Beware the Young Stranger Read Free

and started stiffly from the living room. But before she reached the foyer she stopped and turned.
    â€œJohn …”
    â€œYes?”
    She was worrying the handbag. “Do make allowances for me.” The rosebud mouth pleaded; she was very much the little girl now. “Having Keith brought into this house after what happened … It upsets me to think about it.” Then she hurried out, leaving Vallancourt frowning.
    He was standing at the windows overlooking the long terraced lawn when Dorcas Ferguson appeared.
    â€œI’m sorry to have kept you waiting, John. I had a call from Baltimore.”
    â€œI didn’t mind. This house is a pleasant place in which to wait.” The statement was a half-truth. Today, some of the pleasantness was gone from the house.
    She glanced about the room. “Did Ivy leave?”
    Vallancourt nodded.
    Dorcas was paler than when he had last seen her. He had met her five years ago, when he and Nancy had returned home for the summer. He had formed a strong feeling for her almost at once.
    She was not a beautiful woman, although she was lithely attractive, wide-shouldered and tall, in contrast to Ivy. Dorcas’s almost Indian face was dominated by a firm and generous mouth, high cheekbones, and large dark eyes. Her glistening black hair, stranded with silver, swept in a high widow’s peak from her wide forehead.
    She took his hand in both of hers. “It’s so good to see you again, John.”
    â€œCould I say less?” Vallancourt smiled.
    She gestured him to a deep chair. He sat down, and she began to pace in a fretful manner that was uncharacteristic of her.
    â€œDorcas … if you have something difficult to say, please remember how I feel about you.”
    She gave him a grateful look. “It’s about Keith, John.”
    â€œI suspected as much.”
    â€œI want you to like him.”
    â€œI’ve the same wish,” he said.
    â€œBut you don’t.”
    â€œThat’s not quite true, Dorcas. After all, I haven’t had a chance to get to know the boy.”
    She eased herself to the edge of a chair. “But you do have reservations.”
    â€œI honestly don’t know. I like some things about Keith. He has a good mind, quick, above average. In his off-guard moments, he’s very personable.”
    â€œOff-guard?”
    â€œIt’s what I sense inside the boy that disturbs me, Dorcas. There is a turmoil, a kind of watchfulness, in his eyes.”
    â€œThe cub, backing up, prepared to growl defiance,” she said in a faint, bitter voice. “Many people would look at him and never see. But not you. Not when he moved in on someone dear to you.”
    â€œWould you rather I were less candid with you, Dorcas?”
    â€œYou know I wouldn’t. There’s always been honesty between us, John. I’ve found little enough of it in the world.” She drew a deep breath, seemed to derive strength from it. “That’s why I called you here this morning. I want you to know … what you should know … about Keith.
    â€œYou never knew his mother. Maggie was the middle sister, John. Somehow she got lost between me and Ivy. She was the gentle one. She lacked Ivy’s brittle selfishness and my energy. The very act of living was bewildering to Maggie. When her final illness came, she didn’t know how to put up a real fight. She simply died, helplessly, one morning before dawn.
    â€œI wonder whether it would have made a difference to Keith if Maggie had lived a little longer. I think not. He would have made the trip anyway.”
    Dorcas had spoken with composure, in a soft, even voice. But she had aged before Vallancourt’s eyes. She raised her slender hand and brushed the corners of her eyes.
    â€œJohn, you know the latest spring vacation custom adopted by college students. It’s become a stupid tradition. They pile in cars and drive non-stop as much as two thousand