Laura Holt waved goodbye to her friends, watching as they drove away before turning toward the house she shared with her mother. "Mother!" she called out, excited, as she entered, "Joan and Marlene asked to me their graduation party at Marlene's house-" her voice stilled as she caught sight of the man who rose from the sofa with a smile.
"And here I hoped that you could be persuaded to join me for dinner," he said.
Laura launched herself at him, giving him a hug. "Daniel! Why didn't you let me know you were coming? Oh, but I'm glad you did. It wouldn't have been nearly as nice a graduation without you here."
Daniel Chalmers smiled indulgently down at the girl- young woman, he corrected. She was eighteen now, but she still looked like that sixteen year old waif that he'd first met in London. "Let me look at you," he said, holding her away. "You've grown up."
"It's only been a few months since you saw me, Daniel," she reminded him. "My eighteenth birthday, remember?"
"Ah, yes. So it was," he agreed, pulling her to sit beside him. "Your mother was just telling me about your scholarship to Stanford, my dear."
"I couldn't believe it when I found out. I mean, my grades are good, but-"
"Good, Laura?" Abigail questioned. "She missed being salutatorian by just a half a point, Daniel," Abigail told him.
"Only half a point?" he said, impressed. "I always knew you were a bright girl."
Laura shrugged. "It's nothing."
"What were you saying about a graduation party, Laura?" her mother asked.
"Oh, Marlene and -"
"Marlene? That Travis girl? Laura, you know I don't like you hanging around with her and her friends. Wasn't she arrested for shoplifting awhile back?"
"It was a mistake, Mother," Laura insisted. "You don't know the whole story. People don't like her because she's the most popular girl in school - she's practically ignored me for the last year- "
"But now she's not ignoring you, and you feel as if you've been accepted?" Daniel suggested.
"It's *the* party," she told them. "*Everyone* is going to be there."
"Everyone except you," Abigail decided.
"But Mother-"
"I said no, Laura,-"
Laura turned to Daniel. "Daniel, can't you talk to her? Make her understand how important this is?"
"I'm sorry, dear, but I'm inclined to agree with her," he said apologetically.
Laura rose, arms straight, fists tightly clenched. "I'm not a child, Mother. I'm eighteen. And I'm *going* to that party."
"As long as you're living under this roof, Laura Holt-"
"Well maybe I need to find another place to live, then," Laura said. "I'll be leaving for college in another few months anyway. Maybe I should go down to San Francisco now and get a job -"
"You're over reacting, Laura," Abigail said. "Now sit down and-"
"I *won't* sit down," Laura exclaimed. "Not until you understand -"
"All I understand is that Daniel came all this way to see you and here you are acting like a spoiled child. Now sit down or go to you room this instant."
Laura's breath came in short, quick gasps as she struggled to maintain her temper. "You can't order me around anymore, Mother." She turned on her heel and left the room, but instead of hearing her on the stair, Abigail frowned as the front door opened and closed.
She shook her head. "I'm sorry, Daniel. She's become such a handful lately- It's one reason I was so glad when you arrived. I was hoping that you might talk some sense into her."
"Unfortunately, Abigail," Daniel said, patting her hand, "She's right. She *is* eighteen. Did something happen to cause this return to armed conflict between you?"
"It started two weeks ago- Laura wanted to go to Catalina with the Travis girl and her friends for the weekend. I refused to allow it - and she didn't go- but ever since then, she's been impossible to get along with."
Daniel rose and went to the window. Laura was sitting on the front porch steps, elbows on her knees, her chin on her hands. "Why don't I go and talk to her?" he suggested. "A heart to heart chat?"
Abigail rose as well, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, Daniel. I don't know *how* I would have handled her if it hadn't been for you - "
He placed a hand over hers as it lay on his arm. "You would have managed, my dear."
**********
Laura wanted to scream. It wasn't *fair*. All she wanted was to go to a silly party. Nothing terrible was going to happen. She heard the front door open, and tensed, keeping her eyes ahead as the light scent of Daniel's aftershave reached her nostrils. He leaned against a post, and she sensed he was watching her. "Did she send you out to plead her case?" Laura asked. "Because if she did, you might as well give it up now. Because I'm going to that party."
"Why is going to this party so important to you, Laura?" Daniel wanted to know. "Is it so important that you be accepted by the 'in' crowd? Things like that never used to matter to you."
"I don't know, Daniel."
"Your mother says that you were upset about an outing to Catalina-"
"She was upset because there were some boys going," she told him. "She doesn't trust me."
Daniel sat down beside her on the step. "I think she trusts you, Laura. It's simply that she's afraid something will happen to you that you can't stop. Your being kidnapped and your father's death hit her harder than you realize, my dear. She's still worried about letting you out of her sight for very long at a time."
"But when I go away to college, she'll *have* to let me go."
"She's aware of that," he said, putting an arm around her shoulders. "She won't have any choice when that time comes. Until then, she simply wants to protect you."
"I can take care of myself," Laura insisted. "I've taken a couple of self defense courses," she told him. "I could probably defend myself better than *she* could."
"Quite possibly. But she *is* your mother, Laura. And worrying about you is part of what being a mother is. Especially of being *your* mother," he said with a grin.
Laura grinned in response, her dimples making her seem like a child once more. "I haven't done anything crazy in at least -"
"Three days?" he suggested.
Her brown eyes widened. "She told you?"
"About you chasing down that purse snatcher? Yes, she did. She even showed me the newspaper article about it."
Laura rolled her eyes, recalling the headline. "Teenager Saves Day." "I didn't do anything special," she insisted. "I just heard that old woman crying for help and -"
"Chased down a drunken man, tackling him and disabling him until the police could arrive." He shook his head. "You could have been serious injured- or killed."
"He shouldn't have taken something that didn't belong to him," Laura insisted. "And no one else was doing anything -" She rested her head on his shoulder. "Sometimes I wish I'd stayed in London, Daniel."
"You made your choice," he reminded her gently.
She nodded, then sat back up, looking at her hands. "How - How is he?"
"I don't know. He left a few months ago - "
Laura lifted concerned eyes. "Not because -"
"No. He just decided it was time that he spread his wings a bit - do things on his own."
"Must be hard on you - lonely."
"He did call a week or so back- but I wasn't home - and he hasn't called since. Have you heard from him at all?"
"Only that card on my birthday- and that could have been from a distant cousin. I guess he's forgotten all about me."
"No more than you've forgotten him, my dear," Daniel assured her. "He's simply doing what he thinks you want him to do: leave you alone."
Laura's head fell back onto his shoulder again as she sighed deeply. "I miss him, Daniel."
"So do I, my dear. So do I." He hugged her for a moment, then said brightly, "What are we doing moping about this way? This is *supposed* to be a happy day."
"I'm going to that party, Daniel," she said again, and Daniel sighed.
"You are a stubborn young woman, Laura Holt."
"You betcha I am," Laura agreed, grinning impishly.
**********
After graduation, a flushed and glowing Laura found her sister Frances and brother in law Donald with her mother and Daniel. "I'll see you later," she said, shoving her cap, gown, and diploma into Abigail's arms.
"You're sure we can't convince you to join the four of us for dinner?" Daniel asked again, his gaze on the group of young people to which Laura had been talking.
"Tomorrow," Laura said.
"You comin', Laura?" someone called, and she turned.
"I'll be right there!" she called back. "You all go and enjoy yourselves. You'll probably have more fun without me around, anyway." She gave them each a quick kiss on the cheek and then ran to catch up with her friends.
"I still don't like this, Daniel," Abigail said worriedly. "Marlene Travis' shoplifting charge was only dropped because her father has money.
"I can't believe that they didn't throw the book at her," Frances said. "And that Joan Baxter's no better. Wasn't she caught driving drunk?"
"Laura has to feel that we trust her to make the right decisions." Daniel told them. "She's got a good head on her shoulders," he said. "Now. I've made reservations for us - and if we don't leave now, we'll be late."
**********
Laura sighed as she sat against the wall. No one had asked her to dance- not once. Most of the boys were already going steady with someone else- and the ones that weren't were too busy trying to impress Marlene to even look at plain little Laura Holt. She got up and went to the punch bowl, ladling a generous portion into a cup. Turning to look at the dancers, she took a sip, - and nearly choked as the alcohol took her by surprise. Frowning at the punch bowl, she remembered clearly that her earlier cup had been just fruit punch. Someone had "spiked" it.
"Good punch, huh?" James Evers asked, refilling his cup.
"Be careful of that," Laura said. "Someone-"
The football quarterback grinned at her. "Yeah. Buddy did it." Buddy Norman, James' best friend and Joan's steady boyfriend, Laura realized. James leaned closer, and Laura could smell the liquor on his breath. "You wanna dance, kid?"
"Sure. But I thought you and -"
"Nah. Had a fight. She's with Mark - over there," he said, glowering at where Helen and Mark were sitting in a dark corner, heads together. "Come on," he said, pulling her out to the dance floor as a slow song began to play. Laura found herself held tightly against his muscular body. "This is more like it," he sighed. His hands moved across her back, lower, then back again, and she felt him doing something.
"What are you-?" she froze, stopping in her tracks as her bra became unfastened.
"Come on, Laura," he said, his words slurred due to the punch he'd consumed. "We're not kids anymore. "We're grown ups - ready to go out and face the world-" He pulled her back against him, his thick, wet lips finding hers.
Laura tried to push him away, to break his hold on her. He was bigger, stronger - but he had one weak spot- and she used it. Bringing her knee up hard, she found his groin, and James released her, gasping as the others turned to see what had caused his roar of pain. "You little-"
Helen ran across to put an arm around her boyfriend, staring daggers at Laura. "I told Marlene that it was a mistake to invite you," she declared.
Seeing all eyes on her, Laura couldn't stand it and ran from the patio, through the side gate of the house and to the street. Wiping tears from her eyes, she started walking toward home. She should have known, she thought. Mother and Frances had been right all along. She reached behind her, trying to fasten her bra, then stopped as she heard a car engine moving with her along the street.
Increasing her pace, she began looking for a telephone from which to call her mother and Daniel to come pick her up. Or maybe a policeman-. After two blocks, the car was still there, just behind her, out of sight unless she were to turn completely around. Finally she caught sight of a pay phone, and hurried to the well lit area.
It was only when she picked up the phone that she remembered that she didn't have any money with her. She'd call collect, she decided, then froze as a man's voice said, "Need a dime?"
She knew that voice. She'd heard it in her dreams for over a year. That soft, English accent with just a hint of an Irish lilt. Turning slowly, she found herself staring into those incredible blue eyes. "H-Harry?"
"Hello, Laura."
To Be Continued . . .