An Indecent Marriage (10 page)

“How about The Terrace Room, on Saxon Street by the bank? The food is good and it’s cheap.”

“High praise,” Jessica said fervently. “I’ll see you at one, okay?”

“Jessica.”

“Yes?” Jessica said cautiously. Maddy’s tone had changed.

“Jack is back in Bright River too.”

Jessica paused, then said, “I know. I’ve seen him.”

“You’ve seen him?”

“It’s his company that’s taking over the mill.”

There was a stunned silence, and then Maddy said, “Sometimes Ransom carries this client confidentiality thing too far. You think he could at least have told Michael. I’m going to instruct my husband to hide his distributor cap the next time Jason brings his BMW in for servicing.”

Jessica laughed. “I just found out about it myself,” she said, sobering. “Believe me, I didn’t think it was too funny when I heard.”

“I’ll bet. How about now?”

Jessica sighed. “I’ve had some time to adjust to the idea, but it’s still a shock.”

Jessica heard a baby crying loudly in the background. “I’m sorry, I have to go,” Maddy said. “If this kid’s grandmother doesn’t arrive soon I’m putting him up for adoption. See you at one. Bye-bye.”

“Goodbye,” Jessica echoed, hanging up thoughtfully. She wondered how much to tell Maddy, who still didn’t know the whole story. It would be wonderful to unburden herself. She had kept everything inside for so long.

“I’m off,” Jean announced from the doorway. “I’ve got practice after school so I won’t be home until about five. What are we having for dinner?”

“How about pizza?”

Jean brightened, then frowned. “I’m supposed to be on a diet.”

“An occasional indulgence is good for the soul. Go off it for once. I don’t feel like cooking.”

“Okeydoke.” On the subject of pizza Jean did not require much persuasion. “Jessica, it’s great to have you here,” she added warmly, and then slammed out the door.

Jessica rose and stretched, thinking that something good had come out of this nightmarish return after all. She and Jean had had separate lives because of their unusual upbringing, and this time together was very welcome. She only wished that other events had caused the reunion.

Unbuttoning her new dress, now fearfully wrinkled from its night on the couch, she went upstairs to take a shower.

* * * *

The Terrace Room was a sunny cafe enclosed with floor-to-ceiling glass, paved with terrazzo tile and teeming with green and flowering plants. The atmosphere was so pleasant that Jessica feared it might be reflected in the check, but Maddy had said it was inexpensive. The silk dress extravagance was going to result in a lot of tuna fish sandwiches, and she had to be careful with her funds.

Maddy was already seated when Jessica arrived, and she waved to indicate her presence. The two women hugged happily and then settled comfortably into the cushioned rattan chairs.

“You look fabulous,” Maddy enthused. “So thin.”

If you had my life lately, you’d be thin too, Jessica thought. “Wasn’t this place a warehouse once?” she asked, looking around her. “I seem to remember a tea company or something.”

“Yes, it was converted a couple of years ago. I thought it would be easy for you to find.”

“I like your short haircut,” Jessica said.

“Yeah, well, Mike Jr. decided that he liked to pull on it when it was longer. It was either this or be plucked bald.”

“It’s very becoming,” Jessica said, laughing.

They discussed local events for a while, people they had gone to school with and what they were doing now. Then after they had ordered, Maddy picked up her water glass, swirled the ice cubes and said, “Okay, out with it. What’s this about Jack taking over your father’s business?”

Jessica told her what had happened in Ransom’s office.

Maddy stared at her. “You’re saying that Jack’s been buying up shares and at the same time competing with your father, so that when the time came your dad would be unable to fight a takeover.”

“That’s right.”

Maddy shook her head slowly in awe. “Wow,” she mumbled, taking it in. Then,“It must have been weird seeing him after so long.”

“Weird doesn’t quite describe it.”

Maddy fidgeted a little more and then said rapidly, “If you don’t want to talk about this, just tell me and I’ll drop it. But you’ve never said why you left town so suddenly when we were juniors. I mean, one day you were in school, the next day you were gone, just like that. Your father was telling everybody that you’d gotten married, for God’s sake. To whom? I knew you were crazy about Jack. It didn’t make sense. And then the first thing I knew you were writing me from Europe, no less, telling me you had a job there. I had tried to get your address before that but your father said he didn’t have it.”

“He didn’t,” Jessica replied quietly. “After I divorced I wouldn’t give it to him. I didn’t want him to know where I was.”

Maddy stared at her. “You mean you really did get married? I thought that was some dodge your father cooked up to get Jack off your trail. He nearly went mad trying to find you in the beginning, and then one day he just...stopped. Wouldn’t talk about you or anything.”

“That must have been after my father had his little chat with him,” Jessica said bitterly.

“I knew it must have been something dreadful, but you never mentioned it in your letters. When even Jean said she didn’t know I thought it best not to ask.”

“That must have been very hard for you,” Jessica said, smiling.

Maddy grinned back. “It was, and I think I deserve my reward. Aren’t you going to tell me now? The mystery has been killing me for almost ten years.”

Jessica hesitated.

“It’s all right,” Maddy said, eyeing her seriously. “I know I used to have a black belt in gossip, but I’ve retired it. Even I had to grow up sometime. Hey, come on, you know I’m trustworthy. I never told anyone about you and Jack,” she concluded piously.

“That’s right, you never did.”

“Well?”

“Jack can’t know about this,” Jessica warned.

“He won’t hear it from me. He hardly speaks to me anyway. I think he suspected I was in touch with you back then and wouldn’t tell him where you were.”

“I’m sorry if he blamed you for any of it.”

Maddy waited expectantly.

Jessica began the story and soon the words tumbled over each other in their rush to get out and be heard. Her mouth was dry when she finished the monologue, which Maddy had received in uncharacteristic silence. Jessica had taken a sip of her iced tea before she looked up at Maddy and realized that her friend’s dark eyes were filled with tears.

“What a tragedy for you,” Maddy whispered. “For both of you. Poor Jack.”

“I would never have left him otherwise, Maddy. You have to understand that.”

“Of course I understand,” Maddy said soothingly. “It makes perfect sense now.” She patted Jessica’s free hand.

“And to see him after all this time, it’s so hard, especially under these circumstances. It’s breaking my heart, Madeline.”

“Well, you have to tell him,” Maddy said, outraged, as if there were no other possible course of action. “You have to tell him the truth right now, all of it, before things get any worse.”

Jessica shook her head sadly. “He wouldn’t believe me. You don’t know him, how bitter, remorseless he’s become. He bought my father’s story, and we both know how convincing George Portman could be. He warned me he would tell Jack something to make sure he wouldn’t follow me, and that’s exactly what happened. Jack would think I was making my story up to excuse what I did.”

“Then get proof of what really happened! Show it to him.”

“How?” Jessica asked despairingly. “Dr. Carstairs is dead, my father can’t even talk, and the last thing on earth my ex-husband would do is help me. After I lost the baby he wanted to continue the marriage, and I...refused. The divorce was not amicable. He felt used, as he certainly should have, and I haven’t heard a word from him since I moved out of his place. I think if I approached him about this he would slam his door in my face.”

“How about hospital records?” Maddy asked logically as the waitress deposited their salads on the table. “They would show the date of the miscarriage, wouldn’t they?”

“Jack would say the baby was Arthur’s,” Jessica answered quietly.

Maddy’s eyes widened.

Jessica nodded. “I’m sure my father told him that I was sleeping with Arthur while I was seeing him. Jack hinted as much, and it would be just like my father to play on that insecurity. Jack always felt that he didn’t quite measure up, that someone more ‘suitable’ would be better for me in the long run. My dear daddy told him exactly what he was afraid of, precisely what he would believe.”

“Oh, Jessica,” Maddy said inadequately. For once in her life, words seemed to be failing her.

Jessica turned her head to look out the window and watched an amber leaf tumble to the ground. “Can you imagine how he felt, believing that after he had been the first, I went on to someone else so quickly, as if what we had together was meaningless?” she said. “He thought I had treated him like some beautiful whore, having my fun with the local talent, but making sure to keep my hand in with the ‘proper’ choice Daddy would approve.” Jessica paused and pressed her lips together, striving for control. “My father knew just what to say,” she ended softly.

“What are you going to do now?” Maddy asked, sniffling and fishing in her purse.

“The best I can,” Jessica said simply. “I’m meeting with Jack at Ransom’s office on Friday to finalize the deal.”

Maddy came up with a tissue and blew her nose. “That’s one of the saddest stories I’ve ever heard, and to think it happened to you,” Maddy said. “I don’t know how you can stand it.”

“I suppose you can get used to anything,” Jessica replied.

“Maybe what’s happening to your father now is a tradeoff for the way he interfered in your life,” Maddy mused aloud.

“Jack engineered it,” Jessica said. “It was his plan from the beginning.”

“Maybe he is just the instrument of fate,” Maddy said.

“Jack wouldn’t like to think so,” Jessica replied quietly. “He takes great pride in the success of his clever little scheme.”

“Then his turn will come, too,” Maddy observed, and Jessica felt a chill.

“Do you think it works like that?” she asked. “We eventually pay, in some fashion, for the wrong we do?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes I wish it were true. Your father really messed things up for you, didn’t he?”

Jessica nodded silently, her eyes on the beveled glass she held.

“For Jack too,” Maddy said. “You have no idea what he was like when you left.”

Jessica looked up at her.

“He was devastated, Jessica. He turned wild. I mean, he’d always been difficult, but this was something else. Nobody could figure out what the hell was wrong with him, because they didn’t know about you two. I did, but I couldn’t help him. He was beyond reach. He cracked up so many cars the cops took away his driver’s license. Fist-fights, brawls at games, you name it. Every form of self-destructive behavior in the book. It got so bad eventually they had to kick him off the baseball team. Football season was over by then, or he probably would have lost his scholarship. The grand finale was his dive through a plate-glass window, resulting in twenty stitches and a broken arm.”

“Another fight?” Jessica asked, sickened.

“What else? Jack was in the hospital for a couple of weeks. Didn’t you see those scars on the bridge of his nose, his chin?”

“I thought he got those playing in the pros,” Jessica said softly.

Maddy shook her head, pursing her lips. “He was a mess when he came back to school, black eyes, wrist cast, gauze bandage on his head, the works. They were worried about the mobility of his hand at first. The people at Notre Dame must have been concerned about their bonus baby’s performance that fall. But he came back to play as well as ever.”

Jessica was silent. While all this was happening to Jack, she had been getting married, suffering a miscarriage, getting divorced. Not exactly having a great time herself, but Maddy’s description of Jack’s torment was appalling.

As if reading her mind, Maddy said, “I never saw anyone in such pain, Jessica. He wouldn’t talk to me. In fact he avoided me. I think the memories connected with you were too much for him to bear. They still must be. He’s barely civil when he sees me.”

“I never knew he took it so hard,” Jessica whispered. “I assumed he would be unhappy for a while, but I thought he would get over it, go on to date other girls, you know. He was so handsome.”

“You didn’t give him much credit,” Maddy said reprovingly, remembering her lunch and picking up her fork. “Did you think he loved you any less than you loved him?”

“I had no choice, Maddy. My father would have prosecuted Jack, I’m sure of it. I couldn’t stand by and see him go to jail, could I?”

“Certainly not,” Maddy said crisply.

“Oh, God, I hurt him. I hurt him so badly,” Jessica whispered.

Maddy couldn’t disagree.