Chapter 10
Edythe did not phone Jed on Monday. He waited till late in the afternoon, but impatience made it difficult for him to concentrate on his work. When he couldn't stand it any more, he called her office.
"Miss Westfall has not been in the office today," the impersonal voice of the operator informed him. "I'm sorry I was unable to give her your message."
He hung up, frustrated and worried. Why wasn't Edythe at work? What would happen if he tried her home number?
A new and unwelcome thought jarred him. What if he was not the only man in her life? What if she were away somewhere was another lover?
That thought gave him a horrible scare. He tried to calm himself. He would call again on Tuesday. Surely she would be in by that time.
Monday night dragged by. On Tuesday he phoned her office several times. No, Miss Westfall was not in. They were so sorry. Could someone else help him?
No, no one else could help him.
He hung up, on edge, wild with helpless anxiety. What had happened? Where was she? Why didn't she call him?
About four o'clock, Bess told him he had a call. "It's a lady. She didn't give her name."
Jed raced to the nearest phone. His hands were shaking. "Jed Kingsley here!"
Instead of Edythe's voice, it was the voice of Mavis Thorpe. His disappointment was keen and bitter. He could scarcely speak for a few moments.
"Oh, no, Mavis, you're not interrupting," he said, as she apologized. Where in hell was Edythe? If she had a lover, Jed would hunt him down and strangle him with his bare hands.
"I must talk to you, Jed. There's something I must tell you. It's only gossip, but it might help," she said, nervously.
He put Edythe in the back of his mind, to give attention to business once more.
"What is it? Every little piece of information helps," he assured her.
She hesitated. "Could you come over after work? I don't want to discuss it on the phone."
"Sure. But I can't leave until about six tonight. Would six-thirty be all right?"
"Oh, yes, yes, whenever it's convenient. I'll have dinner for you-that is, if you want to come." She ended the invitation with an uncertain inflection.
Russell Thorpe had done a complete job in ruining her self-confidence, Jed decided savagely.
"I'd love to. I'll bring the sherry."
"All right. I'm afraid all I have here is some brandy."
He stopped in a liquor store just before closing and got a couple of bottles of sherry. He mused about the lonely, shaken woman he was to see. Mavis had changed since her divorce. Now she rarely went out, rarely saw people. It was a shame. He wished he could help her.
Mavis welcomed him with a nervous smile that came and went as though she was afraid of being misunderstood.
"Come in, Jed."
"How are you, Mavis?" he said warmly. She was thinner than ever. And the drab gray dress she wore did nothing for her at all.
"Fine, fine. I thought after I called that I was bothering you unnecessarily. I could have written you a letter about it."
He gave her the bottles of sherry. "You mean, you don't want to see me?" he teased. "Maybe you're afraid to have me in your apartment."
"Oh, Jed! Don't be silly." Her pallor left as she blushed richly, her cheeks turning pink.
"People will talk," he called after her, as she went out to the kitchen.
"Don't worry! They know you have better taste than to bother with a woman like me." Her tone was biting, sardonic.
He frowned. He sat down in an easy chair and relaxed. The apartment was beautiful, in serene blues and greens, with unexpected accents in orange and flamingo red. He liked it-it felt comfortable and welcoming. It seemed more like Mavis than she herself did now. That drab gray dress-he'd like to rip it off her back and throw it away. She had always been lovely in blues, greens, bright shocking pinks.
"Here you are." She reappeared with brimming glasses of sherry. "We'll begin with your sherry."
"Thanks." He accepted the glass. She perched nervously on the edge of a straight chair. Even the sherry did not relax her tension. "I'll tell you what, Mavis. I've had a rough day at the office. I'd like to relax, have dinner, get slightly drunk before I hear any bad news. How about it? Let's postpone the talk until later."
"Why-whatever you say, Jed." She seemed surprised, but she too leaned back. Her hand stopped its nervous twitching, pulling at her dress.
They talked, casually, about movies. She evidently went to movies quite a lot, and watched television, and did things alone. She must spend all her time in killing time, alone, and unable to communicate.
They had dinner at a small walnut table beside the windows. The meal was delicious. Jed kept the conversation light, away from business.
Once, he slipped. "Do you live alone?" he asked.
A shadow passed over her face. "Yes, quite alone. I'm like a widow. Only a divorcee is different. A widow can have her pride, her memories. A divorcee has no pride left, and all her memories are sour."
"You ought to forget Russell." he advised, bluntly. "You're still young and attractive. Date-go out. Find another man. Get married. You're too fine a woman to waste your life because one man is cruel."
"Oh, don't-don't advise me, Jed! You don't know how it is." She put a shaking hand over her mouth until she had regained control. "I'm sorry."
He switched the subject, lighting a cigarette for her and then himself. "Want to talk business now?"
"Yes. We might as well. I'll begin by telling you I've heard about Larry Westfall getting into the wan house."
"Who told you?" he asked sharply.
"A woman you don't know. Donna heard it directly from Kittie Thorpe. She must have heard it from Russell."
"Hm." Jed frowned. The guards had reported to Russell. But he would not have told Kittie about it, unless he wanted it gossiped around.
"I hadn't realized that Russell was still involved with the Westfall Company," Mavis went on. "About the time Russell asked me for a divorce, he was seriously considering leaving your company and joining the West-falls. Did you know that?"
"No. I hadn't heard." Jed gazed at her steadily. She would not lie to him, but he was stunned and unbelieving. "So Larry is somehow involved with Russell."
"I don't think it's quite that way, Jed. My impression is that Larry hates Russell."
"Then Russell has some hold on Larry."
Mavis shook her graying blonde head. "No. No, that isn't it. Do you believe in women's intuition?" She smiled faintly.
"Completely," said Jed firmly.
"I've had a feeling. And from what I've heard and seen, just bits and pieces of gossip, I believe that Russell has some hold on Edythe Westfall. She nas changed these past few years, changed completely. I rarely see her, of course. But no one in town in the old crowd sees her, either."
"What-hold?" asked Jed. feeling cold to his spine.
"I don't know. But through Edythe, he has a hold on Larry. And somehow a hold on their company as well. Knowing Russell, I would guess the hold was something tricky and dirty that he has pulled," she ended bitterly.
"So Larry is trying to protect his sister, not himself." Jed's mind was a welter of conjecture and supposition.
"Yes. I think so."
He thought about it. leaning back in his chair, sipping the sherry. Mavis was silent, letting him think. She was a comforting woman, a kind and straightforward woman. Damn Russell!
Jed finally stirred. It would take some more thinking, and probably a tough no-holds-barred session with Edythe to find the right answer.
"I'm grateful, Mavis," he said slowly. "I need some more answers. But now I won't be groping in the dark."
She smiled, in warm, gentle understanding. "I'm glad. I almost didn't call. Then I thought, no, I'd tell you, and let you be the judge of how important it is."
"Thanks. Thanks a million. I wish I could thank you properly."
"You have."
He remembered his wish to help her. If her ego had been blasted, maybe he could help rebuild it. "You know, Mavis, I'm going to say some honest truths to you." He smiled to soften his threat. "I don't know what Russell did to you, but you ought to be shot for taking it lying down. Why don't you get up and fight?"
"Oh, please, Jed. Don't I" She pushed back her chair to rise. He got up also, took her arms in his hands.
"Don't run, Mavis. I'm your friend, in case you forgot you had some friends. Why don't you wipe Russell out of your life? Why don't you go out and start to live? Find a man who has brains enough to appreciate a wonderful woman like you."
Her head moved negatively, her eyes closed. "You don't know. You don't know."
"What did he say to you?" He shook her sharply.
She opened her eyes, the misty blue eyes dimmed with tears. "He said I was no longer a woman. He said I'm no good in bed. He said I have no sex appeal. He said I'm cold, frigid, stupid, old. Old, old, old!" Tears ran down her cheeks.
"Well, that louse is a damned liar," said Jed, fiercely. "You're younger than he is. I have-" He stopped abruptly. He had been close to revealing Kittie's bitter complaint about her unsatisfactory husband.
She shook her head. "No. No. It's true. I'm frigid. I'm finished as a woman. I'm cold. I can't respond."
Deliberately Jed bent his head. He put his mouth against hers. Her mouth was soft, trembling, but unresponsive.
"I've got a hunch that he's dead wrong. Want me to prove it?"
She stared up at him. "Jed, don't be kind. I can't bear it."
"Kind? I'm just a woman-chaser," he kidded. "Let's see if you're a woman worth the chasing."
She winced. "I'm. not. Let me alone. Just let me alone."
"I'll let you alone on one condition."
She fell neatly into his trap. "All right. What is it?"
"Come to bed with me. If I can't prove in a couple of hours that Russell is wrong about you, I'll get up and leave."
She swallowed nervously. "Jed, I'm not in the mood for jokes. Let me alone. Don't try anything silly."
He drew her firmly to the bedroom. "We made a bargain. Come along. Let's see how much of a woman you are."
He made her go through with it. She stood stiffly while he ripped off the gray dress and threw it in a corner.
"Jed-my dress!"
"After tonight, if you wear anything that horrible, I'll beat you and rip the stuff off your back. You look awful in gray."
"Jed, I'm forty-one years old!"
"Then you'd better start to live, woman. Life begins at forty."
She did not smile, and she was taut and shaking as he drew off her other clothes. In bed, she pulled up a sheet, as though she could not bear for a man to see her thin frame.
Jed stripped, aware she was watching him timidly. He turned off all but one light, the bedside light. He enjoyed love, and he enjoyed watching his partner's face as she lost herself in ecstasy.
He lay down beside her. She was trembling. He drew her into his arms. He bent over her, kissed the soft mouth, the thin throat, the bony, slim shoulders. Then he cupped a breast in his hand. It was full, warm. He squeezed it tenderly, played with it. He slid down until he was under the sheet, and began to kiss her all over her slim body. He kissed the breasts until they were swollen, burgeoning in his skillful hands.
For a long time she lay passive. He even worried a little that he might lose his gamble. She stood to lose everything if he failed with her. But he was determined not to fail.
His hands sought the slim waist. His lips followed, wooing, caressing the silken flesh. His hands moved down the slim hips, and then his lips took possession of everything that arrived. He kissed her, caressed, stroked, his hands and lips tireless in their exploration and titillation of her warmth.
And finally her stiffness broke. Her hips moved, her body responded. He felt her readiness, and smiled in satisfaction. He moved to lie closer to her, bending on knees and elbows near her, crouching in loving desire for her. He studied her face in the light of the lamp. Her eyes were closed, her mouth parted. Her head turned back and forth on the pillow, restlessly.
Her breathing was rapid, shallow. Her pulses were quickening to his touch. Gently he pressed on her. She gasped. He pushed farther, his hands under her, holding her, cradling her. He put his head on her breast, kissing the swollen flesh as he moved skillfully.
He built her up and up. He did his best to tantalize her. He held her, letting her feel the full strength of his masculinity. This time, when he moved, he felt her move too, as though she would follow.
He encouraged her.
"Work with me, Mavis. Work with me. That's right, honey."
He drew back. She raised her body, timidly. He caught her in both hands and raised her higher.
Next time she seemed more passionate. Her arms clasped around him more tightly. Her hands fluttered on his back. He watched her face. She was losing control.
A little sigh escaped her lips. He touched her over and over, enjoying the softness and warmth and nearness. He moved faster.
He could not hold out much longer. He could feel himself building up to a peak.
She cried out, clutched at him. Oh, at last. He settled down. They swung off the Earth together, bodies rolling back and forth, lunging off the peak and flying high into an ecstatic swirling heaven of delight. Her thoughts quivered as she clutched him, loosened, clutched again. He finished, feeling the savage primitive satisfaction of the male who has taken his pleasure and given some back in abundance.
He rolled away. They both panted for breath. When Jed had recovered, he leaned up and grinned at her.
"Verdict?" he demanded.
She smiled shyly, her lashes fluttering on her cheeks.
"Oh-Jed," she said dreamily. "Are you a woman?"
"Oh-yes-oh-yes-that was so lovely."
"Don't ever forget it." He leaned over, kissed her breast lightly, then as desire rose in him again he pushed at her roughly.
"Jed, you don't need to stay. You've proved your point," said Mavis, her hand gently caressing the back of his neck as he kissed her. "I'm grateful."
"No more gray dresses?"
She laughed softly. "Tomorrow I'll buy the brightest red silk dress I can find and wear it proudly. Who knows? Maybe I'll find a new husband-a guy like you."
"Before you do-" said Jed, his voice muffled, his head under the sheet.
"Oh-what are you doing?" she asked, in a startled voice, as he caressed her boldly.
"Before you find someone else," said Jed. "I want-more-"
"Oh-J-Jed-oh-oh-" Her hips writhed. He held her still with his hands and delighted in her swift, rising response to him.
He stayed all night. Mavis had remembered she was a woman, and Jed was crazy about the results.