Robert pushed away from the window and moved restlessly about the apartment. He was glad he had a project to think about, something to keep his mind occupied for the dog days of summer. Unlike past summers, when he had traveled, this one he had decided to spend at home. And he could already tell that his decision had been a mistake.
He moved back to the drawing table and continued to hum, both lightly and on-key, as he exchanged the plans of the Tyler library for a set of yellow tracing sheets on which he had been sketching his version of a modern-day cathedral. After securing it in place, he sat down to work. It was his whimsy that one day one of his renderings would rival the best that Europe had to offer in style, grace and innovative grandeur.
The German poet Goethe had once likened architecture to “frozen music.” That was the way Robert thought of his craft. It appealed both to the artist in him and to the engineer. The challenge was everything.
* * *
ELISE HURRIED downstairs, aware that once again she was late. For a person who prided herself on being punctual, the past few days had been a trial. There had been problems with the insurance company, with arranging an appointment for the vacuum chamber, even with the hall at Fellowship Lutheran. Somehow someone had overlooked the fact that the church hall was scheduled for use that weekend, and it had taken a number of calls, plus Elise’s own pleading intervention, to make arrangements for the planned awards dinner to be held instead at the hall belonging to the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd.
Once Elise got behind in her schedule, she seemed to stay behind. She had thought to have most things under control by this morning, only to discover that Joe Santori could come three days early to repair the ceiling of the Biography Room. And she wasn’t about to tell him not to come. The way things were progressing, a refusal could equal several weeks’ delay. So she had stayed at the library longer than planned, which made her late arriving home to prepare Bea’s lunch, which accordingly had delayed her preparation for her second meeting with Robert Fairmont.
A light film of perspiration glazed her body, the result of a too-hot shower, a too-warm house and heightened tension. She wore another suit, a backup reserved-for-meetings suit that was the same pale blue color as her eyes. It didn’t quite manage the psychological boost of the red suit she’d donned three days before, but it was close. Fired with determination, she felt in control, competent and businesslike.
She had thought about everything that had happened when she met the professor the first time and decided that her reaction had been magnified all out of proportion. None of it had been real. When she saw him today he would prove to be an ordinary human being with eyes that saw nothing beyond the commonplace and a voice that held no particular power. He would come, they would talk, and hopefully Tyler would be able to build its new library. Afterward, she would go on just as she had always gone on, with one day following another.
Bea made no demand as Elise came downstairs. Giving in to curiosity, Elise peeked around the doorway into the family room. As usual, Bea was sitting in front of the television set, but instead of watching the broadcast game show, she had fallen asleep.
Elise paused, not wanting to wake her. But when Buttercup gave a meow of welcome and with feline grace jumped from the couch to the floor without disturbing Bea, Elise was drawn farther into the room. Chances to observe her sister unnoticed were extremely rare.
Bea’s blond head had no brace. She slept sitting upright, her slender body fragile in the dull-colored, shapeless dress. In repose, her features were soft, almost beautiful again. The ravages of bitterness and self-pity might never have been.
Elise studied her, then as shadows of the past began to dance before her eyes, she became very still. She saw Bea as she once had been: happy, smiling, unhampered...a flirt at seventeen. And she saw herself at eleven: half child, half budding young woman, who doubted herself even as she thought her sister one of the most magnificent beings in the world. Then had come a fateful Wisconsin winter, a snowfall, the gradual formation of ice....
A primitive cry sounded deep in Elise’s throat as her features twisted with pain. She tried to thrust the terrible memory away. It hurt too much! She loved her sister. She didn’t want anything bad to have happened to her. She didn’t want to remember!
Bea’s eyes opened with startling suddenness. In them, there was no question as to where she was or what was taking place. She looked directly at Elise and said, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”
Elise tried to control the trembling of her limbs. She tried to act as if nothing was wrong. But she knew that Bea could see through her performance. “No, I just—You were sleeping and I thought—”
Bea had perfected a certain smile over the years, a smile that combined innocence and raw power. It was a smile that instantly plunged Elise into distress without her being fully aware of the cause. Bea used it now. “I wasn’t sleeping,” she said.
“But your eyes were closed!” Elise wanted to run from the room. She always felt so exposed at these moments.
“I was resting, that’s all. Are you leaving again?”
Elise rubbed a hand across her brow. Her hard-won poise had disappeared as if in a puff of smoke. The meeting was going to be a disaster. Robert Fairmont would arrive in Tyler and all her worst nightmares would come true. He would tell her that cutting costs would be impossible. That she should stay in the old library and be jolly well glad that she had it...even if the town council did dig in their heels and refuse to spend any more money on it for needed repairs. Then he would look penetratingly at her and see everything that she kept hidden inside, see her deepest thoughts and desires. See her for the fraud that she truly was! “Uh... yes,” she stammered. “I have a meeting.”
“With that professor?” Bea lifted an eyebrow in speculation. “The way Josephine described him, he sounds a little too hoity-toity for my taste. He must think quite a lot of himself.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Elise murmured, glancing at the door and escape.
Bea saw the look and dismissed her angrily. “Oh, go on. Leave! You’re not exactly a scintillating conversationalist anyway. Just get me a pitcher of lemonade before you go. The house is on the warm side today.”
“Would you like me to switch on the air-conditioning?”
“What? And have me freeze? No, I should certainly say not. Just get me the lemonade.”
Elise wished that she had never stopped to glance into the room. If Bea was quiet, she should have taken advantage of the moment and slipped silently out of the house.
While mixing her sister’s refreshment, she tried to repair the damage that had been done to her assurance. But she knew the job remained only half-finished when, upon her return, Bea’s sniff of disapproval still caused her pain.
* * *
ELISE SWUNG her car into the rear parking area of the library that was usually reserved for the staff. This afternoon, however, a truck was parked close to the back entrance and the whine of an electric saw could be heard coming from deep within the building. Joe Santori and his young assistant, Lars Travis, were still hard at work.
Elise set the emergency brake and stepped outside. Under the guise of adjusting the shoulder strap of her purse, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then, strengthening her spine, she set off, seemingly ready for anything.
The interior of the library was divided into individual rooms, just as it had been during its occupation by the Friedrichs, the family who had once lived there. The floors were oak, buffed to a well-worn luster by the custodian, Jimmy Randolph, and in what once must have been an expensive touch, prodigious amounts of geometrically carved moldings decorated the walls, the doorways, the windows and even the bookcases that had been built into the home’s private library.
Changes had been made to convert the building to public use, but most of the changes involved running electrical conduits along the floor to various work stations for the staff and filling almost all the rooms with shelves. No walls had been taken down and only a few added.
Elise hesitated in the doorway of the large front room that had served the Friedrichs as a combination living and dining room and that now served as the library’s main circulation area. Her gaze swept over staff and patrons. From the calm that had descended over the facility, no one would have believed that only a short time ago the area had been involved in such chaos. Delia Mayhew was at the circulation desk checking out books, Pauline was on her way to the Children’s Room, where the regularly scheduled preschool story time was due to start, and Rebecca Sinclair, new to Tyler but already a treasure as a volunteer, was wheeling a cart loaded with books to be reshelved. Several people were standing at the long card catalog, searching through the alphabetized indexes, while others sat at nearby tables with narrow catalog drawers at their elbows as they hastily jotted down information they needed.
A light frown touched Elise’s brow. She had already stopped by her office, expecting to find Robert Fairmont there. Before leaving for home, she had asked the staff to keep an eye out for him, to show him into her office when he arrived and then to offer him coffee or tea or whatever else it took to keep him entertained until she returned. But he wasn’t there. Her office was as empty as when she left it.
She caught Delia’s eye and lifted her eyebrows in puzzlement. Delia immediately glanced toward the card catalog, causing Elise to examine that area again. And sure enough, there he was, standing beside the massive file, gazing back at her with such knowing amusement that Elise felt her whole body burn with embarrassment. Had he been there all along? How had she missed him? His smile grew, as if he were privy to those thoughts as well!
Elise struggled to control her reaction. She had to deal with this man, talk with him intelligently. She couldn’t afford to let him see that he unsettled her so badly. It was all in her mind, she told herself. Only in her mind!
He came toward her and stopped a short pace away. “Elise,” he said. His voice was simultaneously honey and fire.
Elise glanced at Delia for help, but Delia was talking to two of Britt Hansen’s children as she began the process of checking out their books. Elise’s gaze was drawn back to the professor.
He was dressed impeccably in light gray pants and a charcoal blazer with a stylish tie brightening his white shirt. His hair was brushed perfectly into place, full and thick and wavy, the threads of silver shining splendidly among the dark. His skin was still nicely tanned, the lines on his face lending a distinguished aura of wisdom and experience.
She smiled tightly. “I’m—I’m sorry I’m late again. Things are still, well...”
“I stopped by the room with the leak earlier. It looks as if everything is coming along nicely there at least.”
Elise was glad to have something to talk about. “Ahead of schedule, actually. The men weren’t supposed to come until next week.”
“Surely that’s good news.”
“Oh, yes! Definitely! At the moment I’ll take anything that looks like good news. It’s been such a...” She could hear herself continue to blather on about the problems she had faced over the past few days. Her words seemed to go on and on, and she couldn’t make them stop.
When there was the slightest pause in her monologue, he broke in...which only heightened Elise’s embarrassment at her behavior. She never talked endlessly like that! If there was one person in Tyler in control of her tongue, she was it! Still, he’d almost had to physically restrain her in order to insert a word.
“I think we can do it,” he said simply, delivering his verdict without aggrandizement.
Elise blinked. At first her mind didn’t register what he’d said. “Do what?” she asked.
His smile returned. “The library. It’s going to take some work. We’ll have to go over everything to see exactly what you need and what you don’t need. See where we can cut corners. But I don’t see why it can’t be done.”
For the moment Elise forgot everything but her joy at his words. Happiness lighted her eyes and her face, making them glow. “You’re willing to try?” she exclaimed.
“If you are,” he agreed.
She would put in as many hours as were needed. Exist on two hours of sleep each night. Do whatever was necessary to...
“Elise?” The voice calling her name was different. Male, but definitely not belonging to Robert Fairmont.
Elise turned to see Joe Santori standing beside them, dust from the gypsum board he had been using to repair the ceiling clinging to his skin and clothing even though it was evident he’d tried to brush himself off. Elise felt as if she had been shaken from a dream again, only this time a good one. “Yes, Joe?” she asked. “Is there a problem?”
Joe shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. He was a large man, well-built, with curly black hair and a quiet pride in his work. “Well, yes. We’ve hit a little snag.” He hesitated. “Water’s starting to show up again. Not much,” he was quick to add when he saw Elise blanch, “just a few drops. But the quicker we get Mike McNamara back out here, the better it will be. We sure can’t close her up as it is.”
Elise stood very still, then she felt herself start to sway. The soft background noises in the library receded into a hollow hum and Joe’s face blurred. Over a sudden tightness in her throat, she managed to say, “Would—would you mind calling him, Joe? Right now...I just can’t...” Fingers reached out to steady her, pulling her against a solid strength.
Joe stepped forward in concern, guilt flashing over his features.
Elise wanted to tell him that everything was all right, that what was happening wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, except possibly her own. She had been pushing too hard and not eating properly, and now she was paying the price. Not that she wouldn’t mind a temporary respite from her problems. To get completely away, to have a few moments of unadulterated peace...that seemed the most wonderful bliss. Though she felt bad when she saw Joe’s worried look. And when she turned to see that it was Robert Fairmont she leaned against so contentedly, she felt even worse.
She longed for unconsciousness, but it never came... which in a rather pathetic sort of way was funny. She was too responsible even to faint properly!
With her thoughts still slightly fuzzy, she met the gaze of the architect. In his eyes she saw concern, but also something else: his recognition that a part of her wanted to laugh! Surprise made him blink, then answering amusement sparked in his unusual eyes.
A smile tugged at Elise’s lips and, unable to help herself, she started to giggle, which caused Joe to completely misread the situation. Thinking that she was crying, he called out to Delia, who, when she saw that Elise looked near to collapse, abandoned the circulation desk and came running toward them. A few patrons rushed over as well.
“Does she need a doctor?” someone asked.
“Is it a heart attack?” someone else queried.
“Oh, my God!” Delia cried.
“Water started to drip from the ceiling again,” Joe explained to the audience at large. “I had to tell her.”
Elise choked. “Joe, it’s okay. I just forgot to eat lunch, that’s all.” Then her face crumpled into laughter again, which the crowd mistook for pain. The whole situation was just too much! One misunderstanding followed another.
A hand came out to shield her face, turning it in to the fine woolen material of a blazer. “I think she just needs some time alone,” Robert Fairmont said quietly but with dignified authority.
Pauline rushed up, called away from the children by someone who had witnessed the scene. Her round face was pallid, full of fear. “What’s happened?” she demanded. “What’s wrong? Elise?”
Robert swept Elise fully into his arms. She kept her face buried against his shoulder. Suddenly she wanted to cry. Laughter had evolved into tears.
“I’m taking her home. She needs to rest,” he said. He turned to Joe Santori. “Why don’t you call her later this afternoon to let her know what the plumber says. I’m sure she’ll want to know.” Joe nodded agreement.
Elise took a series of unsteady breaths as she felt herself being transported through the front door and onto the porch, then along the sidewalk to the line of parking slots that angled off the street. She peeked around the architect’s shoulder and saw that the little group of concerned people had followed them onto the porch. They watched as he placed her feet on the ground and dug in his pocket for the keys to a dark blue Mercedes.
He opened the door and bent to lift her inside, but she stopped him.
“I can get in myself,” she said.
He pulled back to look at her. “Are you sure?” he asked.
She nodded wordlessly.
He stood back, ready to lend assistance if needed. But it wasn’t needed...not this time. While crossing to the driver’s side, he waved to the small crowd and called out something, something she didn’t understand.
She watched as he slid behind the wheel, secured her seat belt and his own, then brought the engine to life. The car smelled of leather and a good men’s cologne, and its engine purred with understated power and efficiency.
Certainly this wasn’t the way she had expected to leave the library today!
CHAPTER THREE
“WHAT DID YOU SAY to them?” she asked.
“I told them you were better. There’s no use in them continuing to worry.”
“Thank you,” she said simply.
He shifted position. Obviously his intention was to look over his shoulder and reverse out of the parking slot, but he stopped short to look at her. The shiny buttons of his blazer had been set free and the material spread to show that no spare flesh hung over his belt when he sat down. The belt itself was of high-quality leather, black, matching his shoes. The creases in his slacks were precise, disappearing only along the hard muscles of his thighs.
Elise’s gaze whipped away. She wasn’t accustomed to examining men so closely. Particularly men whose masculinity vibrated forcefully in the air around them.
“You are, aren’t you?” he asked.
Elise had to search for his meaning. Finally she connected it to his earlier assurance to the crowd. She nodded tightly. “Oh, yes. I’m fine.” Yet her hands twisted in her lap and her body was as taut as an overstrung bow. He continued to watch her. Unable to stand it any longer, she at last demanded, “What is it? Why are we still sitting here? I thought you said you were going to take me home.”
She knew she sounded the exact stereotype of a spinster librarian who found herself in close confines with an attractive, eligible male. Instinctively, her gaze shot to his left hand. He wore no ring, but that didn’t signify anything. Any number of married men didn’t wear rings anymore.
He smiled and she twitched uncomfortably in her seat. Had he seen her quick glance at his hand? Elise wanted to leap out of the car, but her legs felt like twin weights. They didn’t want to move.
“Well, I was,” he explained drolly, “but I don’t know where ‘home’ is. Would you like to direct me?”
Elise bit her bottom lip. “Go down this street to the right. Turn left, then left again after the fourth stop sign.”
“It’s all right, you know,” he said calmly, not having moved.
“What is?” she asked. She didn’t want to look at him anymore or talk to him. She just wanted to go home, go upstairs and stretch out in her bed. Maybe she had pushed herself a bit too far.
“To laugh when everything seems darkest. Sometimes it’s the only thing a person can do to protect his sanity.” He shifted the car into reverse and backed into the street.
There was a great difference between riding in a Mercedes and riding in her Escort. Bumps in the road were barely noticeable. Trees and grass and houses seemed to glide by in a haze of comfort. He took the first turn smoothly, effortlessly. But instead of relaxing, Elise grew more tense. Ultimately she burst out, “I shouldn’t be doing this! I’m needed at the library. And my car! What am I going to do about my car? I’ll need it later.”
“Can’t someone at the library drop it off for you?” he asked.
“I can’t ask anyone to do that! No, this is silly. Take me back, please.”
He glanced at her. “They won’t be happy to see you return so soon. They were ready to call an ambulance.”
“But you know I wasn’t that bad!”
“I do, yes. But they don’t. If you go back now, they’ll worry. They’ll watch you, dissect your every move. Is that what you want?” When she didn’t answer, he continued, “Tell you what. Why don’t you take off a couple of hours. Get some rest. Satisfy everyone. Then I’ll take you back to the library myself.”
“I still don’t think...”
“It won’t fall down without you, you know. Contrary to popular belief, the building looks fairly sturdy. And even if you were there and it did fall down, would you be able to hold it up all by yourself?”
“You’re making fun of me!” she accused.
He glanced away from the street. “Not really.”
The Mercedes slid to a halt at the final stop sign before making the next left. Elise wanted to continue to argue, but held her tongue as she reluctantly admitted that what he said was true. Everyone would watch her, waiting to see if she might weaken again. And she would hate that, even if it was done in the name of caring. Also, there was the concept of living to fight another day. Maybe, just this once, she should take a little time to gather her strength so that she could deal with all the difficulties that were to follow...which included her meetings with this architect! It was apparent that she was going to need every bit of energy she could muster.
* * *
“TURN RIGHT at the next corner,” Elise said, continuing her instructions.
Her voice held a musical quality even as she perched stiffly on the seat next to him. Robert did as she requested, steering the car onto a street of houses that looked to have been built sometime between the two great wars. None contained any unique architectural features; they were purely utilitarian, built for growing families. Wide yards, aged trees, sidewalks that could use some repair. Upkeep on most houses was ongoing. A few needed work.
“It’s the first house on the left,” she said.
Robert turned into the narrow driveway. He cut the engine and turned slightly toward her. He still wasn’t completely sure she was as all right as she claimed. She was so thin...fragile looking. He could easily encompass her wrist between his middle finger and thumb with room to spare! Her short hair, lightly curling, changed from blond to silver depending upon the angle and degree of light. Her naturally pale skin held the lightest trace of a summer tan. Carved, delicate features, a long, graceful neck, a narrow waist.... He could only guess at her age, but he’d estimate late forties, early fifties. Her face had a quality that youth didn’t know...of numerous challenges won and lost and, as well, a haunting shadow of pain deeply held.
“Thank you for bringing me home,” she murmured, remaining stiff and formal in her manner even as she reached for the door handle.
“I’ll see you inside,” he offered.
“That’s not necessary.” She threw him a look from pale blue eyes that exactly matched the suit she wore. The look bade him not to press. But it also showed him her uncertainty. She didn’t know what to do with him! Twice they’d arranged to meet to discuss the new library and twice some outside event had gotten in the way. She couldn’t ask him into the house to work because she knew he wouldn’t agree to do so. Also, she was irritated with him because he had advised her to rest...something she obviously didn’t do a great deal. But she couldn’t just dismiss him. She needed him. So there she was, in a quandary. He tried to ease the situation for her. She’d already been through enough.