All That Lies Broken (Ashmore's Folly Book 2) (30 page)

“And your plans after that? Lucy said you’re on tour this fall.”

“Yes.” It hurt to think. It hurt to breathe. “Till the new year.”

Tom sounded crisp and professional now. She was cooperating; she wasn’t showering him with emotion. Laura St. Bride could always be counted on to sacrifice herself for the greater good. “Then what? Can you stay in London until next summer?”

Laura forced herself to speak. Almost a year away…. “I may have to for Meg’s schooling.”

“That will work,” said Tom frankly. “Another year, and this will be over, and then the two of you can do what you want. Diana might raise a fuss, but we plan to tie her up with so many conditions that she’ll think twice before screaming too loud.” Then, unexpectedly, he stepped forward and put an arm around her to draw her close. “Laura, I’m sorry.”

She stood still within his embrace. She felt nothing; she had gone away from this place. “I’m sorry too.”

“Laurie.” No one had seen Lucy approach, but there she was, behind Tom, her hand reaching out. Tom patted Laura on the shoulder and stepped back, and the wordless communication that passed then between husband and wife told Laura that Lucy had known what Tom would ask her to do.

Her sister looked exhausted; the stress of the last hour weighed heavily on her. Tom started to massage his wife’s shoulders. Laura said, “Lucy, you need to go sit down.”

“I can’t wait for this thing to end,” said Lucy. “This must be what purgatory is like. Laurie, I know you are having a really bad day, but it’s not over yet. Di wants you back there, and, oh yeah, she wants to know what you two are talking about.”

Tom said, “Tell her I’m hitting Laura up for a loan.”

“Are you kidding? Don’t give her any ideas.”

“True.” Tom looked at Laura. “While we’re on that subject, I know you can buy and sell us all, but don’t offer Diana money to go away. I can’t tell you how badly that would go over with a judge.”

“That’s what Jay said.” They looked approvingly at her; she was taking her lawyer’s advice. She took a breath. “What does Di want?”

“Brace yourself,” said Lucy. “She wants to announce the concert.”

~•~

The nightmare refused to end. When they returned to the terrace, descending into the inner circles of hell, they saw that Diana was setting up. Scott McIntire was running an extension cord into the house from the speakers and microphone that had magically materialized. On easels on the top landing of the terrace sat two of the posters that Lucy and Dell had finally compromised on, and Diana was handing a stack of fliers to Julie to pass around.

Laura’s mouth dropped open.

She had planned this. Diana had planned this all along. She’d brought all this with her. This drop-in visit hadn’t been spur-of-the-moment, a sudden impulse to ruin the Ashmore & McIntire party – antagonizing Richard had been a bonus.

Why? They had talked about this. The plan had never been for Cat Courtney to appear as their sister. Hampton Roads Club and Tavern would claim its coup in bagging her for a benefit concert and reap the benefits of increased publicity and prestige, but Cat Courtney was appearing to help the neonatal wing, not because she was the owners’ sister. People might recognize Cat in Laura St. Bride, but there would be no official connection.

Laura turned to Lucy. “What is she doing? We didn’t agree on this.”

She remembered a contract. Lucy and Tom had amended it, and Dell had approved it and signed it as her manager. She was positive that the confidentiality and privacy clauses hadn’t been removed – Dell would never have approved the contract without them. They were always non-negotiable.

“I don’t know.” Lucy sounded worried. “She just wants to say something before the press release tomorrow. I’m sure she won’t single you out.”

But that was exactly Diana’s intention. She felt it in her bones.

Diana intended to brand her publicly as Cat Courtney.

“Sure about that?” Tom didn’t sound sure at all. “Why’d she bring the publicity material?”

Diana had meant all along to out her.

What had she done to Diana – that Diana actually knew about? Surely she wasn’t betraying Cat Courtney just because Laura St. Bride had thrown all the drugs and liquor out of her apartment?

She cast her mind back over that Friday afternoon. Maybe Diana was taking revenge for her accusation about Francie. Maybe she resented taking second place to her younger sister on stage. Maybe – and in her mind’s eye, she saw the folder of pleadings she’d left on her sister’s desk. She’d forgotten to put it back where she’d found it.

That was it. Diana knew she had read the pleadings.

“Stop her.” She hardly recognized her own voice.

Lucy had her phone out. “Where is that man – he disappears every time I need him – listen, get out here! Di’s making an announcement about Laurie and the concert.”

Wherever he was, his explosion carried right through the cell. They were attracting attention. People knew something was up, and even guests who had looked straight through her earlier, not paying her much attention at all, were glancing back and forth between her and the posters.

Among this group, at least, the secret was out.

But casual recognition wasn’t the same as an announcement. Saying “I saw Cat Courtney at a party and I think her name is Laura” wasn’t the same as – but maybe Diana wouldn’t say anything. Maybe she was just going to invite everyone to the concert.

Maybe this was just the tail end of a nightmare, and she’d wake up soon.

But it wasn’t. Richard came out of the house and crossed the terrace to Diana to hand her a piece of paper. His face was carefully neutral; his guests were watching to see his interaction with his estranged wife. Every gesture, every word would fuel gossip, and he knew it.

Diana knew it too. She gave him a satisfied look, and said something that brought a wary look to his eyes. He stepped back and then came down the terrace steps.

Lucy grabbed his arm. “What is she doing? Do you know?”

“Just announcing the concert, she says.” Richard turned to Laura, and she saw the strain of the last hour on his face. “I don’t think she’s—”

But what he thought, he did not get to complete. Diana’s voice, amplified, cut through his words. “Ladies and gentlemen – a minute of your time.”

She stood there, sparkling again, turning herself on like the performer Dominic had trained her to be. She had been born for the great opera houses of the world, but she was making the best of this terrace, this day, this hour. The guests all turned to her, seeing not the unwelcome guest at the banquet, but Diana Abbott at her best, Sleeping Beauty now awakened, so beautiful it was hard to look away.

“Oh, brother,” muttered Tom. “What an act.”

And it was. Diana waited to make sure everyone’s eyes were on her, and she held out an arm at the caterers’ tables in a theatrical gesture. “Just a brief moment – I know we’re all hungry, and doesn’t all that food look fabulous! Thank you
so
much for coming here to celebrate the Fourth of July with us—”

“I’m going to kill her,” said Mel McIntire on Laura’s right, and didn’t keep her voice down when her husband shushed her. “All she did was show up to spread her own special brand of trouble.”

“Mel,” said Richard, and then swore under his breath. “What is Julie doing?”

Oh, no.

Diana was chattering on, something about the Fourth of July and remembering their freedoms after the terrible events of 9/11, but her family wasn’t paying attention. Julie was wheeling out her harp, as tall as she was, and setting it up beside her mother. Laura felt a cold tide sweep over her.

“As many of you know, my sister Lucy – Lucy, back there,” and she waved, “and I have a piano club in Hampton. We’re very proud of it. We’ve run it for two years – well, Lucy really runs it, she’s the boss, you all know I’m not so good at business – but in our two years—”

A ripple of laughter spread through the group at her charming self-deprecation.

“—Hampton Roads Club and Tavern has prided itself on bringing the best of adult contemporary music to our part of the world. Tomorrow we’ll issue an official press release—”

“Only if I let her live,” Lucy whispered furiously.

“—but here’s a sneak preview today! Ladies and gentlemen, save the date – two weeks from tomorrow night, July 19—”

Six years of flawless anonymity, and her blabbermouth sister was about to blow it all.

“—appearing at Hampton Roads Club and Tavern, to benefit the neonatal wing at St. Blaise Hospital – in her first Virginia concert ever—”

No way out.

“—Lucy and I proudly present our baby sister,
Laura
St. Bride
—”

Game and set to Diana.

Laura squared her shoulders, ignored Richard’s hand on her arm – she might never feel his hand on her again – and began to walk up the steps.

“—Miss Cat Courtney!”

Anyone looking at her saw only a young woman dressed casually for an outdoor party, climbing the steps to stand beside her beloved older sister, smiling graciously at the applause that greeted her. She’d learned her lesson well from Dominic: never let the mask slip, never let anyone
see
. She’d forgotten that lesson since Monticello.

She would not forget again.

Cat Courtney spoke into the mike. “Thank you so much.”

She thought her head might split from the pain.

Diana took the mike again. “Now this is a benefit, we’ll be taking reservations starting tomorrow. I know you’ll want to support the neonatal wing – there’s more information on the flier – and of course, you won’t want to miss Laurie in concert.” She held up the slip of paper Richard had handed her earlier, and Laura saw now that it was a corporate check. “And, since this is an Ashmore & McIntire party, I’m so excited to announce that Ashmore & McIntire is sponsoring
two
tables—”

Applause.

“Thanks so much to Richard and Scott for their generosity!” Then, unbelievably, she blew a kiss at her stone-faced husband. “And the law firm of Maitland & Maitland is sponsoring a table, so we’re well on our way to reaching our goal—”

From Lucy’s dropped jaw, that was news to her.

“—And, of course, in addition to her performance, Cat Courtney is sponsoring a table—”

Maybe Lucy had written it into the contract. She didn’t care.

“It’s so exciting to have Laurie back here with us again,” Diana said. “Lucy and I feel it is a dream come true—” hadn’t she said this already?— “we’re a family reunited. And to have our sister sing for us is more than we ever dreamed. And now, Laurie,” and Diana moved in for the kill, putting her arm around her sister’s waist and giving it an affectionate squeeze, “can you give us a preview? Something to,” she sparkled, “whet our appetite?”

She’d known, she’d known the second she’d seen Julie bring out the harp. Diana had planned this, and never again would she dismiss her sister’s ability to strike. This was entirely the wrong setting for Cat Courtney; there was neither mist nor mystery here, just a humid early evening and a lot of people who wanted to eat and watch fireworks. Cat Courtney wooed audiences in lace and pearls and long bedroom curls; Laura St. Bride stood before a crowd with a limp French twist and a casual suburban-mom outfit.

Diana knew. She was counting on it, that Cat Courtney, yanked out of her normal stage environment, without her protective coloring, would fall flat on her face.

Gambling that, after tonight, she would regain the crown as Dominic’s true musical heir.

Laura flashed her most Cat Courtney-like smile and nodded graciously. Diana had forgotten how many years of practice she’d had, going all the way back to when she had sat beside Dominic on the piano bench, daydreaming.

A searing pain streaked behind her eyes. She looked at the sheet music on Julie’s music stand. “Persephone.” Everyone expected that; it was her anthem song. “He Never Loved Me.”
No, no, no
. “Midnight.”

Someone called out, “Sing ‘Midnight.’”

She sent the man a flirtatious wink. “Too R-rated for this crowd.”

Laughter.

She plucked an octavo from behind two others, and knew why Julie had kept it hidden from her mother. “This one.”

She ignored Julie’s gasp and stepped up to the microphone. She put Laura away somewhere remote, safe; the woman who looked out at her audience did not see her lover, or her sister watching her with frantic eyes. She did not see the sister who stood a few feet away, waiting for her to fail. She saw the great dark beast, the great unknown glimpsed at the start of every performance.

She said into the mike, “I want to dedicate this to our sister Francie, who can’t be here with us today.”

Without looking back at Julie, she gave her a nod and waited for the opening chords.

Most of her songs demanded far more than a harp; this was one of the few that spun such light, delicate notes, lovely little silver droplets of sound.

“Laughter and joy rising,