“I’ll move if you’ll come with me,” he replied quietly.
Ann sat perfectly still for a stunned moment, then flung her arms around his neck. “Yes, yes, yes!” she yelled, going weak with relief and joy.
“I’ve already checked, and seventeen is old enough to get married there. We’ll get a place and I’ll work full-time. I know it won’t be much at first but we’ll be together. That’s what’s important, right?”
Ann was crying silently, unable to talk, but she nodded vigorously, clutching him.
“The only thing I’d feel bad about is you leaving school....” he said in a worried tone.
“I can take the high school equivalency exam, that’s not a problem. I’m sure I could pass it right now,” Ann replied, recovering her voice and wiping her eyes with the hem of her T-shirt. “And I can get a job, too, waitressing or something. We’ll be just fine, Heath. I know we will.”
“Then why are you crying?”
“I’m so happy.” She sniffed loudly.
“Look, Princess, I think you should take some time to consider this idea. If you come with me you’d be giving up a lot—your home and security, your whole past life—to go off with a guy with an uncertain future.”
She put her hand over his mouth. “My decision is made. Just name the time and the place.”
He searched her face and saw that she was serious. He nodded, exhaling forcefully. “Okay. I’ll need a couple of days to work out the details. Once we get to Georgia, we can stay with my cousin until we find an apartment. It will probably be crowded at first—he has a couple of kids, but he said that there’s a spare bedroom fixed up in the basement.”
“Oh, Heath, I don’t care, I don’t care,” Ann said, kissing him wildly. “I’ve been going crazy, wondering how we would work this out, wondering how I would ever be able to see you, and here’s our solution !” She laughed delightedly.
“I have enough money saved for bus fare for both of us, and if I sell my bike I’ll have more...”
“Don’t sell your bike!” Ann said, aware of how much he loved it. “Can’t we ride it there?”
“It won’t exactly be the most comfortable trip,” Heath said dryly.
“That’s all right.”
“You can only bring one duffel bag to put on the back of the bite,” he said warningly.
“That’s fine. Anything you say.”
“I can let you know through Amy when and where to meet me,” he said, his arms tightening around her.
“Good.”
“We’ll do it,” he said, his tone confident.
“We will,” she echoed, her lips curving unconsciously into a smile again.
All her problems were solved.
* * * *
Three days later Ann was packing her single bag by the glow of a flashlight when her bedroom door opened and her father snapped on the overhead light.
Her throat closed at the sight of him.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Henry Talbot said to his daughter.
Ann decided to confront him. He would have to know sooner or later, it might as well be now.
“Packing,” she said calmly.
“To go where?”
“To Georgia with Heath. I’m of age to get married there and he has a job at his cousin’s marina. I suppose you know something about this or you would be asleep, not standing here in the middle of the night demanding an explanation.”
“Luisa overheard one of your phone conversations with Amy, and she alerted me.”
“Is she on your spy payroll now, too?”
“She’s very fond of you, Ann, and doesn’t want to see you get into trouble. She did the right thing.”
“I’m not getting into trouble, I’m getting married.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am. Seventeen is old enough to get a license in Georgia. You can’t stop me.”
“I certainly can. Seventeen is still minority in Florida, and I believe your paramour is of majority age. That means any intercourse between the two of you constitutes statutory rape. If he takes you across state lines, as you say he plans to, he is also in violation of the Mann Act. If you leave this house tonight to meet him, I will have him arrested within an hour.”
Ann felt her flesh go cold at his dispassionate tone. She had heard it before in reference to his business dealings, and she knew he meant every word.
“You can’t prove anything,” she finally answered, keeping her voice steady, trying not to show how frightened she was. “I’ll never give evidence against Heath.”
“If necessary, I will bring in a doctor to confirm that what I suspect is true,” her father said flatly. “But I doubt that you will let things go that far. If you care about this boy at all, you won’t want to see him in jail. And I assure you that if you pursue this foolishness, that is exactly where he will land. The usual sentence for statutory rape is several years, I understand.”
Ann sat heavily on the edge of her bed, her packing forgotten. “What do you want?” she said dully.
“I have already arranged for you to stay with Mildred Plunkett. You remember my friend in Massachusetts. I called her earlier this evening. I want you to leave for New England in the morning—I’ll take you to the airport myself. I will arrange a transfer to the Hampton School for Girls in Longmeadow for the September term. You will leave without ever seeing this boy again, and you will not communicate with him in the future. Please remember that I can raise the rape charge at any point. Don’t consider contravening me, or Heath Bodine will pay dearly for your defiance.”
Ann stared past him hopelessly, feeling all her plans and hopes shattering like delicate crystal, the shards collecting at her feet. She pictured Heath waiting for her at the appointed spot, waiting for hours in vain, finally realizing that she wasn’t coming, thinking that she had abandoned him. It was too awful; she couldn’t let it happen. But then she pictured him in handcuffs, languishing in jail, later on trial for a serious crime. That was worse.
There was no way out but to obey.
She looked at her father as a sentenced convict might look at his executioner.
“I’ll do whatever you say,” she said.
* * * *
Ann came home from school at Christmas break to find that Heath was gone. She heard from the Jensens that he had joined the navy. He had left them no forwarding address.
Ann had never known the name of Heath’s cousin in Georgia. Heath’s father would not talk to her. Henry Talbot discussed everything but his daughter’s slight lapse in romantic judgment. Margaret Talbot looked on with worried eyes and said very little. Luisa pretended that she knew nothing about the whole episode.
And she never saw Heath again.
Chapter 6
Ann sat up suddenly as a loud knock at her door pierced her reverie and brought her back to the present. She glanced at the clock on the inn’s bedside table.
She had been sitting in the armchair, lost in the past, for more than two hours.
She shook out her left leg as she walked to the door; it was stinging with pins and needles, numb from remaining in the same position for so long. She pulled the door open and saw a room service attendant standing in the corridor next to a rolling cart set lavishly with an elaborate dinner.
“For Miss Talbot,” the waiter said, glancing at the number on the door when her expression revealed her surprise.
“I didn’t order this,” Ann said.
He picked up the slip stuck under an ivory china bud vase containing a single rose. “It’s complimentary, from a Miss Amy Horton. The order was placed at one-thirty this afternoon.”
Ann smiled. Amy was determined to get her to eat, one way or another.
“All right, you can bring it in,” Ann said, tightening the belt on her robe and pushing back her hair. She stepped aside as he wheeled the cart into her room and then she fished in her purse for a tip. When he had left her alone, she lifted the shiny silver covers from the di
shes and discovered that Amy had ordered enough food for an army—soup and salad, main dish and vegetables, dessert and coffee, not to mention rolls and butter and various garnishes. It was a feast.
Ann sighed. Dear Amy. She just couldn’t seem to understand that availability of food was not the problem; it was complete lack of appetite.
But after this gesture, Ann felt she had to try.
She dutifully sat down in front of the cart and picked up a roll, beginning to eat.
* * * *
Heath Bodine put down the computer printout he was trying to read and sat back in his chair. He looked around the office of Bimini’s Big Palm marina, aware that he would not get any work done today. This pit stop had been a waste of time.
The phone at his elbow rang and the secretary in the outer office picked it up. He watched the red light blink and then switch off without interest.
Since he’d left Harold Caldwell’s office he’d been unable to think of anything but his meeting with Ann and the proposal he had made to her. And then when he’d checked in with his Miami branch and heard that she’d left him a message there, he’d known that he had won.
She was going to do what he wanted.
It was curious how little satisfaction that piece of knowledge gave him.
After waiting eleven years to take revenge for Ann’s betrayal, he’d thought that the success of his well-planned scheme would taste a little sweeter.
Perhaps the lack of savor resulted from Ann’s defeated air, the obvious fragility of the woman who’d confronted him in the lawyer’s office. She had always seemed delicate—it was part of what had first attracted him to her—but now she looked haunted, ethereal, unhappy. He supposed that it was only to be expected, with her family’s company on the ropes and her brother in jail. But he had still anticipated some vestige of the old, feisty Ann, always ready to take on her father, the town, the entire universe, anyone who might separate her from her down-scale lover across the tracks.
But of course, that image wasn’t the real Ann, or she would never have left him pacing the Big Palm bus station for twelve hours, watching the sunrise and the day begin, looking for her every time the door opened. He remembered the commuters with their paper cups of steaming coffee, the mothers dragging unwilling toddlers toward family visits, the single travelers passing him with closed faces. He’d been unable to acknowledge that she wasn’t coming until he’d finally fallen asleep and woken to the gathering dusk to find himself still alone.
Then he’d sped back to Lime Island on his bike, the tears streaming down his face, to find Ann’s house closed and dark, a padlock on the garage. He’d torn out of the driveway and gone straight to Luisa Sanchez’ house in Hispaniola. Her face expressionless, she’d told him that Ann had transferred to a new boarding school in Massachusetts and her parents had gone to their vacation home in Maine for several weeks. She didn’t know anything more.
Amy Horton was no help; whatever had caused Ann to change her plans, she hadn’t told Amy about it before she’d left.
End of story.
He had joined the navy the next day.
Heath rubbed the bridge of his nose, thinking about that break with Ann, the way it had formed the rest of his life. With his background, it had been difficult for him to trust anyone, but she had somehow slipped inside the barriers his nineteen-year-old self had erected against the world and won his heart.
Then, when Daddy Talbot crooked his imperious finger, she had tossed that heart away as if it were garbage.
What had happened? Had she thought about what it would be like to live without the cushion of the Talbot money and developed cold feet? Probably. Romantic daydreams were one thing but reality was quite another.
And then, of course, there was the payoff. He couldn’t let himself forget about that.
Knuckles rapped on the door of the office. Joe Jensen pulled the door open and stuck his head inside the gap he’d created.
“Heath, we have to talk about the Sea Ray inventory. I’ve got several used twenty-footers that need a markdown, will you come and take a look?” Jensen said.
“Be right there,” Heath replied. He stood abruptly, thinking ahead to his dinner the next night with Ann.
He would marry her, and make her pay for everything.
* * * *
Ann changed three times for her meeting with Heath, not even sure why she was doing it. Some vestige of their earlier relationship made her want to look nice for him, even though she knew that the subject on his mind would hardly be romance. Everything she owned was now too big for her, but she settled on a blue silk shirtwaist that fit reasonably well, wearing it with high-heeled pumps and her mother’s pearls. She brushed out her hair, checked her lipstick for the last time, and finally left her room, her hands blocks of ice from nervousness as she descended in the elevator.
Heath was already seated in the inn’s dining room, a glass of Scotch on the table in front of him. He rose as she approached him and held out a chair for her, his face unsmiling. She sat and looked at him across the table, which was covered with a white linen cloth and illuminated by a candle set in a small hurricane lamp.
“Have you been waiting for me a long time?” she asked.
“For eleven years,” he said.
She looked at him.
“Just a few minutes,” he amended. “Would you like something to drink?”
Ann shook her head. He was wearing a raw silk blazer, obviously expensive, that fit him like a glove, with an ivory shirt, striped tie and brown slacks. He looked every inch the successful businessman, a far cry from the impoverished teenager she had known. But she saw that boy in the features that had not changed—the high cheekbones, the seal-black hair, the almond-shaped amber eyes. Oh, Heath, she thought, feeling the fullness of tears in her throat. She blinked and looked away.
Heath folded his hands on the table and said, “I think you should know there have been a few developments in your brother’s case. I assumed that you wanted to see me in order to agree to my plan, so I took some preliminary steps. First thing this morning I contacted Trevor Hankins in New York, and he called the judge who refused to free Tim on bail. Hankins has arranged for a new bail hearing on Thursday and will be flying in to represent Tim at the proceeding. Hankins feels confident that he can spring Tim within twenty-four hours, and I will put up a cash bond for whatever amount the judge demands.”
It took several seconds for Ann to absorb the information. “You’re very efficient,” she finally said quietly.
“Money talks,” he replied shortly. “I’ve also contacted the board of directors at ScriptSoft to see if I can make a loan to the company in exchange for their dropping the mismanagement suit against your brother. I’ll buy up the existing stock if I have to, bring in a reorganization team, whatever is necessary. I’m confident something can be arranged.”
Ann watched him, waiting.
“That won’t get rid of the feds, of course, the SEC is a law unto itself. But Hankins has a colleague who specializes in white-collar crime and I can assure you that Tim will have the best defense money can buy if the stock tampering case comes to trial.”
Ann swallowed. “Thank you.”
He took a sip of his drink, rattling the ice in the glass. “I keep my promises,” he said.
The emphasis on the third word was not lost on her. “And in exchange for all of this you want... ?” Ann said.
“You. Just you,”
“Can’t you let it go, Heath?” Ann asked softly. “I’ll find some way to pay you back for all of this, but a marriage that will make us both miserable seems—” She broke off, at a loss.
“Too high a price to pay?” he suggested.
A waiter arrived with a platter of appetizers and he set it down between them, oblivious to the mood of the diners.
“I took the liberty of ordering something for us,” Heath said, taking another small swallow of his drink.
“Will there be anything else at the moment,
sir?” the waiter inquired.
“No, thank you. We’ll order later.”
The waiter left and Heath looked around expansively. “Lots of memories in this place, huh, Princess? Well, out in the parking lot, at any rate.”
“Heath, don’t.”
“Why not? Are we going to pretend that none of it happened? That’s a pretty tall order, don’t you think?”
“I never meant to hurt you.”
“I see. You thought that leaving me walking in circles in the Big Palm bus station waiting for somebody who never came was going to make me happy?”
“You don’t know what happened that night, you never have!” Ann protested.
He sat back and surveyed her cynically. “Why don’t you inform me? I know you’re just dying to tell me your sanctified version, it should be very interesting.”
Ann ignored his tone and said, “My father interrupted me in the middle of the night as I was packing to go and meet you. Luisa had overheard a conversation I’d had with Amy and alerted him that I was leaving. He told me that if I tried to leave town with you he would have you arrested for statutory rape.”
Heath’s face was unreadable. “And?” he inquired, raising an eyebrow.
“Isn’t that enough? If I didn’t promise to transfer to that school in New England and never see you again, you would have wound up in jail!” Ann said heatedly.
“Ah, I see. Very noble of you. Self-sacrifice and all of that. Just like Romeo and Juliet. Or was it Laurel and Hardy?”
Ann stared at him in consternation. It was clear he didn’t believe her.
“How can you sit there, all prim and proper with your bare face hanging out, and lie to me like this, Princess?” he said, his tone deadly. Dangerous.
“I’m not lying!” she said, amazed that he could doubt her. “That’s exactly what happened!”
He picked up his glass again and drained it. “I guess I never told you about my father’s sister Elsie, did I?” he said neutrally.
Ann gazed at him, bewildered. What on earth was he talking about now?
“My father was the black sheep of his family. The rest of his siblings actually work, go food shopping, take showers, remain vertical after 4:00 p.m. You know, they do the normal things. My Aunt Elsie, for example, worked as the secretary to a trust officer in a Miami bank. As luck would have it, the very bank where your daddy did the bulk of his business.”
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