Romance Classics (81 page)

Kate flushed but met Jane's eyes straightly.

“I could easily learn to dislike Chloe Parham quite a lot,” she admitted honestly. “Of course, that could be jealousy, I suppose.”

Jane's eyebrows went up just a little.

“Jealousy?”

Kate looked up at Jane with a sheepish, wry look. “Don't bother to say it. I
am
ashamed. I'm the very worst kind of cat. But the way Chloe moved in and took over Scott last night was something to see. She and her gang were waiting for us at the movies, and I was shoved in a station wagon with the rest of her crowd and she and Scott were making tracks for his car, parked a block away.”

Jane said swiftly, “I don't blame you for being annoyed. That was very rude of Scott.”

Kate laughed ruefully. “Poor Scott was helpless. The only way he could have avoided the gal was to give her a sock in the jaw, grab me by the arm, and flee for his life.”

Jane said swiftly, resentment still in her eyes, “Then you must have had a horrid time left adrift like that among strangers.”

Kate shook her head. “The odd part of it was that I wasn't among strangers. I felt I'd known them all for ages before we even got to the place where the party was being given. There was quite a guy driving the station wagon. Name of Bill Elliott.” And now there was soft color in her cheeks, and she finished with a pretense of briskness, “You'll be meeting him around. Matter of fact, he's coming out tonight. We're going to make another effort to see that movie.”

Jane laughed. “Where's the party tonight?”

“I probably won't know, but I have a strong hunch that Scott will,” said Kate, and her eyes flashed. “I have an idea that nothing will happen to prevent Bill and me from seeing the movie in quiet and peace, and returning home at a decent hour.”

Jane said frankly, “Poor Scott!”

Kate shrugged. “From what I could see last night, we can save our sympathy. He seemed to be suffering no pain at all,” she responded. She and Jane were quiet, carefully avoiding each other's eyes….

And while this scene was taking place at River's Edge, Chloe Parham was sitting up in bed, a breakfast tray across her knees, a thoughtful expression in her lovely eyes as she sipped coffee.

There was a gentle tap at the door and it opened to admit her mother, pretty and plump in her pink morning dress, a little frown of anxiety between her brows.

“Dora said you were awake, darling, and that she'd brought your breakfast, so I came in to say good morning.” She studied her child almost as though unsure of her welcome.

Chloe nodded curtly, and went on sipping coffee.

“Was it a nice party last night?” asked Mrs. Parham uneasily.

Chloe grinned, a small, secret grin, and nodded.

“Oh, yes, fun. Liss always does things up nicely,” she drawled. “And you'll be interested to know, Mother, that Kate Ryan was there.”

Mrs. Parham stiffened and her eyes went wide.

“Kate Ryan? Who in the world invited her? Surely not even she would crash a party like that uninvited,” protested Mrs. Parham.

“I invited her,” said Chloe coolly. “Liss and Kate took quite a fancy to each other. So that worked out all right. And we're all going out to River's Edge for Sunday brunch.”

“What? Chloe, you
can't.”
Mrs. Parham's anxious voice broke off beneath the look Chloe gave her.

“Why can't I? After all, isn't it pretty silly for us to go around pretending we are heartbroken because that big Irish fool paid twice as much as the old place was worth?”

Mrs. Parham eyed the girl with exasperation and there was a faint trace of color in her cheeks. “How's Bill?” she asked after a moment.

Chloe looked mildly surprised, as though unable to follow her mother's thought processes. “Bill? You mean Bill Elliott? Fine. He seemed quite taken with the Ryan creature, by the way,” she drawled coolly, and put the breakfast tray aside and slid out of bed.

Mrs. Parham sat open-mouthed, staring at her.

“You mean you're going to sit idly by and watch her take Bill away from you?” she burst out incredulously.

Chloe turned to stare at her in elaborate surprise.

“Bill? What on earth would I be wanting with Bill?” she protested sweetly.

Mrs. Parham was genuinely angry.

“The fact that he is practically the only genuinely eligible young man in town — ” she began hotly.

“Not any more. Scott Etheridge is here now, remember?” said Chloe gently.

“Scott Etheridge! A penniless young doctor who won't be able to afford a wife for years and years.” Her mother was furious.

“Oh, I think with a little push here, a bit of pull there, and the right kind of devoted girl friend, he can cut quite a few corners and get ahead very fast.”

“Chloe, there are times when I honestly can't even begin to understand you. And times,” Mrs. Parham finished bitterly, “when I'm quite sure I don't even want to!”

“It's very simple,” said Chloe coolly. “Bill bores me to death. Oh, I admit I'd probably have married him if Scott hadn't come along. But now that he has — well Scott's exciting. He could be a lot of fun. And the wife of a successful young doctor — ” She made a little gesture of dismissal, and suddenly her lovely mouth was a thin ugly line, and her eyes flashed. “Do you think for one moment that when I've got a perfect chance to make Kate Ryan squirm, I'm not going to take it?”

And without waiting for her mother's answer, she stalked into the bathroom and banged the door like a badly spoiled child.

Scott's equipment arrived on Friday afternoon and he put in a happy afternoon and evening and all day Saturday getting things in order. Dr. Blair was friendly and interested and Miss Henderson was helpful. He was contented and at peace as he drove out to River's Edge Sunday morning.

He and Tim spent a couple of hours inspecting the small white building that had been remodeled from a superintendent's cottage into a clinic. Scott's eyes glistened with delight as he took it all in, and he and Tim were like two boys with a new and exciting toy when they came back to the big house for the combined breakfast and luncheon at which Chloe and her friends were to be guests.

Some of Scott's happy eagerness faded when he found that Chloe and the others had already arrived, and Bill Elliott was in devoted attendance on Kate.

Scott eyed Bill with a feeling of hostility that would not be downed, no matter how hard he tried to assure himself that he was being all kinds of a fool.

Chloe, exquisitely feminine in a well-cut blue pants suit, tucked a hand through his arm and drew him down beside her at the big breakfast table where the guests were settling.

“We missed you last night,” she told him in a low, intimate tone that went well with her slow, provocative smile.

Scott's grin frankly called her a liar. “I can imagine! You were surrounded by at least a half dozen devoted males, and I'll bet you never gave me a thought all evening,” he accused her, and his tone unconsciously added, “Why should you?”

Chloe's eyelids dropped, veiling the light in her blue eyes, and a small muscle quivered for an instant at the corner of her mouth. But she said silkily, “I don't know where Bill and Kate went. They were invited to join us, of course, but I suppose they had better things to do.”

“Without doubt,” said Scott dryly, and turned to answer Liss, who sat on his left side.

“I only asked,” said Liss, “how soon your office is going to be open for customers.”

“Tomorrow morning. Office hours ten until twelve and two until four. Why? Have you a customer for me?” asked Scott.

“I'm afraid so,” said Liss. “I haven't been sleeping well lately, and I thought perhaps you might be able to prescribe for me.”

Scott answered gravely, “Oh, of course, by all means.”

Liss nodded, gave him a heavy-lined, provocative smile and turned to speak to her other partner.

It was a long, leisurely meal — superlative food, carefully served. And suddenly Scott heard Chloe's voice, pretty and musical: “Kate, my love, I adore you. But I could easily learn to hate you for having the best cook south of the Mason-Dixon Line.”

Kate spoke impulsively, sure that the maid was out of the room. “I'd be happy beyond words to pass her on to you. Her food is out of this world; but her insolence is almost beyond endurance.”

Chloe raised her eyebrows in amazement.

“Kate, you're letting her get away with murder. You simply must put her in her place and keep her there,” she protested, and added sweetly, “I think that's why Northern people have trouble with the blacks down here; they are so accustomed to being bossed around that when you start treating them decently, they take advantage of you.”

Jane and Kate exchanged a swift glance, but before either of them could speak, Tim said mildly, “I'm afraid I'm not convinced that bossing and bullying blacks is the way to get along with them.”

There was a brief moment of tension, and then Chloe went on with a pretty air of confiding in them, “You see, the real trouble is that the servants here are descended from the slaves that built the Parham place — I mean River's Edge, of course — two hundred years ago. Their whole lives and those of their ancestors are tied up with the Parhams and this place. If they are rude and difficult to get along with when newcomers come in and take over the place, it is simply a sort of misguided loyalty to us. Don't you see?”

“Loyalty is something that has to be earned,” Tim answered her quickly. “The Ryans will have to earn the loyalty of Lucy and the others. That's why I am trying to be friends with them, to see that they have decent housing and medical care; that's why Scott is going to run the clinic here.”

There was a small, startled gasp that went around the table. But it was Chloe who spoke, wide-eyed, startled.

“Scott's going to be a nigger doctor?” she gasped incredulously, and then colored furiously, but did not lower her head. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have put it quite like that, yet I don't see why not. It's the way everybody in Hamilton will put it.”

The others stirred a trifle uneasily and somebody cleared his throat, but it was Scott who answered, carefully courteous, yet with his jaw hardening a little and his eyes dark and cold.

“I'll be sorry if the people of Hamilton disapprove of what I hope to do for the black people here,” said Scott evenly. “However, I can't believe that it will make much difference. I hope to help the people here just as I hope to be of some service to my patients in Hamilton. Regardless of race, creed, or color, if I may put it that way.”

There was a little murmur of uneasy assent, and someone made a rather desperately gay comment that changed the subject.

Beside Scott, Liss murmured dryly, “I don't know that I would have put it quite as brutally as Chloe, but I'm afraid she is right. After all, we have a perfectly good hospital.”

“Tim feels that if his tenant farmers have a clinic where they can be treated for simple ailments and the worse ones are caught at their inception, it will save a lot of man-hours on the plantation and relieve the burden on the hospital,” said Scott grimly.

Liss said softly, her eyes liquid and dark, “Oh,
I
understand, Scott, and I think it's wonderful of you.”

Scott looked down at her, smiling, relishing the warmth and approval in her lovely eyes.

“Thanks, Liss, that's great!” he said quietly, and added, smiling a little, “Does that mean I may still expect you in my office tomorrow?”

“Of course, Scott. What else did you think?” protested Liss gently.

At the foot of the table, beside Bill Elliott, Kate saw the soft exchange of glances between the two. Involuntarily she looked at Chloe, and saw that Chloe was watching Scott and Liss with a look in her eyes that somehow struck a tiny chill to Kate's heart.

When the meal was over and they were all leaving the beautiful dining room, Chloe turned to Kate and said lightly, “Look, is it true that your father and Scott are going to have that clinic?” Chloe asked.

“It seems to be completely settled.”

“And you're not going to do anything to stop it?”

Puzzled, Kate asked, “What could I do, even if I wanted to stop it?”

“If you're in love with Scott — ”

Kate gasped and her head went up, her eyes frosty.

“What a perfectly absurd thing to say!” she flashed.

Chloe demanded eagerly, “Does that mean you're not?”

“Of course not. Good heavens, I barely know the man!”

“You've known him longer than I have,” said Chloe.

Kate stared at her, wide-eyed, and Chloe smiled faintly, sadly, and nodded.

“Silly of me, of course, but I'm mad about him,” she said quietly. “Of course I know I haven't the smallest chance with him.”

“I don't see why not. You're beautiful.”

“And poor!”

Kate digested that for a moment and then she flashed, “Scott's not a man to be concerned with that.”

“Scott's got sense like white folks!” Chloe flashed the small, silly local phrase. “Much too much sense to saddle himself with a penniless wife right at the beginning of his career.”

“If you're joking, that's in unforgivably bad taste.”

“I'm not joking.”

“Then you obviously do not know Scott.”

“Only enough to be madly in love with him.”

For a moment the two girls looked at each other. Kate was taut and shaken with distaste; Chloe cool and lovely and quite self-possessed. And then Chloe smiled lightly and said coolly, “Of course, if you really want him I can be big about it and let you have him.”

Kate said through her teeth, “Don't you think Scott might just possibly have something to say about that?”

Chloe laughed indulgently as at the pretty prattlings of a slightly simple child.