Jake found Victoria somewhere he wasn't expecting her to be [in his room?] and she demanded to see which jewels he'd taken.
Mac told Chris he was in trouble. Chris said Mrs. James loved him and him alone. Mac and the lawyer told him not to jeopardize his career. They sat down for a chat.
Nancy found Mrs. James' address and got strange. Rachel told her to stay out of it. Nancy assured her she'd be able to convince a little old lady [bet she's not] to give Chris up once she understood the risks he was taking.
Mac wants Dr Biggs to testify on Chris' behalf. Chris refused to give up Mrs. James. If she [a neurotic woman afraid of being abandoned] thought he was deserting her she could die of asthma. He's severing the connection slowly.
Rachel tried to stop Nancy from sneaking out. She was unsuccessful.
Vic: thanks for letting me use your toothbrush. Come on, Jake, you can always boil it. Jake: OK Vicky you've had your fun. now tell me what you're doing here. Vic: are you kidding, what do you mean what am I doing here? Come on, I want to know what happened. Jake: NOTHING happened Vicky. Vic: Jake, I waited at my car by your motorcycle, you come out, you completely ignore me, then you jump on your bike and start acting like Mad Max. Jake: well maybe I don't like being followed, did you ever think about that? Vic: yeah, I know, you got me lost. Took me an hour to find the main road again. I came back here to wait, you never showed up, where were you? Jake: doesn't anybody at the Love mansion ever think of putting you on a leash, Vicky? Vic: you're avoiding the question. Where were you? Jake: nowhere. Vic: nowhere? Jake, you were with the treasure for 15 minutes. Then you ride your bike like a maniac, you don't come home all night, don't tell me you were nowhere. Jake: yeah well I went for a drive, OK? Vic: you went to Chicago, didn't you, I mean you already fenced the jewels. How much did you get? Jake: I didn't take anything, alright? Vic: $200,000? Half a million? Jake: don't you understand English? I said I didn't take anything. Vic: you chickened out. Jake: I didn't CHICKEN OUT, Vicky. I sat there and I thought about it for a long time and then I figured that hey, my life means more to me than doing something STUPID like that. Vic: you already did something STUPID when you followed me. Jake: why is it every time we hook up, Vicky, we get in worse trouble than the time before? Vic: I don't know, it must be love. He said they had to tell the police. He said he appreciated her help but he wasn't that desperate. She told him anything Marley could do she could do better. He suggested she leave. He did agree not to call the police just yet. Exit Vic.
Back home Victoria got a little carried away thinking about the recent exchange with Jake and caused Michael to get mad over the way she was treating her horse.
Neal ran into Jake in Mac's living room. Jake fired polite questions at him in a suspicious fashion about Neal's reason for existence and leads on the treasure. Neal said he was investigating the marina for his business and "loose lips sink ships." They said cryptic things about chess to each other. Enter Mac. Exit Neal. Mac has a proposition for Jake.
Nancy arrived at Mrs. James' a bundle of nerves. An unold woman answered the door and she asked to see her mother. It was The Mrs. James.
Victoria got offensive. She told Michael Donna would make mincemeat of him when she returned. Victoria is not good with horses and it annoys Michael to see them mistreated.
Mrs. James invited Nancy in. Nancy explained about Chris' situation. Carol James already knows about it. She said she and Chris had a special relationship. Nancy told her she was in love with Chris and they'd be married soon and implored her to give him up.* Mrs. James began an asthma attack. When Nancy noticed she panicked. Enter Chris. He sent Nancy home and calmed Mrs. James.
Victoria took a spill. Michael was kind and said she should get back up and ride again. She demanded another horse. He asked why the interest in riding all of a sudden [I neglected to mention she decided to win a ribbon at whatever Donna used to win ribbons at]. She told him about her invitation to the horse show and said that Donna and Marley had ribbons and she'd have one too. He asked how long she'd hated her sister. She said she didn't hate Marley and he just didn't know anything about twins. He started to say something about knowing all about twins and then backed down inexplicably. He lamely said he knew about horses and it took more than determination to win a ribbon. He told her to ride the same horse as threw her [sweet gentle Diamond, Marley's mare].
Mac told Jake he liked him and he reminded him of himself when young [Ye gods]. And said he'd put up the tuition for Jake to go to administrative school. Jake said he had no time. Mac said he'd be there if he changed his mind. Jake ran into Neal on his way out. Neal told him not to worry, things would work out, and Jake said his problem must be he played by the rules. Jake went home and thought about Mac and Victoria. And then telling Marley about his ambitions. He smashed things. He got an idea how to do it.
Victoria improved. She has more work to do if she is to get a blue ribbon. He asked why Marley could ride and she couldn't and she told him she'd been raised in a different state and she didn't want to talk about it. He offered to train her for the riding contest in April. She accused him of wanting to insinuate himself into the bosom of the Love family so Donna wouldn't throw him out [he'd refused money for the riding lessons]. He said she could pay him $1 per hour. She said $20 per hour and left. I have no doubt he was perplexed.
The Corys hope Chris stays away from Mrs. James. Rachel's afraid he won't. Neal gets along swell with the kids. Amanda started blathering away about when Mac was going to Chicago and buying TV cameras to set up for the robbers. Neal kept trying to hush her up. Tense silence. Neal said he was just an idea he had but he liked what Catlin was doing. "I like your idea better" piped up Amanda "it's like Miami Vice." Neal said it was a dumb idea. He thought they could arrange a taped meeting with the terrorists. Mac thought it was a great idea if they could find them to pretend to negotiate [is this man really over the tomb dust?] Rachel protested. Mac said he'd call Catlin.
Victoria went to Jake's room but he wasn't there. She wrote an apologetic letter for this morning. Marley called.
Chris went home and called for Nancy. He crumpled paper and got on the phone. He hung up and said "maybe it's better this way."
Mac went out and Nancy stumbled in sobbing about Mrs. James and saying it was over with Chris. Rachel told her Chris had called and Mrs. James was OK. Nancy started raving about Mrs. James being young & pretty & divorced. She's sure it's over.
Marley was a little upset and asked where Jake was. Victoria said she didn't know. She asked when Marley was coming home and Marley said as soon as possible. Victoria said she missed her and she could tell Jake did too [I mean to say, well, really]. She said if Marley called back in half an hour she'd be sure to find Jake. She's expecting him.
Jake met a loan shark.
* Editor's note: Rosalyn loves Robert, Robert loves Rosalyn, Gloria doesn't know either of them. Rosalyn is confused.
Rosalyn Abbott begging Gloria Gaye to relinquish Robert Brown, her beloved.
She gave deep and earnest thought to the black skirt and blouse. She wasn't quite sure that it was suitable for the weather or place or time of day, but it was undeniably smart, and it imparted to her a widow-like look that fitted in well with the circumstances. She redid her hair six times and re made-up her face seven. The shoes she had bought from a friend and had never dared to wear till now, but she found that if she walked carefully she could manage quite well, though they were, she discovered after she'd worn them for a few minutes, a little on the small side. While she was dressing, her aunt had rung up and asked her to help look for Tom, who had vanished again, and Rosalyn had answered absently that she would, her mind all the time exercised by the problem as to whether to wear her pearl earrings or her paste ones. She decided on the paced ones. They had, she thought, a married look, which contributed to the general widow like effect... As she put them on, dabbing behind her ears a generous allowance of the perfume that Robert had given her on her birthday last month, she rehearsed the scene to herself, trying various methods of approach, practicing pathos, anger, scorn, pleading, renunciation, in turn before her looking glass. She crossed renunciation off her list after one trial, deciding that it wasn't in her line.
Even now, as she walked, with a certain amount of difficulty, towards Honeysuckle Cottage, she hadn't quite made-up her mind on the exact method she would use. She had resolved not to waste anytime on preliminaries. She would leap at once into the heart of the scene. But she still hadn't chosen her opening lines. She tried: "give him back to me, Miss Gaye," and "do you want to kill me, Miss Gaye?" And "what is he to you, Miss Gaye?" and she liked them all.
She would probably use them all, and leave to fate the decision as to which should come first.
Her courage began to fail as she approached the cottage, and it is possible that, if she had not seen Gloria Gaye standing in the open doorway, she might have gone past it. But the sight of Gloria Gaye was a challenge that she could not refuse.
She opened the small gate and walked up to the front door.
"Are you Miss Gaye?" she said, deciding that the woman was well over 30.
"Yes," said Gloria, deciding that the girl had on the wrong shade of lipstick, the wrong shade of Rouge, the wrong perfume and the wrong sizing shoes, and that the whole outfit was wrong for wandering about country lanes, looking for cats. "Come in."
"I'm Rosalyn Abbott," said Rosalyn.
"Oh yes," said Gloria. "Her niece. She told me about you."
Rosalyn wasn't listening. She was making a swift choice of her opening lines. She faced Gloria across the little sitting room, head thrown back proudly, eyes flashing. "Miss Gaye," she said, "give him back to me."
Gloria sighed. She was sick to death of that cat. "I haven't got him," she said wearily.
"You have. you've stolen him from me."
"I have not," said Gloria. "You can search the house if you don't believe me."
"I'm not implying," said Rosalyn, with curling lip, "that you've actually got him concealed on the premises."
"What are you implying then?"
"You know quite well what I'm implying. You don't want him, do you?"
"No," said Gloria.
"Then why have you stolen him from me? What can he mean to a woman like you? To me he means everything. You take him just for a few days' pleasure, but to me — " she tried to put a sob into her voice, but realized that it didn't quite come off and cleared her throat instead. "Miss Gaye, won't you give him back to me?"
"Now, listen, Miss Abbott," said Gloria with rising anger, "I've told you once and I tell you again, I haven't got him, I don't want him and I'm not interested in tomcats."
"How dare you!" said Rosalyn and, turning on her heels [she managed it quite well], swept from the cottage without another word.
Miss Gaye sat down on the settee. She thought of hysterics but realized that the mood had passed.
Just William's Luck, Richmal Crompton ↩Rosalyn had not gone straight to Honeysuckle Cottage after her interview with William. She had set out immediately, it is true, but had realized suddenly that she wore her oldest frock, that her hair was a sight and that she was only half made-up. She was, she decided, in no state to join issue with a film star. So she returned home and spent a good hour in preparation for the combat.