No Shadow (Prodigal Sons of Cane) (5 page)

She pressed her
lips together, convinced she’d just been judged as untrustworthy to chauffeur
an animal to the vet. “Whatever you’d like.”

After he’d
stared at her for another minute—making her horribly self-conscious—his eyes
cut back over to his sister. “Did you need to go upstairs?”

“I told you I
was fine.”

Helen stared
from one to the other, wondering what could possibly be going on here. The
behavior of both of them was bizarre. Did Andrew try to hide Melissa away? Not
let her meet anyone? Was that why no one knew of the girl’s existence?

“You’ll want to
get home and clean up,” he said, turning back to her.

Helen had
obviously just been dismissed. Hiding her indignation, she got up and smiled
warmly at Melissa, who returned the smile. “It was nice to meet you. I’m glad
we were able to help the little guy. I hope his leg is all right.”

Andrew cleared
his throat—which she took to be a sign that she was lingering too long. He
walked her out of the room and through the hallway toward the front door. Helen
wasn’t sure if he was being courteous or if he just didn’t trust her alone in
his house.

At the door, he
turned directly in front of her. He was standing close, and his gray eyes were
strangely intense. Helen was conscious of how big he was—tall, with broad
shoulders and coiled power in his stance. He didn’t appear to be angry now, but
he was cool and as hard as stone.

He spoke in a
low, rough voice. “My sister has a psychological condition that makes it nearly
impossible for her to interact with strangers.”

Helen gasped.
“But she—“

“I’m not sure why
she was able to talk to you today, but I make a point of not letting her get
hurt.”

“I’d never hurt
her. I like her.”

He leaned
closer, his deep eyes and textured voice almost mesmerizing. “I hope that’s
true, but I feel compelled to warn you that I’ll not stand for your using her
as some indirect means of improving your chances to get the manuscript.”

Helen gasped
again, slammed with astonishment and outrage. She couldn’t speak for a moment,
only sputter embarrassingly.

Finally, she
spit out, “I resent your implications. I came over here to be nice—because I
thought we got off on the wrong foot. I’ve done nothing to deserve your
suspicions of me. How do you even get through a day—always thinking the worst
of everyone?”

She was too
upset to stay any longer or observe his reactions. She yanked the front door
open and hurried down the drive toward her car.

Her eyes and
cheeks burned. She’d always hated the reflex, but strong emotion of any kind
always pushed her into tears.

At least she’d
gotten away from Andrew before the emotion took over.

***

“It wasn’t fair,” Melissa said
in a tone she almost never used with her brother. “You hurt her feelings.”

Andrew paced
the living room, rubbing his neck and covertly watching through the window as
Helen ran down the driveway and climbed into her car. He caught a glimpse of
her face before she closed the car door. It was a little blurry from the
distance, but his chest clenched at the sight.

He suspected
his sister was right.

“I was
surprised and upset,” he explained. “I came home and found you here with her
and had no idea how it had happened.”

He remembered his
shock when he’d arrived with two bags of takeout. His delicate sister who
hadn’t spoken to a stranger in years was chatting amiably with an exasperating
librarian he hadn’t been able to get out of his mind all weekend.

“I know you
were,” Melissa said, her voice softening. “You’re so protective of me, but you
can’t take it out on Helen like that. She hadn’t done anything except help the
dog and be nice to me.”

He felt a wave
of guilt. He’d been so hard on Helen, and she’d looked so astonished and
outraged by his insinuations.

She’d been such
a mess, beaten up by her descent into that atrocious root cellar. Her fair hair
had been falling down around her face, and her clothes had been dirty and
disarranged. She could have been hurt a lot more seriously than splinters.

His sister was
right. He’d been awful.

“I
overreacted,” he admitted. “I’ll apologize.”

“I hope so. I
really like her.”

“Why were you
able to talk to her?”

“I don’t know.
It all happened so fast. She asked for help, and I thought about that poor dog
down there. So I just had to come over to help. She had no idea anything was
wrong with me—she just talked to me like a normal person. So I just didn’t…didn’t
panic. She seems really gentle somehow. I’m not sure what it was. She wasn’t
scary at all. And I really liked her boots.”

Andrew couldn’t
help but laugh as he tried to remember what shoes Helen was wearing.  He did
remember she wore a little red sweater that set off her fair skin and the warm
color of her lips and cheeks.

Realizing the
line of his thoughts was somewhat foolish, he said soberly, “She’s the
librarian who wants the manuscript.”

“I know. I
realized that when she told me her name. But we can’t hold it against her. It’s
not her fault she wants the manuscript too. I liked her.”

Andrew made
himself set aside his conflicted feelings for Helen Walton and focus on the
good of his sister. She’d made more progress this afternoon than she had for
ten years. This might be an important first step, as long as he could make sure
Helen was trustworthy. “Did you want to see her again? We can invite her to
dinner or something.”

“Can we?”
Melissa asked, almost eagerly.

“If you’d be
comfortable with it.”

Melissa
hesitated a few moments. “I think I’d like that. If we can keep it low key.
Nothing scary.”

“We can set up
a table in your sitting room, if you’d feel more secure there.”

“That would be
good. Just you and me and Helen.”

Andrew jerked
his head toward Melissa. “I thought it could just be you and her.” He’d made a
fool of himself just now. He would apologize for it, but he planned to limit
his encounters with Helen from now on.

She was just
too confusing, and he didn’t like feeling like a fool.

Melissa’s eyes
grew huge and terrified, in a way that always broke his heart. “You have to be
there, Andrew. I need you.”

He swallowed.
Then nodded his head, making sure she didn’t see his reluctance. After all, it
was just a casual dinner with his sister and a bewildering, exasperating,
beautiful woman. Nothing he couldn’t handle.

“Of course,
I’ll be there if you need me.”

“I guess she never goes out,”
Helen said, leaning back in a chair in Lorraine’s office on campus. “I don’t
know if it’s true agoraphobia or what. She was able to travel here, and she was
in the backyard of the house. But it’s strangers she has problems with, I
guess.”

Lorraine had
been in the midst of furious paper-grading when Helen dropped by, but she was
always happy to be distracted from that duty by a visit. “But she talked to you
all right?”

“Yeah. Apparently
that was unusual, though. Andrew looked like he would burst a blood vessel when
he saw us.” Helen frowned at the memory that still upset her two days later.

“But he invited
you over for dinner?”

“Don’t get any
ideas,” she warned, feeling uncomfortable at the thought of anyone—even Lorraine—thinking
she had designs on Andrew Cane. “It was his sister’s invitation. He just made
the call. The man really is infuriating. Didn’t offer me a word of apology for
his outrageous behavior. Just asked if I was available for dinner tonight, like
he was setting up a business meeting. And when I expressed my very reasonable
shock at such an invitation, he made it more than evident that it was Melissa
who wanted to have me over.”

Lorraine
chuckled, looking unnecessarily amused by her friend’s grouchiness. “He’s
definitely gotten off on the wrong foot with you. Everyone else in town seems
to adore him. They all talk about how nice and friendly he is, despite his big
success with his company. He’s all anyone is talking about.”

“Why aren’t I
surprised?” When she recognized how bitter she sounded, Helen made herself
shake off her sarcasm. “I’m doing it again, aren’t I?”

“If you mean
are you muttering out maledictions on poor Andrew Cane, then yes, you’re doing
it again. I’ve never seen you take someone into such aversion so quickly.”

Helen exhaled
deeply. She generally was an easygoing person who was able to get along with
almost everyone. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me. He really has riled me up,
and I don’t know why.”

Lorraine looked
like she might be able to offer a few possibilities but she remained blessedly
quiet.

“Anyway,” Helen
concluded, “I just have to keep reminding myself that there’s more to him than
his snotty exterior.”

“Do you really
think he’s snotty? I haven’t met him myself, but no one else seems to think
he’s that way.”

Helen thought
back over her encounters with the man. He’d been either coolly professional or
icily angry. “Maybe I’m the only recipient of his snottiness. Lucky me.”

***

After work, Helen drove back
over to the Cane house. Apparently, Melissa liked to eat dinner early so they’d
arranged for her to arrive at five-thirty. This worked out well for Helen, as
she could come directly from work and not have to worry about what she would
wear.

She had no idea
whether Melissa and Andrew would be dressed casually or wear something nicer, but
she figured her work outfit of a blue prairie-style dress and her lace-up granny
boots was perfectly acceptable.

Andrew answered
the door, wearing a polite smile and a brown dress shirt with khaki trousers.
“Hi. Thanks for coming. Come on in.”

She looked
around at the entry hall but Melissa was nowhere in sight.

“She’s
upstairs,” he explained, noticing her look. “She feels more comfortable in her
rooms, so we’re going to eat up there.”

“She’s all right?
I mean, having dinner with me isn’t going to be too much for her, is it?” Helen
was genuinely nervous. She had no desire to cause Melissa any undue stress, and
she’d never been around someone with this sort of problem before.

“I think she’ll
be all right. She’s been excited about dinner all day, but I hope you won’t
mind leaving if anything should happen.”

He was being
discreet, but Helen understood. She certainly wouldn’t be offended about
leaving abruptly should Melissa not be able to handle her visit. “Of course.
That would be fine.”

When he just
looked at her with those deep gray eyes, she started feeling a little
uncomfortable. “Shall we go up?”

“Before we do,”
he said slowly, absently rubbing the back of his neck. “I wanted to apologize.
For the other day, I mean.”

Helen stared up
at him, genuinely taken aback. “Oh.”

“I had no right
to accuse you of trying to use my sister. I’m sometimes overly protective of
her, but I treated you unfairly. I hope you’ll forgive me for it.” He looked a
little stiff, but his eyes were sincere, and his handsome features slightly
twisted with the effort it took to say what he’d just said.

It couldn’t
have been easy for him to do, and Helen couldn’t help but respect him for
apologizing, despite the fact that they were still somewhat at odds with each other
regarding the manuscript.

She hadn’t
imagined he was the kind of man who would have apologized for something so
minor, and so she had to acknowledge she’d judged him unfairly as well.

When his brow
lowered in concern, she realized she’d hesitated too long. “Of course, I’ll
forgive you. It’s no big deal. I mean, I appreciate your saying that. And that
you don’t really think I was being sneaky with your sister. I’m really not a
sneaky person, and I’m glad you don’t really think I am” She cut off her
babbling before she said anything else stupid. Her cheeks burned, and she
wished she could manage to be cool and composed with this man.

He always made
her feel like a bashful girl again.

He didn’t seem
to notice anything out of line with her babbles. “Thank you. That’s generous of
you.”

With that taken
care of, Andrew led her up to the third floor to a charming suite of rooms in
what looked like the former attic. Melissa was waiting for them, and her face
looked both anxious and excited.

A summer supper
of quiche, pasta salad, fruit, and fresh bread was already set out on a small
round table near the bay window of the sitting room. After the requisite
greetings, they all sat down, and Helen tried not to peer too much at Melissa.
She was worried about the girl’s reactions to her, but she didn’t want to make
her self-conscious.

Melissa was
jittery and breathless for the first part of the conversation, but Andrew
covered for her with ease and consideration, asking Helen about her day and
explaining the status of the stray dog.

The animal had pulled
a ligament in one of his back legs and had some bruising, but otherwise he was
in good health. So they’d gotten him his shots and taken him home.

They were still
debating on a name for him, and Helen couldn’t help but agree with Andrew that
Rat was not a nice name for a dog.

“But his nose
and ears look like a rat,” Melissa insisted, evidently starting to feel more
comfortable. “And he’s so funny when he sniffs around in corners.”

Helen laughed.
“But he’ll be offended if you name him after a rodent. You’ll bruise his doggy
ego.”

“Exactly,” Andrew
said. “My vote is for Achilles, given the nature of his injury.”

Melissa thought
the classic warrior’s name was woefully unsuitable for the skittish little
canine, and the argument continued with friendly enthusiasm.

The food was
good, and the sunlight streaming in from the big window was warm and cheery.
Helen soon discovered that she was actually enjoying herself. Andrew must have
been on his best behavior. He was charming, and only occasionally did she see
him watching her with thoughtful, questioning eyes.

The topic of
the nameless dog segued into books, which both Helen and Melissa were
passionate about. Melissa had read even more than Helen had herself—which
perhaps was explained by her enforced seclusion for so long. They found they
shared a number of favorite authors.

Helen was
surprised to learn that Andrew was quite well-read too. She would have thought
he was too busy with business to spend much time buried in a book. While he
sneered faintly at Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte, he’d read even more of
Dickens than she had, and he was an expert on detective fiction, from Wilkie
Collins all the way up to contemporary authors.

Helen was
finishing up her last piece of bread when Melissa mentioned that she loved
poetry. By now, Helen wasn’t surprised. Melissa was clearly an incredibly
intelligent, thoughtful, and creative young woman. So much potential. It was so
sad she was crippled by fear.

“Who are your
favorites?” Helen asked, catching herself before she fell into a reverie on
Melissa’s condition.

A dimple
flashed at the corner of Melissa’s mouth. “I know they’re out of style, but I like
the poets whose poetry sounds beautiful and musical. Keats, Coleridge,
Tennyson.”

Helen smiled.
“Sounds familiar.” Then, prompted by an irresistible impulse, she recited, “
The
splendor falls on castles walls and snowy summits old in story. The long light
shakes across the lake and the wild cataracts leap in glory
.”

She stopped
herself before she recited the whole poem. She loved reading poetry out loud,
but the wide-eyed look from Melissa and the slightly stunned expression on Andrew’s
face made her horribly self-conscious. “Sorry,” she murmured. “Bad habit.”

“Oh, no!”
Melissa exclaimed, clapping her hands in excitement. “That was beautiful. It’s
one of my favorite Tennyson poems. Do you know the whole thing? Please?”

Relieved that
at least Melissa didn’t think she was crazy, Helen still tried to resist the
request. She didn’t enjoy feeling like she was the center of attention. She’d
always preferred the sidelines. But finally she relented when Melissa kept
insisting, and she recited the entire poem. She gave it her best, as she loved
the lilting cadence and lush syllables of the verses.

But by the time
she reached the third stanza, Andrew’s expression made her want to squirm. She
didn’t know what his intense, unwavering focus meant, but it made her very
uncomfortable.

“That was
beautiful,” Melissa raved, clapping her hands again. “Do another.”

Feeling
ridiculously shy and darting nervous looks over at Andrew’s deep eyes and
parted lips, Helen managed a wry smile. “I think that’s the extent of my
repertoire this evening.”

Melissa didn’t
push it this time, and Helen was relieved when Andrew’s expression shifted into
pleasant courtesy again.

They chatted a
little bit longer—not moving into any topics that were too personal or
intimate—but Helen had a good time, and she was actually glad when Andrew said
he’d bring up coffee and dessert, as it meant that she wasn’t yet going to be
asked to leave.

While he was
downstairs, Helen excused herself to use the restroom. On her way back, she
heard Andrew’s voice and paused, wondering who he was talking to.

“I thought I
told you to stay downstairs,” he said sternly. “The stairs are too much for
someone in your condition.”

Surprised and
curious, Helen took the few steps over to the stairs and peeked down. She saw Andrew
on the second floor landing, carrying a tray filled with a coffee pot, mugs,
cream, sugar, and a plate of cookies. There didn’t appear to be anyone with
him, so Helen took another step until she could see the little dog limping up
the steps behind him.

“Don’t you wag
your tail at me,” Andrew chided, shaking his head at the canine rebel. “This is
willful disobedience. I know you’re being left out of the fun, but that’s no
excuse. I told you to stay.”

Intrigued and
oddly touched, Helen watched silently. Never would she have imagined a man as
cool and professional as Andrew Cane having such a conversation with a pitiful
little dog.

The dog, worn
out from its long climb, flattened himself on the floor and panted.

Andrew scowled.
“Now, I suppose you expect me to help you get the rest of the way up. I already
have my hands full.”

The dog just
thumped its tail on the floor a few times.

“Fine. I have
to take up this tray first, but I’ll come back to get you.” Andrew started up
the flight of stairs but paused when the dog heaved itself to its feet to
follow. “That’s not going to work, is it? All right. Hang on. I’ll try to get
you. But don’t blame me if you end up with coffee-stained fur.”

Helen watched
breathlessly as Andrew maneuvered the tray to one hand and scooped up the
injured dog in the other. Then, realizing he was on his way up, Helen quickly
backed away and returned to the sitting room.

She felt amused
and surprised by this evidence of a warm heart in Andrew Cane. However grumpy
he had pretended to be, he was clearly fond of the dog and went out of his way
to take care of him.

Helen was convinced
that no one could be so sweet and considerate with a helpless animal if he was
as heartless and self-seeking as she’d initially assumed Andrew to be.

She felt a
little guilty for her initial impressions. And she also felt something else. A
warm interest that made her very anxious.

When she
returned to the room, Melissa asked her about her college and graduate school
experiences. Glad of the distraction, Helen answered willingly and managed not
to act differently when Andrew reentered the room, carrying the tray but with
the dog limping at his heels.

They talked
about colleges for a while, and Helen learned that Melissa had graduated from
an online degree program with a double major in History and Government and that
she now worked part-time for Andrew’s company, doing some editing work on web pages
from home. Obviously, they were all starting to be more comfortable with each
other, as the topics of conversation were becoming more personal.

“I just love
how you dress,” Melissa asked, munching happily on a cookie. If one didn’t know
better, nothing about her behavior or appearance would have suggested she was
anything other than a pretty, well-adjusted woman. “Where do you find your
clothes? I know they don’t sell dresses like that at the mall.”