Fortune Is a Woman - Elizabeth Adler [189]
“Hello,” the voice on the other end almost sang the greeting, but it wasn’t Francie’s.
“Hello,” he replied cautiously. “Is Miss Harrison there?”
“Sure, I’ll just call her….”
There was a clatter as Lysandra dropped the receiver onto the table and he heard her shouting, “Mom … it’s for you,” and distantly a voice saying, “Who is it?”
“Some man,” Lysandra called, and he smiled at the irony; he was her father and yet to her he was just “some man” on the phone for her mom.
“Hello?”
His heart jumped and his pulses raced in the same old way as he said, “Francie, it’s Buck.”
Francie leaned against the wall for support, closing her eyes. She was swept back in time, all that existed at that moment was Buck’s voice on the end of a telephone wire. She said, “You don’t need to say your name, I would have known.”
“It’s been so long,” he said quietly.
She sank onto the little rush-bottomed chair by the table. “Why arc you calling me, Buck? It’s against our rules.”
“Your rules, Francie. Not mine.” She was silent and he said quickly, “I spoke with Annie, she said I should call you. I’m here now, in her apartment. I saw Lysandra’s photograph in the Examiner this morning. My daughter’s photograph.”
Francie sighed. “Did Annie tell you?”
“She didn’t have to. I knew.”
“She’s a lovely girl,” Francie said, pressing a hand to her chest, trying to quiet her racing heart, “she knows nothing about—about us, and I don’t want her to.”
He heard the dismissal in her voice and he said urgently, “Francie, we must talk. Please, there are things we must discuss. I must see you.”
She thought of all the years that had passed, and of how much she loved Lysandra, and how much she still loved Buck and she didn’t think she could bear to see him, even though he surely had a right. Now that he knew about his daughter.
“Francie, I have to leave tomorrow morning. I have meetings here all day, I’ll cancel them and come out to the ranch—”
“No.” She didn’t want him to meet Lysandra, it would be too painful to see them together. “I don’t want you to cancel anything for my sake. I’ll come back to San Francisco. I’ll be there by this evening. Where shall I meet you?”
He thought quickly. “Come to Aysgarth’s, to Annie’s penthouse at eight. And Francie … thank you.”
She put down the phone with trembling hands. Lysandra stared curiously at her. “Who was it, Mommy?” she asked. “Was it someone nasty? You look so upset.”
Francie looked at her startled, she shook her head and smiled. “Oh no, he wasn’t nasty at all. He’s—an old friend, that’s all.”
“An old friend? Then how come I don’t know him?” Lysandra cocked her head enquiringly to one side, just the way Francie did when she asked a question, and she laughed.
“Because you are only seven years old and ‘old’ friends are much older than that.” A sudden little thrill of excitement flashed through her veins as she thought of Buck and she threw her arms impulsively around Lysandra and hugged her. Then she picked up her basket of flowers and carried them into the kitchen and began putting them into vases just as though nothing had happened, but all the time inside she was shaking at the thought of seeing him again.
Harry awoke, still angry with Maryanne. As he sat down to his usual substantial breakfast he asked himself who she thought she was to act so superior last night, when if it were not for him she would be just another wife of a political has-been. And she had been damned cagey when he’d asked her about the extra investment for the oil drilling in New Mexico, sighing and rolling up her eyes and asking exactly when the wells were going to spout the black liquid gold that was supposed to recoup their investment?
He mulled matters over in his mind as he dug into his favorite deviled kidneys and fried eggs and decided that the balance of their relationship was all wrong. Maryanne acted like the superior one, like she was in charge and he was an employee, like