GI Brides (16 page)

So! Her orders had come. This was her duty, obviously, to go back home and take over. One couldn’t expect Cinda to do everything. She must go at once.

So, God had undertaken, and this was His order! But He would go with her! He would be there to show her step by step what to do. Was that it?

She closed her eyes for one breath of a second, and then drawing a deep breath and glancing up at the clock, she said: “All right, Cinda! I’m taking the first train in the morning. I’ll be there a little after two o’clock. You carry on till I get there, please, Cinda.”

“I sure will, Miss Lexie. An’ don’t you worry none. I’ll do just as I would be, an’ no mistake. Me heart is all right, even if me brain don’t always work the way Miss Elaine thinks it should. Goo’-bye. I’ll look out for everything.” And she hung up.

Lexie turned from the telephone and went swiftly back to the dean’s office.

“I’ve got to go back,” she said breathlessly. I’ve just had a phone call. I must leave on the morning train. Will I have to come back here again to get my credentials for that examination, in case I find opportunity to take the examinations in my own city?”

The dean shook his head and smiled with his characteristic kindness.

“No,” he said kindly, “I’ll fill out the paper for you right away, and I’ll write my friend in the university in your city tonight. I’m sure it can be arranged. I’m sorry you can’t finish with us, however, for I had counted on using you later in our college. I felt you would fit right in here. Nevertheless, if the way opens later for that, you will let us know, please.”

Much relieved, Lexie came away with her papers, and hurried to her room to pack, trying not to think about what she might be returning to, doing her best to keep her anger from rising when she thought of Elaine mauling over her mother’s precious papers, and reading her own intimate words not written for others’ eyes.

It was a sad, confused time, hustling the simple belongings into her trunk, stopping to say good-bye to the friends she had made in the college, trying to explain breathlessly about a sick sister with her children. And then behind it all, in her heart there was an ache of worry about the kind old friend of her father’s who was lying unconscious and in danger in a hospital. Oh, if she could only ask his advice about this. But that was out—nobody to go to now but God. Would God care, and go with her and guide her? she wondered fearsomely. She hurried with her packing, praying that all would be well. This was something she
had
to go through. It was going to be hard, and maybe long and disappointing, but it was right she should do it, and she
must
do it even if everything else she had wanted had to be given up. It was sort of like the boys who went to war. They
had
to go, even though it wasn’t a pleasant prospect. They had to stay and fight it out, even though it might end in death for themselves. And in a way, this was like that. This was death to herself, of her own life and plans. Giving up for righteousness’ sake. She must go, but perhaps God would go with her. Surely it was He who had answered her prayer by letting her know that she was needed at home at once. Only, what was she going to be able to do when she got there? Oh, if Judge Foster would only get well so she could talk to him for a little while. But perhaps if she talked to God in the same way she would have talked to Judge Foster, He would somehow make her know what she ought to do.

So all the way of the journey she sat with closed eyes, her head back on the seat, trying to talk the situation over with God, and to realize that His Presence must be there with her, ready to help, if she would only put herself into His hands and be willing to hand over her own wishes.

When Lexie reached the street in which the little white house was located, she sighted the shining limousine again parked before the white gate, pompous, liveried chauffeur and all, and with quick resolve she turned and skirted that end of the street and slipped into the field behind the house. She did not intend to encounter that lawyer again, not if she could help herself.

But now she had the advantage of coming in quietly by the back door when they thought she was far away and had no idea she was returning. Yet she wished she knew what was going on, and just what line Elaine was taking. There was no telling how she might have twisted words of her mother’s diary to serve her own purposes.

Very quietly she entered the kitchen and put her suitcase down in the laundry entirely out of sight from even a casual observer passing through either the dining room or kitchen. Then cautiously she went over to the side wall close to the dining room door.

The door into the living room was wide open. She could even see the large flat foot of the lawyer as he lounged in the big chair by the table, but she kept well back so she could not be seen herself. It was obvious that she could not go upstairs without being seen by him. She would have to stay here until he was gone. Softly she swayed back again, entirely out of sight, and suddenly she became aware of another figure across in the dining room, unobtrusively planted just inside the partly open china closet door. This china closet was next to the living room door, but its doorway opened in such a way that one could stand inside and reach dishes without being seen from the living room. And that was where Cinda was standing. She was absolutely motionless, and in such an attitude that upon the appearance of anyone from the living room she could in an instant appear to be exceedingly busy picking out the right dishes and selecting the linen from the linen drawer for the meal she was preparing. But in the meantime, she was motionless, listening with all her might! It was all too apparent that Cinda had no scruples against listening in on any conversation that went on in that household, of which she was for the time the custodian.

And while Lexie would not have justified a listener under ordinary circumstances, nor have felt justified in arranging to listen herself, somehow she couldn’t help being glad that Cinda was there, ready to be a witness, should there be need of a witness to anything that went on. Anyhow, there was nothing she could do about it, unless she should walk right in and reveal to her sister and Mr. Thomas that she had arrived home and was in a position to hear what they were saying. And after all, hadn’t she a right to hear if there was a conspiracy going on against her, and that involved using evidence Elaine imagined she had found among her mother’s papers? Certainly she must understand this thing fully.

So Lexie kept very still and listened through the long silences while papers rattled and the lawyer cleared his throat and coughed a little now and then. At last she heard a final page turned in whatever papers he was reading, and the whole bunch was laid down on the table. Lexie wished she dared step over nearer the door to see if that was really her mother’s diary he had been perusing, but she knew if she should be discovered now it would only precipitate trouble, so she remained as still as stone and listened.

“Yes, well, Elaine,” said the lawyer with his offensively intimate tone, “that is valuable, of course, especially that reference to yourself, and the distress you seem to have caused her by asking for money. But there is no definite evidence. Nothing decisive enough. I will say, however, that there are three or four distinct sentences there that if elaborated upon somewhat, might prove to be just what we want. How good are you at imitating handwriting?”

“Well,” said Elaine, “I used to be good at that sort of thing at school. They said I would make a great counterfeiter,” and she laughed excitedly. “What is it you want me to write? I used to try and imitate Mamma’s handwriting. I remember several times when I wrote excuses for absence from school and signed her name, and the teacher never knew the difference.”

“Well, I should think you would be quite clever at this, then. Just the changing of a word here and there and the evidence is perfect. See here! There is plenty of room right there to make this read, ‘Her father wanted her to have this money.’ And where it says ‘it was her father’s wish,’ make it read ‘it was her mother’s wish.’ And then if you can insert on this line below, ‘It
was her mother’s money left to her,
my husband said before he died.’ Then down on this next vacant line, ‘My conscience will be clear if I give her
some
of it, and give the rest to my own child.’”

The hot blood rolled over Lexie’s cheeks and receded, leaving her white and stricken as she listened to this perfidy, and she waited for her sister to reply, hoping against hope that Elaine would demur. But Elaine’s only answer to all this was a light laugh.

“Is that all, Mr. Thomas? Why, that’s easy. And it doesn’t seem at all wrong. It just makes the meaning of what is written clearer, doesn’t it? But would just those little changes give you the evidence you want?”

“Well, they certainly would make a great difference. But you must be careful to make the writing so like the rest that there will be no questioning it. Would it be possible, do you think, to use the same kind of ink? Would there be an old bottle of ink about that might have been used to write the rest of this little book?”

“Why, yes, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I could find some. In fact, I think I saw a bottle of ink standing on Mamma’s desk when I was looking through it for this book.”

“That would be very good,” asserted the lawyer importantly. “But now, Elaine, you know, there is one very important matter still unsettled. You do not know definitely how much money is involved in this matter, nor where that money is located. I shall have to know that, of course, before I can be sure that it is worth my while to go deeply into this at all. You know there are expenses involved. This matter alone of hiring witnesses to prove these things. That takes plenty of money. And you haven’t given me any but the vaguest idea of how much money there will be when we get track of it.”

“Oh, but I told you I was willing to give you ten percent of all that I get, regardless of how much it is,” said Elaine sweetly. “And I have always supposed that my mother’s estate that she left in trust for me was from thirty thousand dollars to perhaps seventy-five or a hundred thousand! That of course is what I have hired you to find out for me.

“Well, but suppose the money cannot be found, or suppose it has been spent, you can sue my sister for it, can’t you?”

“Well, yes, I suppose we can, provided we can prove beyond any doubt that the money was there when your father died, that it was in his wife’s trust and left entirely to you.”

“Oh, but I’m sure it was,” said Elaine in her sweetest, most confident tone. “Of course I wouldn’t have sent for you if I hadn’t been entirely sure.”

“But, my dear, why didn’t you look up these claims several years ago? I should have supposed you would have done so as soon as you were married, and while you had a husband to help in looking up your evidence.”

“Oh, but you see I didn’t think of such things then. I had a husband to support me, and it didn’t occur to me that I would be left alone with three little children to support on simply nothing! But I’m sure you’ll be able to work this out, won’t you? You wrote me that you were sure you could.”

“Why, yes of course, but again, Elaine, as I told you, it will cost you something to get witnesses to substantiate your claims. Well, now I think that is all for today, and I’m very glad you found this diary. If you will work these changes out as I suggested, and as quickly as possible, we will get right to work on the case. Of course, in case you find that your sister has spent all this money that ought to have been yours, has she any money or property that we can levy on?”

“Oh yes, she has a part ownership in this house, or, that is, I believe she claims it is all hers, since she says her mother paid for it. Of course we know she didn’t. But if worse came to worst, we could claim on this house, couldn’t we?”

“This house?” said the lawyer. “Why yes, I suppose so. But my dear, surely you know that this house would be a mere drop in the bucket when we are talking in terms of fifty or a hundred thousand dollars. You couldn’t possibly expect to get more than five or six thousand dollars out of this plain little house in this locality, you know. Seven thousand at the most.”

“Oh,
really
? Is that all? But I always supposed this was a very valuable property indeed. My father used to say it was.”

“Well, that a number of years ago, and property depreciates. But of course there would be other ways to get money out of your sister. If she had a job we could arrange that a certain percentage of her wages would be paid directly to you. There are ways to make such arrangements. However, that we can talk over later. And now I really must go. I am late for an appointment already. And you, my dear, will get right to work on that diary and make the changes, please. Bye-bye, and take care of yourself, darling!”

Heavy footsteps went out the door and down the path to the street. At once the expensive engine began to turn and was soon on its way. The obnoxious lawyer was sped away out of sight.

Lexie had waited during the talk, silent but boiling with rage, appalled at the lengths Elaine was willing to go to accomplish her ends, and wondering what she ought to do.

Of course if Judge Foster was well, she would have carried the story at once to him. But since he was in the hospital, even if he was better, she must not worry him with her affairs now.

But God! God was there! She could send a quick SOS for help from Him fully, and go each step as He seemed to direct.

But now suddenly this interview had come to an end, and something must be done. She must decide just what she was going to do. She must be wary and careful. She must not let Elaine know just yet that she was at home nor that she had heard the interview between the lawyer and her sister. And yet she must contrive some way to get hold of that precious diary before Elaine could mutilate it in any way. However, that was something that would take time and thought to work out, and the first thing she must do was to see Cinda somewhere—out in the yard perhaps where Elaine could not hear them talking. And it wouldn’t be impossible for her to slip out the back door now without making a bit of noise, but she must attract Cinda’s attention before she left, for she must find out if anything more had happened. She also needed to find out if Cinda had heard this shameful talk between the lawyer and her sister.