Chapter 1
Jo Ann looked up from her electric typewriter and over to the door that led to the private, inner office where the executives stayed. Inside that office, unnervingly concealed behind the translucent glass, she knew that Stan Wyatt was finishing up his mail. Stan Wyatt ... the handsome one. Stan Wyatt ... the charming one. Stan Wyatt ... the worldly one. And the one who, in only an hour, was going to take her to dinner.
A warm blush of excitement suffused her skin and as Jo Ann forced her attention back to her work, she wondered how she was going to hold out until quitting time. The new dress she'd chosen for the occasion was hanging in the metal locker, just begging to be worn. The black chiffon creation had cost half her week's salary, but Jo Ann felt it was worth every penny. Tonight was special, and the evening deserved a special outfit. For if everything went as she hoped, Stan Wyatt was going to propose.
Just the thought of it was enough to make Jo Ann turn the typewriter off and close her eyes dreamily. How long had she been waiting for this, she asked herself, shutting out the sounds of the other people in the office. Almost a year now. But she had been strong. And good, despite the hell it had been, at times, holding out on Stan. But soon, all need for restraint would be over and she could give him her all. As a wife. And as a lover.
"Hey, wake up, girl. The weekend isn't here yet." The familiar cheerful voice cut through Jo Ann's reverie and snapped her attention back to the present. "Hello, Laura." She smiled up at her friend and tried to suppress the color that was heating her cheeks.
"Goofing off on the company's time, eh?" The sad-eyed blonde with the short curly hair mocked a stern, administrative expression. "You'd better watch out before one of the slave drivers in there catches you." Laura nodded toward the closed door.
Jo Ann chuckled at her private interpretation of Laura's words and wheeled her chair closer to the desk. "Are you down here on business, or just spying on the poor secretaries?"
"Business, unfortunately." Laura leaned over Jo Ann's desk and dropped a stack of papers onto it. "The new list of record titles just came through. The boss wants them stenciled before five. I'm really sorry, but..."
"That's okay." Jo Ann picked up the papers and glanced at the top sheet. "I need something to keep me busy anyhow, so I won't start daydreaming again. This shouldn't take long."
"Just as well, then," Laura smiled and leaned a little closer toward Jo Ann. "What's got you so up in the clouds today anyway? Or shouldn't I ask?"
"The same as usual." Jo Ann looked over toward the inner office and then quickly back to Laura. "It isn't easy to work, with Stan just on the other side of that door."
"I should have guessed." Laura sighed softly and straightened up. "If I were you, kid, I'd take it easy with that man."
"What do you mean?" Jo Ann asked, feeling the unexplainable discomfort that arose at times between herself and Laura. "I'm not doing anything I shouldn't."
"I don't doubt that for a minute," Laura chuckled.
"But that doesn't guarantee that you'll always be able to keep your head."
"Don't be silly." Jo Ann pretended to concentrate on the papers in her hand and tried not to let Laura's attitude upset her. Perhaps her friend knew something about men that Jo Ann didn't. But whatever it was, she didn't want to hear. She was getting everything she had always wanted. And that's all that mattered.
"I'll have these lists ready before I go home," Jo Ann promised, anxious to change the subject.
"Good." Laura turned to leave, as if taking the unspoken hint. "By the way," she called back over her shoulder, "I don't suppose you'll be available tonight. I thought we could take in a movie, if you're not tied up."
"I wish you'd mentioned it earlier. I would have loved to," Jo Ann lied. "But I've already made other plans."
"Well," Laura shrugged, "if you should happen to find yourself with any free time, I'll be home all weekend. Just give me a ring."
"Sure thing." Jo Ann forced a pleasant expression despite the growing discomfort she felt. She had purposely avoided mentioning what her specific plans for the evening were. And although she felt the omission was merciful, the necessity to lie to Laura left her with a guilty aftertaste.
Poor thing, Jo Ann thought as she watched Laura walk across the office. She never seemed to have any dates. Something strange about that, Jo Ann told herself, noticing the shapeliness of Laura's hips as they swayed through the doorway. Laura was an attractive girl. And a smart one, too. Maybe that was the trouble, Jo Ann decided. Laura was too smart. Lots of men were scared by women with brains.
Not Stan, though. He wasn't afraid of any woman alive.
Jo Ann felt the slow grin spread smugly across her face as she reached down to find a box of mimeograph stencils. Nothing frightened Stan. Not even her own fears. And the more Jo Ann resisted, the more persistent he became.
At least the stifling modesty would soon be over with, Jo Ann consoled herself as she rolled the blue paper into the typewriter. Just a little longer. And then she would discover the mysterious pleasures she had denied herself all these years.
All these years ... Jo Ann had to laugh at herself as she began to type. At twenty-one, she was the only person she knew who felt old. Old and wasted. An unnatural emotion for a girl of her years, Jo Ann knew. But an honest emotion, nevertheless.
And why not, Jo Ann asked herself. What had she done with those twenty-one years of her life? Nothing. Nothing at all. At least, not until a year ago...
Bootesburg was a bore. Jo Ann had felt the truth of that fact creeping up on her ever since she'd gotten out of grade school, but not until her twentieth birthday could she really admit it out loud.
"But the family has lived here ever since we can remember," Mama had protested, when Jo Ann confided her sentiments.
"I know," Jo Ann tried to be kind to the woman whom she had nothing in common with except the fact that they were related. "But I want more out of life than a small-town job, a small-town husband, and small-town babies."
"And what's wrong with Roger Harris?" Papa chimed in from behind his newspaper. "Half the girls in Bootesburg are running after him and you're the one who caught him."
"Who wants him?" Jo Ann frowned at the memory of trembling hands creeping up over her sweater and the smell of horses that always clung to Roger's clothes. "Let some other girl marry him, if that's what she wants. Not me.
There was a long silence, during which Papa finished reading his newspaper article and Mama's frown grew considerably deeper.
"Well, yes or no?" Jo Ann blurted finally. "Are you going to give me the carfare or aren't you?"
"I certainly am not!" Papa shouted, slamming the paper down beside him on the hammock and rolling his fingers into thick, rough-knuckled fists. "If this town was good enough for your mother, it's good enough for you."
Jo Ann backed down and, trembling as she always did when Papa yelled, looked imploringly over at her mother for help.
"No. Let her go." Mama's tone was soft and wistful, but decisive. "If Jo Ann isn't happy here with us, there's no need for her to stay."
That was all Jo Ann had been waiting to hear. Within twenty-four hours, she had packed her bags, bid a tearless farewell to friends and relatives, and was train-bound for New York.
The big city rose around her like a concrete and steel giant, overwhelming and protecting Jo Ann at the same time. Checking often to make sure that the money was still in her purse, she made her way across town to a hotel for women she had seen advertised in the paper. Settled in her room, with a month's rent paid in advance, Jo Ann congratulated herself for having taken the first step to escape the living death called home.
The days that followed were filled with job interviews, tests and more job interviews. It soon became apparent that a girl from out of town with only a high school diploma and limited commercial skills was not in great demand. And so, in response to a sign she saw on a subway billboard, Jo Ann took half of the money she had left and enrolled in the Speed-Sten School, to become a bona fide secretary.
After the first week of shorthand lessons, her teacher, Mister Preston, told Jo Ann that she was a very promising student and would make an excellent secretary when she had completed the course. He also offered to give her some outside coaching in his apartment, any night she happened to be free. Having been loudly and thoroughly forewarned by Papa against such extracurricular activities, Jo Ann declined Mister Preston's offer and continued learning ... in the classroom only.
During her term at school, Jo Ann eagerly sought out the acquaintanceship of the other girls in her class. To her surprise and disappointment, they didn't turn out to be the sophisticated and interesting people she had pictured as living in the big city. Instead, most of them were high school dropouts, eager to use a job as the fastest route to the nearest husband.
After a week of listening to them, Jo Ann promised herself that she would be different. There was nothing wrong with getting married, she decided. If the right guy came along. A man who wanted more than a hot meal on the table when he got home and a little wife to jump into bed with. That sort of thing she could have had in Bootesburg, with Roger Harris. New York, for Jo Ann, would have to be a proving-ground ... a place where she could meet someone with worldly interests and smooth city manners. Perhaps a man with money, who could treat her to all the things her mother had never had.
And if she ever found him, then she would take him back to her home town and let him prove to the folks that she had been right all along.
Eight weeks and eighty-five-words-a-minute later, Jo Ann passed her final test, accepted her diploma and went out onto the streets of Manhattan to look for employment once again. And this time, her big opportunity came after only two days.
She had been waiting in the reception room of the Sterling Record Corporation for well over half an hour and Jo Ann was beginning to get annoyed. It was one thing to be turned down, she told herself, but to have to wait for the disappointment was more than was reasonable to expect from someone who was down to her last twenty dollars.
"Mister Wyatt will see you now," the receptionist said, suddenly above her.
Jo Ann thanked the woman timidly and started toward the door marked Private. Touching the edges of her hairdo nervously, she arranged a pleasant smile across her face and took a deep breath. She must remember what Mister Preston told her when she left school. "There's no need to be nervous if you can do your job. An accomplished secretary will be a successful one." Mister Preston never went for a job interview, Jo Ann decided. For, prepared as she felt, she was twice as nervous as she had ever been before.
He was reading a paper and wearing glasses when Jo Ann tiptoed through the door of Stanley Wyatt's office. Standing soundlessly on the thick brown rug, Jo Ann retained her smile and wondered how long it was going to take the man to acknowledge her presence.
"Sit down please," Mister Wyatt said without raising his glance from his desk. "I'll be with you in a minute."
Haven't I waited long enough, Jo Ann wanted to ask him. Instead, she perched herself primly at the edge of a green leather club chair and hoped that her stocking seams were straight.
"Now, your name is...?" Mister Wyatt began, removing his glasses and smiling at Jo Ann from across his blotter.
Jo Ann felt her throat go dry as she returned the gaze of the deepest blue-green eyes she had ever seen. "Jo Ann Mason," she croaked as she noticed the hard muscled neck against the crisp freshness of his starched white shirt.
"You mustn't be nervous, Miss Mason," Mister Wyatt crooned, allowing his gaze to trace the outline of Jo Ann's calf. "This office just looks scary. We're really very nice people here at Sterling."
"Oh, I didn't mean for you to think I don't like the place..." Jo Ann stammered, shaken by the addition of a charming manner to the man's staggeringly good looks.
"Of course you didn't," Mister Wyatt laughed once, as if enjoying Jo Ann's flustered state. "Shall we get to the dictation test first?"
"Yes, sir." Jo Ann looked down quickly, grateful for the opportunity to escape his eyes and his disarming smile. Plunging her hand into her pocketbook, she extracted her steno pad and her carefully sharpened pencil and steeled herself against the possibility of his being a fast talker.
Happily for Jo Ann, Stanley Wyatt took long pauses between sentences to think and she was able to record every word verbatim. Transcribing her notes on the typewriter was an easy matter then and before she knew it, she was filling out her social security number on a form and agreeing to report to work at nine the following morning.
The slamming of a desk drawer behind her startled Jo Ann and brought her out of her thoughtful haze. Smiling embarrassedly at the girl behind the next desk, she grabbed for the record lists and began copying them as fast as her fingers would go.
The work took longer than she had anticipated, but Jo Ann kept up her furious pace, determined to finish in time to dress before five. When she finally looked up at the clock on the wall, it told her she had only fifteen minutes before she was free.
"Here they are," Jo Ann announced, dropping the fresh copy on Laura's desk and beaming proudly at her work.
"That's pretty fast action," Laura nodded approvingly at the neat pages before her. "You must have really worn your fingers down."
"Nothing any accomplished secretary couldn't do," Jo Ann cracked, snapping her fingers and laughing at her own attitude.
"Would an accomplished secretary like to have some coffee with an overworked cover designer?" Laura answered, smiling hopefully.
"Nope. Gotta run." Jo Ann tried to ignore the dull disappointment in Laura's eyes. "But I'll call you over the weekend, I promise."
"Okay, girl. But make sure you do. My feelings bruise easy."
Jo Ann simply smiled and left Laura's office. Ordinarily she would have remained to chat for awhile and make sure her friend didn't take her rejection as something personal. But now, the need for swiftness caught Jo Ann up and compelled her back to her own office. Finally, she was free. Her time was her own.
And she wanted to spend it with no one but Stan Wyatt.