As You Wish

by Jude Deveraux

  Kit said that Mr. Gates had some muscle on him. After all, he’d been lifting Uncle Freddy for years, but since he hated the water, that caused problems. Kit had to do a lot of coaxing. As for Uncle Freddy, Kit said that marshmallows had more muscle than he did.

  Olivia learned to tell the cleaning women when they called in sick that the work would be waiting for them. Every day, she put on a swimsuit and helped Kit with the lessons. And she started a dance class that everyone—kids, old men, Kit, Bill and Nina—participated in. Livie was sure Mr. Gates was recovering when he said he’d do any ridiculous thing she came up with just to see her in a pink leotard.

  On Sunday, Kit and Olivia drove Ace to the hospital to see his mother. They’d even taken her a big slice of chocolate cake. She’d been barely coherent but she’d smiled at her son, and Kit had held the boy so he could kiss her cheek.

  It was taking a while, but everyone was coming back to life after the near-death experience.

  One day when he was on his way to the orchard where he was going to help Kit with the mowing, Bill waved to his wife and Livie. They were sitting at the big picnic table at the side of their little house and snapping and stringing a couple of bushels of green beans. They planned to can them that afternoon and promised that they’d make his favorite dilly beans.

  As Bill left, he didn’t see the two girls coming down the old brick path.

  “Olivia!” Betty Schneider called.

  Olivia was sitting across from Nina, her back to the young woman, and she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. “What did I do to deserve this?” she muttered. It took all her acting training to get her face under control and put a smile on before she turned around.

  Betty and her friend Shirley Williamson were coming toward them. Olivia had gone to high school with the two girls. They’d been quite popular as they were pretty in a cute way and they’d had all the latest clothes. Sweaters with a padded cutout of a horse on the back, kilted skirts with brass buckles, a circle pin on every Peter Pan collar, with matching bows in their hair. They’d headed every committee, had the top athletes for boyfriends, and never did anything wrong. They were perfect!

  As for Livie, she was so involved in the theater group that she just tried to get to class with no paint on her face.

  “Olivia!” Shirley said. “How wonderful to see you.”

  To Livie’s consternation, Shirley leaned forward to kiss Olivia’s cheek, and Betty followed.

  “That’s how they do it in New York, isn’t it? Or is that in France? I get those mixed up.” Shirley giggled in a way that said she believed she was still cute.

  Olivia stepped back. “This is Nina Tattington. Her husband—”

  “Tattington? Do you own this old place?” Betty asked.

  “No, my husband and I just work here for the summer.”

  As they were scrutinizing Nina, sizing her up, Olivia was looking at them. They were as dressed up and made up as stage performers. Betty’s eyebrows had been plucked until there was little left of them, and Shirley’s hair had been ironed flat. No kinky curls were left in it.

  They had on skirts so tight they were like sausage casings and their blouses were open down to their bras. Their legs were encased in panty hose and their feet squashed into the pointed toes of high heels.

  What do they want? Olivia wondered. Her mother had kept her filled in on the town gossip so Olivia knew that these two hadn’t had the perfect lives they’d expected. Betty had married her high school football player, but they’d divorced a year later and he’d moved to California. Shirley’s boyfriend broke their engagement after she’d been wearing his ring for four years. Olivia’s mother said the boy had volunteered for Vietnam rather than marry Shirley.

  When he got back, he’d immediately married some girl who Shirley had always considered beneath her.

  As for Olivia, in high school their attitude toward her had been that she didn’t exist.

  She’d never been invited to their parties or asked to join them in the cafeteria. But then, Olivia had never tried to be part of their crowd. To her, high school had been a stepping-stone to where she was going to go.

  Without being invited, the girls sat down at the picnic table.

  “So, Olivia,” Betty said, “I hear you were fired from your Broadway play.”

  As she sat down at the end of the bench, Olivia opened her mouth to defend herself, but she closed it. It looked like the girls were still in the territory of high school, still degrading people to make themselves feel better. She smiled. “I was, and now I’m the cleaner for a couple of old men.”

  Nina coughed to cover a laugh.

  Olivia could give their cattiness back to them. “And what about you two? Married? Kids?”

  Both of them frowned.

  “I wouldn’t have any man in this town,” Betty said. “You were right to go to New York to get one.”

  Olivia was puzzled by the remark. “I didn’t get a man.”

  “What about the one everyone in town saw you fawning over at the tea shop? We heard it was quite embarrassing.”

  “And we also heard that he runs around here wearing no clothes.” Shirley’s voice was low, suggestive.

  Olivia’s face lost its fake look of complacency. They’re after Kit, she thought. They’ve come here with pounds of makeup on as bait for Kit.

  “So what’s he like?” Betty asked.

  “I heard he’s rich,” Shirley said. “Your father told Mr. Wilson at the club who told my uncle that the man has a palace in Italy. Is he a prince?”

  Olivia looked at them in horror. She had a vision of the two of them—and the other single females in town—parading around Tattwell in four-inch heels.

  She glanced at the bowls of green beans and saw it all ending. She suddenly realized that they had created a family here at Tattwell. They had inside jokes; they each had tasks. They knew about each other. Cared. Loved. Yes, they’d grown to love one another.

  And she did not want that to end!

  Olivia dug deep under her own emotions to find the character she needed to play. She gave a little laugh, doing her best to sound as though she didn’t care. “Are you talking about Christopher? He’s rich? You have to be kidding! Would he be mowing lawns if he had any money? And girls...” She leaned toward them as though sharing a secret. “Christopher is just a boy, a teenager. He’s not the kind of man women like us need. Really, you mustn’t waste your time on a child like him.”

  She was glad to see that her words were succeeding. The made-up faces of Betty and Shirley began to deflate like punctured balloons. Not rich. Not old enough. Olivia decided to sell the idea. “If you were seen out and about with the Worthless Boy—that’s what I call him—you’d be the laughingstock of the entire town.”

  At that condemnation, both of the young women stood up. “Oh. I guess we heard wrong.”

  Trying to control her relief, Olivia also stood. “You should have a word with the gossips who told you those lies. I don’t think they had your best interests in mind.”

  “You can be sure we will,” Shirley said.

  “I think we better go,” Betty said.

  “Yeah, right. Olivia, we’ll see you in town. Maybe.”

  As fast as they could walk in heels on the old brick walkway, they hurried back to their car.

  With a triumphant smile, Olivia turned to look to Nina, expecting congratulations. But what she saw on Nina’s face was an expression of horror. Her skin was pale, as though all the blood had drained from it.

  Please, no, Olivia thought. Don’t let it be what I think it is.

  Slowly, she turned in the direction Nina was looking. Standing just around the corner of the house was Kit, a shirt on over his bathing trunks. In front of him was Uncle Freddy in his wheelchair, his usually smiling face looking sad. He wouldn’t meet Olivia’s eyes. Behind them was
Mr. Gates and he wore a look of disgust. It was one thing to call Kit Worthless Boy within the family they’d created, but not to tell other people that.

  As for Kit, she couldn’t read his expression, but then he’d turned his face away from her.

  Even under his deep tan, she could see the red of anger on his skin.

  When he pushed the wheelchair forward a few feet, Olivia saw that the children were in the back, and from their looks they too had heard what Olivia said. As young as they were, their sweet little faces looked at her as though she had betrayed them, had broken some unwritten code of family loyalty.

  Olivia wanted to say something in her own defense, but what could she say? Whatever her excuse, she had disparaged Kit, belittled him, put him down. She had turned a family joke into a public condemnation.

  Kit took his hands off the wheelchair and started to leave. His silence seemed to say that he too had no words.

  He got about ten feet away, then he turned back, and the look on his face had changed.

  For the first time, all of them saw Kit’s anger. His eyes were dark lights of rage. He was formidable looking.

  Olivia started to step back, but she held her ground.

  In just a few steps, he was in front of her and he took her in his arms. Not gently, but with a force that nearly took the breath from her.

  He kissed her. His body, his lips showed the passion he’d been feeling since the day he saw her. His desire for her, from seeing her daily, being close, laughing with her, from the tears to the quiet moments of happiness that they had shared, it was all there in that kiss.

  His hand went to her face and his thumb caressed the corner of her mouth as his lips opened over hers.

  This was not the kiss of a boy or of inexperience. This was a man’s kiss, a man who had seen much of the world, and tasted most of it.

  It was a kiss far different from anything Olivia had experienced before. There was no fumbling. No awkwardness. No insecurity. This was the kiss of a man who knew what the hell he was doing.

  Kit broke away and for a second he looked at her. His eyes had not changed. They were cold fire, angry, maybe even cruel.

  He had one arm around her body, and when he pulled it away, Olivia’s legs folded under her.

  With a snap of his wrists, Kit let her drop.

  Olivia staggered backward for a step, but she was too unbalanced to catch herself. All the dance lessons she’d had hadn’t prepared her for a kiss that had pulled the insides out of her. Emotion, feelings, even sanity, were gone.

  She sat down on the brick pavement hard, her teeth jolting together, pain shooting up through her.

  Standing over her, Kit’s face went into a sneer. “Not a boy,” he said. Then he turned on his heel and walked away.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Summer Hill, Virginia 1970

  “Sorry, but we aren’t open yet,” the bartender said. “Come back in a couple of hours.”

  Kit put a fifty-dollar bill on the bar. “I want a beer and keep the change.”

  “I guess I just opened.” He poured a beer, put it in front of Kit, then stood there watching him brood. “So which one did you choose?”

  “What?”

  The bartender was wiping the counter. “I assume you’re here because you’re after one of the girls. Or did you come into town to see your other choices?”

  Kit looked at the man like he was crazy.

  “Girls!” The bartender nodded at Kit’s tan. “You been in the sun so long you forgot about them?”

  Kit sighed. “Girls are all I think about.”

  “That’s normal. It’s what I did at your age. So which one is it?”

  Kit frowned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Betty Schneider or Shirley Williamson? Last night they were in here talking about the rich, naked guy who’s a relative of Uncle Freddy. They were saying they were going out to Tattwell to meet him. You’re him, right?”

  Kit took a deep drink of his beer. “Rich, naked guy,” he mumbled. “That describes me perfectly.”

  “Did they show up?”

  “Who?”

  The bartender glared at him.

  Kit shrugged. “Yeah, there were some young women there today. I didn’t talk to them.”

  “Didn’t—?” The bartender leaned forward. “Listen, those two girls are hot to trot, if you know what I mean. They used to be the queens of the local high school but now they just want a man. Betty is the smarter of the two. Shirley’s the nicer one, but she won’t let you out of her sight. If you want to see what else is in this town, I can put the word out. If you come back about seven, every unmarried gal within fifty miles will be here. And a few married ones, if that’s what you want.”

  Kit was looking at the bartender as though he were from another planet, but then his eyes changed. He smiled as though he might like being hit on by lots of randy women. “You from here?”

  “Born and bred.”

  “What’s Olivia Paget like?”

  The man stepped back from the bar and looked at Kit. “You’ve gone that way, have you? Well, give it up. She’s the prettiest girl in town but she wants none of us. She may have been born a small town girl but she’s not one. Her heart is somewhere else.” He stood there looking at Kit, whose head was so low it was practically touching the counter. “Got it bad, have you?”

  “Yeah,” Kit said. “Very bad.”

  “Poor guy. I fell for a girl like that. She was way above me. Let me give you some advice. Olivia Paget isn’t for some kid who runs around mostly naked and cleans up cemeteries. Yeah, we heard about that.”

  “I think maybe I did a really stupid thing today. Livie sent the girls away.”

  “You mean Betty and Shirley? Why’d she do that? I can’t imagine Livie taking an interest in them. When she lived here, while the rest of us were having backyard barbecues, Livie was in Richmond taking lessons for her future life—and this was when she was twelve. So why did she send the girls away? It’s more like she’d laugh about them being there to check you out. Olivia has a sense of humor that can cut glass.”

  Kit looked up at the man, his face showing the misery he was feeling.

  The bartender’s eyes widened. “You don’t think...? Olivia couldn’t be...?” He let out a snort of laughter. “You think Olivia sent those girls away because she’s interested in you? In some kid who mows the grass?” He gave a genuine laugh. “One thing I’ll say for you, kid, you got a pair on you.”

  “I think the absence of a brain counterbalances my overwhelming sense of self,” Kit said as he drained his beer, then left the bar.

  Watching the door close, the bartender shook his head. “‘Overwhelming sense of self,’” he quoted. “Keep talkin’ like that and who knows, kid, you might have a chance with Livie after all.” But then he thought of all the young men who’d made passes at Olivia Paget and failed.

  No, not possible. Laughing, he went to the storeroom to get more beer.

  * * *

  It was Nina who solved it all. First, she found out where Kit and Olivia had gone in their separate runaways. She got an earful from the bartender at the tavern that was a few miles down the road. Kit had already been there and left.

  As for Olivia, she was a local girl. She’d walked to the road and someone she knew stopped and gave her a ride. Nina called Mrs. Paget, gave her a brief explanation of what had happened, then said that if she heard where Olivia was, please let them know.

  Next, Nina tackled the family by giving them a piece of her mind. The two old men and the children had assumed that Olivia had betrayed them. “She was protecting the lot of you!” Nina said, and went on from there.

  The children were so fascinated at seeing Uncle Freddy and Mr. Gates getting bawled out by Letty’s mother they were almost having a good time.


  After she finished, Nina left the house and used her ever-present coat hanger wire to try to scratch under her cast. She was very annoyed with all of them.

  When she got home, her phone was ringing. It was Mrs. Paget saying that Livie had come home, gone to her bedroom, and shut the door. She said her husband was out looking for Kit. “And I’m packing. We’re going to spend a few days at the lake cabin.”

  “Good idea,” Nina said as she kept scratching. Her anger had made the itch worse.

  An hour later, Mrs. Paget called again to whisper that Kit was there, and she and her husband were leaving the house. “We don’t plan to be back for two days.”

  “Make it three,” Nina said.

  “I hope I’m not making a mistake,” Mrs. Paget said.

  “You aren’t,” Nina answered. They said goodbye and hung up.

  Chapter Twenty

  When Olivia stopped talking, Kathy and Elise were silent, waiting for her to go on. But she said nothing.

  “I want to know the rest of it,” Elise said.

  Olivia blinked away tears. “We had six weeks of perfection. It’s a cliché to say that we had heaven on earth, but we did.” She took a breath. “My parents had an ulterior motive for leaving Kit and me alone in their house. They were proud about my Broadway role, but they really just wanted me to settle down and have babies. I didn’t know it, but after my dad met Kit, he did some checking and he liked what he heard. By leaving us there, my parents were matchmaking.”

  “Did you and Kit stay there?” Elise asked. “In the house? Alone?”

  Olivia gave a little smile. “If you’re asking about sex, the answer is yes, yes, and yes. Sweaty, exhausting, all-consuming, never-ending sex. At the end of three days I knew his body as well as my own.”

  Kathy and Elise were smiling.

  “When my mother called to tell us they were returning, Kit and I went back to Tattwell. No one made a big deal of it, but they were very glad to see us. And we felt the same way.”