“Try not to look so relieved at the interruption, Red,” Jason said.
Lacy bit her lip as she crawled over him, trying to calm her ragged breathing before she reached the door. What exactly had he been about to say? She wasn’t sure she was ready to find out. Despite the pleasant repartee between them this weekend, the old fear was still there, stark and palpable. She wanted things to remain exactly as they were for a while, no advancement and no definition. Was that too much to ask?
Lacy opened the door, saw Aunt Enid on the other side, and ducked out of sight with a yelp.
“Emeril Lagasse is resting,” Aunt Enid explained. “You can come out.”
Tentatively, Lacy poked her head around the door, scanning the hallway to make sure the monkey wasn’t lying in wait. “May I help you?” she asked. Aunt Enid was a formidable woman at the best of times. What she must think of Lacy after the events this weekend one could only imagine.
“Lacy, I was hoping to have a word with you before you left this afternoon. A private word,” she added, peering around Lacy to pin Jason with a cool stare. Lacy blushed, knowing how the situation must appear to Aunt Enid. She bit back her explanations of why they were suddenly sharing a room, knowing it would only serve to make her look more guilty in the older woman’s eyes. “The weather is mild. Perhaps we could take a walk on my estate?”
“That would be fine except that I just woke. Would it be okay if I shower first?”
“That’s understandable. Is a half an hour enough time?”
Enid
asked.
“Half an hour sounds perfect,” Lacy said.
Enid
turned and disappeared out of sight. Lacy closed the door and leaned against it. Jason was still in her bed, his arm propped behind his head.
“What do you suppose that’s about?” he asked.
“Maybe she wants to go in together on a wedding gift,” Lacy said. In truth, she had no idea what
Enid
wanted with her, and she was a little nervous to find out. She was so stern and serious all the time, which was odd because she owned a monkey. Weren’t people who owned monkeys supposed to be fun? On the other hand, weren’t people
not
supposed to own monkeys?
“You coming back over here?” Jason asked. He patted the bed beside him.
Lacy moved her head slowly back and forth.
“Chicken,” he accused.
She tucked her thumbs under her armpits and flapped her arms a couple of times. “Bock, bock. Why don’t you go back to sleep? You still look wiped.”
As if to prove her point, he yawned before turning to his side and gathering her pillow close to his chest. “Be more fun if you were here,” he mumbled, sounding already half asleep.
No argument there,
Lacy thought. She ghosted around the room gathering her clothes, and then she shut herself in the bathroom to take a shower.
Lacy took a quick shower and applied makeup, deciding to once again skip drying her hair. She didn’t want the sound of the dryer to wake Jason, but there was also a good chance that the monkey would be accompanying them on the walk. Emeril Lagasse had to have his daily constitutional, after all. She braided her hair and jammed it under the monkey hat, surveying herself in the mirror with a grimace. Prada and a sock monkey—her biological grandmother probably never envisioned the combo when she bequeathed Lacy her wardrobe. At least the need to wear the thing was almost over. A few more hours, and their flight would leave, taking them away from the crazy, taking them back home. She should feel better about that than she did, but there was a little part of her that didn’t want to leave, that didn’t want this time with Jason to be over. Things between them were so simple here, so black and white. Of course they were together with nothing else to stand between them.
Shaking her head to throw off the oppressive thoughts also had the undesired effect of making the sock monkey braids pelt her face. She shoved at them, sniffling as the itchy wool scratched her nose. She slipped through Jason’s door so she wouldn’t wake him by going through her room. It was her bad luck that Riley stood in the hallway just outside his room. Her sister’s eyes widened in recrimination.
“Your halo is slipping, sis.”
Lacy opened her mouth to explain, but what could she say?
I had to come through here because Jason is in my bed?
Then she remembered Jason’s words. She didn’t owe her little sister an explanation about her life. She pressed her lips together and resolutely walked away. Or she would have if her heel hadn’t caught on the rug and sent her head-first into the wall. Luckily she was able to put up her hand before she gave herself a concussion. Riley snorted a laugh, but Lacy didn’t turn back. She shook off the stinging pain in her palm where it had smacked the wall and kept going.
It was a gauge of where their relationship stood that someone tried to kill her a few hours ago, and her sister was more interested in her love life. If someone had tried to hurt Riley, Lacy would have stayed in her room the way Jason had done for her. Nothing would have stopped her from overseeing her sister’s wellbeing, not even Riley’s own protests. Why couldn’t that be reciprocal? Where had she failed? Yes, Riley was spoiled, but relationships were a two-way street, and she was guilty of letting theirs go, of letting Riley’s digs and insults get to her, of giving up. The situation with her sister seemed hopeless, and Lacy sighed.
Aunt Enid stood by the door, Emeril Lagasse perched rakishly on her shoulder. Was it Lacy’s imagination or did he frown at her? Could monkeys frown? This one seemed to be doing so as his eyebrows hunched together and his nose wrinkled in distaste. He was probably sad that it was she accompanying him this morning and not his beloved Riley.
Aunt Enid was wearing a velour jogging suit, which was disconcerting for some reason. Maybe because she was a throwback to the Victorian era and Lacy expected to see her in a starched dress with a parasol and hat. The jogging suit smacked of ladies in
Atlantic City
who spent their days at the casino, shuffling money into slots. Aunt Enid was definitely not one of those; she was probably as close as she had ever come to a casino—a few hundred miles away.
They began their walk in silence. Lacy searched her mind for something to say, but she was at a loss. Thankfully they had only gone a few steps when Aunt Enid got to her purpose.
“Thank you for accompanying me on this walk, Lacy. I feel that I am long overdue in making my apologies to you.” She paused as if waiting for Lacy to comment, but Lacy was still at a loss, so she continued. “First there was that business with Emeril Lagasse biting you a couple of years ago. So abominably shocking, that. He’s usually such a gentle, timid soul.”
Lacy glanced up. The gentle, timid soul in question bared his fangs at her like some kind of monkey vampire. Again she refrained from comment, even though it seemed like Aunt Enid was expecting her to chime in with a compliment for Emeril Lagasse.
“I had barely begun to know you before you were whisked to the hospital—an overreaction in my estimation, but Robert was in love. Love makes one foolish.”
This time Lacy had a more difficult time keeping a cap on her tongue. She had required several shots and stitches. It had hurt, and she had bled for days from the wound. And it hadn’t been Robert’s insistence that took her to the hospital; it had been her own. If it had been up to him, he would have slapped a bandage on her and continued with supper.
“And then you and Robert broke up and, well, I’ll be frank: I was disappointed.”
She paused again, which was good because this was a bombshell announcement, so much so that Lacy finally found her voice. “You were?”
Aunt Enid nodded. “I see myself in you.”
Lacy looked away so Aunt Enid wouldn’t see her dismay at being compared to a spinster with a monkey companion. Furtive movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention, but when she turned her head, no one was there. Were they being followed, or had it been a bird? She shuddered. This place was making her paranoid.
“How so?” she forced herself to ask.
“You might not see it because you don’t know me that well, but we share a droll sense of humor. I’ve watched your expressions these last few days, and I imagine we’ve shared a lot of thoughts about my family situation. I love them, but…” she let the thought trail because there was no way to finish it without being unkind.
I love my family, but they’re a nightmare. I love my family, but they’re sucking me dry.
“And then there’s your inheritance,”
Enid
continued.
Lacy stopped short, looking at the old woman in surprise. “How did you know about that?”
Aunt Enid sighed, looking contrite. “This is something else for which I’ll have to beg your forgiveness, Lacy, but when you are the overseer of a vast fortune, you have to become paranoid. I have always checked out the love interests of my niece and nephews. And that information is periodically updated when it becomes relevant. When I learned you were on the guest list for this weekend, I contacted the agency that I use for such matters, and they updated your dossier. It contained the new information of your inheritance. I hope you won’t think me impertinent for my intrusion, but as someone who has dealt with an inheritance most of my adult life, I would like to give you some advice, if I may.”
“Please,” Lacy said, and she genuinely meant it. She had no idea what to do with so much money beyond the notion that she wanted some good to come of it.
“Don’t allow others to become dependant on you and your wealth,” Aunt Enid said. She sounded weary and a little bit sad. Lacy wanted to feel sorry for her, but she was torn by the feeling of being watched. She turned sharply, but there was no one there.
“How do you stop such a thing from happening?” she asked. Surreptitiously, she turned her head at an angle so she could watch behind them, but soon found her view obscured by large hedges.
“By not letting it start in the first place. You are a tender-hearted, compassionate woman. There are those who would take advantage of that kindness and generosity, your sister for one. I like Riley. She’s spirited, and Emeril Lagasse adores her, but she likes things that money can buy, the more money, the better. If you go down the path of letting her use you, she will suck you dry.”
Lacy let that depressing thought sink in as they walked in silence a few minutes. Sadly, she couldn’t disagree. “She doesn’t know about the inheritance yet.”
“She will. That’s the type of thing people like Riley have a nose for. She’ll find out, and she’ll figure the best possible way to tap into it until she’s drained you dry.” Now it was
Enid
’s turn to walk in sad, thoughtful silence. The silence felt oppressive and unnatural, the air redolent with the scent of boxwood. Lacy at last snapped out of her gloomy thoughts and took in their surroundings. Tall hedges hemmed them in on either side.
“Is this a garden maze?” she asked.
“Yes,”
Enid
answered, her tone vague and absent.
Lacy’s heart kicked up its rhythm. Being something of an anglophile, she had always wanted to try a garden maze. But now that she was inadvertently in one, she felt claustrophobic, and she wasn’t claustrophobic by nature. But the silence was unnerving. The endless rows of greenery absorbed all sound and a whole lot of light. She was short, barely over five feet, so the hedges towered over her by more than a foot. Her hand inched up and coiled around one of the monkey braids, tugging to try and relieve a little of her anxiety.
“Do you know how to get out?” Lacy asked, working hard to keep her voice casual.
“Of course,”
Enid
said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I’ve been playing here since I was a child. Getting back to our earlier discussion, I feel there is one more reason for me to apologize to you, Lacy. You see, Hildy somehow got her hands on your dossier. She knew about your inheritance. I’m afraid her predilection for blackmail was about to come into play again. But I’m sure you found the dossier when you went through her things. Didn’t you?” She glanced at Lacy.
“Oh, um, I…” Lacy stammered, caught in her lie. She had announced to the table at large last night that she found everything pertinent in Hildy’s room. Was it better to stay with that story, or come clean with the truth? The truth, she decided. Sue was in custody, what did it matter?
They reached the center of the maze, a small round opening, and paused to face each other. She opened her mouth to tell
Enid
the truth and stopped short, the air leaving her in a rush. Why did
Enid
want to know? It was an odd question, especially because everything was over, wasn’t it?
“She was blackmailing you,” Lacy said, thinking out loud.
Enid
’s proud shoulders sagged slightly. “So you do know. I had hoped you were bluffing.”
I am,
Lacy started to say, but nosiness and an odd sense of foreboding held her back. “How long had it been going on?” she asked instead.
“Years,”
Enid
said. “Since right after she came to work for me. I’ve been out of money so long; I had to take out a reverse mortgage on this place just to pay her blackmail demands and the salary of the help.” She gave a mirthless little chuckle, shaking her head so that Emeril Lagasse had to grab a tuft of her hair to hang on.
“You’re out of money?” Lacy blurted before remembering she was already supposed to know that. “I mean, you’re out of money. Yes, of course.” She changed her question to a statement.
Enid
gave her an odd look. “I’m sorry to hear that,” she added. “I take it the rest of the family doesn’t know.”
“Do you think they would be here if they did?”
Enid
said. She sounded so cynical and world-weary that Lacy wanted to give her a hug. “Do you know how it feels when the only reason people visit you is to use you? And do you know how it feels to be so desperate to keep them coming that you’ll do anything to keep your secret safe?”