High Meadow

by Joan Wolf

  "Damn," she said out loud, stripped down to her white cotton panties, and began to dress.

  Her hair and makeup took a minute. Nothing needed to be done with her short cut except to brush it, and she dusted blush on her cheeks and put on lipstick. Cyrus watched all this activity with the air of a dog that is witnessing something new.

  As she was coming out of the bathroom she ran into Molly in the hall. "Come into my bedroom so I can see you properly," Molly said.

  Kate obediently followed her mother into the pretty peach-colored master bedroom. Tears brimmed in Molly's eyes as she regarded her daughter. "You look beautiful, dear."

  "I'm nervous as hell, Mom. What am I going to talk about?"

  "I'm sure the rest of the Yankees will have their wives there. You can talk about children. Now, you need some jewelry, and I want you to wear my diamond earrings and my diamond pendant."

  "Are you sure?"

  "Positive." Molly went to the jewelry box that was on her dresser, opened it, and took some items out. "Come over here and put these on."

  Kate obeyed, and when next she looked in the mirror that hung over Molly's dresser she nodded approval. "They look great. Thanks, Mom."

  "You're welcome, dear."

  Ben was watching television when Kate went downstairs, but he turned to look at her when she came into the living room. "Mommy! You look pretty."

  "Thank you, Ben. Do you like my dress?"

  "It's pretty."

  She smiled at him.

  "When is Daddy coming to get you?"

  "He should be here shortly."

  Ben went back to his television show, and Kate sat on the sofa, folded her hands with their polished nails in her lap, and thought, This is a big mistake. I can't believe I did this to myself. I wish the evening were over, and I was just coming home instead of just going out.

  The doorbell rang.

  "I'll get it!" Ben said.

  Half a minute later he came back into the room hanging on to Daniel's hand. "Daddy's here, Mommy."

  Slowly Kate stood up, looking at Ben and avoiding Daniel's eyes. With a shock of surprise she realized that she felt shy. She never felt shy.

  "That is a very lovely dress, Kata," Daniel said.

  "It's appropriate?"

  "Very appropriate."

  She looked at him for the first time. He was wearing a tuxedo. Something fluttered in her stomach. He said, "Don't worry. No one will ever guess that it's the first gown you've worn since your senior prom."

  There was a smile in his brown eyes and, for some reason, the flutter in her stomach became more pronounced.

  "Are you ready?" he asked.

  "Yes."

  "Where is your coat?"

  "In the closet. I'll get it."

  Kate came back in her Sunday coat, which was long and single-breasted and black. It was seven years old, but Molly had picked it up for her at a Talbot's sale and, as Kate kept telling Molly whenever her mother mentioned the possibility of her getting a new coat, Talbot's clothes never went out of style.

  Molly came into the room right after Kate. "How are you, Daniel?" she asked pleasantly.

  "Fine. I'll try not to be too late, Molly. I know that Kata has to get up early in the morning."

  "Good grief," Kate said. "You sound like a prom date making promises to a worried mom."

  Molly laughed.

  Ben, who had caught only one word, said, "Are you going to a prom, Mommy?"

  "I feel like it," Kate said.

  "I can safely promise that the food will be much better than what is served at a prom," Daniel promised.

  Molly laughed again.

  Kate said mournfully, "I suppose we'd better go."

  Daniel said with amusement, "You sound as if I'm escorting you to the guillotine."

  "Frankly, I don't know why you asked me to this party, Daniel, and I don't know why I said yes. But it's too late to change our minds now."

  "Yes. It is definitely too late. Come along before you really do chicken out on me."

  Kate nodded.

  "Have fun, Mommy," Ben said. "I'm glad Daddy is going with you and not that other lady."

  There was a brief silence as the adults took in his words. Then Daniel said, "Good night Molly, good night, Ben."

  I shouldn't have done this, Kate thought. Now Ben will be expecting Daniel and me to be a couple. Damn. How stupid have I been?

  They went down the steps, and Kate stopped when she saw the black limousine parked in front of the house. "What's this?"

  Daniel put a hand under her elbow and started walking her forward again. "What does it look like?"

  "It looks like a limo. Where is your Mercedes?"

  "I have an arrangement with Liam, the limo driver. He chauffeurs me when I go into New York so I don't have to worry about finding a parking space."

  "You don't have to worry about drinking either," Kate said shrewdly.

  "True." A wiry man of about thirty had gotten out of the car and was now holding the passenger door open for her. Daniel said, "Kate Foley, this is Liam, the best chauffeur in New York City."

  "I am that," the chauffeur responded in a pronounced Irish accent. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Foley."

  "I'm pleased to meet you, Liam," Kate responded.

  Daniel nodded for Kate to get in, which she did, and he went around to the other door and got in next to her. Liam established himself behind the wheel, started the car, and they were off.

  It was dark in the backseat. Kate couldn't see Daniel clearly, but she sensed him with all the nerve endings of her body. She wanted to talk, to shatter with everyday chatter this feeling she had of being alone with him in the dark, but she couldn't think of a single thing to say. She crossed her arms in a gesture of protection.

  They were on the Merritt Parkway before Daniel spoke. "How did Molly's appointment with the oncologist go?"

  It was with great relief that Kate replied, "Haven't you heard?"

  "I heard from Alberto, who talked to Molly, but I'd like to hear it from you as well."

  Kate was delighted to have a topic of conversation to throw up between them and proceeded to tell him all about Molly's visit to the oncologist. She ended, "The doctor said that in 80 percent of women, chemotherapy is not needed at all. So Mom may have to undergo all of this unnecessarily."

  "They have no test to discover if some cancer cells got loose?"

  "No. So they hammer everybody."

  "Molly's treatment sounds like what my mother had. She lost a lot of her hair, but she wasn't bald. And she wasn't too sick to her stomach, either. Exhaustion was the biggest side effect she had. I remember her telling me that her legs felt like rubber bands."

  "Poor Mom. I feel so bad for her, Daniel. She's had so much hardship in her life. She lost her husband, she lost her daughter, and now this. It just doesn't seem fair."

  "No, it doesn't," he agreed. "I told Molly I will be happy to help her with the chemo treatments. I'm off, and my time is relatively free."

  "I can get Mom to her treatments," Kate said firmly. "Thank you anyway, though."

  There was a slight pause, then Daniel said, "Well if you run into trouble, please call on me. I wasn't able to be there for my mother when she was undergoing treatment, and it would make me feel good to be able to help your mother."

  Kate looked at him suspiciously, but it was too dark to make out his expression. Was he just trying to couch his offer in terms he knew she would find hard to reject? "All right. Thank you."

  There was a pause, then he said, "I don't remember if I told you what this benefit is for."

  Kate frowned. "You didn't tell me it was a benefit. You told me it was a party and I should wear a long dress."

  His voice was casual. "It's the annual Elizabeth Taylor Benefit for AIDS. I go because it's a good cause. She raises a lot of money every year for AIDS research."

  Kate said in a higher voice than usual, "Daniel. Please don't tell me that this party is going to be packed with
celebrities."

  "A lot of different kinds of people will be there, Kata."

  She was getting angry. "You got me to go under false pretenses! I thought it was a party for the Yankees!"

  He said calmly, "I never told you that."

  "You let me think it." She clenched her fists. "I could kill you. Are there going to be photographers there?"

  He said, in a sane and reasonable voice that only made her more angry, "Look, Kata, it won't be so bad. There will be plenty of people more important than I am for the photographers to concentrate on."

  "You lied to me."

  "No, I didn't. I simply withheld a little information."

  Kate stared at his shadowy face. "I hate people who lie."

  "I'm sorry. I didn't think it would upset you so much."

  "Why did you ask me? Why didn't you just take the supermodel?"

  "I didn't want to spend an evening in the company of the supermodel. I wanted to spend an evening with you."

  "And you expect me to be flattered by that?"

  "I don't expect you to be anything. I simply hope that you will try very hard to enjoy the party. The food will be fabulous."

  "Mom's cooking is fabulous. I don't have to go to a benefit to eat well."

  "Do you want me to take you home?"

  "No. But don't expect much of anything from me. I am totally clueless about the newest movies or the latest Broadway shows."

  "Don't worry about it."

  Kate's voice was bitter. "Easy for you to say. You're not facing an evening where you feel like you're in a foreign country and everyone is speaking a language you don't know."

  For the first time there was an edge in Daniel's voice. "No, I am facing an evening with an unnecessarily shrill young woman who is rapidly getting on my nerves."

  Good grief, Kate thought, taken aback by that edge. I've upset him. She said in a milder voice, "You should have told me the truth."

  "I can see that." The edge was still there in his voice.

  Kate let out her breath. She had never seen Daniel upset. He just hadn't realized how like a duck out of water she would feel. "I'm sorry I went off on you. You took me by surprise."

  He said forcefully, "Kata, believe me when I say that you will be fine. These are only people, after all, no matter how much money they may make. Just as I am only a person."

  "You're different."

  "How?"

  "I don't know, but you are."

  "I will take that as a compliment."

  She let out her breath. 'All right, I'll go to this bloody benefit with you. But I still think it was a dirty trick not to tell me what I was getting myself into."

  The edge was gone from his voice as he said, "It's a party, Kata, not a torture session."

  It would be a torture session for her, but she didn't say that out loud. She didn't want to upset him again.

  * * *

  21

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  There was a crush of people and photographers around the hotel entrance when Daniel's limo pulled up.

  "Good God," Kate said.

  "They're here to ogle the movie stars," Daniel said. "You just have to get out of the car and walk into the hotel with me."

  The limo pulled up in front of the hotel canopy, Liam came around to open the door, and Kate got out. Daniel slid across the seat and got out behind her. Strobes flashed and somewhere a girl screamed. Kate looked at the throng of fans as if they were creatures from another planet.

  "Why would someone want to hang around in the cold to see a movie star get out of a car and go into a hotel?" she asked Daniel, as they hurried up the path between the police barricades. "It just seems so pointless."

  "Would you hang around if it meant seeing Nuno Oliviero?"

  "If he was going to ride, I'd wait forever. But not just to see him walk into a hotel."

  Daniel smiled. "I can't disagree with you, Kata."

  A female voice called "Marry me, Daniel!"

  "Good God," Kate said.

  Daniel laughed.

  The tables in the ballroom were all covered in pale pink tablecloths, and the floral arrangements were breathtaking. Daniel got his table number from a man holding a list, and he and Kate made their way across the empty polished dance floor. Two couples were already seated at their table when they arrived.

  "Daniel," a blond woman said. "How marvelous. You're at our table."

  "Hello, Pam," Daniel said.

  Kate looked at the blond young woman in the black gown who had greeted Daniel, and her eyes widened. "Are you Pam Alcott?" she asked.

  The other woman gave a little shriek. "My God. Kate Foley. I can't believe it. Are you here with Daniel?"

  "Yes, I am."

  "How marvelous."

  "I can see that I don't have to introduce you two," Daniel said.

  "Kate and I competed against each other all through the junior equitation ranks," Pam said.

  Kate was delighted to see a familiar face, and the tension in her stomach relaxed a little as she sat down and Daniel introduced them all around. The other couple at the table was in their early thirties and Daniel discovered he had once played in the same golf tournament with the man.

  A waiter came to ask them what they would have to drink, and both Kate and Daniel asked for wine. Pam said, "I've been out of the horse world for a while now, Kate, but I hear you're doing very well at High Meadow. The children of several of my friends take lessons with you."

  The three men started to talk about golf, and Kate and Pam talked about the horse business. It was a few minutes before Kate realized that the third woman at the table was completely left out of both conversations. Thinking, There but for the grace of God go I, she smiled at her, and said, "Do you ride?"

  "No, but my daughter does."

  "Where does she take lessons?"

  "She takes lessons at Hunterly, in Morris County, New Jersey, near where we live."

  The women chatted amiably until the last couple arrived at the table. Kate looked up to see a very tall, very thin, very stunning red-haired woman looking at Daniel. "Hello, Daniel," she said.

  He made a motion to stand up. "Alicia. How are you?"

  The name set off an alarm in Kate's mind. This must be the supermodel.

  Her eyes, which Kate saw were green, flicked once around the table, stopping briefly at Kate. Then she said to Daniel, "Introduce us, won't you."

  "Are you sitting with us?" Daniel's voice sounded courteous, but Kate could see his hand tense around the stem of his wineglass.

  "Yes. Isn't it nice? We'll have a chance to catch up with each other."

  Daniel leaned over to shake the hand of Alicia's escort. "Daniel Montero," he introduced himself.

  "Guy Williams." The escort looked as if he had just stepped out of a Ralph Lauren Polo commercial.

  Introductions went around the table, and the newly arrived couple sat down in the two empty chairs, which were next to Daniel. "Have you heard from Jason yet about the photography commercial?" Alicia asked him.

  "Yes. They want me to do it."

  The conversation went back and forth between the two of them for almost a minute, with the others listening. Then, when it became clear that Alicia had every intention of monopolizing Daniel, Pam said to Kate, "How old does a child have to be before you take her into your program?"

  Kate answered, then the others at the table also began to talk among themselves.

  The first course of the meal, grilled asparagus and smoked salmon, was served, and Alicia continued to monopolize Daniel. Kate could feel herself getting annoyed. The woman was being inexcusably rude. The orchestra began to play, and Daniel said firmly, "Please excuse me, Alicia," and turned to Kate. "Would you like to dance, Kata?"

  Kate was more than happy to remove Daniel from the clutches of the supermodel, and she accompanied him to the dance floor, where the orchestra was playing an old George Harrison song, "Something in the Way She Moves." When he held out his arms she w
ent into them.

  He was so big compared to her. The top of her head fit neatly under his chin and, if she wanted to, she could rest her cheek against his heart. He held her hand with one hand and the other rested on her waist. She felt something inside her go very still.

  He bent his head and said, "I'm sorry about Alicia. I had no idea mat she would be at our table."

  "She's very rude," Kate murmured.

  "Yes, she is. She's always been this way; she just focuses on me and tunes everyone else out. At first, I thought it was flattering. Now it's just tiresome."

  They danced for a few steps. Kate had no difficulty following him; her body seemed to fit so easily into his. Dreamily, she closed her eyes.

  He said, "I could extricate myself from her if I was rude enough, but I hate to have to do that. It will make everyone at the table uncomfortable."

  It took Kate a moment to follow the conversation. Then she said, "She's very beautiful."

  "She's too skinny."

  Kate wished he would stop talking and just dance. Then someone said, "Kate Foley, I never expected to see you here."

  Kate blinked at the silver-haired man who had just spoken to her. "Oh," she said. "Dr. Madison." She blinked again. "I could say the same thing about you."

  Richard Madison was the top partner in Turnpike Equine, which was Kate's veterinary group. Recently his availability to local farms had been severely restricted by his job as vet to the United States Equestrian Team, but he had been a good friend of Kate's father, and he always came out to a High Meadow call if he was in Connecticut. Now he nodded toward his wife, and said, "Vera does volunteer work for AIDS research. That's why we're here."

  Kate said, "I'm here with Daniel." The music stopped and people started to leave the floor. Kate introduced Daniel to Dr. and Mrs. Madison, and they talked for a few moments before returning to their respective places.

  As they threaded their way through the tables, Daniel said, "I think you know more people here than I do."

  Kate gave him a wondering look. "Isn't it strange?"

  They sat down in time to be served a lovely Caesar salad. Alicia immediately monopolized Daniel, and Kate talked to the two other women about the reading programs in their children's schools. The orchestra played a Latin-sounding song, and Alicia said, "Let's rumba, Daniel."