No Shadow (Prodigal Sons of Cane) by Clemens S.N

Author:Clemens, S.N. [Clemens, S.N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-07-05T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

On Saturday morning, Helen sat in her father’s kitchen and ate cereal glumly. He’d just refilled his coffee mug and stepped over to top off Helen’s.

“I don’t know how you can defend him after what he did to me,” she said at last, after having mulled over her father’s last comment.

He raised his eyebrows in a familiar skeptical look. “I realize you were hurt. All I said was that you don’t yet know the whole story.”

“What else is there of the story? He went to the Dean behind my back and blew the library’s chances of getting the manuscript. If the library can’t raise its offer, Thomas will never sell it to us. What else about the story do I need to know?”

“You don’t know his discussion with the Dean. You don’t know his motives for going to the Dean. You don’t know how he’s feeling about it now.”

Helen made a face. “Am I supposed to believe he’s wracked with guilt?” She thought about that for a moment and, despite herself, felt an irrepressible flare of hope. “Do you think he feels bad about it? Did he seem guilty when you talked to him on Wednesday?”

“Helen.” The one word was a warning and a reproach both.

She let out a frustrated sound and swallowed down a large sip of her coffee. “Sorry. I know. You can’t talk about your sessions.”

“Andrew Cane is a complicated man. And I think you might try to look past your hurt feelings to see what’s really going on.”

Helen instinctively understood the truth in her father’s words, but she wasn’t sure she could take the advice. Every time she thought about what Andrew had done, she felt too hurt and betrayed to dwell on it anymore. Rational or not, her feelings were too raw to set aside in order to think things through logically.

But she also didn’t want to disappoint her father. “I know he’s struggling with his faith,” she said last, her voice a little thready. “Not whether or not he believes but whether or not he can claim the commitment. But I don’t know what that could possibly have to do with the manuscript.”

“It might not have anything to do with it.”

Taking another deep breath, she continued, “And I know he’s at the edge of his rope with his sister. I mean, worrying about her and trying so hard to take care of her. But that doesn’t have to do with the manuscript either.”

“It might not. Go on.”

“Go on to what? I don’t know how he feels about everything else.”

“Don’t you? How do you think he feels about you?”

“Dad!”

Her father’s expression didn’t change. He just eyed her levelly and said, “Helen, you’re not a little girl anymore. Tell me.”

Women were supposed to mature as they got older and not feel all bewildered and aflutter about men, but Helen still felt like a girl a lot of the time.

She wondered if everyone did.

In movies and television, worldly women acted cool and blasé about relationships, but

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