Sex Between, The (18 page)

"I realize one thing," Lee said sharply. "And that is that I don't have to starve my employees just because they happen to be relatives. You know damned well they only work for the corporation because they hope to come into a little something when I die. They all know, bless them, that I'm not about to have any children. And until you cooked up this thing with Maggie and Pieter, they all expected to cash in when I died." She took a deep breath. "Well, I've decided I don't like people sitting around waiting for me to die. I might be here a long time yet. The second thing I did was authorize a ten percent increase for everyone in the company." She grinned. "Including me."

Kate sighed. But she said nothing.

"But about Pieter," Lee went on. "He gave me an idea. It's probably the only good one he ever had in his life. He said that one of the things he wanted to do with the money you gave him was to set up a kind of school or home here at Ravensway for retarded children. He said his parents had wanted to do something for Trudel when she was a kid, but could never manage because in those days all these places were terribly expensive. He said maybe I wouldn't understand, but that he's spent every day of his life looking at Trudel and thinking it might have been him. I mean, they're twins after all and I guess it was just fate that gave him half a brain and gave Trudel none at all. Anyhow..."

Kate held up her hand and Lee swallowed back the flood of words.

"Do you mean to stand there and tell me that you've agreed to turn Ravensway into a home for—for children?"

Lee knew that she had hit Kate in her weakest spot. Knew that Kate despised children, even healthy ones. And certainly knew that the idea of children running across the lawns, playing in the halls of the old house would sit sourly in Kate's stomach.

“That’s right," Lee said. "The money I agreed to give Pieter is partly for making this place habitable. It needs a new heating system, new lighting, a paint job..."

"Lesley," Kate thundered, "you know I will not permit this."

Now, Lee knew, was the time. Now she had to put it to Kate squarely. Without hesitation and without fear.

"It's not up to you to permit," Lee said levelly. "Remember?"

Kate stared at her, speechless with rage. Lee waited till the old lady had swallowed the bitter pill. She turned her back on the bed and peered out the window, down the long hill to the jutting tombstones by the river. Something would have to be done to protect the graves, to hallow the ground. Someday, she would come back to Ravensway... she and Maggie.

"Lesley," Kate said after a while, "will you do one thing for me?"

Lee turned to face her. Kate was pale now, her face drawn, but her eyes were bright with spirit. And Lee breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that Kate still had a long way to go.

"Will you see that Miss Ida Winkle has a home?" Kate said gently. "I had promised her that she might stay on here at Ravensway for the rest of her life."

"I remember," Lee said. She smiled at Kate's concern. "Miss Ida Winkle will be taken care of."

"Thank you," Kate said. She bowed her chin to her chest and looked for a moment as though she had fallen asleep. Then suddenly she glanced up.

Lee held her breath and waited.

"Lesley," Kate said, her head bobbing slightly with an old lady's failing strength, "I'm proud of you."

Lee beamed, realizing now that she had it how desperately she had needed Kate's approval. Realizing too that she had known in her heart that Kate would give it. "I hope so," she said. "I did the best I could, just like I told you I would."

Kate smiled and held out her hand. "Come sit by me for a moment," she said. "I want to tell you a story about your old fool of a grandmother. Perhaps then you’ll understand...
"

Lee sat down beside Kate, holding the soft, pale hand warmly in her own. "Okay, old fool of a grandmother," she murmured. "What terrible sins have you got to confess?"

Kate leaned back and closed her eyes. When she spoke, her voice was gentle and touched with tears. "You accused me once of knowing nothing about love," she said. "Well, you were very wrong to believe that, Lesley. I have been in love, most of my life, with a memory. His name was Dirk. I was fifteen when I met him. But in those days, girls did not marry young as they do now. I was to wait until I was twenty. Then, just before my twentieth birthday, I was summoned to America to marry your grandfather."

The pale lips smiled. "My parents did not ask me if I wanted to come to America or if I wanted to marry Jonas. They simply put me on the boat and kissed me good-by. You know the story of my life with Jonas. It was unbearable. To be married to Jonas after loving a man like Dirk..." She sighed. "Well, to make it brief, after Jonas died, Dirk came to America to ask me to marry him. He still loved me and I him."

"But you didn't marry him," Lee said very gently, watching a tear slip past the old lady's lashes and onto her cheek.

"No, I didn't marry him," Kate said, her voice nearly a whisper now. "I managed somehow to convince myself that I owed my life to my son, to the family, to the creation of a fortune and a name for my son and his heirs." Suddenly, Kate laughed bitterly.

Lee squeezed her hand. In some small way, she knew what Kate must feel. Remembered what she had felt, believing that she had lost Maggie. "Then you must understand," she said quietly, "that I couldn't let this happen to me."

Kate opened her eyes and looked directly at Lee. "Oh, yes," she said. "I understand, Lesley. And that is why I am proud of you. I have never really been proud of myself for the mistake I made."

Gently, Lee kissed the old lady's fingers. "It wasn't a total waste," she said. "You made a lot of people happy."

"Lesley," Kate said, sprightly and business-minded again, "about the estate. What happens... "

"When I die?" She patted the old lady's cheek. "That's another thing I did today. Made a will. When I'm gone, half will go to the home Pieter's founding here. And what's left, the relatives can divvy among them. Equal shares to all and not enough for anybody to make him feel superior."

Kate nodded. "I approve," she said. Then she sighed. "I suppose it's just as well. Pieter's not a Van Tassel anyhow. It wouldn't have been quite the same."

Lee stood up and stepped away from the bed. She had said all she had to say to Kate. Time now to get on with it. Time to... "Where's Maggie?" she said.

Kate tilted her head and smiled with her eyes. "In your room," she said. "She asked to be put there."

Lee banged out the door and hurried down the hall. When she reached the threshold of her old room, she paused, wanting to surprise the girl, but not to startle her.

Maggie was sitting in a big arm chair by the window, her back to the door. She looked tinier than ever, as though the life had dried out of her. On her lap she clutched the teddy bear, hugging it against her.

Quietly, hardly making a sound, Lee crossed the room to stand behind the chair. She gazed out the window, following the line of Maggie's vision, to the bleak, dull, perfectly trimmed lawn.

"Hideous, isn't it?" Lee commented blandly.

Maggie's head spun to face her, the blue eyes wide with shock. "Lee!"

Lee grinned. "Well, who did you expect?"

"Pieter," Maggie stumbled. "He... I... I mean... Oh Lee, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I just happened to be in the neighborhood and I thought I'd stop by and say hello," Lee said lightly. "Besides, I felt I ought to pay Kate a last visit before she leaves for Holland."

"Oh," Maggie said, her voice thin with disappointment. Her glance settled on Lee's swollen cheek.

Lee waited for the question that should have come. Not wanting Maggie to know the answer, but realizing she would have to tell her the truth. If she wanted to have any kind of anything with the girl, it would have to be the truth all the way even if it hurt.

But Maggie said, "I gather Helga wasn't very glad to see you."

And Lee laughed. "She wasn't, as a matter of fact. She gave me the old heave-ho."

"Well, I'm glad," Maggie said with a touch of triumph "I never did like that girl."

"You want to know something?" Lee said. "Neither did I." She reached out and took the teddy bear from Maggie's grasp and tossed it behind her onto the bed. Then she held out her hands to Maggie.

Maggie stared at her, but she did not move.

"Come on," Lee said. "I'll help you pack."

Still Maggie did not move.

Lee sighed. "What's the matter, girl? You playing hard to get?"

"Oh, Lee," Maggie breathed. "Don't tease me. Please.”

"Now, would I do a thing like that?" Lee said, grinning. She put her hands under the girl's arms and lifted her to her feet.

She felt the girl trembling and suddenly Maggie's hands were against her chest, pushing her away.

"What's the matter?" Lee whispered against her ear.

"Lee. Please," Maggie murmured. "Don't make me...”

Lee's arms went around Maggie then, pulling her close. She felt the girl holding herself stiff, resisting their need. And she smiled against the soft blonde hair loving the girl and wanting her.

"I'm not kidding," Lee murmured. "I came to take you home."

"Lee, we can't..."

"Do you love me, Maggie?"

"You know I do."

"Then we can," Lee said. "We can do anything." Eagerly, her lips sought Maggie's, wanting to tell Maggie it was all right. Wanting Maggie to know as she knew.

Still the girl resisted. But only for a moment. Then slowly, she let herself relax against Lee, let herself be drawn into the whirlpool of desire.

And it happened again as it had happened before. The fire boiling through her veins at Maggie's touch. The need to be gentle, to be good with the girl she loved. She moved with Maggie in her arms to the edge of the bed and pulled the girl down to her.

"No, Lee," Maggie whispered. "No. Please don't... "

Lee shut her up with a kiss. Her hands roamed over Maggie's behind, pressing the girl against her. And suddenly she felt the girl sobbing and tasted the salt of her tears.

She rolled Maggie onto her back and leaned over her. She knew that she had been cruel, taunting the girl that way. And seeing Maggie's tears, she hated herself. She had been too full of herself, too full of her joy... and too much in a hurry.

"Why are you crying?" she said gently, touching fingertips to the dampness on Maggie's cheek. "I told you it's all right."

"But I promised Daddy," Maggie sobbed.

"Daddy won't mind," Lee said. "I told him you'd be moving back to the house as my private secretary."

"Kate..."

"
…
gives us both her blessing," Lee finished.

Maggie stared at her wide-eyed, not daring to believe. "But," she blubbered. "Pieter..."

"Damn it, girl," Lee exploded. "You didn't think I'd let you marry that dumb Dutchman, did you?"

And suddenly Maggie was laughing through her tears. Not asking the million questions there were to be asked, not caring about the answers. She held out her arms to Lee and Lee held her.

"I love you," Maggie whispered.

"I might as well tell you right now," Lee said. "I'm a pretty tough boss to work for. I like the personal touch with my secretaries. And I'm a lecherous bastard. I like to pinch behinds and I have sometimes been known to seduce young innocents like you, but..."

"Well, now, I don't know," Maggie said seriously. "It sounds like it might be fun. But then, a girl has to think about her future. What if you decide you don't like the way I... I type after a couple of months?"

Lee laughed softly. "Well," she said, "if you take the job, honey, you get a guarantee of lifetime employment. I mean... " She felt herself flush. "Well, I'm strictly a one-secretary boss from now on. So if you think you can stand it, I'm all yours."

Maggie kissed her gently on the sore cheek. "No more black eyes?"

"Not unless you give 'em to me," Lee said.

Maggie reached to the teddy bear and turned his face to the wall. "In that case..." she murmured.

And happily, lonely no more, Lee moved into the waiting arms.

~ ~ ~

AFTERWORD

A new revolution was underway at the start of the 1940s in America—a paperback revolution that would change the way publishers would produce and distribute books and how people would purchase and read them.

In 1939 a new publishing company—Pocket Books—stormed onto the scene with the publication of its first paperbound book. These books were cheaply produced and, with a price of twenty-five cents on their light cardboard covers, affordable for the average American.

Prior to the introduction of the mass-market paperback, as it would come to be known, the literary landscape in America was quite different than what it is today. Reading was primarily a leisure-time pursuit of the wealthy and educated. Hardcover books were expensive and hard to find, so purchasing books was a luxury only the rich living in major metropolitan areas could afford. There simply weren’t many bookstores across the country, and only gift shops and stationary stores carried a few popular novels at a time.

The Pocket Books were priced to sell, however, and sell is what they did… in numbers never before seen. Availability also had a great effect on sales, in large part due to a bold and innovative distribution model that made Pocket Books available in drugstores, newsstands, bus and train stations, and cigar shops. The American public could not get enough of them, and before long the publishing industry began to take notice of Pocket Book’s astonishing success.

Traditional publishers, salivating at the opportunity to cash in on the phenomenal success of the new paperback revolution, soon launched their own paperback ventures. Pocket Books was joined by Avon in 1941, Popular Library in 1942, and Dell in 1943. The popular genres reflected the tastes of Americans during World War II—mysteries, thrillers, and “hardboiled detective” stories were all the rage.

Like many of the early paperback publishers, Dell relied on previously published material for its early books, releasing “complete and unabridged” reprints under different titles by established authors. Within a couple of years it was focused exclusively on mysteries, identifiable by the Dell logo on the cover—a small keyhole with an eye looking through it. Many of the Dell mysteries also featured a colored map on the back cover representing the various locations pertaining to the story’s crime. These “mapback” editions became extremely popular and by 1945, Dell was publishing four new books a month.