Free Wild Heart by Patricia Gaffney Page B

even has a bookmaker."
    "He's just growing up."
    Sydney shook her head. "He needs someone strong right now, somebody to give him guidance. I can't do it, it's got to come from a man." No point in saying that it was never going to come from her father; Camille knew that as well as she did.
    "Poor Philip." Camille sighed, sitting down at a glass-topped table on the veranda and signaling the maid to bring their tea. "But I'm sure he'll grow out of this. I'm sure it's just a stage."
    "I hope so." Watching her, Sydney wondered if she knew—she must know—that Philip had always been in love with her. Even as children, they had joked and daydreamed about marrying one another when they grew up, Spencer and Sydney, Camille and Philip. Philip had never really let go of the dream, though, and it was only one more thing making him reckless and dissatisfied these days.
    "So," said Cam, passing a plate of miniature iced sponge cakes, "tell me everything. How was your trip? Are you glad to be home?"
    "Ecstatic. But you know about my trip, I put it all in my letters. Tell me how you've been."
    Camille obligingly plunged into a description of her social schedule since February, the parties and dances, tennis and golf tournaments, sailing regattas, croquet matches and bicycling tours, shopping sprees and charity balls. It was all so familiar; Sydney felt a kind of evening out, a balancing inside herscif as she listened. She belonged to this world, and it was comforting to be back in it. At the same time, something nagged in the back of her mind. A soft-voiced irritant that felt almost like . . . impatience.
    Cam was talking about the World's Fair. "Last night Claire and Mark and I went to the Women's Building. Have you seen it yet?" Claire was Cam's sister and Mark was her brother-in-law. "It's my favorite now. You have to go, Sydney. There's a model kitchen, and a kindergarten, concerts every day by women composers. A woman designed the building itself, and every day there's a demonstration—"
    "I haven't been to the fair at all yet."
    "You what ?”
    Sydney laughed at her amazement. "Well, heavens, I've only been back in the country for three weeks."
    "I know, but it's the World's Fair! It's absolutely unbelievable, a marvel, a wonder of the world."
    "And I've got four more months to see it."
    "Oh, but—"
    "Cam, it's so good to be home, just spending the days quietly with Philip and Sam. If you knew how many museums and cathedrals and piazzas and art galleries I've been dragged to in the last three months, you wouldn't scold me."
    "I suppose." She nodded skeptically. "Well, but when you do go, let's go together. I've been at least six times already, so I know where the best exhibits are. But you'll want to see everything eventually. It's-—honestly, Syd, it's the most marvelous thing I've ever seen in my life, or probably ever will see."
    "Philip says that, too. He's dying to take me."
    "We'll all go together, then. Oh, it'll be wonderful."
    Sydney set her teacup down gently. "Spencer would have loved it, wouldn't he?"
    "He would have. I miss him so much."
    "I miss him every day."
    "They both began to hunt for their handkerchief's. "Mama's still grieving so. She simply can't be consoled. Papa's taken her to the River Forest house for the summer."
    Sydney nodded. "You told me."
    "I don't think she'll ever get over it. It's been awful for all of us, but worst for her, I think."
    Unashamed, they both wept. But Sydney's tears came easily now, naturally. There would always be sadness, but this wasn't that hard, dry, aching pain that had plagued her for so long. She was crying now for Spencer, but also for Cam and for herself, because they had both loved him so much. It was the first time she'd been able to share her grief with anyone. Maybe she was healing.
    That thought gave her the courage to say, "Charles West has asked me again to marry him."
    Camille waited. Gradually the expectant look on her face faded and apprehension took its place.