Stranger in the Moonlight

  She kissed him to silence. “What about the divorce?”

  “Joe can handle that. In fact I’m a bit afraid for my father when he goes up against Joe. Do you want to talk more?” His voice was full of exasperation.

  “Yes!” she said. “Yes and yes and yes! I want to talk endlessly about us, about our future, about—Oh!” Travis’s mouth was on her stomach.

  “Go on, keep talking,” he said as he moved his lips lower on her body.

  “Maybe later,” she said as she closed her eyes and forgot all about whatever she’d been worried about.

  Fifteen

  When Kim woke up, she could see that it was dark outside. The first thing she noticed was that Travis wasn’t in bed with her. They’d made love all afternoon and she knew she’d never enjoyed anything so much in her life. She hadn’t realized it, but from the beginning she’d had so many questions that she’d never fully relaxed. All the years of searching for him, of not knowing what had happened to him, were between them.

  It wasn’t that she’d completely forgiven him, nor did she fully understand his male reasoning, but for the first time since she’d seen him, a stranger standing in the moonlight, she saw the possibility that she would get over it.

  There was a knock on the door into the hallway, and Kim looked about for her clothes. They were folded neatly on a chair, certainly not where she’d tossed them a few hours ago.

  “Just a minute,” she called, but then Travis came out of the connecting room. He was showered, shaved, and wearing jeans and a T-shirt. She thought about not getting out of bed.

  “Hungry?” he asked as he opened the door and spoke to someone. He closed the door and turned to Kim. “They’re going to set up dinner in my room. Or would you rather go downstairs and hear what the Pendergasts have found out about your relatives?”

  He made the second choice sound so awful that she laughed. “Russell will miss you.”

  “He’ll miss you,” Travis said. “Do you think that kid has a girlfriend somewhere?”

  “I’m beginning to wonder that too. I guess if he were a New York lawyer that you’d know it.”

  “Probably.” Travis sat down on the bed beside her, and his face was serious. “I didn’t realize that I hadn’t made myself clear about my hopes for the future.”

  She knew he was referring to her outburst of fear that he would leave her again. “It’s all right,” Kim said. “We have . . .” She hesitated. “Some time to think about what we want to do.”

  The sound of a champagne cork being popped came from the other room.

  “I think our name is being called,” Travis said as he took her hand to pull her out of bed.

  But Kim pulled the sheet close to her and didn’t get out. “I’ll meet you at the table after I’ve had a shower,” she said pointedly.

  Smiling, he kissed her hand and left the room.

  Kim took a full thirty minutes showering and getting dressed. She put on a blue silk dress that she’d tossed in her bag as an afterthought. When she’d packed she’d thought it was over between her and Travis, that she’d never see him again. Smiling, she remembered that she’d thought he had given up. She had told him off and he’d run away. But Kim was learning that the three Maxwell men never gave up.

  When she’d finished dressing, she took a breath, smoothed her skirt, and opened the door into Travis’s room. It had been set up so beautifully that she stood still just to look at it. Cream-colored linens, blue-green dishes with little seashells on them, silver that glistened in the candlelight. But to her eyes, the most beautiful thing in the room was Travis. He’d changed into a tuxedo, and Kim was very glad of her silk dress.

  “May I?” Travis asked, holding out his arm to her. He led her to a pretty chair done in blue-and-white-striped satin. “This is lovely,” she said, looking across the table. But when she turned to him, he was on one knee beside her.

  Kim’s heart leaped into her throat and began pounding.

  “Will you marry me?” he asked softly. “Would you be my wife and live with me forever?”

  There wasn’t any hesitation on Kim’s part. “Yes,” she answered.

  Smiling, Travis bent forward to kiss her, and took her hands and kissed the back of them, then her palms.

  Still on one knee and holding her left hand, he reached under the tablecloth and pulled out a long, wide box covered in blue velvet. Kim knew what it was, as she’d seen the same box in her work.

  Travis flipped up the lid, and inside were a dozen rings, each one different. Kim didn’t need her jeweler’s loupe to know that she was looking at world-class stones. Sapphire, diamond, emerald, ruby, they were all there. Each setting was unique, and she knew that each one was the work of an independent jeweler. She would never see the same ring on another person.

  With her eyes wide, she looked at Travis in question.

  “Mind if I . . . ?” He glanced down at his knee.

  “Of course,” she said and took the box from him to look at the rings. “I don’t know what to say. They’re beautiful. How did you . . . ? Oh. Mrs. Pendergast.”

  “No,” Travis said as he filled their champagne flutes. “While Russ drove me here, I called places and had the rings sent. Each one was made by a different artist.”

  “That’s what I thought.” It wasn’t easy to choose from among the rings.

  “They’re nonreturnable,” he said.

  At that she frowned. “You’re not going to lavish me with gifts, are you?”

  “Since you’re supplying the house we live in, and the furniture, I think I have a right to add a few things.”

  Kim pulled a ring with a large square-cut emerald from the box. Her jeweler’s eye could tell that it was excellent quality. She held it near the light of the candle to admire the occlusions, the tiny imperfections that showed it to have been taken from the earth and was not man-made.

  She held out the ring to him and extended her left hand. He slipped the ring onto her finger, kissed the back of her hand, and held it as he looked into her eyes.

  “Kim, I love you,” he whispered. “I have loved you since I was a boy and I don’t want us to be apart again. I want to live where you do, with you.”

  Kim, ever practical, smiled at him. “I’d like to talk about where, when, how. You seem to have made a lot of plans and I want to know what they are.”

  “Good!” he said as he removed the lid from a silver platter, exposing two filet mignons. “I like women who know their own minds.”

  They talked and ate and discussed. Travis told Kim his ideas for the future, that he wanted to live in Edilean and open his camp for the summer. In the winter he’d do law work. “I like it better than I thought I would, so maybe what Dad told Penny is true, that there is some Maxwell in me.”

  “Do you think little Edilean could be enough for you?”

  “Yes,” he said, “and I promise that I won’t do anything that we don’t agree on.” He leaned across the table to her. “But I think maybe you have some of your brother in you and your ambition is a bit more than your little town.”

  “I’m found out!” she said, and they began to talk about her future as she saw it. Dave’s ideas of expanding her company hadn’t been just his idea alone.

  They talked of the coming divorce, and Travis told how he’d decided that Joe and his parents could fight it out themselves. “I’ll get Mom a good lawyer.”

  “Forester?” Kim asked, and they laughed together.

  It was while they were sharing a thick slice of chocolate cake that an invitation was slipped under the door. After they finished dessert, Travis and Kim had eyes only for each other and didn’t see the heavy vellum envelope.

  It wasn’t until morning that Kim picked it up and showed it to Travis. It was addressed to both of them.

  “Open it,” Kim said to Travis. “I bet it’s from Mrs. Pendergast and she wants to tell you that Russell is your half brother.”

  “Too late,” Travis said. “You already blabbe
d.”

  “That’s not how I see it. I think you—” She broke off at the expression on Travis’s face. He was still in bed, the sheet just covering his bare lower body. “What is it?”

  “It’s an invitation to a picnic at one P.M. today, and there’s a map of how to get there.” He handed it to her, and it was Kim’s turn to be astonished.

  “It’s from your father.” She sat down on the edge of the bed. “He says he has a gift for us all.” She looked up at Travis. “Think it’s a box of pirate’s loot? I could use some pearls. And some tanzanite. Of course I’m always low on gold.”

  He took the invitation from her. “You won’t get any of that from Dad.”

  “Any of what?”

  “Gold.”

  “I sure hope it’s not more of his bits of advice about your eating lead paint. I think I’ll ask him about his office romance policy.”

  “You do that,” Travis said as he flung back the sheet. “I’d like to see that.”

  She leaned back on her arms to watch Travis stride across the room naked. “So what do you think he wants to give you?”

  “Us. Give to us.” Travis pulled up his faded jeans. “My hope is that it’s freedom. To agree to give Mom an easy divorce.”

  “You’re worried about her and Joe in a courtroom, aren’t you? Will your father have half a dozen lawyers at his table?”

  “More like twenty, and each one will have a different ethnic origin and race. It will be a global rainbow.”

  Kim laughed. “My money is on Mr. Layton. I think he can handle anything, and from the way he and your mom were dancing at Jecca’s wedding—” She broke off at Travis’s look. “All right. No stories of parents and the S word.”

  “Let’s go to breakfast and see who else has been invited to this shindig.”

  Downstairs in the dining room, people had seemed to settle on which tables they were to sit at, so there were two empty seats by Russell and Mrs. Pendergast.

  “Oh, how lovely!” Mrs. Pendergast said as she stared at Kim’s ring.

  Russell was smiling because his mother was looking at Travis in shock.

  “You didn’t think he could do something like that all by himself, did you? But he did,” Russell said. “He even punched the buttons on the phone without any help from anyone. I was amazed.”

  “I think little brothers should mind their manners,” Travis said, a sentence that silenced the table.

  Kim looked at Penny and shrugged. “He figured it out.”

  Penny’s eyes were on Travis and they were asking how he felt about all this. Travis put his hand over hers. “Dad should have divorced Mom and given us our freedom and married you,” he said softly. “That he didn’t shows that he has no common sense.”

  For a moment there were tears of gratitude in Penny’s eyes, then she moved her hand away. “That’s enough of that nonsense. What do you think Randall is up to now with this surprise gift of his?”

  “I’m hoping he shows up with a sister,” Russell said, and everyone laughed.

  All through the meal, Kim noticed Russell and Travis sneaking looks at each other. There were so many new relationships being established! There were the usual—she was going to have to get to know his parents, and he hers. But Travis was getting the worst of it. He had a half brother who’d shown great hostility toward him, and a future brother-in-law who didn’t want Travis to marry his sister.

  Travis seemed to know what Kim was thinking. He looked across the table and winked at her, as though to say that he could handle anything that was thrown at him.

  She smiled, letting him know that whatever happened, she would be there with him.

  “You two cut it out!” Russell said. “You’re fogging the glassware.”

  Kim looked away in embarrassment, but Travis just laughed as he clapped Russell hard on the back. “Someday it may happen to you,” Travis said.

  When Russ didn’t reply, Kim said, “For all we know, Russell may have a wife and three children.”

  When Russell looked at her but made no reply, Kim turned to Mrs. Pendergast.

  Penny put her hands up in surrender. “I have been sworn to secrecy.”

  “More like privacy,” Russell said, and for the first time since Kim had met him he wasn’t wearing his usual look of amusement. That his merriment had always been at Travis’s expense didn’t keep Kim from laughing.

  Abruptly, Russell said, “If you’ll excuse me,” and left the table.

  “But he didn’t eat,” Kim said as she started to go after him, but Mrs. Pendergast caught her arm.

  “My son has his own demons to fight,” she said, “and it’s best to leave him alone.”

  Kim sat back down, but she looked at Travis. His eyes said he agreed with Kim. Without so much as a look at Penny, he followed Russell out of the room, but he was back in minutes. “Russ took the Jeep. I don’t know where he’s gone. Should we worry?” he asked Penny.

  “I should, but not you,” she answered. “Who wants to try the peach pancakes?”

  Sixteen

  Russell knew he was being childish at leaving the table without eating, but he’d reached his breaking point. Besides, his invitation to the picnic had included a note asking him to meet his father at the Old Mill right after breakfast. No specific time given, just go there and wait. Between feeling like an intruder among friends and his curiosity about what his father wanted, Russ left.

  As he drove, he couldn’t help but think about the fact that Travis now knew Russell was his brother. But then Russ had always known about Travis Maxwell. He’d known that living in a big house, seeing his mother every day, being given anything he wanted, was a boy who was his part brother. When he was little and his mother told him he had a “half brother” Russ had started crying. His mother couldn’t understand why until Russell had tearfully asked which half of the boy was missing.

  After his mother explained that they had the same father but different mothers, Russell had become interested in his brother and often asked questions about him. It was something he and his mother shared.

  Not that there was much. They rarely saw each other when he was growing up. She’d be gone for weeks at a time, traveling all over the world, never far from Randall Maxwell’s side.

  Russell was left at home with nannies, who changed rather frequently, and later tutors came to him. It hadn’t been a shock to find out that they were the same men who’d taught his brother.

  When Russell reached high school age he’d had enough of living in Travis Maxwell’s shadow, and he showed his mother a brochure for a boarding school. She wasn’t allowed to say no.

  Russell wasn’t sure when his curiosity changed to anger. And he didn’t know why his animosity was aimed at his half brother and not at his father.

  He only saw Randall Maxwell about a dozen times when he was growing up. When he was five, one rainy Sunday morning he was sitting in the room beside his mother’s office drawing pictures when a man walked in. He wasn’t especially tall and he didn’t seem frightening in any way.

  The man stopped at the doorway, didn’t say anything, but then he turned back. “Are you Russell?”

  He nodded.

  The man came to stand by him and looked at what Russell was drawing—a picture of the big buildings outside the windows. “You like art?”

  Again Russell nodded.

  “Good to know.” The man left and Russell wouldn’t have remembered it except that later his mother said the man was his father. And the next Sunday that Russell went to the office with his mother there was a big box full of art supplies there for him.

  His mother said, “Your father is a very generous man.”

  For years afterward Russell had kind thoughts about his father. It wasn’t until he was about nine that he began to be aware of what other people’s parents were like and what they did for their children.

  Russell couldn’t afford to be angry at his mother, as she was all he had. And his mother said they owed his father “e
verything,” so he didn’t dare aim his animosity at him. Instead, Russell took his anger out on his brother, the boy he’d never seen, the boy who had everything, including a mother who stayed at home all the time. And Russell never forgot that their father lived with him.

  Russell went to the same college his brother went to, but by then his mind-set was different. He didn’t study law. After school he traveled some, returned to the U.S., and studied some more. But he’d never been able to settle anywhere for long. Maybe it was the demons that raged inside him that made settling impossible.

  When his mother had called recently and asked him to help Travis, Russell had said no. He’d even laughed. Help a brother who had never contacted him? In Russell’s mind it was up to the older brother to make the first move.

  That’s when his mother told him that Travis didn’t know he had a brother. That had been such a shock to Russell that he’d agreed to sweet-talk some girl enough to find out information from her.

  But when Russell was finally able to meet Travis, every bit of the anger he’d felt as a child came forward. He’d expected a spoiled, know-it-all jerk, but what he’d found was a man who made an omelet for him.

  Since that first day the two of them had been nearly inseparable. But in spite of their ease together, Russell still felt the anger inside him. He’d liked besting Travis in negotiating the contract with Kim’s greedy boyfriend. He’d even liked riding around with his brother. And later, when Kim told Travis off, Russell didn’t think he’d ever enjoyed anything so much in his life.

  But still . . . What had been difficult for him was seeing the way Kim and Travis loved each other. While it was true that they fought, it was easy to see that underneath it all they belonged together.

  On the drive from Virginia to Maryland, Travis, nervous and upset, had told him how he and Kim had met as kids, and how she’d changed his life. For the first time Russell heard the full story of how Travis’s life hadn’t been the glorious adventure that Russell had always assumed it was.

  This morning at the breakfast table had been all that Russell could bear. “Domestic bliss” was written all over the faces of Kim and Travis. And this afternoon Randall Maxwell was throwing a picnic, no doubt in honor of his eldest, number one son.