One Night With You. Gwynne Forster

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СКАЧАТЬ that she’d better stop identifying herself when she answered the phone, for she was sure to encounter local hostility in the course of her work.

      “Hi. This is Claudine. Where were you? I rang you a dozen times.”

      “I went to church.”

      “See any nice guys?”

      “Don’t make jokes. If I had, I doubt they would have spoken to me.” She told her sister about her experience at church. “I won’t be going back there.”

      “Maybe they take seriously that biblical passage that reads, ‘Judge not, that ye be not judged.’”

      “I wish I thought it. I’ll have to find out what’s behind this. It’s not normal.”

      “Sure isn’t normal for a church to reject money. Why don’t you ask one of your neighbors about it?”

      “Maybe I will.”

      Reid Maguire didn’t care to be friendly, but she wasn’t asking for friendship. Tomorrow morning, she would be a stranger, perhaps an alien, on display among a people who, so far, hadn’t shown her civility, not to speak of graciousness, the only exception being a man who’d come to town two weeks before she did. She needed information, and if he didn’t want to provide it, she was going to give him an opportunity to refuse. She wasn’t timid, and she didn’t know anyone who thought she was.

      Kendra put on her storm coat over jeans and a red cashmere sweater and headed across the street. After checking the list of tenants on the board in the mailroom to find the number of his apartment, she walked down the hall to the garden apartment in the back of the building and rang the bell.

      The door opened almost at once, and Reid peeped out at her. Both of his eyebrows shot up. Then he opened the door wide and stared at her. “Uh…Hi. What’s up?”

      “I know you’re busy, and I know you don’t want to be bothered, Mr. Maguire, but you’re the only person I’ve seen in this town who seems willing to give me the time of day. I’ve been snubbed royally, and before I’m a sitting duck on that bench tomorrow morning, I want to know what’s going on here.”

      He stepped back and opened the door a little wider. “Come on in and have a seat.” He showed her to a comfortable and very masculine living room. “If you’ll excuse me a minute, I’ll be right back.”

      She glanced at his bare feet and the jeans rolled up to expose his ankles and well-shaped calves, and took a seat. Evidence that he might be less than peerless, and therefore accessible, was not something that she needed. The man was neat, she observed as she looked around, and he had good taste. He’d furnished his apartment well, and without spending a lot of money.

      She’d surprised him, and he didn’t try to hide it. Thoughts of what could have run through his mind when he saw her sent the blood rushing to her face. He returned wearing shoes, his jeans had been unrolled and a plaid, long-sleeved shirt had replaced the short-sleeved T-shirt.

      “Sorry I can’t offer you coffee, unless you’d settle for instant.”

      She disliked instant coffee. “It’s not my favorite, but if you make it strong, it isn’t too bad,” she said, wanting to be gracious.

      “I’ll boil some water.” He was back in a few minutes with two mugs of coffee. “If I remember, you drink yours straight. What’s the problem?”

      She told him of her experience in church that morning and reminded him of the supermarket clerk’s rudeness.

      “I see. Look, Ms. Rutherford. Out here, African-Americans stick with the Native Americans, and you’re the only African-American who’s bought a town house in Albemarle Gates. According to what I’ve learned, there’s been contention about that place from the time Brown and Worley posted a sign stating the intent to build. For the last three years, there’ve been riots, fighting, sabotage, strikes and picketing about that place. The Native Americans went to court, but as usual, they lost. Nobody cares about Indian graves. In fact, this country has a sorry record in dealing with Native Americans. Period.

      “It’s too bad you’re stuck in that mess, but I don’t know how you’ll get out of it. Around here, feelings run high about that site, and from what you’ve told me, the locals seem to feel that you’ve taken sides against them.”

      “This is quite a pill.”

      “It is, but I don’t think you should explain to people that you were unaware of the controversy. Seems to me, they ought to know that.”

      “Well, I thank you. Now that I know what I’m up against, I’m really worried. I’d better go before it gets dark.”

      “Don’t be afraid. I’ll walk you across the street.”

      She leaned toward him. “Succeeding in this post is so important to me, and here I am in the midst of a political battle. I asked for a change, and this is what I get.”

      “What were you doing before you came here?”

      “There are a lot of little towns and hamlets whose populations aren’t large enough to warrant a full-time judge. I traveled among the small towns and hamlets in two counties, visiting each at least once monthly to try the cases on the docket. As judges go, that’s about the lowest job. After five years, I demanded a change, and this is what I got.

      “Reid—I hope you don’t mind if I call you Reid. And please call me Kendra. As I was saying, I didn’t have a life. I had no friends of any kind, because I couldn’t cultivate them. I rarely saw the inside of my apartment for two consecutive days. I decided I deserved better. I came here with arms open, ready to embrace the world and everybody in it, and I got my first dose of rejection.”

      He propped his left foot over his right knee. “I can easily imagine that. You seem very young for a judge.”

      “I’ll be forty in a couple of days. I’d hoped that my sister would come up to be with me, but she’s preparing for a show, and can’t spare the time.”

      “Can’t you go to be with her?”

      “It’s a thought. We could at least have dinner together.” Each time she caught him looking directly at her, he shifted his gaze, except when he was talking to her.

      “You had five wasted years,” he said. “Oh, I know you can rationalize that as years of learning, but I suspect you didn’t need to learn what you experienced in country courtrooms.”

      “Not all of it, or even most of it, but I did learn that there’s something beautiful about simple people who see life and themselves accurately and who don’t shy away from the truth, not even when it reflects adversely upon them.”

      “I met a few such individuals working on an estate during the last few years.”

      “What did you do at that estate, Reid, if you don’t mind saying?”

      “Philip taught me to be a groom. I worked on his farm and in his orchards, but mostly with his horses. I couldn’t have made it back this far, if I hadn’t had refuge on Philip Dickerson’s estate. The man literally saved my life, and then helped me back on my feet. He wanted a dormitory for the men he’d salvaged, so I designed one and supervised its construction. СКАЧАТЬ