Blue Mist of Morning (14 page)

"I'm counting on Bob's son, Rob, to show her a nice time.
They've known each other since they were kids, and she's fond of him.
Besides, she says St. Croix is the most beautiful island in the world.
I'm not so sure of that, but it is magnificent. Have you ever been?"

"Oh no, I've always gone home to visit Mom and the girls
during my vacations," Anne told him as a certain eager glow of
excitement animated her features. "To tell the truth, I've never been
anywhere really exotic, so I can hardly wait to see St. Croix."

Straightening in his chair, Ty reached across the desk and
caught one small hand in his and drew her around to him. His thumb
brushed provocatively over the throbbing pulse in her delicate wrist.
"That's one of the things I like about you, Anne," he said softly. "You
react to everything with such enthusiasm, even some-thing as simple as
going sledding in an unexpected snowfall."

"That's nice of you to say," she answered almost in a
whisper, wondering if he knew that she longed for him to take her in
his arms. "But my enthusiastic reactions might seem naive and childish
to some people."

"Your reactions are enchanting and very refreshing," he
declared firmly, then grinned. "And some people are dolts, so we don't
worry about what they think. Do we?"

"I never really have," she confessed without apology. And
when his hands moved to span her waist, she covered them with her own,
brushing her fingers over his as a strange and powerful sense of
belonging flooded her being. She felt amazingly happy and content, but
just as his hands tightened around her, as if he intended to draw her
down onto his lap, the study door opened. Anne stepped back away from
him as Jenny ambled into the room.

"I'm all packed," she announced, sliding her hands into
the hip pockets of her jeans. Though she wasn't bubbling over with
friendliness and good will, there was little sign of the usual
resentment in her face as she looked at her brother. "I thought I'd
better come down and find out when our flight is, so I'd know what time
I have to get up in the morning."

He shrugged. "I don't know the exact departure time. Anne
made the reservations," he said, turning to her inquiringly.

"The flight doesn't leave until three in the afternoon,"
she responded. "So, you'll be able to sleep late in the morning if you
want to, Jenny."

"Oh, I do. That's one of the nice things about not having
to go to my classes."

"I guess everybody enjoys not having to go to school once
in awhile," Anne said, smiling reminiscently. "But will you miss a lot by skipping two days of classes?"

"What does it matter if I do?" Jenny replied with a
careless toss of her hand. "None of the courses I take are all that
interesting anyhow. College can be a real drag."

"Maybe it wouldn't be such a drag to you, if you didn't
take the right to go to college for granted," Ty remarked curtly,
glancing at Anne. Leaning forward in his chair, he rested his arms on
the desk and stared at his sister. "You'd be wise to remember that
other people have to scrimp and save and sacrifice so they can go to
college. I imagine they find their classes less of a drag than you do.
You seem to find it very easy to forget how fortunate you are, Jenny."

"Oh, buzz off, Ty," his sister retorted, tossing her head
defiantly. "You're always hassling me, and I'm getting plenty tired of
it."

"Jenny, be careful what you say," he warned ominously,
standing behind his desk. "I don't know exactly what you're trying to
prove by your rebellious behavior, but I do know I'd like to turn you
over my knee."

"You'd better not even try!" Jenny growled furiously. "If
you do, I'll call Mother and tell her what you did."

Just as Anne was searching her brain for some way to halt
this argument before it deteriorated into a bitter fight, a knock on
the study door provided a perfectly timed diversion. Mrs. Wilkes, the
housekeeper, stepped into the room on silent feet. "A young woman to
see you, Mr. Manning," she said, and even as she made the announcement,
Millicent Beaumont rushed into the study. Spying Ty, she nearly ran to
him, clutching his right arm in both her hands and holding on, as if
she never meant to let go.

"Ty, I have to talk to you. It's important," she said
urgently, glancing at Jenny and Anne. "But alone, please."

Her insistent tone brought a questioning frown to his
brow, but he nodded. "We'll go across the hall."

As Ty and Millicent left the study, Jenny flopped down on
the sofa. "My, she sure was eager to see him, wasn't she?"

Nodding, Anne busied herself with the Peterson portfolio,
putting it and a few other separate papers into Ty's briefcase. Though
she tried not to think anything of Millicent's unexpected visit, the
beginnings of uneasiness stirred inside her.

That uneasiness increased considerably a few minutes
later, when Ty returned. "I have to go out for awhile," he said, his
expression beyond analysis as he looked at Anne. "And on second
thought, we'll also need to get the quitclaim deed for the Mayfair
property before we leave tomorrow."

"I'll make a note of it," she answered stiffly, turning
back toward the desk. When she heard his footsteps recede in the hall,
she felt a hard knot of distress tighten in her stomach.

"Well, well, what do you think of that?" Jenny remarked,
her face a study in curiosity. "I wonder what's going on with those
two. Could they be starting up again where they left off?"

"I wouldn't know," Anne replied, striving to sound only
mildly interested. "Where did they leave off?"

"Oh, Ty and Millicent were very close once," Jenny said
matter-of-factly, getting up from the sofa and stretching sleepily.
"But then they just drifted apart, and she married somebody else. But I
heard she and her husband separated recently. So, who knows, maybe she
and Ty will get back together."

"Yes, who knows," Anne repeated dully. Biting down hard on
her lower lip, she pretended to be searching for something in the
briefcase on the desk. And she only managed to muster a semblance of a
smile as Jenny yawned loudly.

"It's deadly dull around here," the younger girl
complained, then shrugged. "I think I'll just go up to bed."

"All right. Sleep well," Anne murmured, as Jenny walked
out of the study, totally unaware of the pain her innocent comments had
inflicted.

On Friday morning Anne awoke to the sweet sound of birds
singing in the lemon and mango trees outside her window. Soft
early-morning sunlight streamed between the slats of the shutters,
creating a linear design of light and shadow on her bed. The long,
thick fringe of her lashes fluttered as she struggled to open her eyes,
but when she abruptly remembered she was actually on the exotic island
of St. Croix, excitement brought her fully awake. She sat up and
stretched her shapely bare arms above her head. Glancing at the bed
next to hers, she found that Jenny had buried her head beneath her
pillow to escape the light.

Slipping out of bed, Anne tiptoed to the pale blue tiled
bathroom that she and Jenny shared in the Peterson's guest bungalow. Ty
had a room and bath to himself across the hall, while Mike Bennett was
booked into a hotel. After washing her face, Anne brushed her teeth,
then tugged off the elastic band that secured the thick braid of her
hair. Standing before the large gold-framed mirror that met the
built-in marble vanity, she proceeded to brush the silken strands
briskly until they lay softly about her shoulders, shimmering like gold
with a healthy sheen. With deft fingers she replaited her hair and
pinned it into a chignon on her nape.

Back in the bedroom, she quickly dressed in a navy
sailcloth back-wrap skirt and white cotton-knit sweater, which she
thought would be suitable attire for the meeting she, Ty and Mike were
to have with Bob Peterson later in the morning. After stepping into
cork-heeled leather sandals, she picked up her sunglasses from the
dressing table and tiptoed out of the room. Ty's door was still closed
and, detecting no sound inside his room, she glided quietly down the
hall past the diminutive kitchen and through the bungalow's great room.

Even before she could push open the screened front door
and step onto the shaded veranda, she caught the combined fragrances of
the sweet white jasmine and the scarlet bougainvillea vines that
climbed the veranda columns. She ran lightly down the stairs to the
flagstone walk that cut through the lush green lawn scattered with
lemon trees. The clean citrus scent of their white blossoms mingled
with the perfume of the flowers and the saltiness of the ocean air, and
Anne took a deep, refreshing breath.

It had been nearly dusk when they arrived on St. Croix the
night before, so this morning was her first opportunity to see the
island in daylight. It was beautiful. Bordering the Peterson estate on
three sides was a lush subtropical forest where occasional tall
mahogany trees towered above the smaller logwood and bay trees. Both
the main house and the bungalow faced the sea, and as Anne followed the
winding path that led to the reef, she was dazzled by the shimmer of
sunlight on the wide expanse of water before her. This was the ocean as
she had never before seen it—crystal clear and sapphire blue.
Waves broke in a creamy froth on the beach and beckoned to her.

A natural stairway of sorts had formed in the reef, and
after picking her way cautiously to the bottom, she removed her sandals
and stepped barefoot into the cool sand. In May the rays of the sun
were not yet intensely hot, and their warmth now was tempered by a
caressing trade wind that stirred the tendril of hair at her cheek.
Tall coconut palms swayed in the breeze, their long, stiff fronds
whispering against one another.

At the water's edge Anne warily dipped one toe in the
foamy surf and found it delightfully warm. Wading toward the reef that
edged the far end of the beach, she smiled as the soft waves broke over
her feet, then sucked the sand from beneath her toes with their ebbing
flow. Slipping her hands into the pockets of her skirt, she breathed a
sigh. Something in the natural beauty of this secluded reef-enclosed
cove drew her thoughts to Ty and to her feelings for him.

Since Wednesday night, when he had left his house with
Millicent, Anne had tried desperately not to think about him. To some
extent, she had succeeded. Thursday morning in Alexandria had been
spent in preparations for the trip and to her surprise, she had slept
away a good deal of the flight to St. Croix. Then, on their arrival,
the excitement of meeting the Petersons had diverted her thoughts, as
had getting settled in the bungalow later Thursday evening. When
bedtime had come, she had fallen asleep almost the moment her head
touched the pillow. But now she was wondering if perhaps sleep was
becoming a defense mechanism that allowed her to escape from her
distressing thoughts.

Once she had realized she had fallen in love with Ty, her
feelings for him had intensified with breathtaking swiftness. Now, as
she walked along the beach, she felt hopelessly trapped by the love she
felt for him. Until the past few weeks, she had always led a structured
life, but now she knew she no longer had sole control of her destiny.
Self-discipline had been relatively easy when her main goal in life had
been to see Sue through college. Now, though she still cared deeply
about her sister's education, she realized her life was not so
one-dimensional. She had needs of her own, and falling in love had
awakened those needs. They nagged at her relentlessly, sweeping her up
in a turmoil of emotions that she was powerless to control. Simply
being near Ty was both a pleasure and an agony. There was a happiness
in loving him, but it was bittersweet. She needed his tenderness and
his passion and, most importantly, his love, but that didn't mean he
would ever be able to return her feeling. Life was just not so simple.

Stopping for a moment in the water that frothed about her
slender ankles, she lifted her face to the sun and allowed her troubled
gaze to drift with the milk white clouds that sailed across a brilliant
blue sky. Then she walked on again, breathing another sigh. Why had she
fallen in love with him? She hadn't wanted to, knowing he was a man
totally beyond her reach. Yet, little by little, day by day, liking and
respect had deepened to become an irrevocable love. Knowing herself as
the serious person she was, Anne was afraid that she would never stop
loving him, although he couldn't love her. She didn't want to live with
unrequited passion all the rest of her life.

If only she had exercised more self-discipline in her
relationship with him, she chided herself mentally. Then suddenly, she
took a sharp, startled breath as two large hands descended onto her
shoulders. Jerking her head around, she found Ty behind her, smiling
one of those lazy, slow smiles as her wide eyes met the clear blue of
his. All thoughts of self-discipline were swamped by her overwhelming
love for him and an answering smile trembled on her softly shaped lips.

In silence his nearly mesmerizing gaze darkened and held
hers for several spellbinding seconds, but at last he spoke, his deep
voice melodious. "I didn't expect to find you up and out so early, but
maybe I should have. After all, you once found an early morning snow
equally irresistible." As he glanced down at his rolled up khaki
trouser legs and his bare feet, his smile deepened. "You know, you have
this amazing ability to make me revert to childhood. First, you tempt
me into riding downhill on a sled, and now I find myself wading in the
ocean."

With a knowing grin, Anne retorted lightly, "I suspect I
didn't have to do much tempting. If you didn't want to go sledding or
wading in the first place, I'm sure I couldn't persuade you."

"I suspect you're right," he admitted, draping one arm
across her shoulders to turn her toward the sea. "Well, what do you
think of it? Does it make you want to go in for a swim?"