Kiss and Tell (6 page)

“This is going to be so much fun,” Bess announced as they were about to enter the Barrington's elegant ballroom.

Nancy, Bess, and Sam stopped in the doorway to take in the transformation of the ballroom into a fantasy of romance and revelry. Panels of sheer gold fabric floated from the ceiling, creating diaphanous walls for the dancers to pass around and through. The partygoers were given handfuls of red, heart-shaped confetti to toss. Already it sparkled across the littered floor. The room was lit in soft blues and pinks, and everyone glowed and looked terrific in their romantic costumes. A big band played slow, romantic standards from a raised platform at the end of the room.

Nancy spotted Esme, resplendent in a flowing
white ballgown, dancing with Giancarlo, who wore a tuxedo. Todd, also dressed in a tux, whirled an elegant Helen Klein around the floor. A very Edwardian Bob Samuels came by, in high-waisted pants and a frock coat, to ask Bess to dance.

“How could I say no?” Bess asked.

As Bess whirled off on Bob's arm, Nancy spotted another woman across the room, dressed in her same costume. “Look,” she said, pointing out the woman to Sam, “There are two of me!”

“I sincerely doubt there could be,” Sam said gallantly. There was a slightly awkward pause, which he finally filled by asking, “Do you want to dance?”

“Sure,” Nancy said. As Sam led her onto the floor, Nancy felt that same warm glow pass through her. Quit it, Drew, she told herself. You've got a guy already, and besides, Sam's older. He's not interested in you.

Or was he? When Sam took her in his arms, Nancy saw a half smile turn up the corners of his lips. Then he pressed her to him, and Nancy let herself get lost in the music, the moment, and the warmth of his arms around her.

Then she felt someone touch her hand and push a piece of paper between her fingers. Nancy saw Giancarlo whirl by, with Esme in his arms. Before she could say a word to him, they were gone.

She pulled away from Sam, who was surprised
to find Nancy ending their dance so abruptly. “Someone passed me this note,” Nancy explained, unfolding the piece of paper.

When she read the note, Nancy's heart started beating faster, and she had to take a deep breath before she could read it out loud.

“ ‘Only you know how much I care, cara mia. Please do not doubt my love. I promise, I swear—the future is ours! Yours, and yours only, G.C.' ”

It was a love letter to her from Giancarlo!

A
CROSS THE ROOM
G
IANCARLO
was having a conversation with the woman who was dressed like Nancy. With a start, Giancarlo saw Nancy glance his way.

“Kim!” Nancy said out loud. The woman dressed like her was
Kim,
and all at once Nancy realized that Giancarlo must have intended the note for Esme's assistant.

Sam figured it out as Nancy did. “Come on,” he said. “We're going to ask that guy some questions. And they won't be in Italian!”

Giancarlo was standing alone by the time Nancy and Sam got to him. Esme was dancing with Bob Samuels, while Bess was gliding across the floor in the arms of Todd Gilbert.

“Cara!”
Giancarlo cried when he saw Nancy.
“Did you get my note?” he whispered, his voice low.

“I certainly did,” Nancy replied. “But I'm not convinced you meant me to have it.”

“What?” Giancarlo blinked several times, and held his hand to his chest. “You doubt my affections? You think I would lie?”

“We think you got the wrong girl,” Sam told him. “Our guess is you meant to give that note to Kim.”

“You haven't shown a single bit of interest in me until just now,” Nancy pointed out. “Kim is wearing exactly the same costume. Why would you pledge your undying love to me? Kim seems more likely.”

Just then the song ended, giving Giancarlo an excuse not to answer. He peered past Nancy to the dance floor, and called out, “Esme! You promised me the next dance. Excuse me,” he said, kissing Nancy's hand. “I thought you would be flattered at my note. Obviously, I was wrong. I give these notes to women sometimes, to keep their lives full of romance and longing, but I never meant for it to cause trouble—for me, or for you.” Nancy took his speech to be a plea for her not to tell Esme.

“I understand,” she said.

“Grazie,”
said Giancarlo. With that, he strode onto the dance floor and took a radiant Esme in his arms.

“Bushwah,” said Sam after Giancarlo was gone. Distractedly he ran his hands through his
dark brown hair. “Or, as they say in the streets of Little Italy, baloney. The guy's a liar. He meant for Kim to have that note, and we all know it.”

“I couldn't agree more,” Nancy said, her eyes on Giancarlo. “What's going on between Kim and Giancarlo, and does Esme have any idea?”

“And does it have anything to do with the threats against Esme?” Sam finished.

Bess arrived, breathless from her dance with Todd. “It's hard to believe those things I've read about Todd and his temper,” she announced. “As far as I'm concerned, Todd Gilbert's a dream.”

“That's not what Esme thinks,” Nancy said.

“I know, and he's really worried about that,” Bess confided. “Todd's sure Esme's going to paint the most unflattering portrait of him and their time together. He's begged her not to, but she's adamant about telling the truth.” Bess took a pad and pen from her evening bag and started scribbling madly.

“What are you doing?” Nancy asked.

“Taking notes,” Bess said.

“For what?” asked Sam.

“For the romance novel I'm going to write,” Bess told them. She scanned the room and wrote more. “Esme told me that if you're going to write, the best thing is to write from experience. So I'm writing down what I remember from the conversation I just had with Todd.”

“When you're done with that,” Sam told her, “Nancy's got some good material to add to your novel.”

“Really?” Bess asked, her nose in her notebook.

“Giancarlo wrote me a love letter,” Nancy announced and produced the paper.

Bess stopped writing to read it. “Wow!” she said, glancing up at Nancy with incredulity on her face. “This is unbelievable! Let me copy it down, okay?”

“We should give you the background, Bess,” Sam told her, laughing lightly. “Don't you want to make sure you have the note in its proper context?”

Bess tapped her pen on her notebook. “You bet I do. Shoot.”

Nancy explained her suspicions about Giancarlo's meaning to pass the note to Kim. Bess's eyes traveled the room, first to Giancarlo, who was standing with Esme by the refreshment table, and then to Kim, who was just disappearing through the huge wooden doors after giving a surreptitious glance in Giancarlo's direction.

“Where's she going?” Nancy wondered aloud, finishing with her story.

“I'll find out,” Sam said. He took off along the perimeter of the room in pursuit of Kim.

“I can't believe this,” said Bess, who by now had stopped writing and was simply standing with her mouth agape. “What you've told me is better than any romance novel.”

“Let's get some punch,” Nancy said. “I don't believe Giancarlo about giving lots of women
these notes. I want to try pinning him down before the evening ends.”

“What will you say?” Bess asked, following Nancy to the refreshment table.

“You're the budding novelist,” Nancy joked. “What do you think I should say?”

Bess thought for a moment. “I know,” she announced. “Call his bluff. Tell him you were suspicious before, but now you're ready to accept his everlasting love. Tell him that you can't live without him, that—”

Nancy hugged her friend. “I think that's enough, Bess. If it's okay with you, I'll play it a bit cooler.”

“Suit yourself,” Bess said loftily. “You asked for my advice and I gave it to you.”

Giancarlo was no longer at the refreshment table, but Esme was still there, talking to a group of fans, including a tall, dark-haired man whom she introduced as her editor, Conrad O'Brien. Todd Gilbert was also there, and Nancy remembered that Todd had been cast to play Conrad in the screen version of
Telling All.
Conrad was younger than Nancy had imagined, and she could see a slight resemblance between him and Todd, especially if Todd wore horn-rimmed glasses like Conrad's. Nancy and Bess excused themselves to fill their punch glasses. The group around Esme slowly dispersed, until Todd and Esme were alone.

“Promise me you won't reveal our secret,” the
actor pleaded. “That's all I ask. If you can make me that one promise, I'll stop bothering you.”

“Oh, Todd,” a weary Esme said. “Did you really think I'd reveal our secret? How would / look if the whole world knew the most intimate details of what went on between us?”

Todd took both Esme's hands in his and stared deeply into her eyes. “Do you really love Giancarlo? Is there really no chance for us?”

Esme withdrew her hands and turned away from Todd. Nancy and Bess found themselves behind a palm tree, no more than ten feet away from the romance writer. Esme didn't seem to notice them, however, and drew a tissue from the evening bag she was carrying to dab her eyes.

“No, there isn't,” Esme said finally, her voice almost too low to hear. “At one point, I thought we could get back together, but it's too late. We can be friends, but that's all.”

Todd pulled Esme close to his chest. The embrace went on until Janine's voice sounded through the crowded hall. “Before the evening is taken over by romance, I know Esme wants to share a few words with you. Esme?”

Todd released Esme, and Nancy saw that before Esme walked across the glittering dance floor toward the podium on the stage above the orchestra, she took a moment to compose herself. She touched up her lipstick and checked her makeup in the small compact she carried.
A moment later, after a final squeeze of Todd's hand, she strode confidently toward the podium.

“Do you think she still loves him?” Bess asked, motioning in the direction of Todd. The actor followed Esme with eyes full of longing.

“I'm not sure,” Nancy admitted. “But he really does seem hung up on her.”

Giancarlo appeared onstage beside Esme. The couple posed, and the bright flashes of photographers' cameras filled the room for several minutes. Nancy found herself checking the door for some sign of Sam, wondering where he'd gone.

Suddenly a small backstage area to Esme's right began to fill with smoke. Janine's face registered surprise, but Esme had started speaking and clearly did not want to be interrupted.

“I want to thank you all for coming tonight,” Esme said, not noticing the smoke. “It means so much to me to share my love of romance with others, to bring joy and pleasure into this sometimes gray world of ours.”

The smoke was thicker now. Why was Esme continuing? Janine gave instructions to Giancarlo, who disappeared backstage.

“This isn't supposed to happen, is it?” Bess asked. “It's not a romantic effect or anything?”

“No,” Nancy said. “That's real smoke, not dry ice.”

Right then the red curtains erupted into flame.

The audience started screaming, and, after calling to Esme, Janine hustled her off the stage.

Esme didn't move fast enough. In the seconds it took for her to react, the fire moved from the curtains and onto her dress.

“Someone help her!” Nancy found herself crying. “Esme's on fire!”

E
SME
!” T
ODD CRIED OUT
, racing toward the stage. “I'll save you!”

The actor leapt onto the stage and wrapped his arms around Esme to beat out the flames.

Nancy, meanwhile, had also moved into action. While the frantic crowd screamed and pushed toward the exit, Nancy grabbed a fire extinguisher she spotted tucked into a corner beneath the stage. Then she climbed onto the stage and doused both Esme and Todd with blasts of foam. After that, she turned to the backstage area. Nancy didn't stop shooting foam from the extinguisher until she was sure that the fire was completely out.