To Hell and Back
Chapter 16
Saturday breakfast was a long, leisurely affair compared to the rush of the weekday meal, and Beth and Mattie were establishing a habit of getting Harm to grill some bacon or sausages for them, along with cottage fried potatoes. The discussion that had led to the establishment of this habit had been free, frank and lively and had culminated in victory for the distaff side by Beth sweetly pointing out that if Harm didn't want to provide for their needs, carefully cooking to minimise fat content, then it would be no hardship for Beth and Mattie to go for some retail therapy and stop off half-way through the morning at Beltway Burgers. So Harm had surrendered, albeit with no marked degree of good grace, and provided the desired breakfast for the intransigent two thirds of the little family.
But as with all things, the passage of time had eased the blow and he was able this morning to provide breakfast with no more than a muttered aside concerning the junk that Beth and Mattie forced into their bodies, and with a smirk of superiority had sat down to his bowl of oatmeal with every evidence of immense satisfaction.
Beth sat back from the table cradling her coffee mug in both hands and smiled along the length of it at Harm, "Thanks, Harm! That was wonderful!"
Her observation was seconded by Mattie, but with a mouthful of bacon and toast the best the teenager could manage was a stifled, "M'mm-m'mm!" and an enthusiastic nod of her head.
Harm set down his own mug of coffee and said, "Okay… thanks… Now, what are the plans for the rest of the day?"
Beth shot a glance at Mattie and then looked back at Harm, "Well… you need to phone Mrs Smithfield and sort out the details for this girlie night tonight. I've still got to get over to the storage place on Arlington Boulevard and East Broad – that's in…"
"Falls Church – I know!" Harm said in surprise, "But what in God's name made you pick a storage facility so far out of town?"
"Lack of time for recon when I PCS'd and then deployed at very short notice," Beth replied, "Then there was the cost factor. Storage charges in Falls Church are about a third of what I found in DC, then there was the security aspect – there's much less crime in Falls Church than in DC, and let's face it most of the DC storage facilities are not in the best parts of town! I don't have much of real value in storage but replacing uniforms wouldn't be exactly cheap, and then there's the sentimental value of some bits and pieces. They aren't expensive, but they are irreplaceable."
"True, true," Harm agreed musingly and then switched his attention to Mattie, "And what about you, young lady?"
Mattie had finished eating now, and was taking a healthy gulp of her orange juice, so it took a few seconds before she answered, "Well, I finished my essay last night, so there's just the chemistry to do. I figured to crack that this morning, and have Beth run an eye over it this afternoon, and then just kick back and get ready for the evening… That is if you okay me to go…" she finished hopefully.
Harm nodded, "If… and I say if, your homework is finished and Mrs Smithfield confirms that she's okay with this girls' night, then at the moment I say yes, you can go…"
"Oh, wow! Thanks Harm!" Mattie said enthusiastically.
"Remember, I said 'if'," Harm repeated, and then as Mattie pushed her chair back from the table, he asked, "Where are you going?"
"My room! Homework!" the teenager replied over her shoulder.
Harm turned back to Beth a look of almost disbelief on his face, which only deepened as Beth also stood and turned away from the table. "And you're going to…"
"And I'm going to Falls Church!" Beth replied as she crossed the lounge and under the arch to her new bedroom, from whence she appeared a few minutes later wrapped in her car coat and with her purse slung over her shoulder.
"But… but what about this…?" Harm asked as he started to clear the table of the breakfast wreckage. "The house rules…?"
"Some rules shouldn't be made if you can't enforce them," Beth laughed, "Have fun!" she said over her shoulder as she opened the apartment door and stepped into the hallway.
Harm gazed after her in total disbelief, "Gonna get you for that!" he yelled at the now closed door but was rewarded with silence, and so with a sigh he turned his attention to the breakfast dishes and the kitchen sink.
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
As it turned out the clearing of the breakfast wreckage didn't, in the end, take too much time and by about twenty minutes after Beth had fired her Parthian shot, Harm dried his hands on a length of kitchen towel and then dropped it into the trash. Checking his watch he decided that it was now a reasonable time to call a perfect stranger and so crossed to his desk in the corner of the lounge where he retrieved the slip of paper on which Mattie had written Mrs Smithfield's phone numbers and then dropping onto the couch, he dialled her home number.
The phone was picked up after five rings and a rich contralto voice said, "Hello?"
"Uh… Mrs Smithfield?"
"Yes, I'm Rachel Smithfield, how may I help you?"
"Uh… You don't know me, Mrs Smithfield, but my name is Harmon Rabb, and I'm Mattie Grace's adoptive father…"
"Oh… Mattie's dad! How nice to hear your voice! I've heard so much about you!" Even so, Harm could hear and undertone of amusement in the voice.
"In that case," he tried to inject a smile into his own voice, "You have the advantage of me! You see, until last night, I'd only ever heard your name once. And that was just in passing…"
"Oh, you can blame that on my Susan! It seems she has developed a bit of a crush on you, not to mention a touch of hero worship!" This time Rachel Smithfield actually chuckled.
But Harm blanched, "Mrs Smithfield, I don't know why she should. As far as I'm aware I've never even set eyes on your daughter, let alone ever having spoken to her!"
"Oh, I'm quite sure you haven't," Rachel replied, "But it seems that Susan winkled your Mattie's history out of her and has conceived an image of you as some blue eyed, golden haired super hero, all in shining armour and on a white charger!"
"Uh… far from it, Mrs Smithfield. I'm just an attorney for the Navy! Not a white charger in sight!" Harm tried to pass the subject off as lightly as Mrs Smithfield was treating the matter, but he felt deeply uncomfortable at being the object of a schoolgirl crush.
"Susan is going to be so disappointed! But, you didn't call me on a Saturday morning to talk about my silly daughter, did you?"
"Well yeah, kind of… You see Mattie sprung a girlie night on us yesterday evening, apparently to take place at your house this evening?"
"Oh, lord, yes! A night of purgatory. Five or six teenage girls, all crammed together in Susan's bedroom, talking about fashion, boys, make-up, painting their toenails, experimenting with hair styles…"
"But you are going to be there?" Harm asked just a shade worriedly.
"Absolutely! Let that gang have free range of the house? Over my dead body!" Rachel laughed. "No… they'll have access to the kitchen, under my supervision, and then it's up to Susan's room where they'll stay, while I sit and read peacefully downstairs!"
"What about drinking and smoking?" Harm asked with his concern plain to hear.
"Never going to happen!" Rachel Smithfield said firmly. "Susan neither smokes nor drinks, and if I even catch a hint of a whiff of tobacco or alcohol, then parents will get called to come and pick their daughters up and the night comes to an instant end, and will never be repeated. I have made that clear to Susan and she assures me that none of her friends indulge in tobacco, alcohol, or indeed any other substance!"
"That's good to know!" Harm admitted and then continued, "Uh… how late do you figure this thing is going to last?"
"I've told Susan it ends at ten, but realistically, I'm looking at ten thirty before I can actually get them out of the house…"
"Mattie told us that you'll be picking up the girls from the school gate, but how are they getting home?" Harm asked.
"Well, you've saved me a phone call. I shall be calling all parents and asking them to collect their kids at any time after ten."
"Yeah, Beth, Mattie's adoptive mother has already volunteered to do that, so if you'll let me have your address?"
"Certainly! Do you have pencil and paper handy?"
"Sure do!"
Rachel then reeled off her address, which it turned out was only about a dozen blocks away from Fourth NE.
Having gotten what he called for, reassurance about the nature and composition of the party, and the address and timings for it, Harm made his farewells to Mrs Smithfield and carefully folded the slip of paper with address and phone numbers on before he rethought and crossing to his desk, booted up his computer to add the Smithfields to his list of contacts. He had a suspicion that over the next couple of years at least, until Mattie graduated from high school, he would be having frequent conversations with Mrs Smithfield.
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxx
By the time lunchtime rolled around Beth still hadn't returned from Falls Church, and both Harm and Mattie were beginning to feel the pangs of hunger; the teenager emerging from her bedroom with a breezy "Hey, hungry teenager here, what's for lunch?"
"Nothing yet," Harm replied from where he stood behind the breakfast bar, filling the percolator, "Not until Beth gets home, and we can eat as a family."
Mattie hitched herself up onto one of the stools at the breakfast bar, and with elbows on the surface she propped her chin in both hands and gazed keenly at Harm. "That's really important to you, isn't it?"
"Of course it is," Harm said in mild surprise, "But what makes you suddenly come out and say that, like it was something unusual?"
"Oh…" Mattie paused for a moment to get her thoughts in order and then took a deep breath, "Well… I suppose it's because we aren't a family… well… yeah, we are, but not like a normal family. Y'know, like mom, dad, daughter…. You… well, you sort of stumbled across me, and that," Mattie suddenly grinned, "was just about the best thing that happened to me, but Skates… well… she more or less had you and me dropped on her by that judge."
Harm poured two cups of coffee and slid one across the counter towards Mattie, "But you don't hear her complaining, do you?" Harm challenged the teenager.
"No… and I guess that's part of what makes us tick, the way she seems to have eased into this… this…" Mattie waved a vague hand in a gesture that conflated the physical and emotional environments.
"I think I know what you mean," Harm said judiciously as Mattie paused to take a sip of her coffee, "and that is why I think it's important that we do family type things as a family. Let's see if I can explain it… Every family has certain little rituals that bond them together and in some ways give them a group identity. Well, as you so rightly point out, we don't have that sort of growth behind us. Remember, we – Beth and I – are still very new at this, so in some ways you have an advantage over us. You've had fourteen years of being in a family, where you had little rituals. I seem to remember you saying at Christmas that when your mom made chocolate, she put a marshmallow and nutmeg in it. Okay, that's just a minor thing, but it was something you could bank on. No doubt you had other little rituals and family jokes. Well, we don't have that, but I think it's important that we should. Now, you can't create tradition, not even family tradition and ritual, these are things that evolve over a period, sometimes of months, sometimes of years, so as a starting point I believe that a family should eat together, it may not be much of a ritual or tradition, but it does create some kind of bond between us – all three of us…"
Mattie took another sip of coffee as she considered what Harm had just said, "Are names part of a family tradition?"
"Uh… I guess," a slightly mystified Harm replied.
"In that case we've already established one tradition!" Mattie declared triumphantly.
"We have?"
"Damned straight we have! You are the only person in the whole world who calls me 'Squirt', and what's more you are the only person in the world I would let call me 'Squirt'!"
"Point taken!" Harm laughed, "Yeah, we do have that!"
"Yeah we do!" Mattie preened and partly because just for once she had slipped a mild profanity past Harm without him having noticed it.
Their attention was distracted by the sound of Beth's key in the apartment door lock, so by the time she entered the room, her arms full of folded clothing, both Harm and Mattie's eyes were trained in her direction. Harm was off his seat in an instant, and with a "Here, let me!" and to Beth's relief, scooped her burden into his own arms, "I'll just put these on your bed, okay?"
Beth leaned back against the wall, "Yeah, thanks, Harm! Mattie, there's some more stuff in the elevator, could you give me a hand please?"
"Sure thing!" the copper haired teenager replied, bounced off her stool and headed for the door. Beth followed her to the elevator, where she had left the gate open and Mattie stopped and stared. "Uh… this all of it?" she asked with an almost awe-struck glance at Beth.
"Just two more boxes – small ones – in the car. So as soon as we get these indoors then I can go and get them."
"Okaaay…" Mattie drawled her reply and bending, picked up three garment bags and with her finger in the hooks slung them over her shoulder. "Jeez! What have you got in here?" she asked, somewhat staggered by the weight.
"Oh… those two are my Summer Dress Whites, with the white shoes and combination covers to match, and that one is my best Service Dress Blues…" Beth paused, a look of slight concern on her face, "If they're too heavy for you…" she began.
"Nope, let's get these suckers put away!" Mattie grinned, albeit with gritted teeth as she turned back towards the apartment causing Harm to make a swift sidestep to clear her route.
"Everything in now, Beth?" he asked.
"Nope, two small boxes in the car – on the back seat," Beth replied, cradling yet another armful of clothes, among which Harm could see a couple of full length dresses, the length of which caused Beth to hold her arms higher than was really comfortable, in order to prevent them dragging on the floor.
"Keys?" Harm asked.
"One moment!" Beth puffed as she almost waddled into the apartment and gratefully dropped her load onto the couch. "Here…" a hand delved into her purse and reappeared with her keys in it, "And… thanks, Harm!"
"No problem. But why didn't you call from downstairs? Mattie and I would have been more than happy to come down and help unload the car! And you did say," Harm added meaningfully, "that a helping hand wouldn't come amiss."
"And you helped when I asked, except that you're just standing around…" Beth replied with a meaningful glance at the elevator and the hint of a chuckle in her voice.
Harm rolled his eyes, "Okay, okay, I can take a hint!" he sighed as he stepped into the elevator and hauled the clamshell doors closed.
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxx
Harm was handed another, heavy hint on his return to the apartment. The clothing that had been dumped on the couch had disappeared and his ears picked up animated female voices as Beth and Mattie busied themselves stowing away Beth's belongings in her new room. Judging that his presence would not only be an encumbrance but positively unwelcome, Harm contented himself, in the face of two basilisk-like stares, with depositing his load just inside the bedroom door.
"I'll… uh… Just go and put some coffee on, shall I?" he suggested as he made a quick visual inspection of what seemed to him to be unmitigated chaos.
"Good thinking," Beth replied, her opinion backed up by Mattie's nodding head.
The apparent chaos must have been less severe than Harm had thought, as it was a scant twenty minutes later that Beth and Mattie, both wearing satisfied smiles, emerged from the bedroom, Beth exclaiming, "Did someone mention coffee, a little while ago?"
From where he sat, perched on one of the stools at the breakfast bar, Harm grinned over the rim of his mug from which tendrils of aromatic steam arose. "I sure did, so if you want to jump up on a stool, you'll find a mug of coffee in front of you before you can even think of it!"
Mattie looked at Beth and rolled her eyes, prompting the former RIO to rebuke her gently, "Play nice, Mattie. Remember, you need to keep on his good side if you want him to take you to meet Mrs Smithfield later."
Mattie hoisted herself onto a stool and nodded, "I'll be good," she replied, "but…"
"Yeah, it was a pretty lame line," Beth interrupted the teenager.
Harm favoured them both with a mock scowl, "if you've quite finished?" He demanded, the coffee jug poised to pour.
"Oh, I think we're done, don't you, Mattie?" Beth grinned unrepentantly.
"Definitely!" Mattie returned.
"Don't overdo it, squirt," Harm cautioned her.
"Well, I do want a coffee," Mattie said reasonably, and then her face split into a grin, "Plus, of course, that ride, later."
Harm let out the chuckle that had been building for the last minute or so, and shook his head in mock sorrow, "I don't know which of you two is the bigger pain."
"Yeah, but you love us anyway," Beth grinned.
"Dead straight!" Mattie agreed.
"Oh… Drink your coffee!" Harm snorted through his laughter.
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Mac back heeled her apartment door closed and crossed into the kitchen, letting her keys fall from between her teeth onto the same table where, with a sigh of relief, she deposited the two Brown paper grocery sacks. Not that the sacks contained any great quantity, or variety of foodstuffs, mostly frozen, microwaveable snacks and TV dinners. In fact, the only fresh 'food' immediately discernible where the two one pound packets of coffee grounds. Mac detested cooking and infinitely preferred to order in her main meals from any one of the neighbourhood restaurants whose menus, held in place by magnets, cluttered, and almost obscured, her fridge door.
Lunch today, however, would be a frozen meat-feast pizza, which required no more effort than pre-heating the counter-top oven and setting the timer for fifteen minutes. Her lunch choice justified, to her own satisfaction at least, by the five mile run and the forty minute workout she had completed earlier that morning at the local gym for which she paid their extortionate membership fees.
The morning's physical efforts had been succeeded by a long, hot soak in the shower followed by a trip to the local stores, the fruits of which, less the chosen pizza, was now stowed away in her freezer. All that remained for the day was a brew of Marine-grade coffee, and a delve into the latest novel to come her way, 'The Queen of Courts'. The writer was not the of author of her usual type fare, she was far more likely to pick up a book by one of the acknowledged masters of espionage fiction, such as Deighton or Le Carré, but the title of this book had caught her attention and once she had realised that the author was an attorney, and the book was a so-called 'legal thriller'; starring a high-flying female lawyer, the punning title caught her sense of humour off-guard and although she had debated its purchase she had found herself drawn deeper into its, to her mind, improbable legal plot, and was now about a third of the way through the story.
With a happy sigh and a mug of fresh brewed coffee within arm's reach on the end table beside her chair, she curled up with her feet tucked up under her butt, opened the pages at the bookmark and started reading, taking deeply appreciative sips of her coffee every two or three pages until she read one passage which seemed to her to be highly improbable from a legal standpoint. Letting book drop to her lap she cuddled her coffee mug in both hands and leaned back against the support of the chair as she considered what she had just read.
To her dismayed surprise she found herself wondering what that damned annoying, Barbie-blonde shrink would have made firstly of the piece of writing itself, and secondly her thoughts on the subject. What had slipped her train of thought in motion was the protagonist, on the most specious legal grounds, refusing to face the facts that confronted her. Couldn't the dumb ass see that what was happening to her now – in the story – was the result of his own actions? And wasn't that exactly what the blonde bimbo shrink had been trying to get Mac to admit all along? But it wasn't the same, was it? For instance… the rape wasn't her fault… But… she had the uncomfortable feeling that some of her actions after that event might have led her up to the present point on her life. Men wanted sex, all the time, so if she used sex as a means to get what she wanted, then both parties were happy… weren't they? It was just quid pro quo. 'Or maybe,' an annoying little voice in the back of her mind suggested, 'it was the promise, implicit, or otherwise of sex, that made men do you little favours – like, maybe recommending you for law school?' the voice whispered.
Mac shook her head violently. No! It wasn't all about sex! And anyway she had felt honest affection for John, there was no question of her having slept with him just because he'd signed off on her application to Duke… The same with Rabb… with Harm… he hadn't leapt at the promise of bedding her, in fact he'd turned her down, flat. 'Uh… no he didn't, he just asked for some more time. Time you weren't prepare to give him… and then, less than twenty-four hours later, you turned around and leapt into bed with Mic…'
"No! It wasn't like that!" Mac was startled to realise that she had exclaimed that denial out loud, and even though she knew she was alone, she self-consciously looked around the apartment. 'A good job I am alone!' she told herself ruefully, 'Otherwise anyone hearing that would have thought I needed a shrink!' And then her thoughts returned to Sydney, 'So… why did I go to Mic?' she asked herself and then answered her own question, 'because I needed to prove that I was still sexually attractive after Rabb turned me down, and because Mic had always made it clear that he found me attractive? That he made it obvious that he wanted me, whereas I could never tell with Rabb…'
'And look how well that turned out!' the little voice sneered, 'You couldn't have found a more controlling, manipulative SOB than Mic Brumby if you'd tried! What was Harm had said? Something about the men you pick? Well he got that right, didn't he?'
Mac's eyes suddenly prickled with tears. 'Yeah he got that right…' she admitted dolefully to herself, and then the little voice cut in, 'And what else did he get right? And maybe, just maybe Inez has got a couple of things right too?'
Mac settled back in her chair, appalled that she could even be thinking that way, but… but she had felt such impatience with the fictional character, whose misadventures were chronicled in the pages in her lap, yet her own mistakes were not too far removed from those of the story's protagonist… Mac closed her eyes and for the first time since the Admiral had suspended her from duty started to think about her life and the decisions she had made over its course, and the effect of those decisions.
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Leaving Beth to phone in the dinner order to Le Grenier, and satisfied that Mattie's appearance wouldn't reflect badly on her, or on himself and Beth, Harm, and Mattie abandoned the apartment to her. Once in the alley, Harm waited until Mattie had climbed into the Lexus' passenger seat before he walked around to the driver's side of the vehicle and settled himself into the Lexus' driver's seat before he turned the key in the ignition. "You do realise that I am going to wait at the school until I see you safely loaded into Mrs Smithfield's car?"
"Yeah, I kind of figured that," Mattie said ruefully, "But you do know that there is no real need for you to worry?"
"Maybe not," Harm conceded, "but seeing as how it makes me feel better, you won't mind if I worry just a little bit, will you."
Mattie half turned in her seat to face him, "It's just that you get a little too intense sometimes," she said without a trace of humour in her voice.
Harm shot her a lightning quick glance the corner of his eye, "And that bugs you?" he asked.
"Yeah. Yeah, Harm, it does… A bit. I've been used to being my own boss for a while, and having to suddenly get used to being told what to do, where I can go, who I can see, when I need to be back… Well, it's pretty tough. Harm, I'm fifteen, not five, and I'm not stupid. I know that you're strict with me because you don't want anything to happen to me. But you could cut me a little more slack?"
"Wow, next time Mattie, don't beat about the bush, just come right out and say what you think!"
"Uh… Was I being a little too intense this time?" Mattie asked.
"Maybe not, but you've not said anything before, and I figured that you were okay with the ground rules. And like you said, they are there because I… Because we, Beth and I… are concerned for your safety. If anything happened to you, squirt, it would just about kill both of us."
The sincerity in Harm's voice brought a sudden prickle of tears to the teenager's eyes and after a quick sniffle, she said, "Really?"
"Of course, really," Harm replied, "what other reason could we have?"
"Well… Could just be that you are afraid that if you aren't strict with me that the court could take me away and dump me on CPS…"
"Yeah, there is, if I'm going to be completely honest, a little bit of that fear behind the rules, and that comes under the heading of something bad happening to you."
"Uh-huh," Mattie nodded as she took in this hitherto hidden facet of Harm's thinking.
"Does hearing that mean that the rules make more sense now?" Harm asked Mattie.
"A little," Mattie admitted, "but they're still pretty tough rules."
Harm nodded judiciously as he guided the Lexus to a halt outside the school gates, where a knot of four or five teenaged girls were already gathered. "This isn't the time or place for extended negotiations, but we will continue this conversation, together with Beth, and very soon."
Mattie unclipped her seat belt and twisted further around to look at Harm, "So, you're open to relaxing some of the rules?" She asked.
Harm managed a wry grin, "Let's just say that I'm open to submissions concerning the relaxation of some of the rules. And like I said, all three of us will sit down in the near future and talk about things. Okay?"
Mattie nodded, "That's about what I figured you'd say."
"Disappointed?" Harm asked anxiously.
Mattie smiled, "No, never disappointed… Oh!" Her tone of voice changed dramatically, "Here's Mrs Smithfield!"
Harm looked forward, through the windscreen to see a second Lexus pull. Just a few yards in front of his own vehicle. "Come on, then, squirt," he said as he unclipped his seatbelt.
Mattie looked at him in horrified surprise, a protest clearly audible as she yelped "Harm! What are you doing?"
"I'm going to introduce myself to Mrs Smithfield." Then he chuckled, "what's up, squirt? Are you afraid I'll embarrass you?"
Mattie wriggled in self-imposed embarrassment. Harm had pointed an unerring finger squarely at the source of her protest. "Uh… Well, no, not really it's just that none of the other girls' parents are here and…"
"It's okay, Mattie, I'll just introduce myself and then you're all hers!"
Mattie heaved a martyred sigh and opening the Lexus's door slid to the sidewalk and with dragging feet headed towards Mrs Smithfield's car.
Rachel Smithfield proved to be an auburn haired, tall woman, almost as tall as Mac, within a year or two of Harm's age, neatly dressed in dark coloured tailored slacks and a pale grey, mid-thigh length padded coat, which revealed a dark, turtleneck sweater at her throat.
Seeing Harm and Mattie heading towards her, she finished counting the teenage girls and smilingly ordered them to climb aboard before she turned towards the two late arrivals. "Hi, you must be Mattie? And you're Mattie's Dad?" she asked each of them in turn.
"Well… yeah, this is Mattie, but I'm not her dad, well not exactly, but I am her legal guardian, Harmon Rabb…" Harm introduced himself.
"Rachel Smithfield," she replied and held out a welcoming hand, which Harm took, pleasantly surprised by the firmness of her grip, "And it's good to meet you! I understand you're Navy?"
"Well… yes, but how did you…"
"How did I know?" Rachel smiled. "I'll tell you in just a second… now Mattie, climb aboard and buckle yourself in…"
Nothing loath, Mattie did as she was bid, and was welcomed by a barrage of greetings from the other girls.
"Now… how did I know about you being Navy?" Rachel smiled, "Well, it's quite obvious that you're pretty new to the teenage girl parenting thing. So, I'll let you into a little secret, teenage girls talk – a lot! And I'm a lucky mom, in that my girl has very few secrets from me, and was so keen to tell me all about the new friend she had made, and how that friend's dad had brought her to school the first few days, and how cool and gorgeous he looked in his uniform and…"
Harm burst out laughing, "Okay, okay, spare my blushes, please!" he protested.
Rachel nodded and smiled, "As you say," she agreed, "And I understand why you would take Mattie to school until she got used to the route, and I even think I understand why you brought her here this evening, instead of letting her make her own way…"
She cocked her head to one side in an interrogative manner and for some reason Harm felt himself growing red, "Yeah, well, she's only just moved to the city, and I'm not satisfied that she has really taken on board the dangers that a teenager could face here… so…"
"So… you'll be picking her up later, of course," Rachel smiled.
"Well, either I will, or my… my… co-guardian, Beth Hawkes, will, at about twenty-two fifteen… oh… sorry, that's at about…"
"It' okay, I know the twenty-four hour clock," Rachel Smithfield replied.
"Well, in that case, I'll leave you to cope with your passengers!" Harm grinned, aware that after an initial burst of noise as they greeted Mattie, the girls in Rachel's Lexus had fallen suspiciously quiet, as if they were trying to overhear what the adults were talking about.
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Harm let himself into the apartment and whistled softly in pleased surprise. Beth had set the new dining table with a crisp, Irish linen tablecloth, and had unearthed Harm's best flatware and crystal glasses, which together with the silver candelabra gave the table a festive atmosphere.
"Ah, you've made it back," Beth stated the obvious as she passed under the arch from the lounge.
Harm turned to reply but the vision of Beth met his gaze rendered him speechless. Beth had chosen to wear a vibrant scarlet, chiffon, tea-length, strapless dress that left her shoulders bare to be swept by the gleaming fall of her hair. She had also taken great care over her make-up, applying the little she wore so artfully that it appeared that she wasn't wearing any at all, but now she looked at Harm with a worried expression beginning to settle on her face, "You… you don't like?" she quavered.
Harm shook his head and swallowed twice in an effort to regain his voice, and as Beth took a step back he managed to croak, "No, wait!" Swallowing again he stepped forward throwing both his hands out to Beth "Like it? Beth, I don't just like it, I love it! You look… You look… Well, fabulous doesn't do you justice, but as I don't have any other words, I'm afraid it will have to do… And you've left me a pretty hard act to follow…"
Pleased, and relieved at his reaction, which was all she could have hoped for, Beth subsided gracefully onto the couch, "This old rag? A hard act to follow?" she gently teased Harm.
"Damn straight it is! And what's more, you know it!" he riposted, "especially when time is short. What time did Le Grenier reckon they'd deliver?"
"At about nineteen thirty hours, so that gives you about forty-five minutes to get your act together, if you think you need to."
Harm looked down at his white T-shirt and khaki chinos and grinned ruefully, "Oh, I need to!"
Silently blessing his Navy training Harm showered and changed in just about record time, re-joining Beth in the lounge in time for them both to take a flute of sparkling white grape juice before the arrival of their meal, allowing Beth to appreciate the picture that the cleaned up version of Harm presented in a crisply ironed light blue shirt, worn with a darker blue watered silk necktie and a pair of light grey pants, the belt of which emphasised his waist in marked contrast to the breath his shoulders and depth of his chest. This was not, of course, the first time that Beth had seen Harm in the same, or similar, clothing, but the knowledge that on this occasion it was solely for her benefit almost took her breath away and gave her the peculiar sensation that her internal organs were rapidly dissolving.
A knock on the apartment door announced the arrival of dinner; the interruption giving Beth the opportunity to regain a measure of her inner equilibrium.
Beth lit the candles and turned off the lights while Harm took delivery of the food, placing the salad starters and the cold desert on the breakfast counter and placing the main course in the preheated oven to keep warm while the pair seated themselves and leisurely ate their salads, which for Beth were Le Grenier's variation on the classic Waldorf salad while Harm contented himself with a green salad studded with cherry tomatoes, olives and Feta cheese.
Although both salads were classics, the high-quality ingredients and the care with which they had been assembled and presented lifted them above the normal restaurant standard, and Harm found himself in total agreement with Beth's "M'mm," of appreciation as she took her first mouthful.
As wonderful as the salads were, once their plates were empty and Harm had removed plates and flatware to the sink, they both stared appreciatively at the main courses once they had been removed from the oven and placed on the table. Beth had chosen a half-rack of lamb accompanied by dauphinoise potatoes and whole, glazed baby carrots while Harm had gone for trout Meuniere with game chips and asparagus spears drizzled with the brown butter sauce with which the trout had been cooked.
Beth's first taste of the lamb was accompanied by closed eyes and an expression of pure bliss and having chewed slowly, savouring every nuance of flavour, she swallowed and murmured, "Oh, this is sooo good."
Harm grinned across the table, the candlelight catching the gleam of humour in his eyes as he commented, "I should hope so, considering what they charge!" And then seeing Beth's eyebrow starting to rise and a disapproving expression creeping across her face he hastily added, "But if you're enjoying it, then it's worth every penny!"
Beth expression relaxed, "Oh, so very yes. It is so worth it! And yours?"
Harm's fork, loaded with a sauce dripping morsel of trout and tip of an asparagus spear, paused halfway between plate and his mouth. "This? This is superb. And you know what makes it even better?"
Beth, with a mouthful of the potato gave a gentle shake of her head.
"What makes it even better," Harm grinned, "is that once we've eaten, we don't have to walk home in the rain before I get you just where I want you!"
Slightly taken aback by Harm's words, Beth gave silent thanks to the combination of her inherited dark skin tone and the low light level with concealed her blush as she replied in as light of voice as she could, "And where would that be?"
"Snuggled up to me on the couch while we indulge in…" Harm deliberately left the end of his sentence hanging in an effort to get Beth to rise to the bait.
This time Beth, however, wasn't biting, "The tarte aux poires and coffees?" she said innocently.
"Of course!" Harm agreed smiling.
"I like the sound of that!" Beth exclaimed happily.
The tarte aux poires, drizzled with crème fraiche to cut the stickiness of the partially caramelised fruit, never made it from the pie-dish to the dessert plates, as the snuggling provided a perfect opportunity for Harm and Beth to feed one and other spoonfuls of the dessert and although it had been Harm's intention to save half of the tarte to split three ways on the following day, the enthusiasm, accompanied by much chuckling, with which both he and Beth attacked the treat ensured that it also disappeared in record time.
A pleasant side-effect of the devoured dessert was that sticky lips were even sweeter than usual, so while the coffee's temperature dropped to undrinkable Harm and Beth spent the time discovering just how much sweetness had adhered to the other's lips. Eventually Beth dropped her head onto Harm's chest and took a deep, shuddering breath, "It's just as well that I gotta go and pick up Mattie…"
Harm fought down his disappointment and frustration. Beth's kisses and the knowledge that they were perfectly alone for once had their effect on him but to his credit he managed to relax back against the couch squabs and release his own breath slowly, "Yeah, we needed to stop, otherwise…"
"Yeah, otherwise," Beth echoed, "but… I'm… I'm still…"
"Not ready for that big step?" Harm asked softly.
Beth shook her head against Harm's chest, "Nuh-huh, not quite, not just yet… You… You aren't mad at me, are you?"
Harm let his head and dropped a soft kiss on Beth's sweet smelling hair, "Mad at you? No, never happen! When we're both ready, we'll both know."
Beth wriggled free of Harm's arm around her shoulder and leaned back slightly, looking up at him with misty eyes, "No wonder I love you. I'm just such an idiot for not admitting it to myself, or telling you years ago."
Harm smiled, "Not as big an idiot as I am, not only from hiding the truth from myself, but also being so dumb as to not recognise it in you either."
Beth giggled, "Oh, so we're now playing the self-blame game are we?"
Harm grinned at her again, grateful that in one sentence she had lifted the atmosphere back to a light-hearted, even flirtatious level. Reaching for her he tilted her chin up with one long, strong finger and kissed her lightly, "Speaking of blame," he murmured, "If you don't get going, Mattie will be on your case for keeping her waiting."
Beth shot a glance at her watch, "Oh Lord, I was going to give you a hand with the clearing down, but now… You're right, if I don't get going I'm going to be late!"
Harm levered himself to his feet and reached out both hands to give Beth an assist to do the same, "Oh, my paws and whiskers?" he queried, the rising inflection of his voice making this statement into a question.
Beth chuckled, "Exactly!" she replied as she headed for her room, to re-emerge moments later buttoning herself into a double-breasted beige, calf length overcoat, which to Harm's eye was obviously inspired by the classic British Winter Warm overcoat worn by British Army officers
Beth pushed the last of the leather-covered buttons through its corresponding buttonhole and taking two swift steps, raised on her toes to drop a swift kiss on Harm's lips, "See you in about half an hour," she smiled.
Harm nodded, "Okay… But you have got your cell phone with you, right?"
"Yes, dad, and I'll call if we're going to be delayed."
"Don't forget!" Harm reminded her.
"After yesterday's reaming out? Not a chance!" Beth cheekily grinned over her shoulder as the apartment door closed behind her.
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
Harm had finished policing the kitchen area and had poured a couple of pints of milk into a saucepan and then readied the rest of the ingredients for what was becoming the nightly ritual of hot chocolate for the three members of the little family and it seemed that no sooner had he put the three marshmallows on a plate than he heard a key in the apartment door lock.
Turning to face the floor his face creased into a smile as Mattie, almost bouncing with excitement burst into the apartment, an indulgently smiling Beth on her heels. Mattie headed straight for the breakfast counter, where, without ceremony she jumped up onto one of the stools with an exuberant, "Hey, Harm!" while Beth shrugged out of her coat and draped it over the back of one of the new dining chairs.
Harm leaned back casually against the worktop behind him and took in the dancing, bright blue eyes in the teenage face before him, "You had a good evening, then?" He queried.
"Good? Harm, it was great!"
Harm gave Mattie a shrewd look? "H'mm… I was going to make us all a mug of chocolate, but I figure that maybe you've had enough sugar for the night…"
"Harm…" Mattie began in protest, only to be interrupted by Beth, who threw a fulminating glare in his direction.
"Stop teasing her, Harm! Of course he's going to make chocolate, Mattie. Don't let him get to you!"
"Busted!" Harm groaned.
"Oh… you… you… I am so gonna get you for that!" Mattie giggled, "But not until after I've had my chocolate!"
"Okay, okay, you win!" Harm chuckled looking in turn from Beth to Mattie. "I know when I'm surrounded and outnumbered!"
Beth turned towards the lounge area, paused long enough to fling a quip over her shoulder, "It is for your own good," she grinned.
Harm looked suitably chastened, "Yes'm," he replied humbly.
Mattie shook her head in despair and looked in turn at Beth and Harm, "You two," she said fondly as she slipped from the stool and followed Beth.
Three minutes later Harm joined his two girls, in his hands a tray bearing the three mugs of chocolate, and just in time to hear Mattie say, "And then Mrs Smithfield called us down to dinner…"
Harm paused as he handed out the hot drinks and raised a sceptical eyebrow, "And dinner was?" he asked.
Mattie looked up at him guiltily, "Uh… Well, you wouldn't have liked it…"
Harm dropped onto the couch next to Beth, "Quit stalling, squirt!"
Mattie subjected him to a penetrating stare over the rim of her mug, and to her relief detected the humour in his eyes. "Oh, if you're going to be picky about the details… We had hotdogs, potato salad and coleslaw."
Harm allowed himself an internal wince, "And how many hotdogs did you have?"
Mattie's face creased into an embarrassed grin, "Just the one… You've corrupted me, it didn't taste anywhere near as good as I remembered them tasting."
"And that's all you had, just a hot dog? Do you want a sandwich?"
Mattie shook her head, "No, no thanks, I filled up on the potato salad and slaw, and then when we went upstairs we had a huge bowl of popcorn to share."
"So, what else did you get up to?" Beth asked.
Mattie grimaced, "it was all a bit too girly for me, the others tried out some make up samples, and different hairstyles…" Mattie grinned broadly, "It was quite funny, really. They tried to do something with my hair, I was quite willing to give it a shot, but my hair wasn't!"
"So… Anything else?" Beth challenged.
"Oh, we watched a video and we just talked…"
"What was the video?" Harm asked.
And at the same time Beth wanted to know "What did you talk about?"
"Hey, one question at a time please, people!"
Harm and Beth exchanged a look and then Beth made an open hand gesture, indicating that Harm should ask first.
Harm nodded his head in acknowledgement of Beth's silent invitation and then turned back to Mattie, "So, what was the movie?"
"Uh, it was called Elizabethtown, with Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom, it was a kind of romcom and tragedy all in one."
"Orlando Bloom, that name rings a bell," Harm murmured, his brow furrowed as he searched his memory for the connection."
"Legolas!" Mattie interjected forcefully, "You know, from The Lord of the Rings!"
"And Pirates of the Caribbean, and Troy and The Kingdom of Heaven!" Beth added emphatically.
Harm blinked, "So, I take it he's a bit of a heart-throb?"
"Oh, he's so much more than that," Mattie breathed dreamily.
Beth took a surreptitious glance at Harm and decided maybe the subject ought to be changed before he became, in Mattie's words, all bent out of shape. "And after the movie, what did you talk about?"
Mattie's dreamy smile grew even wider, "Orlando, of course, and wondering if any of the dorks at school would ever grow up to be like him!"
Beth couldn't help herself, "And the consensus of opinion was?"
"Not a chance!" Mattie grinned.
Harm, although he realised that the teenager's crush on a Hollywood star was harmless, and reminded him of the way he had felt about various female stars as he grew up, still felt a little uncomfortable with the idea of Mattie rapidly turning into a young woman. Intellectually he knew that her growing up was inevitable, but emotionally he still saw her as a child. And that reminded him… "Okay… I know it's not a school night, squirt, but it's way past your usual bed-time. So… if you've finished your chocolate, and you're not on too much of a sugar high, then I reckon it's time you were in your rack."
"Oh… I thought we were going to have a conversation about the rules," Mattie objected. "You know, the one you said earlier, that we'd have…"
"And we will, Mats. Just not right now. But I promise you that all three of us will sit down and talk about the rules…"
"When?" Mattie challenged him with a touch of truculence in her voice.
"How about tomorrow afternoon, after we've cleared down from lunch? That gives Beth and I time to get our uniforms ready for Monday… Beth?"
Beth's forehead and wrinkled in a frown, "What's this?" she demanded.
"Mattie thinks that some of the rules we laid down are a little too strict, so I told her we'd all sit down and she can air her concerns, and maybe we can find room for a little give and take," Harm explained.
"Okaaay…" Beth said slowly, "I guess we can fit that talk into our day, but right now, Mattie, Harm's right. It is time for you to hit the hay."
Mattie, like Harm, knew when to give ground, and was learning how to do it gracefully, so raising her mug to her lips, she quickly swallowed the last half-mouthful of her drink and put the mug down on the table and then stood, "Yep, I've done! So… goodnight you guys… oh… and before I forget, you both look great, and… oh, yeah, thanks for letting me go to Susan's this evening!"
Harm sent her an amused look, "Flattery is not going to influence any decisions we might make tomorrow! Goodnight, Mats!"
"Yeah, goodnight!" Beth added with an encouraging smile.
Harm and Beth watched Mattie cross the lounge towards her bedroom and then Beth turned to Harm, "Well… that didn't seem to have too bad an effect on our girl, and Mrs Smithfield was highly complimentary about her behaviour and manners…"
"And?" Harm queried.
"And… so, maybe there is a little room for some give and take in the ground rules?" Beth suggested.
"M'mm… Maybe," Harm conceded. "But, now we're alone again, I can think of much more interesting things to do than talk about Mattie's discontent with the guidelines we laid down. Guidelines, which I may remind you that you helped frame."
"M'mm… so can I!" Beth enthused, "Like clearing up the chocolate things!"
"Slave driver!" Harm grumbled unconvincingly.
"You'd better believe it!" Beth grinned.
The clearing down took only a few minutes, and Beth turned to Harm, "Well, like Mattie, I'm heading for my rack. I'm not saying that the couch was uncomfortable…"
"Don't bullshit!" Harm laughed, "I know just how uncomfortable it is!"
"Well, maybe, but my new bed is far, far more comfortable than that!"
"Well… if that's the case, do I get a goodnight kiss?" Harm riposted.
"I thought you'd never ask!" Beth replied, standing on her tip toes and winding her hands around the back of Harm's neck.
"Wow!" Beth breathed some thirty seconds later as she fought to control her quivering knees, "That was some goodnight kiss!"
"M'mm… I thought so, too!" Harm answered, resting his forehead against Beth's.
"So… before we go any further, I guess, it's goodnight," Beth added, failing to hide the touch of regret in her voice.
"Yeah… I s'pose…"