Embers (38 page)

Yes. That must be it. Money. Pure and simple. Everything in life came down to money. If only they had more of it, then everything would be resolved.

Everything, except the mystery of her grandmother
'
s death. And the emotional crisis her sister was hell-bent on provoking. And the steadily rising storm of emotions that was building in Meg
'
s own heart.

Meg caught a glimpse of her made-up image in the dresser mirror and turned away from it, pacing the length of her room the way she would a jail cell. She had no desire to wander around the house waiting for a date who
'
d had to be arm wrestled into taking her to the dance.

She heard a car door slam and ran to the lace-curtained window that looked out on the street.

"
Tom,
"
she whispered, just to hear the word on her lips.

He looked up at her window just then, half convincing her that she
'
d actually called out his name. She jumped back from
view, then ran to check her makeup
—
Allie
'
s makeup
—
before the inevitable summons.

A minute later she heard the thumping of sneakers on the carpeted stairs, and Timmy
'
s voice:
"
Anty Meg! You can come down now. He
'
s finally here!
"

Meg groaned; it was all too mortifying.
"
I
'
ll be there in a minute,
"
she said loudly, as if all she had to do was finish painting a ceiling, and then she
'
d change and be right with him.

After a decent interval she emerged from her room, heart pounding like a teenager
'
s, head warning her to keep her eyes on the goal. The goal was to get a sense of Gordon Camplin
'
s character; the goal was not to throw herself at Tom Wyler
'
s feet. She stepped gingerly down the stairs, blushing furiously the whole way, trying to seem as if silk and high heels were as normal to wear as
denim
and gardener
'
s clogs.

At the bottom landing there was fresh humiliation: her father with his Instamatic, snapping away as she walked past him into the sitting room where Tom Wyler had been ushered in to wait.

"
It
'
s not every day my little girl puts on a party dress,
"
said
Everett
. Snap, snap, snap.
"
And now, Tom, you stand next to her and pin on the corsage. Oh. No corsage. Well, never mind. Just stand next to her, then.
"
Snap, snap.
"
And after, we
'
ll get in the whole family. While Meg looks nice. You do look nice, m
'
dear,
"
he added.
"
Comfort!
"
he yelled.
"
Is Lloyd still down sulla? Timmy, go find your brother, on the double.
"

"
Dad, for heaven
'
s sake
.
I've been married, I've been widowed.
This isn
'
t prom night; give it a rest, will you?
"
said Meg, ready to slide between the floor planks.

She turned at last to Tom and said,
"
I
'
m sorry about this.
"
Tom
'
s laugh was low and intimate; the sound melted what was left of her resolve not to throw herself at his feet.
"
Don
'
t be sorry; this is fun,
"
he said. His blue-gray eyes danced with good humor, which somehow made her feel even more embarrassed.

Comfort appeared, wiping her hands in a dishtowel.
"
Oh, my, Meg. Don
'
t you look nice,
"
she said, instant tears springing to her eyes.
"
It
'
s been so long. Look, Lloyd,
"
she said to her soot-covered husband when he appeared.
"
Don
'
t she look nice?
"

Lloyd looked at his sister as if she
'
d been abducted by
a
cult of makeover artists.
"
Don
'
t look like our Meg
'
t all,
"
he said skeptically.

Terry came bouncing in and fetched up hard in front of his aunt.
"
That
'
s
not your dress; that
'
s from Anty Allie
'
s closet.
"

"
What were
you
doing in Anty Allie
'
s closet?
"
demanded Meg, fearing she
'
d have to add cross-dresser to the boy
'
s criminal profile.

"
There
'
s a nest of starlings in the rafters above,
"
he said, taken aback by her vehemence.
"
You can hear
'
em peeping.
"

"
Oh. Well
—
"

"
Everyone squeeze in together,
"
said her father.
"
Don
'
t worry about your dirty hands, Lloyd; they don
'
t show. Meg, for pity
'
s sake. Move in closer to Tom, will you? He won
'
t bite. Terry, leave your brother alone. And
no
tongues. Now, Comfort; dry your eyes. Okay,
"
he said, setting the camera on top of a tall plant stand he found handy for the purpose.
"
I
'
m pressing the remote. Everyone say cheese.
"
He made a mincing dash for the other side of the camera.

Snap.

Meg kept that shot for years and years in a simple wood frame on her dresser. It seemed to her, when she studied it later in her life, that she could see the past and tell the future with it. It was all there, if only she
'
d thought to look: in Comfort
'
s teary smile, in Lloyd
'
s awkward stiffness, in Terry
'
s poker face and Timmy
'
s earnest one. In her father
'
s pleased and childlike expression. In the way Meg hadn
'
t been able to decide whether to look at the camera or at Tom, to see his reaction. In Tom
'
s hands-in-his-pocket pose, amused and bemused.

But the most telling point of all was that Allie wasn
'
t in the shot. She was off doing Meg
'
s dirty work, trusting Meg completely, happy that she could help carry out her sister
'
s harebrained scheme to trip up a murderer.

****

"
You look very beautiful,
"
Tom said as they walked together through deepening twilight to his car.
"
I didn
'
t get a chance to say so inside.
"

"
Nobody
gets a chance to say anything inside,
"
Meg said lightly, trying to control the happy skipping of her heart.
"
We all talk at once and cancel each other out.
"

"
I
'
m glad things worked out this way,
"
he added, glancing at her.

"
I
'
m
—
"
She wanted to say,
"
I
'
m glad, too.
"
But she thought of her sister, and the words wouldn
'
t come, so she moved on to other things.
"
How
'
s your cabin
'
s working out?
"
she asked.

"
Oh
—
it
'
s okay. A little rustic for a city boy like me.
"
He got her door and Meg slipped into the front seat and waited for him.
"
I wanted to thank you again for yesterday,
"
she said after he slid behind the wheel.
"
For saving Terry.
"

Tom turned the key and said,
"
You
'
ve thanked me a thousand times already. Allie would
'
ve done something if I hadn
'
t.
"

"
She wouldn
'
t have had the strength to handle him. And besides
...
I know you weren
'
t crazy about jumping in,
"
Meg said as delicately as she could.

He laughed ruefully but didn
'
t deny it.
"
There
'
s a reason for that,
"
he said.

And then he told her the whole traumatic story of his near
-
drowning as a boy trapped in seaweed in a pond in
Humboldt
Park
, and of his chance rescue.

"
It
'
s funny how you picked up on my phobia and Allie didn
'
t,
"
he said in the same musing tone.

"
That
'
s Allie all over,
"
she said lightly.
"
She
'
s always been blinded by
—
"
Meg sucked in the word
love
before she said it.

It hardly mattered. Tom sighed and said,
"
Yeah. Things have got a little tricky in that area. I think Allie
'
s become, well, fond of me.
"

Meg thought,
Fond of you! She
'
s picking out her wedding trousseau, you dope!

"
I get that impression, too,
"
Meg said dryly.
"
Did you know that she
'
s lined up two interviews in
Chicago
on Tuesday?
"

"
God, no,
"
he said, startled.
"
She hasn
'
t said a word to me.
"

"
It must be a surprise, then. Don
'
t tell her I told you.
"

"
Secrets? I
'
m not good at women
'
s games,
"
he said, irritation creeping into his voice.

"
Okay, fine.
Tell
her, then. It really doesn
'
t matter.
"

"
Meg
—
"

"
I
'
m sorry, I
'
m sorry,
"
she said, leaning her head back on the headrest.
"
I
'
ve been tense.
"

"
Because?
"

Oh hell, we
'
re right back here again.
"
You
know
why.
"

He looked at her sharply and said,
"
No, I
don'
t
know why. I can think of half a dozen reasons why you might be tense, not the least of which is this little dollhouse drama. But there
'
s only one reason that would excite me, and that
'
s the one, frankly, that I want to hear.
"