by Gordon, Lucy
“Maybe that’s not a good idea...” Sam began nervously.
“Just get the car, Sam.”
Sam departed, crossing his fingers.
He was in luck. The Cornfield was a tiny place with only three rooms and one telephone, and Bertie was prepared. When the call came through to reception he was lingering in the hall. “I’ll take it,” he said in answer to the landlady’s query.
“Bertie, what the hell are you two doing up there?” Jack demanded in an edgy voice.
“Any reason why we shouldn’t be?” Bertie responded with lofty dignity.
“Yes. Kaye’s my wife. She should be at home.” Jack hadn’t meant it to come out quite as peremptory as it sounded, but he was too upset to be tactful.
“Jack, I don’t know what’s happened between you two, but that kind of attitude may be the reason Kaye decided to—well, it’s none of my business.”
“Too right. Put her on.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why the devil not?”
“She’s asleep.”
“So wake her,” Jack snapped. The easy charm that had carried him through a thousand crises was deserting him now. This crisis was different. It mattered.
“I’m not waking her up at this hour,” Bertie said firmly. “She’s tired and—and not quite herself.”
“What does that mean?”
Bertie chose his words carefully. “I’ve never seen her in this mood before. Of course, you never really know what Kaye’s thinking.”
Jack was about to say “Nonsense” when he remembered how often Kaye had surprised him. But never like this.
“Thinking about what?” he asked carefully.
“Well, she hasn’t said much, but I know her better than anyone—a lot better than you do—and I’ve picked up signs you may have missed.”
Jack ground his nails into his palm. “Will you come to the point?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“Would you say she’s been happy?”
“Of course she—I’ve tried to make her happy—why should she...? What has she said?”
“Nothing specific,” Bertie said, keeping just the right side of the truth. “But signs, you know. Why do you think she isn’t at home now?”
“I’m waiting for someone to tell me that,” Jack said, controlling himself with difficulty.
“And only Kaye could tell you.”
“Then put her on.”
“She’ll talk to you when she’s ready.”
“You don’t mean she’s refusing?”
“I think I’d better not answer that question.”
“Now, look here, Bertie, you get her to this phone. I mean it.”
“Bye, Jack.”
“Do you hear me?”
The line went dead.
“Not like you to holler at folks like that,” Sam observed from the doorway. “Especially Kaye.”
“I was talking to Bertie. He wouldn’t put me through to her.” He was too absorbed to notice Sam’s quick sigh of relief. “He said—he implied—that she didn’t want to talk to me.” He raised horrified eyes to his father. “Dad—could that be true?”
“Could be. The sooner we get going the better.”
Sam turned quickly out of the room to hide his smile. Jack hadn’t called him Dad for years.
Sam took the first stint of driving, leaving Jack with nothing to do but brood. It was a horrid experience. When he couldn’t bear it anymore he took over the wheel. But he couldn’t concentrate, and at last Sam, swearing loudly, made him stop and move over.
“Get some sleep,” Sam commanded. “You’re going to need it.”
He knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep, but he rested his head on the back of the seat, closing his eyes.
The tooting of a horn woke him sharply. He sat up with a start, blinking against the daylight. His watch told him he’d slept for seven hours. The car was stranded in the middle of a flock of sheep.
He rubbed his eyes. “What the—?”
“Move ’em!” Sam was yelling to someone out of the window.
There was some backchat from a man Jack couldn’t see, accompanied by baaing. Sheep milled around in all directions.
The shepherd put his head through the window. “Cars aren’t supposed to come down this road,” he explained.
“What’s the use of saying that now?” Sam demanded. “We’re here. Get us out!”
The shepherd gave him an affronted look and vanished.
“What time is it?” Jack demanded. “Nine? My God, they could have gone by now.”
The sheep cleared at last and they were able to get up some speed. Jack ground his nails into his palms, wondering if he was going to lose the woman he loved because of a flock of sheep.
At last they reached Kedmore, a small village with one main street, lined with buildings that looked several hundred years old. Jack put his head out of the window and yelled desperately, “Cornfield Guest House—somebody—please.”
“Two hundred yards down on the left,” shouted a man.
To their relief the sign for the Cornfield came into view almost at once. The first thing they saw was Kaye’s car standing outside, and there was Kaye, piling luggage into the open trunk. Jack was out of his vehicle while it was still moving.
“Kaye!” he called hoarsely. “Kaye!”
She looked up in surprise. “Jack, I—”
Without waiting for her to finish, Jack seized her in his arms. “You shouldn’t have done it,” he cried. “Not without talking to me first.”
“But I—”
“How could you just leave without a word? Don’t you know that I can’t live without you?”
His mouth was on hers before she could answer, kissing her fiercely as though he was trying to take her by storm without giving her time to think. Kaye was in a daze. Only the words Don’t you know that I can’t live without you? were real, and they lit up the sky.
She kissed him back eagerly, content to wait for explanations if only Jack would hold her in his arms and kiss her like this forever.
“I didn’t know,” he said when he could bear to free his lips. “I never dreamed how much I loved you until last night when Sam said you’d gone—”
“Sam—?”
“There are so many things I want to say to you, my darling, but I kept putting them off. I thought we had all the time in the world. If I’d guessed that you thought—never mind that. I love you, Kaye. I think I’ve loved you for years, and I know that I’ll love you all my life. Come back and give me another chance. I can make it right this time. But don’t leave me like this, I can’t bear it.”
Kaye regarded him in astonishment. How could he think she would ever leave him? But before she could speak she noticed Sam and Bertie, out of the corner of her eye. They were signaling frantically for her to keep quiet, and some hint of the truth dawned on her.
On second thoughts, she decided, maybe explanations could wait for another time. Just now she wanted to enjoy the bliss of hearing him say he loved her.
“I’ll stay,” she told him, “if you really want me to.”
“I’m going to spend my life showing you how much I really want you. Come home with me, Kaye. Give me the chance to win your love. I need you very much.”
“Win my love?” she echoed. “But I’ve always loved you. That was the only reason I married you.”
He looked at her lovely face, only half believing her. It was still hard for him to accept a gift, and now the gift he was being offered was the one he wanted more than anything in the world.
“You once made me a promise,” he reminded her. “Anything, any time, any place. You said yourself that you haven’t redeemed it yet, so I’m calling it in now. What I want from you is this—everything, always, everywhere. And I’m never going to let you off the hook.”
“You won’t need to,” she said joyfully. “I’m going to make that promise again, every day of our lives.”
He took her hand and led her back into the guest hou
se.
“We’d like the key again, please,” he said to the landlady. “My wife’s changed her mind. She’ll be needing the room today, after all.”
“Will I?” Kaye asked.
“Yes,” he said firmly. “We will.”
Sam and Bertie, happy to be forgotten, had been silent witnesses. As Kaye and Jack vanished up the stairs they exchanged looks of triumph. Then, as one man, they went to stand looking up at the windows.
“Which is hers?” Sam asked.
“The one with the chintz curtains,” Bertie said.
“They’ve all got chintz curtains, you lamebrain!”
“Those chintz curtains—the ones that somebody is just closing.”
They watched the male hands drawing the curtains firmly together, shutting out the world and enclosing the two within in a world of their own, where there was only happiness and fulfillment.
“I need a drink,” Bertie said.
“So do I,” Sam said with feeling. “Anywhere open this early?”
“Just down the road.”
After a last triumphant look at the window they began to stroll off down the street.
“You were long enough coming,” Bertie grumbled.
“Not my fault you were so late calling,” Sam riposted. “And the journey—sheep! Trust you to have been born at the back of beyond.”
“We did it!” Bertie said with satisfaction.
“We did it!”
Together they roared, “Yes!”
“Think they know?” Bertie asked as they resumed walking.
“Kaye knows. Jack doesn’t, but that’s because he’s a fool.”
“Like his dad.”
“Do we find that pub soon, or do you just go on yakking forever...?”
ISBN : 978-1-4592-5996-6
ANYTHING, ANY TIME, ANY PLACE
Copyright © 1999 by Lucy Gordon
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