Die Once Live Twice (11 page)

When Katherine reached the river bank her knees buckled. Patrick, nude, was hopping about in the river on one crutch while a nude woman splashed water on him. Her breath deserted her. She was unsure whether to run before they saw her or scream at him. She strode forward. “Patrick Sullivan!” she screamed involuntarily in her anger. “What are you doing?”

Patrick was more stunned than when he was shot. “Katherine? Why are you here? My God!” He climbed out of the water, forgetting he was stark naked, and stood in front of Katherine to hug her. She could smell the whiskey on his breath.

“Cover yourself,” she said sternly. “Is there any honorable explanation for why you are here?”

“Well...you see...it’s medical treatment.” Patrick began to speak rapidly. “She was cleaning the dirt and skin scales off my leg now that it’s out of traction. The river current is good for my circulation. And by having to stay afloat I have to use my muscles. It is therapy.”

“And for this therapy your nurse needs to be naked, too?” Katherine stared at him as he fumbled with his clothes. She looked hard at the woman in the water, who was standing with her hands on her hips, smiling broadly. “I recognize her. She was the red-haired nurse tending to you when I visited. You have betrayed me with your nurse.”

“Katherine. Please. I am so sorry.”

“Later. We’re getting out of here. Oh my God, why am I to bear this? It is not enough that you were crippled in the war. Did you want me wounded from the war, too?”

“Crippled? Are you calling me a cripple?” Patrick stood, unable to put his trousers on without help. “Damn it,” he growled, “could someone help me here?” He looked at Patricia.

Katherine felt as if she had been punched in the stomach. Finally, she walked to Patrick and let him lean on her, soaking her dress, so that he could clothe himself. “I have arranged for you to leave the hospital with me today,” she said through gritted teeth. “Tomorrow we go to Philadelphia. At least no one in Philadelphia knows of your adultery.” She literally pushed him ahead of her. “Now you’re going to show me that you are a racehorse on crutches.”

As Patrick moved quickly down the path, Katherine walked to the river bank. “You are a despicable hussy. I hope you drown.”

“Patrick is better off with me. We were made for each other. Our bodies fit together.”

“If I had a gun I would shoot you. You are a whore.” Katherine turned and followed Patrick.

Patricia stared at the fleeing backs of Patrick and Katherine and said defiantly, “You may think you sustained a wound today, Miss Katherine. But wait. You have just begun to hurt.”

Chapter Ten

K
atherine’s mind was troubled by the pending visit of Patricia O’Reilly. She couldn’t imagine why O’Reilly had requested a formal meeting “to discuss business matters of highest importance to you,” as she pretentiously put it. O’Reilly had even suggested she could have a lawyer present if desired, and Katherine had asked Arthur Hampton to be in an adjoining office. Katherine had no fear meeting this woman alone. It was five weeks since she had called Patricia a whore, and she was ready to back it up.

Katherine knew Patrick’s problem was the opium and whiskey that he had consumed continuously at the hospital. That succubus of a nurse had simply taken advantage of his weakened moral condition, and with his desperate need for pleasure, her body was irresistible. It was easy to forgive him. He had spiraled downward from a hero to an injured cripple and was forced to adjust in a helpless state. Now Patrick was in Pennsylvania Hospital, being treated for his addiction, and when he was home again she would give him all the love they had missed.

Promptly at four p.m. she heard the bell of the front door. Her body tensed as she waited for the butler to deliver her guest. A rustling sound in the hall alerted her they were near. She stood and placed one hand on the corner of her desk.

“Good afternoon, Miss Lovington.”

“Have a seat, Miss O’Reilly,” Katherine said coldly, motioning to a chair in front of her desk. She did not wait for the woman to begin. “Your letter did not mention the nature of our meeting. Pray tell why you want to see me. You must know that I despise you.”

“I am here because I have a business proposition that you need to hear.”

“Which is?”

“The afternoon you found Patrick and me together was not our first time. Patrick and I were...intimate daily for two weeks. Quite successfully.”

Katherine squirmed in her seat at the image of Patrick between this whore’s legs. She was inwardly furious. “If you have come here to gloat, I shall have you put out on the street, where you belong.”

“I am pregnant with Patrick’s child.” Katherine felt as if her body were caving in on itself. This was a nightmare without end. She said nothing and Patricia continued. “I do not need to tell you the child will be an heir to Donovan & Sullivan. As the mother and guardian I will oversee the business interests of my child. I want to represent our interests by replacing you as president of the company.”

Katherine felt herself relax slightly. The woman was deranged. “Don’t be ridiculous. I hardly think our Board would appoint you just because you whored around with Patrick Sullivan.”

“I don’t think ‘whored around’ is fair. I wasn’t paid. The sex was mutual.”

“Miss O’Reilly, let me point out that you have not had this child yet. Not every child who is conceived is born—alive.” Katherine wanted to avoid a confrontation. “And for that matter, have you any proof that this child is Patrick’s?”

Patricia looked nervous. “You have just acknowledged it.”

“I have done no such thing. I have only acknowledged that you had intercourse with Patrick. Out of wedlock. Your child is a bastard, Miss O’Reilly.” She wanted this conversation over, but she also wanted this woman to know that nothing would come easily.
Give a leech blood,
she thought,
and it will only suck the harder.

“Patrick will acknowledge it,” Patricia said, her chin raised.

“Will he? He is in a locked ward at Pennsylvania Hospital for treatment of his alcoholism, which you caused. When he is well we will be married and he will be president of Donovan & Sullivan. Patrick has committed his future to me.”

“Patrick will travel to Virginia with me and his child. He has told me that he wants to do that.”

Katherine involuntarily raised an eyebrow.
She must be insane,
she thought. “I don’t believe you. I visit him every day at the hospital and he professes his love to me daily.”

“Has he ‘professed’ this to you this week?”

“This week he has been somewhat—distracted.” Patrick had been difficult for the last week. Katherine felt that, as he shed his addiction, he had to face reality more squarely. Several times he had said that Patricia had bewitched him. “He is depressed that he allowed himself to succumb to you.”

“I don’t think so, Miss Lovington, though you may interpret it that way. He has been inside of me every night this week—sometimes twice a night, depending on how much opium I fed him.” Katherine was dumbfounded, unable to believe what this she-devil was saying. “You see, I was hired as the night nurse for the insane ward where Patrick is kept. No nurse wants that job at night so they were thrilled to have me. Not as thrilled as Patrick,” Patricia concluded, with a self-satisfied grin on her face.

Katherine was now furious. “I will be sure you are fired today,” she said through clenched teeth.

“Do you imagine that will make Patrick love you again? Are you aware that Patrick thinks you spend too much time on business? That you do not pay enough attention to his needs? That you deny him your body in order to punish him? That I make him feel like a man, but you make him feel like a
cripple
?” Katherine closed her eyes, trembling at the thought that her best efforts had been thwarted and that she had to share in the blame.

“Let’s discuss my proposition,” Patricia continued. “You let Patrick marry me and we disappear to Virginia or I go to the local bishop and tell him you are marrying a man who has a child with me. Then I go to the Board of Donovan & Sullivan and demand one third of the privately held shares be transferred to me and that you be removed as president. Patrick will support me. It is not a complex decision—you give up Patrick or your grandfather’s company.”

Katherine’s mind was in a blur. She could not think clearly. She felt desperately that she had to protect what was hers—if only she could be sure what was hers. She stood and walked to a table in the center of the room, snatched the glass whiskey decanter, and shattered it across the mantle of the fireplace. Turning with the jagged broken glass in her hand, she fully intended to stab her visitor to death.

Patricia leaped to her feet, facing Katherine and holding a small hand pistol. The two women stood facing each other, motionless and silent, staring at each other’s hand of death. The office door burst open and Arthur Hampton ran to Katherine and wrenched the glass weapon from her hand. “Please sit, Katherine,” he said as he lowered her onto a leather couch. “Miss O’Reilly, put your gun back in your purse.”

When Patricia’s proposition had been described, Arthur understood Katherine’s delirium. “Miss O’Reilly, you will have to give us some time to discuss your proposal.”

“No. Give me your answer now.”

“Miss O’Reilly, that is completely out of the question.”

“No, Arthur,” Katherine said firmly. Katherine’s face was no longer contorted into an angry mask. Her mind was clear. Looking directly at Patricia, she said in a firm voice, “Draw up an agreement, Arthur, that Patricia O’Reilly renounces any intention to seek damages for her pregnancy in return for $10,000. She is to leave Philadelphia today and never contact Patrick Sullivan again. If she violates the agreement she will be thrown into jail and I will have the key thrown away.”

“Is this sum of money agreeable?” Arthur asked Patricia.

Patricia stood, straightened her dress, and fingered her pearls. “I will need to buy a house and that will cost at least $1,000. I will need a carriage and two horses and a driver for the carriage. I will need a maid at my home and a nanny for the child. Of course I will need this help for many years and I would think that will cost me at least $100 a year. I will have my own living expenses—jewelry is expensive, you know. I think $20,000 is my price.”

“Draw the check for her, Arthur,” Katherine said sternly.

“I will need Mr. Hampton to accompany me to the bank to be certain the money is transferred to me.”

“Please accompany her, Arthur.”

Hampton nodded, inscrutable. “I will. Miss O’Reilly, I believe you and Miss Lovington are finished. I will escort you out.”

“Arthur, go ahead and get the carriage. I have a few private words for Miss O’Reilly.” Hampton left the office, but left the door open.

“Miss O’Reilly.” Katherine stood directly in front of Patricia. “You are cold and calculating. You have used your best advantage—your body, which is the Devil’s design—to steal Patrick’s affection from me. You are right—he blames me. I have no choice but to be blackmailed. My grandfather spent a lifetime building this company and I cannot violate that heritage by letting a whore like you besmirch this company and my husband-to-be. And I assure you, now that I know what Patrick needs, he will get it from me. He is mine, not yours. If you ever cross my path again, or return to Philadelphia, I will have you killed. Now get out of my sight,” and she pointed at the door.

“You can have that addicted cripple.” Patricia’s face was contorted into a smirk.

As Patricia walked to the door, a whiskey glass flew past her and shattered against the wall. She ran to the door with a second glass chasing her. She escaped through the open door and slammed it behind her. Another glass and then another thudded against the door as she leaned back into it. As she heard Katherine cursing at her, the fear in Patricia’s face faded to a broad smile. Then she laughed out loud and held out her arm to Hampton. “I would like to proceed to the bank.”

Arthur directed Patricia to his office, where he prepared a straight-forward contract, then accompanied her to the bank where $20,000 was transferred to an account opened for her. He stayed with her all the way to the train station and waited until she departed to Washington, D.C.

Katherine sat in the leather chair in her office and allowed her anger to dissipate. She sipped on a whiskey to facilitate its slow evaporation from every pore in her body. Never had she been so furious. She replayed the scene in her mind and decided she would have killed the bitch. She was passionately in love with Patrick and knew he was in love with her—unless doped up by the red-headed she-devil. Her mood rose. She had won. She had only given up money, and she and Patrick had plenty of that.
I will marry Patrick and live happily ever after.
Of that she was sure.

Chapter Eleven

W
hen he heard Katherine approach, Patrick lay curled up in his hospital bed, shaking from withdrawal and devastated by the story she had told him yesterday about Patricia’s blackmail. He was surprised that she had even come again. When she asked how he was feeling, he launched into a rambling and incoherent string of apologies. Gaining control of himself, he asked her what she wanted to do. She said simply, “I don’t know.”

She had no desire to besmirch the name of Donovan & Sullivan by forcing him out of the company, she continued, nor did she herself want to leave the company. “In the end it is up to you, Patrick,” she said, and for the first time her eyes softened. “I do not believe that you loved that woman and I do believe that you were affected by your addictions. She has gone, but if you choose your addictions over me then there is no future for us.”

At these words Patrick lost himself again in sobbing and trembling. When he was at last able to speak, he stammered, “Can you love a cripple?”

“Your leg is not the problem, Patrick. I can love a man who walks with a cane. What I cannot love is a man whose soul is on crutches.”