Authors: First Impressions
'I'm
going to have it put on a brass plaque and framed,' Brad said, leaning back in
his chair and smiling across the table at Eden. 'Nature tamed, trained, and
enclosed.' Marvelous. Perfect. What was the other one?'
'"Geometric
symmetry within an enclosed space",' Jared said, looking at Minnie.
'Not a
word I said was original,' Eden protested, but she was pleased with Brad's
praise. She gave him a mock look of anger. 'As for you, you owe me big time. An
impromptu speech! On material I haven't looked at in twenty years.'
'You
were magnificent,' Brad said, looking at her in awe. 'If that's what you do
off-the-cuff, I can't imagine what you'd do if you had time to really prepare a
speech. I want to hear everything that led up to that speech,' he said as the
waitress gave them their drinks. 'From beginning to end. All of it. How did you
figure out exactly which way to slant your speech?'
Eden
played with the straw in her margarita. 'It was the diamonds on the woman in
the first row. The one with the streaked hair.'
'Mrs.
Wainwright. This is one of four houses she owns. She wants to be here because
she's heard that some formerly famous people are buying into Queen Anne.'
'Right.
Rich. I stood at
that podium and looked at the audience and thought, How
can I sell the idea of gardens that are expensive to install and even more
expensive to maintain to a bunch of people who, for the most part, couldn't
care less what was planted in front of their houses? I'm sure they'd be happy
with two paper bark birches and some petunias.'
'You
made it into a competition,' Jared said, taking a drink of his McTarvit single
malt whiskey.
'It was
an excellent idea, and, judging by the response, it's going to work,' Minnie
said, her eyes never leaving Jared.
'What I
had originally planned was to try to sell them on the idea that
eighteenth-century gardens were pretty and practical, but they're not. They're
a pain in the neck. Everything is enclosed and orderly, and you can't use a
Weedwhacker anywhere.'
'You
were brilliant,' Brad said in admiration.
Eden
sipped her drink and basked in the praise. As soon as she'd stood before that
audience of rich people she'd known that the speech she'd planned was useless.
She'd meant to try to persuade them that an eighteenth-century-style garden was
as easy to take care of as an American lawn with a few trees stuck in it. But
when she looked at them, she remembered what McBride had said about snobs, and
she'd decided to play on that snobbery. Who in their right mind today would
want a garden that was going to take an army of strong young men to take care
of? Gardens such as no one outside of historical parks would want? They'd be
expensive to install, what with adorable little outbuildings with lead roofs,
bricked pathways, and trees that Thomas Jefferson would have known. No one in
their right mind would want a garden that close to being historically accurate.
When
Eden had seen the eyes of her audience as she said that no one would want such
a garden, she knew she was on the right track. She hadn't been aware of it, but
her fear in all this had been dealing with the clients. She didn't relish
trying to please some woman who had too much money and too much time on her
hands. She didn't want to think about trying to talk them into putting in a
garden that was nothing like a modern American 'yard.' Worse, she didn't want
to have to deal with them later when they found out that the gardens were only
beautiful when they were well and carefully maintained.
But
when she'd warned the audience that the gardens were a pain, she saw eyebrows
lift. For the most part, these were people who had achieved a lot in their
lives. Senators, a former governor, two CEOs, men and women who'd been
everywhere and seen everything, according to what Minnie had told her just
before she went onstage. Yet they'd stepped down and were, for the most part,
now retired. When Eden saw by their faces that she was challenging them, in
essence dropping a red flag in front of them, she continued telling them that
under no circumstances should they install an eighteenth-century-style garden.
After
her speech, Eden had hoped for one or two people to stop at her table, but she
got a line that ran out of the door and into the next room. She was handed
cards of people whose names made her blink in recognition, and she was asked to
call to make a date to talk about what she could do for them.
'Dolley
Madison,' one woman said. 'Anything that Dolley liked, that's what I want. Can
you do that?' Eden said she'd try.
'I want
something that Mount Vernon will envy,' another woman said. 'Can you make me a
greenhouse like the one they have?'
Eden
stared at the woman. The Mount Vernon greenhouse, designed by George
Washington, was magnificent — and very expensive. 'I'm sure we could,' Eden
managed to say.
Another
woman, with skin lined by years of sun, leaned forward and whispered, 'The
best. That's what I want. The best. I don't care what it costs, I just want the
best in the whole place. Can you do that?' Eden opened her mouth to say that
she could, then she closed it and smiled. 'Every woman here has asked for the
same thing from me. What I can promise you is that you will have a garden that
is different from anyone else's on earth.'
'I
guess that'll have to do,' the woman said, obviously disappointed.
By the
end of the long session, Eden had made it appear that if she designed a garden
for anyone she was doing that person a favor and she hoped she could keep up
the charade. She didn't want to be put in the position of having to argue with
these people about what could and could not be put in the gardens.
Throughout
her consultations Jared McBride had watched her and had continued talking on
his cell phone. Twice he seemed to be arguing with someone, frowning and
gesturing.
Now, at
dinner, Brad said, 'You were great,' then he looked at Jared and Minnie for
agreement.
'The
best,' Minnie said, looking at Jared adoringly.
Jared
lifted his glass to Eden. 'I was impressed,' he said softly, and Eden blushed
with the praise.
'To
Eden,' Brad said, lifting his glass.
'To the
eighteenth century,' she said.
'To
Queen Anne, who gave her life so others could use her name,' Jared said.
'To
bringing in a profit,' Minnie said, then they all laughed, clinked glasses, and
drank.
* * *
It was
a lovely dinner, Eden thought as she sat in the car beside Jared. Right now,
Eden couldn't feel any anger toward him, as they'd all had such a good time.
There'd been no animosity, no lightly veiled threats about who owned whom, no
tension. They'd just talked and laughed all evening. There had been a heated
discussion about Princess Diana's death in which Jared had said little, which
made her think he knew more than he was telling. Twice, Brad had made
halfhearted attempts to get McBride to talk about his experiences as a cop before
he retired and moved to Arundel, but Jared wouldn't tell. He was good at
skimming the issue and telling nothing.
It was
Jared who brought up the story of the sapphires.
'That old
saw?' Brad asked. 'Everyone knows that old man Minton sold the necklace.'
'I
thought that was a secret!' Eden gasped. 'Mrs. Farrington told me that only
those in her family knew the truth.'
'Yes,
that's right,' Brad said, confused. 'Only the family knows.'
'The
family!' Minnie said, looking like she wanted to pull her hair out. 'The
family. I hate the thing! Marrying into one of 'the families' in Arundel is
like being initiated into the Mafia.'
'Being
part of it got you a place to live,' Brad said calmly. Obviously, he didn't
take aspersions of the family lightly.
'Not
fair,' Eden cried. 'I was given a place to live when I was desperate, but I'm
not part of the family.'
'I
think you were,' Brad said. 'Everyone knew about Mrs. Farrington's son, so I
think they looked on you as a gift from God. Your daughter became the
grandchild that Mrs. Farrington was never going to have. And it worked out,
since you inherited the house.'
'And
the story,' Jared said. 'And maybe the sapphires.'
'They
were sold,' Brad said again.
Minnie
had been looking at her food, thinking about what Eden had said. 'Did they ever
find him?' she asked softly.
Jared
stopped bantering with Brad and looked at her. 'Find who?'
Minnie
looked up at Eden. 'Did they ever find the man who, you know, gave you your
daughter and made you desperate?'
Brad
and Jared shifted uncomfortably in their chairs.
'They
didn't need to find him,' Eden began. 'I always knew who he was. He had a
stocking over his head, but I recognized his voice and the scar on his wrist.
It was from a hunting accident. I used to stare at it when he passed the
offering plate at church.'
That
information brought them all to a standstill.
'Wait a
minute,' Minnie said. 'I'm confused. The story I was told, and I admit that by
the time I heard it, it was old and had been through a lot of people, but I was
told that you were raped, then thrown out by your horrible family. Oh! Sorry. I
didn't mean that they were — '
'They
were horrible,' Eden said softly. 'Truly horrible people. I didn't like what
got me away from them, but I'm glad that I was able to escape them. If I'd
stayed they might have married me off to someone repulsive.'
Reaching
across the table, Brad squeezed her hand. 'Let's change the subject. Tell me
about the first garden you plan to design. What — ?'
But
Jared didn't want to change the subject. 'You know who the rapist was? I didn't
hear that he was prosecuted.'
'He
wasn't,' Eden said. 'He had a wife and three kids, and he was the head deacon
at our little stone church. My parents said that he was a good man and wouldn't
have done what I was saying he did. They said that I was at fault.'
'Yet
another virgin birth,' Minnie said, her mouth in a line.
'He
should have been prosecuted,' Brad said, his lawyer face on. 'If he did it once,
he'd do it again.'
Eden
looked at him, unsmiling. 'You grew up in a different world than I did. If you
were hurt you could go to your parents and they'd help you. I was what they
call now a 'baby momma' and I had no one.'
'Mrs.
Farrington — ' Brad began.
'Had
her own problems,' Eden shot at him.
Brad
picked up his water glass and drank.
'There
were places you could have asked for help and it would have been given,' Jared
said quietly, and smiled at Eden.
She
knew he meant his agency. Or maybe he meant him. Smiling, she looked down at
her plate. Sometimes he could be very nice.
Minnie
was frowning, and when she spoke, her voice came out higher and faster than
normal. 'So how did we get onto this subject?' she asked as she raised her glass.
'Let's make another toast. What is your deepest, most sincere wish in the
world? As for me, I want my own: my own house, my own man.' She looked up at
Jared suggestively.
'To
wipe the words
focal point
from the American vocabulary,' Eden said.
'To kiss
Angelina Jolie,' Jared said, not looking at Minnie.
They
all looked at Brad.
'To
find the Love of my Life,' he said with a look at Eden, then they all clinked
glasses, laughing, and drank.
Yes,
Eden thought. Except for Minnie sometimes flashing her looks of anger, it had
been a very good evening, something she hadn't had in a long time.
'A
penny,' Jared said from beside her.
'I was
thinking that even though my daughter is now grown, this is the first time that
I've not been someone's mother since I was . . . She hesitated.
'Since
you were a kid yourself,' he said.
'Exactly.'
'You
like this new freedom?'
'I
don't know yet. So far, I still miss making sure that she's okay. I miss
talking to her twenty times a day. I still worry that she's going to do something
that I won't be there to see, and that she'll need me but I won't be there.
Once a mother, et cetera.' She turned to him. 'Do you have children?'
'Nope.
Not that I know of.'
Eden
groaned. 'I guess that's supposed to be a titillating statement, but I've never
liked irresponsibility.'
'I
never make any points with you, do I? Listen, I want to talk to you about
something. That man who raped you, I could do something about him.'
'Such
as? Have him killed? Or just get him put in jail? No, Mr. McBride, I'm not into
revenge. Besides, he gave me a beautiful daughter.'
Glancing
at her., Jared shook his head. 'Okay, so no revenge. But I could do something.'