Beyond These Hills (29 page)

Andrew shuddered. “I don't either. I've been afraid of fire since I was a child.”

“Oh, really? Did you have a bad experience with fire?”

“I did. My clothes caught fire from a candle. I still have some scars.”

“I can understand why you don't like fires. If that frightened you, just think what it would be like to see a whole forest on fire.”

The thought of seeing such a sight sent a tingle of fear down Andrew's spine. “That's something I hope I never see.”

Andrew grabbed the knob on the door to the Park Headquarters Office and stepped back for Superintendent Eakin to go in first. As they entered the outer office, the secretary, Jane Cherry, looked up and smiled.

Her glasses rested on the bridge of her nose, and she peered over the top of the lens at them. “How was your morning?”

“It was interesting,” Mr. Eakin responded. “We've been at the Roaring Fork Area of the park. The men from several of the camps are working on the hiking trail that's going to start there. It won't be long before hikers will be able to start out there and climb all the way to Mount Le Conte. I'm sorry we were gone so long. Are there any messages for me?”

She glanced at the closed door to his office and lowered her voice. “There's a visitor from Washington in your office. I hated to put him in there, but I didn't think I should ask him to sit out here in one of those uncomfortable chairs the department's seen fit to put in my office.”

Superintendent Eakin frowned and glanced at the door. “What does he want to see me about?”

She stared past him to Andrew. “He really isn't here to see you. He came to see Andrew.”

Andrew's eyebrows arched, and he took a step back. His mouth gaped open, and he cast a nervous glance at the door. Had he done something wrong that warranted a visit from one of his superiors in Washington? “Me? Why would anybody from Washington want to see me?” He hardly recognized the squeaky sound of his voice.

“Because it's your father.”

“My father?” The words ricocheted off the office walls. What was his father doing here? He glanced at Superintendent Eakin. “Did you know he was coming here?”

“No. He called last week to check on how you were doing. He asked me if you'd be in Gatlinburg anytime soon, and I told him you were scheduled to be here this week. But he didn't say he was coming.” The impassive expression on his face and the cool tone of his voice conveyed the same reaction Andrew had often seen from others who'd been forced to endure his father's demanding personality.

Superintendent Eakin strode to the door, pushed it open, and entered his office. “Good afternoon, Congressman Brady. Welcome to our headquarters here in the Smokies.”

Andrew trailed into the room behind him and stared at his father, who gave him a fleeting glance before his lips curled into the politician's smile he'd perfected years ago. He stuck out his hand to the superintendent. “Good to see you, Ross. I hear from your superiors in Washington that you're doing a great job here. I knew you would.”

Eakin shook his hand. “Thank you, Congressman. Did Jane offer you any refreshment while you waited?”

“Yes, she did, but I'm fine.” He cast a disgruntled glance in Andrew's direction. “I hope you don't mind my using your office while I waited for you to return. But I need to talk with my son.”

“Then by all means use my office for your conversation. I need to check on a few more things and should be gone for the next hour or
so.” He looked at Andrew's father. “If you're staying overnight, perhaps we can have supper together.”

His father shook his head. “I doubt if I'll be here, but thanks anyway.”

Superintendent Eakin turned to Andrew. “I'll see you when I return.”

“Yes, sir.”

The superintendent walked through the doorway into the outer office. Before he closed the door, Andrew heard him speak to the secretary. “Jane, why don't you walk with me to my car? There are some papers I'd like for you to bring back.”

Andrew frowned at the statement. There were no papers in the car. Then the reason behind the words hit him. Superintendent Eakin realized the exchange between Andrew and his father was going to be heated, and he wanted to remove Jane from the office. Andrew doubled his fists at his side and took a deep breath.

His father stared at him as if he were ready to take on an opponent on the House floor in Washington. His white linen Palm Beach suit, no doubt carefully crafted by his tailor, hung loosely on his body, but it couldn't hide the anger that radiated from his rigid body. The corner of his lip curled upward in a sneer as his gaze raked Andrew from head to toe before his eyes settled on Andrew's open shirt collar.

“Why aren't you wearing a tie? And when was the last time you had your hair cut? Have you forgotten everything I taught you about keeping appearances up at all times?”

Andrew wiped his shirt sleeve across the perspiration on his forehead and sighed. “And it's good to see you too, Father. I'm afraid my unsuitable state of dress is a result of moving rocks and dirt with the CCC camp men on a work detail this morning. Which, by the way, I must say I enjoyed more than anything I've done in a long time.”

His father waved his hand in dismissal. “Yes, yes, honest work and all that. I get enough of that from my colleagues in Washington. I don't need to hear it from my son too.”

Andrew bit back the retort and sighed. “You're aware of the fact
that this office has a phone since you talked with my boss earlier this week. I would have been happy to discuss my shortcomings with you if you had called. But since you didn't, I assume there is something even more important you need to berate me about for you to take a trip all the way down here. What is it?”

His father's eyes widened for a moment before he shook his head. “There's one thing for sure, I didn't come here to listen to you be disrespectful. Please remember you're speaking with your father.”

“Oh, I will. Believe me, I'm fully aware of that.”

His father tilted his head to one side and regarded him with a quizzical expression for a moment before he continued. “I was very concerned when I received your letter. I thought we needed to talk about your decision in person, not over the phone.”

“And what decision would that be?”

“You know very well what I'm talking about. Why have you decided you don't want to marry Lucy?”

At last the real reason had emerged for his father's hasty trip to Tennessee, and he shook his head. “I've always known I didn't want to marry Lucy. This was something you and her father dreamed up without ever asking either of us what we wanted.”

“You're wrong. Lucy is very much in love with you and wants to be your wife.”

“No, she doesn't. If she said that, it's only because she knows it's what her father wants her to say.”

“And you don't want to do what your father wants. Is that right?”

Andrew swallowed back his anger and took a deep breath. Arguing with his father wouldn't get him anywhere. He had to try reasoning with him. “Please, Father, try to understand how I feel. You wanted me to come here because you thought it would be good for me to have this experience listed in my background. I came because I wanted to do something to help preserve these mountains. I feel like I'm involved in something important, and I feel good about myself for the first time.”

His father's features softened. “That's good. You should feel that
way. Establishing this park is one of the best things that's happened in the southeastern United States in years. I'm glad you've been a part of it, but there's more for you back in Virginia. There's a campaign to begin for the state senate and there's the perfect woman for a politician's wife waiting for you.”

Andrew shook his head. “I've thought long and hard on those things since I've been in Tennessee, and I know neither of those things is for me. I don't want to run for office, and I don't want to marry Lucy.”

His father recoiled as if he'd struck him. “What do you mean you don't want to run for office? That's what we've always planned.”

“No, Father. It's what you've planned for me ever since Winston died. He's the one who should have been a politician, not me. I'm so sorry he's not here to carry on your dream. I can't do it.”

His father stared at him for a moment, and Andrew recognized what was about to take place. Every time his father found himself on the losing end of an argument he took his time to reassess what had been said and formulate a plan to turn his opponent's way of thinking into that of his own. Andrew steeled himself for what would come next.

Finally his father spoke. “If you had thought this before you left home, you would have told me. Something's changed since then. I know you like your job, but it has to be more than that.” He propped his right elbow in his left palm and tapped his index finger against his lips. “I ask myself what could make a young man turn his back on everything his family has dreamed of for him, and the answer is obvious. It has to be a woman.”

“How…how…” There was no use asking his father how he knew. He'd uncovered the secrets of many men in the past, and it wasn't difficult to figure out his only son.

His father laughed. “Your face tells it all. Who is she?”

“Her name is Laurel Jackson.”

“A mountain girl, no doubt.” His lips pursed as if the words were distasteful.

“She's the daughter and granddaughter of two of the most respected men in Cades Cove, and I'm in love with her.”

His father's eyebrows arched in surprise. “Love? There's no place for the love of a woman in our lives, Andrew. We were born to serve the people. That takes all your time. There's nothing else.”

A sarcastic laugh rumbled from Andrew's throat. “Oh, I know that all right. You never had time for my mother or for me after Winston's death. Well, I don't want to live that way. I want to be with a woman I love and have children with her.”

“You're being ridiculous,” his father hissed.

Andrew strode to the door and jerked it open. “You're the one being ridiculous. When you decide to ask me what I want out of life, we'll continue this conversation.”

“Wait! Don't go!” his father called out.

He was already in the outer office when the urgent sound of his father's voice stopped him and he turned around. He stepped back into Superintendent Eakin's office and left the door open in case he needed a speedy retreat. “What do you want?”

“I don't want us to part this way. No matter what you think of me I want you to know I've only done what I thought was best for you. You have all the qualities of a good statesman, and you'll go far in politics. Don't deprive the people of your services just because you're infatuated with some little mountain girl who can never understand the world you come from.”

Andrew gritted his teeth and took a step closer to his father. “I'm warning you…”

“Excuse me. I didn't mean to interrupt.”

Andrew whirled to see Laurel standing in the doorway. He had no idea how much of their conversation she'd overheard, but her pale face and trembling chin told him she'd witnessed at least part of it.

“Laurel.” Her name gushed from his mouth. “I didn't know you were here.”

She stepped farther into the room. “I asked the clerk at the desk if he'd seen you, and he said you'd come through the lobby earlier with Mr. Eakin. So I came to find you. I heard your voices. I hope I didn't come at the wrong time.”

He strode toward her, grabbed her hand, and pulled her across the floor with him until they stopped in front of his father. “Laurel, this is my father, Congressman Richard Brady. Father, this is Laurel Jackson, the woman I was telling you about.”

His father glanced at him and then back to Laurel. The anger that had been in his eyes a few moments before disappeared and he reached out and took Laurel's hand in his. “Miss Jackson, it's so nice to meet you.”

Andrew wanted to jerk Laurel away and tell her not to be deceived by his father's friendly manner. It was his public persona, and she was about to be introduced to the devious man behind the friendly façade. He tightened his grip on her hand and glanced at her.

“Are your parents at Mr. Bryan's store?”

“Yes, I walked over here to see you like I said I would.” She stared at him.

“Then let me take you back to the store.” He looked at his father again. “I'll see you later.”

His father smiled, reached out, and took Laurel's arm. She glanced over her shoulder as her hand slipped from Andrew's and his father led her to a sofa across the room where he sat down beside her. “I want to get acquainted with this young woman who has bewitched my son.”

She settled a pillow behind her back and faced him. “I don't think
bewitched
is the right word, sir. Andrew and I are friends.”

“Very good friends from what he tells me.” When she didn't answer, he continued. “Andrew says he's in love with you.”