“I think I’m going to enjoy my new life,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “As one gets older one prefers warm weather. I’ll miss The Hall, of course, but then, all good things must come to an end. No use looking back, what?”
Max tilted his head upward toward the vaulted ceiling, and sat very still for a long moment with a rueful smile on his face. I imagined him basking on a Turks and Caicos beach, gradually tiring of bright, sunny days, thinking about Carla, and longing for his big, old, damp house, now gone, like the love of his life, forever.
Chapter 48
In accordance with her father’s wishes, Courtney Cole gave the Cole collection to Tulsa, Oklahoma, his hometown. Courtney is building a museum there in her father’s memory. Blow as it was to the Muni, Justin Howard didn’t protest. The Municipal Museum is above such things. Justin and Edmond took me out to lunch several times, begging me to come back on the board. Eventually, I gave in and said I would. They were thrilled. So was Ethan. There’s no point in holding a grudge, although I did mention to Justin my motto: I may not remember, but I never forget.
Charlie persuaded June not to buy the Wilman apartment. He told her it was bad luck since Carla had owned it. June listened to him for once. It’s back on the market. The Bromires are back in circulation again, more social than ever. Jail isn’t the stigma it once was. In fact, it adds a certain cachet, as well as being an endless source of dinner anecdotes. Betty says that “prison is the new pink!” She and Gil are the same, although they do seem a little concerned about Missy’s marriage.
“The wedding was enough angst for a lifetime,” she told me. “I simply can’t take a divorce!”
Miranda continues to chronicle us all in the glossy pages of Nous. I miss Larry more than ever. There was just no one like him. Some people really are indispensable.
They never did find Russell Cole. Some say that he’s still alive. There are occasional reports of sightings, and he has taken on one of those mythical personas that live forever, like Judge Crater or Elvis. In New York circles, the story of Russell Cole has become a staple of social life, which, like the sea, just goes on and on and on.
Acknowledgments
My thanks again to John Novograd and to the many friends who have cheered me on and up at various times during the writing of this book—especially Kathy Rayner and Lynn de Rothschild.
I am grateful to Captain Rick and Kirsten Morales, Captain Steve Martin, and Dionne Reed, for letting me draw on their nautical expertise and grand imaginations.
My deep thanks to Chuck Adams, a perceptive and patient editor.
And special thanks, as always, to Jonathan Burnham.
Thank you, too, C.L.H.
About the Author
JANE STANTON HITCHCOCK is the New York Times bestselling author of Mortal Friends, The Witches’ Hammer, Trick of the Eye, and Social Crimes, as well as several plays. She lives with her husband, syndicated foreign affairs columnist Jim Hoagland, in New York City and Washington, D.C.
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Also by Jane Stanton Hitchcock
The Witches’ Hammer
Social Crimes
Trick of the Eye
Mortal Friends
Credits
Cover photograph © Famke Backx/Getty Images
Copyright
A hardcover edition of this book was published in 2005 by Miramax Books, an imprint of Hyperion.
ONE DANGEROUS LADY. Copyright © 2005 by Jane Stanton Hitchcock. All rights reserved. By payment of required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, no known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
Epub Edition © JULY 2012 ISBN 978-0-06-220657-2
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