Chapter Four--Meeting the Devil

     She arrived on time—in fact, 10 minutes early—as she was eager to get started. Len was already there. He smiled at her when she came in. He was handsome, but he just hadn’t lit in fires inside Robin yet.
     "Hi. Glad you could come,” he said, standing up as she came into his office. “I told Thomas yesterday that we’d hired somebody new and he was quite pleased about it. He’s already here, so let’s go meet him and then I’ll show you your office.”
     “I’ll have my own office?”
     “Such as it is.” Len made a face which indicated to her that it might be a rodent-infested death trap.
     Len led her down a paneled hallway to the end, and then knocked gently on an already open door, the last one on the left. “Thomas, Robin Morrow is here.”
     “Good,” a voice said—Robin hadn’t seen him yet. “Please come in, both of you.”
     Robin followed Len into the room and got her first look at Thomas Bering. She almost gasped when she saw him.
     Picture in your mind the devil in human form. As tempter. That’s what this man looked like.
     He was fairly tall, not excessively so, with an average build. Nothing extraordinary there. But his face. Fair-skinned, with pitch black hair that he wore a little long—halfway over his ears but down to his collar in the back. He combed it straight back from his forehead. He wore a neatly trimmed Van Dyck beard. His face was longer than round, but again, not abnormally so. His lips seemed to be set in a lazy, taunting smile. His eyes…were almost as dark as his hair. As she looked at him longer, she could tell they were a very dark brown, with little golden-yellow flecks in the iris. They were the most dangerous, yet mesmerizing and hypnotic pair of eyes Robin had ever seen in her life. She felt like, if she looked into those eyes for a mere 10 seconds, she would be under his spell for the rest of her life. And he seemed to know it, too. He looked down his nose at her, with an arrogant cockiness that radiated self-assurance and superiority. His entire physical presence was somehow almost overpowering. His whole demeanor radiated a disturbing quality that utterly repelled Robin and yet thoroughly attracted her, too.
     And he reminded her of the devil for some reason—dark, foreboding, dangerous. Robin actually shuddered when she looked at him, and finally had to turn away and gaze around his office, seeing things that she really didn’t see.
     Len introduced the two of them, so Robin had to look back at Thomas, and when she did she found his smile charming and harmless. Yet…taunting. And it didn’t quite reach the depths of his eyes.
     “Miss Morrow,” he said, coming around his desk. He took her hand and leaned over and kissed the back of it, never taking his eyes from hers. Quit looking at me like that….She felt like a chicken at a fox convention. Robin thought that kissing gesture a little out of place for the time and circumstance, but he pulled it off without a hitch. Repelling…and attracting. He then pointed his long, straight, perfectly manicured fingers at a chair. “Please sit down.”
     “Thank you,” and Robin took a chair, a little frazzled.
     Len, who had seen everything, of course, said, “I’ll leave you two with it, I have some other work to do. Thomas, can you show Robin her office?” He smiled at her. “It’s just down the hall, in fact, we passed it on the way, but the door was closed.”
     “I’ll be delighted to show Miss Morrow around,” Thomas said, with that mocking, almost sneering smile, that yet in its own right was terribly charming. Yet…wicked? Robin wasn’t sure, but that was the first word that came to her mind. The devil is wicked, isn’t he…
     Len left. And Thomas was grace personified. Never an untoward word, never a lustful look, never anything improper. And yet…that smile…taunting her… those eyes…reading her every thought—or at least it seemed that way to Robin. The yellow little flecks—Robin wanted to count them, they entranced her so. But she felt like she held her own and thought she gave no impression of her horror of and attraction to him.
     “Here are the books you will be keeping on a daily basis,” Thomas said, his voice was even devilish. Smooth, deep, rhythmic, and enchanting, a slight accent that she couldn’t place…hell?…but even that sounded taunting and superior. “Actually, at present there is probably no more than 20 hours of work a week here to do, so you’d only need to come in three days a week, or you can come in 4 or 5 days, that really depends on how you want to work your schedule. I’ll leave that up to you, but I would like to know when you are going to be here. I do need to briefly check your work at the end of the week, but it’s the end of the month that is the real headache.” He smiled.
     Robin actually smiled back. “Well, I’ll do the best I can.”
     “I’m sure you will. Mr. Kramer has all the confidence in the world in you.” After a few minutes of explaining various matters concerning which books to use when and how to log entries, Thomas stood up and said, “Come. I’ll show you to your office.”
     It was just a couple doors down from Bering’s and on the opposite side of the hall. He unlocked it—“I’ll give you a key in a little while, as soon as I find it. Always lock your door when you leave”—and showed her inside. “It isn’t very big, but it’s functional.”
     True on both accounts, Robin thought. No bigger than 10 feet by10 feet, there was a desk with a swivel leather chair, and some bookshelves behind that contained various books on mining and metals that didn’t especially interest her. A Geologic Manual of the Turtle Mountains—pleasure reading if I’ve ever seen it…. “I am here most every day,” Thomas told her, “as is Mr. Kramer, so please do not hesitate to call upon me if you need my assistance.”
     “Well, I may do that,” Robin replied, “especially the first few days until I get comfortable with the system.”
     “I understand. It takes a while.” Their eyes met…the devil’s eyes, Robin thought, and almost shuddered again. But she could not take hers away. Finally, he did. “I shall leave you to get acquainted with the books,” he told her. “Again, come to my office if you need me, I should be here all day.” The taunting, superior smile. “Never ending paperwork,” he said. And with a slight bow, his eyes on hers, he left the room.
     Robin breathed. It seemed to her that it was the first time she had done so in 45 minutes…

     She spent the whole morning going over each of the books, getting familiar with the company’s system, and was elbow deep in them when she heard a soft knock on her door. She looked up and smiled.
     “Cameron! How are you? I haven’t seen you in a few days.”
     “I’m doin’ well, thank you. And you?”
     “I’m fine, thanks.” Then she made a face and motioned around the desk at all the accounting books. “Working on learning how they keep books around here.”
     Cameron smiled. “Well, if you’re busy, I’ll go. I was just in town pickin’ up a few things, and I went by your Aunt Martha’s place to see if you might have time for a bite of lunch, but she told me about your new job here. Still thought you might want to eat, but if you’re really busy…”
     Robin looked up at the clock. It was a little after noon, and she hadn’t eaten since around 7. That knowledge brought a rumble to her tummy, and she said, “Well, frankly, I am hungry, and I’d be happy to go to lunch with you.” She stood up and picked up her purse. “Let me tell Len, and we can go.”
     Len wasn’t in his office, so she simply told the secretary. “I’ll be back in about an hour,” Robin said, and got a brief acknowledgement.
     “Tina’s ok with you?” Cameron asked her. “It’s the closest.”
     “Tina’s is fine,” Robin said. “Tina’s” obviously was a local eatery.
     The diner was barely two minutes away from the mining office—nothing was terribly far from anything else in Whitewater—so it didn’t take them long to get there. Yet, Robin sat fairly close to Cameron as they rode in his wagon, closer than she had with Len on Tuesday. She wasn’t sure why, except that she still had a little chill from her meeting of Thomas Bering. And then a thought went through her mind that made her frown…I wish Rob were here…she hadn’t thought a whole lot about him recently, but he hadn’t completely disappeared from her mind yet, either. Not by a long shot.
     They had a nice lunch together. Robin was again struck, and perhaps even more so than before, with how ruggedly handsome Cameron was. There just weren’t many men like him in New York. Of course, Robin had grown up in Whitewater with cowboys all around and she had known her share of them, but in the seven or so years she had been back east, she had adjusted to a little different lifestyle. She hadn’t quite re-adjusted yet, so it was interesting being around a different type of man again. Cameron tended to be a slow-talking cowboy, but Robin wasn’t fooled. She could tell he was intelligent. And he had a dry wit that made her giggle. He was all gentleman, and she liked him a lot. And she rode close to him again on the way back to the office, and it had nothing to do with Thomas Bering. She just felt like being close to somebody that made her feel like Cameron Collins did.
     He walked her to the company’s front door, but didn’t go inside. As always when talking to her, he took his hat off, which Robin found charming as well, though unnecessary. “I’d like to show you the ranch sometime if you’d like to see it,” he said to her before she went inside. “Don’t know if that would appeal to you or not, and if not, I hope you’d say so.”
     “Oh, no, I’d love to see it, really. Some day soon I need to get my horse Roberta out somewhere so she can get some exercise.” She made a face. “I’ve ridden her up and down the road outside of town a few times, but I’d like to give her a little more space where she can have her own head a little.”
     Cameron nodded. “That’s a good idea, a horse needs that on occasion. I’ve seen your horse. She’s as good as any in this town. Better’n anything we’ve got on the ranch, that’s for sure. Where did you get her?”
     She hesitated, then said, “Rob Conners bought her for me on the morning that he brought me to Whitewater. At a ranch, maybe 30 miles southwest of here, I don’t recall how far away it was.” A pain stabbed her again as the thought of Rob.
     Cameron nodded. “Musta been the Circle A-2. Jack Smith’s place. He’s got good stock, but I bet you got the pick of the litter.” Then he scrutinized Robin carefully. “That Conners fellow. He was a peculiar duck.”
     “Yes, I suppose so. I only met him that one time.”
     Cameron nodded. “Well, I reckon I need to go, pick up my supplies, and let you get back to work. Would you like to go ridin’ out at the ranch this Saturday?”
     Robin thought a moment. “Yes, I would enjoy that. Although I’ll need to be back about 5 because I’ve been invited to a party at Jennie Adams’ home.”
     He nodded. “That’s fine. Ranch is only about 7 miles to the southeast, we could get there in less than an hour. I’ll come in about 9 and we’ll ride out together.”
     “Oh, you don’t have to come all the way into town. Just give me directions and I can find it on my own.”
     Cameron smiled softly and said, “Wouldn’t think of it. I’ll be at your place at 9. Or how about 8 and we’ll have some breakfast at Tina’s.”
     Robin smiled back. “I’ve got a better idea. You show up at 8 and I’ll fix you breakfast. I make a very good bowl of cereal.”
     He chuckled. “More’n I can do, I tell you. Thank you, Robin, I’d like that.” He looked at her, and for all the world it appeared to Robin that he was going to kiss her, something that she wouldn’t have stopped him from doing, though she would have picked a different place than the front of the company building. Unless Thomas Bering is watching… But he didn’t kiss her, and she was slightly disappointed. The men are kinda slow out here…not like New York AT ALL…a man in New York would have tried to kiss me before we ever left the building in the first place…and then tried to bed me in the back of the wagon on the way back…She made a face...not all the wolves live here in the West....
     “I’ll see you Saturday morning,” he said, putting on his hat and touching the brim.
     “Ok. Bye.”
     She was thinking about Saturday as she re-entered the building and walked to her office. Then, as she was unlocking her door, Thomas Bering stuck his head out of his office and said, “Ah, Miss Morrow. You’re back. Could you step in here just a moment, I need to show you something.”
     “Sure.” But Robin shuddered again. Repelled…attracted. Afraid… intrigued. Irritated…hypnotized. A devil…
     She went into his office and was greeted by that taunting, lazy smile on his face…dashing, perfidious eyes that seemed to be laughing at her…how many yellow flecks in his right eye?… Oh, get off it, Robin, he’s just a man…I think…
     She shuddered again…why did she get this all-pervading sense of evil in this man’s presence?
     And yet, why was her body flushing with heat?…

     She was tired when she got home that evening. It was after five. She stayed all day at the office, just so she could learn the system as quickly as possible. Len had come into her office about 3 and said, “You still here? You don’t need to work this late.”
     “I need to get a good idea what you are doing here, accounting-wise, Len. I don’t mind staying. Mr. Bering”—she couldn’t bring herself to call him Thomas—“told me that we’re a little behind on the day-to-day because the fellow who was doing it left over a week ago and didn’t give any warning.”
     “No, he didn’t. Just walked in and quit. And right before the end of the month.” Len gave her a wry smile. “No bonus in his final check, I assure you.”
     Robin smiled back. “Anyway, I need to know your system so we won’t get any farther behind. I’m starting to record some things that have been left over from last week and I hope to get it all done by tomorrow.”
     “Well, again, you’re only part-time so you don’t need to work this long, but we do appreciate you trying to get us caught up. But don’t you dare come in on Saturday and work. I won’t have that.”
     Robin started to say that she couldn’t anyway because she was going to spend most of the day with Cameron Collins, but she didn’t. It wasn’t any of his business and she doubt he would have been interested in knowing anyway “I won’t, I promise. And once I get comfortable and caught up, I’m sure I won’t need to work more than what you suggested.”
     He nodded. “I’m glad we hired you. I’m convinced we’ve got a jewel and Thomas spoke highly of you as well.”
     She smiled and said thank you.
     Aunt Martha wasn’t home when Robin arrived; there was a note explaining that she had to go measure somebody for a dress. Aunt Martha didn’t have to tell Robin where she was, but she always did. And as a result, Robin felt like she ought to do the same. She didn’t mind. Slowly but surely, Robin was beginning to feel a little closer to Aunt Martha. She isn’t near like I remember her being, but maybe I just have selective memory. Robin didn’t think so; she just figured that both of them had mellowed a little over the years, and Robin certainly knew—thought—hoped—that she was more mature now.
     Being as tired as she was, she went to bed fairly early. She also intended to be at work by 8 again the next morning. As she lay in bed waiting to fall asleep, she stared at the ceiling and thought of her new job, working out in her mind something she had left undone that afternoon simply because she was weary with it….then her mind drifted… Rob…I wish he were here…oh, I wish he were here…and she closed her eyes…a tear trickled down the right side of her face to her temple…he didn’t kill that woman, he couldn’t have…he promised me…then her eyes shot open again…that means he’s still alive…but that was a false hope, and she knew it…you mustn’t think that way, Robin…he’s gone…for good…
     Still, his face wouldn’t go away…

     Robin’s Friday was almost as busy as her Thursday, perhaps even more so. She hadn’t slept too well and woke up early, couldn’t get back to sleep, so she got up and made it to the office by 7:30, which beat everybody else there. Thomas arrived a few minutes later and expressed surprise to see her.
     “Couldn’t sleep,” Robin told him wanly. “Maybe these books will help.” He laughed softly, but even that sounded like it came from the pits of Hades. He went into his office and Robin shrugged off that chill that swept over her which, once again, caused her to shudder. He does that to me every time…But she put it aside to concentrate on the books. She was making good progress. She understood the mechanics of the company’s system now, or thought she did, and was recording more and more of the transactions of the past week. She wasn’t going to get caught up today, but she should be able to by the first part of the next week.
     And that’s what she told Len when he came into her office a little after 11. He had had to go up to one of the mines that morning and so had just arrived at the office. He stuck his head in to Robin’s office just to see if she needed anything. When she told him of her progress, he said, “That’s phenomenal. You’ve grasped the essentials of this very quickly.” He winked at her. “I may need to hire you full-time.”
     She smiled her thanks. “Well, it’s a pretty complicated system but I’m plowing through it.”
     But Len said, making a wry face, “It is for me. Thomas formulated it and I think he did it so that he’d be the only one who could understand it, so I’d have to keep him on as lawyer and accountant.” He laughed, and then looked up at the clock. “I’m going to lunch about 12, would you like to join me?”
     Robin wondered if the invitation was more than just employer-employee, but she figured it wasn’t. She still didn’t feel any sparks flying with Len, but she did like him. “Yes, that would be nice. I ate pretty early this morning so I’m getting hungry.”
     He grinned at her. “I don’t eat anything but fried chicken and mashed potatoes.”
     She laughed softly. “Well, that means eating doesn’t complicate your life.”
     He took her to a Chinese restaurant that was turning out to be Robin’s favorite. She chided Len a little. “Do the Chinese make fried chicken and mashed potatoes?”
     He grinned. “Yeah, but I think they call it chop suey.”
     The name of the place was actually ”Zhuang’s Chinese Restaurant,” but nobody could pronounce his name, so everybody just called him John. It was close enough and as long as they ate his food and paid him money, he didn’t care what they called him. The place was usually packed for lunch and dinner and Robin was afraid they might have to wait for a table.
     “Nope,” Len said. “I stopped by on my way in from the mine and made reservations.”
     “I see. So you just assumed I’d go with you?”
     And he grinned again. “Well, if you had said no, I would have asked Shirley. Nothing like starting a little town gossip.” Shirley was his secretary and she was married with three children.
     After they ordered, Robin said, “I don’t know much about mines and mining. Uncle Ben was a small rancher and I worked in the city back east. Can you give me the basics without going into the encyclopedia’s description?”
     He smiled. “There’s not that much to it. You hire a geologist and he goes snooping around for places where there might be something of value. If he thinks he finds something, he comes and tells us and we go dig a hole in the ground and hope he was right. If he wasn’t, we fire him and hire another one.” He chuckled at that.
     “And a geologist found something in the mountains just north of here?”
     “Thought he did, and he’s proving to be right. I think I told you, we’ve found copper, tin, and iron ore so far, with a hint that there may be some silver down there, too.”
     “How deep do you have to dig?”
     He pulled a face. “Usually hundreds, and sometimes thousands of feet down. We’re at 600 now in our deepest mine and we aren’t stopping there.”
     “And you have how many mines up there?”
     “Five.”
     “Pretty expensive to dig, isn’t it?”
     “Very. But the ore can be incredibly valuable.” He smiled softly. “We make money or we wouldn’t be doing it. And the towns where we go, even though they don’t especially like the riff-raff that comes and works the mines, tolerate them because they spend a lot of money at the local shops. A mining town can produce an economic boom in an area, especially if the railroad comes through, and it looks like it might, at least a few miles south of here on flatter land.”
     The food came and, as usual, it was delicious. Len forked something and held it up. “Chicken,” he said, with a smile, “fried in a wok.”
     “Where are the mashed potatoes?”
     He dug around in his pile of food. “They better be in here someplace or I’m going to be mad.”
     Len went on to tell her that the mining operations in Whitewater were new, barely two years old, but she already knew that. “Yes, I distinctly remember that there was no mining when I lived here before. And the town has grown, probably double the size it was when I was growing up.”
     Len talked a little more about the company and its ventures, but he had already told Robin about all she wanted to know. She wasn’t really planning on staying with the company once school started up again so she figured she knew as much as she needed, or at least wanted, to know
     Back at the office, Thomas knocked on her door—even though it wasn’t closed—about 3 that afternoon. She looked up, shuddered as always, flushed as always, and said, “Come in.”
     “Do you mind if I take a gander at what you are doing?” he asked. “I like to have at least some idea, at the end of each week, of what the accounts look like.”
     “Yes, you mentioned that yesterday,” Robin said, and he sat down in a chair in front of her desk and started studying what she had been doing the past two days.
     There were three different account books that Robin had to deal with, so she continued to work on one of them while Thomas scrutinized another. His face was very thoughtful, and he scratched his beard as he ran over the figures. A couple of times he glanced up at Robin and she caught his eye and she didn’t especially like the way he was looking at her, but then, she never really had. Not—never—a lustful look. One she couldn’t quite pinned down. But this current “look” held a bit more…suspicion?…in it? She wasn’t sure.
     He asked her a few questions and seemed satisfied with her answers. He made a couple of suggestions, good ones Robin had to admit, and she thanked him for that. Finally, he stood up.
     “You seem to be doing quite well, Miss Morrow,” he said, looking down his nose at her. “I’m sure we will hate to lose you when we hire someone else. I understand you aren’t going to be with us for long.”
     “Well, I guess that depends on when you hire another person. I do have another job, I think you know, teaching school. But that doesn’t start until September.”
     “Yes, of course, I understand. But you do realize that we want someone whom we can depend upon to be here beyond that, so if we find a suitable individual in the near future, I’m afraid we would have to dismiss you to accommodate that other person.”
     Something was not quite on the up-and-up here. Robin understood what Thomas was saying, but it almost seemed like he was pressing the matter of her future departure rather forcefully. She started to say something else, but simply said, “Yes, I understand that.”
     Then he smiled, and he could really have a very enchanting smile. Just like the devil…”I apologize,” he said, and with complete graciousness. Or at least that was the outward form. “I suppose that sounds like I’m about to fire you and hire someone else. That is not the case. I just felt it would be better if we both understood the circumstances upon which we hired you. I should have made that clear to you earlier, and it is to my discredit that I did not.”
     Robin’s eyes met Thomas’s and, again, she felt a heat rising within her. So…attractive…repulsive…how can I dislike someone so much…and yet be so drawn to him?…She felt herself being hypnotized by those dark, deep, mesmeric eyes…so she tore her eyes away from him to break the spell, and when she looked back up at him, she saw that lazy, taunting, superior smile on his face that was both supremely revolting and supremely magnetic. He won that round and he knows he did…It aggravated her to no end.
     Finally, she found some words to say. “That’s fine, Mr. Bering. I think I understood that from the very beginning. In fact, I do hope you find someone because I don’t think I’ll be able to continue this job once the school year starts. I’m glad I have this summer job, but I understand that, if the right person comes along, well, you’d be foolish not to hire him or her.”
     He nodded. “Thank you.” Then he with a smile, “And please call me Thomas.”
     Robin didn’t feel good about that, but replied, with a soft smile, “Ok, but you’ll have to call me Robin.”
     “Done. I trust you will have a nice weekend.”
     “And you.” He left the room, and Robin breathed again. Why do I feel like I just escaped a rattlesnake den? Yet he was handsome…devilishly handsome… Robin sighed, and put the book she was working on aside. I’m going home, I’ve had enough of this place today…
     As she walked out to the livery behind the building to get Roberta, she thought I’m not too sure I’d be unhappy if they did hire someone else soon… something… something…is not right there…
     Or is it just my imagination?…working with…the devil…
     For if she had come to one conclusion in the two days she had been working for Kilmer Mining Company, it was that Thomas Bering was indeed an incarnate of old Lucifer himself.
     That night she was able to relax. She got together with some old friends whom she hadn’t had a chance to spend much time with yet and they got caught up on old—and new—times. They were all married now, so Robin felt a little awkward because she wasn’t, especially when they started telling her about their babies and children, but all in all, she had a good time. They giggled and talked and giggled and reminisced and giggled and giggled until near midnight. When Robin noticed the time, she groaned.
     “What’s the matter?” Betty Parker asked her.
     “I’ve got to be home at midnight or Aunt Martha’s going to be furious.”
     Betty smiled. “Just like old times, huh.”
     “Yeah,” Robin said, making an exasperated face.
     Robin barely made it by midnight.
     And, not surprisingly, Aunt Martha was waiting in the living room when she got. “I’m glad you made it home, dear. Did you have a nice time?”
     “Yes, Aunt Martha. I hadn’t been able to talk to those old friends of mine for a long time so we had a lot of catching up to do.”
     “Yes, I’m sure you did. I’m glad you had a nice time. I’m off to bed. Good night.”
     “Good night, Aunt Martha.”
     Robin felt like a heel, keeping her aunt up that late, though she knew she shouldn’t. I mean, Aunt Martha agreed to midnight on weekends. Still…she waited up for me till long past her bedtime. But I’m not a child any more, she’s going to have to accept that…There was turmoil inside her, guilt that she knew she really shouldn’t feel…oh, I hate you, Robert Conners! Why did you ever make me come here? Why didn’t you take me far, far, far away and make love to me every night?…why did you have to give in to me and bring me here?…why couldn’t you have been the kind of kidnapper you should have been and tied me up and never let me go?…why did you have to go and kill that woman?…why did you lie to me?…why? why? why?…I hope you rot in hell where you belong…Robin sat on her bed and sighed, her head down, a tear coming to her eyes. It’s all your fault, Robert Conners, it’s all your fault…