Adam's Daughter (13 page)

Someday she would also inherit money from her father. But Charles Ingram, Adam was sure, would do whatever was necessary short of disowning his daughter to prevent Adam from using Elizabeth’s inheritance for his own means.

So money was, for Adam at least, an unspoken issue. To have all that money so close yet so far was unbearable. Especially since he was so eager to get on with building his newspaper empire. He had plans, such big plans. But no big money of his own to back them up.

He often thought about bringing it up to Elizabeth, asking if she could sell some stock. But however he framed the question in his mind it sounded like a confirmation of what Charles Ingram had said
-- that Adam was nothing but a fortune hunter.

Even now, after nearly twelve years, he still smarted whenever he remembered Ingram’s dismissal that day when he came to see Elizabeth in the mansion on Broadway: “You have nothing to offer my daughter.”

Three months after the wedding, they settled into a rented home on Jackson Street. It was a big cheerful Victorian but on a less desirable fringe of Pacific Heights. Elizabeth did not seem to care about her newly scaled-down lifestyle. The only discontent she expressed was over her inability to conceive. After five months, she still had not become pregnant.

She wanted children so badly. She wanted them partly to make up for the fact that Adam had lost
Ian in the divorce.

Soon after Adam returned from his honeymoon, Lilith had called
him. She ranted that his marriage to Elizabeth was an insult to her, that it made her look foolish to her friends.

“You never had any sense of propriety,” she told him. “This will ruin any chances you ever had of being somebody in this town. And Ian’s, too.”

“She can’t control me or the newspaper anymore,” Adam told Elizabeth. “So she will control Ian and turn him even further against me.”

“He’s your son, Adam,” Elizabeth said. “I’m sure he still loves you.”

But Adam’s fears were confirmed when Ian finally came for his first visit. He was withdrawn and silent, greeting Elizabeth with indifference and cold good manners. Adam had arranged to have the day off and they went to see the new film
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
, which the eight-year-old Ian pronounced “a baby movie.” By the end of the weekend, Adam returned Ian to the house on Vallejo, feeling defeated.

“Lilith’s right,” he told Elizabeth. “He’s lost to me.”

“Oh, Adam, it’s not true,” she said. “He’s probably just very hurt and confused by the divorce.”

“I don’t like the way he treated you.”

“He’s just a boy, Adam,” Elizabeth said. “Don’t be so hard on him.”

H
e took her in his arms. “Let’s have a baby,” he said.

“We’ve certainly been trying,” she said.

“I want children,” Adam said. “A house full of them.”

“Yes, I know
, sons,” she said. “And maybe a daughter to keep me company?”

Later, they lay quietly in each other’s arms after making love. Adam stared at the ceiling lost in his thoughts. As always, Elizabeth had surprised him with her passion and
he found himself wondering more and more about Willis Reed and what kind of marriage they had had.

“Elizabeth, are you awake?” he
said.

“Barely,” she
said.

He propped himself up on one elbow to look at her. “Why didn’t you have children with Reed?” he asked.

She was quiet for a moment. “You’re worried that I can’t, aren’t you,” she said. “I know I can, Adam. I just know it. And we will.”

Adam
lay back again. The long silence was broken by the muted call of a fog horn.

Elizabeth sighed and sat up against the headboard.
“I should tell you something about Willis and me,” she said softly.

Adam waited but she didn’t seem to want to go on.

“Elizabeth, what is it? You can tell me anything, you know that.”

She took a deep breath. “It’s not that I can’t have babies. It’s just...Willis never made love to me. Not once in ten years.”

Adam looked at her in astonishment but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. She sat naked, slightly stoop-shouldered, her eyes on the sheets. “He was a strange man,” she whispered. “He stayed in the city and came up to the house only on the weekends. I was alone there all the time.” She paused again, her voice faltering. “On Saturday night, always at nine, he’d come up to my room. He’d sit in a chair near the bed and then order me to take my clothes off and touch myself. He sat there and watched. After a while, he would get up and leave.”

When she finally looked at
Adam her eyes were glistening.  “Why did you do it?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I was only seventeen and I had some stupid notion that it was my duty as a wife or something.”
She shook her head. “I owe that to my mother. I never once saw her show any affection to my father but she still felt qualified to give me quite a little speech about a wife’s duty before I got married.”

She wiped her hand across her eyes. “After a few months
I couldn’t stand it anymore. I refused and he didn’t press it. He just left me up there in that awful house. I was going crazy all alone. I couldn’t go home, so I started running off to the city by myself, staying in hotels just to get away.”

Adam gathered her into his arms. He held her silently for a long time.

“I’ve had lovers, Adam,” she said. “No one I cared about, nothing that lasted long.” She paused. “I had to tell you, Adam. Please don’t hate me for it. I was lonely and needed someone to make me feel clean and normal.”

Conflicting emotions careened through Adam
. A stab of jealousy toward the faceless lovers. But the pain in Elizabeth’s eyes finally left him with only a strong protective urge. And rage toward Willis Reed.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said
. “Forget about Reed. You’re with me now.” He held her until he could hear her breathing become deep and even.

“Why do people do it,” she murmured, before she slipped into sleep, “why do people marry the wrong person?”

“They have their reasons,” Adam said. “Reasons that always seem right at the time.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Six months after their marriage, a handsome cotton rag envelope arrived addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Adam Bryant. Elizabeth opened it and asked Adam, “Who is Enid Atherton?”

“Queen of the social butterflies,” Adam
said. “She probably wants a donation for one of her charities.”

“Actually, she wants us,” Elizabeth said. “It’s an invitation to a post-opera party.”

Adam read the invitation. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he said with a smirk.

“Let’s go, Adam,” Elizabeth said.

“You can’t be serious.”

She put her arms around him. “Please,” she said. “I’d like an excuse to dress up for you.”

Adam had planned to take Elizabeth to the opera opening, but the last thing he wanted to do was go to a party afterward. But he saw the eager look in Elizabeth’s eyes and felt guilty. He had been spending so much time at work, and she was surely restless, cooped up in the house alone most of the day. It would be good for her to get out and meet people.

He stared at Enid’s name on the invitation, feeling a small surge of satisfaction. “Of course we’ll go,” he said. “And I want you to buy a new dress. I will be with the most beautiful woman in the world, and I want everyone to see her.”

At the opera, Adam sat proudly at Elizabeth’s side in his box. People stared up at them and whispered, and he tilted his chin higher. He was well aware that right from the start his marriage to Elizabeth had created a furor, generating columns of type in Eastern newspapers. One New York tabloid headlined it “Mrs. Reed’s Gold-Rushed Romance.” Most accounts in the East had politely referred to Adam as the owner of the
San Francisco Times
. But the implication was clear that the twenty-seven-year-old heiress had married beneath her.

U
ntil now, Adam had been unaware that he also had become a curiosity in his own town, especially among the social elite. His divorce and remarriage had given him an air of notoriety. There were a few people who dismissed him as a parvenu. But most were intrigued, even a bit proud, of the handsome San Franciscan who had risen from nothing to capture Elizabeth Ingram Reed, the flower of one of the Old South’s most illustrious clans. San Franciscans had a healthy respect for epic romances and mavericks, and Adam suddenly found his life and himself recast in those roles.

After the opera, when he and Elizabeth entered Enid Atherton’s drawing room, all eyes focused on them. Adam
recognized a few of the people who Lilith had played up to for so many years, people who had always snubbed him. They were staring at him...and Elizabeth.

He felt her fingers tighten on his arm.

“Courage,” she whispered, and led the way into the room.

He watched her as she began to easily work through the crowd, smiling warmly, introducing herself and Adam. He held back, taking his cues from her
. She drew appreciative stares from all the men and envy from the women. She was wearing a fluid white satin gown by the French designer Vionnet, a spectacular dress that subtly reflected every undulation of her body. It was provocative among all the demure silks and correct brocades. She wore her hair pulled up and no jewelry except her wedding band. No other woman looked so elegant.

Soon, Enid Atherton came up to
them. The woman was about forty with hard gray eyes that missed nothing. She was the city’s biggest arts patron, the woman who controlled entry into the city’s elite inner circle. She leveled her steely eyes at Elizabeth and smiled.

“I know your aunt, and I’ve wanted to meet you for some time, my dear,” Enid said. “I should have extended an invitation sooner.”

“We’re delighted to be here,” Elizabeth said.

“Did you enjoy the performance tonight?” Enid asked.

“Very much.” Elizabeth took Adam’s arm. “But I know so little about opera, really. My husband is teaching me. He lives for it, I think.”

Enid gave Adam a stare. “Yes, he must, to have gotten a lifetime box.” She smiled. “Perhaps we can convince you to become a patron now, too, Mr. Bryant. Art, after all, does not come cheap.”

Adam smiled. “Nothing does that’s worth having.”

Enid’s smile widened. “Then I’ll have one of my guild people contact you.” She looked at Elizabeth. “Perhaps you might join the guild, dear. We’d love to have you.” She glanced around. “I must see to my other guests. Enjoy yourself, you two.” And she waltzed off with a rustle of satin and click of pearls.

“Did I just spend money?” Adam asked.

“Think of it as an investme
nt in your future,” Elizabeth said, smiling.

CHAPTER F
OURTEEN

After Enid’s party, other invitations quickly followed. Adam found he had entree to people and places he had never had when he had been married to Lilith. He knew the invitations came because hostesses wanted to put the glamorous couple on display.

“
We’re salon circus freaks,” he told Elizabeth. But secretly, he enjoyed the attention. He liked mingling with the wealthy and famous in grand homes. He liked the splendid food and wine. But most of all, he liked showing off his beautiful wife.