Daniel stared past Annabel into the sun until he was blind with light. The muscles in his jaw tightened. What do I do? he thought. Mother has a two-pronged plan. A. I open the investigation and flatten Hollings Jayquith. B. I make a name for myself beyond Darling-of-America and run for State Representative next fall.
Forget A and B. Play with Annabel and go to medical school.
“I never went through that,” said Annabel. “Daddy believes in a low profile.”
The things I could tell you about Daddy, thought Daniel. But he didn’t. “We have to talk about it, Annabel.” He blew out the air in his lungs to reinforce himself, and lay motionless, chest not rising.
“Breathe!” commanded Annabel finally. “I don’t know CPR!”
“CPR’s for heart attacks.”
“What are you having, a lung attack?”
He managed a laugh. “A nerve attack.” I’m in love with her, he thought. No! Wrong! I won’t allow it.
I’m allowing it.
They spent an hour walking. They drifted away from the softly chattering or peacefully snoozing music-goers. A huge low-slung pine tree gave them wonderful bark seats. He was afraid to touch her, as if, should they kiss, they would set themselves on fire, or be set afire by others.
“This week …” Annabel began.
He pulled away from her. “I’m going into New York to do the show with Theodora.”
“Will your mother come with you?”
What a thought. “No. She’s staying at The Camp.”
“I can handle Theodora,” said Annabel. “I bet I could handle your mother.”
Now there was a wonderful thought. A girl who could handle his mother. He couldn’t help grinning.
She kissed his laughing mouth.
He kissed her back. They pressed against the huge trunk, as if to draw on its roots for their own strength. “Daniel. Let’s meet with my father first.” She cupped his cheeks in her long, cool fingers. “We’ll talk about what you and your mother have discovered. I’m sure it’s just been misinterpreted. I’m sure we can”—she waved one hand around—“come to terms, or something. My father is a good man. Please don’t hurt us, Daniel.” Her hand floated back onto his cheek. “Theodora always has stand-ins arranged, so she has last-minute available guests. You can cancel. Please, Daniel.”
This is the girl who rode a horse and stole a Jeep to get away from her father? thought Daniel Madison Ransom. No. No way. This is the girl who told a very nice story to throw me off balance. This is a girl coached by Daddy himself. I don’t care what you do, honey, just get the Ransom kid off my back for a while. I need time to cover my tracks, destroy my evidence. That’s what Daddy said to his little girl Annabel.
She isn’t going to throw Daddy over for a man she’s known an hour here and there. She’s Theodora’s niece after all. That makes her an actress.
“At least don’t do it on Theodora’s show,” she pleaded. “Theodora is his sister!”
“She’s the best. She has the largest audience.” Daniel said, incredibly tired. Annabel had sapped his energy even more than his mother, and that was saying something. “And anyway, if anybody was in collusion with your father, it was Theodora herself.”
Annabel stepped back from him, mouth open with shock.
Daniel folded his arms and pressed them against his ribs to keep from surrendering to her charms. Charms, he thought. They are truly a medieval family, these Jayquiths, complete with imprisonments and potions and charms. “I’m going to make the statement my mother and I prepared. You’ll have to deal with it the way we had to deal with my father’s murder. There won’t be any escape.”
“I see,” she said quietly. She rubbed her lips with the back of her hand. What’s she doing? thought Daniel. Scouring off my kisses? So she’s hurt. People get hurt in this world. I should know. I was the most hurt of all.
“But what about us?” said Annabel.
He did not know what she meant.
“Us,” she repeated.
He knew what she meant.
They stumbled together, and held each other so tightly neither could breathe, but it didn’t matter, oxygen was nothing.
Only love mattered.
Twelve
“GOSH, MR. JAYQUITH.” EMMIE’S acting technique required her to give the phone a puzzled look. “Annabel hasn’t been here. We’re expecting her, of course. After all, we’re giving parties all day. But I haven’t heard from her.” Emmie folded Annabel’s note in her hand and closed her fingers over it, a small child with a secret. She winked at Alex. There was a feverish excitement in Emmie today that made Alex even more edgy. “I’ll let you know if I do, Mr. Jayquith,” promised Emmie, who clearly wouldn’t. She hung up. “Alex, you will never never never never never believe this.”
Alex was finding the entire weekend something he would never believe. He had never expected to get so close to his prey so speedily. All because Emmie Pearse had a crush. Later on that would be messy, but later on wasn’t here yet. He felt no guilt over Emmie. She was necessary. She had opened the door for him and he wasn’t about to let her close it. I’m almost on top of him! thought Alex. Hot rage filled his veins. He thought of his brother’s lonely death, his brother’s pointless burial. He thought of dying in your twenties instead of living out your life span. He thought of all the things his brother had planned to do.
He hardly saw Emmie, just enough to deal with her, just enough to plan how to steer her in the direction he needed to go. He hoped this nonsense would not last too long. He could not control himself for a long time.
They were outdoors, having finished a game of tennis at which Emmie slaughtered him. The word prep did not mean to Alex what it did to Emmie’s crowd. He had spent his afterschool hours as a prep cook in a fish restaurant, breading shrimp and onions. No wonder Emmie’s backhand was superior.
“What happened, Alex, is that they had an argument over Daniel. Mr. Jayquith actually tried to lock Annabel up! Can you believe that?” Emmie swung herself in circles around Alex. She had more in common with Venice than she knew. And the lies he had to tell! He had never done so much consecutive lying in his life. Hard to keep track of.
“Ooooooh, this is so exciting!” cried Emmie. “Can you think of two families more interesting than the Jayquiths and the Ransoms? Can’t you just imagine them married?”
“Married?” said Alex. “They haven’t even had a date yet, have they?”
“No, but you have to look ahead.”
Alex wondered how far Emmie was looking ahead with him. “Why would Mr. Jayquith object?” he said, feeling his way.
“I don’t know,” said Emmie, slowing down and frowning. “He usually gives Annabel everything and anything on earth.” She pursed her lips into a pout. “Psychologically speaking,” said Emmie, “although normally I despise people who analyze their friends, I bet Mr. Jayquith sees Daniel as the first real threat to his control.”
“He controls Annabel?” Alex could not care less about Hollings or Annabel Jayquith but they, like Emmie, could get him closer. He thought of the weapon he had purchased, locked tight in his car. He wondered if he would actually do it. An eye for an eye, a death for a death, a murder for a murder. He would not know the answer until he actually stood face-to-face with his brother’s killer, and found out whether he pulled the trigger.
“Mr. Jayquith controls the world,” Emmie giggled. “Except us. Shall we have dinner inside? Mother is calling. Or shall we have it brought to us out here? Or shall we go to a restaurant—no, forget that. We have to be here when Annabel brings the Jeep back.” Emmie danced again. “If she brings the Jeep back. Maybe they’ve eloped.”
No facts Alex possessed added up with the assumptions Emmie was making. “Let’s have sandwiches out here,” he said slowly. He could not face more adults who wanted to know where he went to school and how John was.
Emmie was amused, and he did not know why, until dinner arrived. It was pretty far removed from sandwiches. Platt
ers of beautifully arranged, garnished, whatever-they-weres. He would rather have gone to McDonald’s. They settled themselves on the grass beneath one of the big trees, as old and twisted as sculpture. Emmie flirted. Alex thought of death.
“Annabel!” shrieked Emmie.
Alex jumped violently … “Over here!” screamed Emmie.
Annabel, having parked the Jeep on the grass, blocking the cars of several other guests, ran gracefully in their direction. Alex was glad to see she had some sunburn. Always good to have a sign of normalcy.
“Your father,” said Emmie, full of herself, “is just a teensy teensy teensy bit annoyed, Annabel.”
“Who cares?” Annabel handed over the Jeep keys. “It was worth it. He can be annoyed from here to California. What a perfect day.” She looked at the sun, lowering in the early evening sky, as if she and the sun had previously agreed on the day’s perfection. Annabel included Alex in her terrific smile. “I’m in love,” she explained. He had the weird feeling of being one of the girls, as if they were in the dorm at Wythefield and he was about to get in on the really good gossip.
Annabel flung herself down beside them. “I have so much to tell you! We talked and talked and talked and talked. About his mother, for example.” She turned her beautiful dark eyes on Alex and he shivered slightly, the way no glance from Emmie could make him shiver. “You must have met Daniel’s mother, Alex. What is she really like?”
He panicked. How was he supposed to handle this one?
But Annabel was too excited to wait for answers. She seemed a whole different personality than at the reception, where he had found her moody and retreating. “Then I talked about my father—I still cannot believe this morning happened, Emmie; wait till I tell you about this morning—and about my mother, and the grave-visits. Then we talked about poor Michael and his ghastly so-called family life and then we talked about school and the seasons.”
“Seasons?” said Emmie.
“You know, how in kindergarten you make autumn leaves for fall and snowflakes for winter and tulips for spring.”
Emmie rolled her eyes. “Sexy topics.”
The girls giggled in unison. “Speaking of sexy topics,” said Annabel, checking Alex out so thoroughly he blushed, “are you two also in the running for best afternoon in the entire world?”
Alex added another lie to a very long list. “We might be.” He attempted to look at Emmie the way a potential sexy topic would.
For only a moment, Emmie dropped her pose. There was a depth of sadness in her eyes out of sync with the conversation. She knows, thought Alex with a jolt. I said something wrong and she knows. Why hasn’t she done anything about it?
“If I go home, do you suppose Daddy will lock me in the garret?” said Annabel.
“You don’t have a garret,” said Emmie.
“He’ll build one.”
Alex had to laugh.
“Actually,” said Emmie, seriously, “I don’t think he knows what to do next. You can call the shots, Annabel. Your father is so upset about your fight this morning that he literally doesn’t know up from down. He even said something about your cousin. You don’t have a cousin.”
“Oh!” Annabel hit her head with the base of her palm. “I forgot to tell you! I do have a cousin. She showed up last night! While we were blithely dancing under Venice’s tent, this girl walked onto the estate claiming to be my cousin.”
Alex could not believe he was being allowed to hear this.
“How can you have a cousin?” said Emmie. “You don’t have any aunts or uncles except Theodora.”
“Precisely. This is Theodora’s illegitimate daughter.”
Emmie’s jaw dropped. “You lie!”
“Her name is Jade O’Keeffe.”
“No way! Theodora had a careless moment? It doesn’t sound like her, Annabel. There’s something wrong with this picture.”
“I totally agree. I’m completely in the dark. But I imagine once I get home, they’ll fill me in. I was supposed to be there for lunch today when Aunt Theodora met Jade for the first time.”
Alex picked up a section of the Sunday Times that had been left by the pool and flapped it open in front of his face. He needed a moment to deal with this.
“You skipped the luncheon at which your aunt meets her own child for the first time? They won’t fill you in. They’ll bury you!” said Emmie. “Well, obviously, Alex and I are driving you home. Aren’t we, Alex?”
He sat up. “Absolutely.”
“Alex will be male protection in case your father goes berserk.”
“Not to mention Mr. Thiell. Where Theodora is, there also is J Thiell. Something has just occurred to me, Emmie. Do you think he could be Jade’s father?”
“Gag me with a spoon,” said Emmie. “Could anybody actually touch that man? You know I think Michael’s adopted. It’s the only way that scary cold man could have such a marvelous kid.”
Emmie was growing on Alex. She had a good eye. He got to his feet. “Give me the keys, Emmie. You two do the planning, I’ll do the parking.” He was so wired he could have started the car without the key.
“Ooooooh, this is going to be so much fun!” Emmie rolled over several times, like a puppy in fresh mown grass. “We get to see the fireworks! Check out Jade! Watch Theodora deal! Learn what kind of punishment one Jayquith gives another!”
Learn what kind of punishment I give, thought Alex.
Mr. Thiell claimed that business required him back in Manhattan and he left.
Mr. Jayquith said he had to make a few phone calls and he left.
Jade and Theodora were alone in the hot dripping sunroom among the reaching fingers of thick fleshy orchids. The queen of talk had nothing to say. Jade waited. Finally Theodora looked out the tallest window, her back to Jade. She took a long, deep, slow breath. Jade got ready for whatever was coming. “What is it you want?” asked Theodora Jayquith. The only distinguishable emotion in her voice was curiosity.
What is it I want? thought Jade. I want a life. I want money and splendor and fame and private helicopters, like everybody else in this family. I would not mind having Daniel Madison Ransom as well, and every single piece in Annabel’s wardrobe.
Jade schooled all emotion out of her own voice. She replied with great care. She needed to produce an answer that would make the Jayquiths give her all the above. “A home,” she said softly.
Theodora flinched. Then, “Are you out of high school?”
“No. I have senior year to go.”
Theodora brightened. “You could go to Wythefield. Annabel went there, of course. Loved it.”
What was she supposed to do there? Pretend to like girls like Annabel? Watch them pretend to like her? “Boarding school doesn’t appeal to me,” said Jade.
The topic seemed to be closed. Theodora seemed unable to think of another one. Jade stuck with her strategy to make them do the talking. In a minute or two, she was just plain bored. She could not do the things these people came to the country for: She could not play tennis, she could not ride a horse, she could not swim. In any event, Jade hated the outdoors. It was full of bugs. She said, “It’s been a difficult few days for me. I think I’ll take a nap.”
Theodora nodded.
“Please show me the way back to the Peach Room,” said Jade, although she knew it perfectly well. She would force this woman to do things with her. They walked through the massive halls and living areas to the wing where Annabel’s suite and the Peach Room were. “Is your room down here?” asked Jade.
Theodora shook her head. “Off the sunroom is a partially underground hall that becomes a wing you can’t see from here. It’s dug into a steep hill and has fabulous views. The roof is grass and meadow.”
“They mow your bedroom ceiling?” said Jade.
Theodora actually smiled. “Not when I’m home.” She pointed. “There’s the hall.” She stopped walking.
Jade knew the emotion now that Theodora was struggling to hide. It was fury. Theodora had
forgotten Jade. Theodora could not believe that things had come apart, that Jade was a young woman who could stride right in and make herself at home. That Tommy the chauffeur had let her in, and Hollings her brother had allowed her to stay, and Annabel her niece had not made things easier by being there to soak up emotion. Theodora was outraged, she was boiling.
Jade did not let Theodora simply walk away. She kissed Theodora on the cheek and whispered, keeping her face and breath close to Theodora’s face, “It’s wonderful to have found you.”
A tic began in Theodora’s eyelid. Jade smiled and left her standing there, while by herself she walked to the Peach Room. She waited there a few moments and then walked right back, shoeless and soundless, to be sure Theodora was gone. The halls were empty, and the volume of Theodora’s wrath had left no trace; the white cold space might just have been sterilized.
The huge mansion was so unpopulated.
Jade found it eerie. Why wasn’t it bustling with staff or guests? There was an incredible amount of room, but nobody around. Mrs. Donavan was only a voice. The chauffeur had stayed outdoors. The food in the sunroom had been arranged on the buffet before Jade arrived.
Jade ran barefoot up to Annabel’s suite. Annabel wasn’t going to rush home from Tanglewood, whatever that was. Jade loved clothes. Before she found the lockbox, her only goal in life had been to clerk in junior styles at the department store. Now she could own the fashions she knew from magazines and television. She could go to the restaurants and clubs that required such terrific clothes.
In Annabel’s dressing room—it really was a room, complete with three-way floor-to-ceiling mirrors, balcony, and chaise lounge so Annabel could rest her tired feet between costume changes—Jade tried on outfit after outfit. She put on a long black gown, tight as a mermaid’s tail, and worked her way through the necklaces to see which glittered the most.