Seaspun Magic (13 page)

By the time Arianne had left Jill's house about an hour later, she was thoroughly depressed and convinced all men were beneath contempt. She was just too sad to think about anything else. Jill, of course, having unburdened herself, was in a more cheerful frame of mind.

"So why do you continue to see Don if you're convinced it's going nowhere?" Arianne had asked her as she bundled Rae into his coat.

"What else is there to do?" Jill had returned with a sudden flashing smile. "I've invited him for dinner tonight—kids and all. I haven't given up hope—not entirely, that is."

But walking home with Rae hanging on to her hand, Arianne had serious doubts about almost everything in the universe. She felt as blue as she could ever remember feeling.

Nothing really made much sense to her. There was Larry, only too eager to start an affair, and what was she doing? Longing for a man who'd breezily walked out of her life as if nothing had happened between them, as if they'd never shared those wonderful hours together. Oh, yes, the two men were totally different, and she wanted the one who didn't want her. She could cry a river over Leo....

The Wednesday-morning wind sighing around the house and whistling through the gingerbread eaves caught at Arianne's red scarf as she and Rae started down the front stairs. The sky was overcast and the clouds hung low over dark-gray water. The tang of brine put a cutting edge to the sharp chill in the air.

The day had never fully arrived. The light was so dim with clouds and mist that it seemed night still lingered at ten in the morning.

She liked to walk to work two or three times a week; the shrouded mysterious light was no deterrent. At the bottom of the stairs the faint bugling notes of geese captured her attention, and she stopped to find them in the sky. But it was too cloudy, and she wondered at their flying so late in the season and on such a day. Then she spotted them, skimming just above the trees behind her house, heading south, a few migrating stragglers left far behind all the others. She followed them out of sight, and then her eyes fell on the old fort just down the hill.

The admiral's residence right on the beach was the closest one to hers in the neat line of houses below. Part of the home disappeared behind the curve of her forested hill. In the moment that her eyes dropped on the fort a figure detached itself from the trees to move around a corner of the residence. It was Leo.

She'd seen the figure only for a split second. The light was too dim to be certain. But she could have sworn that flicker of movement belonged to her lover, for she recognized the way he moved. She stared, struck immobile. Was it only wishful thinking? She started off to check, grasping Rae's little hand more firmly in hers.

From her house, muffled, came the sound of her telephone ringing. Arianne scooped Rae into her arms and ran back up the stairs. Could it be Leo on the phone? Her hands shook so, she could hardly get the key in the door. Her heart thudding madly in her throat, she dashed to the phone to snatch up the receiver.

"Hello?" She was breathless.

"Hi, doll!"

Her heart plummeted. She strove to keep the keen disappointment from her tone. "Larry... what a ... surprise."

"'Surprise'? Hey, it shouldn't surprise you when I call! I love calling you! I just managed to get myself off duty tonight. Let me take you for dinner. Jill said she'd baby-sit. What do you say?"

Arianne moistened her dry lips. The disappointment was crushing.

"Arianne?"

"Yes. Yes, all right, I'd like that." Her tone was cool, composed, light.

" I'll be around at seven. Bye, doll!'' And he hung up, not even waiting for her goodbye.

Arianne expelled a long breath. She put a hand to her forehead, brushing back the curls that spilled around her eyes. Seeing Leo had upset her whole existence all over again. She was shaking inside now with longing and need and regret.

Or had she seen him? It was just her imagination, most likely. In any case, tonight she was going out for dinner with Larry. And if,
if
Leo was in town, then all the better. He would realize that not all men ran out on single mothers, that there were some men who had the where-withal to stick around.

All day in the shop she half expected Leo to call her, announcing his return, but it didn't happen. While Orly closed up shop, she picked up a few groceries and looked after some other chores. So by the time she returned to the shop, Orly and Rae were ready to go and waiting for her. Her boss wouldn't let her walk home in the winter-time, for by five o'clock it was dark.

When Orly dropped her and the baby off in her yard there was no shabby car there waiting for her. The disappointment was blunted by now. Her boss always waited until she was inside the house before driving away, and Arianne turned in her lit doorway to wave him off. The house was quiet all around her.

In a rush to get ready for her date with Larry, Arianne took Rae straight to Jill's, then dashed back home for a quick bath and a change of clothes. She couldn't help wondering if Leo would call now, knowing that she'd be home. But of course he didn't.

Going out with Larry was a good idea, she realized when he arrived at seven. He was amusing and ready to keep her entertained the whole evening, when otherwise she would have just sat home, mourning for what might have been.

It was over cheesecake and coffee that the officer off-handedly remarked, "Say, Jill was telling me something interesting. She said you have ESP and that you've helped her many times already. That's really something, Arianne."

Arianne sat there stunned. Jill had given away her secret—to Larry. Why would she have done such a thing? She had sworn not to tell anybody, not anybody! Who else had she told? Who would Larry tell? Dammit, she had trusted her friend! Arianne prayed the hovering waitress hadn't overheard anything too interesting.

Annoyance completely spoiled her enjoyment of the superlative cheesecake. If word got around... if the ugly publicity surfaced, she might have to move, whether she was ready or not. Her heaven could quickly turn into a hell. She had been aware she'd have to change her life-style, but a leak like this would force her hand. Things were going too far, too fast. And what rated Larry so high in Jill's estimation that she would break her word?

Puzzled, Arianne downplayed Jill's version of her powers, saying that the incidences were mainly coincidental or accidental.

"I don't agree, Arianne," Larry said, shaking his head. "Seeing her divorce papers where they'd fallen down the register—that's no accident! It's fabulous, fantastic—thrilling!"

She smiled weakly. "Most things are when they belong to someone else."

"No, I mean it. I'm in awe. I've never known anyone like you before."

Arianne wished he didn't know her now. "Listen, Larry..." Very intense, she leaned toward him across their little restaurant table. "This is important to me. Will you keep it quiet? Please? I don't want it to get around."

"Oh? Oh, yes, sure I will. Of course! I understand. You're safe with me. Of course you have to keep it under your hat. You would get mobbed otherwise, wouldn't you?" He was sympathetic. "People wouldn't give you a second's peace. They'd be pestering you day and night for help." He shook his head. "They'd be throwing money at you—people can be so inconsiderate!"

Was he being facetious? He said he understood, but Arianne didn't think he really did. He saw dollar signs, and certainly a heap of dollars could be made using her powers, but a heap of trouble could come, too.

Larry's hand glided along the table. His fingers slid under hers and his thumb brushed over the pointed white nails. "You poor baby!" He sounded as if he'd love to cover her with kisses, comforting and otherwise, right then and there.

Arianne wished she had stayed home moping, after all. Delicately she withdrew her fingers, smiling even more weakly than before. "Larry, I think I'd like to go home now."

He agreed to that idea with such alacrity that Arianne was afraid he was going to try some of those kisses. She was relieved, therefore, when it turned out he only wanted to test her powers. He wouldn't believe she was any different from him until he actually saw evidence with his own two eyes.

To satisfy him, she brought out what was known in the psychic field as a deck of ESP cards. Millions of tests had been done with these cards, she told him. In universities and laboratories around the globe, wherever the psychic sciences were studied, such cards were standard equipment.

The pack consisted of twenty-five cards, five of each symbol: circle, cross, star, square, waves. She told him to shuffle the deck, then go through the cards one by one, and she would tell him what card he held in his hand by reading his mind. For her, this test was elementary, as easy as pie, since she'd performed it a hundred times before.

Arianne could sense Larry's excitement as he shuffled and reshuffled the cards. He rubbed his hands together, then picked up the first card.

"Circle." Arianne said.

"Right."

"Waves."

"Yup."

"Cross."

"Um-hm."

"Circle."

"Gosh...."

"Circle."

"Yikes!" Larry was grinning from ear to ear. "Wow! Let's go through the whole pack!" He could scarcely contain his eagerness.

Arianne rhymed off the symbols as fast as he flipped through the cards. Out of twenty-five, she ended up with three wrong. Her record discounted chance possibilities by far.

"Am I impressed!" Larry exclaimed, gazing at her in fascination. "Jill said—I mean, you know how people exaggerate, and I thought— Son of a bitch! And you're hiding yourself way out here in the sticks when you could... you could... Arianne, you could be making— do you have any idea how much money you could make? Just think of a day at the track!''

"I don't call horse races, Larry. I refuse." She smiled slightly. It was the most common request.

"But, why?" He could hardly believe his ears.

She hesitated, fiddling with her brandy snifter. She was still drinking Leo's brandy.

"Why not, Arianne?"

"Well, it sounds trite, I know, but there is good and evil, and what I have can be used either way. And calling the races... that's hardly fair, is it? Besides, I can't predict a race to make money for myself, only for others. It doesn't work for me. And I refuse to make it work for others."

"Ah! If you don't benefit nobody can?"

Arianne frowned. "I could benefit just by being paid for calling, Larry! I choose not to!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean—I'm just amazed, that's all. Floored! I wouldn't have you doing anything you don't want to. Come here and sit here beside me."

The remainder of the evening passed more smoothly. Larry was more careful about how he phrased his queries. And since their time was taken up with ESP questions and answers rather than lovemaking, Arianne relaxed. She enjoyed his company and his wit. It was enjoyable, after all, to have an attractive man pay so much attention to her. She even liked the rather stiff exercise her sixth sense received.

Larry hadn't been kidding; he really was fascinated by her abilities, and stayed past midnight probing and testing and trying to find some way for her to miss at those cards. A chance score was five right. She consistently came through with over twenty, no matter what. To make sure she wasn't cheating in some way, once he went into the kitchen with the cards while she stayed in the living room, and while he flipped through the deck, jotting down the reshuffled arrangement, she jotted down her version. That time she got all twenty-five right. Larry was flabbergasted.

"Does anybody know about you?" he asked as soon as he'd compared the two lists of symbols that were an uncanny exact match.

"What do you mean?" Arianne's brow wrinkled.

"Some research group or institute, something like that?"

"Well, I keep to myself now. Of course, there's my mother, a few friends...." She shrugged. "Like Jill,'' she added a trifle grimly.

"Can you read my mind right now?"

"No," she said with a laugh, and calmed his unease. "Unless you were to 'send' something to me specifically. I might pick it up.'' He didn't comprehend. "Think of your mind as a house with the door closed. Unless you open the door, I can't come in. So your thoughts are safe from me," she finished, her smile faint and a little sardonic. She wondered what he had been thinking for him to be so worried about the privacy of his thoughts—

He sauntered up to her. She was leaning against the edge of the big old refectory table Orly had left in the living room for her use. Putting a hand on the table on either side of her, he trapped her neatly, and before she could move or even twist her head he kissed her squarely on the mouth.

"Well, I am relieved you didn't see that coming!" Larry told her, grinning. "You've got a face that dreams are made of and a body to match, Arianne. I'm not so sure you should know all that goes on up here." He tapped his forehead, opening the way for her to slip out of reach. Running a hand through his dark-brown wavy hair, his brown eyes twinkled at her, inviting her to more intimacies.

But Arianne had had enough for one night. If he was going to get too amorous she'd have to cut short their relationship, and she didn't want to do that. Although she had mixed feelings about the times she spent with him, at least he gave her a chance to do something different and get out of the house. Arianne yawned—a broad hint that it was time to go—and invited him for dinner Sunday.

His wide smile made her realize he was overjoyed to be asked. She felt a little guilty then. There was still a seed of hope way in the back of her mind that Leo would walk right in the door any second now. He usually returned from his nocturnal wandering about this time.

***

She felt guilty until Sunday. It was beginning to seem that Larry was genuinely interested in her. He'd seen her four times now, and all he'd got for his trouble was one quick kiss...and he was still coming back! It was too bad she couldn't feel a little more enthusiastic. Was it going to take her another two years to get over Leo?