Her Man Friday(46)
Author: Elizabeth Bevarly

"Ah, so you’re an expert on genetic analysis now, is that it, Mrs. Beecham?"

"No, I’m not," she confessed readily.

"You must be an expert on me, then."

She chose her words carefully before speaking. "When Chloe came to Van Meter," she began cautiously, "I, of course, already knew who you were. One would have to have been living in a closet for a decade not to know you. But since meeting Chloe, I’ve read whatever I can find that concerns you. So yes, I suppose you could call me an expert—"

"Or maybe a groupie."

She ignored his interjection and continued, "Chloe may not resemble you in physical features—except for her eyes, of course, which are exactly like yours, Mr. Kimball, something I doubt even you would deny—but her brain is… Astounding. That didn’t come from her mother. It came from you."

"Or some other unsuspecting sap," the billionaire bit off grudgingly. "And by the way, Chloe’s mother wasn’t nearly as brainless as you people seem to want to make her out to be. She could scheme and plot with the best of them."

"But then, we were talking about Chloe, weren’t we?" Caroline continued, refusing to deviate from the course.

The billionaire sighed heavily, though she had no idea how to interpret the sound.

"Would you like to see Chloe’s classroom?" she asked impulsively, wondering what possessed her. After all, Chloe herself was so rarely in the room, it could scarcely be called hers. Still, she was starting to feel a little restless, and walking seemed like a very good idea at the moment. It would prevent her from acting on other impulses that not only made absolutely no sense, but which were totally inappropriate to boot.

"It occurs to me," she went on as she moved back around to the front of her desk, not waiting for a reply from Schuyler Kimball, "that, although Chloe’s just begun her second year here at the Van Meter Academy, you’ve never visited the school, have you?"

"Yes, well, as you pointed out yourself, Mrs. Beecham, I’m not home very often." He lapsed into thoughtful silence for a moment. "I suppose I could pay someone to visit the school for me from time to time…"

"You’re here now," she pointed out unnecessarily, ignoring his jibe. "Why don’t the two of us take a walk, and I’ll tell you a little bit about the school?"

He shoved his hands deep into his pockets, clearly none too thrilled to have to undergo a tour. In spite of that, he said, "Wonderful. Maybe you can tell me where all my money is going. Because it certainly isn’t going toward the upkeep of this place."

"No, it’s not," she agreed readily, something that clearly surprised him. "Oh, don’t worry—the building is perfectly safe. But we’re not overly concerned with cosmetic perfection here, Mr. Kimball. Every nickel we can squeeze goes toward the edification of our students. And as expensive as you think the tuition is, I assure you, it’s scarcely enough to cover costs. Education comes at a high price in these days of technological wonders. And an institution like ours can’t afford to be left behind."

She extended her arm toward the door, indicating Mr. Kimball should precede her, but he only glanced back at her with an expression that said, You’ve got to be kidding.

Then he extended his own hand toward the door and said, "I never forget my manners, Mrs. Beecham. After you."

As if she believed that for even a second. In spite of his alleged courtesy, Caroline really didn’t like the idea of walking ahead of Schuyler Kimball. Mainly because she knew he’d be back there ogling her. It wasn’t any misguided sense of vanity or conceit that made her feel that way. Simply because Caroline didn’t have any vanity or conceit. And even an eccentric like Kimball should be interested in something other than a too-rounded woman in an unattractive, colorless dress. But Schuyler Kimball was obviously the kind of man who went for anything in estrogen.

"When Chloe first came to Van Meter," she said as she exited the office and tried to pretend she didn’t notice the huge man with the gun who stood up to shadow Mr. Kimball. She should have realized a man worth that much money would have a bodyguard… or pet gorilla." She seemed as if she would do fairly well. For the first week or two, she seemed to be a pretty enthusiastic student. But gradually, she seemed to lose interest, In school, in the few friends she’d made, in herself."

"And what, pray tell, Mrs. Beecham, would be your explanation for such a thing?"

Caroline ignored the petulance in his voice and decided to instead be heartened by the fact that he’d at least asked a question about Chloe. Maybe he wasn’t quite so cold-hearted as she thought.

Maybe.

"I’ve thought about it a lot," she said, "and I’m inclined to believe that, when Chloe first came to Philadelphia from Las Vegas after her mother’s death, she really did want to start her life anew. There’s no doubt that she was terrified of the prospect of coming to live with you, Mr. Kimball—"

"Me?" he asked incredulously, his steps faltering as he did. With no small effort—and very little success—he tried to cover his gaffe. "Why would she be terrified of me?"

He seemed to be genuinely puzzled, Caroline marveled. Unbelievable. "Well, just a shot in the dark, Mr. Kimball, but maybe because she was leaving everything she knew, everything that was familiar—regardless of how dubious the comfort of those things might have been—and going to live with a man whom she’d never met before in her life, a man who had never once illustrated any desire to make her a part of his life."

"I didn’t even know about Chloe until I was notified of her mother’s death," Kimball told her, his voice edged with resentment. "How the hell could I have, when her mother never said a word to me about her?"

It was as close as he had come to admitting Chloe was his daughter, Caroline noted. And something in his tone when he spoke suggested that perhaps he wasn’t quite as convinced of his nonpaternity as he let others believe.

"Regardless," she continued, softening her own tone when she did, "the girl was scared. Yet she seemed to be honestly willing to start over."

Kimball eyed her warily, but Caroline sensed he really was starting to take an interest in Chloe. "Why do you say that?" he asked.

"Because of some of the things she said to her friends and teachers—and to me—I sincerely believe she wanted to put her past behind her and use this opportunity to… reconstruct herself, if you will. I think she was hoping that you would acknowledge her as your daughter, and that by doing so, she might be able to claim an identity other than the one to which she’d been forced to mold herself, thanks to other people’s perceptions of her. But no one here—no one in her family, at any rate—seemed willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. You viewed her from the start as a troubled, difficult adolescent girl who had little hope of changing, so that’s what she decided she would be."