Mirror Image (6 page)

And the moment he walked in, she saw those eyes again, the eyes that had
so mesmerized her the first time she met him.

"Thank you for coming so quickly, " she said, and it was easy to see how
distraught she was, as she picked up her hat and put it on quickly, and
grabbed her handbag. "We must leave immediately."

"But what's happened? Where is your sister, Miss Henderson? Has she run
away? " He was baffled by the mysteries surrounding them, and anxious to
do what he could, but he had no idea what she wanted of him.

For an instant, Olivia stood to her full height and looked up at him,
her eyes filled with embarrassment and terror. She was a capable girl,
but this was by far the most shocking experience of her sister's career,
and she was beside herself over not wanting anyone else to know it.

Surely they wouldn't understand how spirited she was, or how innocent
some of her pranks were. And this was one instance where Olivia's
trading places with her would solve nothing. For the first time in her
life, she felt entirely helpless.

"She's at the Fifth Precinct, Mr. Dawson, " Olivia said in a Low
grief-stricken tone. "They just called me. They are holding her there,
and they won't arrest her, if we come quickly." Unless of course
Victoria talked them into it, and they arrested her before she and
Charles could get there.

"Good heavens." He actually did look surprised this time, as he followed
her out the front door, and down the front steps, and then hurried to
hail a taxi. He helped Olivia into it, in her quiet gray work dress that
she'd been wearing since that morning. She'd put on a very fashionable
black hat with it, and realized that Victoria had worn the identical hat
when she'd left that morning. Even when they didn't plan to wear the
same things, they almost always did, just as she had done now. But she
wasn't thinking about their hats, as she tried to explain to Charles
Dawson what she thought must have happened.

"She's totally enamored with this stupid National American Women's
Suffrage Association, and the people who run it." She told him all their
names, explained about the demonstration in Washington five months
before, and the arrests of the Pankhursts in England. "These people
glorify arrests like some sort of an award, it's a medal of honor, and I
suppose that Victoria went somewhere that they were having a
demonstration this afternoon and got picked up with them. The sergeant
who called said he had no intention of arresting her, but he said that
Victoria wanted him to arrest her." Charles Dawson tried to repress a
smile as he looked at her, and suddenly Olivia found herself smiling
too. Listening to herself explain it to him made it sound utterly
ridiculous, and Victoria even more so.

"She's quite a girl, this sister of yours. Does she always do things
like this while you're keeping house for your father? " She had
explained to him that she had been busy and wasn't paying attention to
where Victoria had gone that day. She really took her role as older
sister seriously, although there were barely more than ten minutes'
difference between them.

"She stole one of my father's cars to go to one of these meetings the
day you came to see us in Croton." She was suddenly laughing with him,
although she still felt desperately worried.

"Well, at least she's not dull, " he said calmly. "Think of the children
she'll have. It makes one quake, doesn't it? " He was laughing again,
but they both looked serious as they reached the Fifth Precinct.

It was in a dismal neighborhood, with poor people in rags loitering in
doorways, and terrible refuse in the streets all around them. And as
Olivia got out of the cab with Charles, she saw a rat scurry across the
street into the gutter. She drew instinctively closer to him, and as
they walked into the police station, there were drunks, and two petty
thieves who had just been brought in, in handcuffs, and three
prostitutes were screaming at the desk sergeant from a holding cell, as
Charles glanced at Olivia to see if she was ready to faint at their
surroundings. But she looked quite stern, and seemed relatively unmoved
by the comments of the drunks or the prostitutes, as she pretended to
ignore them.

"Are you all right? " he asked in an undervoice, tucking her hand into
his arm as she stood very straight beside him. He had to admire her for
her good sportsmanship, and the poise with which she was enduring the
abuse of the hookers who were shouting at her in envy.

"I'm fine, " she whispered back to Charles, barely raising her eyes to
his, "but when we get her out of here, I'm going to kill her." He had to
repress a smile as he turned his attention to the desk sergeant then,
and the sergeant led them both into a locked room where Victoria was
sitting in a single chair, drinking a cup of tea, as a matron watched
her. Victoria was looking irritated, and she put the cup down, and stood
up when Charles and Olivia entered the room, but she did not look happy
to see them.

"It's your fault, isn't it? " Victoria asked her without even
acknowledging Charles Dawson. And for him, it was eerie seeing them, so
totally identical, from their faces to their eyes, even to their hats,
although Victoria's had shifted imperceptibly and she seemed to be
wearing it at a rahsh angle. Charles was watching both of them,
mesmerized, and he sensed instantly the electricity between them.

"What is my fault? " Olivia asked, clearly furious at her sister.

"It's your fault they wouldn't arrest me." Victoria looked equally
angry.

"You're deranged, Victoria Henderson, " Olivia accused. "You deserve to
be locked up, but not here. You belong in Bedlam. Do you realize the
scandal it would make if you got arrested? Do you have any idea of the
embarrassment you'd cause Father over this? Do you ever think about
anyone but yourself, Victoria? Or is that just not on our agenda? " The
sergeant and the matron exchanged a smile. There was very little they
could add to all that, and Charles arranged quietly with them to simply
remove her. No real harm had been done, she had been in the wrong place
at the wrong time, and they were entirely willing to ignore it. The
sergeant suggested they keep an eye on her in the future, and he asked
Charles if the two girls were his younger sisters.

He was surprised by the idea, and flattered, now that he thought of it,
that Olivia had called him. And she'd been right to do so, coming down
here on her own would have been terrifying for her, and dangerous as
well. He still had the cab waiting outside, and as the two sisters
argued in the small room, he finally interrupted them and suggested they
continue their conversation in the taxi. Olivia was absolutely fuming.

For an instant, he thought that Victoria might refuse to leave, but
there was nothing for her to do here. The police didn't want her there,
and the excitement was over. But Olivia was still berating her as they
left and got back in the cab, and Charles very quietly handed them both
into the taxi, and then got in between them.

"Ladies, may I suggest we call it a day, and agree to forget this
unfortunate incident. Nothing untoward happened here, and no one ever
need be the wiser." He turned to Olivia then and suggested she forgive
her sister for her foolishness, and then he turned to Victoria and asked
her to stay away from demonstrations for the rest of her stay.

Or if not, they might truly arrest her.

"That might have been a little more honest, don't you think?

Than to pull class on them, and come running home to Daddy." She was
still annoyed at having been "saved" by her sister and their father's
lawyer.

And she thought Charles was a complete fool to have come with her.

She wanted to tell him to mind his own business in the future.

"Do you have any idea what it would do to Father if he knew? " Olivia
asked her bluntly. Why don't you think of him for a change instead of
your stupid groups, and women getting the vote? Why don't you behave for
once, instead of expecting me to get you out of it? " Olivia's hands
were shaking as she carefully put her gloves on, and Charles watched
them both with fascination. The one so restrained and so capable, the
other so fiery and so totally without remorse. In some ways, Victoria
reminded him of his late wife, Susan, always espousing unusual ideas and
difficult causes. And yet there had been a tamer side to her as well, a
docile side that he longed for on quiet nights as he lay alone, trying
not to think of her. He had to think of Geoffrey now, and not the boy's
mother. But try as he might, he could never bring himself to forget her,
and in his heart of hearts, he knew he didn't really want to. But this
wild, foolish girl, in the black straw hat, with the smoldering blue
eyes, intrigued him, far more than her obviously tamer sister.

"I'd like to point out to you, " Victoria said coldly as the cab pulled
up in front of their house, "that I didn't call either of you, and I
didn't ask to be rescued." She was being childish, and Charles couldn't
help smiling as he looked at her. She was like a naughty girl who needed
to be sent to her room, or scolded until she paid attention.

But she was certainly not contrite or grateful that they had come to get
her.

"Perhaps we should send you back then, " Charles said, and Victoria
glared at him as she got out of the cab, and let herself into the house
ahead of her sister. She had her back to both of them as she took her
hat off and threw it on the table.

"Thank you, " Olivia said in embarrassment to Charles, furious at her
sister. "I wouldn't have known what to do without you."

"Anytime, " he smiled, and Olivia rolled her eyes at the thought.

"I hope not."

"Try and keep her on a leash until your father arrives, " Charles said
in a whisper. She was clearly an unrepentant rebel, and there was a
certain charm to that, if one viewed it from a safe distance.

"Thank God Father will be here by tomorrow night, " Olivia said, and
then looked at Charles with worried eyes. She had trusted him and hoped
he wouldn't betray her. "Please don't say anything to him, it would
upset him terribly."

"I promise. Not a word." But now that it was over, what he had just done
amused him. "One day you'll laugh about this, I promise, when you're
both grandmothers, and remember how she almost got arrested."

Olivia smiled at what he was saying, and Victoria muttered a curt
thank-you at him, and then swept upstairs to change for dinner.

They were only having dinner with Mrs. Peabody that night, but Olivia
asked Charles if he would like to join them. It seemed the least she
could do after the last two hours he'd spent, rescuing Victoria, in
spite of herself, from the Fifth Precinct.

"I can't, but thank you very much." He looked embarrassed at the
invitation. "I try to dine with my son every night, or as much as
possible at least."

"How old is he? " Olivia asked with interest.

"He's nine." That made him eight when his mother died .. .

when he had seen her for the last time, before he left her on the
Titanic.

The thought of it almost made her shudder.

"I hope we meet him sometime, " she said genuinely, and Charles looked
hesitant and thankful.

"He's a good boy." And then, he surprised her with his honesty.

But there was something about Olivia that made her easy to talk to,
unlike her sister, who made him want to spank her. "We've both had a
hard time without his mother, " he said quietly.

"I can imagine." And then, "I never knew mine, " she said softly.

"But Victoria and I had each other." Her eyes seemed huge as they looked
into his, and something about her made his heart ache.