The Senator and the Student

The streetcar was mostly empty, with just a few students returning from a shopping jaunt in town. Rebecca gave them a cordial smile and helped herself to a seat at the far end of the car, wondering if they knew who she was. Presently it emerged that they did, for one of them ventured down the car to say hello. "Excuse me, you're Rebecca Wharton, aren't you?"

"Yes," Rebecca said. "Pleased to meet --"

"Would you mind telling me why you've spoiled the community for us all?"

"I'm sorry?" Rebecca deferred, though she knew just what was coming.

"In your day and in my older sister's day, the university was ours," the young woman snapped. "We didn't need any dirty men in our place of learning, and they're not adding anything but tension and noise now that they're there!"

Rebecca was mollified to see the young lady's friends come up behind her. "Don't listen to her, Senator," one of them said.

"Yeah, she's just as boy crazy as any of 'em," added the other.

"I never said I didn't like men!" the first one protested. "I just don't want them where they don't belong! You don't see me horning in on their private space in the factories or the army!"

"Come on, Janine," one of her friends said, grabbing her arm, which she promptly wrenched free, only for the other girl to clasp her other arm and also pull back.

"We're sorry, Senator," said the one whose grasp Janine wasn't able to wriggle free of. "She had too much wine with her brunch. We'll get her calmed down." And with some effort, they did get her settled in the seat farthest from Rebecca.

Wine before noon? Rebecca couldn't help smiling, recalling her own decadent trips into town with Millicent back in the day. The debates they used to have as the wine flowed! She hoped the difficult occasion wouldn't find Chester so incapacitated, but Rebecca doubted that. She had never known Chester to share his mother's lackadaisical approach to her studies any more than he shared her conservatism -- after all, he knew how fortunate he was to be allowed to attend the university at all.

Sure enough, he was ensconced quietly in an armchair in the Great Hall when Rebecca arrived at the appointed hour. He didn't immediately look up when she strolled in, but he was nevertheless made aware of her presence when a round of applause broke out in a corner. "Rebecca Wharton!" called out a chorus of young men and women alike; she was pleased to note a number of the latter cheering at her appearance. She was displeased but not surprised to see a few intrepid reporters had made their way to lie in wait for her here, but she ignored them for the moment.

"Senator, thank you!" called out one young woman. "This place would be deadly dull without boys!"

Rebecca nodded and smiled, and tamped down the temptation to remind her young admirer that that was hardly the point.

Rebecca wasn't at all sure how to approach Chester; she hadn't been sure when she'd made up her mind to come here, she hadn't been sure when she'd gotten out of bed that morning or when she'd gotten on the train, and she wasn't sure now.

She needn't have concerned herself with that, she now saw, for as soon as the commotion made Chester aware of her presence, he jumped up and embraced her like a long-lost friend. "Rebecca! I was so very happy to get your letter last night" He held her tightly for a scandalous passage of seconds, both of them knowing but not caring that their tender moment would add a great deal more fuel to the fire. He did, though, care enough to look up from her bosom and say, "I'm sure the vultures can respect the privacy of a couple of old friends!"

"I'm quite afraid they can't, Chester," Rebecca said, reluctantly letting him go. "Perhaps we should go someplace they might have the decency not to follow. The lake is too cold for swimming today. Let's go see if we'll be alone there."

As soon as she'd said it, Rebecca knew that was the worst place on campus she could have suggested, short of Chester's own room (where she wouldn't have been allowed anyway; the dormitories were still segregated by sex, although she doubted the students had much respect for that rule). The lake on the far end of campus had always been a risqué suggestion in her day, and she had no doubt it was all the more so now that the university had admitted men. Chester saw the mistake too, she could tell by the mischievous look in his eyes. But he nodded and smiled. "Yes, let's go to the lake."

Ignoring the flurry of flashbulbs and shouted questions, compliments and insults from students and reporters alike, they strolled around the corner and down the path towards the lake. Rebecca longed to put her arm around Chester, but she wasn't quite prepared to throw caution to the wind that much. Instead she contented herself with telling him, "I am so very sorry that journal entry got out, Chester."

"It's not you who ought to apologize, Rebecca. It's my mum."

"We don't know for a fact that she leaked it," Rebecca pointed out.

"We can't prove it, I guess, but of course it was her," Chester said. "Many's the time I've heard her say how much she loves you, but hates your politics. It was bad enough getting us into the university, and now giving us the vote..."

"I suppose you're right," Rebecca conceded. "I just -- we've been the best of friends since we were younger than you, and our political differences were always just part of the fun. We both love a good argument, you know!" She chuckled.

"You haven't been spending as much time with us as you used to, Rebecca," Chester said. "You haven't heard how unutterably angry she's become at..."

"At me?"

"I'm afraid so. The day I told her I was coming here to study was her point of no return, I guess. Every time I go home for a holiday, I get an earful about how I could be making good money in a factory and she could marry me off to a nice girl who'd provide for me better than I ever could for myself, and how I'm taking some poor nice girl's job at the uni. All about how we men don't have the temperament for thinking work, we're too anger-prone and too horny." After the last word slipped out, he burst into embarrassed laughter. "Sorry, Rebecca, I guess I shouldn't have said that last bit!"

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Rebecca reassured him. "Heaven knows women have needs too." She felt a lump in her throat, recalling how desperately she missed the intimacy she'd shared with her beloved Melvin. Hoping to avoid any further awkwardness, she forced a laugh. "All too appropriate on a walk to the lake, isn't it?"

"I was surprised you made that suggestion," Chester admitted. "Everyone knows what you go to the lake for when it's warm enough. But you're right, it isn't today."

"So the girls still come here to skinnydip, do they?" Rebecca was dying to know more, but she left it at that for the moment.

"Not just the girls," Chester confessed with a grin. "It's still mostly them, but they're always after us guys to join them, and a few of us have."

"Good for you!" Rebecca could only hope Chester was tacitly admitting he was among those few, for her imagination was once again running wild. "It's a deliciously free feeling, isn't it?"

"You did it?" Chester looked amazed as they stepped out into the clearing just above the shore, which was deserted as Rebecca had hoped.

Rebecca sighed and nodded at him, utterly unashamed. "All the time. And I've got to admit I wished there were boys to join us."

"Rebecca!" Chester gazed upon her in amazement. "I never would've guessed, you and my mum..."

"Oh, your mother never did it. She thought I was crazy to do it myself."

"I might've guessed," Chester said. Then he dissolved into more laughter. "I'm sorry, Rebecca!" he said.

"Sorry for what?"

Chester looked at the ground to avoid eye contact, but he couldn't keep the grin off his face.

"Chester, you can tell me anything, you know. Especially now that you know more than you ever wanted to as to how I feel about you."

"That's just it, Rebecca!" At last he turned and faced her. "Reading your writing in the paper -- it was beautiful, first of all, and I know it was none of my business but I was really touched, knowing you admire me that much -- and now hearing about you here in the lake...well, it does make a guy think, no matter how inappropriate it is."

"It's not inappropriate, Chester. You are a man now, aren't you? Nineteen?"

"Last spring," Chester said. "I hope I remembered to say thanks for the card."

"You did, and I'm sorry I couldn't join you for the occasion. The premiere kept the Senate in session all that week trying to ram her budget through."

"No, thank you for doing your job!" Chester dared take her hand in his, and she squeezed it back affectionately. "I wouldn't be here without that, after all. Anyway. Yes, I'm nineteen, but you're my mother's old friend and you're as old as she is. But I have always adored you, and to know you felt the same? It's...strange."

"Believe me, I know," Rebecca said. "It's a most queer feeling for me, too, and that is why I never wanted word getting out, least of all to you. That's why I wanted to come out here to apologize to you in person. But I confess, I never imagined the feeling might be mutual, Chester."

"Neither did I," Chester said with that shy grin of his again. "All those times you were over to visit and I got to admire you in your afternoon dresses, and after you went home..." He looked down again and turned beet red.

"Oh, Chester!" Rebecca gave up entirely on her resolve and threw her arms around him. "That's wonderful," she said, rubbing his back tenderly.

"It is?"

"It is. I'm utterly flattered."

"But it's not like you've ever done such a thing!"

"As a matter of fact, Chester, I have." Now it was Rebecca's turn to laugh.

Chester joined in on the laughter, and tightened his arms around her, to her utter delight. "I don't suppose it could ever come to pass, though," he mused. "Us?"

"I see no reason not to try, if you're willing, my dear." Rebecca could barely believe her own words -- but then, why not? "We love each other, and by now the whole country knows it. Of course I can't promise it will work between us, but that would be true if you were my age too."

"Oh, Rebecca!" Chester pulled back but didn't let go, and looked her in the eye with an expression of utter bliss on his face. Their first kiss was as cathartic as it was passionate, a long drought come to an end for her, a realization of his most private fantasy for him. "I can only think of one problem," he said.

"Never mind about the elections," Rebecca said. "If I lose because of this, it's a good job to lose!"

"No, I meant my mother," Chester said. "Heaven knows what she'll try next if this trick of hers brought us together!"

"Serves her right, doesn't it?" Rebecca said. "I'm not looking forward to dealing with her either, but ultimately it is her own fault, assuming she is the one who leaked that diary entry."

"Just how did she get it in the first place?" Chester asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine. But I suggest we let her find out about us the same way the rest of the world did: in the newspaper."

They laughed together, kissed again, and set off brazenly hand-in-hand for the walk back to the Great Hall.

Upon their arrival, the impromptu press conference was just as lively as ever. "Let me do the talking," she whispered to Chester as they stepped up to the clutch of reporters.

"No problem!" He was still holding her hand, and was pleased that she made no effort to disguise that.

Rebecca ignored the myriad shouted questions, and held up her free hand. "Ladies, gentlemen, I haven't got but one thing to say regarding my relationship with Chester Croft: we love each other, and that is all the premiere or anyone else needs to know. I am not ashamed of my love, but it is no one's business but Chester's and my own. That will be all." She turned and led Chester toward his dormitory.

"What now?" he asked, as they approached the front door.

"We await the fallout," she said. "I'm afraid there will be some, but it shall pass." She stopped and took both of Chester's hands in her own and gazed at him. "And I should be delighted if you could come join Sarah and myself for dinner this evening."

"As would I!" Chester exclaimed, squeezing her hands. "Let me just run inside and see if I have enough pocket money handy for the train."

"Oh, I'll reserve you a ticket on the four o'clock train when I get to the station," Rebecca said. "I should get back for the afternoon to do some work, but we'll be expecting you. Sarah will be positively delighted, I might add!"

"I'll be seeing you then!" Chester looked uncertain for a moment, but he found his courage and embraced Rebecca tightly. She had doubts about the wisdom of sharing a kiss in a quasi-public setting, but she welcomed the touch of his lips upon hers all the same, and she returned the gesture in no uncertain terms.

There were hoots and cheers from afar as she released him, but they both ignored them. Rebecca also ignored the several reporters who still hadn't given up, but she did return the supportive calls and waves from the students as she stepped up to the waiting streetcar. On the ride back to the train station, her heart was sailing.

Was it love? Was it inevitable? Had it always been there? What did it all mean for the suffrage bill, and for her political fortunes? Rebecca had the train ride back to Laucester to ponder all that and more. She also needed the time to rehearse just what she would tell Sarah. At least she would be unequivocally happy about the news.

That, as it turned out, was putting it quite mildly. "Mother! When is the wedding?" Sarah threw herself at Rebecca and clung to her so tightly Rebecca was surprised she could breathe.

"That is getting far, far ahead of things, Sarah," Rebecca admonished her. "I have no idea if it shall ever come to that, and you are not to tell anyone otherwise until I tell you, understood?"

"Completely!" But Sarah was dancing a jig and grinning ear to ear all the same. "I'll be on my best behaviour for dinner, I promise!"

"See that you are, dear," Rebecca said, and she rang for Guy. "Now off with you to the nursery, dear. I've got some work to do before he gets here."

"Yes, Mother!"

Still utterly elated, Sarah nearly ran into Guy as he entered the room while she was leaving. "Sorry, Guy!" she giggled, and she tore around him and off down the hall.

"Well, she's certainly full of energy this fine day, isn't she?" Guy said. "I hope the trip was as agreeable as could be for you, Senator?"

"It was utterly delightful," Rebecca said. "Chester will be joining us for dinner and spending the night. I want the carriage at the train station to meet him at five."

"As you wish, Senator." To Rebecca's surprise, Guy looked dour at the news; but she paid it little mind. "Anything else in the meantime?"

"No, thank you." Rebecca sat down at her desk. "I've some letters to write before dinner, and I'll ring if I need anything."

"As you wish." Guy bowed and turned to leave. Before she dove into her work, Rebecca wrote herself a note to offer him a day off as soon as he could be spared; the poor fellow clearly needed it.

Rebecca threw herself into her work for the long afternoon, and forced herself to finish off the letter she was still writing when she heard Esther welcoming Chester downstairs just after five o'clock. After a cursory round of freshening up at her washstand, Rebecca took the liberty of changing into her favourite dress, a dark red one with a full skirt that had always driven Melvin wild. She could only hope Sarah would know well enough to hold her tongue as far as her clothing was concerned.

She did, betraying only a twinkle in her eye as she looked up from the couch where Chester was poring over her mathematics book with her. Rebecca was not at all surprised to see her daughter had been thinking like her, and had also put on her best frock. "Welcome, Chester," she said. "I hope the train ride was an agreeable one?"

"I'm afraid the press is still out for blood," he said, standing up to kiss her cheek, to Sarah's utter delight. "But I told them I had no comment."

"A very wise choice," Rebecca said. "I am so very sorry you've got to live with that for now."

"I have nothing but hope it will all be worth it, Rebecca."

"As do I." She turned to see Esther at attention by the liquor cabinet. "Wine before dinner?"

"Don't mind if I do."

Once the drinks were served, Esther read between the lines and packed Sarah off to wash her hands, notwithstanding her stern protests that she already had washed them. "I am ever so sorry for anything inappropriate Sarah might say, Chester," Rebecca said as soon as they were alone. Sitting beside him on the couch, she touched his knee and thrilled to the jolt of joy even that casual contact brought. "She's utterly over the moon with the news that you and I just might be an item."

"That makes two of us," Chester said with a grin. "Three, I hope!"

"And how!" Rebecca concurred. "I'm trying to keep Sarah's feet on the ground about all this, but it's a struggle to do that when I can hardly keep my own there! I hope the feeling isn't too queer for you, Chester!"

"It is a bit," he admitted, "Remembering how you knew me as a little boy. But that does make me feel ever so comfortable with you under almost any circumstances."

"Almost?" Rebecca dared to run her fingers through his thick blond hair.

"Well, yes. What we're considering, I mean, a week ago it would've been unthinkable."

"It certainly didn't have to be that way, Chester, just because we were afraid then to admit our true feelings for one another!"

Chester relaxed and sidled up closer to Rebecca. "That's beautiful. I like the way you think."

"I like a lot more than that about you, Chester."

And they shared their first kiss just before the dinner bell rang.

Rebecca had lingering doubts about it all right up to the point where her lips touched his, but all at once they were gone. The beautiful but slightly troubling memories of Chester as a boy, the anguish of losing Melvin, the terrifying challenge of raising Sarah on her own, the joys and concerns of being a senator, the sense that she was putting it all at risk for a man she ought never have even thought to touch...all that vanished in a wonderful mist as she felt his arms around her and his lips upon hers. This could never be wrong!

It was just as well that talking was not on either of their minds when they sat down to eat just afterwards, for Sarah saw to it that no one else got a word in edgewise. "Can we play closetball every day after you're married, Chester?"

"Sarah!" Rebecca admonished.

"Wait, can I still call you Chester? Or will it be Father?"

"Sarah, enough!"

"That's all a long way off, Sarah," Chester said. "But if that day ever comes, what would you like to call me?"

"You'll always be Chester to me, Chester."

"Then Chester it is. I'll never be able to fill your father's shoes, that I know."

"Bravo!" Rebecca said. "Now, Sarah, there will be no more harassing either of us about marriage or any other such thing until I tell you it's going to happen. Do I make myself clear?"

"I suppose this means I've got to mind my tongue with Daniel and the girls at school," Sarah sighed.

"Most certainly, my darling," Rebecca said in the tone of voice that always frightened Sarah into obeisance.

"Who is this Daniel she wanted to tell about us?" Chester asked some time later as Rebecca ushered him into her bedroom, where Guy had just lit a roaring fire.

"He's her token male friend," Rebecca said. "Boys are icky, don't you know."

"Heavens, how I hated it when girls talked like that!" Chester helped himself to a seat on Rebecca's bed, and his perch looked nervous and uncertain.