Later that night in bed, after the hunger for each other had been appeased and she lay contentedly in his arms, he asked her if she was sorry that his friend was coming. What could she say? That she was terrified she was going to lose this precious closeness they shared? She couldn’t tell him that, so she lied and said she didn’t mind at all and his friend was welcome.
Adam took the snowmobile and the sled down to the tracks to meet the train. He and Patrick would ride it back. The sled was for the luggage. Before he left the cabin, he locked Molly in his arms and kissed her soundly. She wrapped her arms about his neck, reluctant to let him go.
He nipped her playfully on the chin. “Just a taste of you to take with me!”
Molly watched until he was beyond the big timber and out of sight. It was the end of her time alone with him. Before depression could set in she started preparations for lunch. Work was the therapy she needed. With lunch started she changed from her jeans and shirt to the light green slacks and sweater Adam had bought for her in Anchorage.
She was busy at the range and flushed from the heat of the oven when she heard voices on the porch. Damn! she thought. She had wanted to fix her face and hair before meeting Patrick. But when her startled eyes saw who was coming through the door, all thoughts of her appearance left her mind.
Dressed in a black snowmobile suit, her silver hair glistening as she removed the warm headgear, her blue eyes wide and innocent, her pink mouth twisted in a cheerful smile, was her cousin Donna.
“Molly! I’ve accepted your invitation. Mama said you wanted me to come out and since Patrick was coming on the train, I decided to come along with him. Won’t this be fun? The four of us here together!” The voice coming from the beautifully shaped mouth was so friendly!
The silence that followed beat in Molly’s ears while she stared at her cousin as if she had returned from the dead. She tried to ignore her pumping heart and steady her voice.
“Hello, Donna.” Behind Donna was a man whose friendly eyes were staring at her. “You’re Patrick.” Her voice was calm even to her own ears.
“My wife, Molly.” Adam came from behind the stranger.
Molly extended her hand and it was enveloped after he hastily removed his mitten. Patrick had a twinkle in his blue eyes, and a deeply tanned face under a thatch of sandy hair bleached by the Australian sun. He was not as tall or as heavy as Adam. Molly knew she would like him.
“I’m glad to meet you, Patrick.” She wanted to smile at Adam’s friend, but was afraid her face would crack with the effort. Desperately trying to stay calm, she said to Adam, “Did you have room for the luggage?”
His expression was unreadable. “Yes. Pat had to ride the sled, but we made it. I’ll bring it in.”
“I’ll help.” Patrick went out the door behind him.
Molly’s fingers curled into her palms and she turned to face Donna. There was a moment of fierce glaring between them.
“Why have you come?” she asked bluntly.
Donna unzipped her suit. The snow from her boots was melting and making puddles on the floor.
“I think you know.” All the sweetness was gone from her voice.
“I didn’t invite you. I don’t want you here.”
“I know you don’t, but Adam does.”
“I don’t believe it.”
Donna looked disinterested. “Ask him. Ask him when I was in his apartment last.”
“I don’t believe it!” Molly repeated, her cheeks scarlet.
Donna smiled cruelly. “Poor little Molly!” she mocked. “Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for him!”
“I think you’re here to cause trouble!” Molly was shaking now.
“What you think doesn’t interest me in the least, Cousin Molly,” Donna snapped, then quickly turned to smile as Patrick came in the door carrying a large piece of luggage. Adam came in behind him carrying a heavier load.
Molly’s burning cheeks welcomed the icy blast from the open door. Adam looked at her with a slightly puzzled expression on his face, but before he could speak, Donna came quickly forward and grasped his arm.
“Put my things in Molly’s room, Adam. She says she has oodles of closet space.” Her voice carried the purring tone again and her big blue eyes gazed up at him adoringly.
Adam hesitated only a moment before taking the cases to Molly’s room.
Molly stood, uncertain and confused, then went into the kitchen on the pretext of checking the bread baking in the oven. Her mind was whirling. How dare Donna say she had been invited to come here! She had never invited any of Aunt Dora’s family to come visit, much less Donna, whose contempt for her was most obvious of all. She doubted she had exchanged a dozen words with her cousin in the last five years. Donna wanted Adam. She had made that plain enough. A cold, icy dread started forming around Molly’s heart as she remembered the lipstick she found in the bedroom of his apartment. Had he been meeting Donna while on his trips to the city? Had he asked her to come here?
Donna was entertaining the men with a story about mutual acquaintances in the city. She was cheerful and witty, and Adam seemed to be enjoying her company. She had slipped off the bulky snowmobile suit, looking slim and beautiful leaning against the mantel, her tight-fitting coral knit slacks and sweater a perfect foil for her figure and silver hair.
Molly grabbed up a cloth and went to wipe up the puddle of water made by Donna’s boots.
“Here, let me do that.” Adam tried to take the cloth from her hand.
“I’ll do it.” Her voice was tighter than she intended, and she kept the cloth in her hand, refusing to relinquish it. Almost glaring at him, she added, “Lunch is almost ready.”
He frowned, then shrugged his shoulders and joined the others. He didn’t even kiss me when he came in, Molly thought angrily.
She poured the coffee for lunch and reluctantly admitted her cousin had an unfailing gift for monopolizing male attention. Her husky overtones, her tinkling laughter, the men’s lower voices, all joined together. Molly was silent during the meal, speaking only when necessary.
“Your wife’s a good cook, Adam. Pretty and a good cook. You can’t beat that combination.” Patrick was a diplomat, Molly decided.
“She is pretty, isn’t she?” Adam’s face creased with a smile. He tried to hold her eyes with his, but Molly looked away.
“Molly is a good cook,” Donna chimed in. “She used to live with us, you know. Mama always said if Molly opened a restaurant in Anchorage, she would make a mint!”
“It would be a terrible waste to hide all that beauty in the kitchen.” Patrick’s voice had a slightly critical tone.
“I didn’t mean to hide her. You know that, Pat, darling. I just meant she is such a good cook it’s a shame to waste all that talent.”
Molly got up from the table to serve the dessert and thought her churning stomach was going to betray her, but her self-discipline and pride came to her rescue.
Seating herself again, she looked directly at Patrick. “Tell us about your trip to Australia.” Her voice didn’t betray her, thank God, and she had, at least, got the attention away from Donna.
The remainder of the dinner conversation was lost to Molly as her mind turned over the possibility that Adam hadn’t wanted to be alone with her. That thought was only a step away from the speculation that Donna was the woman he loved and he would not have insisted on consummating their marriage without her invitation.
If the two large cases Donna had brought with her were any indication, she had come prepared for a long stay. Her clothes took up more than half of Molly’s wardrobe. The perfumes and cosmetics that she used to retain her clear, soft skin dominated Molly’s dressing table. Her belongings were strewn around the room which had literally taken on her personality.
In the afternoon she changed from slacks to a long, plaid wool skirt which she paired with a long-sleeved, high-necked sweater. Looking elegant and sensual, she curled herself up in the big chair with a magazine and Adam’s transist
or radio after the men went to Adam’s room to look over his work.
Molly stayed in the kitchen. She wanted to stay as far away from her cousin as possible. She cleaned shelves and rearranged the supply cabinet. The work absorbed a couple of hours and her jumbled thoughts were no closer together when she stopped than when she started.
Donna sauntered in to lean against the counter and watch her. Molly knew she had something to say and braced for the ridicule that was sure to come.
“Adam said he would do anything to get his hands on Uncle Charlie’s files.” Molly glanced at her cousin and saw malice in her eyes. “Guess Uncle Charlie thought that would be the only way he could get a husband for you.”
“What do you mean?” Molly’s hands stopped their movement. Her cousin’s blue eyes stared at her arrogantly, and the corners of her pink lips tilted.
“Adam told all of us, the gang at the club that is, that he would have to marry you, but he said he was going to get more out of it than just the files. We made some bets, and if you know Adam like I do, you know he can’t resist a dare. He bet our friends at the club that he would have you in bed in less than a month.” She paused, then added a contemptuous little laugh. “He intends to collect six thousand dollars on that bet.” Her voice took on a confidential tone. “I wanted to warn you, Molly. I don’t like you very much, but after all, you are my cousin. I think it was kind of stinking of Adam. After all, you’re not wise in the ways of a man like him.”
Molly stared at her disbelievingly. She felt sickened. Humiliation made her stomach heave. She could feel the betraying tears prickling at her eyes and turned away.
“Who told you about the will, Donna?” She used every effort she possessed to keep her voice calm.
“Adam—who else? He said if he didn’t marry you, the files would be destroyed, and Mama would have control of your money and have to look after you for five years.” Her voice took on a dreamy quality. “He knew I’d wait for him.” She looked at Molly’s drawn white face and pressed on. “He told me it was only for a year and if I loved him, I should be willing to wait that long.”
Molly was shaken to the core. Along with her anguish, she felt a white hot fury. She wanted to strike that mocking mouth, but not even that satisfaction would have wiped out the pain Donna had caused her, or the truth of her statements for that matter. If ever she wished herself dead, it was at this moment.
Satisfied that she had accomplished what she had come here to do, Donna sauntered back to her chair by the fire and picked up her magazine.
Stunned by the obvious truth of her cousin’s words, and the betrayal of the man to whom she had given her heart and body, Molly numbly went to the bedroom. After closing the door softly behind her and making sure the connecting bathroom door was firmly closed, she collapsed on the bed. A noise like pounding surf was reverberating through her head. Her limbs shook as if with a fever as reaction set in. Her tortured senses were unable to believe Adam would play such a cruel trick. She choked on a thousand unanswered questions. The humiliation came up in the form of a lump in her throat which she thought she would never be able to swallow. The shame of remembering how she had asked him, had almost begged him to come to bed with her, drew her to her feet, and a wave of weakness set her swaying against the bedpost. She looked at herself in the mirror.
“You fool!” she said aloud. “You dumb, stupid fool!”
She drew on all the courage she had and refused to give in to a storm of weeping. It may have been an inherited pride which decreed that humiliation must be borne with head held high. Whichever it was, her courage or her pride, she looked far from downcast when she opened the door and went out of the room.
Holding herself aloof from all that Donna had said, she spent the next few hours in the kitchen. The first hour or so was taken up with cleaning. She washed the cabinets and counter, scrubbed the wall behind the big range, washed all the globes on the gaslamps, and polished them until they shone. When the kitchen was spotlessly clean, she started baking. She made cookies and cake, the kind Jim liked best, rolled out a half a dozen pie crusts and put them in the freezer, then started a meat pie baking in the range oven. With the kitchen neat once again she put on her parka and went out into the cold, crisp air to bring in more wood for the range. It was totally dark now. The short winter days brought the darkness long before dinner time.
Dog was in the yard and ran to meet her, wagging his tail and making a circle of tracks in the snow. She almost broke her stony composure at his show of affection. Keeping her mind in the safe chamber of suspension, she threw a few sticks for him to chase, patted his head, and returned to the house.
After dumping her armload of wood in the box by the range, she took off her heavy parka and was hanging it on the hook, when Patrick and Adam came into the kitchen. She turned to face them.
“What’s the matter?” Adam stopped short. “Aren’t you feeling well?”
“I’m all right.” Beyond his shoulder she could see Donna approaching and for an instant closed her eyes. Then she turned her head and forced her stiff lips to stretch into a smile. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Adam got out glasses and bottles and mixed drinks. Entertaining is easy for him, Molly thought resentfully. Donna kept up a flow of amusing chatter. Molly was able to maintain her composure; the shock of the betrayal had blocked out every emotion and she felt herself in perfect control. She was determined to be the master of her own actions.
Afterward, she didn’t know how she got through the rest of the evening. Only her strength of character kept the inner misery from surging up and boiling out of her.
When Adam came to her, she looked at him with vacant eyes.
“Would you like a drink, Molly mine?” he asked softly, intimately.
She shook her head. Deceit comes to him as naturally as breathing, she thought. A mask of politeness moved over her face.
“Excuse me. I’ll get the dinner on.”
For a long while she didn’t have to speak or look at any of them. Donna was at the end of the room. The “personal message” program was being broadcast for the second time that day and she was listening and laughing with the two men about the advice given Mrs. Watson regarding her lumbago and the report of the Johnsons’ groceries being left at the wrong stop.
“I can’t believe it!” she exclaimed. “Imagine, having everyone in the North knowing about your lumbago!”
“That’s how Adam knew to meet us at the tracks,” Patrick told her. “He heard it on this program.”
“Is that true, Adam?” Donna turned the full force of her blue eyes on him. “You knew I’d be there with Patrick?”
“No. They just said visitors were coming.”
The murmur of their voices surged over and around Molly, although she was near enough to join in the conversation if she had wished to; but the words they spoke were inaudible to her numbed senses. An air of unreality settled over her. With the perfectly groomed table prepared, and the food on it, she approached the others and told them that dinner was ready.
She served the meal calmly and efficiently, exchanging pleasantries with Patrick, asking him about the food in Australia. Her glance passed indifferently over Adam. He and Donna talked together about some person unknown to her. One time Donna’s voice directed a question to her. She looked in her direction, and her face suddenly blurred, so she turned away and ignored her.
Patrick helped with the cleanup. She would never know what they talked about. The time seemed to go terribly fast and they were finished.
“You’ve worked enough for today, Molly. Come sit by me.” Adam beckoned to her.
She shook her head, not bothering to answer. A frown came over his face and he came toward her.
“What’s the matter with you? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, I’m going to bed.” She started toward her room. He grabbed her arm and turned her around.
“You’re not going to bed!” he grated. “We have guests.”
“Your guests. Not mine.”
“You said you didn’t mind Pat coming and Donna is your cousin,” he hissed at her.
“I’ll prepare their food, but that’s all. Let me go!” Her voice was deadly quiet.
He released her arm. “I don’t understand you.”
“No,” she said, “I guess you don’t.” She left him looking after her with a look of astonishment on his face.
In her room she fumbled in the dark until her fingers felt the familiar lamp and turned it on. Her dazed eyes took in the articles on her table and the clothing strung around the room. She clicked off the lamp, not wanting to see these things, and undressed in the dark. She found her gown under her pillow, slipped into it, and crawled into bed. Her body was weary and her head throbbed. Her troubled mind whirled and she sought the sweet oblivion of sleep. Worn out by the emotional upheaval she had been through she immediately sank into a deep sleep.
She awoke and sat up in bed. The illuminated dial on her watch told her morning was several hours away. The events of the day before were clear in her mind. Knowing who was sleeping beside her, and not wanting to look at her, she kept her eyes averted and slipped out from under the covers. The air in the dark room was icy cold. Hastily she reached for her flashlight, then donned jeans and a flannel shirt. She brushed her hair back, secured it with a rubber band, and left the room. The fire had burned down in the cooking range and the big log in the fireplace was almost used up. She shivered as she tugged the fire screen aside to poke at the coals on the grate. After selecting several small logs from the woodbox she carefully piled them on the burning coals and replaced the screen.
The house was unnaturally quiet. She cocked her head to one side and listened. Suddenly it occurred to her: the clock on the mantel was still. Aiming the beam of her light on the clock, she found the glass door of the clock case was open and the pendulum had been removed. She replaced the pendulum, wound the clock, and started the pendulum swaying. The familiar ticking was comforting in the quiet room.
Dreamkeepers Page 30
