“Welcome.” Anne Menzies opened the front door and waved them inside.
“Leave that until after supper, Frank.” Henry pointed at Frank’s messenger bag. “Trevor will be joining us around seven.
Cassie smiled and said, “Would that be your ‘shyster’ son-in-law?
Anne said, “Trevor is our son-in-law and on-call company lawyer.” Then she grinned at her husband. “Oh. She’s a sharp one, Henry.”
Frank put down his bag next to the bench in the hall and put his arm around Cassie’s waist. “So I’ve discovered in the short time I’ve known her.”
“Would you like something to drink? We have coffee, tea or sherry. Oh, and root beer.” Anne gave Henry a fond look. “Henry needs to keep his weight down and he can’t abide diet drinks or root beer. But he loves ginger ale and cola so we only have them in the house for holiday dinners now.”
Henry looked sheepish. “Just giving those up cut out 600 calories a day.”
Frank said, “The sherry is tempting but I should have coffee.”
Cassie said, “I’d like a root beer, please.”
Anne asked, “Is decaf okay?”
Frank and Henry both said yes.
Cassie listened quietly as the men chatted about golf courses in the area while she admired the lived-in elegance of the large living room.
Anne returned and served everyone. After a bit of small talk, she asked the question that Cassie was dreading. “So how did you two meet? Frank seems rather old for you.”
Frank and Cassie looked at each other trying to decide who should start. Cassie nodded. “Frank and I met last Thursday night outside a club. I was cold and wet, so he offered to let me crash on his sofa at the hotel.”
Frank said, “I’d been working on the report I’ll show Henry later and when I run into puzzles or problems I pace or stare out the window.” He paused and said, “I know I can tell you everything because you are fellow Christians but when I tell my family I’m just going to say it was love at first sight.”
Anne seemed puzzled. Cassie took up the story. “Two weeks ago today, I ran away from home because my stepfather and some of his friends were really hitting on me. Well, they’d been hitting on me for months but this time they beat me pretty badly and left bruises when I said no, so I ran away the next day. There was no room in the women’s shelters for me and the group homes would need me to report my Mum to the authorities again. I couldn’t bring myself to do that, so I wandered the streets. The first week was okay because it was warm and dry and I could get a shower at one of the community centres every day. I found a balcony at the top of a fire escape that had a chaise I could sleep on and I was never wandering the streets after dark but last Thursday it was raining and cold and I hadn’t earned enough money from odd jobs to be able to get a bed at a hostel.”
She paused to gather her thoughts. “One of the girls that I met at a soup kitchen said it was dead easy to get a place to crash if you hung around outside a strip club or bar and propositioned a really drunk guy, although the strip club was supposed to be easier. I could have waited until closing and tried to get one of the strippers to let me sleep on her sofa but half the strippers in town worked with my Mum and might have told her and Gord where I was. Everyone says I look a lot like Mum did when she was younger.” Henry and Anne looked shocked but stayed silent.
Frank continued. “My hotel is across the street from the club. I watched her try to do that about a dozen times and she just couldn’t go through with it. So I knew that she must be very new to the streets. I saw her slump down in a doorway out of the rain and she looked like she was crying. So I decided to see if I could help because my niece ran away from home recently.”
“I wasn’t crying, though. I was just cold and miserable and trying to warm up. I almost didn’t accept Frank’s offer but unlike the other men that night he never took his eyes off my face. So I thought that I could maybe trust him.”
Frank smiled. “So I fed her some leftover pizza, dug out some blankets for her, and gave her a tee shirt nightgown I’d bought for my niece. The next morning while we were eating breakfast, I decided that I had to find out about her family situation. So she glared at me the whole of the drive over to her mother’s apartment.” Frank shook his head. “I couldn’t let her move back home when I saw how she was living and the only way she could live with me was if we got married.”
Cassie said, “I almost refused but the thought of returning to live with Mum and Gord and the hopeful look on Frank’s face convinced me. And we were married eight hours later at City Hall. Although, it was touch and go to get the license until Mum came to City Hall to confirm the letter of permission.” She looked to Frank for support and saw a tender look on his face which she returned without thinking.
Frank said, “As I get to know Cassie better the more convinced I am that I made the right decision.”
Anne finally recovered and asked, “How old are you, Cassie?”
“I’m seventeen but I’ve had to be the adult in the house since I was twelve or so. I took care of my Granny until she died of cancer last year and then I had to take care of my Mum because she’s a drug addict and she got much worse when she got control of my inheritance. But I had to run away because I refuse to take care of her husband, especially that way.” Cassie began to feel her anger at Gord returning.
Henry nodded in sympathy. “That explains a lot. Anne and I were debating how old you were. I said you had to be under twenty and Anne thought you were a bit older than that because you seemed so confident.” He turned to his wife with a wink. “I win that bet, my dear.”
Anne grumped and said, “So now I have to cook his favourites – fried chicken with biscuits and gravy, broccoli with cheese sauce, New York cheesecake – and Coke – for Sunday dinner.” She gave her husband brief glare. “Without mentioning his high blood pressure for the full day.”
Henry gloated for a moment then said, “I’ll still take you to that play you wanted to see.”
“I know you will but now you can make your usual ‘helpful’ comments and I’ll have to be careful not to laugh in the wrong places. Again.” She sighed and then gave her husband a warm smile.
Cassie felt a wave of sadness at the thought that she would never get a chance to banter with Frank like that. Then she looked into Frank’s eyes and her doubt disappeared for a moment as she smiled in response to his look of admiration.
Henry leaned forward. “Right now, I see a lot of respect and affection between the two of you. I’ll admit that it’s a strange start to a marriage but that’s all it is, the starting point. Marriage is about commitment to each other and choosing to grow together in love. I’m confident that, with Jesus’ help, you two will be able to weather the storms.” He sat back up. “I’m glad you told us, though. Frank here is almost old enough that it looks like a trophy wife situation which always stirs up gossip about the man’s decision making abilities. You’ll get some speculation that way of course but once they talk to you, Cassie, it will be easy to convince them that you’re the right woman for Frank.”
Cassie nodded as she thought, Now all I have to do is convince Frank.
———
As Cassie was helping Anne put things away after a very pleasant meal, Henry opened the door to admit a small gang of people.
“Gamma!” A little brown haired boy with a brush cut came barrelling down the hall towards Anne who crouched down to receive his charge.
“Aaron!” Anne gathered the little boy into her arms as a tall woman with a blend of Anne and Henry’s features strolled into the kitchen with an infant carrier and a somewhat older girl trailing behind her.
“Trevor, I’d like you to meet Cassie Ellis.” Anne pointed at a slender balding man who waved a greeting. “And this is my number two, Fiona Trimble and her three, Sandra, Aaron and William.”
Fiona shook her hand and said, “Pleased to meet you.” She looked back over her shoulder to see the men heading down the ba
sement stairs with somber looks. “What’s up, Mom? Dad doesn’t usually do business in the evening anymore.”
Anne looked at Cassie. “Do you know anything about it?”
Cassie examined the faces of the other women and shrugged. “I think you’ll both find out from your husbands before too long. Frank’s found a big embezzlement scheme at Alawen that could involve the CFO here in Ottawa. That’s why he didn’t want to show up at Henry’s office or go through the regular channels. And he thinks it might be happening in some of the other subsidiaries.”
Fiona whistled. “That’s Dad’s worst nightmare, I think.”
Anne agreed. “I’m glad Henry took the precaution of asking Trevor to come by, then.”
Sandra said, “Grandma? Do you think I could have some root beer?”
Fiona gave her head a tiny shake and Anne took the hint. “Not tonight sweetie. But I do have some chocolate cake and milk to go with it. Would you like that?”
Fiona smiled her approval. “Maybe I could have a piece, too? And a cup of that coffee I smell?”
Anne gave her daughter a hug as she squeezed past her to the pie safe on the counter. “Of course you can, Pix.”
Cassie smiled as she heard Fiona draw out the word “Mom” into two long and expressive syllables.