A good while later, bundled up in her robe, once again resting on top of her bed, J.J. sat looking down at her heavily bandaged and propped ankle and foot. She was tired and she felt helpless. She had been examined earlier by the doctor who insisted upon x-rays even though her initial feelings had been that there was too much swelling to tell anything. After being transported to the infirmary, and the x-rays attempted, the doctor's opinion had been confirmed. There was nothing that could be done at the moment. Everything would have to wait until Monday.

Dr. Irvine wanted her to remain in the infirmary under the care of the nurses there, but J.J. had been able to talk her into allowing her to return to the room. She told them that everyone concerned might fare better if she were among  friends who understood her, would assist her with her needs, and help keep her spirits up. The doctor allowed it only after speaking with her father and Miss Smythe and on the condition that she remain immobile except for visits to the bathroom. Even then she would have to call for assistance. J.J. guessed she could count upon Marnie and the other girls, if need be, for that, although she hoped it wouldn't come to that.

All of it had been accomplished through calls to her father who issued his instructions and granted his permission for the examinations and tests over the phone. Her mother and Pat had been left completely out of the loop. Her mother had phoned again, but Marnie had successfully fielded the call.

Now they were all over at the auditorium getting ready for the Dean's presentation. Even Miss Smythe had been talked into going over there. She stopped in before leaving to say that she had left instructions with the housekeeping staff to look in on her, and that she could contact them if she needed anything. But the only thing she needed was to get over to that auditorium, and it didn't look as if that was going to happen.

The phone rang, and she picked up expecting to hear her father's voice. It had been some time since she'd last heard from him.

"J.J. Hart."

"Hey J. This is Teddy. I was just calling to check up on you. I'm  back from transporting that horse to the farm with the foreman. He laid all into me after we left your room for "continuing the curse and letting a pretty Gresham girl sucker me into things". Thanks for getting my back on that one. Oh yeah, and real nice move not letting me know about your cell so I could call somebody to help us. Why did you do that?"

"I told you, I didn't want you to call anybody. I wanted us to get back on our own, so I just kept it to myself. And just so you know for future reference should I ever get you into a jam like that again, I never go anywhere without a cell phone. Getting your back was the least I could do for you after all you did to help me. I could tell that man was gunning for you, and you needed an assist. I was glad to go there, and to tell a little fib to get you off that hook. "

 You are a slick one. How're you feeling?"

"I feel rotten right now, but not about my ankle. That still hurts of course, but I can deal with that. I just wanted so badly to go to the presentation, but they say I have to stay here; that I can't be up and moving around. It's only my ankle that's hurt, not all of me, but they won't let me get out of bed. I really, really, really wanted to see my mother and my aunt speak. I know my mother is expecting me to be there. She'll be so hurt if I'm not. She doesn't know what happened. I only told my father."

"He's all the way in Los Angeles! Your mother is right here. Why didn't you tell her?"

"She and I have issues about that sort of thing, and it's a long story. We can be sort of complicated, she and I, but for me it's all about looking out for her. When I see you, I'll tell you about it."

"I feel so bad about you not being there. I know you were worried about not going when it first happened. I feel like it's all my fault for taking you out there. If I hadn't asked you, it never would have happened."

"Don't feel like that. It wasn't anybody's fault. Even if I had been looking where I was going, it probably still would have happened. It was just one of those things, Teddy. Fate, even."

"You know, J.J.," He said thoughtfully. "I may have an idea. Is Smythe gone?"

"Yes, she went over there already. She didn't want to at first, but I made her.  She was getting on my nerves being all over me, hovering and everything."

"You game for whatever I come up with?"

"You've got a definite thing for skulking around, don't you? Lucky for you I'm always game for a good caper."

"Sit tight, then. I'll be there shortly."

"How else am I going to sit, Teddy?" She grinned in happy anticipation. "I'll be right here, just chillin'."

The sound from the auditorium indicated that it was filling, and Pat watched from a seat at the end of the table as Jennifer continued to stand, peeking out from behind the edge of the heavy closed curtains. They had spent the first few minutes after their arrival meeting the other speakers for the day, including the mayor and the president of the school's board. Then they had gone off to themselves to go over their notes one more time. Pat knew that Jennifer still wasn't feeling one hundred percent herself, and that scouring the gathering crowd looking for J.J. increased her level of discomfort.

"You don't see her yet, Jen?" Pat asked, already aware of the answer.

"No. I can see Marnie out there sitting with a bunch of other girls. I mean, I guess she's with them; they're all talking together. But, I don't see J.J. anywhere. Marnie looks so cute in her uniform. I think she's hiked that skirt up some, though. I know her sizes, and I didn't order it that short."

Jennifer released the curtain to lean back to speak to Pat. "J.J. has a thing about uniforms. She hates wearing them. You don't think the uniform is going to cause her to skip this too, do you?"

"I can't see her doing that, Jen. She's awfully proud of you. I doubt that she'd find anything else more intriguing than watching you speak to an audience, or that she would let something like having to wear a uniform come between the two of you. She'll be here. She might show up in jeans, a tee shirt, and some boots, but she'll show up just the same. Come sit down and relax. She's coming."

Jennifer went back to peering out. "Then why isn't she here yet?" She asked.

Pat could hear the disappointment in her friend's voice, and it made her want to get up to go find J.J. and throttle her. It was so out of character for her to act this way toward her mother. What in the world could she be into that would make her disappoint Jennifer so many times? Certainly it couldn't be that boy. But then again, he was awfully handsome, and J.J. was growing up. And she was her mother's daughter.

"Well girls, we're just about ready." announced Eva Taylor, who had coordinated the presentation and who up until that moment been arranging things back there with them. "I just got word that the Dean has just arrived, and everyone else on the dais is here." She noticed Jennifer peeking out front. "Watching your baby, Jen? She's really something. A real stunner, and so smart."

"Um-hum." Jennifer absently answered. "Thanks."

"Come on, Jen." Pat urged, getting up, taking her by the arm and pulling her away. "She'll make it. I know she will. Come on and take your seat. The Dean's on her way back here."

"Pat, my head is still killing me. The Dean had better not ask me one thing about J.J. I got out of there as fast as I could this morning after breakfast. I thought sure she was going to call me over there to her and ask where she was. You'd think that after forty years that one lady wouldn't make me so nervous. I always had the feeling that she didn't really care for me, and that she was always looking for a reason to bring me down a peg. That's how I feel now; like she's trying to use J.J.'s absences against me. What did I ever do to her?"

"Well, we did get on her nerves a lot even though that was a long time ago. And it's funny you should say that about her not liking you. I always got the feeling that she did like you, a lot more than she liked me, but that she just had higher expectations for you. She was always calling you out and saying that your father expected better from you. I guess she got to know him pretty well from all those times she had to call him on us. We all knew that Rick Hamilton didn't expect a thing out of me. Hell, he was the main reason I was like I was. Look, we get through this today with her, and this is it. She goes her way, we go ours, and Gresham Hall is a memory. A fond memory because here is where we met each other."

Pat put her arm around Jennifer's shoulders and gave her a squeeze. Jennifer gratefully returned the gesture.

This time J.J. wasn't startled when the bathroom door eased open and Teddy tentatively stuck his head in, looking around. Seeing her sitting there alone in the room on the bed, he came all the way in. He was dressed in his Brookfield day uniform, complete with long tan morning coat and striped tie. His thick, curly brown hair which was still damp from his shower, was neatly brushed back from his face. The crisp preppy appearance was a far cry from how he had appeared on the night before or early that morning. To J.J.'s eyes, he looked almost dashing.

"My goodness, Teddy." She smiled. "You sure clean up well!"

He immediately blushed at her appreciative comment, but his attention was more strongly drawn to her injured ankle and foot.

"You sure you're up for this?" He asked, suddenly unsure himself if he should try to work the plan with her in that condition. He didn't think he could bear it if she somehow hurt it again.

"Teddy, if I didn't think I'd get caught at it, I'd walk all the way over there on it to get there. I have to be there. I cannot let my mother down on this."

"Okay, let's do it, then. I've got everything in place."

"Do me a favor first, Teddy, please. Go in that closet and get me that plastic clothes bag that's hanging up with my name on it."

He went into the closet to which she was pointing, and located the designated bag. "Ahhh" He sighed. "The Gresham Hall designer ensemble."

When he emerged, carrying the uniform on its hanger, he saw that she was unfastening her robe, and he abruptly stepped back into the closet, averting his eyes.

Seeing him do that, she laughed, "It's okay, silly. I'm not stripping. Hand me the blouse, the tie and the jacket."

Still inside the closet, he opened the bag, and removed the requested items. Carrying them in his hand, and shielding his eyes with the other, he felt his way out and around to the side of her bed.

"You can open your eyes, Teddy. Thank you for being considerate, but I'm pretty decent under this robe."

When he moved his hand and tentatively opened his eyes, he saw that along with that smile, she was wearing a demure, lacy sleeveless gown over which she quickly slipped the blouse. She buttoned it all the way up, and then tied the string tie at the neck.

"Help me on with this." She said about the jacket.

Once the jacket was on, she asked for her hairbrush which was just out of her reach on the night table. He watched as she took her hair down and quickly brushed and smoothed it only to pull it back up into the ponytail which she took in hand and brushed out.

"How come you don't wear you hair down?" He asked. "You have really pretty hair."

"Just too much of it to leave loose, though." She answered. Then as she finally secured the band which held it all neatly in place, she declared, "I'm ready."

He leaned down to her, wrapping his arm around her back.

"Put your arm around my neck." He told her.

She slid her arm around his shoulders and held on. Thinking that he was going to help her stand up, she was shocked when he lifted her completely up out of the bed and carried her in his arms.

"Teddy!" She squealed. "You can't carry me!"

"I'm doing it, aren't I? If I can handle horses two at a time, surely I can carry one fairly skinny girl. You're as light as a feather. Just work with me here."

She reached down with her free hand and adjusted her long gown so that it covered her legs. "And just so you know, I'm slender, not skinny." She told him. "There is a difference."

 "You just watch out for your foot." He said as he turned them toward the bathroom. "Since you've now got it fixed where I can't watch your slender legs. We're going through Maddy's room. It's right at the back steps. I'll be watching where we're going, so you keep a look out for the staff. With Smythe gone, though, they're probably all goofing off back in the kitchen."

Exiting through the bathroom into Madison and Dakota's room, stealing out of that door, and down the stairs; they made it to the side door undetected. Just a few steps outside sat a car that had been driven across the lawn of The Quad right up to the house. Josh was behind the wheel with the motor running, and Frank was outside the car holding the back door open.

"If they catch you, you guys are gonna get killed." J.J. laughed as Teddy bent to slide her into the back seat.

"Yeah, but they do have to catch us first." Said Frank, peering in at her over Teddy's shoulder. "What's up, J.?"

"My spirits are now." She answered as she slowly scooted in backwards to lean against the other door, wincing some while dragging her ankle, and then again when Teddy slid in and eased her foot into his lap. Frank closed the door behind him and hopped in up front. He tossed a small quilt over the seat to Teddy.

"My Gran made that and sent it to me." He said. "I never had a use for it 'til now. I brought it for J.J. to use just in case it's cool up there. You can keep it. A little gift from me."

As Josh pulled off, she reached out and patted him on the back of the head.

"You boys are the greatest." She sighed.

Thanks to Teddy, his friends, and she was sure, her own Grandma Suzanne who always looked out for her; she was going to make it to her mother after all.

Most everyone was seated, and the auditorium was full of alumni and their offspring. Marnie sat conversing with Dee and the other girls, but her mind was on J.J., left behind and all alone in that room. At first she hadn't planned to come to the presentation herself, wanting to stay behind to help J.J. They had always been two for one when it came to trouble,  but J.J. had insisted upon her leaving, saying that at least one of them needed to be there for representation- and explanation when it came to that.

Even though she had been gifted with the strong ability to competently do several things at a time, Marnie could not get her mind off her friend, and she found it hard to focus on the conversation. She was worrying, trying to talk, and looking around herself wondering how this was all going to fly with Jennifer Hart and Pat Hamilton who were still in the dark about J.J.'s accident and her condition. When it hit the fan about J.J. once again being AWOL, it was she who would be on the front line with them. Mrs. Hart, she knew would probably go ballistic at that point, and Pat would be close behind her. Dealing with her own hard-partying mother over the years, Marnie had come to recognize a hangover when she saw one, and the Duchess had been trying to hide one hell of a good one at breakfast. Pat had just come right on out and admitted that she had one. Mrs. H. and Pat, she figured, must really have tied one on at the Gresham Inn, or wherever they had been on the night before when they didn't show up for the alumni functions.

The mental picture of J.J.'s refined mother knocking them back to the point of intoxication and subsequent hangover momentarily amused her.

If J.J. were there, Marnie knew that she would probably have opted to sit in the balcony despite the fact that the daughters had been assigned to the section in which she was presently seated. That was how J.J. was about things: liking the unexpected, doing the unexpected thing, knowing how to do the right things but going about them in the most unexpected ways.

Facing sideways in her seat, holding a two-way conversation between Dakota sitting next to her and Dee sitting behind her, Marnie shifted her gaze for a moment to the balcony to picture her friend waving down to her.

She had to blink in disbelief.

She blinked again to be sure.

There she was in the flesh, grinning her brightest, most mischievous grin and waving a small wave with her fingers. J.J. was up there in the dark balcony flanked by Teddy, Josh, and Frank. Behind her, moving in  the shadows, Marnie could see that she was surrounded by several other boys dressed in Brookfield Prep School uniforms. Marnie beamed and discreetly waved back mouthing, "How in the hell?"

J.J. gestured to Frank and Josh. Then she took Teddy's hand and held it up while she pointed to him, mouthing, "My hero!"

The other girls in their immediate group took notice of Marnie's eyes looking up and followed her gaze. J.J. waved and then gave them the signal to play it cool and turn around, which they all did. Marnie sat back in her seat, crossed her legs, and breathed a sigh of relief.

If J.J. Hart didn't give Teddy that damned kiss he asked her for on the previous evening, she would go ahead and give it to him herself.

"Are you comfortable, lady?" Teddy asked, watching J.J. wave to her girlfriends below.

At his request, one of the guys had brought a folding chair, normally used for camping, that came with an attached, elevated foot rest. He had placed J.J. into it after she had been carefully carried from the car up to the balcony of the Gresham Hall Theatre. The chair had been lined up sideways with the wall and the railing, so she could peek right over and see everything. The little quilt had been spread over her legs and bare feet to keep the injured one from getting a draft. Then Teddy had taken the seat directly, protectively behind her.

They were surrounded by Teddy's 'brothers' from Brookfield who had planned to come for the ice cream social later in the day, but instead altered their plans after getting word from Teddy to meet him. They arrived early to assist him with "Wesley's" girl. Almost all of the guys had one of those pictures of her in their wallets, they all had made donations to the Mission Street Fund, and they had all been anxious to meet this J.J. Hart person. It hadn't taken them any time to get dressed and to get over there.

Upon his arrival back at Brookfield the prior evening, Teddy made sure to discuss with his floor mates his doubts about the validity of Wesley's claims, and to "wax poetic" himself about the actual, very real person the Mission Street Pin-up girl turned out to be. Wesley had graduated that previous spring, and had gone home for the summer, but the guys utilized the power of the internet to fire off a series of emails to him in Los Angeles letting him know that the cat was out of the bag about his alleged romance. While that was going on, Teddy had simply lain on his back, his arms folded behind his head, staring at the ceiling while picturing the air being let out of that prevaricating windbag, Wesley.

J.J. wasn't anybody's girl except her own, and that was a good thing.

Anticipating a dry, irrelevant, dull time watching the Gresham Dean's presentation, the guys had not come to the balcony empty handed. They were working on the two twelve packs of ice cold Cokes, and someone had thought to bring chips and pretzels as well as two large plastic bowls to put them in to keep the bags from rattling.

"It doesn't get any better than this, Teddy." J.J. smiled at him in answer. "Thanks to you, I'm here for my mother and my aunt. There's a party getting started, I'm in good company up here, and I've got my girls down there. What more can I ask for? It was looking a little bleak there for a minute, and then you came along. In fact, you've done that twice since I've been here.."

"How does your ankle feel?"

"I haven't thought about it. You don't feel pain when you're dancing on cloud nine."

She turned back around to view the beautifully decorated dais just as the house lights went down and the pianist began to play. The honored guests and alumni entered the stage from both sides and took their places. Her heart filled as she noticed that her mother and Pat walked on together and stopped at the first two seats right next to the podium. They had been placed closer than the Mayor of Gresham or the president of the Board of Governors for the school. Both of them were, as usual, impeccably dressed, and appeared poised and confident. J.J. thought to herself that they were really something, and just looking at them, she was enormously proud of them.

She noticed that the first two places on the other side of the podium had been left empty. The first, she assumed would be for the Dean when she was brought out. Eva Taylor delivered the greetings, introduced everyone on the dais, and then introduced the Dean, who was escorted out from the back by the Dean of Brookfield. Everyone was on their feet, including the boys upstairs with her, and they gave her a standing ovation. She was escorted to her seat, the first one on Ms. Taylor's right. Then everyone took their seats.

That left J.J. wondering for whom that other seat had been reserved and why the person wasn't in place at that point.

As she sat on the dais, Jennifer's eyes scoured the section of the auditorium which held the younger girls, looking for that one familiar red head. She could see Marnie, and J.J. should have been right in there somewhere near her. It was unbelievable that she wasn't. What was going on with her that she kept skipping out on everything?

True enough, J.J. hadn't been that enthused about coming to Gresham Hall for the reunion, but she had always enjoyed traveling with her. Spending time together on the road or in the sky, visiting different places in the States and abroad was something to which they both still looked forward to doing while J.J. was out of school for the summer. This situation with her was almost like that last reunion she attended, the time when Jonathan had accompanied her. He kept skipping out on the events, too. But that time it turned out that he had been drugged by Ford Beebe and hypnotized into staying away, so that hadn't been within his control. The final result of that episode, Ford's death, had kept her away until this year, the year that she could come and spend the time with her daughter. What was the story on J.J.? Pat had spoken with her, and assured her that J.J. would be there. She must have told Pat that she would be, but she wasn't.  J.J. didn't normally outright lie, so where could she be? Had that boy she met so captured her attention?

Overwhelmed by the unhappiness and disappointment she felt over her daughter's behavior, compounded by the lingering effects of her earlier physical affliction, Jennifer began to tune out.

She had been so lost in her thoughts that she almost didn't feel it when Pat nudged her to get her up on her feet.

J.J. and the guys had leaned back into the darkness of the balcony, and had gone silent to not be noticed by those below. After easing the top off a Coke, Teddy handed it to her and then offered her the bowl of pretzels from which she extracted a few and placed them in her lap. They sat comfortably watching the formalities as each of the speakers stood to pay tribute to the Dean, her accomplishments during her tenure, and to her contributions to that fine institution of learning, Gresham Hall. J.J., however, was intently watching her mother, aware that she had to be scrutinizing the audience, looking for her. She knew that she had to be disappointed in her, and that knowledge brought about that hot/cold/ clammy/ twisting feeling in the pit of her stomach that she detested. It was almost better to have her mother be angry with her. In fact, that was better.

There was a rustling behind her, the sound of seats being exchanged. She turned around to silence whoever it was that was moving, only to find her father seated where Teddy had been and next to him, where Josh had been sitting, was her Uncle Bill McDowell, both of them with their fingers to their lips, shushing her. The two ousted boys were retreating to seats higher up.

"What are you two doing here?" She couldn't help but whisper in happy surprise. "Daddy, where did you come from? Uncle Bill?!"

"It's a surprise for the Dean, your mother and Pat." Jonathan answered. "What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay put in that bed in your room after I allowed you to leave the infirmary."

Bill tugged her ponytail. "How you feeing, Beautiful?" He asked.

She smiled sweetly at both of them and turned back toward the stage.

Jonathan could only shake his head when Bill poked him in the ribs about J.J. ignoring both their questions.

Having come up there to sit on their own to keep from being seen by Jennifer or Pat after their arrival, both of them had been surprised by the all-male presence in the balcony, and even more so by the sight of their girl in front of first row, center. Ejecting the two boys closest to her from their seats, they noted the festive atmosphere, and helped themselves to sodas disregarding the boys' surprised, questioning faces.

Jonathan, upon making Teddy get up, took special note of how well J.J. seemed to have been accommodated, with the chair, the quilt, and the drink. Although he was mildly irritated that in being her relentlessly fresh self, she had ignored his directive and was out of the bed; he was pleased that since she had come, she had chosen to wear the uniform. He knew that she had done both those things out of love and respect for her mother. The bond between the two of them fascinated him and even in their more intense moments it had always made given him a contented, satisfied feeling in his heart to watch them interact. Jennifer had it under control, J.J. was paying attention, and they had been so good for each other.

They were everything to him.

He leaned forward and raised the quilt from J.J.'s feet. A quick visual inspection of the injured ankle also revealed the lacy hem of the nightgown she wore as a skirt. Replacing the quilt, he shook his head and sat back, giving up hope. His daughter was every bit the shameless Bohemian her mother often declared her to be. As much as he hated facing the reality, he understood that to be one of the major qualities that made her so attractive to the opposite sex. How in the world had she gotten up there to that balcony in that half dressed state with all those boys? With the way that ankle looked, there was no way that she could have walked up on her own. And once she was up there, that all male group had protectively surrounded her, obviously catering to her every need as if she were royalty. It was evident that just like her mother she would be forever bewitching and charming the males in her life.

Even though she couldn't see him, J.J. could feel her father's movements down by her feet, and recognized that he was probably very concerned about her injury. She couldn't imagine that he had come all that way to see about her unless the doctor had said something to him about it that she hadn't said to her in the infirmary. What other reason could there be for his presence?  He said that it was a surprise for her mother. Jennifer Hart would definitely be surprised.

She remained faced forward, looking down on the proceedings, not wanting to read whatever his eyes might reveal about the situation. She didn't want to know what he thought about her ankle or her attire (or lack thereof) at that particular moment. There would be plenty of time left later in the day to get chewed out about the entire mess.

Eva Taylor was on the podium speaking of the positive changes that had come about at Gresham Hall during the Dean's time there. She said that many of those changes and improvements had been facilitated by the forethought and generosity of the many benefactors whose time and resources the Dean had persuaded them to invest in the school and its students. One of those benefactors, she said, was present as a surprise to the Dean and others in their midst.

Eva said that the Alumni Association had recently discovered that one of the most generous patrons over the years had been one of the Dean's lifelong friends. She said that he had continued to support Gresham Hall and its programs although his daughter had graduated with her a number of years ago. She laughingly declined to mention how many years.

Then she introduced the gentleman: Mr. Stephen Harrison Edwards of Hillhaven, Maryland.

J.J. sat up and sprang forward toward the railing so fast that Jonathan was compelled to reach out for her to keep her from going over as the pretzels in her lap rained down on the girls seated below.

At the same time as a few started squeals came from the rear of the auditorium, Pat's head snapped in the direction of the Dean as she heard Jennifer's father's name. She slowly rose to her feet to watch as Stephen Edwards himself was escorted from behind the curtain by Georgette Singleton and Midge Jackson.

A second or two later, when his name finally registered with her, Jennifer whispered, "Pa? Here? I just spoke with him this morning. I don't believe it!"

Stephen Edwards walked slowly, but proudly and erectly, onto the stage aided by his ornately carved ebony cane. When he reached her, he slipped his cane under his arm, and took the Dean by her hands to kiss her on both cheeks, smiling one of his rare, but engaging smiles.

"My good friend." He said to her.

Then, still holding her hands, he looked past her to Jennifer and winked. "Hello, my darling daughter. Are you surprised to see your old man?" He nodded amiably in their direction, simply saying, "Patricia", to Pat in fond acknowledgement. Pat had to nudge Jennifer who until that moment, sat stunned and frozen to her seat.

Once she was up, they both went to him and hugged him together.

"How did you get here?" Jennifer asked him while they were still enclosed in his embrace. "You haven't left Briarwood in ages."

"On the wings of two angels. They swooped down from the sky and scooped me up from my backyard." He answered. He was looking out toward the audience which was now on its feet and clapping, but he was gazing above the peoples' heads.

Following her father's eyes up to the balcony, Jennifer was further surprised to see Jonathan and Bill standing at the rail. Peeking out between them was that face for which she had been so anxiously searching.

The family circle was more complete than she could ever have hoped.

They all returned to their places on the dais with Stephen taking the empty seat next to the Dean, this time leaving Jennifer with the questions.

J.J. had been delivered back to the suite, only this time at her father's direction, and under Miss Smythe's watchful eye. As soon the guys drove her up to the house, and Teddy had her safely back on the bed, Miss Smythe put him out of the room with the warning that he had better not return unless it was cleared through her and via the front door. Marnie and Dee moved quietly about the room, preparing to get changed into outfits for the ice cream social and trying to be inconspicuous. J.J. was silent as Miss Smythe carefully propped her foot and then helped her remove the portion of the uniform that she had worn over to the auditorium.

"You know you really are a piece of work, Justine Hart." Miss Smythe fussed as she put the clothing on a hanger. "You remind me so much of someone else who once occupied this room. She too went about things in whatever way suited her no matter what others thought of her. "

"My mother?" J.J. quietly ventured to ask.

"Just never you mind." The woman answered. "You've got one coming, but not from me. The rest of them went on to the Dean's house, but your mother is on her way here. She told me so herself."

J.J. looked apprehensively to Marnie. They both knew that the zero hour was most likely on its way.

Miss Smythe went into the closet with her clothing, and came back out to pull the bed covers over J.J. which had been folded back before her arrival.

"You won't be making the ice cream social with the others today. That's too bad. It will be a very nice affair, with the boys coming down and all." She tugged the covers up to J.J.'s waist and then stood back with her hands on her hips. "But I guess you've had your time with the boys today. Imagine, him up here and then spiriting you away in your night clothes without so much as a by-your-leave, and then you shacking up with all them boys in the loft."

"I had on most of the uniform and I wasn't "shacked up", like you say." J.J. tried to explain. "I was just sitting up there watching the presentation. I didn't even know that all of them would be up there like that. And besides, what was the harm in my sitting up there as long as I was being a lady the whole time, which I was- totally- and they were all being absolute gentlemen."

"Whatever you say, Miss Hart." Answered Miss Smythe calmly, not bothering to debate the issue as she moved the pillows behind J.J.'s head to better support her in sitting up. "You can take the technicalities of the situation up with your mother when she gets here."

There was a knock at the door, and before anyone could get to it to answer it, Jennifer Edwards Hart herself stepped into the room. She stopped and stood just inside the door, silently taking the room and all of them in.

For the longest moment, to the girls there, especially to J.J. and Marnie who had frozen in place; in her slim designer suit and Fendi pumps, with her hair pulled up into a business-like French Roll, The Duchess seemed at least seven stylish feet tall.

"Uh, we'll just be going next door." Marnie finally said, pushing up with her fingers on Dee's chin to close her open mouth as she remained in place gaping in dumbfounded silence at the woman whose picture she had seen, but who seemed larger, prettier, more polished, and much scarier in real life.

So caught up was she, that she stumbled a bit when Marnie pulled her by the arm from the room into the bathroom, saying, "We'll just go and leave you two alone."

"That would be best." Jennifer coolly advised as she placed her purse on the desk.

Crossing her arms and turning to catch and hold J.J.'s fearful gaze with her own no nonsense one, she slowly approached the occupied bed.

J.J., for her part, had no doubt that the zero hour had indeed finally arrived.

"I'm leaving too, Mrs. Hart." Miss Smythe said as she began going toward the bedroom door. "If you need anything, you know how to reach me."

"Yes, I do, and thank you."

When they heard the door close behind Miss Smythe, Jennifer raised her finger to her lips, signaling J.J. to keep quiet. Easing over to the bathroom door, she suddenly gripped the knob, twisted it, and quickly snatched it open. Marnie fell heavily into the room from where she had been inside the bathroom leaning against the door, eavesdropping. She came to rest at Jennifer's feet.

Without a word exchanged between them, Marnie quickly got up, gathered herself along with her dignity, and tossing her hair, she walked back through the door Jennifer held open for her. It wasn't until she had gone through the bathroom to the other side and closed that door behind herself that Jennifer returned to J.J.'s bedside.

She picked up the small quilt that lay on top of the covers and looked it over carefully as J.J continued to watch her.

"Where did this come from?" Jennifer finally asked.

"Frank's grandmother made it. He gave it to me to keep my ankle warm while I was up in the balcony."

Jennifer then pulled back the bedcovers to expose J.J.'s injured ankle to examine it for herself. It was still quite swollen under the bandaging. The only thing that kept her alarm at bay at the sight of it was the fact that she knew that J.J. was very sturdily built, and that Jonathan had informed her of the injury and let her know that the campus doctor didn't think it was broken.

"Does it hurt a lot?" She finally asked after a few moments' visual inspection, and upon hearing J.J. suck in her breath when she pressed the skin of her foot with her fingers to feel if it was hot to the touch.

J.J. shook her head. When her mother, who was still checking out her ankle and hadn't seen her response, looked to her for an oral answer, she replied, "Not a lot."

"Tell me what happened." Jennifer directed as she covered the ankle again and then sat down on the side of the bed.

She spoke softly, but J.J. could see the pucker of annoyance in her mother's forehead, and she could read it in her eyes. Without hesitation, she cautiously began her explanation .

"I was walking on the bluff beneath Lookout Pointe with Teddy, and I fell."

"Elaborate." Jennifer demanded.

J.J. continued, knowing that the story she was trying to tell was going to have to be fleshed out considerably for the internationally acclaimed, award-winning journalist sitting next to her, well within reach of her throat.

"Well, we went riding and he took me out there, and was showing me some morbid death scene or something. He was telling me something about some guy having fallen down there or something a long time ago."

She thought she saw her mother stiffen, but she kept going just the same.

"I wasn't really paying attention to him. I was busy checking out the sights in the distance, trying to figure out what all of it was.  I wasn't looking where I was going, I accidentally stepped into a hole, and I fell funny and twisted it."

"I'm not talking about just your ankle. I'm talking about you. What's happened with you that you've been so distant toward me since we've been here. I thought we came here to be together. Mother and daughter, was what I thought theme was supposed to be."

A little startled at first by the question, then with her heart twisting at what she suddenly realized had to be how her mother must have been viewing things, and how she must have been made to feel to have asked her that, J.J. hung her head.

"It wasn't about you." She admitted.

"If it wasn't me, J.J., then what was it?"

Taking a deep breath, J.J. answered her at length.

"I really didn't know you would see it that way. It was just that right away, I hated this place and all it seemed to stand for, so I just went and did other stuff. I didn't think it would be that big a deal at first, you know, like at the reception. Before I came down to you, I had met Dee up here, and at the time, she was upset with Miss Smythe about something that happened in one of her classes. When Marnie and I came down to the reception, that left Dee up here by herself feeling all bad, and I kept thinking about her. So I left there and came back up here to talk to her. I found out that she's here because she flunked the subjects that I'm the best at. I also found out that she was basically lonely; her family is all away on vacation, so I decided to keep her company instead of going back to the reception. You had your friends, and Aunt Pat and Marnie; she didn't have anybody. I really didn't think it would make that much difference to you if I was there or not. I mean, I know you cared, but I just thought I'd do better helping her. So, I spent the time with Dee, running. It turns out that she runs track too. She took me to that Alumni Hall where all the pictures are. I was so proud to see you and Aunt Pat up there on that wall. That was better than any old reception. We came back to the room and spent some time getting her to show me what she didn't understand in math and science class. She draws really well, so she showed me some of the things she's done for her portfolio. Then I had the idea to set up a website with some links to my tutoring site that I use with people I work with at school, and to places on the web where she could go for help in those subjects so that she could pass her summer courses. That's what made me so late for dinner. I get so caught up when I'm doing stuff like that on the computer that I lose track of time. I knew I was really jammed up with you by then, but I didn't want to miss dinner with you altogether so I got dressed and came anyway, even though I was late."

"But then you didn't stay." Jennifer interjected accusingly. "You just got up and left, quite rudely I might add."

"You were so mad at me by then." J.J. answered quietly. "I wanted to tell you then what I just told you, but you were too mad to listen." She dropped her head even farther. "Then I got mad at you for being so mad at me and not letting me explain, and about having to be here in this stuffy old place with all these rules and schedules, that I just got up and left. I know that I shouldn't have, but I did. I'm sorry I was rude."

Not letting up on her, Jennifer continued, "Then you left here at night with a boy. Is that why Pat came here last night? Was she looking for you?"

J.J. rolled her eyes, but she knew that she had to keep going.

"Yes. But I hadn't gone anywhere. I was right out front talking to Teddy, the boy I went riding with this morning. I even came in and asked Miss Smythe's permission to stay out there and talk to him. She tried to call you to ask what you thought about it, but she couldn't get you. So she called the Dean, and then the Dean called back to say that it was okay. I guess she called Daddy or something. Then later Aunt Pat happened to call here to check on us, but Marnie didn't know where I had gone. See, I told her I was going downstairs to look for you and Aunt Pat at the Mix and Mingle, but when you weren't there, I went outside with Teddy and we sat in the- we sat out front and talked to each other. When I didn't come back up, and Aunt Pat called, Marnie couldn't find me anywhere in the house downstairs where I said I was going. She didn't know where I was, and she knows how much you hate that, so she panicked and just hung up on Aunt Pat. That's when Aunt Pat got in a cab and came over here to find out where I was. I saw her when she came on the Quad in the cab, and that's when I came in the house. I didn't know any of what was going on, I just came in to see why she was there. Miss Smythe vouched for me with Aunt Pat."

"This Teddy, how did you meet him?"

There was a nervous hesitation, and a heavy sigh before J.J. answered, "Well, I hadn't eaten-"

"You shouldn't have huffed your little tail out of the dining hall like you did."

"-and I said I was hungry. Madison, the girl next door, made a call and Teddy came over to bring us some pizza when we came back from the theatre last night. You see, after we didn't see you or Aunt Pat at the theatre, all of us came back up here: Marnie, Dee, the girls in the other room, and me."

"Mrs. Smythe wouldn't have let a boy bring pizza to you girls at night without you having cleared it with her first. And even then he wouldn't have gotten past the vestibule. And even at that, you wouldn't have been the one to answer the door." Jennifer determined, rapidly putting things together. "Things haven't changed that much, I know. So how did he get to meet you personally?"

"Come on, Mom." J.J. whined. "That would make me out to be a snitch. Don't make me say."

"Snitch or no, for your own sake, you'd better say." Jennifer warned.

Sighing heavily again, J.J. answered. "I honestly don't know how he did it, but he snuck in with two of his friends and brought it in here to us. Since I'm being made to tell, I guess might as well just go ahead and spill it all. We had a party."

Jennifer closed her eyes and shook her head over Jonathan's child, the perpetual party animal...any time, any place...

Hesitating until her mother looked up again, J.J. sheepishly continued when she opened her eyes, .

"Most of the girls up here in all the rooms came, and Teddy and the guys stayed too. With the Mix and Mingle going on downstairs, nobody was the wiser. The boys kept a low profile by going back and forth, from room to room just in case a grownup came in."

"Was Frank one of the boys who came with Teddy?" Jennifer asked, holding up the small quilt.

J.J. simply nodded, and continued on,  "After a while, I thought I had better get up and go downstairs to go see if you had come. I didn't want to miss out on everything with you, but you weren't down there. That's when Teddy somehow showed up at the front door. He made out like he had just come by, and he asked me to come and sit outside and talk with him. He actually wanted me to go down to the stables with him to go riding last night, but I didn't go. It was too dark. I wasn't scared to ride in the dark or anything , but I figured it wouldn't be too wise a move since I didn't know him all that well."

"I'll credit you one on that decision." Said Jennifer. "So who did you bother to ask this morning if you could go? You certainly didn't phone to ask me."

While J.J. had been talking, Jennifer recalled that Pat told her that she had granted J.J. permission to go riding that morning, but there had been no call from J.J. before Pat left. Furthermore, when Pat left to go to breakfast, she had accidentally left her cell phone behind on the table in the room at the Gresham Inn, and it hadn't rung once during that time. If J.J. hadn't come to breakfast, when had Pat spoken with J.J. to tell her she could go anywhere? Jennifer reflected that ever since J.J. had been in the world, Pat had always gone out of her way to keep that girl's fanny out of the fires she so frequently backed into. Her friend's manipulations of the truth concerning the events of the night before and earlier that morning did not surprise her.

Jennifer's suspicions about the situation were confirmed by the barely audible "Nobody" that was offered in answer.

"Excuse me?" She said, holding her hand to her ear

J.J. looked up at her mother and spoke more clearly. "I said that I didn't ask anybody."

"And why is that? You know better than to take off on your own, especially in a place with which you aren't familiar. How many times have we been over this, Justine?"

"I know, Mom. I do know that, but I don't get to ride that often. I love horses, and I really wanted to go riding this morning. They were soooo beautiful. You would have loved Babette. She was so gentle and sweet, and I was afraid that after all I had skipped out on yesterday, you wouldn't let me go if I asked you. I figured if I didn't ask, you couldn't say no, and if you hadn't said no then I wouldn't be disobeying you or anything. I thought I could just go off with him for a little bit, get back, make it to the presentation, and everything would be all right. I didn't count on getting hurt like this."

"I'm quite sure that you didn't, but God has a way of slowing us down so that we can more clearly see what we need to see, doesn't he, Miss Hart?"

"Yeah," J.J. admitted. "I guess she does."

Caught off guard, Jennifer almost lost it and smiled, but she managed to hold it back, noting to herself once again that J.J. was every bit her father's child: a quick mind and a glib tongue.

"So why was it so important for you to get to the presentation this afternoon? I mean, you didn't seem to think any of the rest of it was such a big deal."

"Don't make me say, Mom. You know why."

"So, tell me anyway."

J.J. lifted her chin and tipped her head sassily, while impishly eyeing her mother. "Because I wanted to hear Aunt Pat speak."

When her mother gasped and looked taken aback, she grinned, and added, "And I wouldn't let you down on that for the world. I wanted to be there if I didn't make it to anything else. After seeing your picture in Alumni Hall, I wouldn't have missed being there to see you address your class for anything. I was so scared that I wouldn't make it after I hurt my ankle and couldn't walk, but Teddy called me up with a plan to get me there. He came over and snuck up here again. I got dressed in as much of the uniform as I could, and then he carried me down the back stairs and out to the car. Mom, it was so slick; just like a bank heist or something that you see on television or at the movies! They had the car pulled right up to the side door. Josh was the getaway driver, and Frank was the lookout. The guys put me in the car and drove me over to the auditorium and then Teddy carried me up all the way up to the balcony so that nobody would notice that I was hurt and get the word to you before you could speak. All of the girls staying in Waverly who knew about it had been told to keep it quiet until after the program."

J.J. had to stop and catch her breath before continuing. She reached out to take her mother's hand in both of hers before she spoke again. She spoke in earnest.

"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings or to disregard you. I know I should have told you that I was hurt, but I just didn't want you to know about it right then. I didn't tell you so that you wouldn't worry and mess up or miss  your speech. My being hurt would have broken your focus. I know you and I know how much you worry about me. You were great up there, you know. I like what you said about the Dean having a positive influence on you even though she was so rough on you. I'm going to ask you later why she had to be so rough on you, but that's for another time. But I do know first hand just how that is. It really does work to have somebody in your life who you know you can't buffalo your way past or run all over when you feel like just doing whatever. You know, somebody who'll call you out when you're wrong, no matter what. I was wrong. I know that. I've been handling things wrong from the beginning, and I really am sorry about making you feel bad. I didn't see it like that. I absolutely did not mean to give you the impression that I didn't want to be with you personally, but you should know that about me by now. I love being anywhere with you. After my ankle got hurt, I just didn't want you to worry about me until you had to. I know it made you mad that I did that, but that was how it had to be."

A pained, exasperated look crossed Jennifer's face as she reversed the hold J.J. had on her hand to take her daughter's two hands in her own.

"How many times have I told you about bringing the heavier things to me and about letting me be the mother?" She fussed.

"Mom, it wasn't that heavy. It really wasn't that big a deal. It had already happened; I was already hurt, and telling you wasn't going to fix my ankle. I wouldn't have fixed anything. And besides, my Daddy was helping me handle it. And-" She said holding up her index finger for emphasis. "Getting hurt got me out of wearing those dorky penny loafers and those knee socks. I would have just plain died... people would have been taking pictures..." J.J. grimaced and shuddered, repulsed by the thought of the rest of her casually eclectic crew at home seeing her in that preppy get-up. Tommy and Deon, especially, would never have let her live it down. Marnie could pull something like that off, but not her.

"Not to mention the skirt." Jennifer reminded her. "J.J., your father was appalled to see what you had on up in that balcony.  Now, I know you and I know your  habits. You had on that full length nightgown and I know how you are. Please tell me you were wearing panties under it."

J.J.'s jaw dropped. "Of course I had some on, Mom!! I had to go to the infirmary and get examined and junk, didn't I? I didn't know what was coming with all that. My gown might have scrunched up, and somebody might have seen. I only go without underwear like that at home in my room, and you wouldn't have known about it then if you hadn't asked me that time. I do have some sense of decorum, you know."

She stopped for just a second and that devilish look crossed her face before she asked,  "But, what if I hadn't had any on? What could I have done about it? If I didn't have any panties on before he got here, how could I have put some on with Teddy in the room? I want you to know that I wouldn't have let that stop me from going. I was determined to be there. I would just have had to go without. The long gown would have kept me covered up, so there was nothing to worry about on that end, so to speak. But, for real, I was fully dressed down there already. My cat is not for public viewing."

"Cat?"

"Okay, my vagina, Mom. My bottom, my private parts, my secret place, my bum, whatever. The good stuff is not for show and there's still nothing to tell."

Once again, Jennifer briefly closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. Just as Pat had said, with J.J. it was like talking about the weather. And completely mortifying as well.

"I just had to ask." She said after a time, recovering enough to eye her child skeptically while resisting the urge to snatch up the gown and check for herself.

J.J. leaned in closer to her mother and wrinkled her nose.

"Hey Mom, wasn't it cool how Daddy and Uncle Bill came to bring Pa like that? How surprised were you? Pa hasn't left Briarwood since he started having that trouble with his heart. I bet he only left the estate this time because it was Daddy who came for him. That says a lot about his trust in Daddy, doesn't it? So now you know about Uncle Bill and Aunt Pat? Isn't that great? They looked so glad to see each other when he went up on the stage with her. And how about Pa and the Dean? Did you know they were friends all that time? Do you think they're going to hook up?"

"You ask far too many questions and you ask them much too quickly." Jennifer answered arranging the covers to hide any traces of the amusement she felt at listening to how J.J. had so smoothly segued the uncomfortable conversation they had been having away from herself, into more neutral, more pleasant territories. "It was very nice of your father and Uncle Bill to bring Pa. I think that if Pat and Bill make each other happy, then I am happy for them. No, I did not know that my father and the Dean were personal friends, and my father is far too old to be "hooking up" as you say, with anybody."

"Nobody is too old to want to be happy, Mom."

Jennifer ran her hand along the high, heavy oak, attractively timeworn headboard of J.J.'s bed. "I used to sleep in this same bed." She remarked. "It was old way back then. I wonder how old it actually is."

The telephone rang, and J.J. picked up. She spoke into it for a moment, and then handed the phone a bit nervously  to her mother. "It's for you." She said.

Jennifer took it, seemed surprised at first by the caller, listened, and then after a few minutes, said, "I think that will be alright. Give us about twenty minutes." Then she hung up.

She turned back to J.J., giving her 'the look', and then told her, "Your new friend, Teddy will be here for you in twenty minutes. He wants to take you downstairs so that you can watch the ice cream social from the windows of the common room. The boys are going to be playing soccer on the Green, and he says that you'll be able to see the game from there as well."

J.J. looked surprised. "Okay. I know I'm going out on a limb here and I'm definitely talking too much saying this," she said holding her hand up. "But I just have to go here. I cannot believe you're actually going to let me go!"

She watched as her mother got up and went into the closet, only to come back out with her long robe which she helped her into after pulling back the covers.

"Nobody is too young to want to be happy either, I guess." Jennifer said, pulling a sleeve up onto J.J.'s shoulder. "Besides, you've been doing whatever you've wanted to the whole trip thus far. Why change the pattern now?"

When the robe was on, she took J.J.'s chin firmly in her hand and lifted her face to make her look at her as she delivered a warning, "But let me tell you something, you little harlot, the next time you change clothes in front of a boy, you had better be over eighteen and not still living at home with me. Do you hear me, Justine Hart?"

"But I didn't- All I did was-" Then feeling like she'd better not push it, she conceded. "Yes Ma'am, I hear you."

Jennifer released her hold on J.J.'s face and stood watching her as she tied her robe and pulled at the tiny lace bow of her gown so that it fluffed out and showed at her neck.

"I think I want to wear my hair down, Mom." She said. "Will you help me with it?"

"You little blue-eyed Bohemian." Jennifer thought to herself as reached around to pull the band from her daughter's hair.

Pat's jokingly delivered concerns about J.J.'s possible potential sexual tendencies repeated themselves as she worked on J.J.'s hair. With her hair down, J.J. took on a softer, more feminine air which made her awfully attractive, and Jennifer felt that J.J. was becoming more aware of that fact. She'd begun to notice that there were very specific people and very specific occasions for which J.J. voluntarily wore her hair down. Mostly she did it for going to church, or to please her grandfather when she was in his company, and at times she took it down for her friend, Tommy. And there was already some pretty serious speculation about where that situation might be headed. If J.J. was taking her hair down for a meeting with him, Jennifer was even more curious to meet this Teddy fellow than ever.

J.J. Hart.

The girl constantly did wrong things, but she usually did them for what she felt were the right reasons. Jennifer wondered how in the world she was supposed to stay angry with a girl like her. The initial fury she'd felt with her over her disappearing acts had been rapidly dissipating from the time that J.J. began explaining her absence from the reception. Furthermore, she  had recently come to the full understanding that there was nothing she could do to change J.J.'s trying to protect her from worry. It had begun when she was quite small and over the years, that hadn't changed a bit. She was growing up, maturing, and would probably always try to protect her from worrying about her, and would likely continue to be unorthodox in her approach to life all of her days. As her mother, Jennifer guessed that all she could do with J.J. was continue to love her and to love everything about her. Like Jonathan, there was simply no other way to take her.

"Hey, Mom." J.J. called up to her breaking through her thoughts, as she stood over her brushing out the long, shiny, thick hair,  "Where did you go last night? Aunt Pat said that you were out when she came over here last night, and that's why you didn't come over here looking for me yourself. Did you have fun hanging out? Were you with your girls from back in the day? Did you all go out to a club?"

"That's for me to know." Was Jennifer's spoken answer. "And sure as hell for you not to find out." Was the mental one. Back in the day, indeed. She realized at that moment that her head was still dully throbbing in the background of everything else that was going on.

J.J.'s words to her about her grandfather played back as well: "Nobody is too old to want to be happy."

But with Dean Marchand, of all people? Just how far and how deep did those old roots go?

And was she grown enough, mature enough, generous enough to graciously accept the situation, whatever it was?

"Aggie, I cannot believe that Jennifer hasn't gotten around to introducing her to you yet."

"I don't think Jennifer's to blame, Stephen. I haven't seen very much of the girl at all since they arrived, and I don't think Jennifer has either. I've only just managed to catch fleeting glimpses of her. However, I would have known her even if you hadn't told me what to look for; she's so much like your Jennifer. Since her injury this morning, Justine's been occupied with the doctor and tests and such. I was happy to hear from Dr. Irvine that her father was handling things with that. I wanted to be sure that she was getting the best care, and my sister said that Justine was adamant that her mother not be told of it. I'm certain that with you here, I'll be meeting her soon enough, though I'm anxious to see if what you say about her is true."

Dean Marchand and Stephen Edwards were seated in the front room of her residence enjoying their pre-dinner drinks after returning from the program where she had been presented with a solid gold diamond encrusted watch, and two tickets for an Alaskan cruise to be taken immediately after the summer session ended, as well as many personal tokens of gratitude from that special group of girls. However, as satisfactory as all of that had been, none of it meant as much to her as the man seated across from her and his most gracious offer, made he said to continue their many years of friendship.

Although he had aged considerably, the superior intelligence and keen, dry wit which was characteristic of Stephen's nature still danced in his eyes as he watched the young people gathering on the Quad in preparation for the ice cream social and the soccer game.

"Justine will surely miss being out there." He mused quietly. "She's quite the social butterfly, you know, which most likely explains why you haven't seen more of her thus far. Quite independent and easily popular, my granddaughter. Jennifer often tells me of the parade of children that have come into her and Jonathan's lives via their lively child. For her birthdays they've always indulged her with these shamelessly elaborate parties where their estate is overrun by her plethora of friends. I understand that her very best friend, a girl called Marnie, has accompanied her here to the reunion. They've known each other practically all their lives, those two."

Dean Marchand nodded. "Her, I've met. I can tell that Jennifer has a strong influence on her, and that Patricia seems to have taken quite a fancy to her. I got the impression that little Marnie and our Patricia are both cut from the same bolt of cloth. Very polite and engaging as long as your eye is on them, but once they've detected that you're no longer watching...."

Stephen chuckled. "That Patricia. She was a maddening handful but I loved her from the first for so loving my daughter and for being such a  devoted companion, however incorrigible she might have been. Then I came to love her for that incorrigibility itself. I'm fairly sure that, genetics aside, she and Jennifer are the main reason I no longer have hair. Patricia hasn't changed much over the years either. I've closely followed her rise in the literary world. Her business practices mirror her personality. She was and remains unafraid to make life know that it has to do her bidding, and not the other way around."

"Stephen," Dean Marchand called to him in a way that drew his attention. "Have you spoken with Jennifer about the arrangement?"

He looked uncomfortable as he slowly turned to answer her. "No," He admitted. "But I've sent Jonathan over to Waverly to fetch her. He'll take over for her over there with Justine, and then I'll speak with her when she arrives back here. It's been such a long time, Agnes, but still I'm nervous about upsetting her. She's long been a grown woman with her own life. Surely she won't have a problem with this, don't you think?"

"What I think, Stephen, is that you should have told her about us, our friendship, and about all the things that have come about here at Gresham because of you; of the people you've helped in trying to help her, and how you did these things out of your love for her. I don't think she's ever understood why you sent her away from you, and here to this place in particular. Since you're asking me what I think, what I think is you should have told her all of that. But there's nothing to be done about any of it now except to inform her of your plans and let the chips fall where they may. You deserve to be happy in your remaining years. You deserve to do things the way that you want to do them. You've been a good father to her, and it's as you've said, Jennifer is a grown woman with her own happy life. You have more than earned the right to one on your own terms as well."

And so had she.

"So how long did you have this planned?" J.J. asked her father as they sat together. "As nosy as I usually am, I didn't pick up a hint of a clue that you would be flying up here."

"I am the master of stealth and guile." He smiled at her. "Keep that in mind. With the wonder of the cell phone, your Daddy can be anywhere when you're talking to him, so watch the things you do. You are learning at my knee, remember?"

"But I'm getting pretty good at the stealth and guile thing, though, right?" She nodded. "And you don't happen to be the parent who could be anywhere on the cell that I keep my nose clean for when I'm out in public. Your other half is the one who gives me heart palpitations. My ticker just started back to beating regularly a few minutes ago. It skipped a couple when she showed up in the room after the program. I knew she was fit to be tied. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw her come through the door; didn't even feel the ankle any more." She waved her hand, fanning herself at the memory. "Daddy, you just don't know... I was talking fast..."

"I see you survived," He chuckled. "And it looks to me like you've been granted a reprieve. Judging by her disposition when she left me to come over here to you, I expected to find you in solitary, lashed to the bed."

"You?" J.J. turned to look at him. "Think about how I felt! I was floored when she told Teddy that I could sit down here with him. When I say my prayers tonight, I have got to thank somebody up there for this gift of gab that I've been given. I was able to articulate it to her in a way that she could see what I was saying. But you can bet, I was sweating bullets the entire time, especially about the nightgown thing when she brought it up."

Jonathan just shook his head. He had planned to reprimand her on that himself and on ignoring his telling her to stay in bed, but one look at that face and after listening to her amusing account of her tense meeting with her mother, like always, he broke down completely into mush. He was left wondering how one little girl could so lift his spirits and fill his heart with just that smile. It was probably the fact that she was the ultimate symbol of what he and Jennifer had accomplished together; J.J. was their only child, a living symbol of his union with her. With her hair down like it was, she looked so much like that woman he loved with his entire being. But J.J.'s eyes, the brilliant blue coloring and the way she used them, seemed to significantly alter the resemblance for him. Depending upon the situation, those eyes gave her a more disarmingly feminine countenance than even her mother, and at other times they could be downright steely, just like his own.

After he, Pat, Jennifer and Bill escorted Stephen and the Dean back to her residence after the program, Pat and Bill had gone off on their own. He had seen to the two elderly people getting settled and comfortable, while Jennifer went over to Waverly House to check on and chastise J.J. She had been pretty aggravated at not having been told of J.J.'s injury until after the program. By that time, he, Bill and the boys had seen to J.J. being taken out of the balcony and transported with Miss Smythe back over to her room in the house before Jennifer could make it up there. Jennifer was angry enough with J.J. at that point to have said anything to her, and he did not want their daughter embarrassed in front of her peers, no matter how much she might have deserved a dose of her mother's wrath.

On the plane, while coming over, Stephen had briefly consulted with him about his future plans in an effort to get his opinion of Jennifer's reaction. Jonathan had been intrigued by Stephen's unusual apprehension, it was almost as if he were afraid of his own daughter. Since her mother's passing, Jennifer, they both knew, had never been faced with a situation like this one. In his mind, Jonathan thought that what Stephen was proposing  was a good thing for all concerned. But as well as he felt he knew his wife, having been an orphan himself for as long as he could remember, he didn't feel like he had the background for familial interactions that was probably necessary to make a proper call on it. His advice to Stephen had been to talk with her, put his cards on the table, and see what resulted. Jennifer had always been considerate, kind, and generous. It was hard for him to imagine her being otherwise, but then again, she was her daddy's girl, and she had been his only one for well over forty years. Since that moment, he had tried to picture himself in that position with J.J., but the thought of life without Jennifer had been too painful to even begin to imagine what he would do about J.J. Stephen Edwards had to be up for sainthood.

He arrived at Waverly House just as the elevator opened on the first floor and he had been surprised when Jennifer stepped out followed by J.J. being pushed in a wheelchair by Teddy. The sight of his ever-moving, agile, athletic daughter confined to a wheelchair made his breath catch for a moment. He had to remind himself that it was for the best, and that it was only temporary.

Having been previously introduced to Teddy, he felt there was no further need for formalities. He simply relieved the boy of the wheelchair, and dismissed him to the Quad to attend the ice cream social which had already begun. Letting Jennifer know that her father wanted to see her, he had wheeled J.J. into the common room where they sat talking.

"Daddy, were you mad at me for going off this morning without asking?" She asked.

"I can't say I was mad about it, but you really should have asked. It probably wouldn't have changed what happened unless your mother had told you that you couldn't go and you had gone to breakfast instead. But you know that you should have gotten permission before you just took off like that. Using that loophole theory again?"

She nodded. "Don't ask, don't tell. You know how it goes, but believe me, I'm paying for it." She said, gesturing down to her foot which was supported by the leg lift on the wheelchair. "How long do you think I'll be laid up? Did Dr. Irvine tell you anything?"

"You'll be down for at least a week." He answered. "That's why you're going to Maryland from here to stay at your grandfather's for that week."

J.J.'s eyes grew wide in disbelief.

"To Briarwood? To Pa's! Why? How come I can't just go home?" She reached out and grabbed her father's arm. "I real-l-l-ly don't want to go there. My summer is getting all used up, Daddy. Can't I just go home and be sick in the company of my friends? I'll rest. I'll listen. I'll do what I'm supposed to do. I promise."

"No, you won't." He asserted firmly. "I know you. At your grandfather's, there's nothing for you to do except do what you're supposed to do. I've already arranged for more tests on Monday and for a physical therapist to come out and work with you during the week."

"Awwwwww, Daddy!" She whined.

 He continued, "No Tommy, no Charmaine, Deon, or Nikki; no Philly and Hector, no constantly ringing telephone, no trying to limp down to the pool, no tennis or basketball courts, no Chance or Chase and that car that they'll try to prop you up in to have you all around LA while I'm at work or as soon as your mother steps away for a moment; no chasing after Third, no sneaking up and down the steps hopping on one foot, no trying to skate before you're ready- none of that. That ankle will have a chance to heal properly without further injury from you so that you'll be ready for track in the fall when school starts back. Like you said, you don't have that long."

J.J., ever astute, picked up on an omission. "You didn't say no Marnie. What's the story on Marnie?"

He had to chuckle. She was always so sharp, and that tickled him to no end. "If she wants to," He answered. "She can go with you to your grandfather's for the week. Your mother will have to shop for more things for you, and I'm sure that Marnie won't mind going with her and picking up a few things for herself to make do until you two get back home next Sunday."

"I guess I won't die all the way, then. Marnie's going to Pa's whether she wants to or not. It's two for one and she knows it. She owes me from the sleepover anyway. She got me way in Dutch on that one, calling all those people up and inviting them over. Wait! Is my mother is going to be there at Briarwood too?"

"If everything works out like I think it will."

"Everything like what?" She asked, diverted from whining about her mother's extremely attentive presence with her being physically unable to escape when she felt the need to get out from under it.

"Wait and watch." He answered.

The cell phone rang, and Pat rolled away from Bill's warm body to answer it.
 

Before he and Jonathan flew out of Nevada where Jonathan had flown in to pick him up, Bill had been lucky enough to book the last unoccupied room at the Gresham Inn. It just happened to be the one next to the room she and Jennifer had shared the night before. Leaving Jennifer, Jonathan, Stephen and the Dean on the walkway leading up to the Dean's residence, they had wasted no time in breaking it in.

It was Jennifer was calling.

"Where are you?"

Pat yawned and stretched, causing Bill to stir beside her. She patted his cheek gently and he smiled in his sleep.

"I'm where you would be if your father wasn't here and J.J. hadn't gone and gotten herself busted up." She answered, speaking softly not wanting to wake Bill. "Have you had a chance to talk to Stephen and find out what's going on?"

"No, not yet. I just left Waverly."

 Listen, I had a thought after I left you. Maybe you should get with Eva first. She's the class historian, and she's the one who mentioned at the program about finding the things out about that he had done for Gresham. Maybe she can shed some light on what's been going on between him and the Dean as well. You know how close mouthed and discreet she is. If she found out anything about them while she was doing her other research, she'd be keeping it to herself. She wouldn't breathe a word of it to anyone, but she'd tell you if you asked. Whatever she might be able to tell you about any of it will at least give you some frame of reference to work with and maybe validate your perceptions when you go to talk to him. I know it's hit you between the eyes to know that they were personal friends. You don't think-"

"I don't know what to think." Jennifer quickly concluded. "Go see Eva, hmmmm,... that might not be a bad idea. I was just on my way to see my father when I phoned you; he's sent for me, you know. I think he wants to tell me something. But in light of what you just said, I think I'll make a little side trip over to Wimberly House first. Eva's probably still over there with Angela. That's where she was headed after the presentation. It might be that he just wants to talk, but I probably do need to be prepared for whatever might be on his mind. But listen Pat, what I really called you for was to give you the latest scoop I've come across."

Immediately interested, Pat sat up. "What is it?"

She had never been one to turn down a good story or a ripe piece of gossip, especially when it came from a reliable source. Jennifer never told tales out of school. When she passed a story along, she had checked it out and knew it to be the real thing.

"Did you happen to pay much attention to J.J.'s little friend, Teddy, last night?"

Pat thought about it. "No." She finally answered. "I was too damned mad at Marnie, too wound up about J.J., and too full of that bourbon at the time to focus on anybody other than my intended targets. What about him?"

"I met him today. His name is Theodore Martin Baxter, a Brookfield boy. He happens also to be a Theodore Junior. That would make his father, Theodore Martin Baxter, Senior, wouldn't you think?"

"Oh, shit." Pat whispered.

"Oh, yes. His father went to Brookfield. He was in the class ahead of us. Editor of the Brookfield Press, class president, captain of the football team, and all around gorgeous hunk. You know, just like your "Teddy Bear" Baxter. You remember, Prom Night Teddy Bear Baxter? In and Out of the Window at Will, Teddy Bear Baxter?"

Pat covered her mouth. "Oh no, Jen, say it isn't so."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Patty. I've done my homework- quickly and thoroughly, like always. It seems that my daughter's handsome little friend is the son of the man who has your cherry in his back pocket. Isn't it a small world, Patricia? I told you then about doing domestic guys. Me, I went for the import. He at least had the good manners to go back home to London and not turn back up in any closet of mine. Your skeletons are rattling, Pat. Can't you just hear them? ...just crying, calling for you to let them out to meet J.J."

Pat could almost see Jennifer smiling that huge, teasing smile on the other end of the telephone. "I know you didn't say anything to the Squirt about it, did you?" She inquired, almost pleading.

"That's not my style." Jennifer assured her. "That's the kind of thing you and J.J. do. It's still our little secret, but it's a hum dinger of a secret, isn't it? Now, when J.J.'s a little older, all bets might have to be off on this one. I don't think I'll be able to help it, this is just too good. I really hope I can hold out that long."

"Yeah, well, you just better be glad that J.J.'s gotten herself laid up with that bum ankle." Pat declared, planning to go for payback. "If Junior's anywhere near as smooth and sexy as his father was,  you'd have to be worried about her being laid up somewhere with him before the weekend played itself out."

"Not to worry. J.J.'s father is here." Jennifer countered. "It turns out he and Pa had planned to be here all along. Jonathan and Bill had arranged to get Pa here for the Dean. But what were they thinking when they said they hadn't planned to stay overnight until J.J. called to say that she was hurt? Like we would have let them go back just like that. Can you believe my father staying overnight at the Dean's residence?"

"Where's he going to sleep over there?" Pat asked. "My God, aren't they both in their eighties?"

"I don't want to think about it." Jennifer answered, shuddering at the thought that forced its way into her mind..

"Has Jonathan gone over to Waverly to see J.J. yet? Hey, what if he goes over there and finds her sitting with Teddy who's sneaked in again? I know he sneaks in, just like his father used to do."

"Please," Jennifer scoffed. "Jonathan's there, the boy was too, legitimately so, but Jonathan's already put him out of Waverly. As soon as he got there and saw Teddy there with J.J., he sent him back outdoors to the Quad. If the young man had any plans, bum ankle or no, innocent or otherwise, Jonathan has squashed all of that for the time being. "

"Well, I'm just saying, Jennifer, judging from the way things were looking, her being missing time and again, that scenario was not outside the realm of possibility, I don't care how mature and reserved you say she is. Sometimes it's more than any girl's will can take. Hell, I should know. And speaking of that, I have to go now, Jennifer. I have things and a big handsome man to do." Pat stopped and sighed. "I'll just be damned. Do I have some rotten luck or what? If this doesn't beat all..."

Jennifer laughed. "I'll get back to you later, I guess, after I talk with Pa. That is, if you're still conscious or have any voice left by then."

Stephen Edwards sat alone in the Dean's front room sipping from a glass of wine while continuing to watch the young people out on the Quad, and enjoying a rare cigar. It pleased him that Agnes allowed him that indulgence without fussing over him about his health. She had gone in to see how dinner was coming along in the kitchen, and to allow him privacy with Jennifer once she arrived.

As always, he was looking forward to talking with her even though the subject matter at hand gave him pause for concern. Although she called several times a week and visited several times a year, he didn't get to see his daughter nearly as often as he would have liked. His heart condition had severely limited his ability to travel anywhere, and her hectic schedule and lifestyle dictated to the frequency of her visits to Maryland. Any time he got to spend with her face-to-face was good time.

Jennifer. He loved her so.

As Agnes reminded him, he hadn't ever told her about his nearly lifelong friendship with Agnes Marchand, even after all the years that she had been gone from the campus of Gresham Hall. He had never explained to her his reasons for sending her there even though he knew that for years she had harbored an intense, deep-seated anger toward him for doing so. As a boy, he had been reared in an atmosphere where children were to be seen and not heard, where explanations weren't necessary, and what an adult decreed was how it went for the child. Jennifer had, in many, many ways shown him the folly in that line of thinking. Over the years, she had gradually changed his perception of her as his child. He had come to regard her as a person unto herself, separate from him, long before she became an adult, which is what he discovered her mother had begun from infancy raising her to be. But still he had never told her why things were what they were. Old habits were hard to break.

And Suzanne.

She had been his all. There had been others before her who were interested in him, but as a young man, pursuing life had taken precedence over romance. The closest he had come to even being a little more than fond of a girl had been Agnes Marchand, but she too had chosen to follow her dreams rather than her heart.

After Suzanne, there had been no one to come along who even came close to what she had been to him.

They had met in Paris, and actually it was her sister, Sabrina, whom he'd met first. Their school had brought a group of girls over to visit the Louvre, where he happened to have been assigned to complete a bit of research. He was just returned from a tour of duty, and was relishing the peace of working at a desk in the small room off a main hall. Drawn by something, he looked up to find a most captivating pair of hazel-coloured eyes peeking in at him from the open doorway. They belonged to a pretty, rosy cheeked, freckled face that was topped off by a mane of thick, dark red hair.

She smiled and waved in at him when their eyes met. He had been forced to smile back, knowing that she was just a young school girl, much too young to be flirting with him, but amusing still in her brazen coquettishness. Suddenly, she was joined by an identical face, an identical head of thick, red hair that also reached to her waist. Quite obviously this was her sister, who began scolding her for her behavior.

"I'm sorry." She apologized to him from the doorway. "For my sister. She is much too bold for her own good."

"I know what I like," The first one retorted before she was pulled away. "and unlike you, I am not afraid to say as much."

That had been his first encounter with the Roussel twins.

His second had been two days later on his way home to his apartment after a day's work at the museum. He had just exited the building when he came upon one of the girls sitting on the front steps. At the time, he hadn't been able to tell which one; he hadn't gotten either of their names, but she looked so upset that he stopped to see if he could be of assistance.

After introducing himself to her, she told him that she was Suzanne Simone Roussel, and she couldn't find her sister, Sabrina. They were held accountable for each other by their parents, she told him, and she couldn't go home without her. Thinking that Sabrina had stolen away to come to the museum for a return visit with him, Suzanne had come there looking for her. She had arrived too late, and the doors had been closed for the day, so she had taken a seat on the stairs to think which was where he had found her.

They talked, and she told him about herself. She and her sister were sixteen and as he clearly could see, identical twins. They were from the south of France, in Paris on an educational holiday with their school. Their parents had come along as chaperones, and they were all residing in one of the local hotels. They would be in Paris for a week.

When he asked her if she had any idea where else Sabrina might have gone, she said that she didn't, but she recalled that a man had stopped her at a point when she hadn't been with Sabrina on their earlier museum visit, the one when they'd first met. He said that he was an artist and that he wanted her to sit for him. He had offered her a large sum of money to do so, but he wanted to paint her in the nude. Suspecting him of more sinister intent, she had turned him down. But when she told her sister of it, Sabrina determined that she would go in her place and wouldn't be talked out of it. Sabrina, Suzanne said, had always been the fearless, adventurous, impetuous one.

From her pocket, she pulled a card the artist had given her, in case she changed her mind. It contained the name and address of the man. Being unfamiliar with Paris, she had no idea where to look. But he did. Not only did he know the address; he knew the artist. He was a serious painter with an eye for spotting interesting women as subjects for his work. The Roussel girls, in their fiery, rosy beauty, looked somewhat older than sixteen if one weren't looking closely, and Suzanne with her refined, reserved manner, seemed much older than the more casual, flirtatious, outgoing Sabrina.

Together they had gone to the artist's loft, where indeed, they found Sabrina sitting, to his great embarrassment, in all her glory for the portrait. Even though he disapproved of what she was doing, every day after that Stephen, having found out what time her sittings were, would linger outside the loft waiting with Suzanne for Sabrina to emerge. When she did, he would question her about what happened inside. Was it more than just painting that was going on?

 Sabrina had been amused and touched by his concern, but she assured him that despite her comfort at sitting in the nude to be painted, she was still a "good" girl otherwise and would remain so until she decided to be otherwise. For some reason, he believed that she was and would. As young as she had been, Sabrina was quite self-assured.

It had been Sabrina who initially drew his attention, but in the end it was Suzanne to whom he found himself drawn. In those late afternoons waiting with her for her sister, he had come to greatly enjoy her company. He was twenty-one, and she was just sixteen, but almost overnight he found  himself totally taken with her. She was intelligent, and quite mature beyond her years in her outlook on life. He found her deep, loving concern for her minutes-younger sister endearing. Their father, a wealthy landowner, was big on education and fond of traveling with his wife and daughters, and as a result Suzanne had been quite worldly in her perspectives, which suited him perfectly. There was a gentleness about her, a very feminine softness, while at the same time, he could sense her personal strength and confidence. In a very short time after that first real meeting, she and Sabrina; although they were identical to most eyes, became very different people in his.

It was on their fourth meeting that Suzanne invited him to meet her father in the lobby of the hotel in which her family had been staying during their visit. She had told her father that she had met someone, someone older, and he had urged her to bring her young man to see him. The realization that she was not a girl to lie or to sneak around behind her father's back with an older young man furthered his regard for her. Henri Roussel, in his wisdom, did not try to discourage the relationship despite the disparity in their ages. By that time, he and Suzanne were both deeply enamored of each other, and Henri's disapproval probably wouldn't have stopped anything.

But the older man did take him aside that evening, after sending his daughter up to their suite, and he let him know in no uncertain terms that if he found out that his daughter had been compromised in any way, he would just, plainly and simply, kill him.

It would be some years later before he found out that Simone Roussel, the girls' equally lovely mother, was ten years younger than her husband, and they too had met when she was rather young.

After their week in Paris was over, (and Sabrina had finished her secret sitting) Suzanne and the Roussel family returned to Perpignan where they had a large home and acres of land where the girls and their parents raised the horses they so loved. Despite the distance and his continuing travels around the world, the romance continued. He went to see Suzanne as often as he could, and they corresponded by letter almost daily.

As soon as Suzanne was graduated from school, much to her father's relief, they were married in a lavish ceremony on the family's estate. Their wedding night was still a precious memory for him. He had been her first lover, and he could still recall the tender moments spent that night with her in his arms. 

For the next year, almost two, they traveled the world together as he worked in the galleries, and she  continued her education. She studied languages, and was fluent in several. After a time, they decided to take part of his trust and part of her father's endowment to her to build a home. They made the decision to build it in America. They wanted a place of their own to which they could always come when they were done with a journey. Suzanne wanted room to raise horses, and he needed to be close to Washington, D.C. with his work, so they purchased several lush acres in a small town in the state of Maryland upon which to build.

The main house and the stables were just about complete when Suzanne discovered that she was pregnant. For her, the nesting instinct took over and she told him that she wanted to remain home to have the baby and to raise it. It was her desire for their American child to have roots, neighbors, friends, one school, family- the sensibility of which he could clearly see, although he would miss the company of his lovely, exciting partner. As a child, he had been raised in that secure manner, and he wanted the same for his child, but for him the work he was doing in the world had to continue.

Their daughter was born in their new home while he was away in Italy. She had come earlier than they had anticipated, catching him off schedule. Her birth had been difficult, so much so that the doctor speculated that there would be no other children. It was regretful, but it was a situation that he could accept. As long as they had that one baby, he was content that with his frequent absences the youthful Suzanne would not be tied to a house full of children.

When he finally arrived in Maryland, racing across an ocean to get there as quickly as he could, he fully expected to find a sickly baby and an exhausted, ill wife. Instead he came home to little Jennifer Justine Edwards who was tiny, but  healthy, safe, and secure in the capable hands of her just-turned-twenty-year-old mother. Despite the difficult labor and delivery, by the time he made it back to American soil, Suzanne was once again on her feet and caring for her own child, leaving the nurse he hired for her with very little to do.

She remained an excellent mother. He provided her with household, kitchen, and personal help so she could be free to care for Jennifer and to do the things she enjoyed doing. No matter where he had to be in the world, he could rest with the assurance that his child was being well cared for by the woman he loved, the woman who just happened to be the child's mother. For the next twelve years, Jennifer would be their only child and the apple of Suzanne's (and Sabrina's) eye.

In appearance everything about her was Suzanne, including the freckles, coloring, and the long, thick red hair, but she had inherited his expressive brown eyes. Suzanne, a fashionable young woman herself, always kept Jennifer immaculately dressed in beautiful French or otherwise European outfits sent to her via Sabrina, who was enjoying being the toast of Paris while maintaining her principle residence in Perpignan.

Shortly after she started walking, Suzanne started Jennifer riding horses. By age three, she was entering equestrian events, and at age five she won her first ribbon. She danced the ballet, played piano, enjoyed singing in the school's choir, and was a star pupil academically. She swam and excelled in team sports, although her mother tended to try to play down that interest in her. Suzanne often took her to plays, concerts, and operas, which they both enjoyed immensely. When he came home from his travels, his daughter would be eagerly waiting to show him her numerous trophies and awards earned for her many talents and successful efforts, and to tell him of her travels to New York, Washington, Virginia, and places along the east coast with her mother. Every time he went away and came back, she had grown some physically and mentally. As time passed, he could see that even though she tended to sometimes be a little tomboyish in her interests, under her mother's guidance, Jennifer was growing up to be a fine, genteel, intelligent young lady.

Then, when Jennifer had just turned twelve, Suzanne called him in London to tell him that she was pregnant again. It had been nothing short of a happy miracle that another child was coming after all that time. Instantly he had hoped for a son. He loved his daughter, but every man wanted a son, he'd felt at the time. They decided to wait and tell Jennifer about the baby when they were together, when he was home again.

He had only been back from  London one day. The next night they would take Jennifer to dinner and they would tell her about her new brother or sister.

It never happened.

Suzanne had been killed early the next morning on her way back home from taking Jennifer to school, something she insisted upon doing every day even though the school bus would have picked her up and dropped her off at the end of the driveway. Neither he nor Jennifer got to say goodbye to her. Years later, Jennifer told him  that when her mother had dropped her off at school, she got out of the car telling her that she would see her later. He had been asleep, recovering from his trip abroad, when they left that morning, and he remembered her kissing him saying that she would be right back. He had always been grateful for having made love with her the night before. With her being newly pregnant, he had been hesitant to do so,  but she had insisted that all would be fine. He remembered it to be one of their most wondrous times together.

He never told Jennifer about the baby. There had been no need to add to her sorrow and loss.

There were difficult days leading up to and following Suzanne's funeral. Actually, there had been two services; one held in Hillhaven for the many friends they had accumulated in their years in the States. Then he and Jennifer had accompanied her body back to Perpignan where Suzanne's life was celebrated in a graveside ceremony which had been lovingly coordinated by Sabrina. Finally, she was buried in a small cemetery next to their parents who had passed on a few years before.

During that visit, his decades-old stand-off with Sabrina had come about. It started with his not wanting Jennifer to attend that service at the cemetery, thinking it would be too painful and confusing for such a young girl. Sabrina, on the other hand, insisted that Jennifer needed to see exactly where her mother was being laid to rest. They had argued bitterly over it, and it had been Jennifer who finally settled it for them. She walked into the room taking Sabrina by the hand to stand next to her as if they were a united front. She boldly informed him that she was going to see the place in which they would be leaving her mother for the very last time. It wasn't until then that he realized Jennifer understood that death was final.

 As he sat that day looking at the two of them together, he knew that he could not leave Jennifer with Sabrina as he had been tempted to do. Sabrina looked far too much like Suzanne, which left Jennifer looking far too much like Sabrina. He and Jennifer needed to make the clean break physically as well as emotionally. Jennifer was comfortable with Sabrina and they would have been a great source of comfort to each other, but together, even though it might not have been intentional, they would have shut him out completely.

To further his decision, he realized that however much they looked alike, Sabrina was nothing like Suzanne in disposition. Suzanne had been grounded and content with her role as his wife and mother to their child while she continued to pursue her own interests. Sabrina was wealthy, beautiful, and happily unencumbered. She harbored no plans to ever marry or bear children. Jennifer, she'd  stated over the years, was all the child she needed, and monogamy, she often asserted, had not been not designed for her. He considered his hedonistic sister-in-law to be a  basically decent person, but she was far too unconventional a woman for the times and for his liking. Far too much so to be raising his Jennifer on an every day basis. His wish was for Jennifer to grow up to be the type of woman her mother had been.

And so, much to Sabrina's loudly voiced disapproval, and to Jennifer's supreme disappointment, he took his daughter back to the States with him when he returned home.

From that day to the present, Sabrina had never spoken to him directly. She had retained her grudge even though he continued to allow Jennifer to communicate freely with her and to visit her for two weeks every summer just as she had done when her mother had been living. As far as he was concerned, it was just as well that Sabrina removed herself from his life. It was bad enough that Jennifer looked so much like her mother. To have to look upon and interact with Sabrina on a regular basis would have been more than he could bear. Sabrina's continuing disdain for him over the years in the matter of Jennifer had actually turned into a great convenience.

His initial plan had been to quit working all over the world and remain in the States to raise his child. He made plans to shut down his interests around the globe and to concentrate his attentions on his operations in Washington, D.C. What he hadn't counted upon was Jennifer wanting nothing to do with him. What she desired was what she could never have again, her mother. She stopped eating, she stopped talking, and she acted as if she heard nothing that was said to her. She also stopped going to school. He would take her in the mornings, but she wouldn't stay, somehow managing to slip away and make her way back home to hide in the stables until the school officials would alert him to her absence, or one of the stable hands would find her and come to tell him that she was there.

Despite talking to her, warning her, and even going so far as threatening her, he couldn't get her to do anything. No matter how early he rose on the weekends, she would already be gone, off riding the grounds on her horse, Sweet Sue. She would stay away for hours at a time, often until he came looking for her. In two weeks time, after their return from France, she was as thin as a rail, sallow, and stubbornly silent. Then she took to sleeping for long periods of time. It was depression and he was desperate to help her, but he didn't how to go about it. He had no knowledge of what to do with a little girl, a little girl who would soon be a young woman, a little girl who wouldn't talk to him, a little girl so hauntingly like her mother. It was as if the biological connection was that was left between them.

Finally, at his wit's end, he called upon his old friend, Agnes Marchand who was head mistress at a prestigious girls' school in Massachusetts.
 

"Stephen, hasn't she come yet?" Agnes had stuck her head into the door to where he still sat alone in front of the window with his drink and his cigar.

"No, but I imagine she couldn't just tear herself away from Jonathan right off." He answered, wondering himself what else it could be that might be keeping her. She almost never made him wait for anything when they were anywhere together. "They're still so much in love. She'll be along presently, I'm sure."

"I'm going up to get changed. You feel free to make yourself at home." She offered before ducking back out.

He settled down into his chair and eased back into his thoughts.

"How ever did you find all of these things?" Jennifer asked Eva as she sat across from her at a small corner table in the Gresham Hall archives room in the basement of the Main Hall where Eva had brought them after leaving Wimberly House.

"Copious research" Eva smiled. "You and I were-"

"-famous for it" Jennifer smiled back. "I never would have known. I never once suspected."

Piled in front of her were documents, envelopes of receipts, old ledgers, pictures- all of which dated back over a span of over forty years, most of it before records had begun to be kept by computers.

"You didn't have a reason to, Jennifer." Eva said as she watched her friend sift through the papers, many of them yellowed with age. "As far as you knew, this was just the place where you got sent to go to school. I wouldn't have known either if I hadn't had to do the research to find out what all Dean Marchand had contributed to the school for my speech at the retirement presentation. That's when I found out the things about your father and your husband. You are connected to two really special guys, Jen."

Jennifer nodded. She had always known that Jonathan was generous and thoughtful, so what Eva had found out about him had not really surprised her. But all the things about Pa. Why hadn't he ever said anything?

All those years spent in anger...

He had known Dean Marchand almost all of his life, and yet he hadn't said a word to her about it in all those years . Why hadn't he told her? All those years, Dean Marchand knew exactly whose daughter she was. Yet she had never let on either. And Miss Smythe. Although she, her father, and the Dean all shared the same accent and speech patterns, and as astute as she was in that area, it had never occurred to her to even question it.

 The stables, the infirmary, the houses, the lower school and underclass dorms, the mainframe, the intranet system, the computers and all technical equipment... nobody had said anything. It had all just been done. Why?

What was it her father wanted to say to her now?

Whatever it was, and despite all she was learning, she wasn't sure that she was ready to hear it. 

With her father gone, having stated that he was tired and returning to the inn, J.J. maneuvered the wheelchair over to the window in order to be able to lean on the sill to watch the soccer game in progress on the lawn outside. Off on the other side, where she couldn't see out to, she could hear the jazz band performing. On her side, Josh and Frank were playing in the game, but she didn't see Teddy. Marnie was sitting at a nearby picnic table with Madison, Dee and the others, as well as several of the Brookfield boys, but as she swung one bare leg to the beat of the music, her eyes were focused on the male action on the field. Marnie Benson was on the scent and J.J. figured Josh was her intended target for the evening. All of them outside would be having their dinner catered on the lawn and dessert would be the ice cream.

The windows were closed because of the air conditioning, so it wasn't as if she could even talk to anybody. She could see out, but they couldn't see in to her. She wanted to be with them, especially with the live band, but she knew that was out of the question. Her father had told her to stay put, and this time she would. The ankle was throbbing, the way injuries did as night approached, and that made her want to keep still.

Realizing how tired she was behind everything that had happened that day, she propped her elbow on the padded arm of the chair, slumped down a bit, and rested her cheek in her hand to drift off to sleep.

She was just about gone when she heard a newly familiar voice ask through the haze, "Aren't you going to eat before you get taken up to bed? I don't want you hungry like last night."

Opening her eyes and looking up, she found Teddy standing over her carrying a huge covered dinner tray.

 "Since you couldn't come out to dinner, I brought dinner in to you. I saw your father leave, so I knew the coast was clear."

"I swear you have some genie in you, Teddy!" She happily cried. "You just keep popping up out of no where."

Then she leaned over the arm of the chair to peer down at his feet.

"What are you looking at?" He asked, looking down too.

"I'm looking for the puff of smoke that should be coming up from around and under your feet. How come you aren't playing out there on the Green? I was watching the game, but I didn't see you. You look like you play."

"I do play." He said as he set the tray on the table and came to get her to wheel her over to it. "But I wasn't going out there this afternoon and getting all sweaty. Then I wouldn't have been able to come in here and have dinner with you. I just waited your Dad out, then I came in and talked Miss Smythe into letting me come in and keep you company. She said we had to leave the door open, though What's that all about?"

"You know how they think." J.J. said taking the cover off their food and handing him his place setting. "Like because we're teenagers, all we think about is closing up with each other and jumping each other's bones." She caught herself, and then looked up at him realizing that he might not know how to take her. "I'm sorry. I can be awfully blunt. It's just not in my nature to beat around the bush about things."

He laughed. "You're okay with me, J.J. I like people who cut to the chase."

"Then you'll be crazy about me." She told him.

Still watching out of the window at the young people on the Quad, Stephen's mind drifted back once again to those long ago days.

He had reluctantly enrolled Jennifer in Gresham Hall after bringing her to tour the campus. By that time, she had stopped speaking to him or acknowledging his presence at all. She had been a tiny thing with a will of iron, and she had been so angry with the world. At Agnes' gentle urging, he signed the paperwork and left her sitting on the side of a bed in the best suite of one of the finest residences on the campus, #1 Waverly House. He got back to the car and broke down in tears as his gentleman's gentleman, Walter drove him back to Hillhaven, where they shut down the house and left for an extended stay in Europe.

His little family had fallen apart.

For the next three months, the remainder of the school year, Jennifer refused his calls and would not answer his letters. The only news he had of her came from Agnes, who said that she was academically gifted, but remained quiet and withdrawn with the adults around her. She had, however, again according to Agnes, fit in well with her peers in Waverly and in her classes, particularly with one Patricia Rose Hamilton of the Southampton, NY Hamiltons. He was glad of that. Surely a girl from that background would be a positive influence on his own.

At the end of the term, he arrived to pick her up to take her home for the summer. Actually, his plan had been to take her to London and then to Cairo with him during the summer months. But she was so cold and defiantly distant that the first leg of the trip, London, had been miserable. He ended up sending her on to Perpignan to spend the rest of the time with Sabrina. 

He called, he wrote and while there, Jennifer would take his calls and answer his letters, but he could tell from her terseness and brevity, and from her refusal to speak English, that she was only communicating with him at Sabrina's urging.

Finally, toward the end of that first summer, he received a letter in his office in Cairo. It was written in Sabrina's hand on her distinctive stationery. Opening it, he found the most profound message of his life.

Although she was fairly fluent in the language, Sabrina had rarely spoken English with him, and he had never seen her write it. However, she had written that message clearly and precisely, in her best English, as if she wanted no misunderstanding, and for nothing at all to be lost in the interpretation:

"You said that you were taking her home to be with you because you were her father. So why is my niece able to be bossing you?

Be her father and make her pay mind to you, or give her forever to me. Your weak behavior is making her a brat (bad girl?) with you. My sister would not appreciate what you are letting her do with you. The choice and the challenge are for you if you are a man enough to accept them.

Who is adult? You or Jennifer? My beautiful sister is dead. I regret you have no wife, but you have still a little daughter.

Grow a spine, you selfish bastard. You weep for Suzanne and let Jennifer do bad things because you are sad. You must raise your daughter. You are her father and she is to listen to you, not to tell you what is she not going to do. She is a confused, sad girl who has lost her mother. She needs her father now to be a strong man.

 She needs you more than before to be her Papa now.

God bless you,
Sabrina

Her Papa. That was how she took to calling him, "Pa". He had always been her Papa. When had he stopped?

Immediately upon reading that note, he phoned Perpignan and instructed Sabrina's housekeeper to pack Jennifer's things, and he flew out the next day to fetch her. He arrived to find her alone in her room at Sabrina's house, stone-faced and rigid.

Without a word, he walked up to her, gathered her in his arms and held her there in a way that he hadn't done since she had been very small. He held on to her through her struggling to get away from him until she tired, went limp in his arms, and began to sob in rage and sorrow.

It was the first time that he had known her to cry in all the time that her mother had been gone. It was certainly the first time that she had cried with him, the first time that she let him know how she truly felt about what had happened.

She screamed that she hated the drunk who killed her mother, and that she hated him for not being the one to die. He was gone all the time anyway, she screamed at him through her tears. Her mother had been the one to be there with her all of her life. She wanted her mother back.

While still holding on tightly to her, he told her that he knew that she hated him, and that he would give up his own life if he thought it would bring her mother back to her, but it wouldn't. She was gone from them, and despite how she felt about him, he still loved her. He told her that they were all each other had, and that they would just have to make do. There was no way to change what had happened. They had to work with what was.

He looked up to at that point to find Sabrina standing in the doorway watching them, looking so frightfully like Suzanne that he was at first startled. She was nodding her head like Suzanne would have done to let him know that he was doing just fine. Then she turned and left the door, and he didn't see her again. She kept to her room until they were gone.

In the ensuing years, when she came to America to visit, Sabrina would go directly to see Jennifer at school,  or in New York, Los Angeles, or wherever she was in the States. When he was in France, he never looked her up or called. At Christmas and on their birthdays, they exchanged cards. He would send her pictures of Jennifer as she was growing up, but that had been the extent of their communication for all those many years. Since that day in the bedroom, he had only seen Sabrina in the flesh one other time. That was when she attended Jennifer's wedding. Even then, although they put on cordial faces for the public, they hadn't exchanged a single word. Except for the time spent in the church, where they sat side-by-side, and for the pictures that were taken, they maintained their respectful distances from one another.

But he had always kept that note Sabrina had written to him in his billfold. It was now worn and taped in several places from where it had begun to tear in the folds, but still he carried it. Despite their stand-off, he would be forever grateful to her for her intervention. That had been an entirely selfless act on her part. It would have been quite easy for her to try to talk him into leaving Jennifer with her. She was very fond of her and would have gladly taken her in to raise her in France, and with the state of affairs being what they had been, he might have done it had she not challenged him in that manner. Despite all of what he saw as her flaws, he knew Sabrina to have a good and decent heart.

That had been the beginning of the healing between he and Jennifer, and it took a few more years before that bond of mutual trust and respect they had come to share was firmly established. His hope had been that his old and dear friend, Agnes, and Jennifer might bond in some way, but it had never happened. Jennifer would never again see another woman in her life as a mother figure, not even Sabrina. 

It was a strange thing to watch it unfold before him a second time, and it was gratifying to know their closeness, but he could see the same thing developing with his granddaughter. Should something, God forbid, ever happen to Jennifer, he doubted that Justine would ever accept a surrogate of any sort. Like her mother, Justine would be finished with that part of her life, and she would go on to finish raising herself upon the foundation which her own mother, Jennifer, had begun.

Jennifer's second school year at Gresham Hall brought about the solidifying of her friendship with Patricia. Patricia's family was old money, but very negligent in terms of nurturing and guiding her. Her mother was deceased and  her playboy father was frequently absent. She was wild, and Jennifer reveled in it. Together they were outrageous. Agnes frequently had to call to report their behavior to him. Sometimes she'd even had to go so far as to send for him. 

She suspended them the time she caught Jennifer smoking- his cigars, no less, in the window of their room in Waverly House. Jennifer had the window open, allowing the smoke to be drawn outside, while inadvertently drawing Agnes' attention at the same time as she took her evening walk on the Quad. Then there was the time he had to fly in from Barcelona when Patricia was caught necking in the stables with a Gresham Hall boy while Jennifer acted as lookout. She had nearly set the stable afire when she accidentally dropped the cigarette she had been smoking into a pile of straw when she saw the Dean coming. While trying to alert Patricia and her friend, she hadn't quite been able to stomp the butt all the way out and the straw began to quickly smolder. It took the three culprits and Agnes to put it out.

Agnes had been unable to contact Patricia's father for that one, and that had been the beginning of his having to check on two "daughters". When they returned from their banishment, Jennifer and Patricia had stable duty for the rest of that term.

There had been a second suspension, the time they practically blew up the chemistry lab. The resulting fire had damaged much of the equipment in the room, and he and Patricia's father were required to pay for it all. He'd "punished" Jennifer by making her stay with him that summer and working rather than traveling to be with Sabrina as he had been allowing her to do every summer. On top of that, he told her that she would have to sever her friendship with Patricia. There had been far too much trouble in those four years.

That hadn't worked out too well on any front. That was the summer that he had to be all over the world, and Jennifer was right with him, but enjoying every moment. Traveling together had been the major element to facilitate bringing them together. It seemed his passion for far-off places had been reborn in his child. He loved showing and teaching her things, and much to his satisfaction, she was an extremely quick study and an able, eager globetrotter. Like him, she was a meticulous researcher, often helping him dig through files and archives for information he sought. They soon discovered that she was a prodigy with languages, an ability she must have inherited from her mother. After a short time, she was so adept that she was translating several different languages for him and his work in the galleries.

The year that Jennifer and Pat were sixteen, their junior year, Agnes arranged at the beginning of the fall semester for Patricia to be moved across the Quad to Wimberly House. He sent Jennifer back to school, strictly forbidding her to have anything to do with Patricia. A week into that first semester, he'd called Agnes to check on the situation. She dutifully reported that she had looked out of her window that first day to see the two of them run to each other and heartily embrace in the middle of the Quad, only to walk off together arm-in-arm. Later that same night, she had personally broken up a hair, nails, and card party in Waverly where Pat and the 'good' girls from Wimberly, Midge and Georgette, had sneaked across the Quad to join Jennifer, Eva, and their girls in Suite #1.

 It had been a losing proposition from the start. Switching roomies, switching houses; none of it had helped. They simply corrupted everyone with whom they came into contact. For the rest of their time at Gresham, Wimberly and Waverly Houses were the places to be for the students, and the places to raid for the staff.

Agnes had tried her best, and he was grateful for the watchful eye she kept on Jennifer over those six years. Agnes Marchand, although Jennifer never took to her as he would have liked, did manage to gain her attention and respect, and she had gotten her ear; which was what she needed, a fact to which she had alluded in her speech earlier that afternoon in the auditorium. She kept both Jennifer and Patricia on track academically, if not socially, never allowing them to neglect their studies in any way, and it had paid off. She had even imported a personal monitor for Jennifer, once it was established that she would be in attendance. She'd sent to Wales for her younger half-sister, Belinda Smythe, whom she installed in Waverly as house mother, but specifically as an extra set of eyes and nurturing hands for Jennifer. He sometimes got the feeling that Belinda Smythe had been corrupted to some extent as well, seeing and not seeing some things when it came to Jennifer and Patricia. He was fairly certain that there were plenty of in-house secrets that had never been revealed to him or to Agnes, but Belinda never seemed to let things go too far on her watch without either handling it herself or reporting them.

 Jennifer and Patricia had arrived at Gresham Hall as lost and confused little girls, and they had gone on from there to become successful, accomplished women. He felt that he owed a debt of gratitude that would never be paid in full. What he was proposing was his attempt to give back some of what had been given. Those two, Agnes and Belinda, would be taken care of for the rest of their days.

He hoped that when Jennifer got there, she would be able to see it that way when he let her know what was on his mind.

"J.J., may I ask you something? Promise you won't get mad at me?"

Teddy had waited until J.J. finished the last of her dinner and had placed her napkin on the table before he worked up the nerve to pose the question that had been eating at him since they'd sat outside talking the night before.

"I guess I owe you big." She sighed in anticipation of his asking something uncomfortable. "You've been nothing but good to me ever since I met you. So go ahead, shoot."

He wiped his mouth with his napkin and then began gathering their dishes to place them back on the tray.

"I want to ask you about Wesley." He said and he immediately saw her almost imperceptibly stiffen. If he hadn't been watching her for that reaction, he might have missed it.

She looked up at him. "Before I answer you, I need to ask you something."

"Go ahead."

"Why do you want to know?" She asked.

He smiled. She was one cagey girl.

"Because he's said all these things about you, about how you and him are practically engaged."

"Engaged?!"

 "Yeah, how his folks and your folks belong to the same country club and how everybody thinks you'd make a good couple and everything. But after talking with you and being out with you; you don't seem like his type at all. You're nothing like I thought you would be after hearing him spout off."

"So what were you thinking about what I would be like? What were you expecting me to be?"

"That you'd be some really pretty, but really top-drawer snooty California socialite. We've heard volumes about all the money your folks have, and all the things you get to do, and the places you've been, but after meeting you,  I've come to the conclusion that he had to be lying about all that. I just can't see you, the real person that you are, with him."

"Is that the only reason you want to know?"

He leaned forward in his chair, clasping his hands in front of him. "J.J., no strings, no hidden agendas. I'm just trying to make sense of things, that's all. I don't like it when things don't add up, so I end up having to do the math. You seem so interesting; I haven't known you long at all, but I like your style already, and I want to know all about you."

She leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes. He couldn't help but marvel at how pretty she was, especially with all that hair loose and hanging down the back of the chair and all over her shoulders. He couldn't think of any girl he had ever met with so much hair. For a moment, Rapunzel came to mind.

Folding her hands on her lap, she seemed to contemplate his question for a minute or so; and when she finally spoke,  she kept her eyes closed.

 "I don't know what he's told you, Teddy, but Wesley is someone I've known all my life. He's older than me, which you already know, so he's known me since I was a baby. Our mothers went here to Gresham Hall together and stayed on the Quad. When I was little, he didn't like me much and he would push me away. I used to pester him about letting me play ball and tennis with him and the other boys at the club and stuff. I was really very good but he would never let me play just because I was a girl. When I got to be like thirteen or so, he started in on me at my birthday party, again just because I was a girl. He's liked me for a while, and he's basically okay with me, but no, I'm not his girl. He has wanted me to be, but I'm not at that place in my life. Wesley just has a hard time taking no for an answer, but I'm afraid that he's going to have to accept it in my case. As we've gotten older, and I've gotten to know myself better, I've come to understand that he isn't my type and he probably won't ever be. Lately I try to avoid him as much as I can so that he can't get the idea that I'm leading him on or anything. Actually, I'm hoping that he'll get over it and leave me be. I really don't know why he pursues me. Everybody who knows me, knows that I don't date anybody at all exclusively yet, so it's nothing personal. I go out with guys occasionally, but I'm not serious about anyone."

A sigh of relief escaped from Teddy's lungs before he could catch it, and he earnestly hoped that she hadn't heard it.

 "Why is that?" he asked when he could get it together. "Is there any particular reason? Are your parents strict about that or something?"

She chuckled. "My father gets a little anal about it at times."

"Yeah," Teddy agreed. "I've already checked that out. He doesn't want anybody too close to you. He and his friend moved me and Josh out of the way up in the balcony. They just came up there and took over. They took our drinks, our seats, the bowl of pretzels, everything. Who was the guy with him, J.?"

"My godfather." J.J. laughed. "Daddy's best friend. His name is Bill McDowell. He owns McDowell Aviation and he came with Daddy to see my Aunt Pat. They're an item."

"What about your mother? Is she funny about it. I couldn't get a fix on her when I came up there to your room and you introduced us. She can eye a guy pretty hard, though. I think she was sizing me up. You look like your mother, but you've got eyes like your father."

"My eyes are just blue like his."

"You look at people like he does. Like you can see through them. That was the first thing I noticed about him up in that balcony, his eyes and  that they were like yours. I knew right off he had to be your father."

He noticed that she smiled a little at that.

"Now my mother," J.J. continued in answer to his earlier question. "She's kind of okay about that sort of thing.  My mother probably wouldn't mind a whole lot, I don't think, if I decided that I wanted to casually date some one person on a regular basis. She doesn't get as bent out of shape as Daddy, and she mostly lets me make my own decisions on that. It's mostly just me who's the hold up. I personally don't want to be bothered with the stuff that goes with being involved with someone on that level. I just want to be me right now, not be somebody else's girl. And I don't know enough about what I want for me to be imposing myself and my needs on somebody else. When you get into dating and all of that, you have to be at least some of what the other person wants or needs you to be. I just don't feel like that. I'm not ready for all of that."

He had been listening to her in wonder. "Aren't you just sixteen?" He asked. "You said your birthday was in May?"

She nodded, eyes still closed.

"Then how'd you get so smart and so sure of yourself at such a young age?"

A contented smile played at her lips, as she answered him as honestly as she could.

"I'm not always as sure about J.J. Hart as I might sound," She said to him, "But I am certain of one thing. I've got a good mother and a good father. That makes all the difference in the world."

-Continue on to Early Saturday Evening-

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