“I wasn’t playing, Charlie. I was serious. Only—please, please, don’t ask me what the trouble is. I can work it out. Just give me time.” She raised her eyes again, imploring him.
He sighed and said a little crisply, “All right. I’ll give you time, Beth, if that’s what you want. But I won’t sit around making phone calls that don’t get answered and playing tricks on you just so I can see you. I’m going to see you. And you’re going to make a date right here and now and stick to it. Do you hear me?”
She nodded.
“Do you have an exam tomorrow?”
“No.”
“Okay, I’m out at four. I’ll pick you up at five. We’ll go out, have dinner, see a show or something.” He paused. “Okay, love?”
She nodded.
He looked at the wall clock and said, “Okay, let’s go. Almost closing hours.”
Beth got up with a start. Laura would be home already. Her final couldn’t have lasted longer than ten o’clock. It was ten-twenty.
At the house, Charlie stopped the car and turned to gaze at her for a minute, and then he got out without kissing her. Beth was chagrined, almost angry. He opened her door and let her out.
“Come on, honey,” he said in a businesslike voice. “It’s cold.”
She got out, watching him hopefully. He took her arm, slammed the door, and started for the house.
“Charlie!” she said, pulling back, and the tone of her voice reproved him.
He stopped and looked at her, and she threw her arms around him and kissed him until he held her and answered her.
“Charlie darling,” she said. It was as grateful as it was inadequate. At the door she clung to him, almost afraid to let him go, afraid to face Laura. But the housemother shooed him out with the others, and she had to watch him leave.
She went slowly up to her room and pushed the door open with a sort of dread, and walked in. Emily looked up from the desk.
“Oh, Beth!” she said. “How was it? Was it all right?”
Beth nodded. “Yes, Em. Thanks. Where’s Laura?”
“In bed.”
“In bed?” Beth could hardly believe it.
“Yes. She got home from the final and—” She shrugged. “She said she was tired.”
“Didn’t she ask where I was?”
“Well, she asked if you’d gone out and I said yes. She knew right away with who. I just told her you went out for a beer with him. I mean—I had to tell her. She would have found out anyway.”
Beth turned and took her coat off. Emily watched her with a host of questions on her tongue.
“How’s Charlie?” she said.
“Fine. We sort of—made it up. I’m going to see him tomorrow.”
“Will you tell Laur?”
“Yes, I’ll tell her.” She shuddered at the thought.
“Will she understand?” Emmy was half expecting an admission—of what, she didn’t know.
“Yes, she’ll understand.” The hell she will, she thought.
“Beth?” said Emmy, hesitating.
“Hm?”
“You aren’t mad at me for calling him, are you?”
“No, Em, I’m not mad.”
“You’re acting sort of funny.”
“I’m tired, Emmy.”
Emmy went over to her. “Beth, are you in love? Really?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do. Are you?”
Beth sighed and her strength seemed to leave her with her breath. “Yes,” she said, and suddenly it felt good. “Yes, yes, Emmy….”
Emily hugged her. “Oh, Beth, I’m so glad!”
“Emmy, you make me feel—” She tumbled her hair with nervous fingers. “Everything’s such a mess right now.”
“But it’ll all turn out, Beth. Things are never as bad as they seem. Most of the things you worry about never happen, you know…. Have you told him?”
“No. I—I’m a little afraid to, I guess.”
“Oh, well, you’ll get over that. Beth, I’m so happy for you!”
Beth had to answer her smile and fight it at the same time. Emily’s warmth brought the truth to the surface in her; she wanted awfully to confess. But the thought of Laura, so alone, so lovingly given, so badly used, stopped her again.
“Guess what,” said Emmy with her eyes bright and her yellow hair alive in the lamplight.
“What?”
“Oh, you won’t even think it’s the truth,” she said, looking at her bare toes in the pile of the rag rug.
Beth smiled indulgently at her. It was a brief hiatus of relief from her own troubles. “Yes I will, Emmy. If you say so. What?”
“It’s Bud. I really love him. I’d do anything for him.”
Beth couldn’t help laughing a little. “You’ve been in love with him all year, Em.”
“Not like this. This is it, Beth.” She gripped Beth’s arms in dead earnest.
Mary Lou’s request floated hazily back to Beth. She had completely forgotten to talk to Emmy in the press of her own difficulties.
“Emmy, you haven’t done anything—”
“Oh, no, Beth!”
If it were real, as Emmy said, then it was wrong. Bud was too undependable, too uninhibited. “Emmy—don’t get carried away. Use your head. Oh, Em—”
Emmy hung her head as if she might begin to cry. “Beth, you don’t believe me,” she whispered.
“Yes, I do, I do, Emmy. Only, be sensible, honey. I mean in public and everything. I mean—”
“Do you really?” She brightened. “Because I do love him.”
“Yes, Emmy. I know.” She was too tired to argue.
“And he loves me. He told me so.”
“Oh, Emmy, I’m so glad.” What else could she say? She fell into bed later too tired to think.
Fourteen
The next day, Beth and Laura hedged with each other for a while before either of them would say anything. Finally Laura said in a tight voice, “You saw him last night, Beth. Why won’t you just tell
