Judith heard Alan jump up. “Are you threatening me with a strike?” he demanded angrily.
“I’m telling you facts,” the union man whined. “We’ll have our official here in a few days, ready to see you.”
“And I’ll be ready to see him!” Alan vowed.
The union man mumbled an unhappy goodbye and quickly made his way out. Alan came back to Judith’s office to stand glaring at the door the union man had just closed after him.
He turned to her. “Well, at least trouble never comes in single lots.”
“I had no idea the union business was so serious,” she said.
Alan was angry. “It’s not the men who want a strike; it’s fellows like this one who live off the unions. They’ll bring in an out-of-town organizer and try to stir up enough trouble to close us.”
“Have they a chance of doing so?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe the Senator will manage to put them out of work first.” He headed toward his office and as he prepared to close the door, he said, “Anyway, it looks as if we’ll have to bargain with some out-of-town official.”
Judith said, “I’ll let you know when Mrs. Regan arrives.”
The next two hours were busy ones, and by the time the Mayor showed up an exhausted Alan was out in Judith’s office, joining her in a fast cup of hot coffee. Alan greeted the Mayor with the steaming paper cup in his hand.
With a forced smile, he said, “A bearer of glad tidings.”
Mayor Jim Devlin stood there smiling at them both. “I only wish that was so,” he said in his pleasant announcer’s voice. He was a man of medium size and middle age. He had a square, strong face with a shrewd cast, relieved by generous blue eyes.
Alan asked, “Any further word from the Senator?”
“Lafferty has been on the line a half-dozen times today,” Jim Devlin said, sinking into a handy chair wearily and giving the young lawyer a sharp glance. “Looks as if S.C. North is really out to buck the bridge!”
“But I thought that was all over!” Alan protested.
The Mayor nodded grimly. “I suppose that’s what they wanted us to think. But apparently they’ve been biding their time. Now they’re going to strike and strike hard.”
“So Fred Harvey said this morning,” Alan told him with a sigh. “You want Judith to pour you a cup of coffee?”
“I’d enjoy one,” Jim Devlin said, offering her a smile. “Anyway, you’ve got a good-looking secretary, Alan, and that’s one up on me.”
Judith poured him the coffee he’d requested and passed the cup to him. “If Senator Lafferty keeps you as busy as he has today, you won’t have time to notice pretty girls,” she warned him.
The Mayor took a sip of his coffee. “You’re not joking,” he said. “I can’t imagine why I left working behind a microphone for this job. And I can tell you I don’t want any more of it.”
“The rumor is you’re not running again,” Alan said.
Jim Devlin smiled. “I’m running in the opposite direction — right back to the television station and my sports show. I’ve had enough and plenty! It’s the last quarter, and the game looks bad for the home team!”
Judith laughed. “You sound as if you were describing a game,” she said.
“Boy oh boy!” The Mayor took another gulp of his coffee. “Who ever said politics was a place for an honest man?”
Alan smiled. “I think you did, in your campaign speeches.”
“That shows the kind of an innocent I was then,” Jim Devlin said, staring bleakly at his half-empty coffee cup. “Well, I know better now. With Fred Harvey away, that leaves eleven men on the council. Seven of them are owned by S.C. North in one way or another, and one of them is being groomed by him as the next Mayor. So no matter what I try to do, the majority is going to vote in favor of Senator Lafferty and his group on that petition.”
“It’s that bad?” Alan said.
“It’s that bad.” The Mayor sighed.
“So then what happens?” the young lawyer asked.
“They’ll want to put the whole thing in the Governor’s lap,” the Mayor predicted. “Lafferty is on the right side of him and probably has some deal arranged. North will do the Governor the favor of backing him in the next election, and the Governor will see the bridge is delayed long enough to turn the steel contract over to the North company.”
“Not while I’m chairman of the bridge authority,” Alan said firmly.
The Mayor gave him a sad smile. “They’ll expect you to resign. If you don’t, North will have his trained seals at the paper write some editorials to force you out.”
“And if I refuse to give up?” Alan asked.
The Mayor looked at him in wide-eyed surprise. “Now, Son, don’t tell me you’re still ignorant of the rules of this game. When S.C. North calls a play, you make it one way or another. If you don’t, you’ll wish you had never been a member of the team!”
Alan frowned. “It can’t be that bad.”
“It’s so bad I want to be a common man again,” Jim Devlin said earnestly. “I can do without this high office. My neck is on the chopping block every day, with some of North’s crowd debating whether they’ll drop the axe or not. I want to get away from it fast!”
Judith said, “Are you telling us that Alan won’t be allowed to stay on as chairman once this thing gets rolling?”
“That is my assumption,” the Mayor said unhappily. “The game is well under way, and that is how I read the score. Alan will be removed from the line-up and a substitute will take over the play.”
“But that’s wickedly unfair,” Judith protested, “after all he’s done to make the bridge possible, all the effort he’s put into it.”
“No one could agree with you more heartily than I,” Jim Devlin said, his honest face grim. “And as long as I’m Mayor, I’ll fight every last inch of the way with you. But that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to turn the tide. Senator Lafferty and the North team have been waiting for this moment to rouse to action, leap into the game, and wind up with a rousing victory!”
Alan smiled ruefully. “We could hope the Senator might take off on another of his alcoholic binges. They usually put him out of business for a week or so.”
“I understand he has been having ulcer trouble,” the Mayor said gloomily, “so I think that fortuitous circumstance is highly unlikely.”
“At least he’ll have to come into the open with whatever he’s going to fight us with tonight,” Alan said. “After the council meeting we’ll know exactly what he has in mind.”
“I would assume so,” Mayor Devlin said. “As chairman of the bridge authority, you’ll have to be there.”
“I don’t want to get into any shouting match with the Senator,” Alan said with a frown. “And that’s the way he usually tries to put his points over.”
“He’s sly,” the Mayor warned. “And although that North End Real Estate Owners Association is strictly a second scrub team, he’ll make the best possible showing with it.”
“Have the rest of the bridge authority members been notified?” Judith asked.
“I told my secretary to phone them about the meeting this morning,” the Mayor said. “Maybe you better have Judith call them again.”
“It’s late,” Alan said. “But a late notice is better than none, just in case your girl missed up.” He shook his head. “And what a committee we have! A retired printer, an over-age housewife, one of S.C. North’s legal staff, and a cousin of his wife who is a retired customs officer. They must have been picked for their gullibility!”
“Well, it was always understood that, aside from your own office, the bridge authority was just a token group to represent the public,” the Mayor pointed out. “The ideas was that as long as we had a strong chairman in you and the council took an active interest, we’d be able to handle any problems.”
“It hasn’t worked out so well,” Alan reminded him.
“Maybe that was what was intended,” the Mayor
said unhappily. “Since I’ve taken office, I’ve been the victim of so many double plays I don’t know what’s going on half the time.”
Alan turned to Judith. “Better get those calls started. Useless or not, they’ve a right to be properly notified.”
The Mayor stood up with a broad smile and patted Alan on the back. “That’s the spirit, my boy. Let’s show the North crowd we’re not going to be kayoed in the first round!”
CHAPTER SIX
When Judith returned home that evening, she found her mother busy in the kitchen.
“I have some of my veal cutlets in tomato sauce that you like so well,” she announced brightly from her post by the electric stove.
“They are always good,” Judith encouraged her from the doorway. And the truth was that this particular dish was one of the better ones her mother prepared.
“Dinner is ready,” Millicent said brightly. “I have hot biscuits to begin with and tomato juice. So don’t wait until everything is spoiled.”
Judith promised that she wouldn’t and hurried up to wash. It had been a long, wearying day, and she was feeling exhausted and not very hungry. But knowing that her mother had probably been working hard all afternoon to get the meal ready, she made up her mind to show some enthusiasm even if it was spurious.
When she seated herself at the table, her mother at once began to question her. “I’ve been hearing about some special petition Senator Lafferty is presenting. It’s been on television all day. He’s heading a delegation calling on the city council this evening. It has something to do with the bridge, hasn’t it?”
Judith purposely busied herself buttering a biscuit. “These look just too good.”
“It has something to do with the bridge, hasn’t it?” her mother repeated in a querulous voice.
Judith glanced across the table with an expression of resignation. “I really can’t tell you much about it yet, Mother,” she said. “Senator Lafferty is trying to cause some trouble and delay the bridge.”
Millicent’s pale face under the lifeless, frizzled brown hair showed annoyance. “But you must know all the details! You’re Alan Eraser’s secretary, and he’s chairman of the bridge authority.”
Judith sipped her juice and tried to control her own rising anger. If only her mother would give her a few minutes to enjoy the meal! She said, “We don’t know much more than you.”
Millicent tossed her head. “Of course if you feel you can’t trust your own mother, I suppose you have a right to keep quiet.”
“It’s not that!”
“I can’t imagine why else you’d refuse to tell me anything,” Millicent said tartly. “Just like your father. He wouldn’t ever discuss his business with me, and look where it landed him!”
“Please don’t drag Father into this,” Judith pleaded. “Whenever you want to hurt me, you bring up his name.”
“Touchy! But you don’t mind hurting my feelings with your silence.”
“I’m not trying to hurt your feelings,” Judith protested. “Anything I’d tell you now would be nothing more than guesses. And they mightn’t be right at that. When I’m sure of my facts, I’ll be glad to tell you what I know.”
“I’m used to being treated like a child,” her mother said with exaggerated resignation, “first by your father and now by you.”
Judith said, “Brandon Fraser was inquiring about you today.”
The prematurely withered face took on a pleased smile. “Was he really?”
“Yes. We had quite a long chat at noon. And he seemed in quite a nostalgic mood.”
“And what did he say about me?” Millicent asked eagerly.
Judith held back a smile. “He inquired about your health and said he missed seeing you, that you should go out more often.”
Millicent sighed. “I wouldn’t want him to take a close look at me now. I’ve faded to nothing since all the trouble and your father’s death.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything like that to him. I told him you hadn’t been feeling yourself, but you hoped to get around again this summer.”
Her mother sighed pensively. “I only wish that was true.”
“You could at least work in the back garden,” Judith suggested. “It would give you some air and sunshine. You needn’t do much. And when neighbors came by, you’d have a chance to chat with them informally, pick up some old threads of friendship.”
Her mother assumed an attitude of dejection, lingering over her plate. “I haven’t wanted to. You know that. I feel they are all staring at me, whispering about me, talking about your father’s bankruptcy, wondering how we are making ends meet!”
“That’s all in your mind,” Judith said firmly. “I have to meet the public, and so should you.”
“You’re different!” her mother protested. “You’re not at all sensitive. You take after your father’s people.”
Judith bent over her plate to conceal her annoyance. “I still say Brandon Fraser showed interest in you, and you should be pleased.”
“I am.”
“He also brought up the fact that we had lived close to each other for a number of years.”
“That is true,” her mother said happily. “The Melroses and the Frasers were good friends ages ago, long before your father and I came to live here.”
“He doesn’t seem too happy a man,” Judith went on. “He keeps mourning for Brian. I should think that would be over by now.”
Her mother frowned. “Brandon Fraser is not that type, my dear. We members of fine old families take the loss of an elder son as a devastating blow. It is quite understandable that he should grieve.”
“But he is so lucky to have a son like Alan!”
“I have no doubt Alan is a fine boy,” her mother agreed. “But still, he does not take the place in his father’s heart and hopes of poor Brian.”
“So it seems,” Judith said disconsolately.
“It seems to me,” her mother said with a certain coyness, “that Brandon Fraser must be showing quite an interest in you.”
“Not really. He just happened to come into the office.”
Her mother’s eyes were bright and knowing. “But he did talk to you about family. And I’m sure he’s wondering the same thing as I am: why you and Alan don’t realize how right you are for each other!”
Judith groaned. “Oh, Mother, don’t start that again.”
“I mean it for your own good,” Millicent replied. “After what I saw last night, I know it’s purely your fault if he doesn’t ask you to marry him!”
Judith couldn’t restrain a small burst of hopeless laughter. “Mother, you’re positively mid-Victorian! You peek out through the curtains when you have no right to and see a man kissing me, and at once you think we should be married.”
“It showed he’s fond of you!” Millicent said stubbornly.
“All right, so we like each other!” Judith admitted. “And he kissed me good night on the doorstep. You surely don’t think it was anything more than a polite gesture, like shaking hands or wishing me luck!”
“It meant a good deal more in my day,” her mother said primly.
“Honestly,” Judith said in despair, “I sometimes think you stepped right out of the pages of Godey’s Lady’s Book into the twentieth century. What do you think a kiss means today?”
Millicent got up indignantly and gathered the dirty plates. “I have no doubt my ideas are old-fashioned and out of date. But I would much rather live by my standards than by those of your generation, which engages in all kinds of degrading acts in the back seats of cars in drive-in theatres!” She retreated to the kitchen in a rage.
“I haven’t been to a drive-in more than a half-dozen times in my life,” Judith said angrily. “And at least a couple of times I went with girl friends. It happens I don’t care for drive-ins. And anyway, they’re not nearly as bad as you say they are. I don’t suppose young people of your generation ever parked on side roads in model A Fords or some other kind of cars! You’re
being unfair!”
Millicent responded by giving her the silent treatment. It was her favorite means of showing Judith she couldn’t be reasoned with. Judith silently accepted her dessert and went along with her mother’s new mood. It was the simplest way.
It was over coffee that Millicent finally chose to find her voice and say, “I should think you’d be needed at that meeting tonight.”
Judith said, “I’m not needed, but I do feel I should be there to hear what goes on.”
“Then why don’t you go?”
Judith was surprised at her mother’s reaction. Usually Millicent was anxious to have her stay home. With a questioning glance, she said, “Do you think I ought to?”
“Yes, I do,” Millicent said definitely. “And I’m sure Alan Fraser would appreciate it as well.”
Judith gave her mother a reproving smile. “You’re not trying to match-make again?”
“Of course not,” her mother said in a prim voice. “I’m more concerned about your job.”
Judith sat back with a sigh. “It’s at times like this I wish we still had a car,” she said. “If I hurry, I guess I can catch the quarter-to-eight bus.”
“Surely you can afford a taxi for an occasion like this,” her mother said. “Then you won’t have to rush so.”
Judith laughed. “You’re right! I’m so used to pinching pennies I’ve eliminated taxis from my world. But tonight shall be an exception.”
“Take one home as well,” her mother said, “unless someone you know offers you a drive back. I don’t want you walking up the dark hill from the bus stop alone.”
Judith got up, went over and kissed her mother affectionately on the forehead. “Very well, Mother. And mind you don’t worry!”
Millicent called after her as she started upstairs, “I’ll certainly expect a little more information from you than you were able to give me earlier tonight when you get back.”
When Judith got out of the taxi in front of the courthouse, she saw there were a large number of cars parked there. Without a doubt the council meeting had attracted a large crowd. Since it was close to eight, it was almost time for it to begin.
Vintage Love Page 203