Max sat hunched over his ancient oak desk, tapping a pencil on the polished surface. His lunchtime conversation with Leah Halliday kept going through his mind—especially her comment about him being a man of good character. He wondered how she’d feel if she knew about Claudia. Pushing his chair back from the desk, he turned sideways and stared unseeing out through the window.
If only he hadn’t decided to spend the summer at the family farm that year. If only Jake hadn’t chosen that particular summer to spring his new bride on them. Maybe it would have happened anyway, though. Some things were just inevitable, and no matter how many times he replayed that day in his mind, trying to conjure different scenarios, the ending was always the same.
He could sympathize with the H. G. Wells character in his novel The Time Machine. No matter how many times the poor, grief-stricken slob went back to try to save the woman he loved, she died in every instance. Some things were simply going to happen. As though they were predestined. Still, nearly four years later, Max failed to see how God could possibly want such a thing to happen to him.
The disruption of his ordered life was unforgivable. The accusation that had rocked him to the core and caused the eye of suspicion to rest upon his up-to-then stellar character caused him to squirm with humiliation and regret. He tried to push it aside and get on with life, but during quiet, reflective moments, he couldn’t help but wonder, how did things go so wrong? If only his brother had never brought his young bride home that summer of 1942. His mind drifted back, the images playing through his mind as though it were yesterday….
“Bruiser! Get down!” Max grabbed the Saint Bernard’s collar and yanked him back away from the trembling young woman who stood stock still on the circular, stone driveway. His brother, Jake, turned on him with fury.
“Why can’t you control that stupid animal? He’s going to hurt someone some day!”
Max looked at his brother in surprise.
“Sorry, Jake. He just gets excited when he meets someone new. Don’t you, boy?” Max scruffed the dog behind the ears, earning himself a happy half-moan from the Saint Bernard.
He turned to the lovely young woman, who was looking into a tiny mirror she had pulled from her handbag and patting at the platinum-blond locks that had strayed from the roll of hair gracing the top of her head. “Especially when it’s someone as pretty as your guest.”
The woman glanced away from her reflection and snapped her compact closed. She observed Max as though she’d just noticed his presence. Her arched brow rose with sudden interest that sent a warning signal through Max’s midsection.
“I apologize for Bruiser’s bad manners. I’m Jake’s brother, Max, and you are …?”
“She happens to be my wife.” Without another word or look, Jake grabbed one of his wife’s mink-draped arms and led her up the path to the house. She followed after him, glancing back over her shoulder at Max. Her full lips curved into a bold smile as her gaze traveled the length of him.
Shock jolted through Max like a lightning strike at her shameless perusal, and as heat crept up his neck and face, he stared after them in embarrassed outrage. What had Jake gotten himself into?
The hiss of the radiator brought Max back to the present. He stood and walked to the window, looking down at the boys on the snow-dusted playground. Most of the students seemed to be occupied in a heated game of dodgeball. Their excited laughter rang out, reaching through the closed window. What innocence. If only life could stay that simple. They say a man controls his own destiny. But Max was proof positive it wasn’t always so.
Unbidden, thoughts of the past returned, and he found his unwelcome memories taking him back to that last Sunday in the stable….
“Well, Sadie, how’s that little girl doing today?” Max smiled and patted the roan mare on the nose, then reached down and ran his hand over the flanks of the new foal. “Seems to be a fine little filly you have here, Mama.”
Without warning, slender arms encircled his waist from behind. Jerking loose, he whirled around to see Claudia grinning.
“Don’t be so shocked, Maxie. I’ve seen you watching me. You’ve wanted to hold me in your arms all summer, haven’t you?”
“I don’t know what you think you’ve been seeing, Claudia, but I’d as soon hold a boa constrictor.” He stepped past her and waited ’til she followed him, then closed the door to Sadie’s stall.
For a moment, anger clouded her eyes, but then her red-stained lips puckered into a pouting smile.
“Don’t be so mean, Max. You know I really like you a lot.”
Suddenly she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, smiling seductively.
Stunned by her audacity, Max couldn’t move. Obviously taking his inaction as an invitation, Claudia stood on her tiptoes and inched closer to him. “You like me a little bit, don’t you, Maxie?”
“No!” his mind screamed. And just as he was about to throw her from him, she pressed her lips against his in a very unsisterly kiss.
That’s when Jake had walked in, and of course he believed every outrageous lie Claudia had come up with. Finally, he had accused Max, before the whole family, of attacking his wife. His parents had not believed it for a moment. Claudia’s character had become fairly obvious to them by that time, but a huge uproar arose among the rest of the family, some of whom were quite eager to believe any piece of gossip they heard. Worst of all, somehow word got around their society set, bringing shame to the entire family.
Earlier in the summer, Max had been offered a position helping with war supplies, so shortly after the scandal arose, he left for Washington, turning down the offer of a teaching position at Rosemont Academy. He hadn’t been back to the farm since, and he only visited his parents in their Chicago mansion when he knew Jake and Claudia wouldn’t be there. By the time he returned from Washington, the gossip mongers had moved on to other, juicier, more recent scandals, and the incident seemed to have been forgotten by everyone but the family.
His father had helped Max to acquire the position of headmaster at the academy, which had always been his desire, so he had managed to create a stable and happy life, even though his brother Jake still thought the worst. Max avoided him and Claudia as much as possible.
Max shoved back the unwelcome memories. He directed his attention once more to the playground and noticed Collin sitting alone on a bench, staring wistfully at some boys playing dodge ball. Max’s heart went out to the lonely looking child. He had to think of a way to convince the nervous mother that he would make a good companion for Collin. Suddenly an idea came to him. He returned to his desk and, pulling out a sheet of school stationery, he wrote a short note inviting Leah and her son to attend church services with him on Sunday morning. He would send the note home with Collin after school.
In the meantime, maybe he could get Collin off that bench for the rest of recess.
Leah turned the skeleton key and opened her front door. She had an hour before Collin would be home. Dinner would be a simple meal of leftover meatloaf and vegetables, so all she really had to do was make a salad to go with it.
She put her coat and hat in the closet and made a cup of tea. Sitting at the kitchen table enjoying the steaming, spicy drink, she thought over her afternoon.
After leaving the restaurant, she had gone straight to her appointment at Seville Toy Company. The interview had gone fairly well, but Leah wasn’t at all confident. Mr. Monroe had seemed impressed with her shorthand, but her typing wasn’t nearly as fast or accurate as it had been four years ago. The factory job at Rosemont had paid so much better than any of the secretarial positions that she hadn’t given a second thought to leaving her skills behind. Now she wondered if that had been wise.
Although Mr. Monroe had promised to consider her application, Leah wasn’t sure how she would compare to others with more recent experience, especially with so many being let go from the factories. Jobs were scarce. It would be a miracle for her to land this one. Oh, if only she could come up with enough money to start her own bakery! But that would take an even bigger miracle. And Leah just didn’t believe in miracles anymore.
“Mom! I’m home!”
Leah jumped up from the table. “I’m in the kitchen, Collin.” How in the world had an hour passed by so quickly?
Leah stood and took the meatloaf and vegetables from the ice box, then stopped and stared at Collin as he came in with a big grin on his face.
“Look, Mom. Mr. Reilly said the school owed me this coat because of my other one getting ripped. He said he talked to you about it. Was it okay that I took it?” Leah looked at the navy-blue wool coat that Collin was proudly displaying. Mr. Reilly and Rosemont Academy had obviously spared no expense in replacing the old one.
“Yes, of course. Now, come here and give me a hug.”
The boy obliged with a squeeze that almost took Leah’s breath away. She laughed and held him away from her.
“Let me get a good look at the new coat. It’s very nice, Collin. Much nicer than your old one.”
He smiled widely, and then suddenly the grin faded, and he headed back into the living room, coming back a moment later with a bag containing his old coat.
“I really like this one, too, Mom. You did a swell job fixing it. I’ll just keep wearing it. I don’t need the new one.”
Leah looked at her son standing there bravely, willing to sacrifice the new coat to spare her feelings. What could she say to convince him it was all right to keep it?
“You know, Collin, if you don’t mind, I’d sort of like to remove that lining and repair Grandma’s quilt.”
Leah’s heart lurched at the look of relief on her boy’s face. His expression told her more than any words just how difficult it had been for him to wear the mended coat.
“Sure, I’ll just wear the new one then. Isn’t it a swell coat? Mr. Reilly’s really swell, too. He’s an okay guy, not just a headmaster. He came out on the playground at recess and judged us in some races. I almost won the last one.” The statement was spoken in such awe-filled tones that Leah struggled to keep from laughing.
“Oh, I almost forgot, Mom—Mr. Reilly sent you something.”
“He did, huh?” The thought of “Mr. Reilly” sending her anything raised her defenses. Perhaps she hadn’t made it clear that she and Collin weren’t charity cases.
Collin reached into his pocket and pulled out a small envelope, which he handed to her.
“Thanks, son. Now run upstairs and change out of your school clothes. I’ll just see what Mr. Reilly has to say and get dinner on the table.”
The boy headed for the stairs, running.
“Don’t forget to wash up,” Leah called after him.
She looked curiously at the envelope, hesitating briefly before tearing it open. She nibbled on her bottom lip as she glanced over the note. An invitation to church? They hadn’t been to church in years. Not since Bob died. She wandered back into the kitchen, her mind playing scenes of the little wooden church she had attended with her husband before the war had ruined everything.
As she prepared a salad and heated up the leftovers, she thought about her luncheon conversation with the handsome headmaster. Sure, she had wanted to get to know him better before Collin spent time alone with him, but … church?
As they ate their supper, Leah glanced over at her son.
“Mr. Reilly has invited us to go to church with him on Sunday. What do you think?”
Collin swallowed a mouthful of milk and grinned at her. “That would be great, Mom. I kind of miss going to Sunday school.”
“You do? Why haven’t you said anything before?”
“Well, I sort of started to once. But you got a funny kind of look, so I changed my mind.”
“Oh, Collin, I’m so sorry.” What kind of a mother was so easily read by her ten-year-old son? “Well, I guess we’ll go then.”
“Really, Mom? Wow, okay by me. Maybe we could go get a hamburger or something after church, too.”
“Now, Collin, Mr. Reilly didn’t invite us to dinner, and you know we can’t afford to be spending our money on hamburgers right now. Don’t say anything about dinner to Mr. Reilly. You promise me now.”
“Oh, okay, Mom.”
The dejected look on her son’s face brought a choking sadness to her heart. She knew it wasn’t really the hamburger he was yearning for but the male attention.
“Hey, sport, I’ve got an idea. How about if we invite Mr. Reilly here for dinner?”
“Really?” Collin’s shining eyes were evidence that she had been right.
“Sure, but you have to help me decide what to cook. Deal?”
“Deal!” He reached a hand over the table to shake.
“I already know what you can fix for dessert, Mom. How about some of your doughnuts? All the guys around here say yours are better’n the ones at the doughnut shop.”
“Better than, Collin, and I don’t know about doughnuts for a dinner dessert.”
“Okay, then. Chocolate cake. Everybody likes chocolate cake, and yours is the best, Mom.”
“I’m afraid I just don’t have enough sugar to make it.”
Collin’s expression crashed. “Aw.” He kicked at the ground.
Leah’s heart went soft. “Listen, kiddo. I think I have just enough sugar left for about a half batch of molasses cookies. I know it’s not chocolate cake, but what do you say I whip some of those up?”
His eyes brightened. “Swell!”
“Good. Now if you’re through eating, you can help me with the dishes. Then I’ll write a note to Mr. Reilly while you take your bath.”
Max couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he read Leah Halliday’s note for the third time. Not only had she accepted his invitation to church, but she had also extended her own invitation to dinner. That much more time to start building that relationship with Collin. But he had to admit to himself that wasn’t the only reason for his elation. The lovely Leah’s deep brown eyes and pensive smile had haunted his dreams all night. He’d have to guard his feelings a little better. He certainly didn’t need any involvements. Not after what he’d been through. All he needed was a hint of scandal, and even his grandfather’s good name wouldn’t be enough to keep his job for him. And being headmaster of Rosemont Academy meant everything to him. His heart was here, with the education and upbringing of these boys.