Читать книгу The Guardian's Honor - Marta Perry - Страница 9

Adam lingered in the coffee shop at the motel the morning after his encounter with the Hawkins family. It was a good thirty miles from their house, but the closest he could find. Frowning, he stared at the cooling coffee in front of him.

What was his next step? His gut instinct said he was right about this. Theodore Hawkins was Ned Bodine. He had to be, or why had he reacted the way he had?

But it went beyond that. He couldn’t explain it, but when he’d seen the man, he’d known. Maybe it was true that blood called out to blood. The Bodine strain ran strong. He’d looked in that man’s eyes, and he’d seen his grandfather there.

But if Ned Bodine refused to be found…

“Mr. Bodine?”

He glanced up and then shot to his feet at the sight of Hawkins’s granddaughter. No, stepgranddaughter. She must have guessed he’d be at the only motel this small town boasted.

“Mrs. Norwood. I didn’t expect to see you here.”

Especially not after the way he’d reacted when he’d seen her disabled son. He’d kicked himself all the way back to the motel, but it had been unavoidable. He’d looked at her and the boy and seen the other mother and son, felt the pain…

“I thought we should talk.” Her gaze was wary, maybe even a little antagonistic. But at least she was here. The door wasn’t entirely closed.

“Please, sit down.” He pulled out a chair for her. “I’m glad you’ve come.”

“I’m not sure what good it will do. My grandfather is a very stubborn man.”

He was tempted to say it ran in the family, but that was presuming too much. Instead he signaled for the server. “You’ll have something to eat, won’t you?”

“No. Well, just coffee.”

While the server brought cups and a fresh pot, he took the opportunity to study Mrs. Norwood. Mrs., she’d said, but she didn’t wear a ring. Divorced? Widowed?

Her hands were roughened, no doubt from that garden where he’d first seen her, but they were delicate and long-fingered. Artistic, he’d say, if he believed physical traits meant talents.

As for the rest, his first impression was strengthened. She wore that air of strain like a heavy coat, weighing her down. Her fine-boned face tensed with it, and it spoke in the lines around her hazel eyes. Life hadn’t treated her well, and he had a ridiculous urge to fix that.

“Mrs. Norwood,” he began.

But she shook her head. “Cathleen. Cathy, please. After all, if you’re right, we’re…what? Step-second cousins, I guess.”

“I guess.” He took a sip of the fresh coffee, trying to clear his mind. This woman could help him, if she wanted to, and the fact that she had driven thirty miles to catch him had to be a good sign.

“Cathy.” He smiled, relaxing a little at the encouragement. “Since your grandfather wouldn’t listen to what brought me here, will you?”

“I guess that’s why I’ve come.” Her hands twisted a little before she seemed to force them to relax. “My grandfather doesn’t know. He thinks I came to town for groceries.”

“I see.”

But he didn’t, not really. What kind of relationship did she have with her grandfather? Certainly nothing like the one he’d had with his. Even with the huge tribe of grandkids his three sons had managed to produce, Granddad had still found time to make each of them feel special.

“Did your grandfather send you here to find his brother?” she asked.

“Not exactly. My grandfather died several years ago. My grandmother, Miz Callie, is the one who became convinced that Ned couldn’t have done what people thought he had.”

“Why? What convinced her of that?”

“She remembered him so well, you see. She had faith in him.”

He hesitated, doing some mental editing. There was so much more to the story, but he didn’t want to overwhelm her with information.

“At first, the family didn’t know anything about it, and when they did find out, there was a lot of fuss because they figured Miz Callie was going to be hurt if he really had run off. But it turned out that Ned had enlisted in the Navy under another name after he became estranged from his father.”

Her fingers tightened on the cup, as if that fact hit a nerve. “So he never contacted the family again?”

“No.” That was the aspect of the whole thing he just didn’t get. He could understand an eighteen-year-old rushing off to enlist under another name. He couldn’t understand the man Ned must have become cutting himself off from his family for life.

Cathy shook her head slowly, but she didn’t seem to find it as hard to believe as he did. “What convinced you that the man you want is my grandfather?”

In answer, he pulled out the envelope of photographs he’d been carrying around. He slid the reproductions of black and white photos onto the tabletop between them.

“This was the first photo I found of Theodore Hawkins after he enlisted.” He shoved the picture of the young PT boat crew across to her. “Can you pick out your grandfather?”

She bent over, studying the images of boys, most long dead, before putting her finger on one face. “That’s Grandpa.”

He handed her another picture. “And here’s one of Ned Bodine, taken that last summer.” He’d taken the original photo to a professional lab, not content with his own photo program, sharpening the face until he thought he’d recognize his great-uncle in his sleep.

Cathy let out a long, slow breath. “It surely looks like the same person. But if he has family, why would he deny it?”

“You know your grandfather better than I do. Is he the kind of person who would hold on to a grudge that long?”

A shutter seemed to come down over her face, closing him out.

“Sorry,” he said quickly. He needed this woman on his side. “That wasn’t very tactful. I meant—”

“I know what you meant, and the answer is that I don’t know. Maybe.” She seemed to stare into the coffee cup, as if looking for answers there. “Tell me about your family. Why are they so interested in finding him?”

“My grandmother,” he said simply. “She’s the heart of the family, and she wants this so much. How could we not try to help her? As for the family—well, there’s a bunch of us. My grandmother and grandfather had three sons, and they married and had kids. There are eleven of us cousins, all pretty close in age.”

Now she just looked stunned, maybe at the thought of acquiring so many relatives at one fell swoop.

“Y’all live in Charleston?”

“In and around. My grandmother has moved out to the family beach house on Sullivan’s Island. My sister was up in Atlanta for a while, but she’s back now. It seems like whenever one of us goes off for a time, he or she just has to come back. Charleston’s home to us.”

“Beach house?”

“It’s been in the Bodine family for years. In fact, that’s where Ned ran away from. The family always moved out to the island every summer from the Charleston house.”

She glanced at him, something almost speculative in those hazel eyes, and then looked down again. “You said Ned was your grandfather’s older brother?”

He nodded. “About six years between them, I think.”

“It sounds… Well, it sounds like a life no one would want to give up. If my grandfather is your kin, I’d think he’d be eager to claim it.”

She sounded willing to be convinced, and that was half the battle, surely. He’d better bring up the idea he’d been mulling over.

“Is there any chance your grandfather would open up to you about it?”

Her lips tightened. “I don’t know. But if he did, if he really is Edward Bodine, what then? What did you think would happen?”

Something was behind her questions, but he wasn’t sure what it was. “Best-case scenario? I hoped he might want to come back to Charleston, for a visit if not to stay. Be a part of the family again. At the least, I guess I’d hope he’d want to be in touch with Miz Callie. It would mean a lot to her.”

She was silent for a long moment, looking down so that he couldn’t see her eyes. The feeling that she was holding something back intensified.

Finally she looked up. “I don’t think it’ll help any if I talk to him. Once he gets his back up, it’s no sense talking.”

Disappointment had a sharp edge. If his granddaughter couldn’t convince him, why would he listen to Adam?

“My grandfather is going to lunch today with a friend. I’ll have a look through my grandma’s boxes in the attic while he’s gone. Maybe there’ll be something to show, one way or the other. That’s the best I can think of to do.”

“That’s great.” Without thinking about it, he put his hand over hers. And felt a connection, as if something ran from his skin to hers.

She met his eyes, her own wide and startled. Then she snatched her hand away and rose.

“I’ll be in touch.”

She was gone before he could thank her.

Cathy stood at the window, watching the lane. A glint of silver announced Adam’s arrival, and her stomach clenched in protest at what she was about to do.

She glanced down at the object in her hand. Did she have the right to show him what she’d found squirreled away in her grandmother’s trunk?

If she did, she was opening up something that could have results she couldn’t even imagine. But if she didn’t, she was passing up the opportunity to change all their lives for the better. They’d just go on and on the way they were, with the bills mounting and their income dropping, and Jamie would never have a chance to see another specialist.

If she could get a decent job, instead of the part-time work that barely paid enough to keep food on the table…But if she had a full-time job, who would take care of Jamie? Who would be there for Grandpa when he got one of his forgetful spells?

The car pulled up at the gate. Determination hardened in her. From what Adam had said, it sounded like the Bodine family was fairly well-off. Grandpa, whether he wanted to admit it or not, was one of them.

He was probably due something from them, in any event. Shouldn’t he have a share in that beach house and whatever other family property there was?

Come to think of it, that queasiness in her stomach was probably her conscience, telling her she was wrong to want this reconciliation for what she might get out of it. She pictured her son’s face, and her determination hardened. She wouldn’t do this for herself, but she’d do it for him.

A knock sounded on the door, and she went to open it. Everything was going to change. She didn’t know where the change would take her, but she’d deal with it, for Jamie’s sake.

“Cathy?” Adam stepped inside at her gesture, level brows rising. “You found something?”

She nodded. Grandpa could be back at any moment, so she had to make this fast.

“I found this in one of my grandmother’s trunks in the attic.” She handed him the tarnished watch. “Look at the inscription.”

He turned it over in his hands, tilting it to the light. “E.B. from Mama and Daddy. 1942.” His voice choked on the words. For a long moment he was silent, rubbing his thumb over and over the inscription.

“Is it…does that mean what I think it does?”

He nodded. Cleared his throat. “Ned’s parents would have given this to him on his eighteenth birthday. It’s a family tradition.” He turned his wrist. “I’m still wearing the watch my folks gave me. To A.B. from Mama and Daddy, and the date of my eighteenth birthday.”

She let out the breath she’d been holding. “It’s true, then. My grandfather really is Ned Bodine.”

He nodded, handing the watch back to her slowly, as if reluctant to part with it. “Now all we have to do is get him to admit it.”

“He should be back soon. Do you want to stay? If we tackle him together, that might be best.”

“You’re right. Let’s not give him time to think up an argument. I’ll wait and call my grandmother afterward. I’d like to have good news for her.”

“This means a lot to her.” She responded to the message behind the words.

“It’s all she’s talked about for months.” He frowned slightly. “She thought he’d died in the war. She wanted to set up a memorial to him. Once we realized he might still be alive, there was just no containing her. If I hadn’t taken on finding him, I think she’d have set out herself.” Now his lips curved in a smile that blended affection and exasperation.

It was an appealing smile. She considered herself hardened to the effects of masculine appeal, but there was something about Adam Bodine that seemed to get under her guard.

She gave herself a mental shake. There was no room in her life for thoughts like that.

“I’ll just get us some sweet tea. You make yourself comfortable.” She escaped to the kitchen.

She’d no sooner put ice in the tea than she heard voices in the living room. Her nerves twitched. If Grandpa was back already…

But that wasn’t her grandfather talking to Adam. It was Jamie’s piping little voice. Snatching the tray, she hurried back into the room.

Adam sat on the faded sofa, the half-finished wooden boat in his hand. Jamie leaned against his knee.

“My grandfather used to whittle things for me, too. Sea creatures, mostly…dolphins and whales and sea horses. I still have them on a shelf in my bedroom.”

“I wish I could see them.” Jamie’s voice was wistful. “Is your house a long, long way?”

“Not too far,” Adam began, but he cut the words off when he saw her.

She set the tray down, keeping her smile intact with an effort. “Jamie, it’s time for your snack. Come along to the kitchen now.”

“But, Mama, I want to talk to Mr. Adam.”

“Not now.” She put her hand on his shoulder, resisting the urge to pick him up and carry him. Let him do as much as he can for himself. The doctor’s words rang in her head, but it was hard, so hard, to watch him struggle.

She settled Jamie at the kitchen table with milk and a banana and then returned to her guest.

Adam greeted her with a question in his eyes. “Do you always keep your son away from people, or is it just me?”

She fidgeted with her glass, disconcerted by his blunt attack. Well, she could be blunt, too. “Jamie’s had enough of people staring at him and pitying him.”

“I wasn’t…” He stopped, and she sensed an emotion she didn’t understand working behind the pleasant face he presented to the world.

“Sorry,” he said finally. “I guess I overreacted the first time I saw him. I promise, it won’t happen again. He has nothing to fear from me.”

That was an odd way of expressing it, and again she had the sense of something behind the words.

But there was no time to speculate on it now. The sound of a car had her stomach twisting in knots again. That would be Emily Warden, bringing Grandpa back from his lunch.

She looked at Adam and saw the same apprehension in his eyes that must be in hers. Ready or not, it was time to do this.

Grandpa’s face was already red with anger when he came through the door, no doubt because he’d seen the strange car sitting in front. She steeled herself for the inevitable explosion.

It didn’t come. Somehow, Grandpa managed to hold his voice down to a muted roar. “What is he doing here?”

He indicated Adam with a jerk of his head, focusing his glare on her.

“He’s here because I invited him.” Her voice didn’t wobble, thank goodness, as she drew the battle line.

This was actually the first time she’d challenged her grandfather on anything since she’d moved back, but she had to do this. It was the only door out of this trap they were in.

“I told you before. He’s nothing to do with us.”

“Grandpa, that’s not the truth, and you know it. I found this.” She held out the watch. It lay on her palm, and her grandfather looked at it as if it were a snake about to strike.

“Where did you get that?”

“In Grandma’s trunk.” A smile trembled on her lips at the memory of her grandmother. “She never did like to throw anything away. Remember?”

“’Course I remember.” His eyes were suspiciously bright. “Woman saved everything. Never listened to me a day in her life. Feisty.”

“She had to be, living with you all those years.” It was the sort of thing she used to be able to say to him, gone in the aftermath of the quarrel, but it came to her lips now. “Look at the watch, Grandpa. ‘To E.B. from Mama and Daddy. 1942.’”

He was shaking his head when Adam held out his own watch.

“I have one, too. The family still gives them as an eighteenth-birthday gift.”

Grandpa stared at it for a moment. Then he stumped over to his rocking chair and sat down heavily, the red color slowly fading out of his face, leaving it pale and set.

“All right, all right. Since you’re bound and determined to have it out, I was born Edward Bodine. But I haven’t been that man in years, and I don’t reckon to start now.”

The capitulation left her weak in the knees, and she sat down on the sofa, not sure what would come next.

Grandpa stared at Adam, as if seeking some resemblance. “Your grandfather was my little brother. He still alive?”

“No, sir. He died ten years ago of a stroke. Miz Callie’s still going strong, though. He married Callie McFarland. You remember her?”

“Little Callie.” Her grandfather seemed to look back through the years, and for the first time she saw some softening in his expression. “’Course I remember her. Lived near us on the island, always in and out of the house. So she and Richmond got hitched.”

Adam came cautiously to take a seat next to her, apparently feeling he wasn’t going to get thrown out at the moment. “Richmond and Callie had three boys. My father is the oldest.”

“And you’d be his oldest boy, I s’pose.”

Adam blinked. “How did you know that?”

“Oldest sons have that look of responsibility on them.” His face tightened a little. “I did. You in the service?”

“Coast Guard. Lieutenant. I’m running a patrol boat out of Coast Guard Base Charleston right now.”

So she’d been right about the military look of him. Despite that easygoing smile, he was probably one who could take command when he needed to.

“Family tradition.” Grandpa’s lips twisted. “Your great-granddaddy would be right proud of you. He never was of me. Called me a coward, said I was a disgrace to the family name. So I figured I didn’t need to use it any more.”

The bitterness that laced his voice appalled her. How could he still carry so much anger toward someone who was long dead?

She glanced at Adam, to see that he looked taken aback as well.

“It’s been a long time, Grandpa.” She said the words softly. “Adam and his people didn’t have anything to do with the quarrel you had with your father.”

“They’re his kin,” he flared.

“And yours,” Adam said. “Miz Callie is the one who was determined to find out what happened to you. She remembers so much about that last summer on the island—about how you took her and Richmond fishing and shrimping, how patient you were with them.”

His face eased a little. “They were good kids, I’ll say that. Always listened.”

“You had some friends there, too. Boys you hung around with in the summer, Miz Callie says. There’s a picture of a bunch of you together.”

“Timmy Allen and Phil Yancey, I s’pose. And Benny Adams. I haven’t thought of them in years. All dead now, I reckon.”

“Not Mr. Adams. My sister talked to him just a few weeks ago, once we found out you were still alive. He said to tell you to come see him.”

“Benny always was tough, for all he was the shortest one of the bunch.” The hand Grandpa raised to his eyes trembled a little, and he wiped away tears.

Her heart twisted. He hadn’t wept since Grandma’s death. He was softening toward Adam. If only…

“Why don’t y’all come back to Charleston with me?” Adam said. “The family there would surely like to get to know you.”

Grandpa shook his head. “What’s the point in reliving the past? I don’t go where I’m not wanted.”

“Please,” she murmured, barely aware that it was a prayer. Then, more boldly, she said, “The rest of the family would like to meet you, Grandpa. They didn’t have anything to do with the quarrel.”

She leaned toward him, intent on making him agree to this. Didn’t he see? It was a chance for Jamie. Once they got to Charleston, anything could happen. There were specialists there, even a medical university. The family might feel obligated to help.

If not, well, she could talk to a lawyer, even, to see if Grandpa was entitled to some part of his father’s estate.

“Miz Callie’s going to be disappointed in me if I come back without you,” Adam said. “She has her heart set on seeing you again. She’s always believed in you.”

Grandpa weakened a little; she could see it in his eyes, even though he was still shaking his head.

“Are we goin’ someplace, Grandpa?” Jamie, drawn by their voices, poked his head in from the kitchen. “I want to go someplace.”

“We might go to Charleston, sugar,” she said. That was playing dirty, involving Jamie, but at this point she’d do whatever it took. “You could see the beach. Wouldn’t that be great?”

“I want to go.” He hurried across the room as fast as his braces would allow, fetching up against his grandfather’s knees. “Please, let’s go. I want to see the beach.”

Grandpa stroked Jamie’s silky hair, his hand not quite steady. “Well, I guess maybe there’s no harm in going to see the place.” He looked at Adam then, “I’m not saying I’ll go back to being part of the family, mind, so don’t you go getting any ideas. But I guess we can go for a visit, seein’ it means so much to the boy.”

Cathy exhaled slowly, afraid even to move for fear he’d change his mind. But he wouldn’t do that, not once he’d told Jamie.

Her gaze met Adam’s, and she smiled. They’d done it.