Secret Society

by Robin Roseau

  "The biddies, and possibly the six names you want. I guess we'll see. Mrs. Franklin might have her own lawyer."

  "Aren't you her lawyer?"

  "Donna Smith."

  "Ah. Any friendly faces?"

  "Probably the judge. She's torn to pieces, Blythe. Most of us are."

  "Fine. I'm bitter. If you don't deserve my snark, I'm sorry."

  "Maybe we can discuss that next week."

  "Maybe we can."

  I followed her down the stairs. We came to the double doors, and Sabrina turned to me. She set her hands on my shoulders and stared into my eyes. "I absolutely promise you those six names. I promise you I want to be your friend. I lied about the money."

  "I don't care about the money."

  "Listen. You need to be smart. Please be smart, Blythe. Please."

  "What's going on? I knew you were lying to me, but if I get those names, I don't think I care."

  "Good. I lied a little to get you here. But I'm not lying about the names, and I'm not lying about wanting to be your friend. I think you can get everything you want. Your friends are torn up, and you should give them a chance. You might be able to get them all back, and everything else you want besides."

  "I'm leaving for my trip in three days, Sabrina. Get me those names, and the rest of this doesn't matter."

  "I don't think you believe that. Please be smart, Blythe. Try diplomacy. Please."

  "We'll see."

  Then she gestured to the door, and I stepped forward and opened them, stepping through.

  * * * *

  I froze. The room was full of women. I didn't have to count. I was sure there were exactly 26 women in the room.

  The entire Order of Circe, plus me.

  I turned around to face Sabrina. She carried a worried expression, but she was blocking the retreat. I didn't intend to retreat, not now. I intended to see if I was going to get my six names.

  Then I was heading to Portland and staying there, job or no job.

  "I stand by my promises," Sabrina said quickly. "Please be smart, Blythe."

  "I must be the most naïve woman in the building to have believed you."

  "You're here," she said. "Get what you came for."

  "For the record, if you ever were my lawyer, you're fired. You have an extreme conflict of interest. I will be hiring outside counsel to examine absolutely everything regarding my grandmother's estate, and your firm damned well better have dotted every eye and crossed every tee."

  "If that's what you decide to do, I hope you find a few dotted tees and crossed eyes, because you're getting screwed. Now go over there and get yourself unscrewed."

  I didn't look at the biddies first. I looked around the room. Every woman was silent. Every woman was watching me. Kiki was biting her lip. Claudine didn't look much better. Sylvia looked like she was wondering how to kill everyone at once. I couldn't read the rest.

  Then I turned to the biddies. They were watching me but hadn't said a word. The judge had a cool expression, but she met my eyes and nodded, just once.

  And Wilba Everest? Well, the good, kindly Wilba Everest, the woman who I had spent hours reading to, the woman I thought was sweet and kind.

  She looked guilty as hell and wouldn't meet my eyes.

  Mrs. Franklin was seated front and center, and she looked pleased with herself. If I got my names, she could look as pleased as she wanted. On a small table in front of her, draped in black cloth, were three martini glasses, one nearly full of blue marbles, one with one red and two green marbles, and one with, it appeared, five white and one black marble.

  I finally stepped forward. "Well, you went through some effort to get me here, which I find puzzling, given the effort you went through to get rid of me in the first place."

  "Blythe Suzanna Montgomery Todd," began Mrs. Franklin.

  I held up my hand, and she paused.

  "I expect to return to my original name," I said. "We may as well all get used to it."

  "Have you done so yet?"

  "I've been busy. I'll get to it. I find I need a new lawyer, anyway so it shouldn't be hard to get this handled straightaway."

  "Then you remain Blythe S. M. Todd, at least for the duration of this meeting."

  I inclined my head.

  "You are a fighter, Ms. Todd," she continued.

  I held up my hand. "I was promised something."

  "Oh?"

  "The price of admission. Six names."

  "No."

  I turned around and began walking to the door. Kiki and Hope ran to prevent my exit, reaching it first. Kiki held her hands under her chin, praying, but not saying a word. I stopped, staring at them.

  "Interesting," I said. "Ms. Furman is not known for keeping her mouth closed."

  "She knows the price of one word, but it appears she is quite eloquent without opening her mouth."

  I turned around. "Six names or you'll have to get violent to stop me from calling the police and reporting false imprisonment."

  Mrs. Franklin looked at me carefully, and then she reached into the martini glass and withdrew the black marble, sitting on top of the white ones. She set it on the table before her. "For starters, one."

  "I want all six. I already know who the one is."

  She smiled. "Then perhaps you would also like the why, but that will take a few minutes to reach. Leave, and you will never learn the why."

  "Will I get all six names?"

  "Possibly. You may decide it doesn't matter."

  "I already know two names, actually," I said. "The black and one of the white marbles."

  "Do you?"

  I stepped forward, collected a white marble from the glass, then stepped over to Wilba Everest, grabbed her hand, turned it over, and pressed the marble into her hand.

  She squeaked. "Please, Blythe," she said. "Let her speak. I'm begging you."

  "What have you got to lose?" Mrs. Franklin asked. "As you see it, we've taken everything from you. Your dignity, your friends, your home."

  "You never took my dignity."

  Mrs. Shaffer said, "You hung from my ceiling, naked, while we gawked at you."

  "If you think that was my dignity shed upon the floor, you..." I shook my head. "You've taken much, but you haven't taken my dignity, my pride, my self-reliance, my strength, or anything else that defines who I am."

  "Perhaps you will take a seat."

  "I was promised six names."

  "You seem to think you have two."

  "I will hear it from the lips of the six."

  Mrs. Franklin picked up the black marble. "We'll see. Have a seat."

  I heard movement, and Claudine had a chair for me, a decent chair. She set it in place in the dead center of the room and offered a ghost of a smile.

  I looked around. Opal Pearce was watching me, and she nodded. Beside her was Mary Ellen, and she looked as upset as Kiki did. That was interesting. I walked over to her, and she held my gaze, but her lips trembled.

  "Mary Ellen Hankins, what do you say?"

  She glanced towards the biddies, and one of them must have granted permission. "Please, Blythe. Take the chair."

  "Am I going to discover something I don't care to hear about anyone I truly thought was a friend?"

  "No."

  "Because that might, that just might be my dignity."

  "You won't."

  "For you, and for a few other people in this room who seem to want me to remain, I'll stay."

  I moved to the seat. I considered taking an indolent pose, but I decided I'd sent enough messages tonight.

  "Well," said Mrs. Franklin. "I wasn't expecting this much of your grandmother in you."

  "Frankly, I wouldn't have, either. I wondered what made her so hard. I wonder if the same thing is happening to me."

  "She was a good woman," Mrs. Franklin said.

  "Yes, but she was also a hard woman, and lonely. I was her only relative who could stand her. My mother loved her, but she couldn't be with her for more than short
periods. My cousins were worse. Am I turning into her? Maybe you have taken what it was to be me."

  She didn't answer that. But instead she picked up the marble, the black marble. "This is mine."

  "Did you engineer the white ones?"

  "Yes."

  "Then it appears I have my six names. Mrs. Franklin, and five women she was able to browbeat."

  "It seems that way. You are a horrible diplomat."

  "I wasn't aware there was a need for diplomacy. I came here to get six names and tell you to shove your money. But I understand money was never really on the table."

  "No."

  "You have something to say, and you seem to care that I stay long enough to hear it." She inclined her head. "Fine. Two questions, and I'll find my missing diplomacy."

  "Ask. We'll see."

  I pointed to the glass. "Did any of those belong to one of my true friends?"

  "That depends on how you define a true friend," she replied. "If you rephrase the question, I can answer less cryptically."

  "You're really going to answer?" She inclined her head. "All right. The last time I was in this house. I spent a fair amount of time sobbing on several shoulders. Add Liah to that list."

  "No, none of the women who shared that time with you is represented in this glass. Next?"

  "Was it ever your intention for me to join this group?"

  She began to smile, "Oh, most definitely, Ms. Todd. And it remains my intention."

  Black Marble

  I leaned back in the chair. "Well, you've managed to truly surprise me."

  "I thought I might. Thank you for the opportunity. I do love a straight man."

  "I'm neither," I said. "But I see your point."

  That brought the ghost of a smile.

  "How curious are you, Ms. Todd?"

  "I'm not sure. I'm trying to catch up."

  "Perhaps a glass of wine."

  "Red would be nice. A sweet woman named Fawn taught me the most clever things to do with a glass of red wine."

  From my right, Opal snorted.

  They had bottles and glasses waiting. Several women moved through the room, passing out glasses, and several others carried bottles around. It was Opal that handed me a filled glass. She bent down, and I let her kiss my cheek.

  Through it all, Mrs. Franklin and I barely dropped our mutual gaze.

  I sipped at the wine. It really was quite good. A moment later someone set a small table next to me, and I had a place for my glass.

  "Have you caught up?" Mrs. Franklin finally asked me.

  "Not entirely, but we can move forward."

  "Excellent." She leaned forward. "Tell me, did you wonder why I never hazed you?"

  "I stopped wondering some weeks ago."

  "Do you remember the note I sent?"

  "Vaguely."

  "I said you wouldn't see it coming. It has come and gone." She smiled. "Feeling hazed?"

  My jaw dropped, and she put on a triumphant grin, leaning back in her chair and swirling her own wine.

  "You were hazing me?" I sputtered. "All this was a cruel, months-long joke?"

  "Admittedly, I hadn't intended that when I started. But then you called me a coward."

  "I see," I said coldly. "So revenge."

  "Not at all.

  I stared at her. "I didn't call you a coward. I told you if that first marble was someone trying to send a message, she needed to speak more clearly. If it was truly what it appeared to be, a vote to evict me, then she was quite possibly a coward. If you have decided I called you a coward..." I leaned back, picked up my wine, and drank from the glass.

  Then I stared at it and set it down. I wouldn't be drinking any more.

  I wasn't sure it wasn't laced with hemlock. I already knew that Mrs. Grafton was willing to poison me as a prank. Who knew what had made it into the wine?

  I looked back at Mrs. Franklin. She was watching me carefully. "You weren't offended by what I said. You were playing some game."

  "You're right," she agreed. "And you were damned infuriating about it, too. I intended to tell you the next day, but you took it in stride. My hazing attempt was a complete bust."

  "So you doubled down."

  "I did. Tripled, as I recall."

  "Still a bust."

  "I shook you, but not enough."

  "Did anyone know what you were doing?"

  "No."

  "Three white marbles?"

  "A few proxies might not have been happy at having their votes changed."

  "I see." I looked around. No one had reacted, so perhaps they knew -- or didn't care. "So no one knew. You could have just done something else."

  "I could have. I chose not to."

  "Ah. So four marbles, and you discovered you were hazing some of my friends more than me. Really, Mrs. Franklin. After hours in Opal's care, I was too numb to really shake up any further. Your timing was poor. But Kiki was already deeply distraught, and your marbles nearly pushed her over the edge."

  "And yet, you remained calm about it. I'd like to know why. Didn't you care?"

  "Didn't you listen? I was making friends I wouldn't otherwise have made. I was doing good things for the community. So a few people didn't like me. Tell me something, would you call a binding vote right now, with your name under consideration?"

  She looked around the room, and I think that was when she realized she had deeply overplayed this.

  I smiled. "How about it? I bet there are marbles here somewhere."

  "I don't think so," she said.

  "We could do a voice vote then."

  "I meant we won't be voting on that particular topic."

  "Ah. All right. So. Two months ago. Was that vote rigged, too? I noticed Mrs. Everest didn't deny the marble I gave her."

  "The final vote had to be honest."

  "Is that the right word?" I asked.

  "Semantics," she replied. "Are you going to demand the other four names?"

  I thought about it. "How hard were they to convince?"

  "Exceedingly."

  "And they did it for a hazing, or was there another reason."

  "Just the hazing. You never answered my question. Do you feel hazed?"

  "Oh yes, I admit I do." I offered her sarcastic applause. "So, now what do you want? Why am I here?"

  "For our vote. A real vote."

  "Funny."

  "I'm not laughing, Ms. Todd."

  I stood up and began to reach for the wine, then remembered I didn't trust it. I ignored it, but I moved around the room. Kiki and Hope were still guarding the door, and Kiki looked sick. I came to a stop in front of her. "What threats did you use, Mrs. Franklin?" I didn't turn around.

  "The gravest."

  "More than being evicted from the order?"

  "Careers ruined," she said.

  "No contact at all?"

  "I may have told Mary Ellen to find work for you."

  "Why?"

  "To keep you busy while I figured out how to salvage the mess I'd made."

  I turned around. "Wow. That's three times you've surprised me tonight. You're doing well. And I don't think I've surprised you even once."

  "Why aren't you drinking your wine?"

  "I'm not convinced Mrs. Grafton didn't brew it."

  That caused a reaction, although she and Mrs. Grafton were able to smother them soon enough.

  "That's one for you," Mrs. Franklin said after a moment.

  "I'll concede the 'who can be more surprising' competition," I told her. "I don't feel very competitive tonight."

  "No, but you seem to be in a fine mood for sparing. What do you want now, Ms. Todd?"

  "From you? Nothing. I have a flight in a few days, and a very promising job interview. With this behind me, if I can recover my diplomacy, I'll have a good job by the end of next week, far from here. I don't want a thing from you."

  "Ah, yes," she said. "A flight to Portland."

  "You're the second to make that assumption."

  "To spe
ak with Taber Marketing."

  I stiffened and then slowly turned to face Mary Ellen. "Well. That's four, Mrs. Franklin. You're on a roll. That one might count as two, because I wouldn't have expected Mary Ellen's fingerprints on the knife in my back."

  "It wasn't me," Mary Ellen said.

  "Taber called you, asking if you knew anything about me. And you told the biddies."

  "That is a good guess," said Mrs. Franklin. "However, it's wrong. Mary Ellen had nothing to do with it."

  I turned back to Mrs. Franklin.

  "There will be no job offer from Taber," she added.

  I grew cold, but she held her hand up. "Don't voice that threat yet. I haven't committed any form of defamation. I am, however, about to get that fifth surprise. You spoke to Annette Rice. You spoke at length. You had a delightful conversation. You described what happened here as a bad breakup, knives in your back, friends lost."

  "If you and she are friends, then it's not surprising she relayed everything, especially after you told her I was unsettled, or whatever you did to prevent my getting a job."

  "Ah, you're right. She is my friend."

  And then Mrs. Shaffer put on a voice. "Hello, Ms. Todd," she said. "This is Annette Rice. Tell me about Guerrilla Girl. Please don't take any other jobs while we're in negotiations."

  That generated muttering, significant muttering, and when Mrs. Franklin glared at them, they didn't grow silent, either. But then she said, "Perhaps we can finish explanations."

  "Five surprises to one," I said coldly. I advanced on her. "So my life is something you play with because, what? You're bored? You hated my grandmother? You hate me? What did I do to you that leads to these games?"

  "I let the hazing get out of hand," she said. "The rest has been an attempt to keep you from doing anything permanent. To keep you in the house until I could make amends. Will you let me finish?"

  "Fine." I returned to my seat, but I saw the wine, and I didn't want it that close. I picked it up, then wondered what to do with it. I finally walked over and handed it to Kiki. "Get rid of this for me."

  Then I took my seat again.

  "Wrap it up," I said. "I have packing to do."

  "There is no airline ticket waiting for you. There's no job waiting for you. You're not going anywhere."

  "I can buy my own ticket. I can find a crappy apartment and do what I did here. I'm good, or so I've been told. I'll survive."