As You Wish

by Jude Deveraux

  When she looked at Ray, sitting quietly and watching her, his eyes were almost glittering with interest in her every word. It took her a moment to recognize that look. “You’re a salesman, aren’t you?”

  Ray let out a laugh that almost sent coffee spewing, but he grabbed a napkin and covered his mouth. “What gave me away?”

  “‘A lean and hungry look,’” she said, quoting Shakespeare. “So what is it that you’re using all this concern to try to sell me?”

  “Stay with us.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Jeanne sent me here to give me time to think. When I’m at work in the city or at home with my wife, Kathy, I can’t stand back and look at what’s going on. Jeanne said she wants to give me time away so I can make what will be the biggest decision of my life.”

  He paused for a moment. “But things have changed. I thought two women were going to be there and they could...”

  Olivia watched him take a cookie and slowly eat it. “They could do the cooking and entertain each other so you’d be free to do whatever you want.”

  Ray laughed. “Sure you’re not Jeanne’s sister? So yeah, I’m spoiled. Kathy and I have no kids so I’m sort of...” He shrugged.

  “You’re everything to her?”

  “Pretty much. Kathy doesn’t really have a life of her own. It’s just me.”

  “So what’s wrong? Something at work?”

  Ray took a deep breath. “I want a divorce but I don’t know how to tell my wife.”

  “Oh,” Olivia said. “That is a problem. And I can see your need to think long and hard about that.”

  “Yeah, but if I’m alone in this house with her, that girl might get the wrong idea about me.”

  It was the opposite of what Olivia had thought, but he did have a point. He seemed to attract women to him.

  “Stay with us,” Ray repeated. “It’s just for a few days, then when your husband gets back, he can carry you over the threshold. As he should do.”

  “Hmmm.” For a moment, Olivia acted as though she were contemplating the idea. She leaned toward him. “Are you dying to ask me if I can cook?”

  Ray was serious. “If you can’t, I’ll be condemned to live on pizza.”

  “And mess up that perfect waistline of yours? That would be a true tragedy.” Olivia was making jokes to cover what was going on in her mind. When she first saw the fabrics and colors that she and Kit had chosen, she wanted him to be with her. She wanted laughter and...

  Memories, she thought. The two of them were in their sixties now. How many years did they have left to make the memories that should have been theirs for the last forty-plus years? She well knew that was time enough for children to grow, for grandchildren to have reached their teen years. But she and Kit had missed out on all of that. Those memories didn’t exist.

  “Are you all right?” Ray asked.

  “Sure,” Olivia said. “I think we should wait for Elise to get here before we make any decisions.”

  “Good idea,” he said. “But just so you know, if she’s some little lost lamb looking for a daddy figure, I’m out of here.”

  Olivia blinked at what he’d said, but she knew he was right. She’d seen the way the waitress glanced at him. That Ray wasn’t returning the girl’s looks of I’m-willing-if-you-are raised him in her estimation.

  When his cell phone buzzed, he pulled it from his pocket and looked at the ID. “This is Kathy, so I...” He was asking her permission to take the call in private.

  “Of course. Take your time.”

  When he spoke into the phone, his face changed to one of concern—and unless Olivia missed her guess, there was love. As she watched him go out the side door of the little restaurant, she didn’t envy his situation. He was married to a woman who had dedicated her entire life to him. Olivia had seen that many times. The woman had no children, no job, no close friends, so the husband became her reason for living. No doubt every decision she made, everything she did, was controlled by Will Ray like this?

  From Olivia’s experience, men tended to like that. And way too often, men demanded that kind of subservience.

  But she’d never thought of it from the perspective of a man who didn’t want that clingy attention. A man who didn’t want a wife who depended on him for everything. Olivia imagined the wife’s panic when her husband got home late from work. Hysteria at a creaking floorboard. The incessant phone calls. The constant need for his approval.

  And there would be misery if Ray didn’t give her his total attention. Would there be tears over Ray’s neglect? “I spent all day cooking this dinner and you can’t even give me a compliment?”

  As Olivia ate one of the lemon cookies, she thought about Ray’s problem. Yes, it would be a difficult decision to leave a woman like that. Walking away from anger would be easier than dealing with all those tears.

  Olivia looked out the window to see Ray on his cell phone. He was smiling in a gentle, kind way, as though talking to a dear friend. Yes, he had a very difficult decision in front of him.

  When she turned away, she saw a young woman enter the restaurant through the front door, and Olivia was sure she was the other tenant. She was in her twenties, tall, thin, and naturally blonde, with a very pretty face. She had on worn jeans, a T-shirt, and sandals. The regular attire of her generation.

  But this girl was different. For one thing, she was perfect. Not just physically perfect, but in that flawless way that only a lifetime of money could achieve. When the girl turned, Olivia looked into her extraordinarily blue eyes and saw nannies and cooks, heavy silver serving pieces, Ivy League schools, and a girls’ lacrosse team.

  It was in that second that Olivia made her decision. Yes, she’d stay at the summerhouse with Ray and this girl. Maybe he thought he had no interest in other women, but she’d seen the ambition in his eyes. It was better not to tempt him.

  The girl came to her table. “Are you Mrs. Montgomery?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “Great. I’m Elise Arrington.” She dropped her small canvas bag to the floor, took Ray’s chair, then saw the coffee cup. “Is someone sitting here?”

  “Your housemate.” Olivia nodded toward the big window. Ray was still on the phone, his handsome face smiling in a sweet way.

  Olivia watched Elise when she saw Ray. Would she be like the waitress? But the only sign Elise gave was a slight widening of her eyes. She has those deeply ingrained manners, learned from childhood, Olivia thought.

  “He’s rather large, isn’t he?” Elise said. There was a tiny bit of disdain in her voice.

  Olivia was glad there was no attraction. “I don’t know if Dr. Hightower told you, but one of the three occupants dropped out.”

  Elise leaned forward and lowered her voice. “I’m to share a house with just him?”

  “Ray asked if I’d mind staying there too. If it’s all right with you, that is.”

  “Yes, I’d like that.” With a sigh of relief, Elise turned to the waitress—who made a point of ignoring her.

  Olivia leaned back against her chair. She wasn’t sure if this was getting interesting or if she should run away. Actually, she’d been dreading this time away from her new husband.

  They hadn’t yet figured out what they were going to do with their lives. Kit was retired—sort of, since he still got called back to DC now and then. Olivia had spent most of her life managing some appliance stores and trying to make a home for her late husband and his son. She’d thought she’d done a good job, but on her husband’s deathbed, she’d been told that he’d willed the stores to his son, which meant that she was without a job.

  Olivia watched as Elise got up and went to the counter to place her order. The woman at the register, who Olivia knew owned the little restaurant, apologized for the lack of service. The moment Elise turned away, the owner went to the waitress and snappe
d at her.

  When the waitress glared at the back of Elise’s head, Olivia had to repress a smile. Ah, the age-old fight for the dominant male. Ray was a man to be won and the waitress saw Elise as a rival.

  As Elise sat back down, she nodded toward Ray. “Who’s he talking to?”

  “His wife.”

  “I’m glad he’s married.” The owner put a tuna salad sandwich on whole wheat and an iced tea in front of Elise, who thanked her. After the woman left, Elise said, “If you don’t want to stay, please tell me of a hotel or a B and B in town.”

  “I think I’d like to stay with you two, but you should know that Ray seems very nice. Not a predator at all.”

  “But he’s here as part of his therapy, so there has to be something wrong with him. I wonder what he did to get sent here?”

  “Not to be unkind, but couldn’t the same be said about you?”

  Elise had her mouth full and waited while she chewed. “I didn’t do anything. Jeanne rescued me from a mental institution.”

  “Oh.” Olivia tried to keep her eyebrows from going skyward. She wanted to fire questions at the girl. Was she bipolar? Schizophrenic? Did she have violent episodes? “Should you...?” she began, but didn’t know where to go from there.

  “It’s okay,” Elise said. “I didn’t hurt anyone. They think I tried to commit suicide so they had me locked up.”

  “Who did?”

  “My parents and my husband. This sandwich is really good. Quite fresh.”

  “You tried to commit suicide?” Olivia’s voice was soft and caring.

  Elise took a long drink of her tea. “No, I didn’t. I was so angry at my husband, Kent, that I couldn’t sleep, so I took one of his sleeping pills. What I didn’t know is that he had crushed four of them and put them in the drink he made for me. When I woke up in a hospital, Kent was crying and begging me to forgive him for slipping me the extra pills and nearly killing me. I told him I wanted a divorce. In the next minute, in came my parents with a therapist who was telling them that I’d tried to commit suicide. My throat was so raw I couldn’t talk but I looked to Kent to tell them the truth. But he lied and said I’d taken the pills by myself. And of course no one was going to believe me because I’d just tried to kill myself, right? So anyway, I was locked away for ‘protection’ and talked to for weeks about my suicidal depression. Only Jeanne believed me when I said that if I was going to kill anyone it would be my husband and not myself. Do you think they have any pie? I haven’t eaten much lately because I was hidden inside the trunk of Jeanne’s car for so long, then I was too angry to eat. Is there a restroom here?”

  Olivia was blinking so hard she had trouble reacting. Hiding in the doctor’s trunk? She very much wanted to hear this story. She pointed out the restroom door, then raised her hand to the owner. She came to the table as Elise left.

  “What do you need, Olivia? And I’m sorry about the waitress. She broke up with her boyfriend and is looking for a new one.” She glanced up as Ray came back in. “Is he available?”

  “No. Not at all. Could you bring us a slice of every kind of pie you have?”

  “There are six of them.”

  “That’s great. One of each, and put everything on Kit’s bill, with a twenty-five percent tip.”

  “You got it.” She was watching Ray as he started back inside. “If I were ten years younger...” With a sigh, she took the empty dishes and left.

  Ray sat down across from Olivia, then looked at Elise’s glass of tea. “Did she show up?”

  “She did.” Olivia was still trying to digest all that she’d heard.

  “Is she crazy? I mean, she is one of Jeanne’s patients.”

  “She’s not crazy at all,” Olivia said. “Would you like to have some pie? I’ve ordered rather a lot of it.”

  “I’d love some.”

  Chapter Two

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Kit asked. “Is Estelle’s house comfortable?”

  Olivia held the cell phone close to her ear as she watched Ray and Elise looking at the flowers in her friend’s garden. Ray was big and handsome in a rough sort of way, while Elise looked as fragile as a butterfly. The two of them were so different they didn’t seem to be the same species.

  “Are you still there?” Kit asked.

  “Yes,” Olivia answered. “I’m here and listening. I heard you say you might have to stay in DC for a whole week. Which country are you trying to save?”

  “I, uh—”

  She cut him off. “I know. You can’t tell me. What do you know about Dr. Jeanne Hightower?”

  “Nothing, really. My cousin Cale’s friend Ellie Abbott swears by her.”

  “Ah, I see. Two mystery writers.”

  “Yes.” Kit lowered his voice. “Has something happened? You sound...well, distant.”

  “I just ran into a couple of very interesting problems, that’s all.”

  “You’re going to stay with Jeanne’s patients and help out, aren’t you?”

  Olivia gave a sound that was half groan, half laugh. “I’m not sure I like someone knowing me so well.”

  “I may have missed out on a few years, but I remember everything. So tell me what’s going on.”

  “Ray is a big guy, midthirties, who probably grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, but it looks like he’s pulled himself up in the world of sales. Now he wears Bond Street clothes, but I’d bet that he has a gang tattoo somewhere on his perfectly toned body.”

  “I hope you don’t go searching to find out,” Kit said. “And the girl?”

  “Money and manners. She dresses like a street kid but she probably went to Miss Porter’s and Bryn Mawr. I haven’t heard the whole story yet, but I think she tried to buck the system and she got locked up for it.”

  “As in jail?”

  “No. As in being held in a mental institution under lock and key. But it seems that Jeanne broke her out, hid her in the trunk of her car, and drove her across the country.”

  Kit was quiet for a moment. “I thought what I was doing was exciting, but you have me beat. My concern is whether you’re going to miss me at all.”

  “I don’t want to see our house until you’re with me,” she blurted out.

  “Good! I like that. It’s you who was the practical one and wanted to stay there alone.”

  “Are you saying you’re the romantic one?”

  “Peacocks, well house, moonlight parties in the nude. They were all from me. Yeah, I think I’m the Emperor of Romance.”

  Olivia smiled at the images of long ago that he brought up. “I’m not so sure. When you get back, you need to prove it to me.”

  “I look forward to doing just that.”

  They were silent for a moment, just breathing. “I better go,” Olivia said. “The warrior and the fairy princess have stopped talking. Ray might start trying to sell her a mountain that may or may not be full of gold.”

  “What’s his problem?”

  “He’s trying to get the courage to tell his wife that he wants a divorce. Poor thing. My heart goes out to her. He’s her entire life but he’s going to drop her.”

  “You think it’s another woman?”

  “Probably. You know the saying. Men divorce because they have someone else. Women leave because they’re fed up.”

  “No, I hadn’t heard that one.” He paused. “Did you get fed up with me?”

  “You know I didn’t. What happened between us was an accident. Just fate.”

  “And two bratty kids and a peacock and...and Gaddafi.”

  Olivia laughed. “Good idea. Let’s blame him. I do have to go. Ray is looking at his watch, and Elise looks like she might drift away into a fairyland of her own making.”

  “Ah, my wife the brilliant people observer. How I could have used your expertise when I was working in Morocco. We
could have—”

  “Don’t,” she whispered. They had agreed not to dwell on what they’d missed in not being together all those years. At least not out loud.

  “You’re right. I better go too. The prez is waiting for me.”

  “The president? No! Don’t answer that. Just go. I love you.”

  “And I love you more. Keep me up to date on this. It’s interesting.”

  “I promise.” Reluctantly, they hung up and Olivia went into the garden. Ray and Elise were standing on opposite sides, lost in their own thoughts.

  Their silence made it flash across Olivia’s mind that this woman she didn’t know, Dr. Jeanne Hightower, had planned for Olivia to be with them. That would have taken some detailed organization, but it could have been done. As it was, the situation reeked of too much coincidence. An “older woman” was supposed to have been with them, but she’d dropped out. Was it just an accident that Olivia had been asked to accompany these two? She didn’t think so.

  “If you’re ready to go, we can leave now.” As she led them through the house, Ray picked up Olivia’s suitcase from beside the front door and followed the women outside. He put the case in her new BMW, another gift from Kit.

  Olivia glanced at Ray’s sleek Jag, something more suited for a bachelor than a married man.

  He closed the trunk. “I’m getting rid of it and buying an SUV.”

  “Girlfriend pregnant?” she said before she thought. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

  But Ray gave a snort of laughter. “You are Jeanne’s sister. Not yet, but I’m working on it, and I refuse to feel guilty about it. I’ve always wanted kids and my wife isn’t able to have any. If that makes me a bad guy—”

  Olivia put her hand up. “I know all about wanting children. And, Ray, I don’t judge. You can say what you want. It’s my guess that the reason Dr. Hightower put you here with strangers is so you can talk.”