“Well?” Marisa demanded.
“I don’t suppose I have any choice,” Jack replied.
Marisa opened the door cautiously. Jack was waiting with his arms behind his back, his expression wary.
“Come in,” she said, belting her robe tighter around her waist. He stepped past her, looking around her living room curiously.
“Great old house,” he commented, and deposited the arrow he’d left on her lawn on the entry hall table.
“Did you come here to discuss New England architecture?” Marisa asked frostily.
“You’re not going to give me a break, I see,” he said.
“Do you think I should?” she countered.
He thrust the envelope back into her hands. “Just read it, will you please?”
Marisa broke the seal with her fingernail and removed the two sheets of typewritten paper. She read them through quickly and then looked up at Jack. “How did you get this?” she asked.
“Randall and I had a little talk.”
“What does that mean? You beat him up?”
“I...encouraged him to be truthful,” Jack said flatly.
“I would have bought a ticket to that,” Marisa said dryly, thumbing her hair behind her ears.
“Does that mean I get a cup of coffee?” he asked, sniffing the aroma that was drifting in from the kitchen.
“All right. One cup, and then you go.” She marched into the kitchen and he trailed after her, looking around at the family pictures on the walls in the hall.
“You were a cute kid,” he observed.
Marisa got a mug from the cupboard, filled it with coffee, and handed it to him.
“Are you going to watch and time me while I drink it?” he asked defensively.
Marisa indicated the wall clock. “I have to be at work at eight-thirty,” she said pointedly.
He sat the mug on the counter resignedly. “Aren’t you even going to thank me for getting Block’s confession? It’s already on its way to the Justice Department.”
Marisa stared at him stonily. “Thank you.”
He sighed. “This isn’t going the way I planned. When I showed you that confession you were supposed to scream for joy and throw yourself into my arms.”
“I haven’t forgotten your behavior when you first heard Block’s lies,” she replied.
Jack looked at the floor. “Marisa, I’m sorry.”
“I accept your apology. Now you can go.”
He looked up. “Don’t I even get a chance to explain why I acted the way I did?”
“I know why. You have no faith in me.”
“I have no faith in me,” he said quietly.
“Jack…”
“Yeah, I know. You have to go to work.” He took a breath, then said, “Can I see you for dinner?”
“I don’t think that would be such a good idea.”
“You really do want to punish me, don’t you, Marisa?” he said miserably.
“I just can’t take any more, Jack. I’ve had enough. I want my life to go back to the way it was before I met you. Maybe it was dull, but it wasn’t painful.”
“Wouldn’t you have dinner with any friend who came to town and wanted to see you?”
“We’re not friends.”
“We’re lovers,” he said softly.
“Were,” Marisa said quietly. “We were lovers.”
Jack nodded. “Okay. I’ll tell you what. I’ll call on you tonight and see how you’re feeling then.”
“I’ll probably be feeling the same.”
“Tough as nails, aren’t you?”
“If I am, you made me that way.” She looked at the clock significantly again.
“I’m going,” he said.
Marisa escorted him through the hall. “Goodbye, Jack,” she said evenly.
He looked at her for a long moment, then walked through the door. Once it was closed behind him, Marisa sagged against the wall and burst into tears.
She was cleared, and Jack was here. It was all too much to take in at once, and the extreme restraint she had exercised while he was with her gave way to a storm of weeping that left her feeling exhausted.
She hadn’t even asked why he had arrived at dawn or where he was staying. All she could think of was getting rid of him before she collapsed into his arms. She mustn’t forget that there was a serious problem with their relationship or he wouldn’t have treated her the way he had. To pretend that it hadn’t happened would be a mistake.
But she had to admit that she was already looking forward to seeing him that night.
* * *
The firm closed at noon for the annual Christmas party. Marisa had handed Charlie Wellman her copy of Block’s confession as soon as she got to work that day, so there was more than the Yuletide to celebrate. When Tracy showed up after her last class with a wrapped package, she found Marisa still in her office, on the phone.
Tracy, dressed in a red suit and wearing an elf’s hat, waved frantically from the doorway.
“Okay, I’ll send you a hard copy of that first thing after the holiday,” Marisa said into the phone. She listened for a second and said, “Right, goodbye, and Merry Christmas.” She replaced the receiver.
“Fa la la la la,” Tracy said. “I hate to tell you this, but there’s a party going on out there. You’re the only one still working.” She waltzed into the room and planted the gift on Marisa’s desk blotter.
“You’ve got the spirit,” Marisa said.
“Sandy Carter asked me to the New Year’s Eve dance at the Eaglesmere Country Club,” Tracy confided, chuckling wickedly.
“Congratulations. I have a little bulletin myself.”
“What?” Tracy flicked a tinkling bell on one of the Christmas wall decorations with her fingernail.
“Jack is here.”
“Where?” Tracy glanced around wildly as if she expected to find him stashed in a corner of the room.
“He came to my house first thing this morning. And guess what he gave me?”
Tracy sat in Marisa’s client chair. “I’m all ears.”
Marisa told Tracy everything that had happened at her house that day. When she finished Tracy asked excitedly, “What are you going to do tonight?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, he’s coming back, isn’t he?”
“He said so.”
“Don’t look at me,” Tracy said, waving her hand. “I would throw myself into his arms and drag him off to bed, so I’m a bad one to give advice.”
“I have to be sensible.”
“Oh, please. You’re always sensible. Try reckless for once, it just might work.”
“I was reckless enough back in Florida for ten people.”
“And wound up with this gorgeous man madly in love with you. Big mistake, huh?”
The door to the hall opened, admitting the sound of “Jingle Bell Rock” and party merriment into the room.
“What are you two doing in here?” Charlie demanded. “Mark Dempsey is dancing with the dermatologist from the fifth floor and Judge Jerrold is about to do the limbo under Sadie’s mop handle.”
“Wouldn’t want to miss that,” Tracy observed dryly.
“Be right with you, Charlie,” Marisa said.
“I should imagine that you’d be in a celebrating mood,” Charlie said to Marisa and winked, pulling the door closed behind him.
“I think he’s drunk,” Tracy said.
Marisa reached for the gift box on her desk. “I sent your present to your house,” she said, tearing into the wrapping.
“A complete set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, I trust?” Tracy said brightly.
“Nothing so educational.”
“Goody.”
Marisa tore off the last of the silver paper impatiently and gasped with delight.
“Indigo Sky!” she exclaimed, unscrewing the crystal stopper of a tiny bottle of her favorite perfume.
“It’s only toilet water, a minuscule amount at that. It’s all I could afford. But I know how much you like it.”
“How thoughtful,” Marisa murmured, touched.
“Now get out of here and go home to that wonderful man,” Tracy said, rising.
“I should go out to the party and mix a little.”
“Oh, forget about that. I’ll make your excuses and mix enough for both of us. Get going.”