Winter Affair (16 page)

Chapter 8

The next day Leda got up early and retrieved the boxes of her father’s things that Phelps had given her. She brought them up from the cellar and spent a couple of hours going through his papers and correspondence, but it was very slow work. The containers were absolutely crammed with reams of notes and memos, file folders and ledgers, and eyestrain finally forced her to stop. Much of the written material was in her father’s tiny, cramped handwriting and took concentration to interpret. If she had had any grandiose ideas about coming up with evidence to clear Reardon from a quick perusal of this stuff, she now knew that she was sadly mistaken. Leda put aside the boxes reluctantly, carefully segregating the material she’d already covered. She’d get back to the task as soon as she could.

She changed clothes for the matinee at the playhouse, and then called her agent. She wanted to see if she could reschedule the audition that she missed on Christmas Eve. She learned that it was too late, the job was gone. Leda sighed heavily, about to hang up, when her agent interrupted with news of a theatrical tour slated to begin a few days after the end of her run at the playhouse. It was a Shakesperean company looking for an actress capable of playing an ingenue as well as the full range of other roles, and they wanted to see Leda. Leda turned her agent down flat, something she would not have believed possible a few months earlier when her career was the consuming interest in her life. She had no intention of traveling the country, even if it was a chance to work in repertory, performing the brainchildren of her favorite playwright. She was with Reardon now and she wasn’t going anywhere.

Just before Leda left to go to work she put in a call to John Caldwell, her father’s lawyer, who also handled her legal matters. When he returned the call she intended to ask him for all the information he had on her father’s company, and its connection to Reardon’s trial.

She hung up with a satisfied smile.

Kyle didn’t know it, but help was on the way.

* * * *

Reardon awoke and reached for Leda. His seeking hand came up empty, and it was a couple of seconds before he opened his eyes and realized that she was gone. He was back in his apartment, she was doing a matinee, and he had the 3-11 shift at Phelps.

He rolled over and glanced at the clock— it was one-thirty. He closed his eyes again and thought about Leda. Memories of their lovemaking washed over him and his fingers curled into the sheets, his stomach tightening. Then he jumped up, throwing off the blanket and shaking his head. Enough of that. He would save it for the lady herself when he saw her later.

Reardon zipped up his jeans and walked out to the kitchen. He made coffee using the method Leda had shown him, which yielded marvelously improved results. As he crossed to the cabinet he saw her pocket mirror lying on the kitchen table where she had left it. He picked it up, turning it over to look at himself, unable to restrain a smile.

She found him handsome, she wanted him, she loved him.

“Reardon,” he said to the image in the glass, “I think your luck has finally changed.”

* * * *

Leda and Reardon spent the next several days together, snatching every moment they could from their work schedules to make up for lost time. They went skiing on Reardon’s day off, which proved enjoyable for him. Leda spent most of her hours on the slope flat on the ground, soaking wet. She hadn’t been skiing since high school, and even as a teenager she had never threatened to be an Olympic contender. Reardon found her spills and wildly uncontrolled runs vastly amusing , until he tried to help her and she pulled both of them into a fence. He disentangled her rented skis from the wire mesh barrier with the aid of a patrol guide, and readily agreed when the guide suggested that maybe they’d better call it a day. On the way home they stopped at a restaurant for dinner, and wound up checking into the attached hotel when they couldn’t wait to make love until they got back to Yardley.

Leda had never been so happy. She took Reardon to New York to see a play, and was surprised and delighted when his comments afterward indicated an understanding of her craft not shared by many laymen. He also wanted to go ice skating, but Leda balked at the suggestion, pleading that they do something not connected in any way with snow or ice. They went roller skating instead and she managed to stay on her feet, but just barely. She didn’t share his enthusiasm for athletic pursuits, but he seemed unfazed by her clumsiness. He tolerantly corrected her mistakes and she actually began to improve.

They spent an inordinate amount of time in bed. When Leda teased him that he was trying to make up for four years of abstinence in a single week, he admitted it instantly and pulled her back under the covers again.

Finally, on the day before New Year’s Eve when Leda knew she could avoid it no longer, she went to see her aunt.

Monica opened the door to let her in, remarking that she thought Leda had vanished from the face of the earth.

“I’ve been busy,” Leda answered, taking off her coat and following her aunt into the kitchen, where she was chopping vegetables for soup.

“I guess so,” Monica said. “Martha told me she left three messages on your machine about your visiting them in Wynnewood and you never called her back.”

“I’ll call her today,” Leda responded guiltily. She’d been avoiding her whole family over the holiday season, unwilling to answer questions about her love life or the man she’d been seeing. But the showdown was at hand and she knew it.

“When is your last performance at the playhouse?” Monica asked, attacking a stalk of celery with a cleaver.

“Sunday.”

“What will you do then?”

“Go to the wrap party the director is throwing for the cast,” Leda replied, grinning.

Monica looked up from the cutting board and fixed her with a deadly glance. “You know that isn’t what I meant. What will you do for a
job
?”

“I’ll continue to try out for parts, just like I did before I got this one. We’ve had this conversation before, Monica. I don’t know why you think I’m suddenly going to announce I’m accepting a position with a bank or something. This is my choice, and I’m going to stick with it.”

Monica chopped in silence, her mouth grim.

“Speaking of choices,” Leda said casually, “there’s something else I have to tell you.”

Monica looked up, her gaze inquiring.

“Do you remember when we ran into Kyle Reardon at the cemetery, and then I came across him a few days later at Phelps?”

Monica put down the knife and turned to Leda, who now had her full attention.

“Of course I remember,” Monica responded cautiously. “I remember how I tried to talk to you about it, and the reception I got. Don’t tell me this has something more to do with that man.”

“Yes,” Leda said, and waited.

“You haven’t been seeing him,” Monica said, almost certain of the answer.

“Yes, I have.”

Monica nodded. “I knew you wouldn’t listen to me, you never do. Well, out with it. Do you want to bring him over here for dinner, or some crazy idea like that? I’m warning you, Leda, that criminal will never be a guest in this house. So if that’s what you’re thinking, you can just drop it right now.”

“I don’t want to bring him here for dinner,” Leda said evenly. “I’m going to bring him to the country club for the New Year’s Eve party, and I wanted you to know in advance.”

Monica pulled out a chair and sank into it, her face gray. It was several seconds before she could manage to speak.

“This is a joke,” she whispered.

Leda faced her calmly. “Do I look like I’m kidding?”

“Why would you do a thing like that to me?” Monica asked.

“I’m not doing anything to you,” Leda said gently, going to her aunt and touching her arm. Monica yanked it away.

“Well, what would you call it? I’ll be a laughing stock in front of my friends.”

“No, you won’t,” Leda answered cheerfully. “I will. And I don’t care. I love Kyle and I want everyone to see that I don’t hold him responsible for what happened to my father.”

“You love him,” Monica repeated, closing her eyes.

“That’s right.”

“Oh, my God,” Monica whispered. “All I can say is I’m glad your father didn’t live to see this. In fact, your lover is the reason he didn’t live to see anything.” She put the back of her hand to her forehead, rubbing it.

“Don’t ever say that again,” Leda responded tightly. “It isn’t true.”

Monica laughed mirthlessly. “Isn’t it? You’re a fool, Leda. You have always been just like your mother, romantic and wildly impractical. Oh, you act like a goal oriented career woman. You spout that jargon with the best of them, but when it comes right down to it you’re as full of dreams as Sleeping Beauty. First it was this nonsense about being an actress, and now this liaison with the man who as good as killed your father.” She shook her head, shrugging helplessly.

“Kyle didn’t do anything wrong. He was convicted for a crime he didn’t commit.”

“Oh, I’m sure that’s what he’s telling you.”

“I believe him.”

Monica looked at her niece earnestly. “Leda, can’t you see that this man is using you? He wants you to show him around to regain his lost status in this town. Everybody knows he wants to make points for the reinstatement of his license. How could anyone fail to believe his story when the daughter of the man he supposedly ruined obviously accepts his innocence?”

Leda looked away uncomfortably. “It was my idea to bring him to the party. He doesn’t want to go.”

“Did he object very strenuously?” Monica asked sarcastically. She stood and put her palm on Leda’s shoulder. “Darling, you’re playing right into his hands.”

Leda moved out of her aunt’s reach. “I can see where you would feel that way. But you’re wrong. I know him better than anyone, and I know he’s innocent.”

Monica saw that she wasn’t getting through and tried another tack. “How can you be sure you know him so well? You only met him a short time ago.”

“The amount of time I’ve known him is irrelevant. He’s good…”

“In bed?” Monica interrupted cuttingly.

Leda stared at her angrily. “I don’t deserve that.”

“I think you do. I think you’re being influenced by the man’s undeniable attractiveness. I’ve seen him, Leda. I may be old but I’m not dead. Don’t you think I know how a man like that can work his way with you, play with your affections until you don’t know which end is up? I’ve seen it happen many times before. You wouldn’t be the first, believe me.”

“And how are you so sure he’s guilty?” Leda countered. “Suddenly you’re omniscient, you know everything?”

“I was around during his trial, child, you weren’t. You’re not qualified to offer an opinion on what happened then. You were at school, in pigtails and flannel skirts.”

“I’m not at school anymore,” Leda answered stubbornly. “I’m all grown up now, Monica, and capable of forming my own judgments.”

“Capable of falling in love with a louse too, Leda,” her aunt said softly.

“He isn’t a louse,” Leda answered, trying to keep the incipient tears out of her voice. “He’s a wonderful man who got a bad break that no one will let him forget.”

“No one but you.”

“That’s right. I’m going to help him.”

Monica sighed. “And how do you propose to do that?”

“I’ve already gotten Daddy’s records from the last few months he had the company, and I’m going through them. And I’ve asked John Caldwell to send me his material on the trial. I’ll find something that will vindicate him, I know I will.”

“And what if you find something that incriminates him?”

“I won’t.”

Monica threw up her hands. “It’s impossible to talk sense to you, you’re completely out of reach. Do you actually think you’re going to find something his defense attorney missed? Don’t you think that if there was anything that could help him it would have been discovered at the time of his trial?”

“Kyle says his defense attorney was in on it, that he worked with a former colleague of Kyle’s to steal his formula. He made sure that he went to jail, and then went off to California with the plans.”

Monica eyed her incredulously. “And you believe that?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Then I give up,” Monica said coldly, turning away. “I have nothing more to say.”

“You could say that you’ll be polite to him at the party,” Leda said pleadingly. “It would mean so much to me.”

“I don’t understand why you insist on bringing him, but if you do, I won’t be rude to him. I’m never rude to anybody, regardless of what my private opinion of them is.”

“Thank you,” Leda said humbly. “I would appreciate that.” She turned to go. “I would also appreciate it if you would try to understand how I feel. I have to believe in him, the way I would believe in anyone I trusted. I love him, but I also like him. He’s my friend.”

Monica faced her, her eyes wet. “
I’m
your friend, Leda. I’ve been your friend for twenty-five years, since the day you were born. I’ve always tried to look after you for my dear sister’s sake, and that’s all I’m trying to do now.”