Beth finished her drink. “Do you suppose I’ll ruin it all by seeing her again?”
“You could. Depends on why you want to see her,” he said, urging a confession from her with his voice, his attitude, everything but his words.
She looked at him out of tormented eyes. “I wonder if I could explain it, even to you,” she murmured.
“Try,” he said.
“Jack,” she said helplessly, “there’s no way. I don’t know myself. I won’t know why I’m here until I see her face before me. Until I touch her and hear her voice. Maybe I’ll know then, if I’m lucky.” She felt herself getting shaky and she stopped talking. He took her glass again and refilled it.
“She’ll be along,” he said. “These things are never very late.”
But it did get late. Later and later until it was after midnight and she could no longer bear to sit there and face him and keep her dreadful secrets from coming up in her throat and gagging her. She got up at last and thanked him and told him, “I can’t wait any longer. I’ll come by tomorrow. Please don’t tell her I was here. I have to surprise her. Don’t ask me why, I can’t explain.”
“There’s a lot you can’t explain,” he said mildly. “Why don’t you spend the night?” he went on. “We have plenty of room.”
Her heart jumped at the chance.
“Get up, you’re on the sofa-bed,” he told her. “Won’t take a minute to make it up.”
When he brought her one of Laura’s nightgowns to wear she took it with a sudden gesture and look of pleasure she made no attempt to hide. He smiled at her.
“Still want to keep it a secret?” he said. “From Laura, I mean.”
“Won’t she see me when she comes in?” Beth said. “Right here in the living room?”
“She won’t know who it is in the dark.”
“Don’t tell her, then.”
“It’ll probably knock her for a loop in the morning,” he said. “But if you want it that way.”
“I do. Thanks, Jack.”
“Sure.” He smiled at her, showed her where the bathroom was, and left her to herself.
She lay down after a while, turning out the light and lying in the dark. She didn’t expect to sleep with her mind whirling and full of Laura, but she did. Very suddenly she dropped off as if a switch had been flipped inside her and stifled her thoughts.
Chapter Seventeen
IT WAS ALMOST DAWN WHEN SHE HEARD THE FRONT DOOR opened carefully, and shut with a small click. She was lying on her stomach with her face obscured by crumpled bedclothes and the pillow. She heard Laura come in, heard her pause as she caught sight of the sofa-bed open and occupied, heard her rustle softly across the room and felt her presence, her scent, only scant inches from her. The room was full of a deep gray light and Beth was sure it wasn’t enough for Laura to distinguish her face by. She lay almost breathless on the bed until Laura turned and moved quietly away, going into her own bedroom.
Beth rolled over and gazed at the faintly visible ceiling with a tremendous happiness inside her that called for singing, shouting from the rooftops, hilarity. It made her smile at the ceiling and hug herself, and after a while it got her out of bed and sent her to the door of the bedroom where Jack and Laura were sleeping. She just stood there, one hand pressed against the door and a smile on her face, for half an hour. There was too much excitement and anticipation in her for the unhappy parts of her life to bother her. She never once thought of Charlie or of Vega.
She got up and dressed. There was no point in trying to sleep any more; she was too keyed up. She put her clothes on and washed her face and then she made up the sofa-bed, folding the sheets and blanket carefully and stacking them in a chair while she closed the hinged mattress and put the cushions back in place. All slowly…all quietly.
She picked up a magazine and looked at the pictures. And finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she heard stirrings in Jack and Laura’s room. She heard a sleepy male voice speaking softly and then someone answering him, and her whole soul thrilled to that light feminine voice. It had been so long, so abysmally long and lonesome a time since she had last heard it. She even wondered, half laughing at herself, if she would have recognized it as Laura’s voice without the sure knowledge that it was actually Laura who spoke. She heard her so indistinctly; the words were unintelligible, just a faint murmur of sound.
Fifteen minutes went by, during which Beth could hear sounds of running water in the bathroom, small sounds of drawers opening and shoes dropping and things being moved and things being gotten into. Suddenly the bedroom door opened and she looked up—almost leaped up—only to see Jack emerge.
Jack gave her a pleasant grin. “She’s still sleeping,” he said. He gave three sharp raps on Betsy’s door and said, “Get up, honey.” And then, turning to Beth, he said, “Come on, I’ll fix you some breakfast.”
She got up and followed him into the kitchen and helped him make scrambled eggs and bacon and coffee and orange juice and muffins.
“I believe in big breakfasts,” he told her.
“You’re some cook,” she said. “You really know your way around the kitchen. I’m a flop in that department.”
He smiled, unabashed. “Worked out very
