Montgomery - The Awakening Part 12

She gave him a false little smile. "It would please me to get back to my studying. And it would also please me if you left my room. Better yet, it would please me if you left America."

He pulled his watch from his vest pocket. "We're going to be late. I'm supposed to meet Reva at eight, so that gives you about ten minutes to dress. You'll like this dress I bought you."

"Does it have a bodice? Or is the skirt missing? Dr. Montgomery, I am not going to some loud, beer-swilling party with you and your equally disgusting friends."

He grinned at her. "You've already lost one bet today; what d'you want to bet you lose this one too?"

Chapter Ten.

By the time Hank entered the dance with a woman on each side of him, he was ready to enter a monastery. Reva was angry because he'd shown up for their date with another woman and Amanda was angry because he'd threatened her until she had to attend the dance with him. Added to this was the fact that the two women were natural enemies and they'd had to share the pa.s.senger seat in his Mercer and Hank was beginning to think pleasantly of Amanda's suggestion that he leave the country. Maybe a long cruise on a ship. Maybe a cruise on a Navy ship where he'd see only men for months at a time.

"There's a table," Reva said over the noise of the ragtime music. "Of course it has only two places." She gave Amanda a withering look. Reva thought she could cheerfully kill Amanda right now. She finally got a chance at a gorgeous, rich, educated, rich, respectable, and, most of all, rich man like Dr. Montgomery and who should show up but Amanda? And to make it worse, Amanda was wearing a stunning white satin dress with a slant-cut overskirt that dripped with a fringe of crystal beads. Reva didn't know dresses like that existed, and it made her frilly blue dress that had cost her a week's salary look cheap and gaudy.

"It doesn't look like there's room," Amanda said. "You two go on. I'll find another table."

Hank's hand clamped down on her upper arm.

"Maybe I should be the one to leave," Reva said, then Hank took her arm, too, and began pulling both women toward the tiny table.

No c.o.c.ktails were being served but beer and wine were abundant, so Hank ordered a bottle of champagne for their table. The three of them sat in silence, laughter all around, music playing, couples dancing, and waited for the wine. When it came, Reva and Hank drank greedily, but Amanda ignored her gla.s.s.

"Drink," Hank commanded her.

"And what will you do to humiliate me if I don't?"

"I'll make you dance with me," he said so just she could hear.

"I'll drink out of the bottle to escape that," she said, picking up her gla.s.s. The wine was heavenly, sour, effervescent, cold. She emptied her gla.s.s and the waiter refilled it.

"You don't have to get drunk. Is there any food you don't like?"

"There are just men I don't like."

"Excuse me," Reva said, "but I don't think I'm needed here. There are some people over there I know. I think I'll join them."

"Wait," Hank said, "let's dance." He took Reva's hand, and as he rose he looked down at Amanda. "You leave and you'll be sorry."

She just looked into her third gla.s.s of champagne and smiled.

"And slow down on that stuff."

Hank led Reva onto the dance floor and she nuzzled as close to him as was decently possible, but she didn't think he was aware of her. He kept looking at Amanda and frowning. Reva took his chin in her hand and turned those beautiful blues so they looked at her. "What's with you?" she said. "Are you in love with her or something?"

"G.o.d no," Hank said in horror. "I happened to have been cursed with a social conscience. I hate to see anyone who's under the rule of someone else."

"You mean Amanda? Some ruler she has, all that money, that big house of hers. Just that dress she has on is enough to make a woman forget any problems she ever thought she had."

"Yeah? You like that dress? Amanda thought it looked like something a saloon girl might wear."

"She was lying. Believe me, she was lying." This remark seemed to please Hank, and Reva smiled when he moved a little closer to her. He was an excellent dancer, and she loved the feel of all those muscles under her hands and those legs of his touching hers. If Amanda was going to get this man she was going to have to fight for him.

Amanda started on her fourth gla.s.s of champagne before the tension left her body. Or maybe tension wasn't the word for it. Maybe stark terror was what she was feeling. Dr. Montgomery had threatened to tell Taylor everything that had gone on between them since the professor's arrival if Amanda didn't go to the dance with him. Amanda was faced with definitely losing Taylor if Dr. Montgomery told or just the possibility of losing him if someone checked her room and found she was gone. She didn't even want to think about what her grade would be on tomorrow's test.

She took another swallow of the wine and began to look about the room. It wasn't as garish as she'd first thought and the music was much nicer than it had sounded at first.

"Amanda?"

She looked up to see a divinely handsome man leaning over her. Not as good-looking as Taylor, of course, or even Dr. Montgomery for that matter, but very pleasant, with dark brown hair, dark brown eyes and a nicely full lower lip under a fat mustache. She kept looking at that lower lip as he sat down beside her.

"It is you, Amanda. I haven't seen you in years. Remember me? Sam Ryan."

She looked back at his eyes. "Sam Ryan, the love of the whole elementary school. I remember we girls used to take turns swooning when you came by." Amanda was shocked that she'd said such a thing but she felt so relaxed that it didn't really matter.

Sam ducked his head in embarra.s.sment. "I don't know about any of that, but you look great. I like that dress."

"Do you? I've had it for ages." It seemed that he was better-looking with every sip of the magic drink.

"Would you like to dance?"

"I'm afraid I don't know how."

"Oh." He smiled at her and leaned forward. "Are you here alone? I mean, is that guy you came with your date or Reva's?"

"Reva's!" she practically yelled. "He's nothing to do with me. He just drove the car. He's Reva's and no one else's. At least not mine. I hardly know him. I don't want to know him." She shut up.

Sam looked at her for a while. She had grown into a beautiful woman, with her hair soft around her face, her beautiful white shoulders exposed under the transparent sleeves of her dress. "It's awfully noisy in here, don't you think? Why don't we go somewhere and get somethin' to eat and talk about old times?"

"Food would be lovely," she said, thinking that she hadn't eaten since that disastrous picnic with that odious man. When Amanda started to stand up, she nearly fell, but Sam's strong arm caught her and she smiled at him as if he'd just saved her life. She was very happy to see a look in his eyes that she'd seen several times in Dr. Montgomery's. She didn't want to think about the way Taylor looked at her. His rejection of her today had hurt more than she wanted to admit.

"Thank you," she murmured, holding on to him, and the warmth in his eyes increased. He was making her feel very good. She clung to his arm as if she were an invalid as he led her toward the doors.

The tango ended and Hank turned toward where he'd left Amanda. The table was empty except for an empty champagne bottle and three gla.s.ses. Frantically, he looked about the room only to see Amanda clutching the arm of some big athletic-looking guy and gazing up at him with a simper and fluttering eyelashes. It took a moment before Hank could react, then he walked off and left Reva standing alone. Amanda and her overgrown boyfriend were already on the steps outside.

"Just where the h.e.l.l do you think you're going?" Hank demanded, clamping his hand down on Amanda's arm.

"Wait just a minute, mister," Sam said, pulling Amanda toward him.

"You always did love to fight, didn't you, Amanda?" Reva said from the top of the stairs.

Amanda smiled at all of them and decided she was going to drink champagne every day for the rest of her life.

Hank looked into Sam's eyes. They were the same height, but Sam was heavier and his face didn't have the intelligence in it that Hank's did. "This woman is under my protection," Hank said, as if he were talking to one of his stupider students. "I cannot allow her to run off with some-"

"Just one minute!" Sam said. "I've known Amanda all her life and I thought Reva was your date."

"So did I," Reva said.

"She is," Amanda said, smiling.

"You're drunk," Hank said with disgust and pulled Amanda toward him. "I'm taking you home."

She jerked away from him. "I want to get drunk. I want to run away with Sam. Isn't that the objective, Dr. Montgomery? To make me do what I want to?"

"Yeah, well I didn't mean for you to get drunk."

Sam started forward, but Amanda put her hand up. "You just wanted me to do what you wanted, didn't you?" Quickly, she spun about on her heel and planted her lips on Sam's. She didn't feel anything except anger, and when Sam's hands grabbed her waist she pushed him away and looked back at Hank.

"There! That's something J wanted to do. Now Sam and I are going to get something to eat."

Reva clutched Hank's arm. "That's just great, because we're going dancing." Reva pulled, but Hank didn't move as he watched Sam and Amanda start walking down the street, the streetlamps making them look isolated and intimate.

"I think I'm hungry," Hank said and started after Amanda and Sam.

Gritting her teeth, Reva followed him. "I thought you said Amanda was nothing to you."

"Merely a responsibility," Hank said, then turned into a diner behind Amanda and Sam. "Mind if we join you?" he asked as he took the opposite side of the booth, across from Amanda, Reva beside him.

"Could someone tell me what's goin' on?" Sam asked. "Who is this guy?"

"I would love to know the answer to that," Amanda said. "Just who are you, Dr. Montgomery? And why have you taken me to raise?"

"Good question," Reva said.

Hank picked up a menu and buried his face in it. "What's good to eat here? Not that it will matter to Amanda; she'll eat a wagonload of anything."

Everyone was quiet for a moment, three of them staring at Hank, but he didn't look up until the waitress came. He didn't know what made him angrier, prim little Amanda running off with this bonehead or the fact that she kept smiling so invitingly at him. She seemed to go from one extreme to another: Taylor, who was all learning and nothing physical, to this galoot, who probably had muscle for brains.

"Sam and I are going for a walk," Amanda said.

"Over my dead body," Hank said pleasantly.

"Maybe that can be arranged, Doc, although I hate to take advantage of an older man."

Hank nearly came out of his seat at that, but Reva put her hand on his arm. She was liking Hank more by the minute. If she could just get him away from Amanda.

"I think a walk's a grand idea," Reva said. "We'll all go. We'll walk out toward the museum." That was a long, dark road and there were hop fields on one side and maybe she could persuade Hank to walk under the dark rows with her.

"Maybe Amanda can get the museum opened for us," Hank said. "Then she could give us a tour."

Amanda gave him a cool look and moved closer in the seat to Sam. "Tonight I prefer to have fun. That's the objective, isn't it?"

Hank looked at the way Sam was gazing down at Amanda and the fork in his hand bent.

"You better be careful you don't hurt yourself, Doc," Sam said. "It takes longer to heal at your age. Come on, Amanda, you ready to leave this place?"

"Yes," she said, smiling maliciously at Hank.

Hank had to pay the check, and then Reva wanted to go to the restroom and she made him feel so rotten that he waited for her and he nearly lost Amanda and that schoolboy.

"Come on," Hank said impatiently to Reva.

"This is turning into the worst date I have ever been on," Reva muttered as they started walking. She did her best to coax Hank into the dark hop fields, but he didn't even seem to be aware of what she was doing.

Finally, she planted herself in front of him. "Look, I want to know what's going on. You invite me out to dance but you arrive with another woman who you say is nothing to you, then I get one dance and we're off chasing Amanda as if she were the love of your life. I just want to know where I stand. If you want Amanda, then don't invite me out." She knew she was risking losing him, but at this point her feet, in shoes made for dancing, hurt too much to care.

"Amanda's lived in a gla.s.s case all her life. She has no idea what men are capable of, and she's been throwing herself at that football player all night."

"Sam's a good guy. Amanda will be all right with him."

"Hah!" Hank said and started walking again. "She's my responsibility. I made her come out tonight and I'd never be able to live with myself if anything happened to her."

"You sure that's all it is? You're not interested in her yourself?"

"Only as a student. She's not my type."

She was nearly having to run to keep up with him. "Prove it," she said daringly.

Hank paused for a moment and looked at her in the moonlight. Her makeup was too heavy and the dress she wore was cheap and he doubted if she had any idea what was going on in Servia but, at the moment, she was appealing. He put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her to him for a quick, perfunctory kiss. His mind was totally on finding Amanda.

"I think we've lost him," Amanda said, breathless from running to escape Hank.

"Is he your watchdog or somethin'?" Sam asked.

"Something is right. He thinks he owns me."

"But I heard you were engaged to some guy that lives with you."

Maybe it was the wine, but Amanda's memory of the humiliating scene with Taylor in the library came back vividly. If he was a red-blooded normal male, maybe it was just she who nauseated him. Dr. Montgomery didn't seem to find her physically repulsive but then he seemed to like all women. He flirted with Lily Webster in the park, he took Reva to a dance. There didn't seem to be a woman he didn't like.

She leaned a little bit toward Sam. "Tell me, did you ever notice me when we were in school together?"

"Sure. You were Caulden's daughter. You were the richest kid in school."

"Oh," she said flatly. "Is that why you came up to me at the dance? My father's money?"

Smiling, he took her hand in his and led her to the edge of the road. "I didn't know who you were at first. I just thought you were the prettiest girl I'd seen in years."

"Really?" she whispered up at him, eyes wide. If she was pretty, why didn't Taylor want to touch her? She wondered if Sam would be repulsed if she kissed him. She put her face up toward his and she was pleased to hear his breath taken in sharply.

"Let's go look at the hop fields in the moonlight," he said and pulled her behind him. When they came to the fence, he swept her into his arms and lifted her over.

The sudden movement made Amanda feel a little dizzy, but the moonlight, this big, handsome man, the wine and his obvious interest in her were making her skin glow. She watched as he climbed over the fence and she saw a big muscle outlined in his thigh. When she looked up at his face, she saw he had seen her look.