CHAPTER FOUR: A WEDDING — AND A DISAPPEARANCE


Luke and Laura, Robert and Tiffany, all returned to Pt. Charles as heroes. Luke and Robert found this less than confortable as they were descended upon by opportunists offering exploitation in jobs and ideas. Laura was pleased to hear that Joe Kelly had gone to Mexico and found Scott, but hesitant to tell Luke that Scott's condition for signing the divorce decree was a face to face meeting with her—alone. And she was right to be nervous, Luke did not like the idea at all. Nevertheless, she went alone and came back triumphant. Scott had signed the papers and as soon as a copy was filed and mailed to Joe's office in Pt. Charles, the divorce would be official and she could marry Luke. Meanwhile the town was giving the foursome the red carpet treatment. Pt. Charles' thanks to Luke Spencer came in the form of the presentation of ownership of the Cassadine yacht, the Titan, a gift of an anonymous donor. Luke was not thrilled; a yacht was useless to him and meant huge dock fees and taxes, and at a value of 5,000,000, a buyer would be hard to find. Through a rush of engagement parties, job interviews and apartment hunting, Luke and Laura continued to wait for the divorce decree to arrive so they could set a wedding date. In an outburst of frustration, they had their first fight in months. "I'm not blaming you," Luke said to her, "But you have messed this thing up beyond belief!" They patched it up, but still the decree did not come. Luke and Laura had hoped for a small, intimate wedding, but the townsfolk, led by Slick Jones and Lila Quartermaine, were determined to celebrate with the biggest wedding in Pt. Charles had ever seen. Even Mrs. Whittaker came to the city to help with the plans. With the whole town pressing them for a wedding date, the lovers were growing very anxious over the overdue divorce papers. They took turns calling Joe at the Baldwin law office to check. One person who was not over joyed about the wedding was Laura's father-in-law, Lee Baldwin. The labeling of Luke as a hero chafed at the man; this, after all, was the man who had stolen his son's wife and ruined his son's life. Scott had fled home, family and law practice to hole in Mexico, and he refused to allow Joe to tell Lee where he was. When the divorce papers finally did arrive in the mail, Lee was alone in the office and he pocketed the envelope, meaning only to get the return address from it. Unfortunately, before Joe could return to the office, Lee became more aggitated from watching a TV interview with the local heroes of the day, Luke and Laura. His bitterness overcame him, he fell off the wagon, took to gin and burned the envelope, an act that, if discovered, could get him disbarred. Luke knew something was up the moment he stepped into Lee's office and saw Lee's condition. Determined to get to the bottom of it, Luke confided in Laura and they decided to put it into Joe's hands. Consulting Joe was unnecessary, however, because by morning Lee sobered up and felt the full weight of what he had done. He confessed to Luke and proposed that he, Luke and Joe go to Mexico to obtain a duplicate of the decree. Luke accepted the apology and agreed, even urging Lee not to resign from the bar. The trip was a fiasco; someone had broken into the city hall in the small Mexican town and had stolen the papers. Lee then suggested another course of action, a Juarez divorce that would allow Laura her freedom as long as Scott never contested. If he did, she would be a bigamist. It was quite a decision to make, but Laura chose love. "I know it's a big risk—but the most important thing is that I love Luke and we want to be married," she said firmly to her concerned family. The wedding plans were on. The mayor's wife had offered the lawn of the mayoral mansion for the ceremony and Mrs. Whittaker and Mrs. Calhoun proposed a country sort of reception with potluck style refreshments. The whole occasion got bigger and bigger as everyone of their friends got involved, including ditzy Emma Lutz! Luke and Laura decided the only way to handle it was just to go along with it. "After all," Luke told Laura tenderly, "what does it matter how we get mar ried, just as long as we get married." Almost too elated to be nervous, the bride and groom joined each other at the gazebo on the mayor's lawn and were pronounced man and wife. Triumphantly Luke drew Laura away to change for the honeymoon getaway. They were both smiling blishfully as they met on the balcony overlooking the garden and prepared to toss the bride's garter and bouquet. Rick Webber caught the garter (to Lesley's delight), and then the bridesmaids gathered closer for the bouquet. Laura twirled about, tossing it over her shoulder, but as she turned around, a silence came over the crowd and the blood drained from her face. . Below, a bearded Scott Baldwin stood with the bouquet in his hand. "There is no marriage!" he yelled as he threw the bouquet back in the bride's face. Before Laura could stop him, Luke leaped over the side of the balcony to the ground and pounced on Scott, fists pounding in rage. Scott wound up flat on his back before Robert and Lee managed to separate the two. Luke lunged, still furious to get at Scott, until Laura embraced him and calmed him. Then, leaving Lee to deal with Scott, the newlyweds raced off for their honeymoon. "We are married," Luke reassured her as they drove away. "We are. And you were the most beautiful bride any man ever saw." In the big homey Whittaker kitchen, Luke and Laura began their honeymoon by reading over the list of farm chores they would need to take on while the Whittakers were gone. "Just what I wanted to do every morning on my honeymoon—milk Bessy," Luke kidded, but he said it with a fond look at Laura that told her he was as happy to be back on the farm as she was. Chores were not exactly on their minds, however, Aside from Scott's nasty intrusion, the wedding had been glorious and now bride and groom were alone at last. Really alone. Standing in the doorway of the cozy country bedroom, Luke gazed with awe at his shapely young bride who was looking at him so tenderly, so trustfully. After all the months of having to control their passion, the barriers were finally down and they were breathlessly aware of each other. The Whittakers had left gifts of a wispy, lace-trimmed gown and peignoir set for Laura and a flannel nightshirt and cap for Luke, and though Laura joked about him being overdressed in the outfit, Luke knew she was feeling vulnerable and shy. Gently he lifted the pengnoir from her shoulders and drew her into a warm embrace. Fired by the kiss, they tumbled into the bed, pulling the homemade quilt over them. Close, so close, Laura confided she was now glad they had waited, even though it had been frustrating. "I know," Luke agreed. "After all the waiting, waiting, waiting, it's just that much more exciting." He turned off the light and wrapped his arms about her. Luke tried to forget Scott Baldwin while he lost himself in the joy of having Laura for his own, but on some level of his brain, Scott was there, intruding. He remembered the fight he and Scott had on the Smith yacht nearly two years before when Laura had been Scott's wife and Luke had been unable to give up his dream of her, right or wrong. At the moment he had achieved his dream, when she was legally his, Scott had appeared once more to interfere. The Mexican divorce was shakey, could be contested at any time. And Scott had looked very much as if he had vengence in his bitter heart. Before the honeymoon was over, Luke was summoned back to town by Helena Cassadine, Mikkos' widow, who had arrived rather mysteriously in Pt. Charles. She said she only wanted to meet the man who had bested her husband, but Luke sensed more than curiosity in her strange eyes. She was eerie-and frightening. When the yacht arrived, Tiffany and Robert proposed they chip in, form a partnership with Luke and turn the ship into a floating cabaret. Luke liked the idea. Laura hated the idea. From the moment she had stepped aboard, she felt uneasy. The Cassadine aura was still there. Luke had to do some tall persuading to get her to agree they should remodel and open a club. And just as he finished winning over his lady with kisses and sweet argument, he discovered Scott Baldwin on board, uninvited. Luke stood like a fierce terrier between Scott and the stateroom door that hid his lady, demanding to know why Scott was there. None of it, neither the guarding of that door nor the bristling distrust was lost on Scott. Luke Spencer was a ripe target for the kind of revenge Scott hoped to enjoy. Looking ingenuous and sly at the same time, Scott insisted he only came to apologise about the wedding and to promise he would give them the copy of the divorce decree that he had stolen in Mexico. When Laura accompnaied Tiffany Hill to New York to meet her agent, Laura was astonished to be offered a screen test for a cosmetic commercial, a chance to become "Miss Star Eyes." She was thrilled—until she told Luke. Instead of being happy for her, he turned chauvenistic, telling her she had all the job she needed looking after him. Not as skilled in the seductive techniques as Luke, Laura tried to persuade with hard reason and failed. He was hurt, feeling she had rejected him for something frivoulous that would take her away from him half the time. Meanwhile the yacht seemed haunted—strange things kept happening. Cassadine roses appeared out of nowhere, there were sudden drops in temperatures, mirrors fell, a railing came loose, nearly sending Laura over the side. Luke half suspected Scott—but he couldn't account for all of it. Scott pretended to be ready to hand over the decree, but found rain had damaged it while it was in his luggage, or so he said. With all the strange happenings, Luke decided to name the yacht "The Haunted Star" and go for a magic show. He hired a magician/psychic and Tiffany and Robert worked up a slight-of-hand act. Luke finally gave in and Laura went off to New York for her screen test. She noticed a man staring at her in restaurant and later on the plane home, but she felt she was merely overreacting because the man's eyes were so strangely hypnotic. Still, she was disturbed. Laura's contract for the Miss Star Eyes job arrived and she was faced with a decision. She worried about it all during Christmas, at the same time noticing that tall man with the strange eyes was following her—or seemed to be. She wanted to tell Luke, but he has his own troubles, trying to get liquor supplies for the club without having to buy from a local mobster. Over the New Year holiday, Laura seemed nervous and Luke and Lesley were concerned for her, but concluded she was simply overwrought from too much excitement, too much traveling in such a short time. She had already spent days before the camera of the New York photographer and had been interviewed—so much had happened so fast. Luke tried to be understanding with her, but her frequent departures depressed him. Still, when she returned, they always found a hot afternoon in bed could cure their discontent. Bed was one place where they would never disagree. While Laura was away in New York for still another modeling session, Luke entered their stateroom one evening to find her nightgown torn to shreds and tossed onto the bed. Certain the culprit was Scott, Luke checked and learned Scott was out of town. As he returned to the ship, he found a man at the railing holding a model of the Titan and mumbling some sort of curse. Luke grabbed the boat from the man's hand and dashed it to the deck. As it broke, Luke's stickpin fell out of it. The man ran and Luke chased after him. Meanwhile Scott had turned up in New York and, pretending to be her husband, had phoned the studio to leave a message for Laura to meet him at a restaurant. Thinking it was Luke, Laura hurried to the dinner date. Furious to find it was Scott, she cooled down when he began to apologise. Guilefully, he talked her into dining and taking the same plane back to Pt. Charles with him. They parted at the airport, Laura declining to share a cab with him as she hurried back to Luke. When she reached the ship, it was deserted and when she tried to use the phone she found it was dead. Shivering in the silence that was broken only by the lonely cry of foghorns, she decided to go ashore and use the phone on the dock. Meanwhile Luke had gone to the airport and discovered she had been booked on an earlier flight. He went to Kelly's diner and to the Webbers, but no one had seen or heard from Laura. Luke was getting concerned—something was wrong, he could feel it. A search of the boat with Robert did not locate Laura. His sense of foreboding and anxiety increased. It was late and the fog was closing in and Laura should have been back long before. Laura tried the phone, but her parent's number was busy. She decided to go to Rose's diner, feeling she would be safe there, but as she walked in the fog, she heard footsteps behind her. Terrified, she turned and there, looking at her out of the heavy mist was the tall man with the strange eyes. Laura screamed in terror and ran. Luke was nearly frantic because he had a premonition of disaster he could explain. He checked once more with Rose at the diner, but she hadn't seen or heard from Laura. Unable to think what else to do, he headed back to the yacht. As the fog curled around him on the dock and the foghorns echoed mournfully, Luke saw a young blonde girl ahead, calling for help. He cried out to her, "Laura, Baby, it's me!" but the girl swung around and ran and the fog swallowed her as if she had never been. It had not been Laura. Luke knew that. He sank to his knees and gave a sobbing cry of distress: "Laura....!"

CHAPTER FIVE
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