Romance Classics (117 page)

Cherry sputtered, and Sandra went on, “I adore your grandfather, even if he did object to marrying Jonny and me. He’s a sweetie-pie and a darling fluffy old lamb.”

“He’s a fine, brave and famous man,” Cherry replied.

“Oh, I’m sure, I’m sure,” Sandra brushed that aside. “I just wish Jonny had found some other place to hide out from me. He should have known I’d find him. But here, with the Judge acting so stiff-necked about shotgun weddings, it wasn’t quite the way I’d planned it.”

“You planned to marry Jonny even if he didn’t want you?” asked Cherry, awed by such shamelessness.

Sandra said coolly, “Oh, no man really wants to marry anybody. A girl who is smart and knowledgeable just sneaks up on him, and before he knows what’s happened to him, he’s all roped and tied.”

Cherry blinked as Sandra put out her cigarette and thrust her chair back from the table.

“Of course I’ll marry Jonny like a shot if he prefers that to giving me fifty grand,” she drawled. “But I have a hunch he’d rather buy me off. And as soon as I get my paws on him, I’ll see that he writes me a check and I’ll be a long time gone.”

She stood up, grinning wickedly at the dazed look on Cherry’s face.

“Get smart Chérie,” she drawled, “or you
will
spend your life in this gosh-awful place with that primitive male! You’re not a bad-looking chick if you’d just make the most of yourself. But of course, as long as you are satisfied with the Job guy and he’s satisfied with you, what diffence does it make? I’ll see you around.”

She strolled out of the room, past the huge fireplace that on this warm morning did not hold a fire. The Judge was on the side terrace in the sun, and for a moment Sandra hesitated at the big glass doors as though tempted to join him. Then she shrugged and went back upstairs.

The moment she was gone the swinging door into the kitchen burst open and Elsie stood there, wide-eyed and incredulous.

“Cherry, she wasn’t joking!” she burst out. “That gal meant every word she said.”

“She did indeed,” Cherry agreed, and the two girls looked at each other with wide, shocked eyes.

“Cherry, do you suppose Mr. Gayle will pay her off?” asked Elsie after a moment.

“I imagine he’ll be glad to,” Cherry answered grimly. “Only will she really let him alone if he does?”

“You think if he gives her a check she’ll come back later on for more?” Elsie was appalled at the thought.

“Well, what would there be to stop her?” asked Cherry, and made a little impatient gesture of dismissal. “Oh, for Pete’s sake, Elsie, we’re a couple of dopes even to give it a thought. Jonny knows his way around; he’ll be able to handle her.”

“Gee, I sure hope so,” said Elsie. “He’s a right nice man, and I’d sure hate to see him all tied up with that witch! You know something, Cherry? If she’s typical of women in the outside world, as she calls it, I guess I’ll just settle down here in the mountains and be satisfied. My Jeff’s a pretty decent guy, and we can make ourselves a good life here.”

Cherry said earnestly, “If listening to Sandra has made you believe that, then I can almost forgive her for being a female leech!”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to run into many like her, believe you me,” Elsie admitted wryly. “I don’t believe there are many like her outside. But I’d as soon not take any chances.”

“That makes two of us,” Cherry answered firmly, and helped Elsie clear the table.

Jonathan had not returned by lunch time. Cherry was startled when Loyce came down to the table to join the family.

The Judge and Cherry hid their surprise and delight at her appearance, and she plunged immediately into a discussion with the Judge about some plans she had for the home fields.

Sandra watched her with a curious intentness, and Cherry all but held her breath, so fearful was she that Sandra would say something that would upset Loyce.

They were halfway through lunch before there was the sound of a car in the drive and Cherry saw Loyce sit up alertly, breaking off in the middle of a sentence as she listened to the sound of footsteps crossing the graveled drive and climbing the steps and then coming on across the verandah.

When Jonathan came into the dining area, Loyce’s eyes lit up and a soft surge of color touched her face. Cherry was watching Sandra and saw Sandra watching Loyce; and there was an ugly glint in Sandra’s eyes. Cherry held her breath, prepared for an explosion as Loyce’s eyes asked a question of Jonathan, who smiled and shook his head slightly.

The whole brief scene had lasted no more than moments; and yet Jonathan had brought into the room with him a super-charged atmosphere that tensed Cherry’s nerves.

“You’re just in time for lunch, my boy,” said the Judge, and Jonathan smiled his thanks and took the place beside, Loyce, which brought him directly across the table from Sandra, who was eying him grimly.

“You still here?” Jonathan asked curtly.

Sandra rested her elbows on the table on either side of her plate and put her chin in her palms, eying him with a look that held hatred and viciousness.

“Oh, I’ll be here for quite a while,” she drawled. “That is, of course, unless you want to send me packing. And you know the only way you can do that, don’t you?”

Jonathan’s mouth was a thin, grim line and his eyes were bitter with loathing.

“I’ll attend to it directly after lunch,” he told her savagely.

Cherry cried out hotly, “Jonny, you’re going to
pay
her to go away? Gran’sir, isn’t that blackmail, and punishable by prison?”

Sandra said sharply, “Oh, dry up! What do you know about it?”

“Jonny, if you give this creature five cents you are a yellow-livered coward and a dope,” cried Cherry.

Loyce asked tremulously, “What is this all about?”

Sandra said coolly, “It’s about some money Jonny owes me that I’ve come to collect and don’t intend to leave without.”

Loyce turned swiftly to Jonathan. “Do you owe her money, Jonny?”

“She thinks so,” answered Jonathan wearily. “I told you about it last night, remember? And now it’s come to a showdown. She wins, of course. It will be worth it to be quite sure I never set eyes on her again. Go get packed, Sandra, and be ready to leave within an hour.”

Highly gratified by the turn of events, Sandra stood up.

“I’ll be ready in half an hour,” she cooed sweetly. “I’m already packed. In fact, I haven’t unpacked.”

“That’s good,” said Cherry, scarlet-cheeked. “Because you’re going to be leaving, but you’re not taking Jonny’s check. Because he’s not going to give you one.”

Sandra whirled on her like a virago.

“You keep out of this,” she flashed. “It’s none of your business.”

“I never like to see a man get a dirty deal,” Cherry said firmly. “And if Jonny bribes you to stay away from him, then he’s more of a fool than I take him for.”

“Now, Cherry, wait a minute,” Jonathan protested.

“No,
you
wait a minute,” Cherry flashed. “You wait a lot of minutes, or you’ll have this harpy on your neck for the rest of your life. You don’t think for a minute that she’ll stay away from you? And what kind of a man are you, anyway, to have to bribe women to stay away from you? Don’t you have any pride, any self-respect at all?”

“Now, Cherry — ” protested the Judge sternly.

“Well, all right, Gran’sir, maybe I’ve got no right to speak,” Cherry burst out.

“Now there you’re quite right,” Sandra flashed furiously. “This has nothing to do with you, you backwoods fool! This is strictly between Jonny and me. And if he feels it’s worth fifty grand to him to know he will never set eyes on me again — ”

“Oh, I’m certain he’d feel the money was well-invested if he could be sure of that!” Cherry cut in. “But how can he be sure? He tried to hide from you, and you hired private detectives to find him. How can he be sure you won’t do it again and be always under foot, telling lies about him and harassing him?”

Before Sandra could manage an answer, Cherry turned to Jonathan and went racing on, “And as for you, Jonathan Gayle, I’d have a lot more respect for you if you simply grabbed her by the nape of the neck, slammed her into the car and told her to get going! What kind of man are you, anyway, that you have to pay blackmail to keep from being pursued by a shameless creature like her?”

Loyce was looking from one irate, screaming girl to the other and then at Jonathan; the lovely color had faded from her face, and her eyes were wide with alarm and concern.

Jonathan met Cherry’s eyes, and suddenly the tautness went out of his face and he grinned at her. Sandra, seeing the swift exchange of meaningful glances, cried out furiously, “You’d better give me my check, Jonny, or you’ll wish you’d never been born.”

Jonathan turned to the Judge, as though Sandra had not spoken.

“What would you advise, sir, in a case like this?” he asked.

The Judge eyed Sandra without warmth.

“Why, I’d simply tell her to get out and stay out, and if she went on with her attempts to harass me, I’d get an injunction against her that would make her ‘cease and desist,’ “ he drawled. “And then I’d explain her to my wife, if I had one, and laugh in her face whenever she tried to pursue me again. She’s running a most colossal bluff, my boy. My advice is that you call it, here and now in the presence of witnesses.”

Sandra cried out in fury, “Why, you old goat!”

Cherry was on her feet immediately, eyes blazing.

“Don’t you swear at my Gran’sir,” she said hotly, and laid a hand on Sandra’s arm. “Come on, you! You’re leaving.”

Sandra flung Cherry’s hand away from her and glared at Jonathan.

“Are you going to listen to that old fool of a Judge?” she blazed.

“Since he is a very wise and astute Judge and my legal adviser, that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” Jonathan told her. “I’m thoroughly ashamed that I ever let you bluff me in the first place. But that’s all over now. I think you’d better do what Cherry says and get going.”

“Like fun I will! Not until you give me my check!” Sandra’s tone was still belligerent, but there was a touch of uneasiness in her eyes as she looked about the table from one forbidding face to another.

“Your
check!” Cherry sniffed. “I’d laugh if I wasn’t so disgusted.”

“Oh, you!” Sandra swung on her with a burst of profanity that startled them all and that brought a wave of dark angry color to Jonathan’s face.

He stood up, caught Sandra’s arms and marched her toward the stairs and up them out of sight.

“When I see a woman like that,” he said quietly, “I am reconciled to the fact that my two girls are mountain-raised.”

“Gran’sir, I couldn’t believe last night when Jonny told me about her that she was really like this,” Loyce confessed, wide-eyed and shaken.

“She’s unbelievable, isn’t she?” Cherry marveled. “I mean you just can’t believe a woman who looks like that on the outside could be so sickeningly shameless on the inside!
Golly!”

“Poor Jonny!” said Loyce softly.

“Poor Jonny my eye!” snapped Cherry. “How any man could ever have been taken in by her! Hiding from her, for Pete’s sake! Letting her chase him out of his profession! Planning to buy her off with a big fat settlement as if she had really been his wife instead of just trying like blazes to be! Jonny’s almost as incredible as she is. I’m not sure I like him any better than I like her. And I purely despise her.”

“Oh, now, Cherry you mustn’t be hard on the boy,” the Judge protested. “I’m sure she made things very unpleasant for him.”

“Well, what was to stop him from smacking her down?” raged Cherry. “Any real man would have told her to go peddle her hoop and get out of his way. But no, he has to be all soft and let her chase him all over the country. No, I’m quite sure I don’t like him any better than I like her. Gran’sir, let’s notify him that we’ll be needing his room immediately. I’ve got reservations for the week-end that will fill the place.”

“No!” said Loyce so sharply that they both looked at her in swift surprise. Loyce’s color deepened and her eyes would not quite meet theirs. “I mean — well, it’s not fair to penalize Jonny just because of her behavior. He’s happy here and he’s not making any trouble. I think we ought to let him stay until he’s ready to go.”

Cherry stared at her and then at the Judge. For a moment neither spoke, and then Cherry said awkwardly, “Well, of course, honey, if
you
want him to stay-”

“It’s not that I want him to stay,” Loyce answered uncomfortably. “It’s just that I think it would be unfair to make him go just because of Sandra. After all, he wasn’t to blame for her coming here. She just hired detectives to trace him and then came. It wasn’t really his fault.”

“It was, too!” Cherry could not keep back the words. “If he had told her to go chase herself and not encouraged her to think he was in love with her, this would never have happened.”

“He didn’t encourage her to think he was in love with her,” Loyce protested so warmly that once more the Judge and Cherry exchanged startled, uneasy glances. “She’s beautiful, and he dated her, and if she read more into his intentions than was really there — well, after all, a man can’t be blamed if a girl convinces herself of something that her common sense tells her isn’t true, but that she
want’s
to be true so much that she finally makes herself believe it.”

The Judge and Cherry were staring at Loyce as though they had never set eyes on her before.

“I suppose I’m not making much sense,” she managed painfully at last, and there was a pleading in the look she gave them and in the tone of her voice.

“Well, I wouldn’t say that,” Cherry admitted reluctantly, though it was exactly what she would have said had the speaker been anybody but Loyce. “What doesn’t make sense to me is why you’re taking up for Jonny. I didn’t think you even liked him.”

The Judge was watching Loyce with a sharp intentness that he was at some pains to mask, but Loyce was too absorbed trying to answer Cherry to be really aware of him.

“Well, I
do
like him,” Loyce said awkwardly. “He’s kind and he’s gentle and he’s nice.”

She glanced at both of them as though to apologize for the inadequate word.