Mirror Image (4 page)

Everything about them seemed unusual. They were closer than two people
could ever have been. And sometimes, to each of them, it almost seemed
as though they were the same person. And yet, in so many ways, deep
inside, they each knew they were very different. Victoria was bolder,
and both far more mischievous and more adventuresome. She had always
been the one who'd gotten into trouble. She was so fascinated by a
broader world than Olivia was. Olivia was happier to stay at home, and
let her boundaries be those set by family, home, and tradition.

Victoria wanted to fight for women's rights, she wanted to demonstrate
and speak.

She thought marriage was barbaric, and unnecessary for truly independent
women. Olivia thought all of that was quite crazy, but she also thought
it was only a passing fancy of her sister's. There had been others,
political movements that had fascinated her, religious ideals,
intellectual concepts she had read about. Olivia was far more down to
earth, and much less willing to ride into battle for obscure causes. Her
world was a great deal smaller. And yet, to the naked eye, and the
uninitiated, they appeared to be one and the same, even to those who
knew them.

"So when did you learn to drive? " Olivia asked, tapping her foot, as
Victoria laughed from the car. She had just tossed the last of her
cigarette into the dirt near where her sister was sitting. Olivia
always played the role of the stern older sister. She was eleven
minutes older than Victoria, but it was those eleven minutes that had
made all the difference. And in sadder moments, when they bared their
souls, Victoria had long since confessed to her twin that she felt she
was the one who had killed their mother.

"You didn't kill her, " Olivia had said firmly, when they were only
children. "God did."

"He did not! " Victoria had defended Him, in outrage. And Mrs. Peabody
had been appalled when she discovered what the argument was about, and
later on she had explained that childbirth can be very difficult at
best, and having twins is something superhuman that only angels should
attempt. And clearly, their mother had been an angel, had deposited
them on earth with their father who loved them so much, and had returned
to Heaven. It settled the question of blame, at the time, but Victoria
had always secretly felt that she had in fact killed their mother, and
Olivia knew it, and nothing she had ever said in all their twenty years
had ever changed that.

Neither of them were thinking of that now, as Olivia questioned Victoria
about her driving. "I taught myself last winter." Victoria shrugged in
amusement.

"Taught yourself? How? "

"I just took the keys and tried it. I banged
the car up a little the first few times, but Petrie never figured it
out, he kept thinking that other people had run into him when he'd been
in town and left it parked." She looked pleased with herself and Olivia
forced herself to scowl at her, in order not to laugh, but Victoria knew
her better.

"Stop looking at me like that. It's a damn useful thing to know. I can
run you into town anytime you like now."

"Or into a tree more likely." Olivia refused to be mollified.

Her sister could have killed herself tooling around the countryside in a
car she really didn't know how to drive. It was crazy. "And your
smoking is disgusting." But at least that she'd known about it for a
while.

She had found a package of Fatimas in their dresser that winter, and
been horrified. But when she mentioned it, Victoria only laughed and
shrugged, and refused to comment.

"Don't be so old-fashioned, " Victoria said amiably. "If we lived in
London or Paris, you'd be smoking too, just to be fashionable, and you
know it."

"I know nothing of the sort, Victoria Henderson. It's a revolting habit
for a lady, and you know it. So where were you? " Victoria hesitated
for a long moment, while Olivia waited. She was expecting an answer,
and Victoria always told her the truth. The two had no secrets, and the
few times they did, the other always instinctively knew the truth. It
was as though they each always knew what the other was thinking.

"Confess, " Olivia said sternly, and Victoria suddenly looked much
younger than twenty.

"All right. I went to a meeting of the National American Women's
Suffrage Association in Tarrytown. Alice Paul was there, she came
especially to organize the meeting, and see about setting up a group
right here on the Hudson. The president of NAWSA herself, Anna Howard
Shaw, was supposed to be there, but she couldn't make it."

"Oh for God's sake, Victoria, what are you doing? Father will be
calling the police if you get yourself into demonstrations or anything
of the sort. More than likely, you'll be arrested, and Father will have
to bail you out, " she said in sudden outrage, but Victoria did not look
discouraged by the prospect, on the contrary, she seemed to like it.

"It would be worth it, Ollie. She was absolutely inspirational.

You should come next time."

"Next time, I'm tying you to the bedpost.

And if you steal the car again for nonsense like that, I'll let Petrie
call the police, and I'll tell them who did it."

"No, you won't.

Come on, hop in. I'll drive you back to the garage."

"Great. Now you'll get us both in trouble. Thank you very much, my
darling sister."

"Don't be such a stiff. This way, no one will know which one of us it
is." As always, their being so totally identical was an excellent
cover.

No one ever knew which one did anything, which served Victoria's
purposes better than her sister's, who rarely needed a scapegoat.

"They'd know, if they had any brains, " Olivia grumbled as she got in
cautiously, and Victoria roared off across the bumpy back road, while
Olivia complained loudly about her driving. Victoria offered her a
cigarette then, and as Olivia was about to read her the riot act again,
she suddenly started to laugh instead at the absurdity of the situation.

It was hopeless to try and control Victoria, and Olivia knew it, as
Victoria drove the car right into the garage and almost ran over Petrie.

He stared at them with his mouth open, as they both got out in unison,
both thanked him solemnly and Victoria apologized for the minor damage.

**skip**"But I thought .. . I .. . when did you .. . I mean .

.. yes, Miss .. . thank you .. . Miss Olivia .. . Miss Victoria .

.. Miss .

.." He had no idea which was which, who had done what, and had no
intention of trying to find out either. All he had to l do was replace
the rubber on the running board and touch up the paint now. At least
the car hadn't been stolen after all. And looking very dignified, the
two young women walked back to the house arm in arm, and up the front
steps, as they began to giggle.

"You really are awful, you know, " Olivia scolded her. "The poor thing
thought Dad was going to kill him over it. You're going to end up in
jail one day, I'm sure of it."

"So am I, " said Victoria with total unconcern, as she gave her sister a
squeeze. "But maybe you'll switch with me for a month or two and I can
go out and get some air, and go to some meetings. How does that sound?"

"Disgusting. My days of covering for you are over, " Olivia said,
wagging a finger at her, but loving her more than ever. She loved being
with her. Her twin was her best friend, and like the other side of her
own soul. They knew each other better than any two people could ever
know anyone, and Olivia was at her happiest, they both were, when they
were together. Although Victoria certainly seemed to spend enough time
going off on her own and getting into mischief.

The two girls were just walking through the main hall, talking and
laughing, as the library door opened and the three men walked into the
hall, still talking about their own plans and decisions. And as they
saw them, the two girls fell silent, and Olivia immediately saw Charles
again, and watched him, as he stared at both of them, totally startled
and confused by what he was seeing. He looked from one to the other
repeatedly, as though trying to derive an explanation in his own mind
for two women so totally identical, and so beautiful, and yet it was as
though he sensed a difference between them. His eyes were riveted on
Victoria, with her hair slightly more windblown than Olivia's, her dress
identical, yet somehow more easily worn, there was something irreverent
and shocking about her. And yet, to the naked eye, one couldn't see how
outrageous she was, but one could sense it.

"Oh my, " Edward Henderson said, smiling as he watched Charles'
reaction. "Did I forget to warn you? "

"I'm afraid you did, sir, "
Charles Dawson said, blushing, peeling his eyes off of Victoria, and
glancing at Olivia again in confusion, and then back at their father.

They were used to it, and were amused, but he obviously wasn't.

"Merely an optical illusion, don't worry about it, " Edward Henderson
teased him. He liked Charles. He seemed to be a good man. And they
had had a very good session, full of bright new ideas, and ways to
improve his businesses, and protect his investments. "It must have been
the sherry." He grinned at the younger man, and Charles Dawson laughed,
suddenly looking boyish. He was thirty six years old, but in the past
year, he had come to look so serious that his friends said he looked
suddenly much older. And now, he looked like a boy again as he stared
in confused disbelief at the two beauties before him. And even more
confusingly, they moved toward him in unison, unconscious of how totally
their movements mirrored each other. They each shook hands with him,
and Edward introduced Olivia again, and Victoria for the first time, and
they both laughed, and pointed out to their father that he had gotten it
wrong, which made Charles laugh even more.

"Does he do that often? " he asked, feeling more at ease with them than
he had a moment before, though still quite dazzled. It would be
impossible not to.

"All the time, though we don't always tell him, " Victoria answered,
meeting his eyes squarely. Charles seemed fascinated by her, as though
he could sense something unusual about her. In the subtlest of ways,
she was more sensual than her sister, yet the clothes, the look, the
hair were the same, but the inner workings weren't.

"When they were very young, " Edward explained, "we used to put
different-colored hair ribbons in their hair, to identify them.

It worked perfectly, and then one day, we discovered that the little
monsters had learned to take off their hair ribbons and tie them again,
very carefully, to confuse us. They would trade places that way, and it
went on for months before we discovered it. They were quite dreadful as
children, " he said, with obvious pride and affection.

Despite his dislike for the public stir they caused whenever he took
them out, he adored them. They had been the final gift of a woman he
had loved with his entire soul, and he had never loved anyone again
after her, except her daughters.

"Are they better behaved now? " Charles asked, still amused by them,
and the shock they had caused him. He had had absolutely no warning
that there even were twins, neither from Edward Henderson, nor John
Watson.

"They're only slightly better now, " Edward said grudgingly, and they
all laughed, and then he scowled at both of them, as though issuing a
warning. "But you'd better behave yourselves, you two. These two
gentlemen tell me that it's necessary to go to New York for a month or
so, in order to take care of some of my business, and if you can manage
not to turn the town on its ear this time, I'll take you with me.