by Joan Hohl
wanting to think of him or the past she closed her eyes hoping for sleep to claim her and blot out memories. Her action had the opposite effect.
It was the Monday between Christmas and New Year and Carol had called her in the office during the morning asking her to meet her at Bookbinder's for lunch. Kath-erine had been a few minutes late and Carol had a mar-garita waiting for her. Barely giving her time to slip into her seat, say "hi" and sip from her drink, she said, "What are you doing New Year's Eve?" Then laughed and added, "I should put that to music, I'd make a fortune."
"I think you're just a few years too late." Katherine laughed. "I'm not doing anything. Why?"
"I have an invitation for you from Anne and Richard. They'd like you to join their gathering. They'd have invited you sooner but they somehow got the idea you and Tom were spending the holidays in Washington. I spoke to Richard on the phone this morning and when he asked if I'd heard anything from you I mentioned the fact that Tom had been invited to spend New Year's Eve and Day with a friend. He insisted I call you at once and not take no for an answer."
"How big a gathering will it be?" Katherine asked.
"Well, it won't be a crush. Thank heavens they don't go in for that kind of bash. But it will be quite a few. More New Year's Eve than Day. You've probably met most of them by now and I'm sure you'll like the ones you haven't met. With New Year's Day falling on Thursday, Richard suggested you drive out late Wednesday afternoon and stay through Sunday. What do you think?"
Katherine had thought it sounded wonderful. She had not been looking forward to spending what was left of the holidays alone. Janice and Carlos had flown to
Argentina to spend the holidays with his parents and Tom had left two days after Christmas for some skiing at Camelback and from there to a New Year's Eve party at a friend's home outside of Reading.
They had a change of plans at the last minute. Richard decided it would be foolish for Carol to drive to the house as he was leaving the city soon after a business luncheon and could pick the two women up and take them with him. He would be driving back into the city Monday morning in plenty of time for Katherine to get to her office, so why waste the gas using both cars?
The house was gloriously decked in shiny, deep green holly with dark red velvet bows strategically placed. A live blue spruce tree stood in the center of the bowed front window, shimmering in white and silver from its base to its tip, which touched the ceiling twelve feet above.
After greetings and hugs were exchanged with Anne, Katherine was introduced to a couple, about the same age as Richard and Anne, who were also guests for the weekend. Dr. Charles, called Chuck, and Corrine Kearney were from Boston and as this was the first time in years they were all together, the general atmosphere was one of festive anticipation.
They spent the following few hours in relaxed conversation and Katherine learned that Chuck, who had taken his pre-med at the same small college that Richard had done his pre-law, and Richard were two of the trio known, in their college days, as the terrible trio. The third member being the oft mentioned, but still never met, Matt. She also learned she would not meet him that night either, as he always played host to his family New Year's Eve. "The one ritual he indulges Beth in," Carol
had remarked, laughingly. Katherine had assumed Beth was his wife.
The party had been fun and although there were easily forty guests the large house accommodated them without crowding. Katherine had moved from one group to the other talking and laughing, sometimes wondering, for much of the conversation seemed centered on the elusive Matt.
statement, but Richard had nodded in agreement, then said, "Well, barring a major catastrophe or any minor business problems, he'll be here today. And, believe it or not, he assured me he'll stay until Sunday morning."
"I'll believe it when I see it," Carol had snorted. "I can't remember the last time that man had a vacation. He works too hard."
"He loves it. He always has, and you know it," Chuck chided her, then turning to smile at Richard he said, "The terrible trio,' together again."
Glancing from one to the other, Katherine had asked curiously, "How did you acquire the title 'terrible trio'? I can't imagine two less terrible men." Both the men had grinned at her, and Chuck supplied the answer. "The terrible part pertained to our grades. We all had the highest levels, in our courses, and we were informed by quite a few of our fellow students that we were setting a terrible example." Here Richard had taken up the explanation. "We seemed to gravitate to each other from the beginning and could be found together whenever we had free time. Even though free time was a luxury for Matt then already. Thus, the trio." He had paused, then added thoughtfully, "I suppose, to others, it seemed an unlikely combination. Not so much with Chuck and me, as with the two of us and Matt, who was, I might add, even then, the undisputed boss." Chuck, laughing softly, had nodded his head in emphatic agreement.
At the look of confusion on her face, Carol had supplemented. "Both Richard and Chuck came from what was generally referred to as well-to-do people. The fact that the two of them not only liked Matt but deferred to his opinion seemed to bewilder some people."
"He came from a different background?" Katherine
had asked. "Entirely," was Chuck's prompt reply. "And he had to work his tail off just to stay in school. While Richard and I were making trips to the bank to cash checks from home, Matt was scouting around doing any kind of work he could find. From busing tables in one of the bigger restaurants in town, to selling mens-wear in a department store at Christmas. The summers were even worse. I know for a fact that for three summers he held down two full time jobs in different factories. One first shift, the other third shift. I believe he owns one of the places now. Doesn't he, Richard?"
"Both of them," Richard answered. "He bought the second one a few years ago."
Conine entered the conversation then, as turning to her husband she asked, "Do you remember that Christmas you finally managed to drag him to your parents' home?" At his nod, she turned to Katherine and explained. "It was the last year they were in school together and Chuck's parents had invited Richard and Matt for the holidays. On first meeting him I was stunned. I couldn't believe that this ill-dressed young man could be the person Chuck thought so highly of. Yet, within a very short time his clothes didn't seem to matter at all. When I think of the way he looked then and the way he looked the last time I saw him, I can hardly believe it. Yet he is exactly the same. Compelling, exciting. I don't know why but I feel more alive, somehow, when Matt's around."
At this last remark, Katherine glanced around the table noting the three others nodding their agreement. "Seems to make things hum, Matt does," Richard said laconically, then glancing at his watch, added, "Do you ladies realize that in about forty-five minutes our guests will be ringing our chimes, so to speak?"
In unison, the four women had jumped to their feet and, the men's laughter following them, made for their respective rooms to change.
It had been well over an hour before Katherine left her room, the majority of that time being spent in indecision over whether to wear the gown she had bought with this day in mind. In deep amethyst, it was cut like a coatdress, with a two inch wide belted waist and a full skirt that just missed touching the floor. She was wondering if perhaps it wasn't a bit too much when she remembered Carol's stated intentions of wearing a very elaborate gown and with a tiny shrug, left the room.
There were already quite a few guests in the living room, six or seven of whom, all female, along with Carol and Conine, sat in a loose circle directly across the room from the large double doorway, in which Katherine had paused to glance around. On seeing her, Carol waved to her to join them and moved a high wing-backed chair into the only open space in the circle.
She made her way slowly across the room, stopping to exchange New Year's greetings as she went and on reaching the circle faced a grinning Carol. "We thought you'd never get here. We're in the middle of a good gossip and we're waiting wit
h bated breath for Helen to continue."
Katherine had not met several of the women and after introductions were made she sat down, accepted a cup of coffee Carol poured from a large glass pot that sat on a low table to the center of the circle, shook her head at the tray of cookies and sliced fruit cake Carol offered her and sat back comfortably as one of the women said, "I don't believe it."
"I tell you he's left her." The speaker was Helen, a
tall, buxom woman in her fifties, who was seated two chairs away on {Catherine's right. "I had lunch with her yesterday, and I can assure you that I'm giving away no confidences as I was having lunch with Opal and Tina Franklin and she spoke freely in front of them."
At the assorted gasps and groans when the Franklins were mentioned Carol glanced at Katherine and stated, "Tina Franklin is the worst gossip on the Eastern Seaboard."
"Exactly," Helen snorted. "I tried to give Peggy the high sign to caution her tongue, but she was already on her third double martini and she just kept on."
Katherine was sitting across the low table from Carol and she saw the brief look of pain that crossed her face as she sighed. "You may as well tell us what Peg said as we'll probably hear it from Tina before too long anyway."
"Well, she was more than a little depressed." Helen smiled. "But of course, after three double martinis, I'd be more than a little unconscious. She told us he had been very kind, he had been very considerate, he had been very definite. And I don't know anyone who can be as definite as Matt can."
Matt! Again? Katherine was beginning to think, cynically, that this man was the only topic of conversation these people knew. It seemed she had heard very little of anything except Matt since she arrived. And she was getting pretty weary of the name.
A small, thin woman, whose name Katherine couldn't remember, sighed wistfully, "I really thought this time we'd be going to Matt's wedding. This one lasted longer than most of the others."
"Good Lord, she's only twenty-two," Carol snapped. "Nineteen years younger than he is."
He's only forty-one! The same age as Richard, Kath-erine thought. That fact surprised her. Somehow with all the talk of his success and the way everyone seemed to look up to him, even in his college years, she had gotten the impression he was much older.
"Well, the question of ages really doesn't matter now because for him, at any rate, the affair is finished." With this Helen again gained control of the conversation, adding with brows raised, "Peg is really wracked out about it and she went into some detail."
Was it her imagination, Katherine wondered, or did some of the women actually lean forward in their chairs, as a chorus of "go on's" followed Helen's last words. She knew she didn't imagine Carol's wince.
"Well, it seems he's not only one of the most attractive men she's ever met," Helen smiled, then chuckled. "Or any of us has ever met, but also, the most exciting ever, in bed."
"Helen," Carol warned, frowning.
"Oh for heaven's sake, Carol," Helen frowned back. "It isn't something we haven't heard before. At least from the ones who'd talk after he'd finished with them. How many has it been now since he and Sherry divorced? And he even manages to inspire loyalty in the ones who do talk. I wonder how many times I've heard, either first-or secondhand, how wonderful, how attractive, how generous, how downright excitingly sexy he is."
Katherine leaned forward to hand her cup to Carol for refilling, and as she poured the coffee Carol said quietly, "It's ten years since Matt and Sherry were divorced and you know it, Helen. And there really have not been all that many women. But I do wish he'd get married again. I think he needs a wife." Then, smiling
at Katherine over the coffee pot, added, "As an innocent bystander, what do you think, Katherine?"
"Me?" Katherine asked in surprise and, at Carol's nod, lowered her eyes to her cup considering her answer carefully as she stirred cream into her coffee. In so doing, she missed the look of happy welcome that transformed Carol's face and was unaware of the total silence in the circle around her. She decided to be totally honest and answered slowly. "I think he needs a keeper, and I'd feel sorry for any woman who found herself married to this rich man's Don Juan."
"Happy New Year, Matt." Carol's happy voice brought Katherine up straight in her chair. The sentiment echoed round the circle and Katherine wished fervently to shrivel up and die. Had he heard? And as Carol moved around Katherine's chair, hands outstretched, she thought, oh damn, he must have heard, he's standing right behind my chair.
"Happy New Year, Outlaw." The deep, faintly raspy voice was incredibly masculine causing Katherine's spine to go rigid. There was a muffled sound that told her Carol"was being kissed, then Carol's voice saying softly, "Katherine."
She stood up slowly, willing herself to be calm, and by the time she turned and moved around the chair, she was the picture of Carol's description of her, cool, self-contained, uncaring.
Her composure was tested at the first sight of him, for without being in any way brawny or bulky, he looked enormous. In fact he was almost slim, but the breadth of his chest, the width of his shoulders on a large, angular frame which easily stood six feet five or six inches, gave the impression of sheer size.
As if the look of him hadn't been enough, she was tested ever further when, tilting her head back to look up at him, she encountered the most unnerving pair of blue eyes she had ever seen. That the eyes now held more than a touch of amusement only served to annoy her.
"I finally got to introduce you two." Carol's voice held satisfaction as she went on. "Katherine Acker, Matt Martin."
Something stirred inside Katherine as she thought, he reminds me of someone. But who? The thought was quickly forgotten as she repeated his "How do you do" and felt her hand swallowed up in his long fingered, broad one.
"I've seen some of your work. I'm impressed." The statement was delivered in a low tone that seemed to laugh with mockery. She felt herself bristle and before she could stop the words, replied acidly, "I've only heard about yours. I'm not."
Turning on her heel she walked across the room to where Richard was standing, Carol's gasp and his soft laughter burning her ears.
What in the world had come over her? To speak to a guest like that in Richard's home was unthinkable and not at all like her. These thoughts, plus the nagging idea that he reminded her of someone, plagued her for the rest of the afternoon.
It seemed, as the room grew steadily more crowded and her own thoughts continued to torment her, the velvet gown became heavier and heavier and she became more and more warm, until finally she felt she had to get some fresh air or she'd scream. She made her way slowly out of the room, down the wide central hallway and out through the door at the back of the staircase.
The flagstone path she followed led around the house
to the rear. She stopped midway along the path where she had an unobstructed view of the paddocks and the meadows beyond. The cold January air was a shock as well as a relief and sliding her hands into the deep slash pockets set into the seams on either side of her skirt, she lifted her eyes to the sky. The morning sun had been a spring daffodil yellow but sometime during the day, unnoticed by Katherine, clouds had overcast the bright blue. Now, at the time of day when the fiery gold fingers of sunset should be blazing on the horizon, everywhere overhead looked like dirty cotton wadding.
Intent on her observation of nature, Katherine didn't hear the footsteps until just before they stopped next to her. Somehow she knew who it was and her fingers curled into her palms inside the pockets.
There was no sound for some minutes, then his deep voice confirmed her intuition. "My mother would say that's a mackerel sky and that it looks for snow." A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as she felt the tension ease out of her. "My mother would too. As a matter of fact I used the expression myself as my children were growing up. I've even heard my daughter refer to a snow-gray sky as mackerel."
Then turning, she looked up at him and said quickly, "Mr. Martin, I want to
apologize for what I said to you earlier."
"Accepted." His deep voice grated. "But why apologize for something you believe to be true?"
"I don't know if it is true," she murmured. "And I have no right to speak like that to a guest in Richard's home." As she finished speaking Katherine slid her hand from her pocket and touched his arm impulsively. Again the feeling of familiarity stirred through her, leaving her
confused, wondering why. As if her thoughts were printed on her forehead, he laughed and said softly, "You haven't figured it out yet, have you?"
"What?" she asked, more bewildered then ever. But he shook his head and turned his eyes back to the sky. "I'm afraid my mother's prediction would be correct. We'll have snow before too long." Her own eyes followed his. "Yes."
He turned abruptly to her, his eyes intent on her face, then stated firmly, "We'd better go back to the house. Although I'm sure that lovely dress is warm, I don't think it's much protection against the teeth in this air. Come along before you catch a chill." She couldn't help smiling as she asked mildly. "Are you always this bossy?"
"Always." His reply was equally mild, yet firm.
The next two days passed uneventfully. Katherine saw very little of Matt or the other two men as they were off somewhere together. Being the "terrible trio" once again, she supposed. She and Carol went for short walks after lunch but the days were so damp and chill they soon sought the warmth of the living room fireplace and the company of Anne and Conine. The weather left Katherine feeling lethargic and she went to bed early. She woke Sunday morning to the quiet of a snow-white world outside and Richard and Anne's exuberant teenagers inside.