Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You (v1.2) (4 page)

“Jim?”

“Yes, Miss Take?”

Shelby scooted over onto the jump seat and leaned forward, closer to the opened divider that separated her from the Taite chauffeur. “Are you and Susie happy here?”

“Happy, miss?” Jim Helfrich took a quick look into the rearview mirror, then redirected his attention to the highway. “We’re both happy enough with the work. You and Mr. Taite are very kind.”

Shelby took off her hated hat, tossed it onto the back bench seat. “That’s good, but that’s not really what I meant. Are you happy
here,
Jim, in Philadelphia ? Where are you from, originally?”

“Where are we from?” Jim had an annoying habit of repeating everything that was said to him. He was also probably nervous, as Shelby had never asked him a personal question before today, even though he and his daughter had been in the Taites’ employ for nearly a month. “ East Wapaneken , miss. That’s about sixty-five miles from here, up near Allentown . We’re sort of stuck between Hokendauqua and Catasauqua, just a little bit of a place.” He chanced another look in the rearview mirror. “Um… why do you ask, miss?”

“No real reason, Jim,” Shelby said carefully, leaning her forearms on the back of the bench seat. More. She wanted to hear more. “It’s a small town, then, East Wapaneken ?”

“Is it small? So small there’s no
West
Wapaneken , miss,” Jim said with a chuckle. “I hated to leave, to tell you the truth, but with Susie’s mom gone and the steel plant closing down, I needed to find work where I could watch over my Susie. She’s been accepted at Temple , you know, right downtown. Did her first two years at our local community college, and now she’s ready for the big time.”

“I didn’t know that,” Shelby admitted, feeling more than a little ashamed. Granted, Susie had only been in her employ for a relatively short time, and only as temporary summer help, but she should have known
something
about her by now, shouldn’t she? Or was she merely floating through life now, not acting, not even reacting? Just existing. Not to mention feeling sorry for herself. “So you liked living in a small town?”

“It’s the only place to live, to my mind, miss. Good friends, deep roots. Oh, everybody knows your business, that’s for sure, but everybody cares about you, too. Good people, good friends. That’s important. It’s… it’s
real
East Wapaneken , miss. Yeah, that’s it. It’s the real world. Once Susie’s got her degree, we’re heading straight back there, no question.”

“Thanks… um… thank you, Jim,” Shelby said, sitting back against the jump seat, biting at her bottom lip as she thought about all he’d said.

Real. The real world.

Shelby smiled, her first
real
smile in a long, long time.

Shelby looked up from the book she’d been pretending to read ever since dinner, watching as her uncle made his way to the mahogany table holding an assortment of his favorite liquid refreshments.

She loved her uncle, loved him very much. He was happy, silly, sometimes profane, and totally outrageous. Such a handsome man, with his thick shock of silver hair and neatly trimmed beard, his boozy-red cheeks and nose, his twinkling blue eyes. His devilish smile, his lust for life. Sort of like a trim, dapper Santa Claus on speed. “Uncle Alfred?”

“Umm? Yes, my pet?”

She almost lost her courage, then asked her question anyway. “Have you ever wondered what life would be like if we were… normal?”

Alfred Taite leaned an elbow against the mantel, balanced his brandy snifter in his free hand, and stared at his niece. “Define normal, my darling.”

Shelby stood up, began to pace. “You know—
normal.”
She spread her arms to indicate the magnificently furnished Taite drawing room, the entire Tudor mansion, their entire world. “As opposed to this, which is about as
abnormal
as it gets.”

“Oh,” Alfred said, taking a sip of brandy. “You mean poor, don’t you? I try not to think about that, actually. I wouldn’t either, Shelby , if I were you. You don’t want to see how the other half lives, and nobody certainly wants to
livens
the other half lives. Just the thought is giving me shivers. It would only deject you. Trust me on this.”

Shelby drew her hands into fists, trying to find the words to say what she meant. “I don’t mean poor, exactly, Uncle Alfred. I mean… I mean
real.
Yes, that’s what Jim called it. Real. I want to feel
real.
I want to experience life as a
real
person. A
normal
person.”

“No, you don’t, darling. I have it on good authority that the
real
people don’t think real life is all it’s cracked up to be. And you said Jim? Who, pray tell, is Jim?”

“Our chauffeur, Uncle Alfred. Surely you know his name.”

He blinked at her, pushed himself away from the mantel, truly not comprehending. “Why? Is there a reason I should? It’s enough that he knows me, knows he’s supposed to pick me up, take me places, not lose me.”

“You’re insufferably arrogant, do you know that?” Shelby asked, smiling at her uncle.

“A large part of my charm, my darling,” he said, saluting her with the snifter. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I believe the esteemed Jim is waiting for me outside. Wouldn’t it make Somerton happier if we were to call the man James? Well, never mind about that. Do you remember who I’m squiring this evening, my pet, and, for God’s sake, why?”

Shelby grinned, shook her head. “Mrs. Oberon, Uncle Alfred. To a special summer presentation of the opera, which explains your tails.”

“Oh, yes, yes, the penguin suit,” Alfred said, trying to turn about to look at his own backside. “Well, I’ll be on my way then. Unless you want to discuss more of this real-life business?”

Shelby shook her head again. “No, Uncle Alfred. That’s all right. I think this is something I’ll just have to work out for myself.”

He patted her cheek. “Splendid idea, darling. Just don’t say
work,
all right? You’re a Taite, remember? Work. What a horrible four-letter word. Why, next thing we know, you’ll be abusing my sensitive ears with words like
industry
and
discipline
-and—ye gods!—
social conscience.”

Shelby bit her lip. “Uncle Alfred? Aren’t all those words somewhere on the Taite family crest?”

“What a depressing reminder. Somerton wears the damn thing on those ridiculous blazers he wears at the yacht club, which is horribly embarrassing.” Alfred looked at her owlishly. “How you’ve pained me, to remind me of those nagging Taite responsibilities.
Responsibility
—another horrible word. You’re so unlike me at times. In fact sometimes, Shelby , I wonder if I had anything to do with your birth.”

“You didn’t, Uncle Alfred.”

“Oh, that’s right. Pity. My brother was so like Somerton, right down to that horrible cleft in his chin—which is why I wear this beard, you know, to camouflage mine own. You’d have more spirit if I’d cuckolded your father, damn me if you wouldn’t. But then, I never could abide your mother, God rest both their starchy souls.”

Shelby’s smile faded. Not because of his comments about her parents, who’d both died a dozen years ago after living lives quite separate from those of their two obligatory offspring. It was her uncle’s comments about her lack of spirit that upset her. “I don’t have any spirit, Uncle Alfred? Do you really believe that?”

Alfred laid down the top hat and cape he’d picked up and walked over to his niece. “Did I say that? Oh, I’m sorry, darling. But you have been moping a bit of late, haven’t you? Chin—blessedly not cleft—dragging on the carpets and all of that? You’ve been unhappy. Probably because you’re so very proper and upright otherwise.”

“Unlike you,” she said sadly.

“Ah, yes. I remember my own youth, long gone and sorely lamented. Was asked to leave two prep schools and three colleges—a Taite record, and one of which I remain inordinately proud. But I lived, darling, I experienced! I toured Europe , traveled across America , rubbed elbows with the little people, learned all about this real life you’ve been hinting at so longingly tonight.”

Shelby’s heart began to beat faster, excitement at her uncle’s adventures warming her blood, speeding her pulse. “You did? I never knew, never guessed. You broke out, Uncle Alfred? You broke away from all this, went your own way—experienced life?”

“Oh, I most certainly did, my child.” He sighed, bent down, and picked up his snifter once more. “And then I… settled. Being cut off from one’s allowance while sitting in a broken-down Thunderbird in the middle of an Arizona desert tends to bring one sharply to his senses. Now I drink, and I squire old ladies wearing too much old family money and definitely too much scent, and I drink some more. But I do have my memories. Those I do have.”

“Memories,” Shelby repeated, chewing on her bottom lip. Perhaps, she thought, being settled wouldn’t be so bad, not if she had memories. Her smile began to grow again, the fairly crazy idea that had knocked on her mind earlier now finding an open door and a welcome mat.

She put her arms around her uncle and kissed him soundly on his flushed cheek. “Oh, thank you, Uncle Alfred. Thank you so much!”

He stepped back, holding on to her arms, looking deeply into her eyes. “Thank me? For what?”

“Why, for helping to create me, of course,” she said, kissing him yet again. “I’ve got some of your spirit somewhere inside of me. I must. And it’s about time I did something with it, before I
settle.”

If Shelby had taken the time to plan her every move, she probably wouldn’t have done it. She’d have thought of a dozen reasons, two dozen reasons, why she should just forget any thoughts of—the word she sought, then found, was
freedom
—and simply go on existing, not living.

Go on being Somerton’s sister, Parker’s fiancee, the Ice Maiden. Spend the summer attending pre-wedding parties, unwrapping silver salad tongs, picking invitations, having fittings of her gown. Organizing the Taite-Westbrook merger—er, wedding—so that it would be the sensation of the year.

Strangled by ivory peau de soie, trapped in a web of Alencon lace. Grandly wedded, politely bedded, and then spending the remainder of her life attending parties, hosting parties, volunteering in the hospital gift shop three hours a week, turning a blind eye to Parker’s litde sexual peccadilloes with a string of disposable females, drinking just a tad too much wine after dinner… and quietly going insane.

So Shelby didn’t think. She didn’t plan. Well, not much anyway.

Mostly she acted.

Five days after the charity ball, she pulled Susie into the bedroom, flung open the doors to her walk-in closet—the one with the rotating hanging rods, the one that held enough clothes, shoes, hats, and purses to stock a large, upscale consignment shop—and told Susie to pick out some “normal” clothes for her.

Susie Helfrich dutifully took two steps into the closet, then stopped, screwed up her pug nose, and looked at her employer. “Huh? Um, that is, pardon me?”

“ Normal , Susie,” Shelby repeated, waving her arms a time or two, then pointing at her maid’s denim skirt and pink summer sweater, her scuffed white Keds.
“Normal.
Like yours, Susie. The sort of thing people would wear in… well, what people would wear in a small town.”

Susie looked at the clothing hanging on padded hangers and shook her head. “You don’t own anything like that, Miss Taite. You shop in New York and Paris twice a year. Nor— Um—most people shop in malls and outlet stores. Your clothing is really beautiful, but you don’t exactly have anything that I’d wear back home or anything like that.”

Shelby’s shoulders slumped, a princess who longed to be Cinderella before the fairy godmother showed up. “No, I haven’t, have I? Very well, let’s do the best we can with what we’ve got, all right?”

“I have a DKNY shirt I got at T.J.Maxx last year,” Susie offered helpfully, pulling out a pale green Donna Karan suit and looking at it critically. “So I suppose it wouldn’t be impossible that someone could have something like this. And Patty O’Boyle, my friend from back home in East Wapaneken , she finds lots of designer clothes at the outlets in Reading .”

Shelby nodded her approval, even if Susie did seem to be speaking a foreign language. What on earth was a TJ.Maxx? “Well, then, that’s fine. We’ll start with the Donna Karan. I’ll want skirts, a few Armani pantsuits, and matching tops. You pick everything. Enough for, oh, three weeks or so, Susie, plus shoes and other accessories. Do you think you could pack everything up for me? My luggage is in the closet in the hall.”

“You’re going on a trip?” Susie asked as she pushed the button that set the rolling rack into motion, eyeing the clothes assessingly as they passed by. “That’s nice.”

Shelby was already rummaging through the built-in drawers that lined one wall of the closet, pulling out hand-fuls of silk underwear. “Yes, very nice, Susie. And our little secret, all right? I—I just feel a need to get away for a few weeks before the wedding preparations begin in earnest. My brother would try to talk me out of it if I told him, so I’m just going to pack and leave. You can give him my note when I’m gone.”

“Are you all right, Miss Taite?” Susie asked as some of the underwear slipped from Shelby’s hands, sliding to the floor. “I mean, it’s none of my business, but you seem, well, upset. Did you and Mr. Westbrook have some sort of argument or something?”

“Ha! Parker? He’d never argue, Susie,” Shelby told her, bending down to gather up her unmentionables. “Oh, he might frown and ask me if I’d slept well because I seemed a bit cranky. But argue with me? No, Susie, I can’t see it.”

“Wow,” the young girl said, shaking her head so that her tawny pony tail slapped against her shoulders. “My mom and dad used to have some real humdingers. But they always made up afterward, went out to dinner, then locked themselves in their bedroom until late the next morning. I remember being able to hear them giggling through the walls. Mom explained to me that husbands and wives do argue, that it’s natural, and that it didn’t mean that they didn’t love each other.”

She leaned against the wall of the closet, blinking back sudden tears. “They loved each other very much, Miss Taite. Dad’s only half a person without her.”