It has been a week since that trip to Rockstone and Candy was back to her little routine at the Happy Clinic. She had not heard from Terry since then, but the mail was not too fast especially in winter. However she couldn't help from frantically opening her mailbox everyday expecting a letter from him. She had kept that meeting to herself and had not mentioned it to anybody. She just hoped Neil would keep his mouth shut this time. But it would not be very clever from him to mention this visit as he would have need to admit he came to her house and would have been asked a lot of questions from his family. She had not heard about him neither and was happy with that.
That day she was working at the Happy Clinic as usual. It was the end of the afternoon and she was just finishing nursing a young boy while Dr Martin was filling some papers. They heard a coach stopping in front of the clinic and the children's voices shouting Candy's name.
"Candy, Candy, a distinguished gentleman is looking for you " they shouted.
Candy went to open the door and found Mr. Georges together with two maids holding some boxes.
"Georges, what a surprise" she exclaimed.
"Good afternoon, Miss Candy. Your Great Uncle William and Madame Elroy want to see you. I have taken the liberty to bring you a dress and these two ladies will help you to get ready" he said, as serious as usual.
"Great Uncle William wants to see me? What for? Do you know?"
"I can not tell you Miss Candy, Please, hurry up and get ready"
Candy quickly put the dress on in the adjacent room while the maids were making her hair. It was a nice green dress that was making her eyes shining even more. When she got out of the room Georges and Dr. Martin looked at her.
"Wow, you look like a real lady from the upper class, Candy" Dr Martin said, amazed. He did not quite understand what was going on.
"Thank you Dr.; I need to be very nice for my very first meeting with Great Uncle William. He has done so much for me starting with adopting me. I wanted to thank him since such a long time"
"Who is your Great Uncle William?"
"William Andrew. Candy is his adoptive daughter and therefore his only heir" said Georges.
"William Andrew, the famous millionaire! Candy, I did not know you were coming from the upper class and that you were the heir of such an important man" Dr Martin said, falling into his chair in surprise.
"In fact, I had decided to renounce the Andrew's name and to be Uncle William's adoptive daughter. This is why I never mentioned it to you" answered Candy.
"Miss Candy, it is time to leave now" interrupted George opening the door.
They went out and got on the coach. "Good Bye Dr. Martin, I will see you tomorrow" shouted Candy by the coach window.
Dr. Martin and the children stood still by the Happy Clinic door watching Candy leaving as if she was Cinderella in her state coach.
During the whole ride to the Andrew's Mansion, Candy tried to get some information from Georges. But he kept answering the same things and she was now impatient to know why Great Uncle William wanted to see her. She had so many things to tell him, to thank him for. She wanted to meet him for such a long time that she could not believe she would see him for good this time.
When she arrived at the mansion, she was surprised to see all the house staff there to welcome her. While she was walking in the corridor she heard some shouts:
"I would never forgive you, I do not want to see you anymore!" said Eliza. She passed in front of Candy with terrible hatred glance.
Neil was leaning against his room doorframe, his hands in his pockets. He smiled mockingly when he saw Candy.
"You have humiliated me in front of that bastard, but I told you, you would not get rid of me so easily. You cannot escape me anymore" he told her with a devilish smile.
Candy did not understand anything. What was going on in the house? Where was Great Uncle William?
Finally she entered the main living room and found the Great Aunt Elroy together with Mr. and Mrs. Leegan. They stared at her even colder than usual
"Candice, we have decided that you will get engaged with Neil… this is an order from Great Uncle William" announced Mrs. Elroy dryly.
Candy got frozen on the spot, engaged to Neil? Uncle William's order?
"I cannot get engaged to Neil, I have no feelings for him!" she protested.
"He said he would enroll in the army if you do not marry him" said Mrs. Leegan pretending to wipe a tear from her eye.
"Him in the army? He is lying, he is such a coward…" Candy started.
"SILENCE" interrupted Elroy while standing up, "You do not have the choice…this is an order and you must obey without arguing"
She sat back on her chair, put a hand on her forehead and sighed heavily. " Neil in the army, my head hurts just to think about it…" she complained while Mr. and Mrs. Leegan tried to comfort her
Candy was standing still, thinking. There was no way to argue, they had made their decision. Neil you are such a traitorous cad. You never wanted to enroll in the army, you are just taking advantage of Stear's death. Uncle William has taken this decision in your favour, not mine. I would rather die than marry Neil especially now that I found Terry back. God, what am I going to do?
"The engagement party will take place in 3 days and until then you will be staying here with us" added Elroy.
Candy was not herself anymore when she left the room. She was completely in despair. Georges had left and a maid took her to her room and locked the door before leaving. Candy was trapped. She could not even ask for help or go to see Uncle William to convince him to change his mind.
I am not a doll, I do not want to be treated like this. I am a human being. Uncle William has no right to decide who I should marry and who I should not. I want to marry Terry and nobody else. She cried a lot but nobody came to help or comfort her and she remained alone with her sadness. She finally fell asleep on her pillow, which was completely wet of tears.
The maid carrying breakfast woke her up in the morning. She was still feeling miserable and refused to eat anything. She did the same for lunch. She kept on crying and the maids got worried for her and informed Elroy. Elroy had given orders for nobody to visit the girl, this order applied to Neil and Eliza as well.
But, in the afternoon, Candy finally had a visit. It was Annie.
"Oh Annie" she said running into her arms. "It is so horrible, they want me to marry Neil. I am locked in my room and the windows are locked as well. I do not know what to do"
"I know. Candy. Elroy asked Archie if I could come here and try to convince you to agree to this wedding and to eat a bit before you get sick. She said she does not want you to faint during the engagement party" Said Annie sadly.
"I will never agree to this wedding, Annie. NEVER, EVER. I 'd rather die. I need to escape from here and go to New York to find Terry"
"Terry?…but I thought it was over between you two?" Annie said, surprised.
"I did not have the time to tell you. It is a long story but I met him in a little town called Rockstone and we have realised we still love each other and we are both unhappy of the situation. So he went back to New York to break up with Suzanne and I am expecting some news from him very soon to join him there for good this time" Candy explained.
"Oh Candy, This is fantastic news" cried Annie
"Yes but now I am stuck here and I cannot tell him what is going on."
"But I can. I will send him a telegram as soon as I get out of here" declared Annie.
"Really, oh that would be marvellous. I am sure he will find a solution to help me"
"Yes, your love will be stronger. If he tells Mme Elroy and your Great Uncle he wants to marry you, I am sure they will be more than happy once they know he is the son of Duke"
"Hum, probably, they are so snobbish. We'll see. But if Terry doesn't get the telegram in time, I will sure find a way to escape from here or my name is not Candy" declared Candy with a determined tone.
"You are supposed to go into town with me and Mrs. Leegan to buy a dress for the party the day after tomorrow. That could be the occasion to escape."
"Really! If I get out of here, I will manage to run away"
They talk a little longer and Annie left to send the telegram to Terry.
Candy was feeling much better. She was now seeing ways not to do what her family was expecting from her and she was happy. Her cheerful optimism was back and she was confident about her future with Terry.
In New York, Terry was working hard to prepare the audition for Othello. He was spending all his time at his apartment learning the role and was seeing Suzanne as little as possible.
Suzanne was now able to walk without the help of her crutches and was preparing herself for the audition as well. She was spending a lot of time at the theatre with the rest of the troupe. Nobody asked her about Terry and she was glad, as she did not know what she would have answered. She had gone to see him a few times, proposing him to work together and help each other to recite their lines like in the old times for Romeo and Juliet. But he had refused, saying that he would rather work alone this time.
She had been really hurt about it and could hardly accept his rejections. But Jason, the young actor, was very nice to her and helped her a lot to learn her lines. She was strangely feeling in peace nearby him, which was completely new for her. He was treating her with extreme courtesy and she could feel his admiration look on her very often. He was so different from Terry. He was a very smiling person, with a great sense of humour and was expressing the Joie de vivre she had never seen in Terry (except when he was with Candy). She realised that she was developing some tender feelings for him. And she wasn't feeling guilty about it at all; especially after Terry's latest behaviour towards her. After being away for so long, she expected him to have changed but he was colder than ever and was completely ignoring her. Seeing Jason's attitude, she was now sure that Terry would never loved her and that she had been running after a dream all those months. The fact that she was able to go on with her life in Terry's absence and that Jason attracted her had shown her that she was the one who changed. Her feelings were probably not has deep as she thought after all. The good side of the story was that it gave her the strength to come back to a normal life with that prosthesis and she was very grateful to Mr. Hathaway for bringing her back to reality.
However she could not help a bitter taste in her mouth when she was thinking about Terry. She still loved him and had realised that he never had that special look Jason had when he was looking at her. He never even tried to kiss her and had never had any tender gesture towards her even when they were alone. She was starting to realise what a fool she had been but was not ready to admit it yet. So for the time being she was enjoying Jason's company in the absence of Terry. But as soon as Terry was around, she would be his nice adoring fiancée.
Terry was only thinking about Candy and his future life with her. He was making plans and working hard to get this Othello role that will allow him to marry her.
It was late in the evening when he heard a bang on his door. He went to open the door and found a paper on the floor. It was a telegram saying
To Terrence G. Granchester
Candy
needs you. STOP They want to engage her by force to Neil. STOP
Come
quick. 2 days left.
Annie
Brighton
Terry
read the telegram twice as he was not sure about what it meant. They
want to marry Candy to Neil? He would never allow that. He needed
to go to Chicago immediately to help her. Suddenly he realised that
the audition for Othello was in 2 days.
He
started to pack some stuff when he suddenly sat on his bed and put
his head in his hands.
"If
I go to Chicago I will miss the audition, and if I do not get this
role it will postpone my projects with Candy. But if she got engaged
to Neil it will be worse. God, What can I do?"
He did not sleep at all that night turning the situation upside down in his head trying to find a solution.