“And Kent’s coming back after Christmas.”
“That’s the plan.”
“Cece, you aren’t thinking about getting married?”
“Not yet. Someday, but not yet.”
“I’m not against it, but you haven’t known him very long.”
“I guess I’ll get the chance to know him a lot longer and a lot better, won’t I?”
“That’s a good thing. Be sure.”
“Like you were sure about Ben.”
“I want you to be happy, Cece, as happy as I am.”
“That’s what I want, too.”
“Okay then. I’ll see you Thursday. Love you, baby girl.”
“Love you, too, Sister.”
Celeste hung up and opened the phone closet door. Mrs. Clay stood there holding out an envelope. “Someone left this for you.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. I found it on the floor. Someone slipped it through the mail slot.”
Celeste took the envelope between two fingers. Claudia. That was her way. Sneak around and do the damage and then move on. “Thank you, Mrs. Clay,” she said as she moved toward the stairs.
“Are you all right, honey? You just turned real pale.”
“I’m okay. Just tired, I guess.” She hurried up the stairs, feeling like she was being smothered in a heavy blanket. Inside her room, she leaned against the door and slipped a single sheet of paper from the envelope.
I know you went to the graduation dance with Kenny. It should’ve been me, not you. Leave Kenny alone. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.
Chapter Fourteen
With deliberate effort, Celeste managed not to think too much about Kent while she was in Sterling City. He didn’t call, which the others might have thought odd, but no one said anything. On Sunday afternoon, she took the last bus back to San Angelo and found Veda waiting at the station. “I figured you’d come back at the last minute,” she said.
“Why are you here waiting for me?”
“Because I need to tell you something before you come to work in the morning.”
A feeling of dread, colder than the December wind whipping around the building as they emerged from the station, chilled Celeste despite her heavy red coat. “Claudia.”
“Let’s get your suitcase. I borrowed a car to take you back to the boarding house. We can talk in your room.”
On the way, Celeste told Veda about the picture Claudia had shown her and the note slipped through the mail slot. “Kent says the little boy isn’t his.”
“But you don’t believe him. That’s what you were crying about that night at the Canteen.”
“I don’t know what to believe. He called later to tell me his mother managed to pull some strings to get him reassigned to Concho Field as an instructor. He won’t be going overseas.”
“How did she do that?”
“Family connections, he said. I get the idea that she meddles in everybody’s lives.”
“Not promising for a future mother-in-law.”
“No.”
Veda helped Celeste carry everything upstairs to her room and sat down on the end of the bed to watch her unpack. “Well, at least I don’t have to tell you about the kid.”
“Was that what you thought I should know?”
“There’s more. She cornered a couple of the girls from cosmetics on Christmas Eve, after you’d gone, and told them you were a home-wrecker. She said you were trying to break up her marriage.”
“Marriage!”
“That’s what she said. Anyway, Mr. Thomas had come downstairs to find Betty because she hadn’t picked up her bonus check yet.”
“How can you forget your Christmas bonus?”
“She got busy with some old biddy who wanted a certain kind of lace. Betty told her four times that we didn’t have it, but the gal was convinced Betty wasn’t showing her everything. Can you beat it? Anyway, when Mr. Thomas brought the check downstairs, he overheard Claudia and told her right in front of everybody that he’d warned her, and now he didn’t have any choice but to fire her.”
“In front of everybody? That doesn’t sound like Mr. Thomas.”
“Our mouths were hanging open, I can tell you. But Claudia just laughed and said she wasn’t surprised that he’d stick up for you, that you were probably making it with him, too, and…”
Celeste collapsed on the bed. “I can’t believe she said that to him.”
“Oh, she did. He told her to see him on the twenty-sixth, that he’d have her final check ready. He was mad. Red-in-the-face mad. ”
“So she’ll come upstairs tomorrow.” Celeste squeezed her eyes shut. “Oh, Veda, I don’t think I can face her.”
“You haven’t done anything. It’s her own fault. Can you imagine talking to your boss that way? Especially one as nice as Mr. Thomas.”
“I don’t know.”
“Miss Riley.” Mrs. Clay knocked and called name from the hall. “Telephone.”
Celeste got up. “I hope it’s not Kent.”
“Want me to wait or leave you alone?”
“Stay here, if you don’t mind.”
The voice on the other end of the line belonged to Mr. Thomas. “I have a bit of unpleasant news,” he said.
“It’s okay, Mr. Thomas. Veda met my bus and told me what happened.”
“Oh. Well, that’s good, that’s good. I just didn’t want it to hit you when you came in tomorrow.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. Miss Peters caused her own problems. But I don’t want you in the middle of what promises to be an unpleasant interview tomorrow, so don’t come in to work until nine or later.”
“But…”
“I mean it, Miss Riley. My wife is coming with me tomorrow morning to witness everything.”
It was on the tip of Celeste’s tongue to ask why he needed a witness after he’d already fired Claudia in front of the whole store, but she swallowed her curiosity. “Thank you, Mr. Thomas. I’ll be in at nine.”
“All right. I’m not doing this for you, Miss Riley. I have a business to run, and I can’t afford to let anything interfere.”
“I understand.”
I don’t understand any of it. How did things get so tangled up? The dress, that’s what it was. Wanting something I didn’t need, doing things I shouldn’t have done. Maybe I should quit, too, but what if I can’t find anything else? What if Claudia can’t find another job? Will she go back to Brownwood? What will happen to her little boy?
She filled Veda in on the conversation. “Somehow I can’t help thinking this is my fault.”
“That’s crazy, Celeste. Besides, nobody liked Claudia. She’s a cheap floozy, and you know it. She couldn’t ever close out her cash drawer without someone helping her, and she left customers standing around while she took a break in the powder room four or five times a day or went out back and smoked.”
“Maybe she never worked a counter before.”
“Why are you making excuses for her?”
“She has a child to support.”
“That’s not really an excuse. She should have thought of that herself and been more responsible.” Veda got up and reached for her coat. “I’ve got to get the car back to my friend.”
“Thanks for meeting my bus. Thanks for being a good friend.”
Veda put one finger under Celeste’s chin. “Listen, I don’t really know Kent. He seems like a nice enough guy, but you better take things slow until you know him a lot better.”
“I will, Veda. Really.”
“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
****
With Claudia gone, Mr. Thomas hired the wife of a serviceman, even though she told him she might be temporary. He assigned Veda to train her. Celeste thought it was as if Claudia had never worked a day at Woolworth. Betty and Ellen made a point to tell Celeste privately that they never believed what Claudia said and were glad she was gone. She didn’t hear from Kent.
On the second Saturday night in January, when sleet made the streets and sidewalks treacherous, he showed up at the half-empty Canteen, greeted Celeste with the allowed handshake, and asked if they could sit at their usual out-of-the-way table and talk.
“I just got in this morning,” he said.
“You didn’t call.”
“I was trying not to pressure you until you’d had time to think about things.”
“Do you know about Claudia?”
“What about her?”
“Mr. Thomas fired her the day after Christmas.”
“Why?”
“She talked too much.”
Kent’s face contorted almost as if he were in pain. “What now?”
“It’s not important.”
“I’d like to know.”
Celeste lowered her voice to a whisper and gave him the gist of what Claudia had said.
“That sounds like her. She’s obsessed with the idea that we’re…that I’m going to change my mind about her.” He leaned forward. “I never cared about her, not that way. I just felt sorry for her. But I’m crazy about you, Velvet.”
Celeste felt her face grow warm. “What’s done is done.”
“You still aren’t really sure about me, are you?”
“I’m sorry I said what I did. I shouldn’t have just thrown all that in your face with no warning.” She chewed her lip, tasting Tangee along with the doughnut she’d nibbled on earlier. “Did you know about the little boy?”
He sat there looking at her for a long moment. “I’d seen him.”
“In Brownwood?”
He nodded. “She brought him by the house one day. Mother told her to get out and not come back.”
“Where do you think she is now?”
“I really don’t care.”
“Not even about the little boy?”
“How many times do I have to tell you he’s not mine?” He crumpled a paper napkin in his fist.
“You could care about him anyway, couldn’t you? It’s not his fault.”
“Let’s just drop it, okay?”
She nodded. “Sure. Okay.”
He waited for her on the corner. “I’ll walk you home,” he said.
“How will you get back to the field?”
“I ran into one of the guys in my training class. He ended up getting assigned back here, too, because they found a problem with his eyes when they rechecked him. He has a car, and his wife is staying with a friend in town. He’ll come by and pick me up—unless your landlady will throw me out of her parlor.”
Celeste giggled. “How do you know she has a parlor?”
“Every house has a parlor, doesn’t it?”
Mrs. Clay clucked over Kent like a mother hen, insisting that she’d bring hot cocoa to warm him up from his walk. “You, too, Miss Riley,” she said. “The two of you can have the parlor to yourselves until your young man leaves.”
“So where are we, Velvet?” Kent asked when Mrs. Clay had left them alone with a pot of cocoa and a plate of oatmeal cookies.
“We haven’t known each other all that long,” she parried. “Maybe we just need to get to know each other better.”
“Okay. Then what?”
“Then whatever happens, happens.”
“Okay. But I still love you.”
“We have to be sure.”
“I’m sure.” He reached for her hand. “But you’re not, are you? Not since Claudia showed you that picture.”
She took back her hand. “I wish it hadn’t happened.”
“What does your sister say?”
“She doesn’t know.”
“No?”
Celeste shook her head. “It would just worry her. Besides, it’s something I have to work out for myself.”
****
Just before midnight, Kent’s friend, whom he introduced as Perry Davidson, arrived. Kent kissed her goodnight. “I’ll see you at church tomorrow, unless the roads are bad.”
“I won’t be there either, if the sidewalks are icy.”
“Even if I don’t see you, I’ll call you during the week.” He rested the tips of his fingers against her cheek. “I love you.”
Chapter Fifteen
Celeste woke to the sound of tree limbs cracking under the weight of ice and knew she wouldn’t be leaving the boarding house for church. She wondered if the city buses would run on Monday so she could get to work. At ten, Mrs. Clay knocked on her door and said she had a pot of coffee and some rolls in the kitchen. “Come down in your robe if you want to. It’s just us girls.”
Celeste and the six other women living in the house sat in the kitchen visiting until noon. Mrs. Clay suggested a potluck meal for mid-afternoon. “Everybody can throw in whatever she has in the ice box or stored in your rooms.” Celeste was beating eggs for an omelet when Mrs. Clay appeared in the kitchen door with Perry Davidson behind her.
“Go up to the parlor,” the landlady said.
Celeste sat in a ladderback chair, her fingers locked together to keep them still.
“Kent said you knew about Claudia,” Perry began, going on only after Celeste nodded. “There’s been an accident.”
“Kent?”
“He’s going to be okay.” Perry squatted down by the chair. “I don’t know how she got on base this morning, but the CO called Kent in and said she’d given him quite an earful. Then he suggested that Kent take her back to wherever she was staying in town. There’s an old car that’s been there for a while. Don’t know where it came from, but it runs in an emergency, and the CO keeps the keys. So Kent put Claudia in the car and started for town. Just the other side of the Lone Wolf Bridge, he must’ve hit a patch of ice and rolled.”
“You said he was going to be all right.”
“Broken collarbone.”
“Claudia?”
Perry covered Celeste’s hands with his. “Snapped her neck. She was DOA at Shannon Memorial Hospital.”
****
Perry took Celeste to the hospital to see Kent and let her go into his room alone. He lay strapped in thick bandages, his face toward the window, but he turned his head when he heard her come in. “Hi, Velvet.”
“Hi.”
“I guess Perry told you what happened.”
She nodded.
“I told them how to get in touch with Claudia’s mother in Brownwood.”
“Is that where her little boy is?”
“That’s what she told my CO. She told him we were married and that I refused to let her get my allotment, but when she couldn’t produce a marriage license, he called me in and told me to get her off the base.”
Celeste approached the bed. “Does it hurt?”
“Yeah. A lot.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Me, too.”
“How did she know you were back at the base?”
“She said she went home for Christmas and ran into Neil. He didn’t tell me about it.”
“I guess not.”
“She has…had a way of getting things she wanted out of people. Information, favors, you name it.”
“So what’s going to happen now?”
“They’ll send me back to the base tomorrow sometime. I can still sit at a desk and teach, even like this.”