They had reached the Point, and Miles brought the car to a halt facing the beach. The canteen was open, and there was a scattering of cars, but the dark threatening night had made the number smaller than would have been present on a moonlit night.
Miles turned off the ignition and stared up at the dark sky. “I’d say that rain wasn’t far away.”
She stared at him with troubled eyes. “Are you deliberately trying to hurt Alan?”
He turned. “I’m not interested in Alan. Get that? And I’m not interested in any of these local squabbles. I’m here to represent the workers. That’s it!”
“Miles, you’ve changed terribly!”
“Meaning I’m no longer an easy mark?”
“Meaning you’ve become hard and mean. You mustn’t go on this way! It’s as if you were a different person, someone I don’t know!”
“I am a different person! Do you think I had an easy time getting started again? Do you think anyone worried about me? The Norths taught me a lesson that I’m not apt ever to forget. I hope I can go on putting it to good advantage.”
“You’ve come back here hoping to cause trouble.”
“If you’re saying I don’t mind if someone gets hurt, you’re right I was hurt, and I know what happened. The people of this town turned their backs on me. I thought I had friends until North told them I was a thief!”
“I never believed it,” she said in a tense whisper. “You know that!”
“Maybe you didn’t,” he said. “But you were still nervous talking to me today where the neighbors might see you. And you had to lie to your mother to come out with me tonight! I don’t call that taking a strong stand in the accused’s defense.”
“You’re twisting everything to suit your own point of view,” she protested. “I told you I always have trouble with Mother.”
“Don’t try to spare my feelings,” Miles said sharply. “And don’t go on pleading for Alan Fraser. I’m doing my job, regardless of how much it embarrasses him. I take it you and he are going together again, now that you’re his secretary. He used to be your boy friend, as I remember.”
“Do I have to answer that?” she asked with a hint of scorn.
“Forgive me if I’ve broken a code,” Miles mocked her. “I know how strongly you Port Winter gentry adhere to your codes. But I believe in saying what I think.”
She looked out at the river. “I told you I was glad you’d come back. That was a mistake. Now I’m sorry that you have. And I’m sorry for you.”
“Thanks!”
“I mean it,” she said, turning to him.
“I can take care of myself.”
“I hope so,” she said quietly.
Miles studied her in silence for a moment. Then he said, “No more pleading for your boy friend? You disappoint me.”
“That wasn’t why I came out with you tonight: to plead for Alan.”
“I thought it was.”
“I didn’t even know you were working for the union when I asked you to pick me up.”
He smiled bleakly. “I thought maybe somebody had given you a hint.”
“They hadn’t.”
“In which case I offer an apology. So you wanted to see me tonight because you are still my good friend, because you still care for me.”
“That’s true in a way.”
“Don’t talk nonsense you don’t mean. We were finished as soon as I was branded a thief.”
“Perhaps it would have been impossible for us to go on in this town,” she admitted. “But we could have gone some place else and made a fresh start together. You preferred to leave without telling me.”
“I did what I considered best for both of us.”
“You might have been wrong.”
Miles lost his harshness for the first time. Very quietly he said, “It is cruel of you to say a thing like that unless you mean it.”
“I do mean it.”
Miles took her in his arms. “I shouldn’t believe you,” he said. “But I want to.” And pressing her tightly to him, he kissed her hard. In a moment he let her go. “It’s no use, Judith. We can’t go back to what we had.”
She said, “You seem very certain of that.”
“Too many obstacles,” he said with a wry smile. “For one thing, you’re right. I have changed.”
“Not that much.”
“Enough,” he said firmly. “I’m not even interested in being the kind of person I was before. I’ve found the meaning of power. And I’ve learned how to use it. With a little luck, I can go to the top in this game.”
“Is that what you want?”
“I think so. I see our leaders as about as honest as S.C. North; maybe a little more so.”
“Good luck, then.”
“I’ll need it,” he said frankly. “They know about my record, and they’ve been willing to give me a chance. But I’ll be watched for a while.” He paused. “So Alan is the top man in your life again?”
She gave a rueful laugh. “I like the way you say again. I’m very fond of Alan. He’s engaged to someone else at the moment.”
Miles showed surprise. “I didn’t expect that.”
“I’ll be honest,” she said. “I think he’s going to break his engagement. And I feel he should, both for his sake and the girl’s. Also, he’s asked me to marry him.”
“That sounds more like it.”
“I haven’t promised that I would.”
“Why?” Miles asked with one of his hard smiles. “Are you waiting to be sure he’s a winner? Afraid he’ll fall down on this bridge project? Holding off for a better prospect?”
“You have become cynical,” she said quietly. “No. I didn’t put him off for any of those reasons. I did it because of a lingering fondness for you.”
“Me?”
“Yes. I wasn’t certain I’d gotten over you. I’m not sure yet.”
Miles said nothing for a moment. It was his turn to stare out across the river silently. Then he said, “It’s beginning to rain. I see drops on the windshield. We’d better start back and have our snack. I don’t want to keep you out too late.”
“Whatever you think,” she said listlessly. She turned to look out the side window and kept her head averted for a good part of the drive into the city.
The Ranch House was a log cabin restaurant on the outskirts of the city. Most of the time it featured folk singers as entertainment, and the menu consisted chiefly of various cuts of charcoal broiled steaks and lobster. It drew a mixed patronage, and when they entered on this Saturday night, it was well-filled and the show was under way. A waiter led them down an aisle of the nearly dark restaurant to the background accompaniment of twanging guitars and a sad-voiced male and female duo.
Miles glanced across the table with its flickering candle in a bottle covered with wax drippings and, smiling, said, “Seems like old times!”
She nodded. “We used to come here a lot.”
They ordered and then listened to the folk singers, each lost in his own thoughts. Judith was almost glad the evening was coming to an end. The tension between herself and the young man to whom she’d once been engaged had been so great she knew they’d made each other unhappy.
When the show ended and the lights were turned on, Miles glanced around at the occupants of the adjacent stalls. “I don’t see any familiar faces,” he said.
“It’s been a little while,” she reminded him. “It doesn’t take long for the crowd to change.”
“You’re right,” he agreed.
They quickly finished their food, and Miles drove her back home. When the moment came for them to part, he showed his first sign of genuine regret.
“I suppose you’ll not want to see me again,” he said.
“Why do you say that?”
“This evening wasn’t much of a success. And you don’t approve of my reason for coming back to Port Winter.”
“Let’s not argue,” she suggested with a smile. “I think we should see each other again.”
“All right,” he said. “I’ll be in touch.” And with another of his wry smiles: “I’ll probably see you in your office. I’ll be calling on Fraser.”
“I’ll be expecting you,” she said.
He nodded and sighed. “Maybe we can talk it all out another time,” he said. And leaning across, he kissed her briefly. Then he got out of the car and saw her to the steps.
She waited until he drove away, then, with a strangely depressed feeling, slowly started up the concrete steps.
Tonight her mother was waiting in the darkness of the living room. She saw the thin figure in the faded wrapper lift herself from an easy chair and come out to greet her. Her mother’s pale face was expressionless.
“You’re home from the dance early,” she said.
“Alan didn’t want to stay late,” Judith told her. “We were both tired after last night.”
Millicent stared at her bleakly. “Yes. I expect you would be.”
“Are you feeling well?” Judith asked her mother anxiously. “You look so pale. You should go to bed and not wait up for me.”
“You think not?”
“I think it’s a lot of nonsense.”
Millicent Barnes sighed. “You would. By the way, you had a phone call a little while after you left.
Judith was mildly surprised. “Oh? I wasn’t expecting any.”
“I realize that,” her mother said with a touch of anger. “It was Alan Fraser who called. He asked that you call him back tomorrow.”
Judith stood motionless and silent.
Finally she said, “I’m sorry, Mother.”
“Well, you might be!” Millicent Barnes raged. “Going off with someone and telling me the first story that came into your head. Do you know what I’ve gone through since that call came?”
“There was no need to worry!” Judith protested.
“What would you expect me to do? And why did you lie to me in the first place?”
Judith wanted no more evasions. She had gotten herself in enough trouble as it was. She said, “I lied to save you from worry, Mother. I don’t normally do it, but this was a special instance.”
“Indeed!” Millicent said bitingly.
“Miles Estey is back in town,” Judith went on. “He asked me to go out with him so we could have a talk. I know you’d be upset, so I told you I was meeting Alan.”
“Miles Estey!” Her mother’s tone indicated how she felt about the young man.
“You needn’t say his name that way,” Judith told her angrily.
“You’re going to start running around with him again just when Alan Fraser is getting interested in you!”
“You’re being silly!”
“That’s what you always say! But I guess I know who the silly one is this time! Turning your back on a nice boy like Alan to run after a thief!”
“Don’t say that, Mother!” Judith warned her. ‘I’ll see Miles whenever I like.”
“Of course you will! You proved that tonight with your lies,” Millicent said, beginning to sob. “It could be your father, you sound so much like him!”
“Mother!” Judith begged. And with a small moan of despair, she turned and ran down the hall to the refuge of her own room.
The rain came on Sunday. It poured down and suited Judith’s mood. At breakfast she came to terms with her mother and tried to explain there was nothing to worry about in Miles Estey’s return. Her mother was in one of her quiet, apathetic moods and it was hard to know whether Judith had made the situation plain to her or not.
Around noon she phoned Alan Fraser and was fortunate enough to get him on the line at the first try. He sounded glad to hear from her. “I called you last night,” he said. “But I guess I just missed you.”
“I went out for a little while,” Judith said.
“I wanted to tell you,” Alan continued, “that we have new troubles in the offing. A union organizer has just arrived in town.”
“Oh!” she said, not wanting to commit herself.
“It could mean trouble. Not that it may make too much difference, since we have all we can handle anyway.”
“Perhaps it won’t turn out too badly,” she ventured.
“I wouldn’t count on that,” he said, “especially since the union man happens to be someone who hasn’t too much good will toward Port Winter. His name is Miles Estey.”
“Miles,” she repeated.
“I don’t expect you to sound surprised,” Alan went on dryly. “Someone told me they saw you with him at the Ranch House last night.”
Judith wasn’t surprised to hear that she and Miles had been seen. In spite of the fact they hadn’t noticed anyone they knew in their particular area of the restaurant, it was a big place and there had undoubtedly been people who had seen them coming in whom they hadn’t seen.
Quickly recovering her poise, she said, “He got in touch with me as soon as he arrived in town.”
“That’s logical,” Alan said, showing no sign of annoyance. “What kind of a mood is he in?”
“He’s a lot different,” she warned him. “There were times when I felt I was talking to a stranger.”
“I see,” Alan said quietly. “Did he mention his business here?”
“Yes. He’s determined to get the workers a better deal.”
“Does he know they may be facing a full lay-off?”
“That didn’t seem to interest him.”
There was a distinct sigh from the other end of the phone. “Well,” Alan said, “I guess that is that.”
Judith said, “Perhaps you can get somewhere with him when you meet.”
“I’m going to call his motel right away,” Alan said. “I hope I can arrange a meeting with him tonight; see him and get some idea what his demands are going to be.”
“That could be a good idea,” Judith agreed. “I wish you luck.”
“I can use some,” Alan said grimly. “I expect to get the final report on the shareholders of the plaza in the morning. I’m crossing my fingers that the Senator’s name will be among them.”
“It would simplify things,” Judith said. “What about the housing project?”
“I’ve been too busy tracing the shopping center setup to go into it yet.”
“I’ll see you in the morning then,” she said.
After she hung up, she went back to sit in the quiet of her own room and watch the rain beat down. She wondered if Alan would be successful in setting up a meeting with Miles and, if so, how the two would get along. It was odd that the two men who had figured in her life so prominently should now find themselves on opposing sides where the bridge was concerned.
She tried to picture their meeting and the attitudes of each of the men. There was no doubt that Alan would try to be fair with the workers, but with his own authority in jeopardy at the moment, it was doubtful if he was in a very strong bargaining position. She was certain Miles would work for important gains for the union men he was representing, but she also felt he would be reasonable.