Southern Comfort - Fern Michaels [95]
Elizabeth was sure her night was ruined. After bloodying the man’s nose, Thurman removed a monogrammed handkerchief from his pocket and gave it to him.
“Carlton Staggers, if I ever hear you speak this way again in front of Miss Waldie, you will live to regret it.”
The man, Carlton, mopped his bloody nose with Thurman’s handkerchief, then walked away without even bothering to apologize.
“I can’t tell you how sorry I am for Carlton’s behavior. He’s obviously had too much to drink.”
Incredulous, Elizabeth asked, “You know that man?” He didn’t look like the type a man like Thurman Tyler would befriend.
“He’s been my roommate for the past two years.”
“Carlton never forgave me for busting his nose that night. Said I’d ruined his chances of meeting a decent girl. For the most part, we remained friendly, but Carlton had a chip on his shoulder. He had transferred from Harvard to Florida State after his freshman year and joined the fraternity second semester sophomore year. After graduation, he stayed on to attend law school. For the rest of our senior year, he harassed Elizabeth whenever the opportunity arose, but it wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. After college, Elizabeth went to work in New York City, and Carlton Staggers was forgotten about. Elizabeth and I married three years later and returned to Florida, where we’d decided to make our home. When I ran for Congress in 1966, he appeared out of the blue. He asked to work on my campaign. At first I told him no, as I’d never forgiven or forgotten what he’d said about Elizabeth the first night we met. He convinced me that was nothing more than booze, and I relented. He was good at what he did, so I hired him as my campaign manager.
“I won and no longer needed him, at least not until the next election came along, but he just couldn’t let it go. He wanted to work for me, he said, telling me I was his only friend. Well, sucker that I am, I hired him in numerous positions throughout the years. He always performed, I’ll give him that much.” Thurman stopped when he saw tears streaming down his wife’s face. “If you want me to stop, I will.”
She simply shook her head. “No, just finish what you started. Jacob needs to know this.”
“When we married, I discovered I couldn’t father a child. It was tough at first, but we both decided we could always adopt, and we were so busy trying to build my career that a child would have been in the way.
“After I won my second term in Congress, we were all high on the win. Elizabeth had arranged for a huge celebration. It was the best; life couldn’t have been better for us. Later that night, Elizabeth and Carlton had words. He’d had too much to drink, as was becoming the norm for him. She asked him to leave, even going as far as to escort him to his car. She was as brash then as she is now.” Again, Thurman smiled at his wife.
“Just say it, Thurman, this has gone on too long. Get it over with,” Elizabeth insisted.
He took a deep breath and downed the last of his scotch. “Carlton attacked Elizabeth that night. And that was the night Lawrence was conceived.”
Chapter 22
In spite of all the negative factors currently at play, Tyler couldn’t stop himself from being just a little bit excited. He was going to Sloppy Joe’s tonight to meet up with Nancy Holliday. He wasn’t going to allow the son of a bitch who was blackmailing him to ruin his evening either. He knew the chances were good that his secret caller would be watching him, and Tyler hoped to hell he would recognize the son of a bitch since they’d arranged to meet there. But as far as Tyler was concerned, the entire deal was off.
It no longer mattered to him if he was fired and chased out of town with his ass between his knees. Well, to be completely honest, it mattered, but not as much as it once had. He was tired of fighting the endless battles and never winning the war. And he wasn’t going to ask his father for one red cent. He had plenty of