Vintage Love (259 page)

She was so lost in her thoughts that when she came out into the open by a large boulder, at first she did not see the solitary figure standing gazing sullenly down at the lake far below. It took her a full moment to realize the man in the neat gray suit and straw hat was Brandon Fraser.

His surprise appeared to be equally great as he turned toward her. “Miss Barnes,” he said, removing his straw hat and taking a step down from the rocks toward her.

She smiled. “You decided to take a walk on this lovely afternoon, too.”

“Yes,” he said, still ill at ease. “This is a favorite place of mine. I’ve been coming here for years. You like it as well?”

“I often come here, right up until the late autumn. I think it’s even more beautiful when the leaves change color.”

He stared at her with his deep-set eyes. “I wonder we haven’t met here before.”

“It is a long path,” she said. “It goes completely around the lake. I hardly ever go all the way. It’s possible for quite a few people to be strolling here at the same time and not meet each other.”

Brandon Fraser nodded. “That’s true,” he agreed. He returned the flat-crowned straw hat to his head and turned to gaze out at the lake and some distant row-boats.

“Standing here, I sometimes get the impression time has stood still,” he said. “Things are very much as they were when I was a boy. No crush of automobiles, no herds of people, nothing but the woods, the lake and a few boats.”

“Life must have been much simpler and pleasanter then,” she said.

“I like to think so,” Brandon Fraser said. “But then my father used to tell me the same thing. And I suppose my grandfather complained about the great change since his day. We have to accept what the years bring us, good and bad.” He looked at her with a cold smile. “Still, it is good to have a refuge.”

“I’m convinced of that.”

Still facing her, he said, “I’m afraid I wasn’t very pleasant to you in the office yesterday.”

She looked out at the lake to avoid his gaze. “I didn’t notice.”

“That’s polite but hardly honest.”

Judith shrugged. “Perhaps I should have said it wasn’t important to me.”

“I hope that is true,” Alan’s father said in his precise voice. “I feel unhappy at the idea I might have given you a bad impression of myself.”

Still studying the lake, she said, “I did feel sorry for Alan.”

“I see,” he said quietly. This was followed by a deep sigh. “I can’t expect you to understand.”

Now she turned to him. “I think I do,” she said. “It’s this fantasy you’ve built around Brian’s memory that is causing you to hate Alan.”

“You think that?”

“I know it’s true.”

Brandon Fraser’s bony face worked with emotion. In a choked voice he reminded her, “But you knew Brian. You saw him many times. You surely realize what a fine young man he was!”

“I’ve told you I liked Brian,” she said quietly.

“All that promise lost!”

“You’re hurting yourself and Alan needlessly,” Judith told him. “It’s useless to go on grieving for Brian this way.”

The man opposite her shook his head. “Such a waste of life!”

“I’ll grant that Brian might have had a wonderful future,” she said. “But I know that he once told me he was worried about Alan.”

Brandon Fraser stood very still. “Brian said that?”

“Yes. In fact, you were brought into the discussion. He felt that you were giving Alan some kind of complex by paying him such scant attention. And Brian was weighed down by the obligation to win in everything that you thrust on him. He was troubled by the partiality you showed him and, in return, the demands you made of him.”

The deep-set eyes stared at her incredulously. “Brian talked about me that way. Told you, a stranger, of his deepest feelings?”

“I was hardly a stranger,” she said. “We could have fallen in love, but I decided I cared more for Alan.”

Brandon Fraser regarded her angrily. “How do I know you’re not making all this up? He never said such things to me!”

“Because I think he feared you,” Judith said, “just as I believe Alan feared you until yesterday. Your sons loved you, but their fear of your coldness made it impossible for them to tell you what they really thought. It’s too late for Brian now. But I think Alan has learned to stand up to you.”

He swallowed hard. “Then it was you who put him up to defying me,” he said. “You filled him with the lies you’ve told me just now.”

“If you’re suggesting that I told him what Brian said to me, I did.” Judith faced Alan’s father with the knowledge that this was something that must be endured. “I felt it might help him. And I believe it was of some value.”

Brandon Fraser stood staring at her in silence for at least several minutes longer, his gaunt face completely expressionless. Then he wheeled around abruptly and walked away. She watched him vanish in the woods with mixed feelings. She would have preferred to have avoided the scene that had been forced on her, and yet she was grateful that she’d had a chance to say what she had kept to herself for so long.

She finished her walk in solitude. And by the time she took the road back home she was in a relaxed mood again.

A brisk ten-minute walk brought her back to Mount Pleasant and the rows of fine old homes built on the hills overlooking the city. She hoped she would be able to earn enough to keep their house. It was her mother’s last link with the great days of her family. And although they could have lived much less expensively in an apartment and it would have been more practical if they had been in a more central location where she wouldn’t need to depend on bus transportation, she had no intention of making a change unless necessity demanded it.

She passed the mansion of S.C. North set in a good distance from the road and surrounded by many acres of estate. The financier was hardly ever there, traveling most of the time, looking after his many enterprises. A short distance farther on, she came to the Fraser home, a stately brick with less impressive grounds, but commanding a fine view of the harbor and the East End of the city.

Her own home was ahead and on the right. Because of its location on a hill, there were all those concrete steps to mount. Not a house for the aged or the arthritic, she decided with a smile.

She was just about to start up the steps when she realized a car had come up behind her and stopped. She turned to see who it might be. The blue sedan was not familiar, but when its door opened and the driver stepped out, he was! It was Miles Estey come back!

“Miles!” she exclaimed in a startled voice.

“I saw you coming down the street,” he said with a smile.

Judith stared at him, and her immediate reaction was that he had aged in the short time since she’d seen him. The tall, sturdy young man’s pleasant face had a new maturity. But the red hair was as vivid as ever, and he seemed in excellent physical condition. He wore a neat dark suit.

“I had no idea you were in town,” she said.

“I just got here.”

“It’s good to see you again. Are you staying or just passing through?”

He continued to study her with those keen blue eyes until she felt embarrassed. “I’ll be here for a while,” he said.

“I wondered why I didn’t hear from you.”

Miles gave her one of his familiar smiles. “Didn’t I send you a Christmas card?”

“Without a message or an address,” she said. “That was hardly enough.”

“I wasn’t sure it still mattered to you.”

“You know better than that! Several times I’ve wanted to write you and didn’t have any address.”

Miles said, “I’d like to talk to you.”

She glanced up toward the house, wondering if her mother was looking out.

“Perhaps we could meet later. After dinner.”

“Suits me,” he said. “I haven’t checked in at my motel yet. Suppose I come by around eight?”

Thinking quickly, she realized it wouldn’t be dark by then. So she said, “Why not make it around nine-fifteen?”

“If you like,” he agreed in a casual tone, so casual she had an idea he knew why she’d suggested a later time.

“My mother takes too much interest in my business,” she said by way of explanation. “It would be better if I came out to meet you rather than have you call for me.”

“Why not?” he asked in the same bantering tone.

She glanced at him anxiously. “Miles, please understand this is nothing personal. I have to cope with her this way all the time. Otherwise she worries and is miserable.”

Miles offered her a lopsided grin. “I’ll buy anything you say.”

“Don’t be like that!” she said more aware now of the new hardness in him, the cynicism and distrust that apparently extended even to her.

“I’ll be here as soon as it’s properly dark,” he said.

“In the meantime, I’ll be on my way before all the neighbors see me talking to you.”

“Miles!” she reproved him.

But he was already moving around to the other side of his car to get into it. He waved in a friendly fashion, but the smile he assumed was bitter. She watched with a sinking heart as he started the car and drove away. He had changed!

She entered the house, expecting her mother to pounce on her with a tirade because she’d been talking with Miles. But it turned out she was in luck. Millicent was still in her room, finishing an afternoon nap. Judith drew a deep sigh of relief and prepared to offer her mother a story to cover her going out with Miles later.

She waited until after dinner and then, pretending it had just occurred to her, said, “I forgot. I promised to go to the Yacht Club dance with Alan.”

Millicent smiled with pleasure. “Well, you’re certainly late thinking about it. What are you going to wear? Is it a formal?”

“No. The season hasn’t started yet. This is only an informal affair to bring the members together and discuss plans and enjoy some dancing. I’ll just wear something simple.”

“You don’t want to look out of place,” her mother worried.

“That’s why I’ll not wear anything dressy,” Judith said firmly. “I can put on my blue. It’s new and will be suitable.”

By nine o’clock she was ready. The rain hadn’t started, and so she made an excuse she wanted to enjoy some fresh air before Alan picked her up. Then she hurried down to the sidewalk to wait for Miles. She took a stand a short distance from the house and near a street lamp. He arrived at exactly nine-fifteen.

He gave her a teasing smile as she got in beside him. “Hope I didn’t keep you waiting?”

“No. I just came down.”

“I trust you gave your mother a suitable story.”

“Don’t be difficult, Miles,” she begged. “It doesn’t become you.”

He glanced at her. “Any place special you want to go?”

“Not really,” she said. “Why don’t we drive to the Point? It’s only a few miles from town, and there’s a lot of parking space overlooking the beach and river. And on the way back we can stop at the Ranch House for a snack. We often used to do that.”

“Sounds good,” he said, heading the car down the hill to the bridge and the rotary leading to the Point road.

Judith sat back with a sigh of relief. “I can hardly believe you’re back,” she said.

He didn’t take his eyes from the wheel. “Did you think I wouldn’t dare?”

“Of course not! But I’d had no word from you.”

Miles eased the car into the heavy flow of traffic circling in front of the Holiday Inn and took the exit for the Point road. “I didn’t know until a short time ago I’d be coming here. I decided to keep it a surprise.”

“It has been one!”

He drove on without glancing at her. “A pleasant one, I hope.”

“Of course!” She sensed that he was still in a hostile humor and wanted to get him out of it. “You’re looking very well. I’ve been worried about you.”

“Thanks. But I’ve managed.”

“What are you doing?”

He gave a short laugh. “I think I’ve finally found my proper niche. You know I was never happy working here for North.”

“I know.”

“And I didn’t really care much for accountancy. So when I had my trouble, I decided I should investigate other fields.”

“And you found something you liked?”

“Yes. I’m with one of the big labor unions. Sort of a trouble-shooter and organizer.”

Judith turned to him. “That’s wonderful,” she said sincerely. “I’m sure you’ll do well.” And then it hit her! “Is that why you’re here?”

“That’s right,” he said with irony.

“Miles, you’ve not come about the bridge, have you? I understand they plan some kind of demand for new working conditions.”

“I’m here to look after the interests of the bridge workers,” he admitted. And giving her a side glance for the first time, he asked, “Does that make me any less welcome?”

“Not you as a person,” she said faintly. And then she admitted, “But you have arrived at the worst possible time. You must know that Alan Fraser is fighting a battle with Senator Lafferty to prevent the construction from being halted completely.”

“Their political battles don’t concern me,” Miles said bluntly. “I’m only concerned with getting the best possible conditions for our men when they are working.”

“I can understand that,” she said. “But your coming here with a strike threat at this particular moment will make it more difficult for Alan!”

Miles eyed her sardonically. “You sound very worried about Fraser!”

“I’m his secretary now,” she explained. “I’ve worked with him closely all through this. He’s put an awful lot of effort into the bridge.”

“The privileged son of a privileged father,” Miles said coldly. “I’m sorry I can’t work up much enthusiasm for the Port Winter gentry.”

“Because Charles North played a rotten trick on you is no reason you should condemn everyone in town,” she protested.

“I don’t care about the precious town,” he told her. “It doesn’t happen to be my town any more. I’ve been sent here to do a job, and that’s what I’m taking care of no matter who gets hurt.”

“You’re playing into S.C. North’s hands,” Judith warned him. “He’s out to remove Alan from the bridge authority and hold up construction until he can have his own men placed in charge and the steel contract shifted to him. Senator Lafferty is merely fronting for the North interests.”