Part Three

She Said

Some time earlier, Trixie had tired of waiting for Jim at the lake, instead choosing to go and look for him. For a while, she had walked around in circles, but seeing a flash of colour through the trees, had homed in on a patch of the preserve that held human life. She was almost within hearing distance when she realised that Jim was not alone and that he was in conversation with the man they had seen with the red car.

Not wanting to alert them to her presence, she slipped off the path to wait and watch. She did not have the best view and she could hear nothing, but something told her that the advantage lay in her not becoming directly involved.

They’ve talked before, she deduced, as she watched the two interact. That man’s threatening Jim. He’s done it before. And Jim is afraid of him. The last thought stopped her dead. Why should Jim be afraid?

Something Jim said as he walked away made the other man scowl and call out something at Jim’s retreating back. The man from the red car stood and watched Jim leave, not in the direction of the lake, but along a small path to one side. Fearful of being seen by one or both of them, Trixie ducked down and waited. No footsteps approached and eventually she dared to take a peek. The man was still standing where Jim had left him, thumbing through some papers that he had pulled from a yellow envelope. The look on his face caused her to shiver. Whatever his intent, Trixie could tell that it was not good.

After some minutes, the man left the scene in the opposite direction to that in which Trixie hid. She gave him a few minutes start, then returned to the lake, determined that she would find out from Jim what was going on.

He Said

Jim had been hoping that his earlier encounter with the man from the red car had gone unnoticed. It was with dismay that he discovered that he was not so lucky. At the first time that the two of them were alone together, Trixie pounced upon him with an unwanted question.

“I saw you talking with that man. What did he want?” she demanded, catching hold of his shirt-front. “Why are you so jumpy?”

Running a soothing hand down her arm, he tried to get her to let go of his shirt. As her fingers relaxed, he took her hand in his and looked down into her eyes. “He knows things,” Jim whispered. “About you, me, us – including our secret. I think he’s the guy who took those surveillance shots – the ones in the book Lucius Englefield sent you. He showed me some others that I really don’t want seen by anyone else and he keeps hinting that he knows something worse. He wants me to pay him to keep quiet.”

Trixie shook her head. “No way. I’d rather tell everyone our secret than to have some slimeball like him holding stuff over us.”

“But Trix,” Jim pleaded, “it’s not just our secret… he knows other things; things about me that I don’t want anyone to know.”

Dropping his hand, she took a small step backwards, a wary look coming to her face. “Not even me?”

A lump formed in his throat, so large that it was difficult to swallow past. “Well… there’ve been times – I mean, there are things – I mean…” He took a deep breath and let the rest of the thought come out in a rush. “I mean, there was a time when we went on a Bob-White trip and I kissed this girl I met and he took a picture of me kissing her and I didn’t want you to see it, especially since I can’t even remember her name and only kissed her the once and it was long before anything started between us.”

She looked sceptical. “Is that all?”

His gaze dropped. Taking her hand in his once more, he continued, “I don’t want to hurt you, Trixie. I can’t do anything about my past mistakes and I don’t want them to hurt you. I’m afraid you will be hurt if I don’t do something to stop this man.”

“I can look after myself,” she answered. “And if that’s the worst he can do, what do you have to worry about?”

For a long moment, Jim did not answer. “Maybe he’s deduced that there’s more to be found.”

At that, Trixie laughed. “Since he’s been talking to you, he probably has. Sorry, Jim, but you’re never going to get an Oscar for Best Actor. A pity, ’cause I’d like to see your acceptance speech on television, but the truth.”

He reddened, knowing that she was right. “All the more reason to deal with him carefully. There’s no telling what he might find out.”

“Then call his bluff,” she advised. “Make him prove to you that he has something that can really do some damage before you give him anything. I promise not to look at any compromising photographs if it doesn’t come off.”

“You might not be able to help it,” Jim murmured. “He might trick you into seeing them.”

Trixie let out a breath, almost like a sigh. “Then, I promise not to get upset about it. I’m not fourteen now, Jim. I think I can handle it.”

“Are you sure about this, Trixie?” He felt the tightness in his chest that he always felt when he saw or thought of the man in the red car. He also felt guilty for neglecting to mention that there were two girls he had kissed on Bob-White trips, that he certainly could remember the other one’s name and that she was the one who would cause the most hurt.

She nodded, oblivious to his inner turmoil. “Yes, I’m sure. He can’t hold it over us if we tell everyone and I’d much rather do that than give him a cent.”

Jim nodded, wondering if he was about to make a big mistake.

She Said

“Hello?” Honey called at the kitchen door to Crabapple Farm. “Anyone home?”

“Come on in, Hon,” her best friend called. “If you’re looking for Mart, he’s in the bathroom, trying to make himself look presentable. I doubt that he’ll be able to, though, so if you need to I might go up and get him.”

“No need,” her brother corrected, entering the room. “I am here.”

Honey smiled. “And you do look handsome. To what do I owe this honour?”

He smiled and looked enigmatic. “You will see.”

Trixie took one look at her best friend’s face, made an excuse and fled. Neither of the others noticed her departure, or even took note of the fact that she had been there at all.

“Please, Mart,” Honey wailed. “This is driving me crazy! When do I get to know the surprise?”

A smile played around the edges of his mouth. “Not until you figure out why today is special. You’re supposed to be a detective, right? So figure it out.”

“I don’t care if I’m never a detective,” she muttered, hoping that her partner wouldn’t catch wind of the statement. “Please, just give me a clue.”

Her boyfriend took her hand and led her across to the telephone and the calendar which hung beside it on the wall. “That’s today. What can you tell me about it?”

“It’s a Tuesday,” she stated, flatly.

“Anything else?”

“The fourth Tuesday in July. The day between Monday and Wednesday. The twenty-eighth day of the month. Nine days before the full moon. The Tuesday of calendar week thirty-one of the year. The day someone in your family is having a dentist’s appointment. I don’t know! What’s special about it?”

Mart laughed. “You’re way off the mark. Think of what might have happened on this day.”

Her brow creased. “Was it the landing of the Mayflower? The first man on the moon? The last time the Sleepyside Junior-Senior High basketball team won the championship? No? Well, I give up!”

For a moment, her boyfriend looked slightly apprehensive. “You’re sure you don’t know?”

For the first time since being planted in front of the calendar, Honey really thought about what the day could mean, rather than just reading things off that she read there, or making something up. She tried to remember exactly what she had done exactly a year ago. “Our Bob-White road trip?” she wondered, as light dawned on an idea. “Would today be the anniversary of the day, on the way back home, after the mystery was solved, when we stopped at Shenandoah National Park and the others let us go off alone, all by ourselves, and we walked along the track to the waterfall and sat there for an hour and just enjoyed being us?”

He nodded. “I know we agreed that the timing of our first real date wasn’t so good for celebrations, but I wanted us to have an anniversary of some kind and I remembered that day. I think it was the first time we really were accepted by the whole group as being a couple.”

“I think you’re right,” she answered, smiling. “Even Brian let us be, without even complaining at all. At least, not when we were there to hear it.”

Mart sighed. “I still wish he was more okay with us. I’m glad we’re not fighting still, but he could be a little nicer.”

It was Honey’s turn to sigh. “Don’t think about that now. He made his choice and he has to live with it. That’s not always easy.”

“You’re right. Let’s forget Brian,” Mart agreed, turning her to face him. “Today can be all about us.”

“Are you going to tell me my surprise, now?” she asked, between kisses. “Or do I have to take some kind of action to get it out of you?”

A grin spread across his face and his eyebrows waggled. “Will I like this action?”

“No, so spit it out.”

Instead, he took her hand and led her outside. They walked hand in hand through the back yard and onto the bicycle path they so often used in their Bob-White meeting days. The path took them towards the Manor House and they took the branch that led to the lake. The rowboat rocked gently in the water next to the dock.

“Your hand, m’lady?” he asked, helping her in.

A moment later, he settled at the oars and had soon guided them across the lake to the Pavilion. Honey gasped as the building came into sight. Fairy lights were festooned through the dim interior, showing their light through the windows. Even from her seat in the boat, Honey could see that a table was set for dinner.

“Oh, Mart! It’s beautiful!”

“You haven’t even seen it, yet,” he teased, hopping out to secure the boat.

She smiled and accepted his help out again. “I can see enough from here to tell that you’ve gone to a big effort.”

Hand in hand once more, they entered the building. The trees shaded the windows, making the interior dim and the tiny lights stand out all the more. The table was dressed in what Honey was sure must be Mrs. Belden’s best tablecloth and what she recognised as Mrs. Belden’s good china and tableware. A smile hovered on her lips as she noticed a small dish of shiny red heart-shaped candy. On a side table nearby, some food of some sort was standing within insulated covers.

Mart drew out her chair and helped her to be seated. He lit the candles on the table, started some soft music playing and served their food before seating himself. Honey breathed deeply, appreciating the fresh aroma of the tomato and chicken casserole and freshly-dressed green salad on her plate.

“Sorry it’s nothing more fancy,” Mart added, “but I needed something that would keep warm by itself and I didn’t exactly feel up to lobster and caviar.”

“It smells wonderful,” she assured him.

He seemed nervous, almost as if it was their first date, instead of a year and two months afterwards. Her mood suddenly reflecting his, Honey took a tentative bite and was pleasantly surprised by the depth of flavour in the dish.

“Mmm,” she hummed with her eyes closed. “This is delish. Did you make it yourself?”

The nervousness seemed to flow away from him. “I had a little help,” he admitted. “Mostly in interpreting the recipe. Moms doesn’t make this very often, but it was her first suggestion when I asked and I knew right away that it was the one.”

“I’ll have to ask her for the recipe sometime. It’s fabulous.” Her eyes strayed to her surroundings. “I love these lights, too, Mart. I can’t wait for it to get a little darker to appreciate them more. It’s like a starry sky, with amplified stars. I can’t believe how much trouble you’ve gone to.”

“It was no trouble,” he answered, “not for you.”

He was so busy looking into her eyes that he almost forgot to eat.

***

“I also have a little gift for you,” Mart admitted, when they had finished eating.

“Oh, Mart! But you didn’t tell me that this was a special day, and you know I didn’t figure it out in advance, since you asked just before we left, and I haven’t got you anything–”

He stilled the babble with a kiss. “I know. It’s not a valuable gift; it’s not important. It’s just something I wanted to give you.” He paused, looking slightly embarrassed. “Actually, I was originally just going to give you this today, but then I thought about how we’d missed out on an anniversary dinner and – well, let’s say I got a bit carried away.”

“I loved everything that happened before this,” she told him, pausing to kiss him on the cheek, “and I’m perfectly happy to let you get carried away if it means being treated like a princess and pampered like this.”

“Good,” he replied, winking, “because you never know when I might get it into my head to do something like this again. Now, hold out your hands and shut your eyes.”

She did so obediently, soon feeling something placed in them that was feather-light, fairly flat and flexible to the touch. She opened her eyes to see what, at first glance, seemed to be a slightly odd paper flower. At second glance, she noticed that it opened. Delicately, she eased the ‘petals’ apart and the thing came apart to reveal its interior. She read the heart-felt words written by Mart along the sides with tears in her eyes: “My sweet Honey, may we be together always and forever, with all my love, Mart.” In the middle was a picture of the two of them together, clasped close in each other’s arms. Honey recalled posing for the shot a few weeks back, but had not seen the final image.

“It’s lovely,” she whispered. “Thank you.”

The love for her she saw in his eyes warmed her heart.

He Said

Shoulders squared and a mixture of anger and fear bubbling within him, Jim headed down the Manor House driveway to where he could see the red car waiting. The man was leaning negligently against the hood, a familiar sneer on his face.

“Time to come to terms,” the man said, slapping a large yellow envelope against his leg. “Unless, of course, you’d like me to send this first envelope off to that feisty blonde girlfriend of yours?”

He just said ‘girlfriend’, Jim thought, and the anger began to outweigh the fear. Not ‘wife’. Maybe Trixie is right – maybe he doesn’t have anything that will do real damage. Maybe he doesn’t actually know any of my secrets at all – only that secrets exist. He has no excuse for not knowing that; Trixie was right: I practically told him so myself.

Unaware that his advantage was slipping away, the man continued, “I thought I might give you a discount on your first payment – you might make it out of your pocket change. How does ten thousand sound?”

“How does actually proving what you know sound?” Jim countered, a gleam of the underlying anger showing in his face. “I don’t think you’ve convinced me, yet, that I have anything to fear from you.”

The man shrugged. “I’ll just deliver this envelope to the blonde, then. And another one to… someone else that you’d rather not know your secrets.”

The fear welled up within Jim once more, but he kept his expression steady. “Go ahead. I’d rather deal with the consequences than give you a penny – and I think you know that once you show anyone, those photos are worthless.”

Turning on his heel, he began to stride away. The sound of the man’s voice caused him to pause and turn.

“The second envelope will break you. It contains a certain document that I obtained upstate a few years back. I think you know what I’m talking about. You haven’t told any of your friends about that, have you?”

Jim thought for a long moment. “May I see it?” he asked quietly.

At length, the man nodded and crossed to the open window of the car. Reaching inside, he drew out another yellow envelope and extracted a single page document of official appearance. Keeping it well out of Jim’s reach, he held it up for perusal. A few moments’ study was enough to tell Jim that it was genuine, as he had seen this same document in his step-father’s possession many years before.

Dropping his gaze from the page, he contemplated the potential results of walking away from this man. What would he do with it? If he showed it to – who? Dad? Trixie? I don’t know how either of them would react… but I think I could take that risk. If he published the information somewhere… it could be a negative influence on my future career. Jim took a few moments to weigh the importance of his reputation and his ambitions against the principle of not giving in to blackmailers. His decision, when made, brought forth a wave of peace that almost overwhelmed him with its intensity.

“You’ve misjudged me,” Jim told the man, noting with satisfaction that his smug expression had frozen. “It’s true that I would rather not let anyone know about that. It’s also true that it could be damaging to me. On the other hand, there’s nothing in it that is not true and I will not lift a finger to suppress it. You can send your envelopes wherever you want. I won’t pay to stop you.”

This time, when Jim strode away, he did not look back.

She Said

For the last night of Trixie’s stay, she had arranged with Honey and Di for a sleep-over at Manor House, just as they had often done in high school. Trixie had also thought of the additional advantage of slipping into Jim’s room at bedtime and spending the rest of the night with him before they left together in the morning. In her opinion, secret marriages had to have some such advantages. Until then, however, she was enjoying spending time with two of her best friends.

“We haven’t had much time like this for such a long time,” Honey mourned, as she sat down on the floor with her back leant against the bed.

Di sniggered. “That’s because you spend all of your time gazing into Mart’s eyes.”

“I don’t spend all of my time that way,” Honey replied, with dignity. “And don’t you dare suggest anything else I might be doing with Mart, or Trixie will probably vomit on you and then you’ll be sorry.”

“I might,” Trixie confirmed, leaning in Di’s direction and pulling dreadful faces. She cast Honey a look. “Some might splatter on you, though, Hon, so you’d better not suggest it, either.”

“Honey wouldn’t. She’s probably the most pure among the three of us. You can tell, because she’s never the one to make those sorts of suggestions.”

Trixie frowned from one friend to the other, muttering, “I don’t want to know, I don’t want to know.”

“You keep saying that, Trixie,” Di teased, “but most of the time, it’s the exact opposite. If any other mystery happened near you, you wouldn’t be able to help yourself.”

“That’s different.” Trixie shuddered. “Anyway, this isn’t a mystery. I could guess if I wanted to, only I don’t want to, so I won’t guess, and I wish you two would stop talking about it so that I could go back to pretending it wasn’t happening.”

“Don’t you want me to date your brother?” Honey asked in a small voice.

Trixie leaned over and gave her friend a hug. “I love having you date my brother because you make him so happy and he makes you so happy. I would love it if you married him one day and had a whole bunch of children with him, just don’t remind me how they get in there, okay?”

“No objections from me,” Honey answered, giving her friend a squeeze. “It’s Di that you’ve got to convince.”

“You two are no fun,” their friend teased, her eyes alight with laughter. “No fun at all.”

He Said

The same evening, his father called Jim into his office for a chat. The invitation had been informal and not in the least bit threatening, but still Jim felt a little nervous about accepting. He felt as if he had been caught off-balance as he stepped over the threshold. For the first few minutes, nothing undesirable happened and Jim began to relax. When the shock did come, that made it all the worse.

“I know you’ve got a secret, Jim. It’s been obvious for the whole time you’ve been here that you’re keeping something from us.” His father held up a hand to quell the response that was coming. “I’m sure you have your reasons and I’m not asking to be told. I just want to make sure that you’re not leaving yourself vulnerable.”

Jim’s throat went dry. “What do you mean?”

There was a speculative look on his father’s face. “So, you have left yourself vulnerable. What was it? Blackmail?” he guessed.

Jim shut his eyes for a moment and let out a sigh. “I think that was the idea. When I challenged him, though, he couldn’t produce proof of the secret I’m most concerned about and I told him to take a hike. I figured everyone who mattered would listen to me over a dubious stranger.”

For the first time since the turn in the conversation, Matthew smiled. “It would pay to remember that – and that there are few secrets that are worth worrying that much over. You’ve got the legal side of things in hand?”

“Yes, Dad,” Jim replied. “My lawyer is fully briefed. I didn’t actually break any laws.”

His father gave him a sharp look. “And the financial side?”

“Yes, Dad.” His voice took on a sharper tone. “My affairs are all in order. I made a new will less than a year ago. I consulted my lawyer and my accountant. I took specialist legal advice. I followed the advice I was given by all of those people. I’ve done everything I can to keep this under control. The problem is with me, though.”

“You feel guilty.” It was not a question. “You blame yourself for what happened.”

His head bowed and eyes shut, Jim nodded. “Dad, I messed up. It was my fault, but nothing I can do can fix it and I have a long wait until I can make it better.”

Matthew laid a hand on Jim’s shoulder. “Have patience, then. At least you have a hope of making things better. In the meantime, remember that you’re welcome here no matter what your secret is.”

Jim frowned slightly. “How can you say that when you don’t know what it is?”

His father smiled. “Well, let’s look at what you have told me. Firstly, you haven’t broken the law. Secondly, you followed the advice you were given. Thirdly, you regret causing the problem in the first place. That tells me almost everything I need to know.”

Swallowing painfully, Jim nodded. If it wasn’t for that one little word – almost – I would have felt an awful lot better, he reflected.

She Said

“Are you ready to have that talk?” Trixie asked, as she and Jim took an early morning walk through the preserve, the last chance to do so before they left.

He looked up with a start. “What talk is that?”

“About our agreement – the talk I promised I’d let you have before the end of the summer. The talk where you try to convince me that what we decided before was wrong.” She watched in interest as a faint blush tinged his cheeks.

He kept his gaze on the path as he spoke. “I don’t think I feel the same now as I did on the way here.”

She stopped walking and turned to examine his face. “Do you mean that you agree with the decision we already made, now?”

Without looking at her, he shook his head. “Not exactly. I still think it would be better to tell, but it’s gone past being a matter of my own conscience. I don’t like what almost happened here and I don’t want it to happen again. That man is still out there and he knows a lot more than he did before. I think we should advance our plans; announce our engagement at Thanksgiving or Christmas and have the wedding ceremony next summer. I think it would be safer.”

“Safer?” she demanded, aghast. “Jim! You weren’t in any danger from that man. All we had to do was own up to our families what we actually did and he had nothing on us. Nothing. Don’t you understand that? I don’t want to get married just because it’s ‘safer’ to do so! We got ourselves into this mess because you thought it would be ‘safer’ and I don’t want to make it any worse. You have to face your fears, Jim, or they’re going to destroy you. Understand?”

“I understand that he has probably spent the last seven or eight years following us, that he has almost certainly done extra research on the side, other than what Mr. Englefield commissioned, that he knows things I don’t want him to know and that he probably won’t give up now, without having gained anything for his trouble.” Jim rubbed a hand across his face. “I understand that he’s a vindictive man, who would rather sponge off someone than do an honest day’s work. I understand that there are things he could do to hurt us in revenge for my refusal to pay.”

“Then, we’ll face those things,” she answered, feeling a fire kindling within her. “We won’t live our lives in fear, just because Mr. Englefield’s odd job man has it in for us.”

“In that case, I think the best course of action is to make public what happened last year,” Jim told her. He dropped his gaze. “Even if you don’t want to be married to me, at least can we tell our parents what happened?”

At his words, she felt a surge of emotion, a strange mixture of love and pity. “I do want to be married to you, one day, Jim. Just not yet, okay? And because of that, I don’t think it’s time to tell. If he tells, we’ll have to tell our side of the story, of course, but I don’t want to, otherwise. Is that okay?”

Jim was silent for a long time. “Is that your final answer?” he asked. At her nod, he continued, “I guess it’ll have to be, then.”

“Of course,” she drew out, “if you’re really not happy about this situation, then we could suspend marital relations and pretend the whole thing never happened – you know, go back to how we were before.”

The look of alarm on his face almost made her laugh. “I don’t think we need to go that far,” he answered, shaking his head. “There are some things which can’t be undone.”

She could keep the laughter in no longer. “I didn’t think you’d go for that,” she answered. “So, can we agree that there are advantages to our situation?”

He relaxed, visibly. “I never said there weren’t. I only said that I felt guilty about keeping the secret, that I thought it would be wiser to tell and that I wished I’d never gotten us into this. But I do think I’d prefer it if I woke up to find you in my bed 365 days a year, instead of once in a while. Pretending not to be married, when we are, discounts almost all of the advantages.”

Unable to argue with the last point, she sighed. “True. Would telling what we’ve done help in that respect, though?”

He shook his head.

“Would our parents finding out about it from a vindictive stranger be much worse than us telling them?” she persisted.

He paused, this time, then shook his head once more. “Not very much. Point taken, Trixie.” He let out a sigh. “I guess that means that you’re right and I’m wrong – but you’d better expect a proposal of wedding, if not of marriage, sometime in the next couple of years.”

Stopping, she sealed the deal with a kiss. “I’ll look forward to it.”

The End