AllFreeNovel
Share Us
* * *
Rick’s effervescence was infectious, and a short time after he picked her up, Camille had almost forgotten Zack’s brooding and his less-than-enthusiastic response to Rayburn’s suggestion that they visit the plantation the following morning.
The evening was cool and clear and perfect for a football game. After parking his car in the stadium parking lot, Rick took Camille’s arm and they walked for what seemed like miles over rocky, dusty ground toward the brightly lit, gaily decorated field. The bands representing each school vied for supremacy in volume, and they laughed together as they kept step first with the cadence, of one, then another until they were weak with the effort.
Camille wore a plaid wool kilt and matching sweater, but soon wished she had left her suede pumps at home and worn some lower-heeled, more comfortable walking shoes.
They located their seats just moments before the kick-off, and amidst the shouting and cheering, Rick introduced her to the other couples nearby. She didn’t catch all of the names, but that didn’t seem to be important. Everyone was soon caught up in the spirit of the game.
Rick, with exaggerated lasciviousness, ogled the jiggling cheerleaders cavorting in front of the stands. Camille and her date clapped their hands and stomped their feet, laughing like two teenagers. She felt more relaxed than she had for weeks and was enjoying herself immensely.
Then she saw Zack. He was climbing the steep stadium steps, his arm draped around the shoulders of a tall, slender woman with shining blond hair. Spectators in the stands shouted greetings to the handsome couple as they made their way to their seats, stopping nearly every other row to chat with someone. Zack’s eyes, though he was joking and talking animatedly, scanned the crowd until they fell on Camille and Rick. Rick had been distracted by a man on his other side, so he didn’t see when Zack’s blue eyes lighted on Camille and gave her a mocking, insolent smile. She turned her head away quickly and tried to ignore him and his gorgeous date, the hard pounding of her heart, and the sudden streak of jealousy that coursed through her.
She was further discomfited when Zack and the woman finally sat down only two rows from her and Rick. Why? Now her whole evening would be ruined! It was frustrating to have to admit that, but she knew it to be true. For as much as she wanted to enjoy the football game and the laughing, affable Rick, she couldn’t concentrate on anything but the back of Zack’s head and the other one that moved too close to his far too often, trailing blond tresses across his shoulders. Was this the Hazelett woman that Rayburn had mentioned with such dislike?
At halftime, Rick plied her with tepid hot chocolate and stale popcorn. The fervor of the fans intensified during the exciting second half of the game. The score favored first one team, then the next. When, during the final minute of the game, the home team scored a touchdown, the fans went crazy. Everyone was on their feet, shouting, whistling, clapping their hands in rhythm to the fight song being blared out by the band. In his excitement, Rick hugged Camille tightly, lifting her off her feet and kissing her soundly on the mouth. She was laughing at his jostling enthusiasm when, over his broad shoulders, she locked gazes with Zack, who was staring at them over the frantic crowd. He stood perfectly still. All his mocking smiles were gone. His face was set and grim, carved out of granite. Only his eyes were alive. They flashed blue fire. He turned away from her scornfully. The spirit in the stadium reached obsessive proportions, and Camille was thankful that no one noticed her lack of exuberance.
Rick took her out for pizza before driving her back to Bridal Wreath. At the door of the dowager house, she thanked him for the good time and submitted when he took her upper arms in his hands and drew her to him for a dispassionate good-night kiss. As he pulled back, she recognized that sadness which she had noticed before on his strong, kind face. He stroked her cheek gently before wishing her good night and walking away. Was there a slump to his shoulders and a lethargy to his usually bouncing walk? We all suffer our private torments, don’t we? she thought philosophically as she went into her room.
* * *
The morning’s weather was a repetition of the evening before, crackling with the briskness of fall. Camille pulled on a pair of designer jeans that flattered her slender legs and hips. She wore a long-sleeved, beige shirt and tied the sleeves of a navy cardigan around her neck. She stepped into a pair of comfortable boots that had seen too many seasons, but were too comfortable to consider throwing away.
It was still early, but she crossed the terrace, walked through the screened back porch, and entered the kitchen, where Dearly was making biscuits and had already brewed a pot of coffee.
“Good morning, Camille. Did you sleep well? I hear you’re going out for the day with Zack. Better watch yourself. He has the reputation of being a lady’s man.” She laughed merrily as she put the biscuits in the oven. Camille blanched as she remembered the blonde that clung so possessively to Zack at the football game. She turned quickly to pour herself a cup of coffee. “Yes, sir, he’s a lady’s man all right,” Dearly continued. “With those blue eyes, what could you expect? I would get so aggravated when he was in high school. The girls would call here giggling and asking for Zack. Incessantly that telephone was ringing. And he liked the girls okay, but was much more interested in sports and cars then. While he was in college… well, I don’t know too much about that because he was gone, but when he came back here to live, he had to fight off every debutante and her mother for miles around. There were several woman that he dated off and on for years, but one by one they gave up on him and married someone else. He never seemed upset to lose one of those women to another man.”
Camille didn’t interrupt this revealing monologu
e and began setting the table while Dearly deftly sliced and sectioned grapefruits. “Then about two years ago, he went through a black period. Whew! He was so moody and cross all the time. He just withdrew into himself and wouldn’t talk to anyone. He was constantly muttering deprecations about women in general, and we finally figured out that he had fallen for someone and she had done him dirty. Probably got tired of his stalling and up and married someone else. Of course, he never told us anything about it. We never knew who she was, but she hurt him.”
Two years ago. So he was in Utah to get over an affair that had gone awry. He was out to prove his masculinity and reestablish his self-esteem, and Camille had been his guinea pig. Mr. Zachary Prescott should have felt very good about himself after she had fallen like a ripe plum into his hands and put up next to no resistance when he had seduced her.
Dearly commanded her attention again. “He went for months without seeing any woman, then he started dating this Erica Hazelett, and, if you ask me, she isn’t right for our Zack. Any woman that sends her kids off for months at a time so they won’t interfere with her social calendar is no proper mother. And since Zack never had a mother, much less brothers and sisters, he’s always said he wanted several children… if he ever got married.” She sighed. “We’ve just about given up hope of there ever being babies in this house.”
Camille absently buttered one of the biscuits, which by now were out of the oven and in a basket on the table. She sipped her coffee and sighed. Whoever she was who hurt Zack had wounded him deeply. Camille should know better than anyone how bitter his attitude toward the female sex was and how shamelessly he used them for his own selfish gratification. Did his contemptuous attitude stem from a desire for revenge on the whole sex for the deeds of one whom he had obviously loved?
The object of her musings sauntered into the kitchen dressed in a pair of jeans and a matching jacket pulled on over a lightweight, white turtleneck sweater.
“Good morning, ladies,” he said cheerfully and gave Dearly a smacking kiss on the cheek. Camille had expected him to be as sulky as he had been the night before at dinner. She was not prepared for this lighthearted, debonair man who crossed to the coffeemaker and poured himself a cup while humming “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” under his breath. Her last impression of him had been the angry, cold statue staring at her scornfully while Rick held her in his strong arms. Didn’t Zack even remember that disdainful way he had looked at her when he saw Rick kissing her?
“Ready to go?” he asked as he slid into the chair and grabbed a hot biscuit, juggling it between his hands until he dropped it onto his plate.
“Yes,” she replied, too shocked by the metamorphosis of his personality to say anything else.
“Good. I’ve got a full schedule of activities planned for us. Hurry up and eat your breakfast.”
“Yes, sir!” Camille said briskly and saluted him. The sparkle in his bright eyes made Camille’s heart jump erratically. If only…
Zack helped her into the cab of a pickup that had seen many years and endless miles of country roads. The blue paint was faded and chipped, and one window had been broken but remained intact.
“If we were going on a real date, I would drive my car, but this is much more suited to a tour of the plantation. Do you mind too much?”
“No, not at all,” Camille replied evenly, though her pulse was racing after that brief contact with him when his strong fingers had closed around her upper arm as he handed her into the truck. Would she never be immune to his touch?
Zack turned left out of Bridal Wreath’s driveway and drove the short distance to the intersection with Highway 65. They headed west toward the river. Just before they drove onto the suspension bridge spanning it, Zack pointed to a house perched on a high bluff to their left. “That’s The Briars. It offers a lovely view of the river and boasts that Jefferson Davis married Varina Howell in the parlor. The house was built around 1812.”
Camille caught only a fleeting glimpse of the beautiful home and grounds as they drove past. She had leaned toward Zack to look out his side of the truck, and her breast accidentally brushed against his arm. A thrilling current shot through her body. She withdrew quickly and scooted to the far side of the cab, hoping that he had not been aware of the effect his touch had on her.
