No Less Than a Lifetime Read online

  “Hi, Faith.” He held up a book. “I just read The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies all the way through. Wanna hear it?”

  Faith paused, one hand clutching the rail. “I do, Eli. I honestly do. Just not right this minute, okay?”

  He tipped his head and studied her. “When?”

  She thought fast. “Bedtime. Tonight. I promise.”

  “But you’re moving away.”

  “Not until tomorrow. Tonight, I’m all yours.”

  He considered, then nodded. “All right.” His smile was wide, and it warmed her heart. “It’s a deal.” The boy turned and started down again, pausing after two steps to grin up at her one more time. “You’re gonna love it. I’m really a super reader.”

  “I know you are.”

  She watched him go down the steps, thinking through the haze of her own misery that he was just about the sweetest six-year-old she’d ever met. Then she shook herself and climbed on to the top floor.

  She would have been wiser to have removed her high heels first. But it had never occurred to her that Parker would emerge from his hideout of his own accord when he heard her tap-tapping past his door.

  “Faith. Wait.”

  Faith froze. She sucked in a long, slow breath, frustration warring with amazement. Could this be happening? Had Parker Montgomery really spoken from behind her?

  “Faith?”

  He certainly had.

  Slowly, she turned.

  He stood in his own doorway, looking pale, as always, and much too thin. His high-tops were untied, and his T-shirt said Megadeth. “Mom knocked on my door this morning. She asked if I’d heard you come in last night. She said you’d gone out to dinner with Price.”

  Faith had no idea what to say. She settled for “I see.”

  “Are you all right?”

  “Of course. And I just, um, spoke with your mother. Downstairs.” She tried a reassuring smile. “So you don’t have to worry. She knows I’m just fine.”

  Parker wasn’t buying. “You did go out with Price, didn’t you?”

  “I…”

  “And you stayed with him. All night.”

  Faith felt herself weaving on her feet. “Parker, I’m just not up to dealing with…”

  He was at her side immediately. Wiry arms supported her. “Come on. I’ll help you.”

  “No, really. I’m okay…”

  But he was already leading her toward her door, and pushing it open onto her small sitting room, which was cluttered with stacks of boxes now, all packed and ready for the move tomorrow. Guiding her gently around each obstacle, Parker took her to the sofa beneath the miniature bay window.

  “Come on,” he said. “Stretch out and kick off those shoes.” She did as he instructed. He stuck a pillow beneath her head and fussed with it until he was sure she was comfortable. Then he stood and looked down at her. “I take it he was still asleep when you left?”

  Faith closed her eyes.

  “Never mind. I know already. I know you. And I know him.”

  Faith didn’t want to hear any more in that vein. She turned her head away from him.

  Parker went on anyway. “He’ll be up to see you. As soon as he gets home.”

  “Look,” she said to the back of the sofa, “could you just stop talking about it?”

  Parker’s answer was gentle. “Sure.”

  Faith rolled her head and looked at him once more. He was still staring down at her, his eyes full of concern. In spite of her own unhappy circumstances, Faith thought that it was wonderful to see him like this. He really was coming out of his shell at last.

  “Listen,” he said. “Just one more question. Do you think that now, after…whatever happened between you and Price, you might change your mind and stay?”

  She rubbed her eyes. “No, Parker. I don’t think so.”

  He shook his head. “I just can’t picture this place without you.”

  Faith sighed and struggled to provide the reassurance he needed. “Justine will do wonderfully. Just wait and see.”

  “I know she will. I’ve been watching her. I see more than you know.”

  She gave him a wobbly smile. “I’m beginning to understand that.”

  “But Justine’s not you. If I’d ever had a big sister, I’d have wanted her to be you. Someone who understands everything, but never pushes a guy.”

  Dejected as she felt right then, Faith couldn’t help but be moved by such heartfelt words.

  Parker wasn’t finished. “There was a girl. When I was at Juilliard. I really loved her.”

  Faith took that in, then nodded. “I thought maybe there had been.”

  “She dumped me. I went to pieces. She was why I flunked out. Why I tried to join the army. How all this mess I’ve made of my life got started.”

  Faith absorbed what he’d just told her, thinking how much like Price he really was. Losing someone they loved had almost destroyed both of them. The Montgomery sons were the children of an artist and a visionary. Somehow, nothing in their upbringing had prepared them for the heartbreak life could bring.

  She suggested what they both already knew. “Maybe it’s time you got over that girl.”

  “Yeah. I’ve been thinking the same thing lately.”

  Faith let a moment pass before she softly suggested, “Come visit me sometime, why don’t you? In North Magdalene. I think you’d like it there.”

  Parker raked a hand back through his ragged, shoulder-length hair. “I can’t believe it. I’m actually tempted to say that I’ll think about it.”

  “It’s a start.”

  “I gotta go.”

  “I know. Lock the door on the way out, will you?”

  “It won’t keep him away from you, if he wants to get to you.”

  “I’ll worry about that. Just lock it.”

  “Okay.”

  Ariel and Regis were waiting in the front parlor when Price let himself in the main door. They rushed to meet him.

  “Price. At last!” Ariel cried. “We’ve been so terribly worried…”

  He pushed the door shut behind him. “Is Faith home?”

  Ariel blew her hair out of her eyes and put a hand to her throat. “Yes. She arrived about twenty-five minutes ago.”

  “Where is she?”

  “Up in her rooms, I believe. But I—”

  Price stepped around his parents and headed for the stairs, which he took two at a time. On the second floor, he strode down the hall between his own room and his parents’ private living room, to the back stairs, which were the only ones that went all the way to the third floor.

  At last he was standing before her door. Just as he lifted his hand to knock, his brother spoke from behind him.

  “She doesn’t want to see you, Price.”

  He whirled. “Parker?” He couldn’t mask the disbelief in his voice. His younger brother so rarely emerged from his room. And Parker was totally wrapped up in his own problems. How could he have any idea what Faith wanted?

  Parker folded his skinny arms over his narrow chest. “I said, she doesn’t want to see you. Leave her alone. Unless you’ve got something worth having to offer her.”

  Price struggled to put aside his shock at being challenged—and by Parker, of all people. He cleared his throat and spoke carefully. “Are you…feeling all right?”

  “I’m fine. Faith isn’t. As I’ve said twice now, she doesn’t want to see you.”

  “Did she tell you that?”

  “More or less.”

  “Is she—?”

  “She’s exhausted and upset. And she wants to be alone. Unless—”

  “Unless what?”

  Some trick of the light made Parker’s eyes look very old right then, old and infinitely wise. “I think you know.”

  Price stared at his brother. He knew, all right. Parker had said it already: unless Price had something worth having to offer her.

  And he didn’t. Nothing that would matter to a good and innocent woman who had told him las
t night that someday she hoped to find a man who would love her and marry her and give her children.

  The silence stretched out. Then Price muttered, “She’s okay, you said?”

  Parker nodded.

  “All right, then. I won’t bother her. Tell her I picked up her earrings.”

  “Give them to me. I’ll see that she gets them.”

  Price shook his head. “No, thanks. Just pass on the message.”

  Now Parker looked sullen. “Fine.”

  Price headed for the stairs again, but he turned to his brother one more time before descending. “It’s good to see you outside your room. Even in this situation.”

  Parker looked away, then met Price’s gaze once more. His lip curled in defiance. “Don’t get any ideas.”

  “Ideas about what?”

  “Bringing in the shrinks again. I won’t talk to them.”

  “All right. No more shrinks.”

  “Good.”

  For another long moment, the brothers stared at each other. Then Price started down. When he reached the second floor, he paused. But he could hear nothing above. Either his brother was still standing in the same place, guarding Faith, or he’d slipped back inside his room and soundlessly shut the door.

  For the rest of the day, Faith kept to her rooms. Justine brought her a late lunch on a tray, then asked if she wanted dinner in her room, as well. Faith said she’d really appreciate that.

  Around two in the afternoon, Parker paid Faith another visit. He told her that Price had come to see her, but had decided not to bother her when Parker said she wanted to be left alone. He also gave her the message about the earrings.

  Faith didn’t know whether to thank Parker for looking out for her—or ask him to mind his own business. So she did neither. She gave him a tired smile and said she had more packing to do.

  At seven on the dot, Eli knocked on Faith’s door. When she answered, he held up his Berenstain Bears book. The boy read her the story with a great deal of vocal expression, then stayed to watch some TV. He told her he would miss her.

  “You’re almost as nice as my mom,” he said. Faith took that for the high praise it was.

  After Eli left, Faith packed the last of her things into a big suitcase and an overnight bag. Everything else was stacked in boxes, ready to go.

  Faith was in bed by ten. Her dreams were troubled ones. When she looked in the mirror the next morning, there were dark circles under her eyes.

  And yet outside, yesterday’s fog had melted away. The birds were singing, and the winter sun shone down. The first day of her new life would be a bright one.

  * nbsp;* nbsp;*

  Faith’s brother-in-law, Erik, arrived in his truck at a few minutes past nine. Following right behind him in a pickup were her cousin Jared and her uncle Oggie.

  They parked by the kitchen entrance, as per Faith’s instructions. Faith was waiting for them. She ran down the short steps to greet them.

  Erik, a huge man with bronze-colored hair and a gentle demeanor, enfolded her in a hug of greeting.

  “Hey, cousin,” Jared said when Erik let her go. Jared was lean as a whip. The look in his slate-gray eyes warned all comers that he wasn’t a man to be crossed, though he was happily married and, in Faith’s experience, had always been a pussycat. “Ready for the big move?”

  Faith smiled at Jared. “You bet.”

  “Where’s the stuff?” Jared asked.

  “On the third floor, I’m afraid.”

  Erik and Jared glanced up at the house together, then exchanged looks of great patience. Erik sighed and said, “I suppose we’d better get to work.”

  “Yep,” Jared agreed. He called to Oggie, “You comin’, Dad?”

  Faith’s uncle was still climbing down from the passenger seat of the pickup. “I’m comin’, I’m comin’,” Oggie grumbled. He shut the pickup door and hobbled toward them on his cane, favoring the foot he’d once shot accidentally with his own hunting rifle.

  Faith watched the old sweetheart approach, wondering affectionately if he ever changed his clothes. Every time she saw him, he looked the same. He wore a rumpled, threadbare white shirt, grimy red suspenders, a battered pair of tan trousers and lace-up leather boots that had seen better days. What was left of his hair stood out in wispy clumps around the side of his head. But his small, dark eyes sparkled with life and mischief. And for some reason, every time Faith saw him she experienced a sort of soothing, reassuring feeling that all was right with the world.

  Oggie stopped a few feet from Faith and the other two men. Slowly, he tipped back his grizzled head and gazed up at the turrets and towers of Montgomery House. “Whooeee. That’s amazin’.”

  Faith laughed. “It is, isn’t it?”

  “Faith, girl, you sure you’re gonna be happy runnin’ Swan’s Motel after livin’ in a palace for half your life?”

  Faith closed the short distance between herself and the old man. “I’ll be happy.” She planted a kiss on his wrinkled, stubbly cheek. “Just you wait and see.”

  Oggie squinted at her through those piercing black eyes. “You look worn-out.”

  She shifted back a step. “It’s all the excitement of the move.”

  “Oh, is it?” Oggie seemed to peer at her even more closely than before.

  “We gonna stand here all day?” Jared wanted to know.

  Faith was glad for the interruption. She adored her old uncle, but sometimes he saw too much. “This way.”

  She led them into the kitchen, where she introduced them to Balthazar. Oggie plunked himself down at the table. “You three get to work. I’m a little hungry, myself.” He grinned at Balthazar.

  Balthazar turned to Faith. “Am I supposed to feed him?”

  “Only if you want to.”

  Balthazar was already turning to the refrigerator as Faith led her cousin and Erik up the back stairs.

  Over the years, Faith had gradually filled her living quarters with furniture of her own. So Erik and Jared set right to work, maneuvering her bed and sofa, easy chairs and end tables carefully down the two flights of stairs. Faith went up and down on her own, carrying boxes full of clothing and linens, books and knickknacks.

  By her fourth trip down, she noticed that Regis and Ariel had joined Oggie at the table. Oggie was drinking coffee, eating what appeared to be a western omelet and regaling Price’s parents with stories of his early years as a gambling man.

  Ariel looked up. “Can we help, dear?”

  “No. Enjoy yourselves. We’re doing just fine.”

  “Where is Price?” Ariel wondered aloud. “He should meet your uncle and the others.”

  “Darling, he’s gone out, remember?” Regis reminded her gently.

  Ariel shoved her hair out of her eyes. “Oh, I don’t know. So much coming and going around here. I just can’t keep track of everyone anymore…”

  Faith turned and left them. As she stowed the box she was carrying in the bed of Jared’s pickup, she told herself that she would not be hurt if Price didn’t return to say goodbye before she left. Really, it would probably be for the best if he stayed away. Having to see him one final time was only going to make this whole sad process all the more difficult.

  She remembered her earrings, which were precious to her. But she didn’t have to see Price to get them back. If nothing else, she could write from North Magdalene and ask him to mail them to her.

  When she returned through the kitchen, Eli had joined the group at the table. He was explaining to Oggie all about how he had actually read ten whole books by himself and written a book report on each one. “That’s why I’m a super reader, Mr. Jones.”

  Oggie grunted, shifted around in his chair and announced that he’d always admired a boy with a brain.

  “So tell us more about this North Magdalene where our Faith is moving,” Regis said as Faith headed for the stairs once more.

  Oggie launched into a tale of the town he so loved.

  The next time Faith entered the kitchen
, Justine was there. She’d pulled up a chair between Oggie and Eli and was listening, rapt, as Oggie told how he’d come to North Magdalene and stolen his beloved, long-deceased wife, Bathsheba, from a cruel rich man named Rory Drury.

  By a little before noon, everything was loaded up and ready to go. Ariel insisted that Faith and her relatives must be fed before they left. So lunch was served to all and sundry in the morning room.

  Price appeared just as they sat down.

  Longing, more intense and more painful than it had ever been, rose up in Faith at the sight of him. He wore a glovesoft suede sport coat and a black shirt and slacks. Faith thought that he had never looked more handsome.

  Or more aloof.

  He greeted them all, his distant smile skimming past Faith as though she hardly existed. Ariel introduced him to Oggie and Jared and Erik, then told him to take a seat. He said he’d love to, but he had too much work to do.

  He started to go, then turned back, as if some minor thought had struck him. “Faith. I wonder if you could give me a moment before you leave. In the library?”

  Her throat closed up and her heart pounded in her ears, yet somehow she managed to nod. “All right.”

  “After you’ve finished your lunch, of course.”

  “Yes. Of course.”

  He left. Faith picked up her fork and blindly attacked her pasta salad. After a moment or two, the buzz of conversation around the table started up again. Faith ate doggedly, barely tasting Balthazar’s wonderful food. She didn’t look up at her tablemates until she was certain that no one would be staring at her.

  She was almost right. Everyone at the table seemed absorbed in talking to someone else. Everyone except Oggie. He was talking to Regis, but he met Faith’s gaze when she dared to glance up. His wise, dark eyes held a speculative gleam. And then he winked at Faith and gave his full attention to Regis, who was lovingly describing his current invention.

  Faith dropped her gaze to her plate again and saw that, somehow, she had done it; she had finished her lunch. She set her napkin on the table and pushed back her chair. “If you’ll excuse me. I want to say goodbye to Parker. And see Price, too.”

  Ariel looked at Faith intently, but when she spoke, her tone was offhand. “Yes, dear. You go on now.”