Nancy’s Theory of Style (30 page)

Nancy
watched anxiously as Eugenia hung at
the periphery of the group.

“The first day is always harder for the
parents than the kids,” a voice behind her said.

Nancy
turned to see Mrs. Kanbar. “Hi.”

“Would you like to stay and watch for a
while?”

“If it’s okay…”

“Of course. We have an open door policy
for parents and there’s a fresh pot of coffee in the kitchen.”

So
Nancy
had a mug of surprisingly good coffee and stood back observing the kids. Eugenia
and another little girl sat on a brightly colored rug playing with stuffed
animals and plastic blocks.

When
Nancy
looked at the big round school clock on
the wall, she was surprised that an hour had passed. She found Mrs. Kanbar and
said good-bye. “Be sure to call me if there are any problems.”

“She’s doing fine. Some children have
more difficulty than others adjusting to new environments.”

“Oh, her mother drops her off different
places so Eugenia’s used to that,”
Nancy
said.

“Children do best in a stable home,” Mrs.
Kanbar said, echoing Sloane’s comment. “See you this afternoon.”

Nancy
began leaving and then she heard the
thump-thump of feet running and then arms clamped around her thighs. She looked
down to see Eugenia’s worried face. “Yes, baby?”

“You’re coming back?”

Nancy
crouched down to look in the child’s
face. “I’ll be back to get you after you have lunch and playtime today.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.” Although
Nancy
thought public displays of affection
were overdone, she kissed the girl’s soft cheek.

As
Nancy
returned to Château Winkles, she felt anxious, a combination of leaving Eugenia
among unknown children as well as excitement about being alone with Derek.

He was sitting at his desk when she
arrived. In a black suit with a white shirt, he looked as if he had stepped out
of a European commercial for an expensive car or watch.

“Good morning, Mrs. Carrington-Chambers.
Did all go well at the preschool?”

“Eugenia was playing when I left. However,
many of the children looked like incipient criminals.”

She didn’t know what to do, so she sat
on the sofa, crossing one leg over the other as gracefully as she could. “When
I was a child, I arranged my toys by size and type. I changed my clothes if I
got a speck or dirt on them. I never sassed my parents, or stole, or cheated on
tests. I was a perfect little girl.”

“Too perfect?” he asked. He stood up and
came to her. He sat beside her, his thigh against hers. “And now you’re being
rather wicked.”

“A little wicked,” she said as he
pressed her back and began kissing her eyelids, her cheek, her neck.

She said, “Not on the sofa! This fabric
isn’t Scotchgarded!”

 
“Not the laundry room again?”

“The bed?”

Derek carried
Nancy
to the bedroom, which was so romantic
that she didn’t say anything when her foot banged on the doorway. As he laid
her on the bed, she asked, “I need to know – do you want me to spank you or
anything?”

His eyes widened and he grinned. “Wicked
and saucy! Do you want to spank me?”

“Not really, but I just thought…I don’t
know what you like. Since this is something new to you.”

“Then I think you should teach me
precisely what pleases you.” He took off his jacket and placed it neatly over
the chair and then slipped off his tie and hung it there also.

Her sex life had been comprised of
trying to please men and she was thrilled by the idea of having a man do what
she wanted. “Take off your shirt and come here.”

Later he fell back on the bed, breathing
heavily. He asked, “How was that?”

“Incredible.” She expected Derek to
either get up or move to the far side of the bed and fall asleep, but he put
his arm around her and stayed close. “You’re amazing for someone who’s…for whom
it isn’t a natural inclination,” she said, and then insecurity kicked in. “Did
I…was I all right?”

“More than all right. You’re totally
aw—- awfully fabulous. You must know that.”

She laughed nervously as she stroked his
chest. “Todd says I’m uptight. But I think he got all his ideas about sex from
porn. I kept telling him to stop trying to shove things in me. I’m a girl, not
a vase. Do men really like that?”

“Different men like different things.”

“I’m sure you know more about that than
me. You I mean, you are one and you’ve probably had your share of
relationships.”

“There’ve been a few, never one with a
posh girl.”

“When I met Todd, I was only 19. I’d had
boyfriends before, but he seemed so experienced by comparison. We took a break
when he was getting his MBA, and I went out with other men and I kept thinking,
is this it?, is this what love is supposed to be? It wasn’t any better, so I
went back to Todd. He told me my problem was that I had to loosen up.”

“Mrs. Carrington-Chambers, you seemed
wonderfully limber to me.”

“It’s those years of dance class,” she
said. “May I tell you something I haven’t told anyone else?”

“I don’t…” he began. “I wouldn’t trust
myself with a confidence that could hurt you, Madame.”

She looked into his twilight blue eyes
and needed to tell him. “Last November, I met a man, Anthony Harper, when we
were both looking at the same print collection at the Legion of Honor. Todd was
never home, and I was lonely and angry. Anthony was divorced, older, and
sophisticated. He invited me to lunch and he told me that I was beautiful and
smart. I knew it was a line, but I was grateful to hear it.”

“You are beautiful and smart.”

“Not smart enough. I went with him to
his condo,” she said. She watched Derek’s face, but his expression stayed the
same. “Sex with Anthony wasn’t any improvement over sex with Todd. I felt
nothing, but he seemed happy.”

“Men think all sex is good sex,” Derek
said.

“Afterward Anthony said, ‘I knew you
were ready to drop your panties when I met you.’”
Nancy
still felt ashamed and blushed. “He
laughed as if it was a joke, but I knew it was an insult.”

“That’s a nasty thing to say.”

“I went back a few more times during the
next few months. I hated Anthony and I hated myself more, and I was terrified
someone would find out. I ended it before Christmas.”

Derek kissed her brow and said, “It’s
over now and forgotten. I’ve forgotten it.”

“I wish I could. In March he called and
asked me to go with him as a friend to see an exhibit of antique glass. I
thought if I said no, he’d tell people about us.”

“You felt threatened?”

“He never said anything overtly, but
there was an undercurrent,” she said. “We met at his friend’s art gallery. Anthony
came up behind me suddenly and I dropped a nineteenth century glass bowl I’d
been looking at. It shattered into a hundred pieces and I was horrified, but he
just smiled and said,
 
‘That will cost
you, rich girl.”

“Could he have startled you intentionally?”
Derek asked.

“It’s possible. I told Anthony that he
shouldn’t call me again, and he said, ‘You’re a lousy fuck anyway.’ I left a
blank check with the gallery, but they never cashed it. I guess their insurance
took care of it. When I learned he’d lost his job and moved to
Florida
, I was so
relieved.”

“Anthony was lying. You’re a brilliant
fuck and I’ll pummel to a bloody pulp any man who says otherwise.”

“Brilliant like mashed peas?”

“Brilliant the American way. Brilliant
in every way.”

“It’s because I have a brilliant
student.”

His fingers trailed down her body and he
said, “I believe I’m ready for another lesson, Madame.”

Chapter 16: Style Takes Risks

Long before it was time to pick up
Eugenia,
Nancy
found herself checking the time. Finally she said to Derek, “I think I’ll go a
little early. Would you like to come for a walk?”

On the way there, she had to stop
herself from touching him. Not in public.

Eugenia was ecstatic when they picked
her up. She chattered about everything they’d done and the children she’d met. “Leda
is my friend. She has a cat and a dog. Can she come play at our house? Can I
have a cat?”

“What else did you do?”

“I learned a song about a frog on a log.
I went on the swings and Mrs. Candybar pushed me. We had orange juice and spa,
spa…”

“Spaghetti?” Derek guessed.

Eugenia nodded. “And we read stories.”

She reached up to Derek and said, “Give
me a ride.”

“Please,”
Nancy
said.

“Please.”

Derek picked her up and put her on his
shoulders. They were smiling and talking about the school when a young woman
came in the opposite direction.
Nancy
recognized a waitress from their regular bistro.

“If it isn’t my favorite family,” she
said. “Enjoy the afternoon.”

“You, too,” Derek and Nancy said in
unison and then looked at each other.

All day,
Nancy
felt as bubbly as a bottle of champagne.
She loved the invitation mock-ups that the graphic designer brought by
incorporating a historical line drawing of the
Barbary
Coast
.

As the designer was about to leave, he
said to Derek, “I didn’t recognize you at first with all your clothes on. I
guess I don’t focus on faces.”

Derek said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t
catch your meaning.”

“Haven’t I seen you at the gym with that
hot guy with the reddish-brown hair and the great abs? Your boyfriend?”

“Yes, you may have,” Derek said, and
Nancy
was surprised to
feel a stab of jealousy.

When the designer left,
Nancy
said, “You don’t have to be careful about mentioning
Prescott
.”

“Who is
Prescott
?” Eugenia asked.

“
Prescott
is Derek’s special friend,”
Nancy
said. “He lives with him.”

“Huh!” the girl said. “I don’t like
him.”

“That’s very rude, Eugenia,”
Nancy
said, but she
didn’t scold further. “Derek, I’m going to run the design to the Saloon. Is it
all right if I leave Eugenia here with you for about half an hour?”

Eugenia ran to Rick and took his hand.

“Yes, Madame, I think we can manage.”

Nancy
wanted to get back so quickly that she
practically ran all the way. She was out of breath by the time Greene opened
the door.

“Good to see you haven’t brought that
shiftless bastard,” he said and left.

Nancy
asked one of the maids, who led her to
an ornate parlor, where Mrs. Friendly was listening to a young woman reading
from a book. She smiled at
Nancy
and said, “I’ll be damned glad when my surgery’s done and I can read by myself
again.”

“I brought by the design for the
invitation.”

The older woman said, “Doesn’t do me any
good. I’m sure it’s fine. I always used to write notes to the major donors, but
I can’t do that now.”

“That would be a very nice touch,”
Nancy
said. “I happen to
have a friend who is quite skilled at imitating handwriting. If you have a
writing sample and a stock of note cards, I’ll take care of sending out
personal messages to the special guests.”

Nancy
returned to the Chateau with a box of
Mrs. Friendly’s engraved note cards and a writing sample. Eugenia flung herself
at her aunt as if she’d been gone for years instead of minutes and said, “Let’s
make capes.”

So they spent two hours drawing,
cutting, and sewing.
Nancy
’s
was the same blue as Snow White’s dress. Derek opted for Sherlock Holmesian
brown tweed, and Eugenia chose a bright yellow and red pop-art graphic.

Nancy
spent the evening more cheerful than
she could ever remember being. She was sure now that leaving Todd had been the
right thing to do.

The next morning, Nancy and Eugenia were
up early and eager to go to Three Bridges. They held hands and skipped half the
way there.
Nancy
walked back so fast that she was out of breath when she returned to Chateau
Winkles.