A Getaway by LynnE
Chapter 31
Some time passed, perhaps an hour, before Meg awakened. Ben greeted her with a deep, gentle kiss, and soft caresses which became more and more urgent. Meg struggled out of his embrace. "No, Ben, I don’t want to.""Meg, what is it? What’s the matter?" He was genuinely puzzled.
"It’s just…we used to do other things," she said plaintively. "Now, in the casita, in Gregory’s office, anywhere, it’s all we do."
Ben was mystified. "And that’s bad?"
"Ben, what happened to long walks, or going dancing at the Deep, or just talking? Don’t you see? Lately, we don’t understand each other. I think that’s because we don’t talk any more. It’s like sex is the only thing we have. And, Ben, if that’s true..." she took a deep breath, "If that’s true, then I’m exactly what Mr. Hopkins said I am."
"For Gods sake, don’t say that! You know that isn’t the way I feel. I love you, Meg."
"Then let’s have lunch and just talk, okay?"
"Absolutely." He reached for the basket. They set out Brie and smoked salmon and caviar, a salad and wine. They talked about everything, politics, music, art. Ben tried, for the umpteenth time, to explain cricket. Meg took another unavailing shot at the infield fly rule.
Eventually, they ran out of words. She inched closer to him, and just sat, looking into his eyes. He stared at her in wonder. He knew every inch of her, but that face, it made his blood dance, made him want to laugh and sing. She was right, as always. They didn’t need sex, they didn’t need words, they didn’t need anything but being together.
"What are you thinking?" she asked, tenderly.
"I was thinking about ‘The Tempest’," Ben replied.
"’The Tempest’? The play? By Shakespeare?" Now it was Meg’s turn to be puzzled.
He grinned, "The same. I’ve been running it through my head and I can’t find what I want in it."
"Uh, o.k., what do you want?" She knew a little Byron, and some Robert Frost, but literature was Ben’s forte. His forays down the ivied paths of poetry always left her running to catch up.
"Well, you know the play is set in Bermuda, right?"
She nodded, "Wrong. I had no idea."
His grin widened. "I was looking for something wonderful to quote to you, like I used to, but all the good stuff belongs to Prospero, the middle-aged wizard, or Ferdinand, the callow princeling, or Ariel, the fairy sprite. None of them is exactly me. Though lately, I suppose, I’ve been acting a bit like Caliban, the monster."
Meg guffawed, "Oh poor Ben. Can’t bend the Bard to his will!" Her eyes widened when she caught the other meaning.
Ben whooped. "Literary pun! Good for you! For that, you get to decide."
"O.k., make it the prince."
Ben took her face between his hands, and said:
"O heaven, O earth, bear witness to this sound,
and crown what I profess with kind event
If I speak true!
If hollowly, invert
What best is boded me to mischief! I,
Beyond all limit of what else i’ th’ world,
Do love, prize, honor, you."
* * * * * * *
The girls wolfed down the fried chicken, potato salad and iced tea. They wanted to finish the sand castle. They scrambled away at the first opportunity.
"O. k. Mom, cough it up. I want the truth this time." Tom’s tone made it clear to Alice that there would be no dissembling allowed.
"It’s just that she’s so beautiful, honey, and so dear. The girls are crazy about her, and you reacted so strongly last night." She paused, "Tommy, Meg can turn a man’s head without even meaning to. It’s been a long time since Jan died, and you haven’t had a date or anything…" She could not look him in the eye.
"Go on."
"Meg Cummings belongs to somebody else. And I just can’t stand the thought of your wanting her and not being able to win her."
"Why, because her boyfriend is rich? Meg doesn’t think that way, Mom."
"Baby, I didn’t mean that at all. And I think you’re the most wonderful guy in the world. I couldn’t love you more or be more proud of you. Any woman in her right mind would be thrilled and honored for you to…"
Their talk was interrupted by a protesting shriek from the water’s edge. "Daddy, Daddy, the ball went over the fence!"
Tom looked over, "I don’t see it, Gilly. We’ll just have to go look for it."
"But Daddy, we can’t," objected Maggie. "That’s the private beach."
Tom clambered over the fence and hoisted Gillian and Maggie over as well. He sent Lissa back to stay with Alice while they looked.
He just hoped the people who said private didn’t mean nude.
* * * * * * *
"Daddy, I still don’t see it."
The spell was broken. Meg and Ben separated. She listened hard, she knew that voice. "That’s Gillian, Ben, Tom’s eldest."
Meg scrambled to her feet, grateful they hadn’t chosen to make love. She’d have hated to be caught that way. Ben was plainly irritated with the interruption, but said nothing.
"Gillian, sweetie, what’s wrong?" Meg emerged from the palm grove and waved to her friends.
As the two parties came together, Ben and Tom eyed each other with ill-disguised hostility.
Chapter 32
Meg made the introductions. The two men acknowledged each other with the barest minimum of civility.
"The girls were playing on the beach, the ball went over the fence." Tom said, without elaboration.
"I didn’t notice it, did you, Meg?" Ben draped his arm over her shoulder. His gesture gave Meg the feeling she was the prize in some stupid game. She shrugged away from him; she didn’t feel like playing.
Tom was too sharp not to see. So Ben Evans was possessive, was he? He reached out and grasped Meg’s hand. "Want to help us look for it?" he asked, ignoring Ben and flashing Meg his most winning smile.
How many teeth does this chap have? Ben wondered.
Meg rolled her eyes. I’m not on your side either, she thought. "Where’s your mother and Lissa? Didn’t they come, too?" She walked to the fence and waved when she spotted them.
"Come on over, help us look!" Meg hollered. She picked Lissa up and cuddled her, as Alice came over the fence.
She murmured to Meg, "how’s the testosterone level?"
"Ankle deep and rising," Meg muttered back.
"Go with me, I think we can nip this in the bud."
"Gotcha."
Alice walked to the edge of the palm grove. "I’ll bet it rolled in here," she said. "Did you notice, Meg, are there any animals in here? Is it safe?"
Meg came up beside her, "I think so."
As they poked through, looking for the ball side by side, Alice told Meg, sotto voce, "When I was younger, they used to have these TV shows about nature, full of the most fascinating animals. They’d pick out a place, set up cameras, and see what came by."
"That must have been very interesting."
Ben and Tom, separated by a few feet and a chasm of mutual dislike, pretended to hunt for the ball, while eavesdropping with all their might.
"You know which was the most fascinating, Meg?"
"Which one?"
"They were up in the Rockies, and there were these two bighorn sheep. It was mating season, I guess, and they were having this fight over a female. They ran at each other and kept butting heads, until finally their horns got locked together and they couldn’t separate themselves."
"My gosh! What happened?"
"They starved to death, I think. And the female, she just turned around and mated with somebody else." Alice ducked into the tangle of roots at her feet, and came up with a bright blue ball. "Got it!"
She scooted out with her prize, past Tom and Ben, to the cheers of her grandchildren and Meg. All the females ran into the water to play.
Tom shrugged, "I guess we’ve been told." He joined the ladies in the water.
Ben hung back, suppressing the urge to call Tom over and fire him.
Alice invited Ben and Meg to dinner. Ben opened his mouth to decline politely, when Meg said, "Absolutely, we’d love it!"
Ben helped Meg pack up their things, wearing a frown of stubborn disapproval.
"Was it absolutely necessary for you to accept?" he muttered.
"Baaaaa," she replied.
Chapter 33
Ben had been trying all night, but he just couldn’t do it. As the evening went on, he decided, much to his chagrin, that there was simply no way he could bring himself to hate Tom Williams. He tried his best, but the man was simply too honest, too decent, too kind to Meg. His daughters were too dear, and his mother’s candor reminded Ben too much of Joan Cummings’.
As for Tom, he could see behind Ben’s hauteur to a man who was frightened of losing the most precious thing in his life. Tom knew too much about how that felt to ever want to see it to happen to anyone, even an arrogant jerk like Evans. He had to get him alone, to tell him how it felt, to try to prevent it from happening. Evans needed shock treatment.
His chance finally came after coffee. Alice got ready to put the girls to bed, but they insisted Miss Meg come too, to tuck them in. As Ben watched, each girl in turn hugged and kissed her daddy and exchanged a special whispered good night. Gillian and Maggie nodded a shy good night to Ben, but that wasn’t enough for Lissa.
She was out on her feet after her big, nap-less day, but she trudged over to him, and yanked gently on his pant leg. When he bent down to eye level she gave him her hand and said formally, "Good night, Mr. Ben Evans, thank you for helping to look for my blue ball."
Ben was speechless, totally disarmed. He patted Lissa gently on the head. She took her grandma’s hand and stumbled off behind her sisters and Meg, almost too tired to walk.
Ben cleared his throat, "What a perfect angel. They all are."
Tom hooted, "try taking ‘em to the doctor. And she’s the worst of the three."
Ben, unsure of his ground, tried to turn it off with a joke. "All the same, if Lissa likes older men, I’ve got a five-year-old I’d like her to meet."
"Is that right?"
"Meg didn’t tell you about me?" He was surprised.
Tom folded his arms and shook his head. "Man, you really are full of yourself, aren’t you? You didn’t come up at all. Come on, let’s get down to business."
Ben followed him into the library where Tom kept his copies of the resort plans, but instead of bringing them out, Tom planted himself in an armchair and gestured for Ben to do the same. "I don’t know squat about you, Evans, and judging from what I’ve seen today, I don’t want to."
Ben was offended, but controlled his temper with an effort. Tom Williams went on remorselessly, "Nothing to say for yourself? I’m not surprised. How would you defend the way you’ve treated Meg?"
"I thought you knew nothing about me. When did that change?" Ben’s tone was icy.
"I know plenty about Meg. I know she feels miserable and she’s frightened for her future. You know, she promised me she’d explain everything, but she doesn’t have to. I’ve seen your type before, lots of times."
Tom kept at him, his voice low, baiting, to draw Ben out. "You find a nice girl, tell her everything she wants to hear, buy her some nice stuff and then, when you’ve got her convinced that you really care, you find an excuse to dump her. But not entirely. You keep her hanging, twisting in midair, on a little thread of hope. Do you get off on that, Evans? Is that how it is? Are you that sick?"
Ben exploded. "NO! Damn you! You don’t know what you’re talking about!"
"Keep your voice down. My children are sleeping."
* * * * * * *
In the girls’ room, Meg and Alice jumped at the sound of Ben’s voice. It didn’t register with the girls, the last of whom had just drifted off.
Meg turned to Alice, a look of foreboding on her face.
Alice smiled.
"Let’s you and me take a walk, Meg." She grasped Meg’s hand and led her out the side door.
"Alice, what’s going on?" Meg looked anxiously back towards the house, fearing the next outburst.
"Tom is administering a little therapy to your boyfriend." Alice said proudly. She was so relieved. Tom couldn’t be hurting over Meg, or he wouldn’t do this.
"I don’t understand. Alice, Ben sounded so angry. I’m afraid."
"Don’t be, Tom will handle him. He’s trying to make Ben see what he has to lose, and what he has to do about it. This will be settled soon, one way or another. Please Meg, trust me, and trust Tom."
"He hasn’t let me down yet." Meg was still nervous.
"He never will, Meg. He’s like his father."
Chapter 34
They spent the next two hours in an unavailing search for more information. Finally, they gave up. Ben tossed his pad and pen onto the table, rattling the coffee cups.
"Meg, its no go today. The records offices are all closed. My lawyer's gone off somewhere. This will just have to wait until tomorrow." She sighed in agreement.
He clapped his hands. "Come on, let's take the afternoon off. How about a picnic on the beach?"
Meg shrugged, "I guess so."
"That's my girl. Get your things together and I'll pick you up in half an hour." He opened the door, then turned back. "I'm not forgetting about this, Meg. It's just there's nothing more for us to do right now. Tomorrow we'll find the truth. For today, all I want is some quiet time with the woman I love. That's you, by the way."
He shut the door behind him.
Half an hour later, Meg answered Ben's knock. She wore a white gauze dress and strappy sandals, and carried a big hat. Under her dress, she wore a white maillot.
"At least I'm finally getting to use some of this sunscreen. Where are we going, Ben?"
"Well, I did some checking and there's a nice pink beach a mile or so down the coast, towards Padgett. It's private, and I've arranged with the owners to keep it that way."
"How's that?"
"It seems a Mr. and Mrs. Laurence own that section of beach and charge a set amount per person to use it on a given day. There's an occupancy limit, and I've paid the entire amount for the whole day. The beach is ours, Meg."
"Ah, I see. And how do we get there? Mr. Barnhart is off today."
"Not to worry," he made an expansive gesture. "We travel tourist-style, by motorbike."
He led her down the stairs to the desk, where a stack of extra towels and a picnic basket were waiting. Mrs. Wynters eyed him with mistrust. Meg didn't notice; she was busy checking the contents of the basket.
"Ben, we have no napkins. I'll just get them." She darted off.
Ben turned to Mrs. Wynters. "I'm not the enemy, you know."
She stiffened. He covered her hand with his. "This is all very difficult and complicated, and I can't go into it now, but please trust me on one thing." He looked in the direction where Meg had gone, "I love her. More than anything or anyone in this world."
* * * * * * *
Tom Williams was slow getting up after a restless night. When he finally staggered to the kitchen, he was met with a withering glare from his mother. She was just taking off her gloves.
"Church was lovely, thank you, Thomas."
Thomas. He was in big trouble.
"Just exactly how late did you get in?" she asked frostily.
"Not that late, Mom. Maybe 1 in the morning. I just had trouble getting to sleep. Something happened at the party."
"Yes, I heard. It was all over church this morning. You can't imagine how exciting it is to have your son a topic of conversation; total strangers speculating about his sex life."
Tom grinned into his coffee. "Did they go into detail? I'm sorry I missed it. How lucky did I get?"
Alice Williams chuckled in spite of herself. "Tommy, it's not funny. Not really. That poor girl, what horrible things that man said about her. I'm glad you hit him."
"That's not very Christian of you, is it?"
"My old granny used to say that sometimes turning the other cheek meant getting your head knocked off. Anyway, public opinion is with you and Meg; Mr. Hopkins, it seems, was well liked by nobody. I just wish…" she stopped. "Never mind."
"Just wish what? Go ahead, Mom, say what's on your mind."
She hesitated. "I just wish all this fuss didn't make it impossible for us to be close to Meg any more."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He felt his temper rising.
Alice sat heavily at the table. She suddenly felt old. She knew her son would hate it, but she had to say it. "Honey, sit down."
"I'll stand, thanks. Go ahead." He folded his arms and waited.
"You have three young daughters, son. How would it look if they spent time with a woman who is steeped in scandal, however innocently she got there? Maybe you should quit the project."
Tom stared at her. "I don't believe it. Thirty-five years ago, when you were just a kid, before you and Dad were even married, you had the guts to stand up to cops with truncheons and water cannons and dogs, for the sake of folks you didn't even know. So they could vote and do as the rest of the town did. You got tossed out of the garden club and shunned in church. People you'd grown up with crossed the street to get away from you. But you did it, because it was right.
"Now you're saying that you want me to cave in because of gossip? This is incredible! Meg Cummings has been a good friend to us. She gave our company a chance, she gave ME a chance, and 'Lando, too! And now you want us to turn our backs on her?"
"Tommy, if it was just you and me, it would be different. But we have to be concerned about the girls."
"How does Meg Cummings' relationship with some guy in California affect the girls?" He turned for a moment to watch them, playing in the backyard with the neighbor's cat.
"It's just that rumors and scandal can damage our reputation."
"You mean guilt by association?" His face set like stone. Tom Williams addressed his mother as if she were a stranger. Maybe she was; it sure didn't feel like he knew her.
"You don't like my friends? Feel free to leave at any time. The girls and I will manage just fine."
Tom rinsed the cup in the sink and set it on the drainboard. Without another word, he stalked back to his room to dress.
"Oh, honey," his mother murmured, "I was afraid of this."
Chapter 35
"So, you have a five-year-old son. He’s obviously not Meg’s. Tell me, Evans, were you married to the kid’s mother?"
Ben stared stonily ahead, saying nothing.
"You miserable bastard. You still are, aren’t you? Hopkins did his homework." He eyed Ben with contempt. "Where the hell do you get off getting a sweet girl like Meg into a mess like this?" he asked, finally.
"It wasn’t like that," Ben said, at last. "You don’t know."
"I don’t know anything except what’s in front of me, namely a married man, with a child, dragging an innocent young woman through the mud. Isn’t that right, Evans?"
Ben was angry; he felt miserable and tired. His first impulse was to storm out, but he stayed because he felt somehow that it was imperative to make this man understand. The walls Ben had built up over all the miserable, lonely years were breached, because he had to make Tom Williams believe him. He had to make him see that he loved Meg and Meg alone, that he wanted and needed her alone, that he would willingly die before he’d hurt her.
Ben didn’t know why he felt this way, but he’d never believed anything more strongly in his life. There had to be one person in the world who believed in this love beside him. And it had to be Tom Williams.
"No, you don’t understand!"
"Why don’t you explain it to me?"
It was a relief to finally say it. Ben told Tom everything, things he hadn’t told Mark or Casey or even Meg. It all came out: his suspicions about Maria, catching her with Derek, the accident, the years of bitterness and doubt. Then finding in Meg at last a safe harbor for his wounded heart. All their travails together, the ruined wedding, Maria and finally Benjy.
"I never meant for any of this to happen. I love her, you have to believe me!" The arrogance and anger were gone, replaced by desperation. Ben sat, hunched and trembling, in his chair. He buried his face in his hands and began to cry.
Tom went to his desk and pulled out a bottle and a glass. He poured a stiff peg of bourbon and pushed it into Ben’s hand. "Here, get a grip."
Ben drank it with a grimace. "Ugh, this is terrible."
"It’s strictly medicinal, Evans. I only give the good stuff to my friends."
"I guess I don’t qualify, do I?"
"I like you a lot better than I did twenty minutes ago. Christ, what a mess! You’ve been a real jerk, Evans. But I’ll give you one thing. I believe you love Meg," he smiled thinly, "and I know she loves you."
Ben looked up, gratefully.
"But you’ve screwed this up about every way it could be done," Tom went on. "Let’s go back and see how much of this we can undo."
He sat down behind his desk and pointed to the visitor’s chair, "plant it." Ben sat, feeling in his exhaustion at least a flicker of hope. Tom took out a ruled pad and started making notes.
"How long were you and Maria on the outs before she supposedly drowned?"
"Several weeks, no – longer than that, more than a month."
"She went off the boat when?"
"May 15th, 1993."
"And the date on Benjy’s birth certificate?"
"February 9th, 1994."
"But you two hadn’t slept together since, when, about April 10th, right?" Ben nodded.
Tom tossed him the pad. "Do the math, Evans."
Ben did it, more than once. But he couldn’t make it come out to less than ten months, one week.
"Forty-two week gestations happen among some mammals, Evans, but the number of cases among humans is so rare that it rates at lot of attention. And that attention usually includes notes in the medical records. You have the kid’s records?"
"Yes, there’s nothing like that in there."
"So if the birth certificate is accurate…?"
"Benjy couldn’t be my son, he has to be Derek’s," Ben agreed sadly.
"Unless Maria isn’t the mother and you…?"
Ben cut him off, angrily. "Look, believe this: I was a faithful husband, and as far as Meg is concerned, my devotion to her is absolute."
"Okay. I just wanted to hear you say it." Finally, Tom felt sure enough to smile. "So we have these possibilities left: Derek fathered Benjy with Maria, or with Tess, or with some other woman altogether."
Ben nodded. "But why come along now and try to make me believe I was the father?"
"Good question. It all hung on the DNA. Maybe they didn’t believe you would care enough to look after a nephew. Maybe they wanted to screw up the divorce, maybe they wanted to go after Meg, not you at all. There are a lot of possibilities.
"Are you sure your brother is dead? Did you see the body?" Tom wanted to cover everything.
Ben shook his head. "Derek was stabbed, he fell a hundred feet into the ocean. He couldn’t have survived."
"That’s what you thought the first time, right?"
Ben felt a sudden surge of fear. "What if he is alive? What if Derek’s behind this? My God, Meg could be in danger."
"Could be. And you, too. We don’t know anything, yet." He looked grave.
"I’ve got to get to the bottom of this before Meg can come back to Sunset Beach. It’s too dangerous otherwise. Tom, will you look after Meg for me?"
"Sure, but I’m not going to lie to her. Look, this project has another month or two to run. We can make a case for her staying here to represent Liberty Corporation, but after that there’ll be no excuse. You’ve got to find the answers, and fast. And Meg has to know the truth."
Their conversation was interrupted by a harsh pounding on the front door.
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