Mark Townsend - White captive

The low powerful sports car pulled smoothly into the long curved driveway and came to a silent stop before the large darkened two-story colonial-type house. The lights switched off, throwing the well kept grounds and garden into greater blackness. Inside, the boy reached over and pulled the young, silken-haired girl close to him and locked his lips tightly to hers. There was only the sound of a heavy impassioned breathing for a moment and then a small abrupt cry from the girl.

"Richard! Darling, please don't."

She struggled a moment with his hand, pulling it with hesitant force from beneath the top of her thin white-veneered formal. He resisted, and then let it be pushed limply away.

"Susan, for God's sake! We're engaged now. At least you could let me touch you."

"Oh, darling, I know, I know," she moaned against him. "I want you to touch me as much as you want to, but we just can't. Not before we're married."

"That's a good four years away and you know it," the boy objected. "I-I just don't think I can wait that long. It's driving me crazy already."

"Darling, we've just got to wait. It'll go by so fast we won't even know it, particularly with you away at college and me working. And we'll appreciate it so much more. You know we will."

She dropped her head to his shoulder and began to sob gently. Susan knew her arguments sounded childish to Richard, but in spite of even her own temptations that were growing more and more intense with each time he touched her, she could not bring herself to let him go too far. She remembered only too vividly the promises she had made to her father of being a good girl just before he died several months ago. He had been the most wonderful man in the world, and had been so deeply hurt by her brother's running away that she just couldn't go back on her promises to him now. She was sure that wherever he was, he would somehow know if she let him down. But, explaining this to Richard sounded so foolish she hadn't even bothered to try. She was certain he was beginning to think she didn't really care for him at all and this just was not true.

Richard sat still for a moment beside her, his arm hanging limply around her shoulders and then slowly began to stroke her hair with a comforting softness.

"All right, darling. I-I think I know how you feel and I'll try to hold myself back."

"Oh, Richard, I promise when we're married, I'll make it all up to you. Every moment darling," she cried with frustration into his shoulder.

"Hey, wait a minute," he kidded, regaining his composure, "this isn't a forever promise. Every man has the right to unlimited tries. Particularly, with his own fiancee."

"Oh you nit," she raised her head and laughed nervously, wiping the tears from her eyes with her handkerchief. "I had better get in the house before my mother wakes up and comes out and drags me in by the hair. She just might have a few harsh words for you too."

"I just imagine she's out to the world," he laughed. "I saw Dad and Mr. Grover helping her out to the car about an hour ago at the club. None of them were in the best of shape."

"Well, your mother wasn't doing too well, either, Mr. Evans," she said sarcastically. "As I recall, they had to send her home about ten o'clock. She could hardly walk."

"Touche," he laughed again, "these country club parties are all alike, just one big contest to see who can make the biggest fool of themselves."

"I know," Susan's brow suddenly wrinkled and a serious tone came to her voice. "Mom seems to have changed in that respect. I've never seen her this bad before in my life."

"She's still just in a state of shock from your father's death," Richard consoled, holding her hand softly. "She'll he all right."

"I hope so," she whispered. "She seems to have changed so much since Dad's will came out. I think it hurt her more than he realized it would."

"Now listen, honey, you stop worrying about that. If your dad thought he could trust your mother with all that money he would have left it to her instead of in trust for you. Besides, she has a good substantial income guaranteed for life. What more could she want?"

"I-I don't know. But it almost seems sometimes as if she hates me more than anything else in the world. I-I think she even blames me for Billy running away."

"Oh, Susan," he admonished. "She's just jealous of you being your father's favorite. And, if she hadn't lavished so much attention on that weak-livered sissy then maybe your father could have respected him as a son."

"Richard, you stop that," she shouted at him in sudden anger. "What right do you have to sit there and criticize my family that way?"

"Because, damn it," he shouted back, "they're going to be my family too, one of these days, remember?"

"Well I just don't know about that," Susan ansered in a huff as she opened the door on her side and started from the car.

"Oh Suzy, damnit again, I'm sorry," he grabbed her arm and apologized softly. "I'm just so much in love with you that I hate to see you hurt in any way, and I know you are being hurt."

"I don't care," she sobbed back at him. "That still gives you no right to run down my mother and Billy that way. They're all I've got left and they are my family."

"Suzy, stop being ridiculous. I know they are your farnily but that doesn't mean you have to suffer over them like this. They have no right to do that to you."

"I-I think we had better talk about this later," she said, trying to hold back the flood of tears that were beginning to build in her eyes. "I don't even like to be near you when you talk like this."

She stepped back and slammed the door shut, her heart beating wildly in hurt and anger. She turned and started up the stairs without looking back and heard the angry screech of tires behind her as Richard gunned the car down the driveway, and out the gate. She slumped against the door for a moment, cradling her head in the crook of her arm and then slowly opened it and entered. She felt so empty inside and wished she could make Richard understand about her mother and Billy, but it all seemed so hopeless. He just didn't give her a chance to try and explain the way he should have done if he really loved her. Sometimes, she doubted that he really and truly did love her. Yes, he liked her and very much, but did he really understand what love was all about. Did he know that it involved more than just necking in the car and "making out" as he termed it? Did he understand that it included helping her, or at least, trying to be patient with her when she had a problem of this magnitude?

Susan tip-toed through the hallway toward the kitchen. She didn't want to awaken her mother and have to go through any kind of questions and answer games that she had become so adept at playing recently. She just couldn't understand what had come over mother since her father's death with all her intimate questions about what she did out in the car with Richard and so on. Some of them had been so blunt and direct she had almost been too embarrassed to answer and she was just in no mood to have to go through that tonight. She would just have her glass of milk and get to bed without making a sound.

She opened the swinging door to the kitchen and quietly slipped inside. The light was still on and several half-filled bottles of liquor were open on the counter next to the sink. Someone had obviously been having a good party. No doubt, Richard's father and Mr. Evans had come inside and had a few drinks when they brought her mother home.

My God, she found herself thinking, how on earth could they take anymore after the way they had behaved at the club. She had been embarrassed at the way her mother had been dancing with all the men who kept asking turns with her. It had seemed as though she had been trying to seduce them right on the dance floor. She had said something to Richard about it but he had laughed it off as just one of the standard country club occurrences and had pointed out several other prominent women who had been behaving as equally foolish. This had helped a little but not much, and she had been happy when the two men had volunteered to drive her mother home early. She certainly was in no condition to do it herself.