Man Who Loved Pride and Prejudice Page 5

  John looked dubiously at Arlen. "It has to be October." Arlen nodded.

  "I'm telling you, it was in November!" Cassie said with irritation.

  Calder had a slight smile on his face. "What's the team answer?"

  Cassie repeated her answer, but John stepped in. "No, I want to go with October 7, 1917," he said, looking apologetically at Cassie. "Arlen, what's your vote?"

  "October," said the other man briefly.

  "Is that your final answer?" Jim had his poker face on.

  At John's nod, Cassie struck her forehead with her hand and said, "Idiots!" She looked expectantly at Jim.

  "The correct answer is… November 7, 1917." Jim smirked.

  Cassie glared at her teammates. "I told you so."

  Calder looked smug. "I guess there's a reason you're named Cassandra."

  "Yes, my parents chose it so I could be teased for the rest of my life," Cassie muttered in annoyance. "Now you'll have to explain what you mean to the rest of these single-minded scientists."

  He laughed. "In Greek mythology, Cassandra was a princess of Troy with the gift of prophecy, but after she refused to become Apollo's lover, he placed a curse on her that her prophecies would never be believed."

  "Some men just can't take no for an answer," Cassie retorted.

  He smiled slowly but said nothing, his dark eyes speaking for him.

  Something about his look made Cassie embarrassed, and she turned to John and Arlen. "I hope you're ashamed of yourselves!" she said with mock severity. "Don't blame me if they win!"

  "We'll never doubt you again," said John in a mournful voice.

  Cassie laughed. "I'm going to walk off in a snit anyway and go play with my gels. I'll just be a few minutes, and you can always come crawling to me for the answers if you get desperate."

  "The things we put up with!" Arlen said. "It's abuse, I tell you."

  Cassie crossed the lab to the gels. They were indeed done, and she readied the camera to take pictures of them. As she arranged the lighting and focused in on each one in turn, she listened to the men's laughter and joking. She glanced over at the game between shots and saw Calder rolling the dice. Now that was a story she wouldn't mind selling to a tabloid. Calder Westing enjoying a game like a normal human being.

  By the time she finished with the gels, the game was ending, with Calder's team well in the lead. "That's what you get for not believing me!" Cassie said goodnaturedly to her teammates.

  "You'll never let us live it down, will you?" John stacked the cards neatly and put them back in the box.

  "Not a chance. Now shoo, all of you. I'm ready to close down here for tonight."

  The men packed up the game with some goodnatured grumbling. Calder lingered behind after the other researchers left. "Thanks for dinner."

  "I'd say you were welcome if you hadn't broken my winning streak," she teased.

  "I'm sorry." A worry line appeared between his eyebrows.

  Cassie gave him an amused look of disbelief. "You don't need to apologize for winning!" she exclaimed. "It's part of the game. Now go home, so I can get out of here."

  "Good night, then." He paused in the doorway and turned back with a look that made her skin tingle. For a moment she thought he might say something, but then he left. Cassie rubbed her arms.

  She hoped it was just a trick of the light that made her see desire in his eyes. If Calder ever decided he wanted her, she was in trouble. The kind of trouble she couldn't afford.

  Chapter 4

  BY MORNING CASSIE HAD talked herself out of her suspicions. It was nothing more than the late hour and her own loneliness that led her to see something that wasn't there. Why would Calder Westing look at her when he could have any woman?

  There was still no sign of Erin. She must have spent the night with Scott. Cassie hoped Erin wouldn't regret becoming involved with him so quickly. Cassie had done a little homework on him. It was easy enough to find him on the internet. To look at the news articles, one would think his first name was "Whiz Kid." He had earned an undergrad degree from MIT in biological engineering and an MBA from Harvard, and then he bought the failing Cambridge Biotech and turned it around in five years. She had found two pictures of him with women, both tall and blonde. Did he know there was more to Erin than her looks?

  Erin, when she finally appeared, looked happy and seemed to take it for granted she would be spending that evening with Scott as well. Cassie was glad to see her looking so content.

  Jim looked up from his computer. "Working late again?" Cassie stood in the doorway. Now that Rob had left Woods Hole, it was safe for her to visit Jim's lab again. "Are you going to be around much longer tonight? I was hoping to catch a ride home with you when you go." She didn't like to bike back to the empty cottage alone when it was this late. Erin hadn't slept at the cottage for over a week.

  "Sure. I don't think I'll be long, maybe half an hour. Pull up a stool, if you like." Jim paused to click the mouse a few times. "You've been working late a lot this summer."

  She leaned back against the lab bench. "Is this the pot calling the kettle black?"

  "I'm a hopeless case. I do my best work at night. You never used to stay this long, though. It's almost midnight."

  "No. But I have a lot to do this summer, and not much time to do it. And I don't have any particular reason not to work late."

  "That's what worries me, Cassie. And I don't see Erin around very much."

  Cassie walked along the lab bench, picking up scattered pens and placing them in the pencil holder. "She's here during the day, and she works hard. She'd stay longer if I asked her to."

  "Have you asked her to? It sure looks like you could use the help. You've got a lot riding on getting good results this summer."

  Cassie hesitated. She had worked all weekend as well. "Erin's had a really tough year, and she has a man here she's madly in love with. I want her to be able to enjoy this summer. She deserves it."

  "So, you're doing your lab assistant's job as well as your own."

  She straightened a stack of notepads. "I don't begrudge it. I knew she was burnt out when I offered her the job. And she has a reason to want to be out of the lab, and I'd just go home and read."

  "Wreaks havoc on your social life, though."

  Cassie laughed. "My social life? What's that?"

  "That's my point exactly. And stop cleaning my lab. You're not one of my grad students anymore."

  "The ones you have must be slobs, then." She crossed to the sink and dampened some paper towels and then wiped down the bench. "Somehow I sense Rose's hand in this sudden interest in my hours. Did she put you up to this?"

  "We've discussed it. We want you to be happy, and we worry about the chances you may be missing."

  "What chances am I missing? Woods Hole is a grand place for a summer romance, but they don't last. All the men here have academic jobs that can't move, just like me, and a long-distance relationship doesn't interest me."

  "Some summer romances last. Look at Rose and me."

  "You're the exception that proves the rule."

  He frowned and shut down the computer. "Seeing Rob upset you, didn't it?"

  "Rob is ancient history. He and I talked and it was fine."

  "That's not how he told it, and he didn't decide to leave early because it was fine. He was looking forward to seeing you."

  Cassie didn't want to hear about Rob. "Jim, I appreciate your concern, but I can manage my own love life."

  Jim held up his hands. "Okay, okay, I get the message. I'll tell Rose I did my best."

  "Thank you."

  Later that night, when Cassie was alone at the cottage, the conversation came back to haunt her. It didn't matter how good a face she put on it during the day when she still felt lonely at night. Seeing Erin and Scott together was a constant reminder of what she didn't have. But Erin was free to pursue a relationship because she'd decided to jettison her academic career.

  Cassie could never do that, not when she was so c
lose to meeting her goals—a secure future and the companionship of stimulating and interesting people. She wouldn't risk it for any man, and she hadn't met one yet who didn't expect her career to come second. Men couldn't be depended on the way tenure could. Rob had taught her that.

  But intellectual companionship didn't fill all her needs. She spent over an hour staring bleakly at the ceiling before she fell asleep.

  Cassie rubbed her temples. No matter how many times she performed the analysis, her results weren't turning out to be statistically significant. No significant results meant no paper to be published. No paper meant no tenure. She tried to block the refrain in her head. It was a well-planned study, and she was getting new data every day. Panicking wouldn't help.

  Maybe she needed to get out of the lab and remember why she loved this work. She closed her data notebook and turned to Erin. At least Cassie hoped she was working, rather than just emailing Scott. Maybe tonight she and Erin could finally do something together, just the two of them.

  When Erin looked up from the screen, Cassie said, "It's a new moon tonight, and Jim says the dinoflagellate counts are high. I'm going to check it out. Want to come?"

  "Can I bring Scott?"

  So much for just the two of them doing something. "By all means, bring Scott. Though he could probably see the same thing swimming off his own pier, without trekking all the way to the marsh."

  "Oh, but I'd like to take him. He's only here for two more weeks. I want to be with him as much as I can. I'll check if he wants to go." Erin sat down again and began to type.

  "Careful, girl, that keyboard hasn't had a chance to cool down since your last email!" Cassie was glad to see Erin so happy again, even if the subject of Scott became tiresome on occasion.

  Erin arranged that she and Cassie would walk out to Scott's house that night, thus avoiding the perpetual problem of parking in Woods Hole. They were waved past the gate to Penzance Point this time. Erin was a known visitor now.

  Scott was already outside waiting when they reached the house. Cassie turned away, ostensibly to admire the view of the Sound, as the two lovers greeted one another tenderly. Finally she turned back after hearing conversation once again.

  "Ready to go?" she asked brightly.

  "All ready." Scott dangled his car keys. "I'll see if Calder's ready. He wants to check this out, too."

  Cassie wondered if Calder understood this was playtime, not a scientific expedition. He had tagged along on a specimen-gathering trip they made to the salt marsh earlier in the week, and she had the time to explain everything to him then, but she wasn't interested in being a teacher tonight. He would just have to cope. She had no intention of baby-sitting him.

  When he emerged from the house, Calder announced he would be driving as well. With a regretful glance at Erin and Scott, Cassie offered to ride with him, more from a desire to give the other two some time alone than out of any wish for Calder's company. She tried not to notice the luxuriousness of the car's interior as she buckled her seat belt. "Very thoughtful of you to make sure the lovebirds get a little privacy."

  He glanced at her as he turned the key and the engine came smoothly to life. "Or something like that. I hope you'll be able to give me directions."

  She gave him an amused look. "I should hope so, after doing research there for eight years!"

  "We're going to the marsh?" He seemed taken aback.

  Cassie wondered if he was afraid of getting his feet muddy. "Yes, as it happens, there's a beautiful beach at the edge of the marsh; it's completely deserted, because there's no good land to build on. It's ideal for seeing the biolumes because there are fewer artificial lights there."

  "Makes sense."

  He said nothing further, only watched the road. It was starting to look as if it would be a long, silent ride. Cassie cast about for a topic of conversation. "Did Erin give you your book back? Thanks again for lending it to me. I really enjoyed it."

  "Did you?"

  She gave him a puzzled look. "Yes, I did." What game were they playing? "The characterization was very good, and the part where Elanora learned she had cancer was just heartbreaking. It was hard to imagine how Teddy was going to live without her."

  "He did, though. He went on."

  "Yes, though there was a point where I wondered if it could have any kind of happy resolution." She had almost stopped reading it at that point, something she rarely did, but the intriguing main character pulled her along.

  "Loss and redemption."

  "And the dangers of allowing yourself to care about people. I liked the imagery of the seasons changing. That helped balance out the loss."

  "That's one way of looking at it."

  Tired of his noncommittal comments, Cassie decided to let the subject drop.

  After a period of silence, he asked, "How's your research going?"

  He certainly had a knack for saying the wrong thing to her, even when he managed to be polite. "It's a little frustrating at the moment." She stared out the window into the darkness, hoping he wouldn't follow up on it.

  "I'm sorry to hear that." He was quiet for a moment, guiding the car past a series of blind curves. "The work itself, or what you're finding?"

  "The results aren't what I'd hoped for." Why was she telling him this, rather than a polite lie? Calder Westing would be the last person of her acquaintance to understand her dilemma. He never had to worry where the next dollar was coming from.

  "That must be disappointing."

  "Yes." She risked a glance over at him. His eyes were on the road, and his profile showed nothing. Perhaps that was why she was telling him. He was a long way from academia, and he wouldn't understand the implications for her.

  "Will it be a problem for you?"

  "It could be. I need good results. There aren't a lot of jobs out there for marine biologists who don't get tenure. At least not jobs I could take. I couldn't work for the fishing industry."

  "No, I suppose not. There's still time, though, isn't there?"

  "Yes." She was silent for a moment. It was too easy to feel close to him, too easy to forget who he was when they talked like this. She forced cheerfulness into her voice. "Anyway, that's why I wanted distraction tonight. The bioluminescence is something special, you'll see."

  "I'm looking forward to it."

  "This is where you turn in, right up here." She indicated where he should park and made her escape from the car as soon as she could. She was embarrassed to have confided her troubles to him. What did he care whether she got results or even whether she got tenure? It was a million miles from his world.

  She took her towel from the back seat. Scott's car was already there. "It looks like they've gone ahead without us. We have to walk from here."

  She unclipped a small flashlight from her belt and led the way to the path through the woods. The silence of the nighttime descended on her, bringing its own peace, and she relaxed, letting go of her worries for a few minutes. At least Calder knew when to be quiet. A few minutes' walk brought them into the marsh. Cassie stopped by a stand of bushes, plucking a leaf and crushing it between her fingers, then raising it to her face to breathe in the fragrant scent.

  She could sense Calder's questioning look. "Bayberry," she said in a hushed voice, as if too much noise might chase away the magic of the moment. "The leaves have a beautiful scent when you rub them." She held out the leaf to him.

  Instead of taking the leaf from her, he took her hand in his and brought it to his face, inhaling deeply. A shock of awareness ran down Cassie's arm, and the sensation of his warm breath against her hand almost made her shiver. Her hand was intimately poised no more than an inch from his lips.

  "Beautiful." He released her hand.

  Discomposed by her reaction to him, she turned back to the path and began walking a little faster than was prudent in the darkness. She chastised herself for responding to a meaningless touch, reminding herself that women were a dime a dozen for Calder Westing. Besides, half the time she didn
't even like the man.

  They finally emerged from the rustling marsh grass onto the beach. It was deserted, as she expected. At the far north end of the marsh, several houses stood along the water, but they were across the river. To the south there was nothing but more marsh and sand. Cassie could barely make out two figures far down the beach. It was fine for Erin to want to be alone with Scott, but she wished her friend would consider the position it left her in with Calder. Still, she wouldn't let his presence interfere with her enjoyment. She put down her towel and kicked off her shoes.