Star (15 page)

She smiled and was as honest as he had been. “Someone important.”

“That says it all, doesn’t it?” He laughed, but her words had hit their mark. She was exactly what he had thought her. Tough, smart, interesting, alive, ambitious, and independent.

Spencer escorted Elizabeth to her room, and said good night to her in the hall, and she turned as she opened the door and looked at him with a warm smile. “When are you going back to New York?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

“I’m staying here for a few days. I’m going to help Mom look for a house. But “I’ll be back at Vassar by next week, Spencer …” and then so softly he could barely hear her, “… call me.”

“How would I find you?” For the first time, he thought he might call her, although he wasn’t sure why. He found her a little overpowering, and yet it might be fun to take her to dinner or the theater. She certainly wouldn’t embarrass him, and she was interesting to talk to, and there was something vaguely intriguing about taking out a Supreme Court justice’s daughter.

She told him what dorm she was in, and he promised to remember. And then he thanked her for the evening. “I had a great time.” He seemed to hesitate, not sure what he should do next, but she looked supremely comfortable as she stood in the doorway.

“So did I. Thank you. Good night, Spencer.” And then the door closed quietly, and she was gone, as he walked slowly back to the elevator, wondering if he would really call her.

The partner Spencer worked for was pleased with him when he went back to New York with reports of the induction, and the dinner afterward. It pleased the firm to have their young attorneys rub shoulders with important people. The fact that his own father was a judge hadn’t done him any harm with them either. And his father was pleased as well, when he told his parents all about it. He omitted any mention of Elizabeth though, somehow that didn’t seem important and he didn’t want them to get their hopes up.

And in the end, after thinking about it for a while, he decided not to call her.

But Elizabeth took matters in her own hands a month later when she came to New York to visit her brother. She looked him up in the phone book and called him. She called him on a Saturday, and he was surprised to hear her voice. He had been on his way out to play squash with friends from the office.

“Is it a bad time?” She sounded, as always, very mature,
and he smiled as he looked out the window and juggled his racket.

“Not at all. How’ve you been?”

“Fine. Vassar is a little better this term.” She didn’t tell him she’d been going out with one of her professors. But boys her own age always bored her. “I was wondering if you wanted to go to the theater tonight. We have a spare ticket.”

“Are you here with your parents?”

“No. I’m staying with my brother and his wife. We’re going to see
Summer and Smoke
at the Music Box Theater. Have you seen it?”

“No,” he smiled, “but I’d like to.” What the hell, how dangerous could it be with her brother there? He didn’t trust himself with her. He didn’t want to get involved with someone quits so intent on her future. He still remembered her answer when he asked her what she was looking for in life, and she had answered, “someone important.”

“We’re having dinner at Chambord before the theater. Why don’t you meet us there? Say, at six?”

“Fine. I’ll meet you there. And thank you, Elizabeth.” He wasn’t sure if he should apologize for not calling her, but decided it was best not to say it. And she certainly made things easy for him. The best restaurant, the best show, and an introduction to her illustrious brother, Ian Barclay.

Spencer arrived at the restaurant precisely on time, and recognized her instantly, in a well-cut black evening suit and a small black velvet hat perched atop a very appealing new hairdo. She seemed to take a lot of care about how she looked, and he liked that about her. She was good-looking and chic, and she always made an impression. For a girl not yet twenty, she had a lot of style, and so did her brother Ian. Spencer found him to be an
intelligent man, although a little forceful about his political ideas. But in spite of that, Spencer liked him. His wife was a very attractive English girl he had met while flying bombing raids with the RAF. She was the daughter of Lord Wingham, and Elizabeth made sure that Spencer knew it. Her life was filled with important names and illustrious people with powerful occupations. In an odd way, it made him feel powerful just being with her, as though some of it might rub off. They were all so damn sure of who they were, and where they were going, and it was easy to see why it all mattered to her so much. Ian and Sarah talked about spending Christmas at St. Moritz, and they had just been to Venice that summer. They had gone to Rome afterward, and had had a private audience with Pope Pius, because he knew her father. She had the enormous ease of the aristocracy, and seemed to expect that everyone knew the same people she did.

They enjoyed the play, and Spencer invited them to the Stork Club afterward, and they all danced and talked and laughed, and after that they went back to the Barclays’ apartment on Sutton Place. They had no children yet, and Sarah was far more interested in her horses. She talked about jumpers and hunters, and they invited him to ride with them sometime. It was all very pleasant, and this time when Spencer told Elizabeth he’d call her, he meant it. He felt he owed her something after the pleasant evening he had spent, which was precisely what she had intended.

He called her two weeks afterward, and he would have called her sooner, he explained, except that he’d been buried in work at the office. But she didn’t scold him for not calling. They made a date for the following weekend. She stayed at her brother’s again, and Spencer took her to dinner and dancing at the Stork Club. He wasn’t intent on impressing her, but Elizabeth wasn’t the kind of girl
one could take anywhere except the very best places. He told her about the cases he’d been working on, mostly litigation that involved business or taxes. It was interesting work, and she made intelligent comments. And that night, when he took her home, they stood outside her brother’s apartment, and he kissed her.

“I had a lovely time,” she said quietly, but there was something warm in her eyes just for him that didn’t go unnoticed.

“So did I.” And he meant it. She was good company, and she looked smashing in a silver dress her sister-in-law had brought her from Paris.

“What are you doing next weekend?”

“I have exams.” She laughed. “Stupid, isn’t it? It plays havoc with my social life.” They both laughed and he suggested she come back to New York the following weekend.

She did, and they went out again, and this time the kisses were a little more fervent. Her brother and sister-in-law were away for the weekend that time, at a hunt in New Jersey, and she invited Spencer in for drinks at the end of the evening. They sat on the couch for a long time, kissing and talking. And afterward he felt guilty about it. She was too young for him to be toying with her, and he couldn’t imagine that it would lead anywhere. Her world was more than a little beyond him. He wasn’t in love with her, but he was attracted to her physically, and he knew that he liked her. He liked the sense of power that flowed so freely in her world, yet he was also aware of a certain lack of warmth. Everything was very calculated and cold. But as a tourist in that world, he had to admit that it was amusing.

Elizabeth had told him she was going home for Thanksgiving with her parents, to San Francisco. But he
promised to call her when she got back. And when he did, she invited him to Palm Beach for Christmas.

“Wouldn’t that be a little awkward, with your parents?” He sounded startled, but she only laughed at him.

“Don’t be silly, Spencer. They like you.”

“I really ought to stay here. Christmas is a little rough on my parents now.” And Barbara had told them she wasn’t bringing the children in from Boston. She was involved in a serious romance, and she wanted them with her. He knew his parents were going to be very lonely, and Christmas always reminded them of the son they had lost more than the one they hadn’t. All of that raced through his mind, as he mulled over her unexpected invitation.

“Why don’t you come down later then? I’ll be there until after New Year’s. You can stay at the house, we have dozens of guest rooms.” A pronouncement he suspected accurately was no exaggeration.

“I’ll see if I can get the time off, and I’ll call you.” He called her before she left for Florida, and much to his own surprise, he accepted. He still wasn’t sure what he was doing with her, but whatever it was, it was not unpleasant.

Christmas passed uneventfully for him, and two days afterward, he began a week’s holiday from work, and flew to Palm Beach to stay with the Barclays. They were gracious and kind, and the house seemed to be filled with guests like him, and Elizabeth’s elder brother, Gregory, was there. He worked for the Treasury, and was a typically conservative banker. He was married, but his wife wasn’t there, and no one seemed anxious to discuss it, and Spencer didn’t pry. He was too busy with Elizabeth to care. They went to every party in town, and he decided he had never seen so many diamonds. Elizabeth herself wore a different evening gown every night, and a pretty
little tiara her parents had given her the year before when she made her debut.

“Well,” she asked him as they lay on the beach one day, “are you having fun?”

He laughed at the question. She was always direct with him, but he had decided he liked it. There was no playing around with her, no beating around the bush, no asking her what she really meant by that, she always told him. “Of course I am. What do you think? This is heaven. I may never go back to work, or New York.”

“Good. Then I’ll quit school, and we can run away to Cuba.” They had flown over once for a night of dancing and gambling at the casino. It had been an incredible week, and Spencer had to admit that he loved it. It was an easy life, filled with civilized people with interesting things to say and beautiful women covered with diamonds. It would be too easy to get used to it, but to what purpose? It was her life, not his. But at least for a little while, it was amusing.

“Are you liking school any better now?” He rolled over on one elbow to look at her. She looked splendid in a red bathing suit, and a dark tan that set off her auburn hair and dark eyes. She was a very pretty girl, and he liked her.

“Not much. I still feel as though I’m wasting time there.”

“I can see why.” He glanced at the butler approaching with lemonade and rum punches on a silver tray and turned to look at her again. “It’s awfully hard to go from this to school, and remember why you wanted to go there in the first place.”

“To tell you the truth,” she grinned happily, “I didn’t.”

“Well, you can’t be a lawyer if you don’t go to college.” He smiled and helped himself to the lemonade as she
sipped a rum punch and smiled at him beneath the brim of her sun hat.

“I guess I won’t be a lawyer then.” She sounded as though she was teasing and he laughed at her.

“Then what’ll you do instead, Miss Barclay? Run for president?”

“Maybe I’ll just marry one.”

He looked at her half seriously. “It would suit you.”

“Would you like to run for president one day, Mr. Hill?” He felt faintly uncomfortable at the gist of the conversation but he only smiled at her as he shook his head and played with the lemonade. She was a strong girl, and they were powerful people. You couldn’t play with them for long. And in a way, Spencer was almost afraid to. Inside, beneath the cool air he put on for her, he was a gentle soul, and he cared about other things. Things the Barclays never even dreamed of.

“Being president has never been one of my ambitions.”

“Senator, then. You’d be marvelous in public service.”

“What makes you think so?”

“You like people, you work hard, you’re honest and direct and you’re bright.” She smiled again. “And you know the right people.” He wasn’t sure he liked what she was saying, and he fell silent as he looked out at the ocean. He wondered if he had gone too far with her. Maybe coming to Palm Beach had been a mistake, but it was too late to change that. He was going back to New York in two days, and maybe after that he wouldn’t see her for a while. She was watching him as he ran it all through his head, and she laughed. “Don’t look so nervous, Spencer. I’m not going to attack you. I was just telling you what I thought.”

“You have a disquieting way of doing that sometimes, Elizabeth. I get the feeling occasionally that you always get what you want. I mean always.” And he didn’t want
it to be him. At least not for the moment. Not until he felt more for her than he did just then. And he wasn’t sure he ever would. They were good friends. But they were very different.

“What’s wrong with getting what you want?”

“Nothing, as long as everyone agrees it’s what they want too.” He said it quietly and she regarded him with probing eyes.

“And is it what everyone wants?” She said the words so pointedly that he almost trembled.

“Why don’t we go for a swim?” He didn’t want to answer her. He wasn’t ready to say what she wanted to hear, and he didn’t know if he ever would be. He still cherished dreams of a woman who needed him, who was gentle and kind and warm and loving. And Elizabeth was some of those things, but not many. She was other things instead. Other things that he had not yet made his peace with.