FLASHBACK: 'Another World' The Story of Steven, Rachel & Alice (Part 15)

Jacqueline Courtney as Alice Matthews Frame and
James Douglas as Eliot Carrington.

ANOTHER WORLD: The Story of Steven, Rachel & Alice

The Soap Box
Vol. IV No. 7 July 1979
by Bryna Laub

(continued from Part 14)

Alice had gone to New York and spent several days alone in a small hotel for women, taking meals in her room and sinking deeper and deeper into a kaleidoscope of memories of Steven, dwelling on those last awful moments in his apartment when her world fell apart. He had betrayed her so horribly that their whole life together had become a lie. Finally, however, she realized what was happening to her and knew she had to find something to fill her thoughts and her time before she had withdrawn completely from living.

She applied for a position as a nurse/governess in the household of international journalist Eliot Carrington. Eliot's son Dennis was a semi-invalid suffering from a congenital heart condition. Since Eliot was separated from his socialite wife Iris, Dennis was in the care of Eliot's housekeeper, Mrs. Louise Goddard, and led a lonely life with visits from his tutor, his only relief from boredom.

As the weeks went by, Steven's anguish at losing Alice began to turn to bitterness. After all, he had done nothing wrong and she had abandoned him out of the blue, without even an explanation. When Jim apologetically contacted Steven to report that Alice wanted all her thing out of the house and sent to her, it was the last straw. Steven went to The Fireside Inn and began to get drunk. Gerald spoke to him just long enough to realize Steven had hit bottom and quickly called Rachel to come back to the restaurant.

George Reinholt as Steven Frame and Victoria
Wyndham as Rachel Clark.

Rachel managed to get Steven back to the apartment and then sat with him as he poured out all his bitterness and misery. He accused Alice of expecting him to sit and wait forever over a betrayal that never happened. Finally he told Rachel that he never should have married Alice, it was all a big mistake.

Sensing his needs and his vulnerability Rachel now offered herself to him to help him forget Alice. And to soothe his wounds Steven once again took Rachel upstairs to his bedroom.

In the morning Rachel found the response she'd hope for years ago on the morning after Jamie was conceived. Steve was eager to see her again, to make love to her again, and to let her fill the emptiness in his life. And now when she said she understood him, he replied that she did, she was the only one who understood him.

Rachel and Steven were together constantly from that night on. Steven now confided in Rachel that a man can love and need two women at the same time. Alice represented the unattainable dream to him and the very fact that she was all those things made him unable to be himself with her. There were parts of him he could never show her because she could have never understood them. But she, Rachel, he continued, also came from the wrong side of the tracks and fought for everything she had. With her he could be himself, he could show the bad side as well as the good. And Rachel knew this deepened the bond between them, and she asked Ted for a divorce.

The only flaw in her happiness was Gerald's unexpected announcement that he was leaving town to follow up a business deal in San Francisco. Now realizing he only stayed this long for his own convenience, Rachel asked him why he didn't care for her as a father should. He replied he did, that's why he got Steven for her. As Gerald proudly explained how he had gotten rid of Alice, Rachel realized with growing horror that if Steven ever found out about this, he would never believe she wasn't part of the scheme and she would lose him forever.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Stay tuned for Part 16 of Another World - The Story of Steven, Rachel & Alice.

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