Twilight's Child (Cutler 3)

"The exact same place you and Jimmy went in Province-town on Cape Cod," he replied. "I got the information from Jimmy. I'm surprised he didn't tell you. Or did he?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. My heart began to thump in my chest. Jimmy hadn't told me because he knew it would upset me, I thought. "Haven't you been to Cape Cod?" I asked.

"Oh, I have, and so has Betty Ann, dozens of times. Matter of fact," he said, "her parents have a house in Hyannis Port."

"So why are you going there? Why don't you go someplace neither of you has been so you can see new things?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"When you're on a honeymoon," he said, his eyes twinkling, "you don't care about the surroundings, do you? Don't tell me you and Jimmy did a lot of sightseeing," he said, his eyes and his smile full of suggestion.

"We didn't have time to do much, if you will recall. Randolph had just died," I reminded him sharply.

"Uh-huh," he said, unflappable. He kept his eyes trained on me, a wry smile cocking his lips. "Is Jimmy a good lover?" he asked.

"That's not the sort of thing I care to discuss with you, Philip," I replied. My voice took on the steely edge of a razor, but his smile widened.

"I bet it was hard for you two, continually reminded of yourselves as brother and sister. How did you get over that, or didn't you?" he asked, his head tilted slightly, his eyes narrowing.

"I said I don't care to discuss it, Philip," I flared. He stared at me a moment and then nodded.

"Okay," he said. "I'm sorry. I guess I'm just nervous. Maybe I will follow your suggestion and take a ride up to see Mother. I need the amusement," he said. "Sorry I bothered you." He turned and headed for the door. After he opened it he paused. "But I meant what I said about being lonely in the family section now. I'll miss you, miss listening to you move about your suite." He raised his eyebrows. "I can hear almost everything through those walls, you know."

I reddened.

"Not that I'm trying to listen. I don't have my ear up against the wall," he added quickly. "It's just that after a while you get used to certain sounds." He shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe someday soon Betty Ann and I will be in a house, too, and not far from you and Jimmy. Then the only one left living in the family section will be Grandmother's ghost," he added with a laugh.

I stared, feeling a scream in my throat that just stayed there. He shook his head and walked out, closing the door softly behind him. The silence that rained down around me filled me with a terrifying chill. I embraced myself and sat back. It was as if the cold was coming from inside me, as if an ice cube in my stomach was building and building. Finally I had to get up and go outside into the warm sunlight. I walked around the hotel and found Jimmy talking with some maintenance men who were about to wash windows.

"Hi," he said, seeing me approach. He took one look at the expression on my face and his face became somber. "Something wrong?"

"Oh, Jimmy," I said. "I want to move into our new house right away—tomorrow, if we can."

"Tomorrow?" He started to laugh.

"Yes, tomorrow," I insisted.

"But I don't have all the plumbing fixtures, and we haven't even connected our phone lines, and—"

"Well, when can we move in?" I demanded.

"We're on schedule, but I suppose I could rush a few things and get us in comfortably in, say, a week. Why? What's the rush?" he asked.

"Nothing. You were right about living in the hotel," I said quickly. "I need to feel I'm in my own place."

"Okay. I'll see what I can do to rush it even more. In the meantime, maybe you ought to start thinking about packing our things, getting that part organized."

"I will. I’ll see Mrs. Boston and Sissy about it right away.

Thank you," I said, kissing him on the cheek. "I don't mean to be a burden."

"You're no burden; you could never be a burden. A pain in the you-know-where once in a while, but a burden—"

"All right, James Gary Longchamp," I chastised playfully. He laughed, and then I felt the cold and the trepidation lift out of my body. It was so good having Jimmy. He was my strength, the rainbow at the end of every storm, the sunlight breaking through every cloud.

I returned to the hotel to resume my work and put all my dark concerns at the very bottom of my trunk of thoughts where they belonged.

But dark thoughts and trouble seemed to have a way of finding my doorstep. Two days before Philip's wedding I had an unexpected visit from Clara Sue and Charlie Goodwin. I was in the office reading Mr. Dorfman's weekly financial report and recommendations when my door was thrown open and Clara Sue appeared like the queen of nightmares, wearing the same tight-fitting violet silk dress she had worn the last time we had been alone together. For the rest of my life I would never forget any of the details of the nightmarish day when Clara Sue had stolen my most precious possession: my unborn baby. The horror would haunt me until the day I died.

At first, because of the way she stood there with her hands on her hips, I didn't see Charlie Goodwin behind her; but when she stepped in he appeared, hat in hand, that sly smile cutting a crooked line from the corners of his mouth through the sides of his lean cheeks.