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.Her eyes told him that she was strong, that she would endure whatever came her way.And her eyes told him that she knew he would help her.Sam eased Jeannie down onto a red velvet settee in front of an empty fireplace.She slipped her arms from around his neck slowly, never taking her eyes off his face.“Thank you, Mr.Dundee.”“You’re welcome, Ms.Alverson.I was just doing my job.”“Won’t you sit down?” Without waiting for his reply, she turned to Ollie.“I would very much like some tea.Mr.Dundee, would you care for anything?”He shook his head, indicating that he didn’t.Ollie exited the room quickly.“I’m worried about Julian,” Jeannie said.“He has a heart condition, and all this excitement isn’t good for him.”“I’m sure Dr.Howell is fine.He probably left right after we did.I don’t think he was in any danger.You were the reporters’ target.They aren’t interested in anyone except you at this point.”Sam glanced around the room, looking up at the high ceilings and the elaborate moldings, then down at the antique furniture.“Where’s the telephone?”“On the desk.There.” Jeannie pointed to the gold-and-white mock-antique telephone perched atop the small cherry desk.“The police need to clear out this crowd around the house,” Sam said.“We’ve got a near-riot situation on our hands.”“The emergency numbers are listed there by the phone.” Jeannie rubbed her forehead with her fingertips, massaging the ache in her temples.“Thank you, Mr.Dundee.I appreciate your arriving when you did.I don’t know how I would have gotten away from the school without your help.”Sam glared at her.“Why the hell did you agree to a press conference? You should have known what would happen.I tried to warn you.Why didn’t you listen to me?”Jeannie sat up straight, stiffening her spine.She wasn’t used to being spoken to so harshly.“We…Julian and I thought that if we met with the press, we might be able to reason with them.”Sam grunted.“Lady, nobody is that naive.You’re news, big news, and those vultures aren’t going away for a long, long time.Not until something or someone else comes along that is bigger news.”He scanned the pad on the desk, dialed the police department and demanded to be put through to a senior officer.After explaining the situation and being assured that the police would disperse the crowd, Sam hung up the phone and paced the room.Glancing at Jeannie, he noticed the strained look on her pale face and wondered if she was in pain.Jeannie rubbed her thigh.Even thirteen years after the car wreck, after several surgeries and endless therapy, the pain never completely left her.But it was a bearable pain, a pain she had become accustomed to, unlike the pain of being exposed to the world as Jeannie Foley, child faith healer.She thought it ironic that she could share the pain of others, vanquish it from their lives temporarily, but had to endure her own pain alone.“Are you all right?”“Yes, I’m… I’ll be fine.Thanks to you.I feel safe, here at home.”“Well, the safest place for you, for the time being, is going to be inside this house.You don’t want a repeat performance of today’s events, do you?”“I can’t allow my life to be disrupted this way,” she said.“I’m afraid you have little choice in the matter.” Sam took the biggest chair in the room, a floral-tapestry wing chair.“The best I can promise you is to keep you safe, to protect you from the press and anyone else who won’t leave you alone, especially this fanatical minister you told me about when you called.”“I will not let my life become the three-ring circus it was when my mother and Randy Foley were alive.” Knotting her hands into fists, Jeannie held them in front of her.“From the time I was six years old and Randy persuaded my mother to take me to a revival meeting, until I was thirteen and they were both killed in a car crash, my life was a living hell.”“I’ve read all the newspaper accounts,” Sam said.“The recent ones from the past couple of days, and the old ones from when you were a child.Your parents made a lot of money off of you, didn’t they? They must have died millionaires.”Ollie knocked at the door, then entered, carrying a silver tray.She placed it on the marble-topped mahogany table in front of the settee.“Thank you, Ollie.That will be all for now.” Jeannie lifted the silver teapot [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]