Love and Arson

by Woods, Karen

  “Anything is possible if you want to make it possible, my dear.”

  “Now that’s naïve,” Dani answered.

  Harry smiled. “That’s not an accusation which I’m used to hearing leveled at me.”

  “I would think not,” Dani said. “But in this case, it’s accurate. Face it, no one, except you and Lyn, has made me welcome. Your housekeeper slammed the door on me after she ordered me to go around to the staff entrance, thinking I was the expected nanny, whom I’ve gathered has not yet made an appearance. Your stepson went on the attack from the first moment we met. Beth was better, but not totally warm. And Thea, well... I don’t know about your sister; she’s about a cuddly as a den of rattlesnakes…”

  Jase chuckled. “You do have a way with words.”

  She shrugged. “Then this morning, I’m chased up a tree by a dog, threatened with being shot, and consigned to burning hell. Immediately after that lovely, enriching experience, the local police chief warns me to keep my nose clean or he’ll run me in. Now, you ask me to become part of this family. I don’t know I can. I don’t even know I should. And I question my sanity for even wanting to.”

  “I see your point,” Harry allowed with a sigh. “I just wish it could be different.”

  “So do I. But I didn’t start it,” Dani replied. “I would end it if certain people would let me.”

  Jase nodded and stated, “Okay, let’s try to move forward. You might as well learn the family business, as long as you’re staying.”

  “That’s a generous offer. Besides,” Dani offered reason-ably, “if I’m working in the office, you can keep an eye on me, right? If I prove to be less than competent, then you won’t have me becoming an embarrassment to the family. Also, you won’t have the problem of my going to work for a competitor.”

  Jase sighed. “Your reasoning is sound. But I don’t doubt your competence. You’re more than capable of handling the job I’ve offered you. If anything, you’re likely to be bored out of your mind with the work. It’s entry level. You’re way over qualified for the job.” He paused slightly before continuing, “But, I’m not going to pull any punches. I really don’t trust you as far as I can throw you. I don’t know you well enough to trust you. Maybe that will change. My only goal in this is to see Harry isn’t hurt. Nothing else matters to me, except protecting him.”

  “I understand. I don’t like it. But, I understand. Know this, Jase, I don’t want to hurt him either,” she replied. “He’s my father. The only thing I want is an opportunity to get to know him better.”

  “So you’ll take the job?” Jase asked.

  “Has the position been created for me?” she asked.

  “No,” he told her. “There have been several applicants for it.”

  “So, why haven’t you filled it before now?”

  Jase shook his head. “The department head is difficult to work under. She’s fired three young women in the past two weeks before they even had an hour put in on the job. Delores Teague is demanding and has very low tolerance for less than professional demeanor.”

  She poured herself another cup of coffee, “I see. And what makes you think I won’t be the fourth woman fired?”

  Jase took a gulp of his coffee. “If I didn’t know you could handle the work, I wouldn’t have offered the position. Everyone at Devlin pulls his or her own weight. Even Thea, when she audits the books. If anyone fails to pull their own weight, she doesn’t work at Devlin for long. It’s a summer job and will give you a bit of spending money, at least until you get your teaching license recognized here and/or you actually launch your business locally, or you decide to move on. Working in the business will help you understand your father’s world better. You can help us around the office and we can help you. Seems a fair exchange to me.”

  Dani nodded. “Fine, as long as I’m not receiving special favors, I accept the job. When do I start?”

  “Tomorrow morning,” Harry stated with a smile. “We have things to do this morning. After the ride, I’ll help you get your residency and business established. You can fill out the employment paperwork at Devlin this afternoon.”

  “Fine. Now, if you will excuse me, I’m going to my room and get ready for the ride and the rest of the day. Here’s hoping the remainder is less eventful than the first part has been.”

  * * *

  “She is your daughter through and through, isn’t she?” Jase asked after Dani had left.

  “With some of her mother’s better traits thrown in,” Harry replied.

  Jase looked at his stepfather carefully. He remembered Nancy. He remembered the scandal of Peter Filson’s death. And he remembered his mother leaving him and Beth with their great grandmother for a week so that their mother could sit at Harry’s bedside after the crash that had nearly taken his life. Jase didn’t want to see Harry ever go through the same sort of emotional pain again.

  “I only hope that she doesn’t have some of her mother’s worse traits,” Jase replied after a long pause.

  Their conversation was cut short by an anguished scream. Jase looked around, then looked up, and noticed her balcony door was open.

  Chapter Eight

  Jase burst into her suite and into her bedroom without knocking. There she stood, tears welling in her eyes, staring in horror at the top of the dressing table, at the pieces of what had been her string of pearls. Someone had cut the string in several places, and had left the pearl necklace laying in pieces on her dresser. The pieces were laid out to spell the command, ‘GO!’

  On the mirror above the dresser was written in childish printing and bright red lipstick, “Leave OR DIE!”

  “Beth has to do something about Jaime. This is entirely too much,” he said.

  He watched her shake her head and gather her composure around her like a cloak. He had to give her credit for that ability to pull herself together.

  He saw her look over at the door. Jase saw his step-father standing there.

  “I’m sorry to have frightened you. I shouldn’t have screamed,” she said, her voice small, hurt, vulnerable.

  Harry entered the room. After assessing the situation with a glance, he said, in his very controlled voice he used only when he was extremely angry, “Excuse me, I have a little boy to spank.”

  Dani reached out and grabbed Harry’s arm. “No, please. He’s just reacting to the tension level in the house. I’m the obvious target because the tension revolves around my being here. He feels threatened. And he showed initiative. That’s something that you shouldn’t squelch, even though it has to be redirected, into ways that are less hostile and destructive.”

  Jase looked at her, amazed at her perception. “That’s quite an assessment from someone who has never even met the child.”

  “And whose fault is it I’ve not been introduced to him? Certain people have done everything in their power to isolate the boy from me as though I were contagious,” Dani demanded.

  He heard the bitterness in her voice and couldn’t blame her for her feelings.

  “I can’t believe the boy normally goes to bed by seven thirty in the evening,” she continued.

  “Not normally, no,” Jase admitted. “He usually is in bed by eight, though.”

  She continued, “As for my assessment, I do know children. I’m good with kids. They generally like me. Young children are especially sensitive to changes in their environment. Lyn told me Jaime is just three years old. This has to be strange to him.”

  “Even so,” Harry replied, “that doesn’t excuse this.”

  Jase saw her nod before Dani spoke, “No. He must be made to realize what he did was wrong. Still, you have to admit he shows initiative and a large amount of invention in his vindictiveness. Paddling him will only reinforce his developing hatred and fear of me. That isn’t something we really want to do, not if we’re all to merge together into any kind of family unit. Let me handle this, please.”

  Beth spoke from the doorway of the bedroom, “Jaime knows he is n ot to g
o into other people’s rooms. And he knows better than to destroy other people’s belongings.”

  Dani said, “I’m not worried about the damage. The threat is another matter, entirely.”

  “Threat?” Beth asked.

  Dani motioned Beth in.

  Jase watched his sister’s face lose all color when she read the mirror. Beth hurriedly assured Dani, “He’ll be punished for his actions, I promise you.”

  “Please, may I talk with the boy?” Dani asked. “Will you let me have a chance at straightening this out before more damage can be done? Please? I really don’t want him to hate me. There’s enough hatred in this house without any of us adding to it.”

  “I suppose I owe you that courtesy,” Beth replied just before she left.

  “I’ll need the name of a good jeweler,” Dani told Harry. “I’m almost certain the pearls can be restrung. I don’t think there was any permanent damage done. I’m sorry to make the fuss.”

  Harry looked at her. “I’ll have them restrung for you. Those were Nancy’s grandmother’s pearls, weren’t they?”

  “Yes, it’s virtually the only link with the past I’ve ever had,” she said. “Mother gave me the pearls when I received my master’s degree...If I hadn’t kept the pearls in my safe deposit box, it would have been lost in the fire as well. This was one of the two good pieces of jewelry she had, the pearls and her rings. Until the last, when her fingers were down to skin and bones, the only time she took off the rings was when she was working. If I hadn’t kept them in the box at the bank, they would have been lost in the fire, like most everything else.”

  Jase watched closely as tears welled up in her eyes. Dani blinked away the tears. He could see her struggle for control. She brought out a small worn velvet ring box from a dresser drawer and opened it.

  “We had some really lean times when I was growing up. There was never money for a lot of extras. Mother often said she thought about selling the rings or the pearls, but she could never bring herself to do either. She said that it would be like cutting off a piece of herself. Mother told me she didn’t want to be buried with the rings on her finger. She wanted me to have the rings. I suppose they should really be returned to you.”

  She offered the rings to Harry.

  Jason watched her distress. He had no doubt the pain was real. No one could be that good of an actress. He remembered Nancy as a vivacious woman. He couldn’t even imagine her in the shape described.

  * * *

  “Her rings should stay with you,” Harry told her, hearing the pain in his own voice. That she could even think of giving those rings back to him when they were virtually all she had in the world told him more about her than anything else could have done. “I want you to keep them, Dani.”

  She shook her head. “I really shouldn’t have come here. All I’m doing is causing pain all the way around,” Dani said tightly. “I’m sorry, Father. Please forgive me. This wasn’t my intention when I came.”

  Harry swallowed with difficulty. It was the first time she had addressed him by their relationship. He wanted to hear her call him ‘Father’ or even ‘Dad’ more often. “Dani,” he began before he was cut off by Beth.

  * * *

  Beth stood at the door with a small, too serious, young boy at her side. “This is Jaime.”

  Dani assessed Jaime as a small framed, sturdy looking, towheaded boy with large green eyes. He was just barely beyond the babyish look of toddlers.

  She sank to her heels, so that she could look the child in the eye. His eyes wore the look of someone who had endured way too much pain in his short life. Lord, please, give me the right words to heal this, to make peace.

  “Come here, Jaime, please.”

  The boy looked up at his mother for permission. Beth nodded affirmatively and gave the boy a firm, motherly shove.

  “Jaime, do you have a favorite toy, something that you love a lot?” Dani asked when Jaime stood before her.

  The little boy nodded. “Yeah.”

  “What is it?”

  “My teddys and my baseballs,” Jaime said. “My daddy gave me my baseballs. His daddy gave some of them to him.”

  “How would you feel, Jaime, if someone went into your room, when you weren’t there, took a pair of scissors and tore apart your baseballs, leaving them in small pieces, then left a hateful note for you?” Dani asked.

  The little boy looked completely distressed as he apparently realized the seriousness of what he had done. He began to cry soundlessly.

  “Jaime, that’s how badly you’ve hurt me. What do you have to say for yourself?”

  “I only wanted you to go ‘way. Mommy and Unca Jase said you would cause trouble. I don’t want trouble,” the boy sobbed. “They said they couldn’t make you go ‘way. I want you to go ‘way, now!”

  “You wanted to help Uncle Jase and Mommy?” she asked, keeping her voice gentle.

  “I don’t want trouble,” the boy said once more, almost defiantly. “I don’t want my gran’pa hurt. I don’t want bad people living in my house.”

  “Of course you don’t want bad people living in your house or to see your grandfather hurt. No one would.”

  “Then you’ll go ‘way? You won’t hurt my gran’pa?”

  “No, Jaime, I won’t go away. But, I promise you I have no intention of causing any trouble or hurting anyone. And I’m not a bad person.”

  “Mommy and Unca Jason don’t lie,” Jaime protested.

  “I don’t want to hurt your grandfather, Jaime. He’s my daddy. I would never hurt him.”

  The little boy’s tone became intensely belligerent, as he repeated, “Mommy and Unca Jason don’t lie.”

  “Your mommy and Uncle Jason told the truth, as they saw it,” Dani assured the boy. “But they were wrong, Jaime. They were just plain wrong.”

  Jaime looked puzzled.

  Dani continued, “Even grown-ups make mistakes sometimes.”

  Jaime’s expression told her this was a new concept to the child and she had to tred lightly.

  “Really?” the boy asked.

  He swung around to look at his mother. “Mommy? Do grownups make mistakes?”

  Beth nodded. “Yes, Jaime. Sometimes bad ones.”

  “You made a mistake, Unca Jason?”

  “I did, Jaime. Are you very disappointed in me?” Jase answered.

  Jaime shook his head from side to side.

  Dani continued, “Now, I want you to understand this Jaime. Can you listen very carefully to me? It is very important that you try to understand this. Will you try?”

  Jaime nodded.

  “My mommy died a few weeks ago. Your grandpa is my daddy. I only came here to spend some time with him. Is that really such a bad thing for me to want to do?”

  “Your mommy is dead?” Jaime asked. “My daddy is dead. Do you miss your mommy?”

  Dani nodded. “More than I can tell you, Jaime. It hurts so bad sometimes that…” her voice trailed off.

  “I’m sorry,” Jaime said. “I didn’t meanta hurt you.”

  “We both know that’s not true, Jaime. You certainly did mean to hurt and scare me. That was the point of all this, wasn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” he admitted, his voice full of shame.

  “Are you ever going to do anything like this again?” Dani demanded.

  “No,” the boy said, misery on his face. “I’m won’t.”

  “Very well, Jaime. I accept your apology. But I want some help cleaning up the mess that you made on the mirror. I’ll spare you the embarrassment of going to the store with me, when I take the pearls in to be restrung. No one but family has to know about this. I won’t embarrass you. Are we in agreement?”

  “Okay,” Jaime said. Then he turned and looked at his mother. “Mommy, can I pay to have the nec’lace fixed?”

  Beth nodded and smiled at her son. “That would be appropriate. And you have no television, not even PBS or videos, nor can you ride Donny Pony for two weeks, as punishment. Do you under
stand me?”

  “Yes, Mommy,” Jaime said.

  Jaime turned back to Dani and pulled a face when his mother couldn’t see.

  Rascal! Dani lightly kissed the little boy’s forehead. She looked at Jase and Beth as she spoke. “All I want is to spend time with my father in peace. That isn’t so very much to ask. Is it?”

  “If Gran’pa is your daddy, are you my mommy’s sister?”

  Beth’s face wore a strained expression. Jase looked upset.

  Dani shook her head. “No, honey. Your grandfather was married to my mother before he married your grand-mother.”

  “Billy-Dean’s mommy and daddy are d’vorced. His mommy married anudder man. Billy-Dean never sees his daddy. Is that what happened?”

  “Basically, but my mommy never remarried.”

  The boy asked, “Are you mad ‘cause you never saw your daddy when you were a litta girl?”

  Dani closed her eyes and sighed. “I’m just glad that I have the chance to know him now,” she said. She looked at the boy, “Jaime, you don’t have to be worried about me. I’m not trying to take anyone’s place. All I want is a chance to be friends with my father. Can you understand that?”

  Jaime nodded. “Do you have a litta boy?”

  “No, Jaime. I’m not married.”

  “Oh,” he said as he tried to process that information. “Nicky’s mother’s not married, and she has a litta boy. Doya haveta be married to have litta boys?”

  Dani felt her face grow warm. “It’s better than way. But, Jaime, I really think this is a conversation you need to have with your mother.”

  “Gee, thanks,” Beth replied dryly.

  Dani looked at her and smiled. “I really don’t want to overstep,” she explained. “Values education is your place, not mine.”

  Beth smiled, genuinely relaxed. “I appreciate that.”

  “Could I spend some time with Jaime, Beth, please?” Dani asked.

  Beth demanded, “Do you really want to?”

  “Very much. He’s precious, and precocious. I think we’ll be fast friends, he and I.”

  Beth smiled. “I have no objections, Mary Danielle.”