He laughed. “That boozehound is Raymond’s business partner’s son, and he’s always in spectacular form.” He looked at me seriously. “Can we get a breath of fresh air before dinner? There’s something I need to tell you.”
I glanced around; everyone was still mingling and conversing. “I’m quite comfortable here,” I said. I didn’t see why I should have to leave this magnificent room.
“Then can we sit instead?” he asked, gesturing toward two wooden framed armchairs near the fireplace. I shrugged and led the way. Archie sat down, looking uncomfortably at the guests around us.
“I’m afraid that I owe you an apology,” he said. “You weren’t entirely wrong in your assessment of me. In fact, your instincts were right.”
“Obviously,” I said.
“At the time of our meeting and in the weeks that followed there was indeed another woman.” He glanced at me, looking concerned, as if I might once again make a scene, and he quickly continued, as if hoping he might tame the situation. “I’ve been involved with a woman in Cincinnati for almost half a year now, and in what seemed to occur as a result of a natural progression of time spent together, rather than any deep interest or desire, we became engaged to be married.”
I glared at him, not giving him the satisfaction of a response—he hadn’t shared anything that I didn’t already know.
“But upon meeting you, I had such intense feelings for you, I knew that the engagement wasn’t right. I had never felt that way about her. It was more a pairing of convenience—her family knows my family, she lives in the city where much of my work takes place, where my family resides.”
I shook my head to let him know that he was heading down the wrong path here. I didn’t want to know about her or how neatly she fit into his life back home. I wanted to know why he was telling me this. He picked up on my impatience and quickly moved on.
“Ever since I met you at the Pirate’s Den I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind. I asked around to find out where you might perform and I finally discovered you were in Ziegfeld’s show. It wasn’t by chance that I caught that ribbon, it was sheer determination. Even though I knew nothing about you, I was incredibly taken. It was like electricity when we danced, and I felt compelled to know you. I also knew in that instant I couldn’t go through with the engagement, not if I was capable of having such feelings for you. It took some time for me to unravel things, and when we wentto dinner that evening and kept the restaurant open into the early hours of the morning… I admit… I had not fully untangled myself of my obligation.”
I stiffened and readied myself to stand and leave. I’d wasted hours at dinner with him, indulged him. To think that I’d envisioned myself with him. I’d refrained from asking him to come up to my apartment—despite how much I’d longed for him that evening. I’d followed his “gentlemanly” lead, doing the appropriate thing. But how long I’d lain in bed that night picturing us together, something so ridiculously premature that I’d never done before.
He took my hand gently, insisting that I hear him out.
“Please, Olive. Don’t give up on me so soon. I should have told you, but I was worried you wouldn’t give me the time of day. I did know then that I would end things with Louise no matter what.”
Louise. The name made me cringe.
“You were right to notice, of course, that I wasn’t back to the city as much as I would have liked in those early days after meeting you. I felt that I must first wrap things up in Cincinnati. I didn’t want to be the kind of man who wooed you in New York before resolving things back home. That was a risky thing to do on my end. I worried about leaving you confused, but I felt compelled to do things the right way. I wanted to do the right thing, in the right order.”
I shook my head. I was at a loss for words. And that was rare for me.
“Olive,” he said urgently, taking both my hands and turning me to face him. “Please tell me I haven’t missed my chance.”
“Where do things stand now?” I asked dryly, unsure what to think, if I should trust him. I’d felt betrayed and fooled.
“I’ve called it off, the whole thing. No matter what you decide, meeting you made me realize I was making a mistake. Everyone back home is shocked at the abrupt break and seems to feel I’ve done something terribly wrong, and now I realize how unkind it has been of me to let things go as far as they did when I never felt true love for her. But I’ve made my decision and it’s final.”
“And you and me being here, Archie, in the middle of the forest at the exact same camp, at the exact same time. Is this just a coincidence or did you have something to do with it?”
He smiled sheepishly. “I might have put in a special request with the Belmonts.” He looked back at me and again quickly continued. “Don’t get me wrong, they were thrilled, absolutely over the moon about the idea of you. They’ve heard about your voice and your performances and they love the Ziegfeld shows, and I may have put in a few good words with your boss.”
“What? Your good words cost me my role in theMidnight Frolic,” I said. “I was the star of that show, and now they’ve replaced me during my absence.”
He looked surprised. “But I specifically spoke to Ziegfeld and he assured me that you’d be right back where you left off after the summer tour. He promised, man to man.”
He didn’t seem to understand how his interference had unsettled me. Who was he to manipulate my life without my knowing? And yet the intensity of his feelings had been responsible.
“Now they know they can plop someone else in my role at any time, and the show will go on. I’m no longer indispensable.”
I was angry with him and I wanted him to know it, but I was also strangely flattered, despite everything he was telling me, thathe’d gone to so much trouble to ensure we could spend time together.
“I realize now, as I’m saying it, how this may seem. It’s just that after we talked that night, about traveling and exploring the world, I felt certain you’d love it here. I wanted you to experience it, to feel the beauty of it, and I thought how wonderful it would be to show you this, to spend time with you here away from the busy city, to get lost on a hike, to row you out to the other side of the lake and take a picnic. I may have got ahead of myself, dreaming all this up without your permission, but it was a dream and I went for it.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what to think. I wasn’t expecting this, that’s for certain.”
“You don’t owe me anything, Olive. If you don’t want to see me while you’re here, I will stay out of your way”—he looked up as if to gauge my reaction—“but if you will allow me, it would be my absolute honor to share it with you.”
A bell rang and everyone began to move toward the main doors and head outside for dinner.
