GI Brides

by Grace Livingston Hill

  Mrs. Huntley gave a startled, almost frightened look that merged quickly into a firm, determined one as she heard footsteps on the porch and realized that it must be her own lawyer.

  Then the doorbell pealed through the house, and they could hear Hattie going to answer it. Dale sat quite still and quietly watched each person in the room as the other lawyer entered. The tense, strained expression on her aunt’s face; the amused grin on Powelton’s disagreeable mug; the bored contempt of Corliss; and the quiet assurance of Mr. Granniss. He was not worrying about what was going to happen, because he had the facts and proofs against all the trifling claims of the pretenders.

  In fact, it seemed utterly absurd to Mr. Granniss that any sane woman would try to put over such an unfounded claim. He had told Dale that she need not worry.

  And as for the lawyer Aunt Blanche had secured, Mr. Granniss had said that he was so notorious that he was not to be taken seriously. He was a big bluff who had a way of deceiving gullible women and outtalking any serious questioners. Dale knew Mr. Granniss felt it would be a bore, but for Dale’s sake he must listen to it and then, when it was over, bring forward some convincing proof that he had with him, which would upset all the other man was planning to do. Mr. Granniss was a conscientious lawyer who went clearly to the bottom of things and left no room for clever roundabout ways.

  It was at this stage of affairs that Powelton decided to speak up. “Oh heck!” he said, yawning audibly. “I can’t be bothered with all this bologna! I’m gonna beat it! See you later, Mom!” And Powelton vanished with a slammed door behind him.

  And next, Corliss began to wriggle and writhe and sigh audibly and finally changed her seat until she was close to the french window that opened on the porch. It wasn’t long before Corliss, too, was absent from the family group, though nobody but Dale actually saw her edge behind the curtain and depart.

  There followed a tiresome rehash of what had gone before, listening to pompous questions asked by the newly arrived lawyer, and Mr. Granniss’s quiet, brief answers. Finally Greenway Buffington rose and, clearing his throat, ominously said, “Mrs. Huntley, it will be impossible for me to give you an adequate idea of what can be done in this matter until I have opportunity to go down to the city hall and verify some of these statements that have been made. Would you like to come with me now? I think we would have time to look into this before the lunch hour.”

  “Certainly,” said Aunt Blanche, rising triumphantly and looking around at her two adversaries, as if she was already assured of the rights she had been claiming.

  Aunt Blanche was not long in getting ready, and meantime her lawyer sat in imposing silence while Dale and Mr. Granniss talked in low tones about the service of the day before and who were the singer and speakers. Nothing whatever that could possibly be connected with the matter of the property.

  After they were gone, Dale drew a long breath. “I’m glad that session is over. Do you think that lawyer can do anything?” she asked with a troubled look.

  Mr. Granniss looked at her and smiled. “Not possibly,” he assured her pleasantly, “except to charge her a big fee, perhaps. He will probably string the matter out as long as he dares before giving her the final word that he can do nothing. Of course the property is yours entirely, and her husband never had anything to do with it. You need not worry. Your property is as safe as property could ever be, and in the end your aunt will find that out to her sorrow, I’m afraid, for Buffington has the name of never doing anything for nothing. Is your aunt intending to leave soon?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” said Dale with a weary smile. “She hasn’t said anything about it yet. If her lawyer leaves her with any hope, she will probably stay indefinitely, and it just seems as if I could not stand that.”

  “Of course not, child,” said the lawyer comfortingly. “We’ll try to contrive some way to get her interested in going home. Don’t worry. We’ll find a way. And now, what are you planning to do, little girl? I suppose you talked that over with your grandmother?”

  “Oh yes. We planned it all out together. I’m going to stay right here in the house, and Hattie is going to stay with me. I’m thinking of looking after some little children while their mothers are working in war plants. Grandmother suggested that, and I know there are several mothers around here who are greatly troubled because they cannot find the right place for their children while they are away. In fact, one mother has already asked me to take her twins, and I’m sure I’ll love the work. It will be sort of a school, you know.”

  “Splendid!” said the lawyer. “And you should be able to get a good price for such work. You know, the mothers have good wages where they are working.”

  “Yes, so I have heard. I’m glad you approve. Grandmother heard of this through a friend of hers who came to see her, and she thought it would be a lovely way to use my home. At least for a time.”

  “Fine!” said the lawyer. “Are you planning to start right away?”

  “I’d like to,” said Dale with a troubled look, “but I can’t really do anything about it while my relatives are here. In fact, I wouldn’t want them to know about it. They would try to talk me out of it. My aunt would like me to go home with her and do housework for my living.”

  “Housework! You? Absurd. They’d better go home and do their own work. Better hurry them off.”

  “I don’t know how I can hurry them. I can’t just ask them to go, can I? I don’t want to be rude. Grandmother wouldn’t want me to do that.”

  “No,” said the lawyer thoughtfully, “but there might be other ways. I’ll think about that. I might be able to find a way to get them started sooner. We’ll see. Perhaps the result of today’s investigation may be sufficient to make them see that they have got all the financial assistance they can get out of this episode. Suppose you let me know if there is any change in the status of things when your aunt returns. Better phone me from the drugstore, then there’ll be no danger of your being overheard.”

  “Yes, of course,” said Dale. “Thank you so much for your advice. It makes me feel so much safer.”

  “Has this aunt always been so unpleasant in her ways of talking?” asked Mr. Granniss.

  “I’ve never had much to do with her. She came to visit when Corliss was about five, and we had a terrible two weeks while she stayed. Then she and Grandmother had a talk and she went away in a huff, and it’s been a long time since we heard from her until about three months ago when she wrote a very sweet letter and wanted to come for a visit. Said she heard that Grandmother wasn’t so well and she got to worrying that her children didn’t know her better. Grandmother didn’t answer that for a long time, but finally she wrote a nice little note and said she wasn’t in any shape at that time to have company, but she would send word later. That was when she told me to write the letter about her death and have it ready to send as soon as it happened, putting in the date and time of the funeral. That was why she insisted that they should be notified. For Grandmother was always courteous, although you know she had an odd sense of humor at times. She felt that she must make up for not having them visit her at the time they had asked by inviting them to her funeral. She knew they would be interested in the will, and she had that quaint little grin when she said it. But you don’t know how I have dreaded this visit. In fact, Grandmother gave me reason to dread it in little bits of warnings. That is why I am so glad to have you here now, and why I am depending so much upon your advice.”

  “Poor child!” said the lawyer. “Don’t worry. I’ll see you through this. We’ll wait till your aunt gets back from her investigations. Then we’ll devise a pleasant way to get her out of the picture so you can go on with your plans. Now, I’ll run down to my office for a little while, and I’ll be there when you get ready to phone me.”

  “But won’t you stay for lunch? I’m sure Hattie will be glad to hurry it up so you won’t lose any time.”

  “No, child, no. I’ll get right down to the office and have a tray sent in. I often d
o that, you know. It saves a lot of time, and while I do always appreciate Hattie’s cooking, I think this way is better for today. Tell Hattie I said so. Remember you may have your guests all here to feed in a little while, and they may even bring the other lawyer along with them again, too. But if they do, you send Hattie to the store to phone me, and I’ll come up at once.”

  “Oh, thank you, Mr. Granniss,” said Dale, her eyes full of grateful tears. “I shall never forget all that you have done for me all the years, and especially today, for I have been so tried and so disheartened.”

  The old friend looked at the pretty girl tenderly and patted her shoulder. “There, there, Dale! Don’t get that way. Don’t you know your grandmother’s Lord always provides someone to look after His dear children when they are tried and in need? And this time He just chose me to look after you. Now, get upstairs to your room and lie down for at least a few minutes. You certainly look all in, and you need to relax a little before the next stage will begin. So go rest, and don’t worry. Trust me, and the Lord!” he ended reverently, as he took his leave.

  Dale hurried down to the kitchen and had a little talk with Hattie, who also implored her to rest. Hattie promised to prepare a good, substantial lunch that could be served whenever the erratic guests should choose to arrive and to make enough for Mr. Buffington, too, if he came back. So Dale did go and lie down with closed eyes for at least five minutes trying to pray her way through to quietness and peace. And she succeeded so well that there came a little gleam of brightness to her face. Then she remembered David Kenyon’s possible coming sometime in the near future. Oh, she hoped so much that if he did come her aunt and cousins would be gone by that time. She couldn’t bear the thought of having this bit of pleasantness spoiled by their presence, for she knew just how Corliss would behave.

  Please find a way for them to go home, dear Lord, before he comes, she prayed softly in her heart.

  And then there came the sound of feet flying up the front walk, stamping into the house, and Corliss’s clarion voice calling loudly, “Dale! Oh Dale! Have you got any tennis rackets? We want to play tennis. We’ve found a tennis court that’s not in use, and we want some balls and rackets.”

  Dale rose with a weary little sigh. She must answer. Of course tennis was a harmless amusement. It would be a good thing if those two could get interested in something absorbing. Yes, she had a couple of rackets that she and a dear friend, now married and gone to Africa as a missionary, used to have when they were in school together for a year. She hadn’t played herself since her friend left; there hadn’t been any opportunity, for she had come home to stay with her grandmother, who was beginning to be very feeble. But she had kept the rackets and balls and put them away as carefully as keepsakes of her girlhood, which she recognized was about over so far as games were concerned. She hated to give them up as they were precious for old times’ sake, but she didn’t need those rackets, would probably never use them again. Was that right? Why should she hang on to them when she would likely never have any use for them? Why not let these unlovely cousins get a little fun out of them? This was what Grandmother and God would likely want her to do.

  “Yes,” she answered pleasantly. “Yes, I have a couple of rackets. It’s been some time since I had a chance to use them, but I’m sure they are in good condition. I oiled them before I put them away. I’ll get them.”

  “Well, make it snappy! We want to get back before anybody else snitches the court.”

  Dale was back in a moment, unwinding the soft tissue paper wrappings as she came down the stairs. But Corliss did not wait for her to get down. She sprang up the stairs and snatched the rackets from her, casting the wrappings in a heap on the stairs and almost tripping herself as she tore out the door and away, waving the rackets in the air, whacking the furniture and the door frame as she passed. “You’ll be careful of them, won’t you, please?” Dale called after her as she went.

  “Okay, I’ll be careful of the old relics,” she jeered. “They don’t look like they’d be able to play more than a set or two without passing out! About the model they made before the ark, aren’t they?” She yelled all this up the street at her, and several elderly women came to their front doors to look out and see what it was all about. Dale felt sure they turned away pitying her for having such ill-mannered guests.

  Dale sighed and turned back into the house, almost regretting that she had loaned her precious rackets. Yet how silly that was. What difference did it make if they did spoil her rackets? It was just sentiment, and that, of course, was silly.

  So Dale put aside that burden as unworthy of her and thought no more about it until after dinner that night when her cousin said carelessly in answer to her query of how the game went, “Oh gee! I forgot to go back for the rackets. But it won’t make any difference. They’re neither of them fit to use again. They’re both broken!”

  In spite of herself, Dale’s quick indignation rose. “Where did you leave the rackets?” she asked sternly.

  “Oh, up around behind the bushes over at the end of the tennis court.”

  “Come with me and show me,” Dale said authoritatively.

  But Corliss only laughed. “It won’t do any good to go after them. Some kids were having a fight with them when I left. They won’t be any use now.”

  Dale gave her a withering glance and, turning, went out the door and down the paving to the street, walking with swift steps toward the country club and the tennis courts that crowned the rise of the winding drive off to the left. Could she find her rackets? Well, she would try. But at least she would walk until she had her temper under control.

  She went swiftly down the street and turned on to the road that led up to the country club. On, on, up the smooth, wide road, up the hill, up the drive that swept around in front of the country club, to the courts, on beyond the high stop nets at the end where the shrubs and bushes grew, down to the edge of the little winding brook that went with soft steps and glittering blue like a lovely ribbon, making pictures of itself in every nook and corner where it twinkled.

  She stood for a moment letting her eyes follow the bright water down the hill, the soft sky above with white, fluffy clouds floating lazily. How lovely and sweet this scene was and how far from the ill-natured struggle of the day that had done so much to her tired nerves. She took a deep breath and let the scene creep into her senses, storing up the beauty. Just as she had so often done to carry the picture of the outside world to Grandmother.

  She sighed as she turned away and thought sadly that now she had no one left to describe such things to, for she couldn’t think of going home and trying to tell Aunt Blanche about the scene. And she could hear her two cousins shouting with sneering laughter if she attempted any such conversation. Then her thoughts went to her new service-friend, David Kenyon. Yes, she could think of telling him about this scene. Perhaps when she met him again, she would remember to tell him. But that would be foolish, too, describing a scene in her local vicinity to him, a stranger. He had probably seen a lot more interesting ones. But it was lovely, and the sight of it had calmed her spirit so that she could go back and meet her careless cousin without frowning at her, she hoped.

  Then she turned to go back home again and there at her feet she saw the rackets, lying in a heap just under the edge of a large bush that reached out over the brook. And the strings were gleaming wet as if they had been plunged into the water. Some of the strings were badly broken.

  She picked them up, wiped the water away with her handkerchief, and tucking them under her arm, went swiftly home, entering the house by the back way where she would not be seen, going upstairs, and hiding the rackets in her own room.

  Then she heard voices in the living room, a strange voice and a loud voice. Smoothing her hair, she hurried down to find out what had been happening during her absence.

  Chapter 6

  As Dale came downstairs she could hear the pompous voice of Greenway Buffington boasting as he stood up by the front door
, in the act of departing.

  “Now, you don’t need to worry anymore, Mrs. Huntley. I’m quite sure we’ll come upon some definite evidence in a day or two. And if you can find those letters you spoke of, that would certainly clinch the matter. You might try long distance to your banker and have him look in your safe-deposit box. He’ll have a key, of course, and then he can send the letter on by airmail, and it won’t take over a week to work this thing out. I’m confident I can get the judge to arrange it to come on the docket soon and get the whole matter settled up in no time. And now, thank you for this retainer. Of course I’m accustomed to getting at least twice that for a retainer, but since it is you and since you bring a recommendation from my friend in Chicago, why, we’ll call it all right for the present. And of course when you get home, you can send me the rest. Well, good evening, Mrs. Huntley. You do that telephoning, and let me know the result. Good night.”