern would have been the envy of any actor. "Our family is privileged, but that has its costs. It's not easy to raise a child with the Westing name and heritage. With no disrespect to you, you don't have the ability to move in that world and to help Westing children grow up. If your background were more like his, it might be different, but I'm a pragmatist, and I see what's coming. Without meaning to, Calder is using you, and sooner or later you're going to get hurt, and so is he."

   "Or perhaps you underestimate me."

   "How many of his friends has Calder introduced you to? How much do you know about the work he did before he came here? Have you been to his apartment in New York or his house in Virginia? Do you even know the addresses?" He leaned forward to emphasize his points.

   This time his words hit home. It was true. Calder had never involved her in his world in any way. She had met Scott through Erin and the Crowleys because of Tim. It was suddenly hard to breathe. Was this why Calder didn't want her to meet his family?

   "You don't have to answer, Cassie. He's not bringing you into his world; he's taking a vacation from it. Vacations end."

   She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her doubts. "If you're so sure of this, why aren't you talking to Calder instead of to me?"

   "Because Calder is very loyal, and it's hard for him to let go, even when it's obvious he needs to. I want to spare him that, and the only way I can do that is with your help."

   "Calder isn't a child who needs protecting. He can make his own decisions." Or had he already made his decision? Maybe he knew what his father was doing and was taking the easy way out.

   His expression turned to one of sympathy. "I realize I'm asking a great deal of you. You clearly care about Calder, and I'm asking you to give up a man you love, a man any woman would be proud to have, one who can offer you every kind of security, all on my say-so that it's for his own good."

   "Talk to Calder, not to me." If Calder wanted to leave her, he'd have to do his own dirty work, not have his father do it for him. Her only goal now was to get Joe Westing out of her apartment before she started to cry.

   "I'm not unsympathetic to your position. I understand this has hurt you and cost you a great deal already, and while I can't take any of that pain away, I can make your life easier in other ways. I know money is an issue for you, and I'm prepared to see that you don't have to worry about that any more."

   He couldn't have said anything worse. Cassie rose to her feet as anger pushed aside her doubts. "Sorry, I don't take bribes."

   His hurt look didn't convince her. "I'm not trying to bribe you, Cassie. In my own clumsy way, I'm trying to make up for what you have to go through on account of my son. You need the money. You're barely managing to support your sister and her children. Don't you want your nieces to live in a safe neighborhood and go to a good school?"

   How did he know about Maria? She had never told Calder about the money she gave her sister. He must have been investigating her. What else had he found out?

   Cassie marched to the door. "The only thing I want is for you to get out of my apartment, and you don't have to pay a penny for that privilege." She shouldn't have let him in. She had faced dangerous situations often enough in Chicago. This was raising the same instincts, except this wasn't a thug with a knife; this was a United States Senator with a concerned look on his face. She wished she weren't alone with him.

   "Cassie, I'm obviously expressing myself poorly. I'm offering my help in exchange for yours. If you don't want money, let's talk about what you do want. What about getting your brother out of prison? Would that interest you?"

   Cassie's breath caught in her throat. "Funny," she said bitingly. "And all this time I've been thinking you were a senator from Virginia, not the governor of Illinois."

   "The governor of Illinois has bills he wants passed in Congress, just like everyone else, and I doubt he cares about the fate of one more prisoner. I can do it." He sounded as if he were discussing the weather. "How many more years until he's eligible for parole? Ten?"

   "Twelve," she said automatically. He had trapped her so neatly. She would do almost anything to get Ryan out of that hellhole.

   Her rational mind said he was toying with her. He probably couldn't make good on the promise, but if there was even a chance… Her fury fell away, leaving a dull helplessness in its wake.

   Even if she broke up with Calder—if he was still interested in her, if he wasn't just playing house—what guarantee did she have his father would try to free Ryan? Once Joe had what he wanted from her, he would drop her. She had no control over his behavior, or over Calder's decision whether to come back to her.

   "You're wasting your time, Senator. If you have a problem with our relationship, I suggest you take it up with Calder."

   "He's worth more to you than your brother's freedom?"

   Cassie couldn't remember the last time she had wanted so badly to hit someone. "Is getting your way more important to you than your son's happiness?"

   "As it happens, I am working for his happiness. Since you seem determined to throw away this opportunity, I'll discuss it with Calder himself. He'll see the light. It'll hurt him more this way, but you're leaving me no choice." The earnest, concerned father act was turned off as if by a switch. He pulled an embossed business card out of his wallet and handed it to her. "If you change your mind, give me a call. I can be a good friend, or a very bad enemy. Did I mention I went to school with Charlie Altshuler?" He snapped his wallet closed.

   It took her a moment to understand. Charles Altshuler was president of the Haverford Board of Trustees. Fear began to trickle down her body.

   On the Chicago streets she had learned it was dangerous to let an enemy see your weaknesses. "How fortunate for me that there are some good opportunities for marine biologists in Ecuador. I've always wanted to work in the tropics. It
is
Ecuador Calder likes, isn't it?"

   For a moment she could see his anger, and then the mask slipped back into place. "Think it over." He walked to the door. "I admire your spirit. There's no reason you and I can't work together."

   She shut the door behind him without saying good-bye and then put up the chain and slipped the bolt. But it was going to take more than locks to protect her from Joe Westing.

THE VIEW FROM THE big picture window of the Crowleys' house was bleak on these cold, gray days, almost as bleak as Calder's mood. Last year he had thought the pain couldn't be any worse. He had been wrong. Having to leave Cassie would be worse. This time he'd know what he was losing.

   "So, what's this problem you need my advice about?" Dave Crowley asked.

   "My father. He's trying to blackmail me into giving Cassie up." There, he had said it. He'd been walking around with a knife in his gut for the last two days.

   Dave's mouth pursed in a silent whistle. "Up to his old tricks, is he? What's he holding over you?"

   Calder rested his hand against the cold, damp pane of glass. "He's going to wreck her career if I don't leave her. Keep her from getting tenure, unless you can come up with some way to block it legally."

   "Your father…" Dave began with a dark look on his face. "No, never mind, there's no point in me telling you my opinion of your father. What does Cassie have to say about this?"

   "She doesn't know."

   Dave looked at him sharply. "You're trying to figure this out on your own?"

   "I'll talk to her after I know what my options are."

   "What makes you think it's your choice to make?

Seems to me the question is what's most important to her: her job or you. That's not something you can answer for her."

   Calder stood and crossed the room. He knew what Cassie's answer would be—the same as it had always been. Her job came first. It was true, but he couldn't stand to hear her say it. "Do you have any idea how hard she's worked to get where she is? It's her life. How can I ask her to risk that for me?"

   "What's it going to do to her if you walk out now? How long do you think it would be before she could bring herself to trust a man again?" Dave heaved himself to his feet and put a hand on Calder's shoulder. "I don't know what we can do legally, but there may be another way out. Maybe you shouldn't take your father's power as such a given."

   "I don't know what you mean."

   "I mean maybe you can use those brains of yours and come up with a double-cross. Something to keep your father from going after Cassie."

   Calder shook his head. "It's a nice idea, Dave, but the truth is that he holds all the cards. He knows the right people, and he can persuade them to do what he wants."

   "Oh, come on. There's got to be something. And I'd love to find a way to beat him at his own game. I owe him a few."

   "Why? What did he ever do to you?" Calder had never heard Dave speak disparagingly of his father before.

   "Well, if I were a better man I probably wouldn't tell you why I think your father is a sadistic old buzzard, but I'm not a better man, so I will. Your mother used to be the liveliest, most spirited girl. She fell in love with a local boy, one with no money, and he loved her. She fought her entire family until they finally agreed to let her marry him. Then your father came along. As near as I can tell, he decided to win your mother away from her fiancé just to prove he could. She was a challenge. Then he married her, and we all got to watch as he spent the next decade systematically breaking her spirit." He paused. "That's what I hold against your father."

   Calder took this in silently. His mother, as long as he could remember, had been quiet, restrained, and implacably distant. She was the perfect political wife. In public she always said the right thing to the right person at the right time, but alone with her family, she would withdraw into herself. He had seen often enough how his father could make her stop short with just a glance.

   "And that's why I'd like to see you fight back." Dave returned to his seat by the fire.

   His mother had learned it was useless to fight back. "I don't really see how," Calder said.

   "Surely there's some way to turn Cassie into an asset for him. You could go the publicity route, make everyone see this as the Cinderella story of the decade. Or you could play tit for tat. You're a writer. You could write an autobiography that would make him look like a monster. I doubt it would be much of a stretch. Tell him it'll go straight to the publishers if Cassie runs into any job trouble."

   "Or go to the tabloids with the all the family's darkest secrets," Calder said.

   "That's the spirit! Think outside the box. God, he'd take me to pieces if he knew I was encouraging you like this." Dave didn't sound at all displeased by this notion.
Cassie's imagination was her worst enemy. What would Joe Westing tell Calder? Could he convince his son to end their relationship? If he could, why would he bother with her instead of talking to Calder? Perhaps he didn't want Calder to blame him for the breakup.

   Of course, she still had no explanation for Calder's absence. Maybe he'd lost interest already. He'd been in love with her when she was unattainable. Perhaps once he had her, he discovered she wasn't what he wanted. Or maybe he really had been playing house with her and was tired of the game. His father might have little trouble discouraging him.