Alex in Wonderland (The Wonderland Series Book 1) (22 page)

“In that case, I suggest we
celebrate that newfound freedom with a trip to the Country Club. It’s
two-for-one day and they have a new bartender who mixes the most divine
Cosmos.”

“Fine,” Alex agreed. He was too
tired to make any more decisions.

Jolie took his arm as they rose and
headed for the door. “I suppose there’s an irony in our walking down this aisle
together, dear boy, but I’ll need a drink to ferret it out.”

Alex paused in the vestibule and
looked back toward at the altar banked with dozens of Camilla’s favorite calla
lilies. Although he had no regrets Alex felt a twinge of something discomfiting. “I guess it’s really over, huh?”

“No doubt about it, my pet."
Jolie squeezed his arm as Phaedra’s voice soared toward heaven. "The fat
lady’s singing her ass off!”

37

Let’s
Make a Deal

Alex's jaw dropped.
“Since when am I going to Paris?”

“You’ll find out soon enough, dear
boy.” Jolie flagged a passing waiter
. “Sil-vous plait, garçon. Encore de
champagne.”

While the waiter refilled their
flutes, Alex pondered the ongoing scenario. At Jolie’s insistence, he had
dressed to the nines and agreed to rendezvous at the

He looked up as Jolie chuckled.
“What’s so funny?”

“I was just taking inventory."
Jolie swept a hand over the handsomely appointed room, “and I see patronage is limited
to little girls in ruffles, their doting
grand-mères
and pretentious
fairies.”

“Present company excepted.”

“Not really. I only have a few
snooty oats left, but for some reason the

“Better recheck your
program,” Alex interrupted. “There’s about to be a serious change in the
line-up.”

Alex nodded toward a couple of chic
beauties threading their way through a maze of tables brimming with china,
crystal and silver. The women looked to be in their late twenties and might
well have stepped from the pages of
Elle
. The taller of the two, a
svelte brunette, glittered with good gold jewelry while her petite flame-haired
companion sparkled with vintage diamonds that screamed “old money.” Both wore
smart white frocks perfect for the steamy New Orleans
summers, but Alex doubted they were locals. Jolie’s reaction confirmed his
suspicions.

“That’s your surprise!”

Alex frowned. “My surprise is a
couple of babes?”

“They’re hardly babes,” Jolie
hissed. “The redhead is Mademoiselle Jacqueline Bertier,
le Comtesse de
Baudouin
, and the other is Denise Riviere. Denise is one of those rare Provence
beauties that come along once in a lifetime.”

“She looks like Juliette
Binoche.”

“A little.” He rose to take
Jacqueline’s hand, bowing as he brushed her knuckles with a kiss.
“Madame le
Comtesse! Enchante!”

“For heaven’s sake, Jolie,” she
said, pale cheeks coloring. “You know I detest unnecessary protocol.”

“
Je regret, ma chérie,
but
you must remember we Americans don’t have nobility and sometimes we get carried
away.” He indicated Alex. “This is the young man I told you about. Madame le
Comtesse, this is Alexander Sumner.”

 
She waved away the formal introduction.
“Please call me Jackie.”

“Thank you.” Alex was surprised by
the firm handshake. “You must call me Alex.”

“So I will." She gave him a
conspiratorial nod and stepped aside to present her companion. “Alex, this is
Denise Riviere.

“Her other half,” Jolie said a bit
smugly. Bomb dropped, he waited for a reaction.

Alex was stunned. His exposure to
lesbians was limited to a few coarse diesel dykes he’d seen at the bars. He’d
heard there were all kinds of gay women, but this was the first time he had met
what Jolie termed “lipstick lezzies.” They were that rare ultra-feminine breed
who mystified and frustrated straight men because they preferred their own sex.
Their penchant was undetectable to all but the best-trained eye, a category Alex
didn’t belong to. It took him a moment to recover.

“A great honor I’m sure,” he
managed finally.

“The honor is ours,” Jackie said.
She and Denise discreetly positioned themselves so the seating was
boy-girl-boy-girl. “We’ve been most anxious to meet you.”

“Indeed we have,” Denise confirmed.

When Denise’s deep husky tones drew
looks from adjacent tables, Jolie beamed. “Oh,

Alex! Don’t you just love that
voice? I know a couple of leather daddies who would absolutely kill for it!

Denise was taken aback. “Is that a
compliment?”

“To be sure,
ma chérie!
”
Jolie smiled. “Just consider it lost in translation.”

Jackie turned to Alex. “Jolie told
us all about your ill-fated liaison with Camilla. You know, I’ve never met a
Camilla I could trust. They have a way of skulking about, don’t they?”

“Uh, I suppose,” Alex said,
suddenly uncomfortable. “What else did he tell you?”

“Only good things,” Jolie said.
“After a delightful weekend at Jackie’s country house, I discovered the two of
you have a great deal in common. That’s the reason I’ve brought everyone
together today.”

So the truth finally comes out,
Alex thought. “I see.”

“Forgive my frankness,” Jackie
said, “but owing to our shared predicament, I believe it advantageous to get
right to the point.”

“Please do.” Alex glared at Jolie.
“I’m more fascinated by the moment.”

 
“Like yourself,” Jackie continued, “I was
being forced into a marriage not of my choosing. Fortunately I managed to avert
it, but I’m afraid it won’t be long before my Tante Monette begins pushing me
to marry someone else. Ordinarily, auntie dear is crazy as a bedbug, but she
always manages to gather her wits about her when it comes to my inheritance.”

Denise picked up the conversation
thread as though it was rehearsed. “Jackie’s an orphan who will inherit a great
deal of money when she marries. Her aunt has power of attorney and is
determined that her late brother’s final wishes be carried out. Obviously
Jacqueline can’t marry just anyone.”

“Obviously,” Alex said. Something
flickered in his mind but remained elusive. “I empathize completely.”

“When we met in Paris
and Jolie learned of our situation,” Jackie continued, “he said you might be
our salvation if you managed to extricate yourself from this Camilla creature.
When he phoned the day of the wedding and explained that you are now a free
man, we were naturally wondering if—”

Alex's mental flicker congealed.
“You want us to get married?”

“In name only, of course,” Jackie
said. “It would solve both our problems, allowing us to claim our respective
inheritances while pursuing our special lifestyles.”

“You could spend as much time as
you like abroad,” Jolie interjected. “Just think about it, all those blonde
Swedes and swarthy Spaniards and red-haired Irishmen to play with. Plus you’d
be thousands of miles away from Daddy Dearest.”

Alex felt three pairs of eyes on
him as he weighed the outrageous proposition. He had every right to be annoyed
with Jolie for airing his dirty laundry to perfect strangers, but he knew his
friend’s motives were selfless. Deeper analysis, however, made him doubtful
that they could succeed in pulling off such a daring scam.

Daddy as usual.

“I’m flattered and honored and
totally tempted, but my father would never agree.”
 

“Why not?” Jolie
demanded. “Jackie is French nobility with a father who was the tenth Comte du
Baudouin. Their roots go back to Charlemagne, for God’s sake, so why on earth
would your father object to—?” Alex’s steely gaze stopped him cold. “Sorry. I
forgot who we were dealing with.”

Jackie looked bewildered.
“Pardon?”
 

“My father’s the most obnoxious
American chauvinist imaginable.” Alex explained. “He hates all foreigners,
unless he can make money off them of course. He has never liked the French, and
their refusal to support the U.S.
in the Iraq war
made him despise them more than ever.”

Distressed, Jackie turned to Jolie.
“You didn’t tell us that.”

“
Mea culpa
, darlings. I only
knew he hated gays, blacks and Jews. I didn’t realize his bigotry was across the board.”

Denise was crestfallen. “Oh, dear.”

“I’m afraid this changes
everything,” Alex said.

Jolie jumped in. “You’re being too
hasty, dear boy. You’re forgetting your mother’s in our camp. You told me once
that she's a Francophile, so I know she’ll absolutely adore Jackie and put in a
good word with your father.”

While Alex pondered the
likelihood of Sumner being swayed, Jackie drew herself up and, intentionally or
not, revealed a glimpse of her noble French heritage. “I assure you I have no
intention of dealing with someone who disapproves of me or my country.”

Alex was mortified. “I certainly
don’t blame you. My father’s a horrible man.”

“Indeed.” After a ponderous moment,
Jackie’s arch demeanor vanished, and she weighed in with a proposal that caught
even Jolie off-guard. “
Mais,
that’s not to say we can’t find a
compromise.”

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t need your father’s
approval or his money.” Jackie took his hand and gave him a dazzling smile.
“Not with a wife who is, please forgive my gaucherie, worth around fourteen
million.”

“That’s Euros,” Denise added. “Not
dollars.”

Jolie was astonished. “You’d share
the wealth?”

“Why not?” Jackie said. “Denise and
I are not greedy. All we want is to spend the rest of our lives together and we’re
willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen.”

“But why not someone French?” Alex
asked. “Or another European? Someone with a title perhaps”

“Because there are no secrets among
the nobility,” Jackie explained. “With an American, it’s easier to hide the
truth. As Jolie said in Paris,
which really started me thinking, New Orleans
was a French city and that offers all sorts of possible embellishments. Perhaps
we’ll start a rumor that our families have been associated since colonial
times.”

“But you hardly know me.”

“Jolie’s told us a great deal, and
I like what I’ve just seen. Especially your honesty and frankness. Denise will
tell you I have excellent intuition about people and that I make quick
decisions. She’ll also tell you I’m not a fool. I'm prepared to be generous,
but of course I'll require a prenuptial agreement.”

Alex liked Jackie more by the
minute, easily warming to her frankness and no-nonsense demeanor. Still, he
couldn’t help being overwhelmed by this latest outrageous plot to alter his
destiny. Armed with this amazing proposition, he could tell his father he was
gay and to shove his fortune where the sun didn't shine. He could also take
Karen to France
and give her a new lease on life too. It seemed the perfect plan to finally
give Randolph B. Sumner his just desserts.

“Well,” he said at
length, “I guess Jolie didn’t exaggerate. This is indeed the deal of the
century.”

Jolie was ebullient. “And
it comes with a title too, eh, Count Alexander?”

“Shall we drink to our
partnership?” Jackie asked.

Alex lifted his glass. “To our
partnership!”

Denise squeezed Alex’s hand.
“You’ll never know how much this means to Jackie and me. It’s a dream come
true.”

Jackie took his other hand.
“Perhaps we can help make your dream come true too. When Jolie first explained
about you, he told us about this young man named Cord. Since the Baudouin
chateau
is quite large, he could
join us in France.”

“I’m afraid Cord is no longer in my
life,” Alex said.

Jolie’s face blazed. “I’m sorry,
Alex. I forgot to tell them about your trip to Key West.”
 

“Don’t apologize. It’s no one’s
fault.”

“But that was so careless of me
to—”

Eager for the awkward moment to
pass, Alex lifted his glass again and smiled.
“Vive la
France
!”

The women were so engrossed in the
moment that they didn’t notice the flash of melancholy in Alex’s gray eyes. He
seemed as exuberant as Fat Tuesday, but behind the façade Jolie saw a heart as
somber as Ash Wednesday.

38

Mothers
Always Know

Alex raced upstairs to his mother’s
bedroom and found her poring over paint chips. To maintain sanity in her
sumptuous prison, Karen Sumner repainted, remodeled or redecorated the house on
a near continual basis. She held up an array of colors for her son’s perusal.

“What do you think of mauve,
darling? I read somewhere that it was the Tsarina Alexandra’s favorite color.”

“I'd think twice,” Alex said,
recalling Jolie’s faux Russian provenance the night they met. “The woman was a
raving lunatic murdered by Communist revolutionaries, remember?”

“Oh, that.” Karen rolled her eyes.
“I’m certainly not going to let some nasty historical facts interfere with my
decorating. In fact, I may duplicate her famous mauve boudoir, with newer
furnishings of course.” She put the chips aside. “You have such a strange look,
Alex. Is something wrong?”

 
“No. In fact everything’s right.” He closed
the door. “Where’s Daddy?”

“At his club,” she replied.

“And Jedediah?”

“Visiting his sick sister. Why?”

“Because I want to talk to you alone.”
Alex sat beside her and looked into eyes like his own. “I’ve met her, Mom. I’ve
met the woman I want to marry.”

Those eyes widened. “Oh?”

“Jolie introduced us,” he
explained, carefully laying the groundwork for the long-overdue confession
about his sexuality. “Her name is Jackie Bertier and she’s a bonafide French
countess visiting from Paris.”

“I see.” Karen went to the window
and peered into the garden. “I must say this is quite a shock, son. After
Camilla, I didn’t expect you to be interested in another woman for…well, for
quite a while.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Oh, I don’t know, darling. I
suppose because the whole thing was such a fiasco, and Camilla’s the type who
could put a man off women for good. After all she did, I wouldn’t be surprised
if you decided to never marry.”

“That’s an odd thing to
say.”

“Is it?” Karen fidgeted
with the draperies.

“Yes. Very.” Alex knew his mother
well, and the edge in her tone put him on high alert. “Are you trying to tell
me something?”

“On the contrary.” Karen faced him,
expression enigmatic and not a little pained. “I’m trying to get
you
to
tell
me
something.”

At that moment, Alex recognized the
truth. He saw in his mother’s face the acknowledgement of what he had struggled
so many years to hide. He also saw acceptance and caring and the quality of
love that made him feel ashamed and foolish for being anything less than honest
with her. His response arose from somewhere deep in his soul, bubbled to the
surface and burst in the freest, most exhilarating manner imaginable.

“You know I’m gay, don’t you, Mom?”

“Of course I do, darling.” Karen
came to him, arms outstretched. “Mothers always know.”

As he embraced his mother, the
gamut of emotions roiled through Alex, so many that none gelled before being
replaced by something else. He was alternately teary and joyous, empowered and
yet a little frightened. Mostly he was relieved, and he remembered Jolie’s
prediction that when he came to terms with who and what he was, he would feel
the weight of the world lifting from his shoulders. It was true.

Mother and son held one another for
a long time, each lost in thought, both rejoicing in a moment too long in
coming. Alex recovered first and apologized.

“I’m sorry, Mom. I should have told
you a long time ago.”

“Not really,” Karen said. “You had
to wait until you were ready.”

“But when…what…how did you know—?”

“There was no one great epiphany if
that’s what you mean,” Karen replied. “A thousand different things I suppose,
although I will say the signs intensified these past few months.”

“Really?”

“Oh, honey. There was much more to
your running away than panic over Camilla. It was a cry for help that had
little to do with marrying a woman you didn’t love. When you sought refuge with
Jolie, well, there’s something in him that reminds me so much of one of those
boys on
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
.”

“You watch that?!”

She chuckled. “I watch a lot of
things when your father’s not around, which is most of the time. I also fool around on the Internet, and a while
back I started doing some research. It’s absolutely amazing how much
information is available on being the parent of a gay child. It was very
comforting to know I wasn’t alone.”

“Just like it’s comforting for gay
men and women to know we’re not alone,” Alex offered.

“Yes, I learned that too. Thank God
for role models like Elton John and Ellen Degeneris, not to mention Alexander
the Great and Michelangelo and Tchaikovsky and—”

“Wow! You’ve really been doing your
homework!”

“I guess I have.” She frowned with
mock gravity. “By the way, dear, do you really think there’s a gay mafia?”

Alex burst out laughing and hugged
her all over again. They reveled in their special moment until he remembered
what had brought him to her room in the first place.

“Did you also read about lipstick
lesbians?”

“I did indeed. And leather daddies
and twinks and drag queens and rice queens and trannies and—”

“Whoa!” Alex said. “You know more
than I do!”

“Well, I must say it’s a whole
other world,” Karen confessed. “Is this Jackie a lipstick lesbian?”

“Yes. With an equally beautiful
lover named Denise.”

Karen was suddenly serious. “And
the reason for this marriage?”

“Jackie’s in the same boat as
myself,” he explained. “She can’t claim her inheritance unless she marries, and
since she's an orphan her dotty old maid Aunt Monette has a firm grip on the
purse strings.”

“And a wedding will loosen them up,
eh?” Alex nodded. “Well, that’s fine except for one thing, honey.”

“Daddy?”

“Exactly. You know he hates
foreigners, especially the French. He wants you to get married but he’ll never
allow his fortune out of America.”

“I don’t care if he cuts me off,”
Alex announced. “Jackie’s so rich we don’t need his damned money.”

“And she’s willing to share with a
perfect stranger?”

“She’s an amazing woman, Mom. You’re
going to adore her. Denise too.”

His mother’s good mood darkened.
“Will you move to France?”

“In the beginning, we’ll have to.
You know, for appearance’s sake. You can visit as often and as long as you
like. Jackie has an apartment in Paris
and a chateau in the Loire Valley.
It’s a dream come true.”

Karen’s spirits lifted only
slightly. “Well, you know I fell in love with France
when I was in school there, and you’re very sweet to want your old mother
tagging along but—”

“No ‘buts,’” Alex insisted. “We
want you with us and that’s that. We’ll also need your support since Daddy’s
going to oppose us.”

Karen held out her hands, palms up.
“No, you don’t, dear. You’re legal age, and if you want to get married, there’s
nothing your father can do about it. Especially if you’re giving up your
inheritance.”

“That’s not what I mean. We have to
be very discreet until after the wedding, and I need you to come to Paris
to help me charm Aunt Monette. Use your best French and lay it on that you went
to school at the Sorbonne. Once Jackie has the money, she can tell auntie to
take a hike and I can tell Daddy I’m gay.” The look on his mother’s face told
Alex she was having trouble processing so much so fast. “Are you with me, Mom?”

Karen nodded. “Have you set the
date?”

“As soon as possible. The longer we
wait, the more chance for trouble. The girls are staying with Jolie. We’ll go
over tomorrow so you can meet them, okay?”

“Of course I’ll do anything I can,
dear, but…well, there is something I’d like to ask.”

“Sure.”

“About our trip
to
Key West
.
You behaved so strangely when we flew home after your
mysterious mission. I knew you were hurting and I hurt too because there was
nothing I could do. Was it…was it a man?”

Alex nodded. “You’re on target
again, Mom. His name is Cord Foster and I met him on the bus ride to Florida.
The guy bailed me out of a bunch of scrapes, and somewhere along the way we
fell in love.”

Alex saw more truth dawn on his
mother. “Did you say Cord? Wasn’t he the young man who turned you in?”

“Exactly. After that, I thought the
guy was a fortune hunter, but when Daddy told me he refused the reward money I
realized I was wrong. I mean, this guy doesn’t have two nickels to rub
together, and if anyone needed the money he did. I couldn’t believe he refused
it.”

“So you went back to Key
West to fix things?”

“I tried but I was too late. He’s
involved with someone else.”

“And that’s why you were so
crestfallen.”

“Yes. I’m still kicking myself for
being such a first class jerk. Jolie kept telling me to grow up and stop lying
to myself, but I wouldn’t listen. I acted like a spoiled brat around Cord, so
eventually he called the cops. I can’t say I blame him.”

“You’re still not over him, are
you, darling?”

Alex shook his head, suddenly
exhausted. “He was my first real love, Mom. I don’t think you ever get over
those.”

“No,” Karen said wistfully. “You
don’t.”

Alex wanted to pursue her curious
response, but noise downstairs ended the discussion. “Mmmm. Daddy’s home.”

“Are you going to tell him about
Jackie now?” Karen asked.

“No reason to put it off,” Alex
offered. “Besides I’m sort of on a roll, don’t you think?”

Whatever Karen started to say was
lost when her husband burst into the bedroom. “What’s going on in here? You all
know I hate closed doors.”

“Hi, Daddy,” Alex muttered. Karen
said nothing. “How was your day?”

Alex had intended his question as
small talk, not something to unleash a diatribe. “Just got back from the River
Club,” his father said, “and did I get an earful from some of the other
members. You won’t believe what certain idiots and perverts are up to. As if we
don’t have enough problems with terrorists, those illegal spics are getting
amnesty and the queers are legalizing marriage and the niggers are—”

“Please, Randolph,”
Karen said. “You know I hate that kind of talk.”

Sumner sneered. “Missy, you’d be
singing a different tune if you knew some of the things these twisted pinko
left-wingers were planning.”

“For God’s sake, Daddy. You sound
like Joe McCarthy.”

“McCarthy was a good man,” Sumner thundered.
“The good old U.S. of A would be a lot better place if we had more like him!”

“And we’d be living in a society
crippled by censorship, bigotry and Nazi tactics,” Alex ventured.

His father gaped. “What?!”

Alex retreated. “Listen, Daddy. I
need to talk to you about something—”

He was wasting his breath. Further
provoked, his father delivered a vitriolic rant making Ross Limbaugh and Jerry
Falwell sound like liberals. It was hardly the first time Sumner exploded
without warning, unleashing his bigotry in a bone-wearying frenzy. Alex, as
usual, tuned much of it out, telling himself to keep quiet until after the
wedding when he could, once and for all, tell his father what he really
thought, but he was stirred to action by Sumner’s final horrifying announcement.

“So I just sent a half a million
dollars each to the Organization for Fair Family Values and the Rights for
White Americans Association. That ought to help to stem this sickening tide,
eh?”

Alex was appalled. “Daddy, you
can’t be serious! Those are nothing but hate groups, and they’re both under
investigation for—!”

Sumner’s eyes narrowed. “More
left-wing propaganda!” he snorted. “I won’t listen to it, not in my house.” He
grunted something about a drink and stormed out, leaving Alex and his mother in
silent commiseration.

“I guess now’s not the best time to
tell him about Jackie,” Karen said.

“Not when he goes crazy like that.”

“I know. Sometimes I don’t think I
know him any more. He wasn’t like that when we got married.”

“So you’ve said.” Alex shook his
head. “Man, he really knows how to push my buttons.”

“Don’t let him get to you,
sweetheart. Not this time. Not when a miracle is about to occur for both of
us.”

“You’re right, Mom. It’s time to
accentuate the positive.”

Karen beamed. “I’m so anxious to
meet Jackie and Denise. Jolie too. I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever meet
him.”

“Actually,” Alex said slowly, “you
already have.”

“What do you mean, dear? We’ve only
talked on the telephone.”

“Brace yourself, Mom.”

“I’m braced,” Karen said. “I
think.”

“Remember at the wedding there was
an older lady in a teal dress with a big picture hat and veil?”

“Why, yes. Everyone was trying to
figure out who that exotic creature was. I just assumed she was on Camilla’s
guest list.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Well, Mom,
it’s like this—”