【浪漫小说100部】24PARADISEbyJudi.docx

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1、POCKET BOOKS New York London Toronto Sydney Tokyo SingaporeThe sale of this book without its cover is unauthorized. If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that it was reported to the publisher as unsold and destroyed. Neither the author nor the publisher has received payment

2、 for the sale of this stripped book.This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.POCKET BOOKS, a di

3、vision of Simon & Schuster Inc. 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020Copyright 1991 by Eagle Syndication, Inc.All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New Y

4、ork, NY 10020ISBN: 0-671-77680-0First Pocket Books Paperback printing June 199210 9 8 7 6POCKET and colophon arc registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.Cover art by Hermine BrindakCover background by M. Angelo/WestLightPrinted in the U.S.A. DedicationAnyone who is closely involved with me whe

5、n Im working on a novel could tell you that it requires certain things to maintain any sort of relationshipincluding incredible patience, extraordinary tolerance, and the ability to believe Im actually working when Im staring off into space.This novel is dedicated to my family and friends who posses

6、s those traits in abundance and who have enriched my life beyond measure:To my son, Clayton, and my daughter, Whitney, whose pride in me has been a tremendous source of pleasure. And relief.And to those very special people who offered their friendship and then had to bear more than their fair share

7、of the burden of that friendshipespecially Phyllis and Richard Ashley, Debbie and Craig Kiefer, Kathy and Lloyd Stansberry, and Cathy and Paul Waldner. I couldnt ask for a better cheering section than all of you. AcknowledgmentsTo Robert Hyland, for a lifetime of enormous favors.To attorney Lloyd St

8、ansberry, for providing me with countless answers on the legal technicalities involved in this novel.To the extraordinary department store executives across the nation who shared their time and expertise with me, and without whose assistance this novel could never have been written. Chapter 1 Decemb

9、er 1973With her scrapbook opened beside her on her canopied bed, Meredith Bancroft carefully cut out the picture from the Chicago Tribune. The caption read, Children of Chicago socialites, dressed as elves, participate in charity Christmas pageant at Oakland Memorial Hospital, then it listed their n

10、ames. Beneath the caption was a large picture of the elvesfive boys and five girls, including Meredithwho were handing out presents to the kids in the childrens ward. Standing off to the left, supervising the proceedings, was a handsome young man of eighteen, who the caption referred to as Parker Re

11、ynolds III, son of Mr. and Mrs. Parker Reynolds of Kenilworth.Impartially, Meredith compared herself to the other girls in the elf costumes, wondering how they could manage to look leggy and curvy while she looked . Dumpy! she pronounced with a pained grimace. I look like a troll, not an elf!It did

12、not seem at all fair that the other girls who were fourteen, just a few small weeks older than she was, should look so wonderful while she looked like a flat-chested troll with braces. Her gaze shifted to her picture and she regretted again the streak of vanity that had caused her to take off her gl

13、asses for the photograph; without them she had a tendency to squintjust like she was doing in that awful picture. Contact lenses would definitely help, she concluded. Her gaze switched to Parkers picture, and a dreamy smile drifted across her face as she clasped the newspaper clipping to what would

14、have been her breasts if she had breasts, which she didnt. Not yet. At this rate, not ever.The door to her bedroom opened and Meredith hastily yanked the picture from her chest as the stout, sixty-year-old housekeeper came in to take her dinner tray away. You didnt eat your dessert, Mrs. Ellis chide

15、d.Im fat, Mrs. Ellis, Meredith said. To prove it, she scrambled off the antique bed and marched over to the mirror above her dressing table. Look at me, she said, pointing an accusing finger at her reflection. I have no waistline!You have some baby fat there, thats all.I dont have hips either. I loo

16、k like a walking two-by-four. No wonder I have no friendsMrs. Ellis, whod worked for the Bancrofts for less than a year, looked amazed. You have no friends? Why not?Desperately in need of someone to confide in, Meredith said, Ive only pretended that everything is fine at school. The truth is, its te

17、rrible. Im a . a complete misfit. Ive always been a misfit.Well, I never! There must be something wrong with the children in your school.It isnt them, its me, but Im going to change, Meredith announced. Ive gone on a diet, and I want to do something with my hair. Its awful.Its not awful! Mrs. Ellis

18、argued, looking at Merediths shoulder-length pale blond hair and then her turquoise eyes. You have striking eyes and very nice hair. Nice and thick andColorless.Blond.Meredith stared stubbornly at the mirror, her mind magnifying the flaws that existed. Im almost five feet seven inches tall. Its a lu

19、cky thing I finally stopped growing before I became a giant! But Im not hopeless, I realized that on Saturday.Mrs. Elliss brows drew together in confusion. What happened on Saturday to change your mind about yourself?Nothing earth-shattering, Meredith said. Something earth-shattering, she thought. P

20、arker smiled at me at the Christmas pageant. He brought me a Coke without being asked. He told me to be sure and save a dance for him Saturday at the Eppingham party. Seventy-five years before, Parkers family had founded the large Chicago bank where Bancroft & Companys funds were deposited, and the

21、friendship between the Bancrofts and Reynoldses had endured for generations. Everything is going to change now, not just the way I look, Meredith continued happily as she turned away from the mirror. Im going to have a friend too! Theres a new girl at school, and she doesnt know that no one else lik

22、es me. Shes smart, like I am, and she called me tonight to ask me a homework question. She called me, and we talked about all sorts of things.I did notice you never brought friends home from school, Mrs. Ellis said, wringing her hands in nervous dismay, but I thought it was because you lived so far

23、away.No, it isnt that, Meredith said, flopping down onto the bed and staring self-consciously at her serviceable slippers that looked just like small replicas of the ones her father wore. Despite their wealth, Merediths father had the liveliest respect for money; all of her clothing was of excellent

24、 quality and was purchased only when necessary, always with a stern eye toward durability. I dont fit in, you see.When I was a girl, Mrs. Ellis said with a sudden look of comprehension, we were always a little leery of children who got good grades.Its not just that, Meredith said wryly. Its somethin

25、g besides the way I look and the grades I get that makes me a misfit. Itsall this, she said, and made a sweeping gesture that encompassed the large, rather austere room with its antique furniture, a room whose character resembled all the other forty-five rooms in the Bancroft estate. Everyone thinks

26、 Im completely weird because Father insists that Fenwick drive me to school.Whats wrong with that, may I ask?The other children walk or ride the school bus.So?So they do not arrive in a chauffeur-driven Rolls! Almost wistfully, Meredith added, Their fathers are plumbers and accountants. One of them

27、works for us at the store.Unable to argue with the logic of that, and unwilling to admit it was true, Mrs. Ellis said, But this new girl in schoolshe doesnt find it odd that Fenwick drives you?No, Meredith said with a guilty chuckle that made her eyes glow with sudden liveliness behind her glasses,

28、because she thinks Fenwick is my father! I told her my father works for some rich people who own a big store.You didnt!Yes, I did, and IIm not sorry. I should have spread that around school years ago, only I didnt want to lie.But now you dont mind lying? Mrs. Ellis said with a censorious look.It isn

29、t a lie, not entirely, Meredith said in an imploring voice. Father explained it to me a long time ago. You see, Bancroft & Company is a corporation, and a corporation is actually owned by the stockholders. So you see, as president of Bancroft & Company, Father istechnicallyemployed by the stockholde

30、rs. Do you understand?Probably not, she said flatly. Who owns the stock?Meredith sent her a guilty look. We do, mostly.Mrs. Ellis found the whole notion of the operation of Bancroft & Company, a famous downtown Chicago department store, absolutely baffling, but Meredith frequently displayed an uncan

31、ny understanding of the business. Although, Mrs. Ellis thought with helpless ire at Merediths father, it wasnt so uncannynot when the man had no interest in his daughter except when he was lecturing her about that store. In fact, Mrs. Ellis thought Philip Bancroft was probably to blame for his daugh

32、ters inability to fit in with the other girls her age. He treated his daughter like an adult, and he insisted that she speak and act like one at all times. On the rare occasions when he entertained friends, Meredith even acted as his hostess. As a result, Meredith was very much at ease with adults a

33、nd obviously at a complete loss with her peers.Youre right about one thing though, Meredith said. I cant go on tricking Lisa Pontini about Fenwick being my father. I just thought that if she had a chance to know me first, it might not matter when I tell her Fenwick is actually our chauffeur. The onl

34、y reason she hasnt found out already is that she doesnt know anyone else in our class, and she always has to go straight home after school. She has seven brothers and sisters, and she has to help out at home.Mrs. Ellis reached out and awkwardly patted Merediths arm, trying to think of something enco

35、uraging to say. Things always look brighter in the morning, she announced, resorting, as she often did, to one of the cozy cliches she herself found so comforting. She picked up the dinner tray, then paused in the doorway, struck with another inspiring platitude. And remember this, she instructed Me

36、redith in the rising tones of one who is about to impart a very satisfying thought, every dog has its day!Meredith didnt know whether to laugh or cry. Thank you, Mrs. Ellis, she said, that is very encouraging. In mortified silence she watched the door close behind the housekeeper, then she slowly pi

37、cked up the scrapbook. When the Tribune clipping had been safely taped to the page, she stared at it for a long moment, then reached out and lightly touched Parkers smiling mouth. The thought of actually dancing with him made her shiver with a mixture of terror and anticipation. This was Thursday, a

38、nd the Eppingham dance was the day after tomorrow. It seemed like years to wait.Sighing, she flipped backward through the pages of the big scrapbook. At the front were some very old clippings, yellowed now with age, the pictures faded. The scrapbook had originally belonged to her mother, Caroline, a

39、nd it contained the only tangible proof in the house that Caroline Edwards Bancroft had ever existed. Everything else connected with her had been removed at Philip Bancrofts instructions.Caroline Edwards had been an actressnot an especially good one, according to her reviewsbut an unquestionably gla

40、morous one. Meredith studied the faded pictures, but she didnt read what the columnists had written because she knew every word by heart. She knew that Cary Grant had escorted her mother to the Academy Awards in 1955, and that David Niven had said she was the most beautiful woman hed ever seen, and

41、that David Selznick had wanted her in one of his pictures. She knew that her mother had roles in three Broadway musicals and that the critics had panned her acting but praised her shapely legs. The gossip columnists had hinted at serious romances between Caroline and nearly all her leading men. Ther

42、e were dippings of her, draped in furs, attending a party in Rome; wrapped in a strapless black evening gown, playing roulette in Monte Carlo. In one photograph she was clad in a skimpy bikini on the beach in Monaco, in another, skiing in Gstaad with a Swiss Olympic Gold Medalist. It was obvious to

43、Meredith that wherever she went, Caroline had been surrounded by handsome men.The last clipping her mother had saved was dated six months after the one in Gstaad. She was wearing a magnificent white wedding gownlaughing and running down the cathedral steps on Philip Bancrofts arm beneath a shower of

44、 rice. The society columnists had outdone themselves with extravagant descriptions of the wedding. The reception at the Palmer House Hotel had been closed to the press, but the columnists faithfully reported all the famous guests who were present, from the Vanderbilts and Whitneys, to a Supreme Cour

45、t justice and four U.S. senators.The marriage lasted two yearslong enough for Caroline to get pregnant, have her baby, have a sleazy affair with a horse trainer, and then go running off to Europe with a phony Italian prince whod been a guest in this very house. Beyond that, Meredith knew little, exc

46、ept that her mother had never bothered to send her so much as a note or a birthday card. Merediths father, who placed great emphasis on dignity and old-fashioned values, said her mother was a self-centered slut without the slightest conception of marital fidelity or maternal responsibility. When Mer

47、edith was a year old, he had filed for divorce and for custody of Meredith, fully prepared to exert all the Bancroft familys considerable political and social influence to assure that he won his suit. In the end he hadnt needed to resort to that. According to what hed told Meredith, her mother hadnt

48、 bothered to wait around for the court hearing, let alone try to oppose him.Once he was granted custody of Meredith, her father had set out to ensure that she would never follow her mothers example. Instead, he was determined that Meredith would take her place in a long line of dignified Bancroft women whod led exemplary fives dedicated to charitable good works tha