Gradually Lynn slipped into the pleasant routine of home. She spent afternoons with her old friends; she walked over to the Estes farm, and she and Bert became firm friends. Her pity for him deepened as she saw him grieved again by the loss of his cherished wild things, and it added to her bitterness against Wayde. It was all very well to insist that posting the land wouldn’t help. She couldn’t avoid the feeling that it might, and her resentment against Wayde burned hotly.
She came home one afternoon an hour before dinner time, and as she entered the house, heard voices from the living room. Obviously her mother was entertaining company. And Lynn stood very still as she heard a voice that she would never be able to forget: Wayde McCullers’.
Her jaw set hard, her eyes blazing, she walked to the doorway of the living room and looked in. Wayde sat at ease in a big armchair, and Ruth sat on the divan behind the tea tray. And Wayde was laughing at something Ruth was saying. Lynn felt doubly betrayed when she saw Ruth’s friendly, smiling face turned to Wayde.
Wayde looked up and saw her, and the laughter left his face and he stood up instantly, putting down his teacup, his expression abashed.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded of him hotly.
“I came to apologize.”
“Well, you can trot right on home again. You’re not welcome here!”
“Now, Lynnie darling—” Ruth began, her tone conciliatory.
But Lynn’s eyes were on Wayde, and the flames of anger blazed.
“I don’t blame you for being angry, Lynn,” Wayde said quietly, “I hated myself afterwards. And I can’t ever tell you how sorry I am.”
“I should think you would be!” Lynn flashed at him. “But you’ve wasted your time coming here. You can’t apologize to me, because I’ll never accept an apology from you. All I want of you is to get out and stay out! I never want to set eyes on you again or hear your voice.”
Ruth murmured a stricken protest, but Lynn did not so much as look at her. Her whole attention was centered on Wayde.
“As bad as that?” said Wayde quietly. “That’s very encouraging.”
Lynn blinked at the word, and had the feeling she had stepped off a curb without seeing it and had fallen flat.
“Encouraging?” she repeated.
“Very encouraging,” Wayde told her quietly. “If you were just angry and insulted, as you have every reason to be, and could shrug it off and forget the whole business, then I’d know there was no hope for me. But since you are so furious, I know our quarrel was important to you.”
“Important?” she blazed. “It was the most insulting, the most humiliating, the most uncalled-for—”
“It was, wasn’t it?” Wayde agreed. “And I couldn’t be more sorry, and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to make amends.”
“That’s impossible. I could never forgive you!”
Wayde’s eyes held hers.
“Never’s a long time, Lynn,” said Wayde.
“It’s not long enough for me to forgive you.”
“Now, Lynnie darling, Wayde’s explained—” Ruth began.
“Keep out of this, Mother,” Lynn said curtly, without even looking at Ruth. “This is between Mr. McCullers and me. I don’t know how he’s managed to get back into your good graces, but he’s a wily, conceited creature who’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants. Just what do you want, Mr. McCullers?”
“To be forgiven,” Wayde said simply.
Lynn’s mocking sniff was thick with disdain.
“I’m touched that any living creature in the despised town of Oakville could possibly ruffle you to the most infinitesimal degree—”
“There’s only one who can,” Wayde told her. “You.”
He turned quickly to Ruth, smiled warmly and said, “I may as well leave, Ruth. It’s obvious she isn’t going to listen. Thank you that you were more understanding.”
Ruth rose and walked with him to the door. When he had gone, she came back to the living room and studied Lynn quietly.
“I’m very disappointed in you, Lynn,” she said, and the note of censure in her voice startled Lynn. “To be so rude and ungracious to a guest in your own home—”
“Well, I like that!” Lynn sputtered indignantly. “Who invited him to be a guest in my own home? I certainly didn’t! And I was a guest in his home, remember, but that didn’t stop him from insulting me.”
Ruth had listened quietly, but her eyes still held a censorious look.
“I’m not only disappointed in you,” she said, ignoring Lynn’s protest. “I’m distressed about you. I had no idea you were so deeply interested in Wayde.”
That jolted Lynn to the tips of her toes, and her eyes were enormous in her startled, angry face.
“Deeply interested in him?” she repeated as though quite sure she had not heard her mother correctly. “I loathe him!”
Ruth nodded and sighed. “That’s what I meant. It’s only the people we are fond of who can really hurt us, as Wayde has obviously hurt you.”
“Mother, you’re out of your mind!” Lynn gasped.
“I wish I could think so,” Ruth said. “But because of the way you’re reacting, I’m worried about you. It’s not the right way to go after Wayde; that is, if you want him.”
“Want him?” Lynn gasped incredulously. “Good grief, Mother!”
“I’m afraid that fabulous secretarial charm school overlooked an important part of your training, dear, which is never to allow yourself to fight quite so hard for something you don’t want. Wayde’s a rather wary creature, as is natural. The girl who plays hard to get must be very familiar to him. But there’s a limit to her game. If she’s too hard to get, the man may feel he’s not interested enough to make the struggle.”
Lynn sat down in a big chair with the feeling that if she tried to stand one more moment, her knees would refuse to support her. She was speechless before her mother’s calm summing up.
Ruth went out of the room, leaving Lynn to sit in angry silence.