[Desert Roses 03] - Beneath A Harvest Sky (10 page)

“I could postpone my trip for a day or two,” she said.

“Oh, would you?” he questioned, his voice taking on the same animation she’d heard when she’d first met him. “I think that would be absolutely delightful.

We could have a chance to get to know each other that way. Perhaps to even consider something more permanent in our relationship.”

Rainy felt a quiver start at her toes and work its way up her body. “Phillip, we hardly know each other well enough to think on something that serious.”

“I’m sorr y, but I’m used to going after what I want.” He drew her hands up to his lips. “I’m not impetuous enough to rush in and say that you’re what I want. . . .” He kissed her hands gently and then just held them under his chin. “But I feel fairly confident that the next few days will make up my mind for me.”

Rainy realized she was getting caught up in his romantic manners. She gently disengaged her hands and smiled. “I leave my fate in God’s hands. I’ve no doubt He will show me the way. I must retire now, Phillip. I hope you have a pleasant rest.”

She moved away quickly, hoping he wouldn’t follow her. He didn’t and although it was what she really wanted, Rainy felt rather disappointed.

Later that night as she struggled to fall asleep, Rainy wondered if Phillip Vance was the husband God had in mind for her.
He’s handsome and compassionate,
she thought.
I loved the way he treated Istaqa and Una as
equals
. So many of the tourists treated the Indians as if they were merely staging and ornamentation—not real people with honest feelings.

Phillip seems to care about the Indians and their lives
here in the desert. He seems to understand the complexity of
their culture and to respect it. Could he be the one?

But then it dawned on Rainy that if God had sent Phillip into her life for the purpose of matrimony, she would most likely have to leave the Southwest and her desires to be a working archaeologist. Phillip would have to be in California making his movies. His life- 5 style and needs were completely different from hers— much more complex.

She’d overheard Jennetta and Mrs. Driscoll talking about the lavish, newly built mansion Phillip owned in a small community outside of Los Angeles. Jennetta told of the house having over twenty-five rooms. Rainy had thought surely the woman was exaggerating, but she began naming them off with such detail that Rainy began to believe the story.

Jennetta had concluded by describing a huge swimming pool and gardens with marble statues that had come all the way from Italy. Apparently the depressed economy had not caused harm to Phillip Vance’s life.

Rainy tried to imagine wearing lavish gowns and acting as hostess for Phillip. Would his friends willingly accept her because she was Phillip’s wife? Or would they turn her away because she wasn’t of their social class?

Lord, I don’t know what you have in mind here. I don’t
know if you’ve sent Phillip to me for a purpose beyond the
tour, but he does seem to like me. What do I do?

She wrestled with the thought of Duncan. Duncan understood her love of New Mexico and Arizona, and as far as she knew, he had no plans to leave the area.

Still, for all the attention she’d shown Duncan, he hadn’t seemed inclined to return her interest. He talked to her when they were together and he had asked her to walk with him in Williams, but that hardly constituted affection.

Why does this have to be so hard?

Just as Rainy felt her mind grow clouded and her 5eyes become heavy, a scream split the silence of the night.

“What in the world is happening now?” she moaned, feeling her heart race just as it had when Gloria Van Patten had been scared by her brothers.

Bolting upright, Rainy pulled on her boots and began lacing them up. The woman screamed again, and this time Rainy was positive that it had to be Jennetta Blythe.

CHAPTER SEVEN

R
ainy wasn’t the first one on the scene of Jen-netta’s hysterical display. Duncan stood outside with a lantern, while poor Sonny bore the brunt of the woman’s tirade as she dragged him into her tent. Rainy stood back and watched with some amusement as Sonny escorted an uninvited gopher snake from Jennetta and Mrs. Driscoll’s tent. The older woman stood patiently to one side while Jennetta looked as though she might kill them all as she flailed her own lantern and ranted about the conditions.

“You’d think for the price of this tour we could at least stay in a real hotel!”

“Now, now, Jennetta,” Phillip said, patting her arm reassuringly. “We knew part of this trip would be spent in rustic environments. You mustn’t get yourself all worked up over a little snake.”

“He wasn’t little,” she replied angrily. “I’ll not be treated as a child!” She jerked her arm away from Phillip’s touch and marched into her tent. It was clear she wanted nothing to do with any of them.

Rainy smiled at her brother. “The handsome knight rescuing the lady fair,” she murmured as he passed by her.

“Ha!” It was the only comment he had on the matter.

Rainy laughed and headed back to her tent.

“You hardly seemed fazed by that,” Phillip declared as he came up beside her.

She looked up and smiled. “But of course not. The snake wasn’t poisonous, and even if he were, there are ways to take care of the situation without resorting to hysteria.”

Phillip grinned. “Perhaps she’ll write a poem about it. She does that, you know.”

Rainy shook her head. “I knew she was a writer of some sort, but I didn’t realize Jennetta was a poet.”

“Oh yes, she writes about her life. Dark, brooding, end-of-the-world kind of poetry. The more it suggests misery and torment, the more she loves it.” He cast a glance back at Jennetta’s tent and chuckled. “Poor Jennetta.”

“Poor snake,” Rainy replied.

————

Travel the next day was even more torturous than the day before. Jennetta was in a sour mood that kept the others at a distance. Phillip spent his time consoling her, which left Rainy alone until Chester Driscoll decided to seek her out.

“You know, Rainy, there’s no need to play standoffish with me,” he said while the others spent a bit of extra time wandering around the Navajo displays and goods. Mrs. Driscoll seemed to give her purchases little thought as she pointed to first one thing and then another.

When Rainy gave no reply, Chester reiterated, “I said that you needn’t play standoffish with me.”

Rainy met his gaze. “I wasn’t playing.”

Chester smiled. “Now, now. You owe my family too much to maintain this façade of anger.”

“I
owe
your family? Neither you nor your father would defend me in the truth, and you think I owe you something for that?” Her anger was getting the better of her. She tried to remind herself that Chester was a guest of the Detour Company.

“We could have prosecuted you for the theft.”

“Just because the articles turned up in my office—”

“In your desk,” Chester interrupted.

Rainy scowled. “I didn’t take those pieces, and you know that full well. Your father did too. One word of defense from either of you could have cleared my name with the university board. Now I’m still trying to do that on my own.”

“You shouldn’t waste your time. No one will ever believe you. You left quietly and didn’t protest the charges so long as they were dropped. What do you suppose that meant to the board?”

Rainy tried to do a mental count to ten, but it was no use. “Exactly what I presumed they would think— that I was guilty. But I’m not.”

Chester reached out to take hold of her shoulder.

“Now, Rainy, you are getting upset over nothing. No one even cares about that ordeal anymore. It’s already behind us. You and I, however . . . now, that’s a topic that still begs discussion.”

“What of your wife?” Rainy questioned, trying to pull away from his touch. He tightened his hold so that it became painful. “You’re hurting me,” Rainy muttered from behind clenched teeth.

“That isn’t my intention, but you must hear me out. My wife would never need to know about us.”

“There is no ‘us.’ Leave me be.”

“Just hear me out for a moment,” he said, eyeing her with a pleading glance.

Rainy stilled. “You have one minute and then I scream for Sonny.”

Chester chuckled. “I know what you want out of life. You want a position with the National Geographic Society. You want your own dig and I can make that happen. In return, you can be my mistress and I’ll buy you a wonderful house in Santa Fe. We could have a lovely life together.”

“Just you, me, and the little wife, eh?”

Chester was completely unmoved. “People do it all the time. Wealthy men are allowed a level of living that other men are never given.”

“Wealthy? I thought the Driscolls were more show than substance.”

“That might be true for the Driscolls in general, but not for this Driscoll.” He puffed out his chest and loosened his hold. “I’ve married into money and have no worry about the future. Oh, certainly the economy has made things more difficult. Already the cities back East are filling with unemployed beggars. But that has nothing to do with us. I can get you what you want. I can get you your dream.”

“Your time is up,” Rainy said, pulling away abruptly. “I have no interest in your proposition, Mr.

Driscoll, and I do hope you will keep from embarrassing yourself further by refraining from future references to this conversation. If not, I’ll be compelled to have a conversation of my own—with your wife.”

She walked away as quickly as she could without causing a scene. Mrs. Driscoll, shopping concluded, stood patiently under an Indian-blanket awning. Jen-netta Blythe stood at her side.

“Are you ladies enjoying yourselves?” Rainy asked in as pleasant a manner as she could muster.

“I won’t enjoy myself again until we’re in Santa Fe,” Jennetta declared.

Rainy couldn’t help the smile that overcame her.

“My mother used to say that if you’re determined to feel a certain way, you’ll most likely succeed.”

Phillip’s sister scowled. “Whatever do you mean by that?”

“Just that if you intend to be miserable, you will be.

If you decide to be happy, then you’ll find a way to achieve it. You seem determined to be miserable no matter what takes place on this trip, so you are welcome to it. Just don’t expect the company to love misery.”

“Well! I’ve never encountered such rudeness.”

“I guess that makes two of us,” Rainy replied, matching Jennetta’s hard gaze with one of her own.

Mrs. Driscoll eyed Jennetta for a moment, then turned to Rainy. “How much longer will we be detained?”

Rainy nodded. “I believe we’ll be here another five or ten minutes.”

“Oh, I see.”

Rainy tried to think of something to say that might draw the older woman into a conversation. “Mrs. Dris-coll, were you able to hold your annual Christmas party for the college faculty?”

“Yes.”

Rainy had hoped she’d elaborate. “And was it a success?”

“Yes.”

Mrs. Driscoll shifted her purchases from one hand to the other but otherwise showed little sign of life.

Rainy thought her the most completely boring woman in all the world.

“So are you having a nice time on the tour?” Rainy questioned, trying a different angle.

“It’s much too hot for this time of year,” Mrs. Dris-coll replied.

Rainy thought the weather had been perfect. Many times tourists came to the desert in the cooler months, hoping to avoid the piercing heat of summer. “I thought it quite lovely today.”

“I’m sure someone lacking in the more refined things of life would find this day enjoyable,” Jennetta chimed in. “But it really is appalling. I won’t rest a moment until we’re back in Santa Fe.”

That evening they spent the night in Gallup, New Mexico, enjoying the hospitality of the local Harvey hotel, El Navajo. Jennetta finally seemed at peace and

Mrs. Driscoll disappeared shortly after their arrival.

Rainy was glad for the reprieve but found the quiet to be short-lived when other guests began recognizing Phillip Vance and pleading for autographs and conversation. Rainy watched, with Sonny and Duncan, as the entourage of people came to pester Phillip.

“That poor man—he won’t have a chance to eat his meal while it’s still hot,” Rainy declared, craning to the right to see past Duncan.

“He’s a grown man,” Duncan said. “I expect he understands by this point in his career that this is a part of the game. He’ll either send them away or bask in the glory.”

Rainy frowned and straightened in her chair.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Sonny laughed. “The man isn’t a movie actor because he values his own company is what Duncan is saying. Mr. Vance seems pretty happy with the attention.”

As if to accentuate her brother’s point, Phillip let out a booming laugh that filled the air. Duncan met her gaze with raised eyebrows, as if to say, “I told you so.”

Rainy lowered her gaze and poked her green beans around the plate. “He’s just too sweet to send them away. He’s kind to everyone.”

“He’s certainly been kind to you, sister dear.