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"She will probably come down for dinner. She thought you could find enough to amuse yourself until then," Merilyn added, sounding like she was parroting my grandmother.

"I'll try," I said petulantly and walked out of the house. She knows I'm her real granddaughter, I thought, but she's not breaking her neck to meet me. I guess I know where I stand in her eyes, I concluded, and stood fuming for a few moments on the front steps.

The sound of a car trunk being closed hard drew my attention to the garage where I saw a tall, lean, balding man wiping his long hands with a rag. He wore a dark blue shirt and dark blue pants and smiled at me.

"Hello there," he said. He folded the rag as neatly as he would an expensive towel.

I walked down the stone steps toward him. The sun was behind him, making it seem as if he had a halo around his head. Actually, the bald spot glittered. When I drew closer, I saw his eyebrows made up for his loss of hair. They were bushy and thick over his dark brown eyes. He had a narrow face with a slightly cleft chin and a nose that was just a little too long and too thin, but his smile was warm, friendly. He looked amused as I approached.

"Hi," I said.

"You're the new roommate, huh?" he said with a laugh in his voice.

"Excuse me?"

He laughed.

"I heard from Mrs. Hudson that a young lady was coming to live with her. I'm Jake Marvin," he said extending his right hand. It felt silly putting my tiny hand into his because it disappeared and looked like he was shaking my wrist. "I take care of her car and drive her places whenever she wants to go anywhere, which isn't often these days."

He leaned toward me and winked.

"It's an easy job. Actually," he said

straightening, "I'm only part-time. What's your name?"

"Rain Arnold," I said. He nodded with that same small smile as if he had expected it.

"You meet her yet?" he asked nodding toward the house.

He laughed.

"She doesn't do anything until she's ready and willing," he said. "Don't take offense. She's not treating you any differently from the way she treats every other human being."

"You don't sound like you like her much," I said.

"Oh, on the contrary. I like her a great deal. She's an extraordinary woman. Few left like her. She was liberated before women's lib was a gleam in what's her name's eye," he said.

"Gloria Steinern?"

"Something like that. So, you make yourself at home?" I nodded.

"It's so big," I said.

"That it is." He turned to look out at the property. "My father owned all this once."

"Your father? But--"

"Oh, he lost it all in the market crash and Mr. Hudson came along and bought it up. That was years and years ago. Here I am, back again," he said.

"Were you always Mrs. Hudson's driver?"

"Oh no. I was in the navy for nearly twenty-two years. I've seen the world," he declared, "made a full circle. I worked in radio and advertising for a while and then drove for one of the big hotels. That's when Mrs. Hudson came along and asked why don't I come by and drive her around and take care of her car. Her husband was gone and she hated even the thought of driving. I was ready to become semiretired, so I took her up on it and here I am. Full circle," he said and gazed toward the pond.

He was silent for a moment and then smiled at me.

"You'll like it here. It takes you over, romances you. Wait until you see the sun go down over those trees in the west and the ducks come back and camp out on the pond. You're a city girl, I hear?"

"Yes, from Washington, D.C."