What the Heart Keeps (32 page)

“
No damage to your face, thank God. But you’re white as paper and in pain, too, I can see. Where’s the injury?” When told, she used colourful language to describe what she would do in return to the thief if the opportunity for revenge could be hers. “As for you, Lisa,” she continued, “a cold compress on your bruises and you’ll spend the night here. As soon as Risto returns with the wagon, he can go back and tell Minnie where you are and why. That will give him a double portion of spooning with her at the gate.”

In
spite of the pain she was in, Lisa smiled faintly. “You’ve noticed how they feel about each other, too, have you?”

Mae,
handing her a drink of water in a glass, for she had refused anything stronger, raised an eyebrow and directed a clear look at her. “I know love when I see it. Sometimes it causes a whole lot of trouble that should never be.”

Lisa
returned the glass and closed her eyes wearily. “Don’t preach, Mae. And don’t let your conscience trouble you about bringing Peter and me together again.”

“
I must have been crazy.”

“
We would have met sooner or later. He had already rented some local stables.”

“
So I’ve heard since, but at least the responsibility wouldn’t have been mine in the first place.”

Lisa
frowned anxiously, raising herself up from the cushions. “I wonder where he is. He’ll be worried when he hears I’ve been robbed.”

“
Hears about it?” Mae chuckled. “He caught the thief. He heard you scream and by the time he reached the yard others were going to your assistance, so he gave chase. The cashbox is intact and in future you’ll leave it in the hotel safe overnight and pay the takings into the bank from here in the mornings. Peter is waiting to see you, but your bruises need attention first and you can receive him afterwards.”

Wearing
one of Mae’s less flamboyant silk robes over a voluminous nightgown of satin and lace, Lisa was installed in the hotel’s best bedroom when Peter came to see her. She exclaimed at the sight of his torn suit and cut mouth.

“
You’re hurt!” She hurried to him.

“
No, I’m not. The thief was just desperate to get away and I was equally determined that he shouldn’t. The result was a punch-up.” He took her hands into his, his knuckles bandaged. “I can’t do justice to kissing you on the lips at the moment,” he added regretfully, giving her a light kiss on the cheek. Seeing that she was suffering some reaction to the shock she had received, which had not been helped by the sudden sight of his damaged appearance, he led her across to a couch where they sat down.

“
It didn’t matter about the wretched cashbox,” she said huskily. “Suppose that man had had a knife or a gun?”

“
Maybe he did. I don’t know. I didn’t let him get the chance to use either and that’s what counts. In any case, I didn’t know he had robbed you at the time. All I knew was that he had attacked you, and for that I wanted to kill him.”

Her
cheeks became hollow and her lips quivered uncontrollably. “I’m scared that we love each other too much.”

“
That’s nothing to be scared about.” He drew her to rest against him, her head against his shoulder. “We just have to sort out our lives as soon as we possibly can. Have you heard from Alan?”

“
No, I haven’t. When he’s far away in the logging camps it isn’t often I get word from him. It does happen occasionally that someone, such as a travelling preacher, might be coming this way and will bring a letter, but that’s rare. Why do you ask?”

“
I brought a new team of horses to the stables today and tomorrow I start moving them to one of the logging camps. I reckon it will take me four days to get them there. It may happen that I’ll meet Alan somewhere and, in spite of what you say, I want to speak to him and get everything into the open.”

“
No! I must be the one to tell him. Please!” She hugged an arm about his neck in her desperate plea.

“
I find the waiting hell.”

Her
upturned face was filled with anguish. “You think I’m being cruel to you, but I long to be with you for a few hours away from every spying eye and wagging tongue.”

He
spoke softly. “I know somewhere.”

She
shook her head despondently. “Impossible. Perhaps you don’t realise what a close community this is. For a married woman to be sighted with another man in her husband’s absence gives rise to talk immediately. It’s only thanks to Mae’s discretion that nobody knows you’re with me now. I will not let Alan hear gossip before he hears the truth from me.”

“
You were seen publicly with me last time.”

“
Oh, once was harmless, but we couldn’t repeat it. In any case, Alan wasn’t away in the forests then.”

“
He was in Seattle that day.”

“
That’s not the same. It’s the long absences of menfolk that make wives fretful. That’s when they’re watched by other women, and woe betide those that slip from the straight and narrow path. They are ostracised at once. I know myself to be watched as closely as any logger’s wife whenever Alan is away for weeks at a time. For his sake I’ll take no risk.”

“
You’re the only woman who drives an automobile in this district, aren’t you?”

“
Yes. I am.”

“
Then you’re free to go where you like and no one can follow you.”

“
On some terrain a horse and buggy is faster.”

He
smiled and took a map from his pocket which he spread out between them. “You know this road?” he asked her, pointing to the one along which she had driven Minnie and Harry to the lake.

She
bent her head forward. “Yes. Is that the route you’re taking tomorrow?”

He
nodded and traced a trail around the lake that led on past it in an easterly direction until his fingertip came to a spot marked in ink. “That’s a log cabin hidden amongst the trees. It belongs to a friend of mine. He’s away for some weeks, but when he knew I was to be in the area he offered me the use of it if I needed to rest the horses or sleep overnight. It’s a long walk from where you would have to leave the automobile, but there wouldn’t be a spying neighbour for many miles. Will you meet me there?”

She
hesitated only briefly before shaking her head, her face torn by the decision she felt compelled to make. “I’ve only a limited amount of will when I’m with you, my love. It would be all too easily swept away in such sublime isolation, and I must remember that Alan still has the right to stand between us.”

“
I’ll be at the cabin for two days.”

There
came a hasty knocking at the door and Mae’s voice called to them. He went to admit her and she entered at once. “You can leave now,” she said to him. “There’s no one around at the moment. I’m protecting Lisa’s good name if it kills me.”

He
grinned at her. “You’re a good friend, Mae.”

She
threw up her hands in a gesture of impatience with her own foolishness and waited while he kissed Lisa once more on the cheek. Then together Mae and Peter went from the room. Left alone, Lisa looked again at the map, drawing it onto her lap from where it had been left open on the couch beside her. The inked markings of the cabin’s location seemed to leap out at her. Although she ripped the map across several times in quick succession, she knew in her heart that she would be able to find her way there by day or night for as long as she lived.

T
en

When morning came Lisa was free of the aftermath of shock although her bruise matched the amount of pain it had caused her. She had bathed, dressed and breakfasted by eight o’clock when Minnie arrived in great anxiety. The girl had left Harry with Tuula Saanio and brought Lisa a bunch of flowers which she accepted gratefully.

“
They’re lovely, but I don’t deserve them. See how well I am today.”

“
I wanted to come back last night, but Risto said Mae was in charge and putting you to bed and I was not to worry.” She gave a gulp. “But I did worry.” With a gush of tears she threw her arms about Lisa. “I remembered how it was on the train to Calgary.”

“
Hush. It was nothing like that. Don’t upset yourself, Minnie dear. Dry your eyes. That’s better. Have you eaten? No, I thought not. I’ll order some breakfast for you.”

Minnie
was in luck. Risto served the food, soon convulsing her with giggles as he behaved like a comedy waiter in a movie, pretending to stumble and almost drop the tray. Afterwards he danced about as if he had burned his fingers on the coffee-pot. Fortunately they were in Mae’s own parlour or else his antics would have brought forth a furious reprimand.

“
That boy!” Mae shook her head between exasperation and amusement as she handed Lisa the cashbox that she had taken from the safe, where it was to be placed every night in future. “He should be on the stage, not waiting at table. Oh, my! Look at him now! He’s juggling with the bread rolls.” She slapped her hands together sharply and stamped her foot. “Risto! Stop!”

He
caught the rolls deftly and tossed them back into the basket, which he bore out of the room with gliding steps as if on skates. Lisa and Minnie both burst out laughing afresh, but Mae’s patience had ebbed. She made to follow him out to the kitchen but Minnie quickly blocked her way.

“
Don’t be cross with him, Mrs. Remotti,” she pleaded, her eyes dancing. “That’s the best breakfast I’ve had for a long time.”

Mae
chucked her head in sustained exasperation, although she took notice of the girl’s appeal and let him be. “He’s seen too many movies, that’s his trouble,” she declared.

“
It’s too late now,” Minnie answered merrily. “He’s like me. We’re both movie-struck.”

Minnie
went with Lisa to pay the cashbox money into the bank after they had left the hotel. Lisa had decided it should be a daily event instead of the twice-weekly procedure it had been before. Everyone they met had heard of the attack on her, women stopping in the hope of gaining more details, the men raising their hats and expressing the hope that she had recovered from her ordeal. If she had had any thoughts of meeting Peter as he had wished, however innocently, this particular morning would have eliminated them. People in a small community seemed to gather news of everybody’s business in a matter of seconds, almost as if they drew it in from the air itself. She looked across at the rented stables as she and Minnie went past and saw the place was locked up. Peter had departed early with his horses for the forest. She followed him in her thoughts.

She
tried not to think of him too much as day after day went by. It was Alan on whom she wished to concentrate, deciding how best to present her situation. He had always been fair to her and she could not believe he would stand in her way when she requested her freedom. As for loving her, he had never repeated those words since the night he had first told her.

Perhaps
the lack of a reciprocal reply on her part had confirmed for him that it could never be otherwise for her, and he had reconciled himself to that fact. It would make everything easier for them both if that should prove to be the case. She became gradually more hopeful that all would go well. At times when she glanced at the calendar on the wall, she noted in her mind’s eye Peter’s progress through the forest, and his return journey. When it drew near the day when he would arrive at the cabin she began to suffer for the disappointment that would be his when she failed to appear, for he had made it clear that it was his hope that she would reconsider and be there. She tried to find some consolation in the resolve that she would make up for every lost moment they had both endured when at last they were together in true belonging.

A
sense of desolation became acute in the morning when, after a disturbed night of looking after Harry, who was cutting a new tooth, she awoke to the certainty that Peter would have installed himself in the cabin. He would be watching for her in vain as one hour and then another went by. Downstairs, when Tuula Saanio left to go home to breakfast as she always did after staying the night, Lisa forgot to thank her for looking after Harry, a courtesy that normally was natural to her. Then she was unnecessarily brusque with Minnie for some minor carelessness and afterwards was sharp with Harry over something equally unimportant. Already highly irritable from his inflamed gum, he became twice as difficult and obstreperous.

Lisa
knew no relief when Minnie bore him out of the house to divert him with a walk and playtime. She sank down in a chair and put her head in her hands, trying to blame her tiredness on a poor night’s sleep and for the screaming tension of her nerves, but knowing that it came from an entirely different cause.

It
seemed like the last straw when Minnie came rushing back into the house an hour later, making the screen door bang and shaking the house. “Guess who’s here!” the girl cried, whirling into the parlour where Lisa was trying to divert her thoughts with some letter-writing. “Alan is home! Harry and I met him leading his horse into the sawmill stables. I’ve run ahead to let you know.”

Lisa
sat for a few moments with the pen motionless in her hand. It seemed almost more than she could bear that Alan should return today of all days. She made some acknowledgement to Minnie for bringing the news, put the pen back in the ink-stand, and rose to check her appearance automatically in a mirror before going out onto the porch to meet him.

He
approached the house holding Harry in the curve of an arm and carrying his saddle-bags in his free hand. At the sight of Lisa in her cool green cotton dress, framed by the pillars of the porch, he increased his pace.

“
Are you all right? I’ve just heard at the sawmill about the mugging that took place.” He sprang up the porch steps and dropped the saddle-bags with a thump on the boards to put his arm about her shoulders and kiss her soundly, Harry wriggling in between them.

“
I’ve suffered no ill effects,” she answered. “I’ve almost forgotten about it. I had to make a statement in court and the man has been imprisoned. There were plenty of witnesses to his attempt to get away with the cashbox and how he was floored by a well-aimed fist.”

“
I’m thankful to hear it. But what’s all this about you being outside the hotel with the cashbox anyway? I hear you’ve been running the motion-picture shows in my absence.”

She
faced him fully. “I have done so. Do you mind?”

He
grinned at her fondly. “Mind? I’m proud of you. Let’s go into the house, and while I bath and change out of these clothes you can tell me all about it. Later I want to talk to you about something important.”

Previously
they had always made love immediately upon his home-comings, but with Minnie in the house that would not be possible. Lisa was thankful. She did not want to be touched. Not by Alan. Not today. Not tomorrow. Never again.

She
sat on a chair, relating almost everything as he soaped his strongly muscled body and washed away the dust of travelling. After explaining how she had forgotten to deliver the cancellation notices in the acceptance of all the hospitality that had greeted Minnie’s arrival, she went on to tell of the success of the first evening that had led to Mae Remotti’s suggestion that the performances should continue nightly. Somehow she managed to keep Peter’s name out of the entire discourse, even when Alan questioned her further about the attack on her. She was afraid that if she mentioned him her eyes, her voice and her whole expression would give away her feelings, and the time to tell Alan was not quite yet. In any case, he had said he had something of importance to discuss with her. The least she could do was to hear how she might advise him in whatever the matter should prove to be.

It
would be difficult to say whether Minnie or Harry was the more pleased to have Alan home again. The child would not leave him, bringing toys and wanting to play ball and climbing onto his father’s knee until excitement made him fractious again and there were more tears that Lisa had to dry and console. Minnie, who had begun her overwhelming attentions by boiling shaving water for Alan and heating what had been needed for his bath, ran to fetch his pipe and tobacco jar after he had eaten. Then she sat by him to talk incessantly about the movies and how Lisa had taught her to cue in to the screen action on the piano, and much more about all that had happened in his absence. Lisa left them together on the porch, taking Harry up to his room where she sat on the bed with him in her arms until he fell into a much needed daytime nap. She was in need of quietness herself, and the moments were precious to her as she sat in solitude with the sleeping child.

She
had no idea how much time had elapsed when Alan came in search of her. She put a finger to her lips, laid Harry carefully onto the bed and then left the room. Alan took her by the hand to draw her into their bedroom where he shut the door. She stiffened defensively, supposing he had only one purpose in mind, but his first words dispelled that fear.

“
I have to talk to you and there’s no chance anywhere else in this house. Is Minnie always so ebullient?”

A
smile passed across Lisa’s lips. “When she’s happy. And she’s happy that you’re home again.”

“
She’s been asking me how soon I propose to open a cinema in Seattle. It appears she has a beau whom she wants me to employ as a full-time projectionist.”

“
That’s the Saanio boy. They’re in love with each other. What did you say to her?” Lisa had drifted over to stand with her hand resting on the nearer of the twin posts at the foot of the bed. Alan crossed leisurely to the window where he raised the blind that kept the room cool throughout the heat of the day. Sunshine burst through the lace curtains to flood the room with a searing brightness. He remained with his back to her, looking out of the window.

“
I told Minnie it would not be possible,” he answered.

“
Why?” She was puzzled. “If he’s willing to move to Seattle you couldn’t employ anyone better. He’s been an invaluable help to me and there’s virtually nothing he doesn’t know about film projection and how to maintain the apparatus.”

“
I’ve changed my mind about Seattle as a place of residence for us. It’s time now to put my ideas for launching a cinema into action. I’ve no intention of allowing my contract with the lumber company to be renewed in spite of pressure from their top sources. I’m looking farther afield now.”

“
Have you decided it shall be in California, then? That shouldn’t present any problem either.” At all costs, when her own plans were put into action, she wanted Minnie to continue to be happy. She was convinced that the girl would not miss her so much if Risto was near. It was important for Harry that a contented atmosphere be maintained. As for the housekeeper she had earmarked, everything would go well there because the woman had been born in San Francisco and would be pleased to be returning to California. His next words took her completely by surprise.

“
We’re not going to California. Our cinema is not to be there.” He turned and stood silhouetted against the bright window. “I’ve decided we shall return to England. London is the place. I’m taking you home, Lisa. Home to England.”

Her
hand tightened about the bedpost, the pressure she was exerting turning her finger-nails white. She stared back at him in shock. “I don’t understand.”

“
I feel a great need to go back to my roots. They’re your roots, too. England is where we both belong. It was no choice of yours that you were taken from your native land in the first place.”

Her
throat was tight with apprehension. It was dawning on her that all unwittingly he was making it impossible for her to voice her own cherished plans for a future with Peter. “I thought you liked living in this part of the world.”

“
I do. But it was for Harriet’s sake that I put this country before my own in a choice of habitation.”

“
Your son is American born!” The words burst from her. “We can raise him to love the land of his birth and the land of our birth. He will be doubly blessed.”

“
You’ve been away from England for a long time. Things may not be as you anticipate in opening a motion-picture house there.”

“
I’ve been in communication with British business contacts. Cinemas are mushrooming there as they are here. I want to be in at the beginning with what I have to offer the movie-going public.”

She
swallowed deeply. “Think the matter over again, I beg you. Why not try your luck with a cinema in Dekova’s Place or Seattle or Los Angeles or anywhere in the States? On that success you could branch out in England later.”