Breath of Scandal

by Sandra Brown

  “Oh, yes. You see, Miss Sperry, Mitch has distant relatives in Palmetto.”

  Jade swung her startled gaze to the dean. He hadn’t said anything about Palmetto at their previous appointment. She didn’t want them to ask, “Do you know…” The less said about Palmetto, the better, because she didn’t want to lie to them about anything.

  Thankfully, Graham provided a distraction. He banged his teething ring on the edge of the table, then threw it to the floor in favor of a shiny silver spoon. She picked up the teething ring, but he found the spoon tastier.

  Cathy laughed as he wetly gummed the spoon. “He’s not hurting that old spoon a bit. He can chew on it to his heart’s content.”

  Dean Hearon was regarding Jade closely. “I don’t remember you mentioning that you were a mother when you came to see me a few weeks ago.”

  “No, sir, I didn’t.”

  “Not that it’s any of my business, of course. It wouldn’t have made a difference to the scholarship committee, either.”

  Jade blotted her mouth with her linen napkin. “I’m afraid it is your business, Dr. Hearon. That’s why I’m here this morning.” She opened her handbag, removed the voucher, and slid it across the table toward him. “I must regretfully decline the scholarship.”

  Mrs. Hearon was the first to break a long, awkward silence. “Miss Sperry, I’m familiar with you because my husband told me about you. You made a favorable impression on him. But if it’ll make you more comfortable, I’ll leave you alone to discuss this matter privately.”

  Jade was touched by her sensitivity. “That won’t be necessary, Mrs. Hearon. Anyway, there’s nothing more to be said.” She replaced the strap of her handbag on her shoulder, hoisted Graham off her lap, and stood up. “Thank you very much for the breakfast.”

  “Just a minute, Miss Sperry,” Dean Hearon said. “Sit down, please.” He waited until she complied. Folding his hands beneath his chin, he gave her a probing look. “Frankly, I’m stunned and disappointed. I’ve rarely seen a candidate for a full scholarship more deserving than you, or one as obviously delighted when it was granted. You fairly flew out of my office. What’s happened since I last saw you?”

  Jade considered a number of viable lies. However, looking into their eyes made lying impossible. They were curious, yes, but that distasteful human trait was allayed by something not so common—genuine concern.

  “My mother eloped.” Evidently her answer wasn’t what they had expected, so she elaborated. “My mother took care of Graham while I worked. I had planned to continue working after classes and on weekends, but now I won’t be able to afford child care in addition to our living expenses.”

  “Surely—”

  Jade shook her head, cutting off the dean’s interruption. “I’ve exhausted all options, believe me.” At the expense of her job in Savannah, she had been making weekly runs to Morgantown in search of lodging, a job, and acceptable child-care facilities. Her search had been futile.

  “Any child-care facility that I would consider—and I admit to being very particular—I can’t afford, even if their hours of operation were compatible with my schedule. On top of that, with the influx of students beginning the fall semester, I haven’t even been able to find a job. Since my mother is no longer available to help me, it’s impossible for me to enroll this semester.”

  She lowered her eyes, unwilling for them to see her fear. Not only was her college career at stake, but their livelihood as well. Her supervisor in Savannah had lost patience with her for requesting so much time off and had fired her. Before her elopement, Velta had emptied their meager savings account, taking what was left from the sale of the house in Palmetto.

  Jade was down to her last twenty dollars. Twelve of it had to pay for their room at the Pine Haven Motor Court tonight. Tomorrow she would run out of money. She supposed she would have to throw herself on the mercy of her former supervisor in Savannah and beg for her job back.

  “Turning down this scholarship seems a rather dramatic and drastic step, Miss Sperry,” Dean Hearon said.

  “I agree, but at this time I have no alternative. It won’t deter me from getting an education, Dr. Hearon. I promise you that. I have reasons for wanting to earn a diploma as quickly as possible.”

  “Those reasons being?”

  “Personal.”

  Her terse answer caused him to frown. “Why did you apply for a scholarship at Dander College?”

  “Truthfully?”

  “You’ve been painfully candid thus far.”

  “It was one of the remaining few in a three-state area that I hadn’t tried. I’ve been declined financial aid from scores of other colleges and universities. Since it’s a church-related school, I relied on Dander’s Christian benevolence.”

  “And if we had turned you down, what did you propose to do?”

  “What I still plan to do—keep trying.”

  Dr. Hearon cleared his throat. “Am I correct in presuming that Graham’s father—”

  “Graham’s father is dead.” People would always want to know. That seemed the simplest answer. She doubted that they believed her, but they didn’t pursue it.

  “I know about a job,” Cathy Hearon said suddenly. “Dear,” she turned to her husband, “you know Dorothy Davis. She owns that shop where I buy most of my clothes.” To Jade she said, “Just yesterday, Miss Dorothy told me she’s looking for someone to handle her bookkeeping. She said her eyes have gotten so bad she can’t read the invoices anymore.”

  “Doesn’t surprise me. The old bat must be pushing eighty.”

  Cathy slapped the back of her husband’s hand. “Don’t listen to him, Jade. Miss Dorothy is rather crusty, but really a kind soul underneath. She’s had to be tough in order to be a good businesswoman. Would you be interested?”

  “I’m interested in anything, Mrs. Hearon. And business is my major. But a job alone won’t help. I still haven’t found a suitable daycare center or a place to live.”

  “Surely there’s something available.”

  Jade thought of the twenty dollars in her purse. She couldn’t even put down a deposit to move in. “I’m afraid not, Mrs. Hearon.”

  The Dean of Student Affairs consulted his watch and stood up. “I’m going to be late if I don’t leave now. It’s time to cut to the heart of the matter.”

  He lowered his bushy eyebrows in a vain attempt to make himself look stern. “Miss Sperry, I believe that what you are too proud to admit is that, through no fault of your own, you are destitute. I’ve never interviewed a young person more determined than you to get an education. Only the gravest set of circumstances could have dampened your enthusiasm and determination. I admire your pride.

  “On the other hand,” he said with an authoritative ring that had often roused dozing students, “too much pride can work against an individual. That’s the time to step from behind your pride, expose your vulnerability, and give someone the honor of helping you.

  “I’m sure that Cathy can maneuver you into the job Miss Davis has open, although I’d be reluctant to accept the position if I were you. She’s a stingy, dried-up old stick of a woman who won’t even gift wrap for free at Christmastime. If you can work for her, you deserve to be canonized.

  “Finally, in case you haven’t noticed, Cathy’s eyes have grown misty every time she looks at Graham. Unfortunately, we never had children of our own. I’ve little doubt she’ll spoil him rotten while you’re with us.”

  “With you?” Jade cried. “Oh, but I—”

  “Be quiet, Miss Sperry. I’m not finished, and time is of the essence. What you obviously didn’t know is that Cathy and I have often taken a deserving student into our home for the term. We decided not to this year only because last spring semester we had a bad experience: the young man absconded with a pair of silver candlesticks. It wasn’t the damned candlesticks I minded so much, but that my previously accurate gauge of human nature had failed me. You have restored it.

  “So, unless you have designs
on the silverware, you and your son are welcome to reside here for as long as you’d like. In any event, I’ll take it as a personal affront if I don’t see your name on the list of enrolling freshmen by the conclusion of registration today. Your transcript was damned near perfect, and it would be an abhorrent waste of intellect if you didn’t further your education because of something so petty as shortage of money. Cathy, I have a hankering for fried oysters for dinner tonight.”

  With a brusque motion of his hand, he left.

  Cathy Hearon patted Jade’s arm. “He gets like that sometimes, but you’ll get used to it.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Columbia, South Carolina, 1978

  “Hey, Hutch! I thought you’d died or something. Come in, you ugly son of a bitch.” Neal Patchett held open the door for his friend. Hutch stepped into the cluttered front room.

  “Y’all busy?”

  “Hell, no. I’m glad you stopped by. Lamar!” Neal shouted. “We’ve got company.” Finding a spot between the posters of Loni Anderson and the Dallas Cowboys’ Cheerleaders, Neal banged his fist on the wall. “Shovel out that chair, Hutch, and sit down. Want a beer?”

  “Yeah, thanks.”

  “I thought you were in training, Mr. Jock.” Neal socked him on the shoulder as he went to the kitchen for the beer.

  “I am. Screw it.” Hutch took the cold beer from Neal and chugged it, then belched loudly. “Ah, that’s good. Hi, Lamar.”

  Lamar emerged from the hallway. He had a paisley necktie draped around his neck, although he was wearing a pair of cut-offs and a tank top. In his hand was a tennis racquet. “Hi, Hutch. How’s football practice going?”

  “The team sucks this year. Don’t count on any bowl games. Unpacking?”

  Lamar set aside his tennis racquet and removed the tie from his neck. “I’m trying to get my bedroom organized.”

  “Why bother?” Hutch asked as he sprawled in the ratty easy chair. “This place’ll be trashed within a week anyway. That’s why I like it.”

  For the second year, Neal and Lamar were sharing digs off campus. The house was old and roomy and far enough away from neighbors so that the police weren’t called until the parties got entirely out of hand. Their freshman year, Hutch hadn’t been permitted to live with them because he was on the football team and was required to live in the athletes’ dorm. He had envied them the freedom and relaxed atmosphere of the house.

  “Last spring when Myrajane came up to pack for Lamar’s return home, she took one look inside and nearly fainted clean away,” Neal chuckled. “If my old man hadn’t been there to catch her when she fell backward, we’d have had an outline of her body there on the front porch. You know, the way Wile E. Coyote leaves a hole shaped like himself when he falls to the desert floor?”

  He took a joint from the drawer in the end table, lit it, and took two tokes. Hutch ruefully declined when Neal offered it to him. “Better not. Donna Dee can smell that stuff a mile off. I’ll have another beer, though.”

  Neal passed the joint to Lamar, who puffed on it as he gave Hutch one of his nervous, tentative smiles. Neal returned from the kitchen and handed Hutch another beer.

  “The little wife’s got you on a short leash, huh?” Neal retrieved the joint and inhaled. “Damn fool bastard, why’d you have to get married right after we got to this pussy farm they call a university?”

  “It’s not so bad,” Hutch grumbled.

  Neal cupped his hand behind his ear. “What’s that noise, Lamar?”

  “What noise?”

  “Don’t you hear it? Sounds like the rattling of a ball and chain to me.”

  “Go to hell.” Hutch drained his second beer and crumpled the aluminum can in one fist. “At least I can get off every night.”

  “So can I,” Neal drawled, “but I don’t marry ’em.”

  Hutch’s first date with Donna Dee had been to their senior prom. In a way, he had felt obligated to ask her. It seemed as though she expected it—and both knew why, though they never discussed it. During the summer following graduation, whenever he wasn’t with Neal and Lamar, he was with Donna Dee.

  Hutch had always liked her well enough, but he began to like her a lot more. Neal’s bland opinion of her carried less weight each time Hutch saw her. Though she sure was no beauty, she was funny and sweet and made it clear that she was devoted to him. She never missed church on Sunday, yet by their second date his hand was inside her brassiere fingering her nipples, and by the third she was giving him hand-jobs.

  It had been her idea that they get into the backseat of his car after the citywide Fourth of July picnic and fireworks on the beach. “B-but I never thought… What I mean is, Donna Dee, I don’t have a rubber with me.”

  “That’s okay, Hutch. I want to love you so bad, I don’t even care.”

  He reasoned that if she didn’t care that she was about to lose her virginity, he shouldn’t be a stickler for birth control. And hadn’t Neal once told him that a virgin couldn’t get pregnant? Besides, he was a little drunk and very horny, and Donna Dee was so damned compliant that lust had won out over common sense. From then on he always took along a supply of condoms just in case she got amorous again. As it turned out, he had needed one on every single date.

  “Are you banging Donna Dee?” Neal had posed the question over the Labor Day weekend while they were water-skiing.

  “No,” Hutch had lied. “She’s a nice girl. You know that.”

  Neal had looked at him with skepticism. “I’d hate to think my best friend was keeping secrets from me. If you’re not getting in her pants, why spend so much time with her?”

  “You sound jealous, Neal.” Lamar had meant his comment as a joke. But Neal’s face had turned dark with wrath. He packed up his belongings and went home. Since the motorboat and all the skiing gear belonged to him, Hutch and Lamar had no choice but to cut short their holiday, too.

  When Donna Dee had gladly informed Hutch that she had squeaked through the entrance requirements to the university, he had greeted the news with mixed emotions. He wanted to see her at school and knew he would miss her if he didn’t, but Neal had big plans for Lamar and him.

  “We’re gonna raise so much hell, it’ll go down in the annals of higher education,” Neal had drunkenly promised. “We’re gonna nail every coed that moves.”

  Their first semester in college, Hutch had managed to juggle his busy schedule between his guard position on the football team, keeping Donna Dee pacified, his classes, and Neal’s expectations of him. On the gridiron, he did as he was told and left the game plans up to the backfield. Since he shared several freshmen classes with Donna Dee, she did all his written assignments. In return for this service, she expected love and affection, which he gladly dispensed when he wasn’t too exhausted.

  Following the Saturday games, and through Sunday night, he participated in the debauchery that went on at Neal’s place. Grass, booze, and babes were always plentiful. It was one of these depraved weekends that caused the first serious quarrel between him and Donna Dee.

  “I overheard three of them talking in the library about last weekend’s orgy,” she had told him as she sniffled into a Kleenex. “This blonde with a hickie on her neck was telling her friends that she had balled a redheaded football player, but she had been so stoned she couldn’t remember his name. I know it was you, Hutch. You’re the only junior varsity player with red hair. You told me you never did anything except drink a few beers when you went to Neal’s place. Did you sleep with that blonde?”

  He could almost hear Neal goading him to lie in order to get her off his back. Instead, a kernel of caring and integrity caused him to gaze miserably into her face and confess. “I guess I did, Donna Dee. Things get a little wild over there sometimes.”

  Donna Dee had collapsed in sobs, which startled Hutch and made him feel utterly helpless. Awkwardly he placed his arms around her. “I’m sorry, honey. It didn’t mean anything. Being with another girl isn’t the same as being with you. I… I
love you.”

  He could hardly believe his own ears, but Donna Dee had heard him clearly. Her head popped up and she gazed at him through tearful eyes. “Do you, Hutch? Do you really?”

  Hutch was bamboozled by what he’d said. Before he could sort it out, they were talking about an engagement ring for Valentine’s Day and wedding bells in June. On a trip home to Palmetto to inform their parents of their plans, Fritz had privately expressed his concern.

  “You’re awfully young to be getting married, son,” he’d said.

  “I know, Daddy, but she really wants to.”

  “Do you?”

  “Well, sure. I mean, I guess. I mean, yeah.”

  “Are you marrying her because you love her?”

  “Sure. Why else would I?”

  They exchanged an uncomfortable glance. Then Fritz sighed with resignation. “Well, if you’re sure that’s what you want.”

  The wedding took place on the second weekend in June. Three days before the wedding Donna Dee and Hutch were in the living room of her parents’ house inspecting the gifts they had received. She laid aside the set of steak knives she had just opened and threaded the gift-wrap bow onto the coat hanger that was already filled with satin ribbons. “Hutch?”

  “Hm-mm?” He was stuffing in a bologna sandwich that Mrs. Monroe had made for him.

  “There’s something I’ve got to ask you.”

  “Shoot.”

  Donna Dee took great care in tying the new bow onto the coat hanger, a practice which she had started with her first wedding shower. “Everything should be laid out in the open before two people get married, right?”

  Hutch licked potato-chip salt off the tips of his fingers. “I guess.”

  “Well, it’s about that night y’all took Jade to the channel.”

  Hutch froze, his fingers still at his lips. Slowly he lowered his hand and turned to Donna Dee, although his eyes fell short of connecting with hers. His prominent Adam’s apple slid up and down as he swallowed. “What about it?”

  “What she said wasn’t true, was it? You didn’t actually rape her.” Donna Dee turned her pointed face up to his.