Vintage Love (249 page)

“I’d say so,” was Alan’s cool reply.

“Good,” Brandon Fraser said. “Today marked the halfway point in getting the steel spans across the harbor, as I understand it?”

“We’re halfway there,” Alan agreed with a faint smile, “in spite of S.C. North.”

His father frowned. “I think you should avoid thinking of this as a personal feud between you and S.C. North. I’m certain he doesn’t consider it that.”

Alan smiled sourly. “I fully agree. He sees me in conflict with his hired hands, such as Senator Lafferty.”

Brandon Fraser’s displeasure increased on hearing this remark. “I don’t think you should be flippant about this business. Your appointment as chairman of the bridge authority is the most important one you’ve ever held. It is vital to your future that you make a success of it. And to do that you must weld the various fractions in the community into a harmonious team determined to make the project a success. And you can’t hope for a successful completion without the backing of S.C. North and his interests.”

“So it seems,” Alan said quietly.

“It’s your problem, of course,” his father said in a grumpy voice, and looked down. “I’ll let your mother know you won’t be home until later.” He gave Judith another brief nod, then turned and walked slowly out, closing the door to the corridor after him.

Alan gave her a rueful smile. “You have just heard me being put nicely in my place. You put those letters in envelopes ready to mail while I’m working on the draft of the one to the steel factory.”

Judith went back to her own office, feeling sorry for the young man. It was not the first time she’d heard his father rebuke him, and she was certain it wouldn’t be the last. There was a strange relationship between Alan Fraser and his father. It dated back to the death of Alan’s older brother, Brian, a few years earlier. Brian had been his father’s favorite, and Brandon Fraser had been shattered when Brian was killed by a stray bullet in a hunting mishap.

With a sigh she placed the last of the letters in its envelope and prepared to return to the inner office and take down the message Alan was preparing for the steel company. Before joining him again, she quickly dialed her home phone number and spoke with her mother for a few minutes. At first Millicent seemed peevish at the idea of her remaining in the city for dinner, but she did admit there had been no special meal prepared, and when she found Judith was planning to dine with Alan Fraser she dropped all her objections, merely plaintively requesting that her daughter not be too late returning. Judith wearily promised she wouldn’t be and hung up.

Alan was absorbed in his task of preparing the letter when she went in. He gave her a brief glance. “This is not coming easily,” he said. “I want to be sure to get the main points over strongly.” And he nodded for her to sit and wait until he was ready to dictate.

It was nearly six-thirty when she finished typing the completed letter. By that time Alan was standing waiting for her. He smiled as she addressed the envelope.

“We’ll want it to go special delivery,” he said. “Probably won’t get there any quicker, but at least they’ll know we wanted them to get it in a hurry.” He paused. “Hungry?”

“Starving,” she admitted as she sealed the letter in its long envelope and got up to get her coat and join him.

“I’ll go ahead,” he volunteered, “and while I’m mailing these, you can freshen up for dinner.”

Judith smiled. “Thanks,” she said. “That would help. I feel a wreck after being here all day. I’m not sure this suit is right for the Harbor Room.”

“You look great,” he said gallantly. “Don’t worry about it.”

A brief stop in the washroom and fresh make-up gave her some confidence. The suit was neatly tailored and did fit her well. She met him in the downstairs lobby with a smile.

Alan said, “I’m looking forward to dinner. One of S.C. North’s few projects of which I approve is the Harbor Room. It offers a decent meal, and the view is superb.”

She laughed. “I doubt that he enjoys it any more now that the bridge is going up.”

“You may have a point there,” he agreed as he held the door open for her to go out into the street.

They waited for the lights to change and then hurried across to the tall, recently constructed North Building. One of the express elevators serving the penthouse restaurant opened its doors, and they stepped inside to be whisked to the top.

The headwaiter greeted them as soon as they left the elevator for the carpeted, glass-walled luxury of the Harbor Room. The big roof-top restaurant was doing a brisk business, but because of its unusually spacious design and carefully spaced tables it had an air of quiet decorum. They were seated at one of the round, white-clothed tables near the outside glass wall, with a commanding view of the harbor and the rapidly rising bridge. The headwaiter made a smiling comment and then left them with over-size menus to select their choice of dinners.

They decided on lobster dinners, since the Harbor Room was noted for its sea food. Their dinners ordered, they sat back to talk and relax as the day drew to an end.

Alan’s thin young face was more serious than usual. “I had the idea Harvey Wheaton might have heard something when I talked to him today,” he said. “And the Mayor certainly had news. Also, I’m not altogether sure but that Dad has heard some rumors there is trouble in the offing.”

“You really feel that?”

“I’m afraid so,” he said. “Perhaps after I talk with the Mayor in the morning I should phone the Governor in Concord and see if any of the gossip has reached his august ears.”

Judith pictured the granite-faced, middle-aged man who headed the state and whose irascible temper and urgent desire not to be bothered by civic feuds were legendary. She said, “It’s not likely he’ll want to hear anything about it.”

“But extremely likely that he has, if Senator Lafferty is mixed up in what’s happening. When Lafferty was a Senator, he and the Governor served the same party side by side, and they’re close personal friends.”

“I suppose that’s what makes Lafferty so useful to S.C. North,” Judith suggested with some bitterness.

“That’s easy to figure,” he agreed. “I won’t bother Governor Thorne unless I feel I have to. But he does have a big stake in the bridge. The state has more cash behind the project than the city; the federal government is merely backing the state’s borrowing for the project. So in the end it is the Governor who is chiefly responsible.”

“I see what you mean,” she said.

“Technically, the bridge authority has the full say now,” Alan went on. “And as chairman, I should be the ruler of the roost. But it doesn’t work out quite that simply. We still have to deal with politicians and politics all the way until the last bolt is fixed in place.”

Judith gave him an understanding look. “I think that is what worries your father. He knows what a hard position you’re in.”

Alan looked amused. “What worries my father is his complete lack of confidence in me!”

“Is that really true?”

“I think so.”

“And I doubt it. He worries about you. But I’m sure he’s secretly proud of what you’ve done so far.”

“The only person he was ever truly proud of was Brian,” the young man opposite her said bitterly. “You must know that! You grew up with us. It was always Brian who was the favorite.”

Judith tried to placate him, saying, “But isn’t it true the older son is usually the favorite?”

“Not necessarily,” Alan said stubbornly. “Everything that Brian did was right, and almost everything I tried was wrong. Father’s been stupidly one-sided in his attitude.”

“You’re winning him over,” she assured him.

Alan glanced out at the harbor and the partially finished bridge; the gray light of a gathering dusk served as a background for the horizon of the old city. “I wonder,” he mused. “Perhaps if I work a miracle and the bridge finally becomes a reality.” He glanced across at her. “You can’t have any idea how many times the bridge has been proposed and the project abandoned because of petty greed and jealousies. Now North wants to start trouble again!”

“But you’ve gone so far with it!”

“Don’t fool yourself that means it will be completed,” Alan warned her. “Nothing would please North and his cronies better than to see it abandoned and the girders rusting without ever having carried a traffic load.”

She smiled confidently. “They won’t stop you now!”

“Well, at least that’s a nice note to begin dinner with,” he observed with a smile as the waiter came up to their table with his loaded serving tray. The food was delicious, and for some time they gave their attention to it. When they picked up the conversation again, it turned to more personal matters.

Alan touched a napkin to his mouth. “We should do this more often,” he said. “After all, we are old friends, and we have hardly any chance really to talk at the office.”

Judith tilted her head slightly in a demure smile. “Do you think Pauline would approve?”

At the mention of the striking blonde divorcee to whom Alan had become engaged, he looked embarrassed. He said, “I don’t see why she should object. After all, she has her own friends. I’m sure when she goes to New York on buying trips, such as the one she’s on now, she must meet many of her old friends.”

“And you wouldn’t object to her having dinner with any of the male ones?”

He shrugged. “She dines with her ex-husband occasionally.”

“That’s different,” she said. “You know there is no romantic interest there any longer. I mean other male friends she knew before coming back here.”

Alan leaned forward in his chair earnestly. “Look, one bad marriage has taught Pauline at least a single truth. If there isn’t trust between two people, there’s nothing. We’re not narrow in our outlooks. I expect her to continue having her friends, and I’ll have mine.”

“I know Pauline is very modern in her ideas as well as her artistic tastes.” Judith smiled. “I only hope they both turn out to be sound.”

“She’s doing great with her gallery. Her father financed it, never expecting to get a penny back, and she’s been making a nice profit.”

“I know,” Judith admitted. “Pauline is a wonder.”

He smiled. “She is. And she’s determined not to make the same errors she made in her first marriage.”

“Understandable,” Judith said. “And just in case she might see me as an error, I think we should be discreet. I’d like to keep my job, and your wife-to-be might have a different idea if she discovered we went out dining together regularly.”

The organist who played in the Harbor Room in the evenings had taken his place and started to play soft pleasant mood music in the background. The myriad of tiny light bulbs fixed in large clusters in a number of overhead spots gave the suggestion of distant stars. It made a truly romantic setting, and Judith could just barely catch the vexed expression on Alan’s face across the table.

He said, “You know I sometimes wonder what happened to us.”

She smiled. “Happened to us?”

Alan nodded. “Yes. We went around together as youngsters and in high school. It would have been logical if we’d gone on dating. Why didn’t we?”

She shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you. Perhaps because you went away to college. You were at Dartmouth and I went to Durham. We made different friends.”

“And when I came home on holidays, I found you were seeing Brian for an occasional date,” he reminded her.

“Brian and I had grown up together, too,” she said, “even though he was a little older.”

“I suppose I got jealous. I always steered clear of Brian’s girls.”

“But I wasn’t really Brian’s girl! We didn’t have more than four or five dates altogether.”

He smiled sadly. “That would have been enough to keep me away from you in those days. I avoided any competition with Brian.”

“So that’s why you stopped asking me to go anywhere?”

“I’m afraid so,” he admitted. “I can see it was wrong now.”

“Perhaps not,” she said, looking down. “You’ve found Pauline. She’s a beautiful girl.”

“Sure,” he said quietly. “But then so are you.”

Judith was thankful for the dimness of the room, since it prevented him from seeing her blush. She said, “Times change, Alan. I’m quite happy to be your secretary now. I’m not the rich little miss I was a few years ago.”

“Money hasn’t anything to do with it.”

“I think it has,” she argued. “Two people in a town like this should be of the same background if they plan to marry. Otherwise they open themselves to a lot of criticism.”

“Your social position is as good as mine or better,” Alan pointed out. “Your mother comes from one of the oldest families in town. You’ll find the Melrose name on half the historical plates.”

She laughed. “But I don’t even have the Melrose name. My father was an ordinary Barnes. And we don’t have any money left at all. Just the house, if we can manage to keep that.”

“So?”

“If I married anyone in Port Winter with money, I’d be accused of fortune hunting,” Judith said. “Thank you. I’m happier as a secretary.”

Alan gave her a penetrating glance. “What about Miles Estey?”

Again she blushed and looked down. In a low voice she said, “That’s over.”

“I’d hope so, for your sake,” Alan told her. “But are you sure?”

“Very sure.”

“Have you heard from him since he left here?”

She still avoided Alan’s eyes. “I had several letters.”

“Lately?”

“No.”

“I never felt he was right for you,” Alan said earnestly.

“Would you be a fair judge?” she asked, finally looking at him.

He hesitated before replying; then he said, “Frankly, I suppose not.” There was a moment of silence. Then, somewhat awkwardly, he said, “I suppose we’d better go.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “I think we should.”

Darkness had fallen by the time he drove her home. They went up King Street and around the park, which was bounded by central business streets on all but one side. Here were congregated the city’s chief theatres and largest hotel, along with several of the more popular restaurants and shops. As usual, the streets were busy at this time of night.

“How much the city is changing,” she said, glancing out her side window at the old burial ground that dated to Revolutionary Days.