Scarlet Rose

Chapter 30

She didn't object. In fact, her cousin's words intrigued her. Though she also kept her reservations and those reservations reflected in her eyes and lifted her eyebrow while Archie got up. He had not been the best companion while he had been in London. Most of the times, they quarrelled more than anything else. Archie had failed to realise she was not the goody-two-shoes teenager she once was, and neither she was like her friend Annie, his wife.

Annie...

There was a time in Candy's life when she would actually do anything for her friend. She loved her still, all those years since growing up together at Pony's home. But as they were leaving their adolescence behind, she also recognised Annie's faults and weaknesses and some of them, if she had to be frank, deep down, she had found them to be irritating. Like for example, her insistence to the etiquette of the proper society.

Annie had always been prim and proper, under every situation. Since marrying to the Ardley family, she had become even worse. The disapproval of her wedding to Archie by Aunt Elroy, the matriarch of the family, made her strive to become the embodiment of the perfect wife. While Albert was alive, his relaxed attitude towards everything kept her behaviour slightly more balanced.

After his passing, although initially she excused the gradual change in Candy's behaviour as the coping mechanism to get to grips with Albert gone, once she realised that Candy had decided to move to London to live her life as a single young woman, her disagreement was showing up in her words and every little grimace on her pristine face.

"Darling Candy has decided to sample a flapper's life for a while..."

She would say in gatherings with friends."So, she's leaving us here in boring Chicago for the bright lights of London."

Candy was keeping it all in, despite her frustration rising like a plume of smoke inside her. She was nevertheless determined not to quarrel and to travel to London without leaving dark clouds behind her. A coolness may have tinted their relationship, but the tears when they said goodbye to each other were decidedly real.

"One more drink?"

She heard Archie's voice as he stood by the trolley. She accepted his offer with a nod of her head. Her eyes followed his movements while his silence made her wonder whether this was Archie's way to calm her down. By keeping her wait to hear some wise truth, where in fact he was biding his time trying to think what he would say to her that could sound profound. 

He sat down, his eyes fell square on her questioning face. "Without knowing what happened exactly, may I presume that your..."discontent" also involves a woman?"

His unexpected question filled the silence, and widened her eyes under his unflinching stare. For Archie, it was the perfect moment to have Candy hear some truths and perhaps...without wearing his dislike for Christian obvious on his sleeve, plant some questions in her mind. Let them grow. Because he was almost certain that the questions he would ask her, would do nothing else but grow in Terry's presence.

"How...?" She whispered and she leaned back on the chair. Archie's perceptiveness didn't keep Candy's anger away for long. Once the surprise withdrew like the wave drawn back to the sea, she narrowed her eyes.

"And what if it did?" She asked him in return and took a sip from her drink, welcoming the heat that run down her throat. Archie copied her move, and brought the glass to his lips. He realised, Candy was seriously wound up with what looked like it involved Terry and in all probability her friend Marion. He remembered very well the look on Candy's face when she introduced her to him.

"Can you hear yourself Candy?" The frustration became evident in his voice. "You know me and Terry never really saw eye to eye in most things but... do you think that whatever you feel right now, is justified?"