GI Brides (17 page)

But before Lexie could make a move, she heard Cinda stamping out into the kitchen, making her footsteps sound as if they came from the cellar door and had not been near the dining room. Cinda was clever. She had come across that room so silently that not even a fly could have heard her. And when she saw Lexie, she lifted one eyebrow and winked one eye as if she had known all the time that Lexie was there. Had she? Dear old Cinda!

So with a quick motion, Lexie covered the space between herself and the back door and crooked her finger at Cinda to follow. Cinda, without a sound beyond a slight nod of her head, rattled some pans on the stove and then slid out of the door into the backyard.

They went out behind the old chicken house far enough from the house so that their voices could not be heard.

“Aw, but I’m glad to see you home!” said Cinda. “Such goin’s on as there has been! Did you hear all that stuff they was gettin’ off just now? How
much
did you hear? I didn’t hear you come in, but I was hopin’ you’d get in on some of it. And I was that glad when I got out here an’ saw you.”

“I got in while the lawyer was reading the diary. Was there much before that?”

“Not so much. Only he come in and told her she was havin’ ta pay somethin’ down or he couldn’t do anythin’. An’ then she cried an’ said she didn’t have much. She said she’d give him twenty-five dollars, but she had ta keep somethin’ ta live on till she got her fortune. Then he give in an’ said okay, he’d do it if she’d pay ten down, an’ the rest as she got it from the government. She cried a lot, but she give him the ten. I hid behind the portiere an’ seen her. An’ then she told him about the diary. It seems he put her up to lookin’ in the attic whilst you was gone, an’ he ast her a lot of questions about didn’t she find any deeds of property, ur any receipts of your ma havin’ paid any large sums to anybody, an’ she cried a lot more an’ sobbed out no, she hadn’t, an’ then he took the book an’ began to read. That musta been about the time you come in. I thought I heard a little click of the kitchen latch, but I didn’t dast move enough to look. I figure it was better I should hear the rest. But I’m mighty glad you came.”

“Oh, so am I, Cinda! But if I only knew what I am to do now! I thought I had a friend to help me when I went away, a judge, a friend of my own daddy’s. He promised to help me, but when I tried to reach him after you telephoned, they said he was unconscious in the hospital from an automobile accident, and they weren’t even sure he was going to live.”

“Now, ain’t that a shame, Miss Lexie! But don’t you worry none. I’ll stick by you, and something’ll turn up.”

“Thank you, Cinda. I knew I could count on you. And now, there is one thing I’ve got to do, and that is to get that diary of Mother’s away from Elaine. I can’t have that tampered with!”

“Of course not, Miss Lexie. And you can count on me for that. I can snoop around and find out what she does with it, and snitch it away somehow and hide it for you.”

“Well, be careful, Cinda. You don’t want to get mixed up in this. That lawyer of hers can make trouble for
any
body, and if he
wants
to he is capable of putting us all in jail.”

“Don’t you worry about me, Miss Lexie. I didn’t cut me eyeteeth just yesterday. I can take care of meself. Now, go your ways, whatever that is, and I’ll keep a watch out. Where you going? To the store? Because you don’t need to today. She give me some ration cards an’ money an’ I went an’ bought her a steak. That was what she said she wanted. An’ I got plenty other things, butter and coffee and sugar, and some canned stuff and more vegetables. I figured it would be better to have some things on hand than to be continually having to run down to the store and leave them three babies to wander around alone without anybody to look after ’em. You might, however, get me a bit of cinnamon and ginger. There’s a can of pumpkin in the closet and I thought a pumpkin pie might come in handy, seein’s there’s some molasses that needs eatin’, so the ants won’t be prancin’ all over the shelf.”

“All right, Cinda. I’ll get anything else you need. I’ve a little more money now, if Elaine didn’t give you enough. But I shan’t be gone long. I just want to telephone and find out about Judge Foster.”

“Yes, you do that,” said Cinda understandingly. “If there’s anybody needs a good friend, I’d say it was you, and I guess the good Lord understands that, too. You might ask Him to see to that!”

“Oh, I have, Cinda—all the way home! Oh Cinda, I’m glad you know Him, too.”

“Well, I ain’t sayin’ how well I know Him, but I’ve always felt when it come to the last pinch that the Lord wouldn’t let me down. Now you run along, and I won’t let her know you’ve come back yet.”

So Lexie hurried down to the drugstore to telephone to the judge’s office, hoping it wasn’t closing time yet. She wouldn’t feel free to telephone his house.

She was greatly relieved to hear the cold-voiced secretary.

“Oh, is this Judge Foster’s secretary?” she asked eagerly.

“It is!” said the cold voice.

“Well, I’m just the daughter of an old friend of his, and I’m calling to know how he is. Has he recovered consciousness yet? I’ve been so worried.”

“Oh!” said the cold secretary, giving her voice a space in which to warm up a little. “Why yes, Judge Foster has recovered consciousness somewhat. That is, the doctor thinks he is a trifle better, and he has a chance to recover. Of course that is not certain yet, but it is more hopeful than yesterday.”

“Oh, that is so good!” said Lexie, with tears in her voice. “I was so worried.”

“Of course he won’t be able to talk with anyone, not now, nor probably for a long time.”

“Of course,” said Lexie sadly. “But if you should have a chance when he is better, will you tell him Lexie Kendall sent him her love, and tell him—I’ve been praying for him.”

The secretary evidently was embarrassed by the message.

“Why yes, surely,” she said formally. “I’m sure he’ll be much pleased when he hears that. Suppose you give me your name and address. It’s my business to keep a record of all calls.”

So Lexie gave her name and address, and turned sadly away from the telephone. Of course she hadn’t really expected that she would get even as good news as that he was a little better, but it saddened her to feel so utterly cut off from her only earthly friend, now in this new perplexity.

M
eanwhile, Cinda felt that this was her time to act. Great interests were at stake and she seemed to be the only one who could do anything about it. She resolved that she and she only would be responsible for securing that little diary book that seemed to be playing such an important part in these affairs.

So Cinda prepared a delicious drink, a combination of grape juice and ginger ale and one or two other small spicy ingredients known only to herself. By this time she had arranged to have plenty of ice on hand, and the drink was cold and sparkling.

Elaine was just about to settle down at the desk to experiment with the writing she was supposed to do in the little blue diary that lay closed before her on the desk, when Cinda entered bearing the drink.

Cinda was all honey and smiles, with oily words.

“Miss Elaine, my lady,” she said obsequiously, “I brought you a nice pleasant drink. I’m sure you’ll like it. It was always a favorite of my best patients, an’ this mornin’ when I went to the store I made out to get the ingredients so that you could try it. And now I thought, she’s tired, with all that discussion with her lawyer, an’ she oughtta lie right down an’ take a rest, so I’ll take her drink in to her and get her to drink it an’ then lie down on the bed in her quiet room an’ have a little sleep, an’ then she’ll feel real better. Now you go into your room, and I’ll draw the shades for ya and keep the childer real still when they come home an’ not let ’em bother. An’ when you wake up you’ll feel like a new woman.”

This was Elaine’s language. She simply thrived on such talk.

Graciously she accepted the glass, for she was thirsty and the frosty crystal tempted her after her hectic discussion with Bettinger Thomas.

“Why, yes, this is really delicious, Cinda. I’ll have to get you to make some of this for me when I have callers,” she said.

Oh, if Cinda could just keep up this line of talk, Elaine would be as putty in her hands, but Cinda was so raring mad inside that it was a question how long she could endure in honeyed tones. Still, Cinda realized the necessity for strategy, and she was ready to endure as long as the time required her services. Amazingly she was able to coax Elaine into her bedroom, making her lean on her arm as she led her there. She lowered her gently to the bed, threw a light blanket across her shoulders, adjusted the shades, opened a window where there was a pleasant breeze, and tiptoed out, closing the door after her gently.

As she passed the desk she noted the little book that had figured so largely in the afternoon’s affairs. She moved with extraordinary stealth across the room. Her large, capable hand enveloped the small leather-bound book and swept it up under her apron, conveying it in safety into the outer kitchen. She secreted it, wrapped in a clean dish towel, down in the capacious pocket of Lexie’s coat that was bulked above her suitcase in the little laundry down on the far side of the laundry tub where Elaine would never in the world bother to go.

With some satisfaction she turned to the kitchen and prepared an unusually fine supper for the silly dupe, who by this time must be sound asleep, as there came no sound at all from the bedroom where she had stowed her. Fortunately the children were making a victory garden with the children across the street, a neighboring daughter of the house having decided that something ought to be done with those children if the whole neighborhood was not to suffer. So she had set them all at something really worthwhile, and the children were greatly intrigued. It was probably the first time in their young lives that anyone had ever set them at something that was worth doing, and they liked it.

But Cinda was thinking hard and fast. Something must be done with that book to make it impossible for Elaine to find it again. She didn’t understand just what all this trouble was about, but she was keen enough to know that something very crooked was about to be put over upon Lexie, and the book was a part of it all. So, having purloined the book, she didn’t intend to have her efforts fail.

She planned her work at the sink under the window looking toward that back way across the fields where Lexie had disappeared, and when she caught a glimpse of the slender figure in the dark blue dress that she knew was Lexie, she took opportunity to slip out the back door and meet her down by the fence, the book still wrapped in its dish towel and further hidden in a paper bag.

“Here it is,” she said in a low, eager whisper, “and you’d best take it and put it in the bank out of harm’s way before you get home and she knows you’re here. Can’t you put it in one of these little boxes they keep jewelry and valuables in at the bank? I should think that would be the only way. Then they would never know you had it. I didn’t tell her you had come home. She’s asleep, and she won’t know what’s become of it. Maybe she’ll think the lawyer took it.”

Lexie peered into the paper bag, turned back the dish towel, and then with a mist of sudden tears in her eyes said: “Oh Cinda! You’re wonderful!”

“That’s okay with me, Miss Lexie, but don’t waste precious time now. You’ve just about enough time to get to the bank before it closes. I looked at the clock before I come out, an’ you can’t tell what minute herself will wake up an’ come yellin’ out the back door, an’ see you standin’ here with the book. Then the fat’s in the fire!
So go!
An’ don’t you dare bring that book back with you! You leave it in the bank, even if they’re closed an’ you havta pound on the door to make ’em let you in. Hurry,
quick
! An’ if you can think of something to do to stay away awhile longer, that would be all right, too, an’ let her get over the excitement of not finding the book when she wakes up, before
you
are home, so she can’t connect it with you. Now, go! Leave the rest to me!”

Lexie turned with quick, thankful comprehension and sped across the field back toward the village, laying plans as she went. Why, Cinda was really a wonder! She had planned the whole thing out cleverly, for Lexie really couldn’t have hidden that book in the house where Elaine could not have found it. Just what Elaine would say, whom she would blame, when she discovered it was gone, Lexie hadn’t stopped to think. At least
she
had the book, and she needn’t tell her sister where it was. Elaine needn’t suspect that she even knew about it. Trust Cinda for that.

Lexie arrived breathless at the bank almost ten minutes before closing time, having done some very rapid running. She paused inside the door to get her breath. Then she walked up to the cashier, whom she had known for years, and said she wanted to put her small account in the bank, and she wanted a safe-deposit box to keep some valuable papers in.

It didn’t take long to arrange the whole thing, get a new checkbook, make out a check from her college bank to put in her new account, take over the safe-deposit box, and lock the book safely inside. Then Lexie went out into the street again and tried to decide just what she would do next.

She had her handbag with her, for she had taken that when she first went to telephone about Judge Foster. And in her bag were the letters written by the dean of her college. Why shouldn’t she go down to the university in the city, and see what arrangements they were willing to make for her examinations? It was just as well to get it settled now as any time, and it really would be well of course to keep away until Elaine had gotten over her first excitement about the loss of the book.

So she took a bus down to the university and spent an interesting two hours meeting different college dignitaries and explaining her situation. She was greatly relieved to find that her credentials would be accepted and arrangements would be made for her necessary work if she would come down next week.

Lexie went home quite relieved about her examinations. It looked as if everything was going to be all right for her getting through without going back to college, although she was going to miss sorely the friends and associations she had made there. But still it was a relief to know that the people in the university were going to be cooperative and kindly. She was so elated about it that she almost forgot that she was going home to face Elaine and a trying situation.