Love at Last

“Good! Good!” Kincaid said, and hustled out of the office with an abrupt wave of his hand. Shaking his head, Perry moved to close the door.

“Kincaid is one of the college trustees, and he twisted my arm to serve on the celebration commission.” With a slight grimace, he added, “His first priority is promoting himself and his business, and then he turns the rest of his attention to steering the course of this college. He has his good points, but he can be overbearing.”

He sat beside her again. “Now, where were we?”

The phone rang, and with a look of annoyance Perry picked up the receiver on his desk and answered. He concluded that call, started back to the couch and the phone rang again. Perry’s handsome features faded into a frown when he took the second call. What was the matter with Alma? She usually held all calls when he was in a conference. Was she deliberately interrupting his conversation with Lorene? It must have been obvious to her that they knew each other. He didn’t need Alma’s interference in his attempt to prevent Lorene’s immediate departure from Woodston.

“We’ll never manage any privacy here,” Perry said when he finished that conversation, “so we’ll talk this evening over dinner. I prefer a restaurant out of town. If we stay in Woodston, we’ll meet too many people who know me and want to visit.”

Lorene knew it wasn’t prudent to have dinner with Perry, but she’d seldom displayed any caution in her relationship with him.

She looked at her watch. “I’ll enjoy having dinner with you. After all,” she added with a grin, “Mr. Kincaid practically ordered you to entertain me. It may take quite a while to go over Woodston’s plans, but I can work late tonight.”

“Where are you staying?”

“At Riverview Ridge, the B and B on the outskirts of town. My travel agency gave it a four-star rating. The apartment I’m renting is in the back wing, facing the river.”

“You made a good choice. I’ll pick you up at six-thirty.”

Already having second thoughts, Lorene panicked at the thought of spending an evening alone with Perry. “Do you think it’s wise for us to do this?”

“Probably not,” he admitted honestly, “but I have to know why you deserted me. It’s weighed on my mind for years.”

“That period of our life is over, so maybe we shouldn’t rake up painful memories that won’t do either of us any good, but…” Her lips trembled and she pressed a hand against them. “But I do want to spend some time with you, Perry. I’ll be ready.” She gave him her cell phone number. “Let me know if you change your mind.”

“I won’t change my mind.”

An eager light flickered in Perry’s black eyes, filling Lorene with conflicting emotions. Apprehension swept over her, and she knew she should cancel this dinner. If Perry wanted to resume their previous relationship, did she have the willpower to resist him? Or did she even want to resist?

Chapter Two

Traveling toward Riverview Ridge, Lorene knew that she should find someone else to take this assignment. She pulled to the curb of a tree-shaded street and telephoned her office. After talking with several members of her staff, she conceded that it was impossible for anyone else from the agency to come to Woodston for several weeks. She had two choices—back out on the firm’s commitment to Woodston or stay and handle the promotion herself. Accepting the inevitable, she drove on.

If she had to stay in Woodston for two months, Lorene was pleased that she’d have a comfortable place to live. When she’d checked in at the B and B earlier in the day, she’d been delighted with her choice. The white frame 1850s story-and-a-half cottage had enormous ivy-covered redbrick chimneys. The house was T-shaped, with dormer windows set in the front and rear sections of the main structure’s roof. A small front porch was in Queen Anne style, and a long screened-in back porch extended the full length of the stem part of the building. Green shutters graced the long, narrow windows on the first floor.

The entrance to the two-room apartment was through a private door on the back porch and up narrow, steep steps. According to the proprietor, Dottie Montgomery, this had once been the care-taker’s quarters, but she’d had it renovated into an apartment. The Montgomerys also had three single rooms in the main part of the house for rent. But Lorene needed space to accommodate her computer and other office equipment she’d brought with her.

Dottie Montgomery, a buxom, hospitable blonde in her mid-sixties, met Lorene on the porch with a glass of lemonade in her hand. Pointing to a round table circled by three chairs, the landlady set the lemonade on the table and said, “Sit down and rest a spell. I’ll have my husband carry up your things. Climbing those steps can get tiresome when you’re loaded down with suitcases.”

But Dottie seemed to be talkative, and right now Lorene was in no mood for visiting. What she really wanted to do was to go somewhere, scream at the top of her voice and release the pent-up frustration that had been burgeoning through the deepest recesses of her being since she’d encountered Perry two hours ago. In her present frame of mind, she worried that she couldn’t be polite to Dottie, so she said, “Thank you, but I’ll need to settle in to my apartment and get ready to start working tomorrow.” She took a deep swig of the lemonade. “That really is delicious. Thank you.”

“You gonna eat dinner here? I serve breakfast and dinner.”

“Not tonight. Perry Saunders, cochair of the bicentennial commission, is taking me out for dinner so we can discuss plans for the celebration. And I’ll prepare my own breakfast, too. My working hours will be irregular, so I’ll notify you on a day-to-day basis when I want to eat dinner with you. Will that be satisfactory?”

“Whatever makes our visitors happy suits us,” Dottie said. “My husband, John, and I are here to make your stay comfortable, so let us know if there’s anything we can do to help you. We’re both involved in the bicentennial celebration, so we’ll be seeing you often.”

Taking another swallow of the lemonade, Lorene said, “I’ll bring my luggage into the porch, and you can send it up when it’s convenient.”

Lorene retrieved three suitcases and two garment bags from her late-model station wagon and put them on the porch. She brought in a small file cabinet. Then she carried her laptop and cosmetic case with her as she went upstairs to the homelike apartment.

The combination living room and kitchenette had a fireplace with a beautiful, hand-carved mantel. The interior woodwork of the house was all original. White crocheted doilies dressed up the ancient tables, plump pillows were piled on the couch and a handmade quilt covered the bed. A gable window looked out over a pleasant expanse of field that led down to the Ohio River a quarter of a mile away.

Riverview Ridge was a quaint building, and Lorene had promptly decided that spending some time here would be almost like a vacation. But now that she’d met Perry, she couldn’t even be excited about this apartment, which was casually furnished in antiques that would have sold for a small fortune in Pittsburgh.

Lorene laid her things in the small, low-ceilinged bedroom, kicked off her shoes and lounged on the soft sofa, a concession to modern comfort among the ancient pieces of furniture. She laid an arm over her closed eyes as her tortured mind recalled the past.

She’d met Perry Saunders when they were both college sophomores. They had several classes together and became good friends. Their friendship slowly developed into a beautiful romance. Although they were very much in love, they couldn’t afford to get married, for Lorene’s parents threatened to cut off her tuition money if she married Perry. Both of them were Christians and opposed to sex before marriage, but in a weak moment they succumbed to the intense magnetism building between them and made love once.

Afterward, they agreed it wouldn’t happen again, and both of them welcomed the summer break, thinking it might dull the flame that smoldered in their hearts. As part of his engineering studies, Perry would be on field assignment in Mexico for three months. That time of separation would give them time to put their love in perspective with their goals for the future.

But unforeseen circumstances ruined their plans. Her family moved to another town that summer and after being ill for almost a year, Lorene continued her education at another school. She’d had no news of Perry until she saw him today. It had taken years to numb the pain of losing him, and just seeing him for an hour had flooded her mind with pleasant memories and past disappointments.

After Lorene left his office, Perry lowered his head to his hands. God, thank You for answering my prayers and bringing her back into my life, but now that she’s here, I don’t know what to do with her. Should we take up where we left off? I believe You meant us for each other, but just like Abraham and Sarah in the Bible, we didn’t wait for Your timing. We took matters into our own hands, and that never works out. God, I need Your direction now more than I’ve ever needed it.

He remembered the time he’d given Lorene a promise ring, held her in his arms and whispered, “I love you with all my heart, and I want to marry you as soon as I possibly can. God made us for each other, and I’ll never marry any woman except you.”

His love had deepened and intensified every day they’d been together. When she’d left him and eventually disappeared from his life, Perry was so distressed that at one point he’d contemplated suicide. He had telephoned her home repeatedly but she didn’t return his calls. He wrote letters, which she didn’t answer, and when he went to her home, he learned the family had moved. He finally gave up, believing that she no longer wanted him.

When despair had almost conquered him, when he was at the lowest ebb, he’d experienced God’s call to full-time Christian service. He’d believed that God was giving him a new life to replace the one he’d envisioned with Lorene, by leading him into the field of Christian education.

Perry considered his promise to Lorene as binding as if he’d made it before a minister, so he’d lived a celibate life, denying himself the pleasure of wife and family. It was years before he could attend a wedding without experiencing a pain in his heart that gnawed at his innards until he was physically sick.

Today, when he’d heard Lorene’s voice in the office, he’d known immediately who it was, and when he’d seen her, he’d been as physically aware of her as if they’d separated only yesterday.

Considering the tingle of excitement that had surged through him when she’d delayed her departure from Woodston long enough to have dinner with him, Perry wondered if he’d done the right thing in encouraging her to stay. When she’d abandoned him twenty years ago without any explanation, it was obvious she hadn’t loved him. If she stayed at Woodston until after the big celebration, he’d be seeing her often. Would his love for her surface again? Grimly he determined that wouldn’t happen. He couldn’t risk being rejected a second time.

Lorene stirred when she heard a knock at the door. She padded across the hardwood floor in her stocking feet and opened the door for the landlord to carry in her luggage.

“Hope you’ll be comfortable here, Lorene,” John Montgomery said. “If I can be any help, let me know.”

“This is a beautiful home. Has it been in your family long?”

His laugh was slow and hearty. “No. Dottie and I bought the property several years ago. The place had been vacant for a long time, and it took us three years to fix it up. It’s a good project to bring in a little money and keep us out of devilment in our retirement years.”

“It’s a nice location—should be quiet at night.”

“Sure is.” He tipped the brim of his cap, a gesture that she’d seen several times already in Woodston, perhaps a custom left over from the Old South. “Make yourself at home.”

She closed the door after John’s departure, went into the bedroom and spread out on the canopied bed that would have been at home in Gone with the Wind. At six o’clock Lorene forced herself to get up and check out her wardrobe. Leaving most of her luggage where John had placed it, she opened a garment bag and chose a white button-front, long-sleeved, lined crochet sweater and a long patterned skirt that swirled gracefully around her ankles when she walked. She eased her feet into white sandals and crossed the hall to the bathroom.

Wedged in behind the staircase, the bathroom contained a shower stall and the other necessities. Lorene brushed her hair and repaired her makeup, giving special attention to her eyes, hoping to camouflage the raw hurt and deep longing that hadn’t been there when she’d stood before the mirror earlier in the day. She didn’t believe the makeup did any good, for the eyes staring back at her still had a bleak and wary expression.

From her jewelry box she took the silver ring set with a small garnet that Perry had given her when he’d promised to love her forever. Promise rings had been popular on campus between engaged couples, and Perry had saved for weeks before he’d accumulated enough money to buy the ring.

Lorene slipped the ring on her finger, but quickly took it off and dropped it back in the box. She fastened diamond solitaires in her ears and clamped the jewelry box tight.

Since Perry might not know how to access her apartment, she went to the porch to wait for him. But he must have been familiar with Riverview Ridge, because he drove in and parked beside her station wagon before she had time to sit down. He came toward her, dressed in a red sport shirt and black trousers, looking like the young man she remembered. Until she’d encountered him today, Lorene had never seen Perry in a suit and tie.