No Shadow (Prodigal Sons of Cane)

by Clemens, S. N.

  “Just some splinters,” Helen added.

  “Let me go get something to take care of it,” the housekeeper said, “If you’re all right, Missy.”

  It was odd how she hovered, as if the girl might faint away.

  “I’m fine. Thank you.” When the housekeeper left the front living room, she added, “I’m Melissa.”

  “I’m Helen. Thanks for your help.”

  Melissa still looked horribly anxious, but Helen figured maybe she was just shy. Helen knew all about shyness.

  “I came by to see Andrew Cane,” she explained, hoping the transition might lead into an explanation of the girl’s identity.

  Melissa seemed to live here. It was possible she was Andrew’s live-in girlfriend, but she looked to be almost fifteen years younger than he was. Although Helen didn’t know much about Andrew’s lifestyle, the idea didn’t quite fit.

  “He’s not here,” Melissa said. “He walked down to get us some supper. I felt like takeout.”

  Helen forced herself not to pry, although the effort to suppress her questions was almost painful. “Have you been in Cane long?” she asked, seeking a topic to distract her. “I’ve lived here most of my life. I know almost everyone.”

  “Andrew and I just got here at the end of last week.”

  Dying to be nosy, Helen’s lips actually parted with a follow-up question before she stopped herself.

  Melissa’s wide mouth tilted up a little, as if she recognized Helen’s curiosity. “I’m his sister.”

  Helen exhaled in relief at the answer, but then she stiffened in confusion. “I didn’t know he had a sister. I thought there were just the three boys.”

  “I’m his half-sister. After our mother left Cane, she remarried.”

  Helen nodded and made an appropriate response. It seemed strange that no one in Cane knew about the sister, but it was none of her business. Perhaps the locals weren’t as well-informed on the Canes as they thought.

  In just another minute, the housekeeper, who Melissa called Trish, returned with some first-aid supplies and helped remove Helen’s splinters and then treat the wounds with antiseptic wash.

  Melissa stroked the dog lovingly as Trish worked. The dog was a mutt of some kind with short ears and a pointy nose. It stared up at Melissa with adoring brown eyes.

  “We should get it to the vet,” Helen said. “Did you want to take it?”

  She’d thought it a sensible question, since Melissa and the dog had obviously bonded, but the girl gasped loudly and shrank back in her chair.

  Helen wrinkled her forehead. “I don’t mind doing it. He seems like a nice fellow. I’d keep him, but I rent and am not allowed to have a dog. I guess we could take him to the pound after getting its leg treated.” She hated the idea but didn’t know what else to do.

  “Oh no!” Melissa cried.

  Really confused now, Helen asked, “Did you want to keep him then?”

  “Yes.” Melissa’s voice was thin and stretched. “I just can’t take him to the vet.” She turned pleading eyes up to Trish.

  Helen was about to follow up when a voice bellowed from the doorway. “What is this? What’s going on?” Andrew stepped into the room, his face angry and defensive.

  She jumped in surprise, momentarily intimidated by his unexpected presence.

  Melissa, whom Helen would have expected to shrink back at the loud voice, broke out into a sunny smile. “You’re home!”

  Andrew strode over to where they were sitting, his hard eyes fastened coldly on Helen. “What are you doing with my sister?”

  Her mouth dropped open. He was acting like she’d done something wrong, like she was some sort of threat. “What?”

  “Andrew, it’s all right,” Melissa put in softly. “She and I helped rescue this poor little dog.”

  His gray eyes—the same color as his sister’s—narrowed as he looked from one woman to the other. “Are you all right, Melissa?”

  Helen sucked in an indignant breath and bristled at the implications.

  “Yes,” Melissa said. “Don’t worry. I’m fine. The dog needed help.”

  The dog started whimpering, and it distracted Andrew momentarily. He studied the animal a minute and then ran his hands over the furry body, assessing its health with a gentleness that astounded Helen—after having been treated so rudely by him. “It needs to go the vet,” he concluded.

  “We were just discussing that,” Helen put in, pleased that her voice sounded cool and natural. “I’m happy to take it, and it sounds like Melissa wants to keep the dog.”

  Andrew looked over at her again, studying her tumbled hair, her smudged face, bandaged hands, and dirty clothes. His expression was torn between bewilderment and suspicion. “I can take the dog to the vet if Melissa wants to keep it.”

  She pressed her lips together, convinced she’d just been judged as untrustworthy to chauffeur an animal to the vet. “Whatever you’d like.”

  After he’d stared at her for another minute—making her horribly self-conscious—his eyes cut back over to his sister. “Did you need to go upstairs?”

  “I told you I was fine.”

  Helen stared from one to the other, wondering what could possibly be going on here. The behavior of both of them was bizarre. Did Andrew try to hide Melissa away? Not let her meet anyone? Was that why no one knew of the girl’s existence?

  “You’ll want to get home and clean up,” he said, turning back to her.

  Helen had obviously just been dismissed. Hiding her indignation, she got up and smiled warmly at Melissa, who returned the smile. “It was nice to meet you. I’m glad we were able to help the little guy. I hope his leg is all right.”

  Andrew cleared his throat—which she took to be a sign that she was lingering too long. He walked her out of the room and through the hallway toward the front door. Helen wasn’t sure if he was being courteous or if he just didn’t trust her alone in his house.

  At the door, he turned directly in front of her. He was standing close, and his gray eyes were strangely intense. Helen was conscious of how big he was—tall, with broad shoulders and coiled power in his stance. He didn’t appear to be angry now, but he was cool and as hard as stone.

  He spoke in a low, rough voice. “My sister has a psychological condition that makes it nearly impossible for her to interact with strangers.”

  Helen gasped. “But she—“

  “I’m not sure why she was able to talk to you today, but I make a point of not letting her get hurt.”

  “I’d never hurt her. I like her.”

  He leaned closer, his deep eyes and textured voice almost mesmerizing. “I hope that’s true, but I feel compelled to warn you that I’ll not stand for your using her as some indirect means of improving your chances to get the manuscript.”

  Helen gasped again, slammed with astonishment and outrage. She couldn’t speak for a moment, only sputter embarrassingly.

  Finally, she spit out, “I resent your implications. I came over here to be nice—because I thought we got off on the wrong foot. I’ve done nothing to deserve your suspicions of me. How do you even get through a day—always thinking the worst of everyone?”

  She was too upset to stay any longer or observe his reactions. She yanked the front door open and hurried down the drive toward her car.

  Her eyes and cheeks burned. She’d always hated the reflex, but strong emotion of any kind always pushed her into tears.

  At least she’d gotten away from Andrew before the emotion took over.

  ***

  “It wasn’t fair,” Melissa said in a tone she almost never used with her brother. “You hurt her feelings.”

  Andrew paced the living room, rubbing his neck and covertly watching through the window as Helen ran down the driveway and climbed into her car. He caught a glimpse of her face before she closed the car door. It was a little blurry from the distance, but his chest clenched at the sight.

  He suspected his sister was right.

  “I wa
s surprised and upset,” he explained. “I came home and found you here with her and had no idea how it had happened.”

  He remembered his shock when he’d arrived with two bags of takeout. His delicate sister who hadn’t spoken to a stranger in years was chatting amiably with an exasperating librarian he hadn’t been able to get out of his mind all weekend.

  “I know you were,” Melissa said, her voice softening. “You’re so protective of me, but you can’t take it out on Helen like that. She hadn’t done anything except help the dog and be nice to me.”

  He felt a wave of guilt. He’d been so hard on Helen, and she’d looked so astonished and outraged by his insinuations.

  She’d been such a mess, beaten up by her descent into that atrocious root cellar. Her fair hair had been falling down around her face, and her clothes had been dirty and disarranged. She could have been hurt a lot more seriously than splinters.

  His sister was right. He’d been awful.

  “I overreacted,” he admitted. “I’ll apologize.”

  “I hope so. I really like her.”

  “Why were you able to talk to her?”

  “I don’t know. It all happened so fast. She asked for help, and I thought about that poor dog down there. So I just had to come over to help. She had no idea anything was wrong with me—she just talked to me like a normal person. So I just didn’t…didn’t panic. She seems really gentle somehow. I’m not sure what it was. She wasn’t scary at all. And I really liked her boots.”

  Andrew couldn’t help but laugh as he tried to remember what shoes Helen was wearing. He did remember she wore a little red sweater that set off her fair skin and the warm color of her lips and cheeks.

  Realizing the line of his thoughts was somewhat foolish, he said soberly, “She’s the librarian who wants the manuscript.”

  “I know. I realized that when she told me her name. But we can’t hold it against her. It’s not her fault she wants the manuscript too. I liked her.”

  Andrew made himself set aside his conflicted feelings for Helen Walton and focus on the good of his sister. She’d made more progress this afternoon than she had for ten years. This might be an important first step, as long as he could make sure Helen was trustworthy. “Did you want to see her again? We can invite her to dinner or something.”

  “Can we?” Melissa asked, almost eagerly.

  “If you’d be comfortable with it.”

  Melissa hesitated a few moments. “I think I’d like that. If we can keep it low key. Nothing scary.”

  “We can set up a table in your sitting room, if you’d feel more secure there.”

  “That would be good. Just you and me and Helen.”

  Andrew jerked his head toward Melissa. “I thought it could just be you and her.” He’d made a fool of himself just now. He would apologize for it, but he planned to limit his encounters with Helen from now on.

  She was just too confusing, and he didn’t like feeling like a fool.

  Melissa’s eyes grew huge and terrified, in a way that always broke his heart. “You have to be there, Andrew. I need you.”

  He swallowed. Then nodded his head, making sure she didn’t see his reluctance. After all, it was just a casual dinner with his sister and a bewildering, exasperating, beautiful woman. Nothing he couldn’t handle.

  “Of course, I’ll be there if you need me.”

  Chapter Four

  “I guess she never goes out,” Helen said, leaning back in a chair in Lorraine’s office on campus. “I don’t know if it’s true agoraphobia or what. She was able to travel here, and she was in the backyard of the house. But it’s strangers she has problems with, I guess.”

  Lorraine had been in the midst of furious paper-grading when Helen dropped by, but she was always happy to be distracted from that duty by a visit. “But she talked to you all right?”

  “Yeah. Apparently that was unusual, though. Andrew looked like he would burst a blood vessel when he saw us.” Helen frowned at the memory that still upset her two days later.

  “But he invited you over for dinner?”

  “Don’t get any ideas,” she warned, feeling uncomfortable at the thought of anyone—even Lorraine—thinking she had designs on Andrew Cane. “It was his sister’s invitation. He just made the call. The man really is infuriating. Didn’t offer me a word of apology for his outrageous behavior. Just asked if I was available for dinner tonight, like he was setting up a business meeting. And when I expressed my very reasonable shock at such an invitation, he made it more than evident that it was Melissa who wanted to have me over.”

  Lorraine chuckled, looking unnecessarily amused by her friend’s grouchiness. “He’s definitely gotten off on the wrong foot with you. Everyone else in town seems to adore him. They all talk about how nice and friendly he is, despite his big success with his company. He’s all anyone is talking about.”

  “Why aren’t I surprised?” When she recognized how bitter she sounded, Helen made herself shake off her sarcasm. “I’m doing it again, aren’t I?”

  “If you mean are you muttering out maledictions on poor Andrew Cane, then yes, you’re doing it again. I’ve never seen you take someone into such aversion so quickly.”

  Helen exhaled deeply. She generally was an easygoing person who was able to get along with almost everyone. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me. He really has riled me up, and I don’t know why.”

  Lorraine looked like she might be able to offer a few possibilities but she remained blessedly quiet.

  “Anyway,” Helen concluded, “I just have to keep reminding myself that there’s more to him than his snotty exterior.”

  “Do you really think he’s snotty? I haven’t met him myself, but no one else seems to think he’s that way.”

  Helen thought back over her encounters with the man. He’d been either coolly professional or icily angry. “Maybe I’m the only recipient of his snottiness. Lucky me.”

  ***

  After work, Helen drove back over to the Cane house. Apparently, Melissa liked to eat dinner early so they’d arranged for her to arrive at five-thirty. This worked out well for Helen, as she could come directly from work and not have to worry about what she would wear.

  She had no idea whether Melissa and Andrew would be dressed casually or wear something nicer, but she figured her work outfit of a blue prairie-style dress and her lace-up granny boots was perfectly acceptable.

  Andrew answered the door, wearing a polite smile and a brown dress shirt with khaki trousers. “Hi. Thanks for coming. Come on in.”

  She looked around at the entry hall but Melissa was nowhere in sight.

  “She’s upstairs,” he explained, noticing her look. “She feels more comfortable in her rooms, so we’re going to eat up there.”

  “She’s all right? I mean, having dinner with me isn’t going to be too much for her, is it?” Helen was genuinely nervous. She had no desire to cause Melissa any undue stress, and she’d never been around someone with this sort of problem before.

  “I think she’ll be all right. She’s been excited about dinner all day, but I hope you won’t mind leaving if anything should happen.”

  He was being discreet, but Helen understood. She certainly wouldn’t be offended about leaving abruptly should Melissa not be able to handle her visit. “Of course. That would be fine.”

  When he just looked at her with those deep gray eyes, she started feeling a little uncomfortable. “Shall we go up?”

  “Before we do,” he said slowly, absently rubbing the back of his neck. “I wanted to apologize. For the other day, I mean.”

  Helen stared up at him, genuinely taken aback. “Oh.”

  “I had no right to accuse you of trying to use my sister. I’m sometimes overly protective of her, but I treated you unfairly. I hope you’ll forgive me for it.” He looked a little stiff, but his eyes were sincere, and his handsome features slightly twisted with the effort it took to say what he’d just said.

  It couldn’
t have been easy for him to do, and Helen couldn’t help but respect him for apologizing, despite the fact that they were still somewhat at odds with each other regarding the manuscript.

  She hadn’t imagined he was the kind of man who would have apologized for something so minor, and so she had to acknowledge she’d judged him unfairly as well.

  When his brow lowered in concern, she realized she’d hesitated too long. “Of course, I’ll forgive you. It’s no big deal. I mean, I appreciate your saying that. And that you don’t really think I was being sneaky with your sister. I’m really not a sneaky person, and I’m glad you don’t really think I am” She cut off her babbling before she said anything else stupid. Her cheeks burned, and she wished she could manage to be cool and composed with this man.

  He always made her feel like a bashful girl again.

  He didn’t seem to notice anything out of line with her babbles. “Thank you. That’s generous of you.”

  With that taken care of, Andrew led her up to the third floor to a charming suite of rooms in what looked like the former attic. Melissa was waiting for them, and her face looked both anxious and excited.

  A summer supper of quiche, pasta salad, fruit, and fresh bread was already set out on a small round table near the bay window of the sitting room. After the requisite greetings, they all sat down, and Helen tried not to peer too much at Melissa. She was worried about the girl’s reactions to her, but she didn’t want to make her self-conscious.

  Melissa was jittery and breathless for the first part of the conversation, but Andrew covered for her with ease and consideration, asking Helen about her day and explaining the status of the stray dog.

  The animal had pulled a ligament in one of his back legs and had some bruising, but otherwise he was in good health. So they’d gotten him his shots and taken him home.

  They were still debating on a name for him, and Helen couldn’t help but agree with Andrew that Rat was not a nice name for a dog.

  “But his nose and ears look like a rat,” Melissa insisted, evidently starting to feel more comfortable. “And he’s so funny when he sniffs around in corners.”

  Helen laughed. “But he’ll be offended if you name him after a rodent. You’ll bruise his doggy ego.”