Nancy Herkness (25 page)

“Perfectly understandable,” Jack said, shifting her weight onto his lap.

“Before she started crying she told me everything I needed to know. That’s why the police came so quickly,” Isabelle said, leaning down to examine the lump on Charlie’s forehead. “I have a wonderful poultice for swelling. After I fix some coffee for everyone, I’ll get it for you.”

Ernst stood before them. “So Jack, you saved our Charlie. Good man.” He reached out and shook Jack’s hand.

“She’s my Charlie,” Jack said, looking up at the older man.

“So I see,” Ernst said. “While Isabelle serves coffee, I will sweep up all this glass.”

“I can do it,” Charlie said, struggling to get up.

Jack’s arm became a band of steel around her.

“You’re not going anywhere, sugar. You’ve probably got a concussion, and you’re going to accept Ernst’s very kind offer.”

“Thanks, Ernst,” Charlie said, subsiding. In truth, she just wanted to close her eyes. Sallyanne was holding onto her hand, and she stroked the little girl’s knuckles with her fingertip. “I love you, sweetheart,” she whispered to her new daughter, and then followed her impulse to shut her eyes. The pounding in her head lessened as she let her mind drift, soothed by the soft swish of Ernst’s broom, the clink of broken glass and Jack’s heart beating against her ear.

“Wake up, Charlie.”

She struggled back to consciousness, wincing as pain shot through her temple.

“Are you awake?” Jack’s voice was low but insistent.

“I’m awake.”

“I wanted to make sure you weren’t unconscious. And I want to put Sallyanne to bed.”

Charlie opened her eyes to see Sallyanne curled against Jack’s chest sound asleep. The sky outside the damaged French doors was midnight blue, and two lamps glowed softly in her quiet living room.

“What time is it?” she asked, carefully lifting her head.

“I’m not sure. My watch is behind your back,” Jack said.

“Your poor arm!” Charlie said, leaning forward so that he could pull it out from behind her.

“It’s eight thirty,” he announced as he flexed his fingers. “I’m going to take her upstairs.”

“Let’s put her in my room,” Charlie said, pushing herself off the couch. “If she wakes up or has a nightmare, I want to hear her.”

When she turned, he cursed under his breath. “You have a lump the size of a robin’s egg on your head. Let me get some ice. And Isabelle’s poultice.”

“No, you take care of Sallyanne.”

Charlie found the miracle concoction, got some fresh ice and joined him in her bedroom. Together they settled the girl under the covers of the four-poster bed. She lingered a moment, tucking the quilt in and stroking the child’s hair. Thank goodness Don hadn’t injured her in any way, and thank goodness Sallyanne hadn’t heard his comment about turning her into a whore.

She looked up to see Jack looking at the ring she had thrown on the dresser that morning. It seemed a lifetime ago. As she watched, he flipped it in the air, caught it and dropped it in his shirt pocket. A pain worse than anything Don had inflicted tore through her. He’s taking back his ring.

He turned and gestured for her to precede him out of the bedroom.

Charlie walked into the living room and went over to inspect the plastic Ernst had taped over the broken door panes.

“Let’s go out on the porch,” Jack said in a low voice. “It’s warm. We can leave the doors open.”

As she stepped through the door, she could barely breathe. Jack took back his ring, the one he had told her she could keep. Her vision blurred, and she tilted her head back in feigned appreciation of the night sky.

He leaned against one of the columns, his hands thrust in his trouser pockets, and stared out toward the channel. “We got Sahara-Mars back,” he said.

Charlie propped herself against the opposite column and cleared her throat twice before she said hoarsely. “Congratulations. Was it hard to convince Vandermade?”

“No. We had a tape of Hollinger’s confession. He knew we meant business.”

“Was the meteorite damaged at all?” Her reporter’s instincts rescued her from silence.

“No. Nothing short of a nuclear bomb would get it out of Miguel’s case.” Jack’s gaze shifted to Charlie. “You should sit down.”

“It feels good to stretch my legs.”

“I took your advice,” he said after a moment’s silence.

“What advice?” Charlie couldn’t remember giving Jack any advice.

“I talked to my brother. As a brother,” he added.

“That’s great. How did it go?”

“Fine. He already knew.”

“But he hadn’t contacted you?”

“He thought I should be the one to make the first approach.”

She was happy for him, but couldn’t pursue the topic. She finally said, “I’m very, very grateful you came this afternoon, but I don’t understand why you were here.”

Now he looked skyward. “I came to see you.”

She choked on a laugh.

Pushing off the column, he walked over to her and gently clasped her shoulders. He looked down at her and frowned at the swelling on her temple. “I should have killed the bastard.”

“He’s not worth going back to jail over,” Charlie said.

Suddenly, he crushed her against his chest. “When I came up to these doors and saw him with his hands on you, I didn’t give a damn about the consequences. The only reason I didn’t attack him was because I was afraid he’d cut you with the knife.”

Charlie looked up at him, but his face was in shadow and she could see nothing of his expression. “I appreciate your restraint.”

She felt him draw a deep breath.

“I came to see you to apologize. For being a fool. For being a dork,” he said with a ghost of a laugh.

“A dork?’

“Only a dork would turn down a woman tied to his bed,” he said. “Only a fool would refuse to admit he’s in love with the woman tied to his bed. And only I could be both at the same time.”

“But you took your ring back,” Charlie said, utterly bewildered.

“I took my ring back because this time I’m going to put it on your finger and mean it.”

He released her to reach into his breast pocket. The ring glinted between his fingers as he took her left hand in his. “Yesterday you said you loved me. Has that feeling managed to survive everything that’s happened in between?” His grip on her hand tightened noticeably as he asked his question.

“Why would you think it hasn’t?” she asked quietly, even as a warmth she could only describe as joy radiated from her chest outward through her bones and muscles and blood.

“Because for the first time since our wedding, you weren’t wearing my ring. Something made you take it off.”

“I took it off because nothing you said yesterday made me love you any less. I didn’t need to be reminded of that.”

“I’m so sorry,” he said. He brought her hand up between them. “Once I put this ring back on, it stays there. Forever. You understand that?”

Grinning like an idiot, Charlie nodded.

Jack did not answer her smile. With utter solemnity, he said, “With this ring, I thee wed,” and slid the silvery band onto her finger.

He locked her into his arms and let all the pent-up loneliness and fear and self-doubt flood out of him in a kiss so deep she thought she would drown.

She threaded her fingers through his hair and held his head away from hers long enough to whisper, “I love you.”

Then his mouth came down on hers, and there was no more conversation.

Overhead a single meteor streaked silently across the sky.

Four Years Later

The students at Princeton always joke that the university’s Latin motto translates as, “God went to Princeton.” On the morning of graduation day, Charlie almost believed it. After a solid week of rain, the sun had come out in the thoroughly rinsed blue sky and shone on a campus carpeted in grass so green it looked like astro-turf. The kaleidoscopic mix of stone, brick and marble buildings around Cannon Green glowed brightly in the clear June light, creating a perfect backdrop for the steady stream of students in flapping black gowns hurrying toward the commencement procession.

As she joined the crowd, Charlie could not help thinking that a similar scene had been repeated for three centuries. These young men and women were part of a long and grand tradition. And today Jack was joining them. In a few hours, he could rightfully put a whole string of initials after his name.

“We’ve got to hurry and find Daddy before we sit down,” Charlie said, swinging Mari up onto her hip. “Gosh, you’ve gotten heavy. We’re going to have to stop feeding you so much.”

She tickled her younger daughter’s rounded stomach and enjoyed Mari’s giggles. The little girl had a smile that could light up an entire room, and everyone who knew her did their best to bring it out. Not that making Mari smile was difficult; she was an effervescently happy child.

“Want me to carry her?” Sallyanne offered, holding out her arms. The slim thirteen-year-old came almost to Charlie’s shoulder and was the spitting image of her mother Leah.

“Thanks but you don’t want to wrinkle your dress. You look absolutely beautiful,” Charlie said, admiring the pale blue silk sheath Sallyanne had picked out during their last trip to China. She couldn’t resist reaching out to run her hand affectionately down her older daughter’s smooth cheek.

“Hello, lovely ladies,” a deep voice drawled from behind them. “You’d better get moving or you’ll miss the big event.”

“Uncle Peter!” both girls called.

“Why are you wearing that dopey hat?” Sallyanne asked, eyeing the odd, floppy decoration on her usually cool uncle’s head.

Peter grinned, and Charlie wondered yet again how she had repeatedly dismissed the strong resemblance between Jack and his brother. Of course, when I first met Jack, he didn’t grin much.

“I’m wearing this dopey hat to match this dopey robe,” Peter said, flapping the sleeves of his orange and black marshal’s gown. “Only the most intelligent people get to look this stupid.”

Charlie laughed. “Wait until you see Daddy. He looks just as ridiculous.” She had teased Jack when he shrugged into the long, flowing black robe with the velvet stripes marking his doctorate on the sleeves, but secretly she thought he looked like a Renaissance prince. Even the absurd mortarboard perched on his salt-and-pepper hair looked dashing. She had wicked plans for talking him into wearing the robe with nothing underneath it.

Charlie had sent him off to join his colleagues while she got herself and the girls dressed. Now she wanted to give him a kiss because she was so proud and happy … and because she always wanted to kiss him.

“There you are!” As if conjured up from her thoughts, she saw him striding toward them, black satin rippling around his trouser legs. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of this stunningly handsome man who by some amazing good fortune was her husband.

He swept her, Mari and Sallyanne into his arms all together. “I thought my beautiful women had forgotten me.”

“Daddy!” Mari said, holding out her arms to him. “Ma’am says you look ridicklus.”

“Hmmmm,” he said as he swung the girl easily from Charlie’s hip to his, and kissed her soundly.

“You look good enough to eat,” he said to Sallyanne, as he brushed a kiss on the top of her head to spare her teenaged dignity.

“Ridiculous, eh?” he said, arching an eyebrow at Charlie. “Have you no respect for my newly-elevated position in the world?” Then he pulled her close against his side and whispered in her ear, “You know, Ph.D.s make very inventive lovers.”

His breath against her neck made her shiver. He felt her reaction and chuckled smugly. “That’s more like it. Now you’d better go,” Jack said, handing Mari back to Charlie. “Miguel’s got seats in about the tenth row on the left.”

They found Miguel without any difficulty since his head towered above the spectators around him.

“Are you sure that chair can hold you both?” Charlie whispered as Miguel reached out to take Mari onto his lap, making his flimsy folding chair creak ominously.

“You’d think with the billions of dollars in their endowment, Princeton could afford decent chairs,” Miguel said. “But if it collapses, it will relieve some of the solemnity of the occasion.”

The music began, a joyous but dignified processional. The graduates entered, led by another orange-robed marshal. Jack strode down the aisle as though he’d been doing it all his life.

“All got dopey hats,” Mari said, causing the people around them to muffle laughs.

“Yeah, but Dad makes the hat look good,” Sallyanne whispered loyally.

By the time all the speeches were made, including one entirely in Latin, Mari was squirming in Miguel’s lap. Charlie shifted the little girl onto her own.

The day before, in a more intimate ceremony, the Ph.D.s had individually received their orange and black “hoods,” which were worn around the neck and down the back, over their academic robes. As the graduate school dean had called, “Jackson Burke Lanett,” Charlie had marveled at how far her husband had come from the boy who created a new identity for himself from the name of a bus stop. Now Jack wore “Lanett” as proudly as he did his hood.

“Would the candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy please stand?” an official announced from the podium. “Watch, sweetheart,” Charlie said to Mari.

She reached over and took Sallyanne’s hand, pressing it as she exchanged a smile with her older daughter.

As the group of scholars rose, the orange in their hoods flashed brilliantly in the sunshine. Jack stood tall and straight, making the other Ph.D.s around him seem pale and puny. President Stillman intoned a Latin phrase that declared that they were now officially Doctors of Philosophy.

Tears spilled down Charlie’s cheeks. Jack had done it! He had found the legitimacy he had craved for so many years. Her husband had earned the respect of his fellow academics. Although Charlie didn’t need any of those things to love him, she rejoiced in his accomplishments because they made him happy.

As the rest of the new doctors sat, he remained standing, searching the crowd behind him until his eyes met Charlie’s. Smiling, he put his hand to his lips and blew her a kiss.

“Dad looks stoked,” Sallyanne whispered.

After the ceremony, they made their way to a previously appointed rendezvous by one of the tiger statues at the edge of Cannon Green. Mari climbed around the tiger’s paws as they waited for the graduate to join them. Then they were going to meet Isabelle, Rhonda, Mike and Ernst at Mediterra for a celebratory lunch.

Charlie waved as she caught sight of Jack and Peter cutting through the crowd of students and proud parents.

As Jack walked up, she grinned and said, “Congratulations, Doctor Lanett! I’m so proud of you!”

As she reached up to kiss him, he swung her off her feet and spun her around, laughing. As he lowered his mouth to hers, he murmured against her lips, “Are you going to call me ‘Dr. Lanett’ later tonight?”

“Jack! Behave!”

“Hello, President Stillman,” Charlie heard Sallyanne say. She elbowed Jack under cover of his robe and turned to face the university’s president.

“Jack, I had to come say congratulations before the reception begins. You are seriously considering our offer of a position here, aren’t you?” the tall, dark-haired woman asked as she shook hands.

“Don’t kid yourself, Jack, she doesn’t really care about you,” Peter said. “She just wants to keep her most popular visiting lecturer of journalism.”

The president laughed. “I need to persuade Charlie to teach more classes. We’re getting too many complaints from all the students who can’t get into her course.”

“That’s just because they think it’s going to be a gut,” Jack teased his wife.

“Aren’t you concerned about having these two in the same department?” Charlie said, gesturing to the brothers.

“The prospect is a bit daunting,” President Stillman said, as she eyed the two tall men standing shoulder to shoulder. “However, a little sibling rivalry is healthy in a faculty. It spurs them on to greater efforts.”

“President Stillman! The receiving line is forming already!” another gowned man called as he jogged up to their group.

As the president was escorted away, Miguel shook Jack’s hand. “Well, amigo, now you’re way too smart for your own good. Congratulations!”

Jack gripped his friend’s hand fiercely. “I wouldn’t be here without you. You know that.”

“Just remember that when I need a meteorite authenticated,” the big man said, giving Jack a staggering clap on the shoulder. “Since Sahara-Mars didn’t give us the definitive proof we crave, I’m still searching for that sign of life in a space rock.”

“Won’t you miss it, Jack?” Peter asked. “Traveling all over the world, tracking down leads, wondering if the next meteorite you find will be the big one, the scientific breakthrough?”

“Not at all, little brother,” Jack said, wrapping an arm around Charlie’s waist as he watched Sallyanne helping Mari duck under the bronze tiger’s chin. “I’ve got all the stars I need right here.”

The End