She sat back and folded her hands on the table.
Julie looked stunned. Her mouth opened, but she said nothing.
The water glass was empty. Laura picked it up and went over to the ice dispenser. She pushed the lever and glanced out through the picture window at the guests, all relaxed, all having a great time, unaware of the conflict unfolding under their very noses.
“Mike and I weren’t doing anything wrong.” Julie sounded sullen. “Dad just flew off the handle.”
Laura carried the glass back to the table. Julie was trying to open up a conciliatory channel. Her niece had probably never dreamed that someone could light into her like that; she was used to the gentle treatment of her father. She had never had a mother to lock horns with. Mom. That word still resonated. “What happened?”
“Nothing.”
Laura waited.
“It was nothing, really. Mike and I were at my parents’ old house.” At Laura’s blank look, she said, “Ashmore Minor. We lived there when I was little. And we weren’t doing anything! We were on the sofa, we were just kissing, that’s all, and Dad came in and he said—”
Oh, brother. But surely Richard hadn’t flown off the handle for some mere lip-locking. As Diana had pointed out, he’d been far more adventurous at that age. Julie was leaving something out. Laura wondered where their hands had been while they were just kissing.
“What did he say?”
Julie hesitated. Laura merely looked at her.
“He just said – he looked sort of mad—”
“What did he say?”
Julie said reluctantly, “He said come back to the party. And then he looked at Mike, and he said,” she glanced away, “we shouldn’t be over there by ourselves.”
There had to be more to it than this.
“And then Mike and I walked back, and Dad went right behind us, and then Mike said he was going home, and he’d pick me up later, and he left, and then Dad said,” Julie finished in a rush, “maybe it wasn’t a good idea for me to go with Mike to the party, and he’d drive me instead.”
That was it? All the drama, the shouting, the sobbing, the histrionics? That was it?
Laura said, “So you raised all this ruckus over that?”
“He embarrassed me in front of my boyfriend.”
“So he embarrassed you,” Laura said, and made sure she conveyed a total lack of sympathy. “If you were my daughter – I know you aren’t, so spare me – I’d ground you. All he did was let your boyfriend know you’ve got a dad watching out for you. It’s his job to protect you, Julie. He’s doing his job.”
“Yeah, well, Mom says they were doing the same thing, so he’s just being a hypocrite—”
Did Julie even realize what she had just betrayed? “So he knows what he’s talking about. He knows how easy it is to get carried away. He knows from personal experience how dangerous it is to get involved in such an intense relationship when you’re so young, and he doesn’t want you to make the same mistake.” She added, “And neither does your mother.”
“Lots of girls in my class—” Julie started.
She clamped her mouth shut. She heard the sounds at the same moment that Laura did, the sound of several people coming down the flying staircase, Diana asking a question about the roses, and – surprisingly – Richard answering in a normal tone of voice, as if nothing had happened. Laura looked beyond Julie’s shoulder, and Julie turned around, just in time to see Lucy and Tom, Richard and Diana, moving towards the French doors, talking easily, for all the world like two relaxed and comfortable couples at a party.
No one glanced back towards the kitchen. No one noticed Laura and Julie staring after them.
Julie turned back to Laura, hostility forgotten. “Huh?” she breathed, and she did not need to say anything more.
“I don’t know.” She gave into curiosity and walked over to look out the window at the terrace. Lucy and Tom were hovering on the top steps, Lucy listening while her husband spoke. He looked serious and tough – she wouldn’t like to face that look in a courtroom. Lucy’s back was to her, but she had her head turned slightly to keep the other two in sight.
Richard and Diana had stopped to talk to someone. She couldn’t see his face, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking, what had happened…. Diana seemed more restrained as well, not laughing and sparkling as she had earlier, but standing with him, her hand resting lightly on his arm. Laura swallowed hard, and in her mind the wheel of fortune spun furiously.
“Laura?”
She turned slowly to her niece. Julie’s eyes on her were solemn and wary, no longer bristling with defiance. What was on her face, in her eyes, what did Julie see? Maybe the truth. Maybe the end of her aunt’s dreams. Maybe the end of the threat to Julia Ashmore’s dominant position in Richard Ashmore’s life.
“I’m going outside now, if that’s okay. I’ll go apologize right away, I promise, just like you said.”
To hell with banishing her alter ego. Laura felt too bruised to go out there, face the people she’d chatted with less than an hour before. She needed time to find Cat Courtney again.
She nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”
~•~
She stood at the counter, sipping her water, watching as Julie squared her shoulders and walked up to her parents. Diana didn’t see her at first, but Julie said something, and Richard turned his head and looked at his daughter gravely. He seemed remote, expressionless. He might still be playing host, but the man who had talked so easily with his friends an hour before had gone away.
He had retreated behind his wall again. She hadn’t seen that look for a week; she had hoped – oh, for his sake, she had hoped – that he had lost it forever.
Damn Diana. Damn her. What had she said, what had she done, to put that distance between Richard and the world again? She didn’t want him, she’d said so. Why, why, why wouldn’t she let him go?
Why? So you can have him?
But Julie was apologizing. It might be the act to end all acts – Julie wasn’t Diana’s daughter for nothing – but she looked sincere enough that Richard smiled down at her, the first real emotion she’d seen on his face since Diana had shown up. He had his perfect daughter back, her brief rebellion forgotten. Mission accomplished, Julie flashed a thumbs-up at the kitchen window, and Richard followed the line of sight and saw her standing there.
A sharp, unfathomable look flashed across his face.
Julie turned then to her mother, and Diana laughed and gave her daughter a quick hug.
Mom.
Laura saw it then, all in an instant. Of course, of course, she couldn’t believe she had been so blind, but then, she had accepted the official family line. That underground stream of comfort in each other’s presence, that familiarity (and they’d all missed it, they’d all overlooked the significance of Diana’s remark about the peach moiré) – Julie and her mother were more than acquaintances. In the time it takes to say hello and goodbye….
This acquaintance was more than hello and goodbye.
The pieces were falling into place. Diana’s strange remark weeks ago about Julie, Julie “happening” to pass by Dominic’s house the Friday before. Did Lucy know?
Richard didn’t know. Julie had pulled this off right under her father’s nose.
Even so, she thought that Julie’s primary loyalty was still to her father. She hoped it was.
She saw Lucy push some buttons on her phone, and a few seconds later, her own phone vibrated. Lucy didn’t waste words. “Where are you?”
Laura said, “In the kitchen, looking at you.”
Lucy turned around, saw her, and waved. “I need you.”
She took a breath. “What happened?”
“I can’t tell you.” Lucy sounded regretful. “Confidentiality. Damn, sometimes I hate being his lawyer. If he wants to tell you, that’s his right – oh, for heaven’s sake, Tom, open your eyes, it’s plain as daylight.” Tom shook his head and looked disgusted. Laura
heard her sister say faintly, “Listen, I’ve been thinking, it’s not such a bad idea. I’ll tell you later. Sorry,” she said, “back again. Get out here.”
“Okay.” She could handle this. She could handle anything. She was Cat Courtney.
But outside, whatever crisis Lucy had seen appeared averted. Richard had gone over to the caterers to discuss something; Diana had drifted over to the dessert table. Julie was down playing with the McIntire baby, sweet-Julie mask back in place.
The storm over the Atlantic was building. The sun still shone brightly in the west, but the breeze had dropped, all of nature holding its breath, waiting for the heavens to break open. She felt the humidity hit her face, and moisture trickled down the back of her neck.
Lucy and Tom stood on the top steps, waiting for her. She started to nod to them and walk back down to the Queen Bee table, but Tom’s quiet “Laura” stopped her.
“I need to talk to you,” he said. “In private.”
“Tom—” Lucy started, and she looked uneasy. “Not now.”
“No.” Tom’s voice was brisk and lawyerly. “This can’t wait.”
Oh, Lord, not this. She simply could not take any more. But Tom wasn’t taking no for an answer. She took a deep breath and let him steer her around the corner of the house. Her sisters, both of them, were staring at them – Lucy with concern, Diana with open curiosity – and she had no way to know what, if anything, Richard saw. She didn’t even know where he was. He must have gone in the house.
Around the corner, the chatter and laughter dropped off precipitously. She leaned against the wall and looked at him wordlessly. Through the blankness that had mercifully overtaken her, she saw how uncomfortable he was.
Uncomfortable or not, he had something to say, and he said it.
“I don’t like to interfere. You’re both adults, you’re entitled to do what you want. Frankly, I don’t care as long as the two of you are okay with it. But—” Tom paused. “You are living dangerous days, Laura.”
She was past humiliation. She managed, “I know. You don’t have to worry. I won’t make things difficult for him.”
“Not intentionally. But make no mistake, the worst thing that could happen right now is for Diana to find out about you. I don’t think you realize – she is loaded for bear. She wants to take him down in the worst way, but right now she hasn’t anything to use. Francie’s old news. But you—” He shook his head. “She can blow this sky-high if she finds out about you. You’re just as vulnerable as he is – in some ways, you’re more at risk. You’re a public figure with deep pockets.”
She felt the blood in her cheeks. Her mouth was dry. “What can she do to me?”
“I’m not your lawyer. You need to talk to Jay Spencer about that. But take it from your brother-in-law who – believe it or not – really does care about you, Diana can go after you, and she might even win. I don’t want that for your sake, but even more I don’t want it for Lucy’s.”
She caught her breath.
“She’s already stuck between Richard and Diana. Don’t put her between her sisters.”
Laura lifted her hand to her face. She felt flushed and feverish; her fingers were cold.
“I’m asking you to cool things off,” said Tom. “And, no, I haven’t talked to him, and I haven’t talked to Lucy either. I guess I’m not supposed to know about this. But I do know, and I’m asking you to help me protect my wife and defend my client’s interests. I’m asking you to please back off until we can get this divorce behind us, and then believe me, you have my blessing.”
She nodded.
“Now, you can talk to him and tell him what I’m saying, and he’ll probably take my head off. Lucy will for sure, you know she hates the idea of anyone protecting her. But I have to do my job. I’m her husband, and I’m his lawyer. And both of those,” he finished, “are more important than being your brother-in-law.”
An uncanny echo of her words to Julie. Tom was right.
“When are you leaving?”
Laura looked at him, startled. “The party? You want me to go home?”
He shook his head. “No. For the summer.”
He wanted her to leave. Maybe, deep down, Lucy did too. It would certainly make her life easier. Maybe it would be best for Richard, for them all, if she packed up and left tomorrow. “I’m supposed to leave in three weeks. A week after the concert. After,” she swallowed, “the deposition.”
“And your plans after that? Lucy said you’re on tour this fall.”
“Yes.” It hurt to think. It hurt to breathe. “Till the new year.”
Tom sounded crisp and professional now. She was cooperating; she wasn’t showering him with emotion. Laura St. Bride could always be counted on to sacrifice herself for the greater good. “Then what? Can you stay in London until next summer?”
Laura forced herself to speak. Almost a year away…. “I may have to for Meg’s schooling.”
“That will work,” said Tom frankly. “Another year, and this will be over, and then the two of you can do what you want. Diana might raise a fuss, but we plan to tie her up with so many conditions that she’ll think twice before screaming too loud.” Then, unexpectedly, he stepped forward and put an arm around her to draw her close. “Laura, I’m sorry.”
She stood still within his embrace. She felt nothing; she had gone away from this place. “I’m sorry too.”
“Laurie.” No one had seen Lucy approach, but there she was, behind Tom, her hand reaching out. Tom patted Laura on the shoulder and stepped back, and the wordless communication that passed then between husband and wife told Laura that Lucy had known what Tom would ask her to do.
Her sister looked exhausted; the stress of the last hour weighed heavily on her. Tom started to massage his wife’s shoulders. Laura said, “Lucy, you need to go sit down.”
“I can’t wait for this thing to end,” said Lucy. “This must be what purgatory is like. Laurie, I know you are having a really bad day, but it’s not over yet. Di wants you back there, and, oh yeah, she wants to know what you two are talking about.”
Tom said, “Tell her I’m hitting Laura up for a loan.”
“Are you kidding? Don’t give her any ideas.”
“True.” Tom looked at Laura. “While we’re on that subject, I know you can buy and sell us all, but don’t offer Diana money to go away. I can’t tell you how badly that would go over with a judge.”
“That’s what Jay said.” They looked approvingly at her; she was taking her lawyer’s advice. She took a breath. “What does Di want?”
“Brace yourself,” said Lucy. “She wants to announce the concert.”
~•~
The nightmare refused to end. When they returned to the terrace, descending into the inner circles of hell, they saw that Diana was setting up. Scott McIntire was running an extension cord into the house from the speakers and microphone that had magically materialized. On easels on the top landing of the terrace sat two of the posters that Lucy and Dell had finally compromised on, and Diana was handing a stack of fliers to Julie to pass around.
Laura’s mouth dropped open.
She had planned this. Diana had planned this all along. She’d brought all this with her. This drop-in visit hadn’t been spur-of-the-moment, a sudden impulse to ruin the Ashmore & McIntire party – antagonizing Richard had been a bonus.
Why? They had talked about this. The plan had never been for Cat Courtney to appear as their sister. Hampton Roads Club and Tavern would claim its coup in bagging her for a benefit concert and reap the benefits of increased publicity and prestige, but Cat Courtney was appearing to help the neonatal wing, not because she was the owners’ sister. People might recognize Cat in Laura St. Bride, but there would be no official connection.
Laura turned to Lucy. “What is she doing? We didn’t agree on this.”
She remembered a contract. Lucy and Tom had amended it, and Dell had approved it and signed it as her manager. She was positive that the confidential
ity and privacy clauses hadn’t been removed – Dell would never have approved the contract without them. They were always non-negotiable.
“I don’t know.” Lucy sounded worried. “She just wants to say something before the press release tomorrow. I’m sure she won’t single you out.”
But that was exactly Diana’s intention. She felt it in her bones.
Diana intended to brand her publicly as Cat Courtney.
“Sure about that?” Tom didn’t sound sure at all. “Why’d she bring the publicity material?”
Diana had meant all along to out her.
What had she done to Diana – that Diana actually knew about? Surely she wasn’t betraying Cat Courtney just because Laura St. Bride had thrown all the drugs and liquor out of her apartment?
She cast her mind back over that Friday afternoon. Maybe Diana was taking revenge for her accusation about Francie. Maybe she resented taking second place to her younger sister on stage. Maybe – and in her mind’s eye, she saw the folder of pleadings she’d left on her sister’s desk. She’d forgotten to put it back where she’d found it.
That was it. Diana knew she had read the pleadings.
“Stop her.” She hardly recognized her own voice.
Lucy had her phone out. “Where is that man – he disappears every time I need him – listen, get out here! Di’s making an announcement about Laurie and the concert.”
Wherever he was, his explosion carried right through the cell. They were attracting attention. People knew something was up, and even guests who had looked straight through her earlier, not paying her much attention at all, were glancing back and forth between her and the posters.
Among this group, at least, the secret was out.
But casual recognition wasn’t the same as an announcement. Saying “I saw Cat Courtney at a party and I think her name is Laura” wasn’t the same as – but maybe Diana wouldn’t say anything. Maybe she was just going to invite everyone to the concert.
Maybe this was just the tail end of a nightmare, and she’d wake up soon.
But it wasn’t. Richard came out of the house and crossed the terrace to Diana to hand her a piece of paper. His face was carefully neutral; his guests were watching to see his interaction with his estranged wife. Every gesture, every word would fuel gossip, and he knew it.
All That Lies Broken (Ashmore's Folly Book 2) Page 20
