Sleeping Beauty (49 page)

“Nobody's about to buy the company right now,” Leo said. “Not with all its problems. Whatever Charles is negotiating, it isn't us.”

“When do you think you'll get all this stuff fixed?” Keith asked.

“Early November, probably. In plenty of time for the ski season. We've got a lot of help; it's wonderful the way people are offering to do whatever we need. They're distributing water at City Hall, and delivering it to people who can't get there themselves, and almost fifty people have volunteered to help dig out the reservoir. I'll tell you, this is a terrific town; I'm proud to be a part of it.”

“Yeah, but what about all the, you know, lawsuits?” Keith asked. “I mean, there's people around here who are like crazy. They got like a sick kid, they sue the company. How much is all this costing us, anyway?”

“We're insured against suits,” Leo said shortly. “And it's only a few people who are suing; most of the town is behind us.”

“Gail,” said Anne, “dinner is wonderful.”

“It is,” Josh agreed. “Leo, next time you go fishing, I'd like to tag along. If you don't mind giving lessons to someone who's never held a fishing rod.”

“I heard there were like fifteen lawsuits already,” Keith said. “Are we insured for that much? I mean, you know, that could be like hundreds of millions of dollars. You're a lawyer, right?” he said to Anne. “It could be a hell of a lot of money, couldn't it? More than the insurance? Then what do we do? I mean, we could all be out of work like tomorrow!”

“Not tomorrow,” Leo said dryly. “Or the day after. If you're worried about your job—”

“And what's it costing to fix the reservoir?” Keith's voice rose in excitement. “I mean, yeah, I'm worried, Leo. Aren't you? Really? I mean, shouldn't we all be like worried?”

“Keith, for heaven's sake,” Gail said with a glance at Robin and Ned, who sat without eating, their mouths open,
their heads swiveling from their father to Keith. “Everything is being taken care of. You'll be taken care of. Don't be so dramatic.”

“How much is it costing?” Keith asked Leo. “The reservoir and, you know, trucking in the water and like the whole thing. And all those ads we have to, you know, buy. I mean, how much, not including the lawsuits?”

“A couple of million dollars,” Leo said flatly. “And that's not good. Look, we're not crazy enough to think these problems aren't serious, but we'll get past them. If we don't have a good winter, we'll hang on until summer; and if summer isn't as good as we hope, next winter will be. I don't think we'll have to wait that long, but even if we do, we'll survive. There are a lot of places we can save money. We won't compromise on maintenance, but we can put off new projects, and we can cut staff, too, as a last resort. I can't predict how the lawsuits will go, but we can't assume we'll lose them; that's being defeated before we even start. Josh, what did you think of your tour yesterday? Did I manage to impress you?”

“You did,” Josh said, ready to help Leo shift the conversation. “William, you should ask Leo to show you the gondola. It is impressive.”

“What gondola?” William asked.

There was a stunned silence at the table. “It's been open for three years,” Gail said. “But then, you haven't been here, have you?”

“Don't you
read
about us?” Robin demanded. “It's been in all the papers; it's the longest gondola in the country.”

“I can tell you anything you want to know,” Ned declared grandly. “There's these cars, they're round, and six people sit in them, and you go to the top of Tamarack Mountain, then you ski down and ride up again. It goes in the summer, too, but now it's September so it only goes on weekends. Come back at Thanksgiving; I'll take you up and show you around. You don't have to ski,” he added kindly. “All kinds of people go up just wearing shoes.”

“It's a fascinating system,” Josh said. “The bull wheel
alone is bigger than this room, and the gears look like a paleontologist's dream: some newly discovered dinosaur's teeth.”

“You really had a good time,” Gail said. “You sound like Ned every time Leo takes him up there.”

Josh chuckled. “Exactly how I felt. It's so massive, and at the same time it's so simple anyone can understand it. That's enough to bring out the kid in all of us.”

Leo launched into a description of the building of the gondola, and then they talked of other things, and no one returned to the problems in Tamarack. As they all got up after dessert and coffee, Josh said to Anne, “You're very quiet tonight; is everything all right?”

“Yes. Thanks. Sometimes I just like to listen.”

“I'm hiking tomorrow morning, just a short one; would you like to come?”

“I can't; I'm sorry. I brought a lot of work with me.”

“I'm sorry, too; I'm leaving for Egypt and I'd hoped we could spend some time together first.”

“Josh,” Leo said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks for helping out. I don't know what's wrong with Keith; he's been following me around ever since this mess began over Labor Day, and he can't seem to stop talking about it. Sorry, did I interrupt something?”

“Yes,” Josh said with a smile, “but we're always glad to talk to you.”

“I just wanted to say thanks. And to tell you how much it means to me, and to Gail, to have you around. Listen, all this talk about selling The Tamarack Company . . . do you know about that?”

Josh nodded. “Anne told me last week.”

“Last week? You weren't here then.”

“In Los Angeles.”

“Oh.” A slow grin appeared on Leo's face. “Well, good. So you know about it. I don't have to ask you to keep it to yourself.”

“I don't spread stories, Leo.”

“I know it. I'm just feeling nervous. We're trying to figure out what to do. Anne thinks we ought to find out how the
rest of the family feels and line up support before Charles gets a serious offer. But maybe we'd be better off just sitting tight, not getting everybody upset and forming battle lines. Maybe Charles will scare up the money somewhere else; I really can't see anybody looking twice at us right now. We're in worse shape than I let on earlier.”

“I agree with Anne,” Josh said. “You ought to know where you stand. It doesn't have to be a feud; families can deal with anything if they care more about staying together than scoring points.”

Leo shrugged. “The Chathams run away from trouble; they never want to face—oh, shit,” he muttered with a sidelong glance at Anne. “I didn't mean that the way it sounded. Look, I interrupted you two; I'll go see what everybody's doing in the kitchen.”

Josh contemplated Anne's stony face. “Do you want to tell me what that was all about?”

She turned to look at him. His eyes were steady and warm, and for the briefest of moments, she thought she could tell him about her running away, and why she had done it. But of course she could not; she had never told anyone; she never would. “A misunderstanding,” she said. She paused, trying to find some other words. But she could not. “You said you were leaving? For Egypt?”

“On Monday. I hadn't planned on going for another few weeks, but I had a call this morning that my crew wants me there now.”

Anne looked away from him, dismayed at the disappointment that shot through her. What was wrong with her? She barely knew this man; he took up such a small part of her life, what difference did it make whether he went or stayed? In fact, it was probably good that he was going; it would put a stop to Gail and Leo's attempt to manufacture something between them. “How long will you be gone?” she asked.

“I don't know. It depends on what I find there. A couple of weeks; maybe longer. I'm sorry you don't have an Egyptian client; I could show you some of my favorite tombs. An offer you probably haven't had from too many people.”

She smiled. “You're the first. I hope you have a successful trip; I'll be glad to hear about it when you get back.”

“I'll call from Luxor when I have an idea of my schedule.”

They were silent. It was amazing, Josh thought, how awkward they had become.

“I think I'll look for the others,” Anne said at last. “I ought to do my share of cleaning up.” She turned toward the kitchen. Josh walked beside her. “Have a good trip,” she said, knowing she had already said it. She was annoyed with herself for not being able to find a simple way to end the conversation. “I hope you find what you're looking for.” She had said that, too, she thought, and plunged into the crowded kitchen where everyone was helping with the dishes, and nibbling on what was left of dessert. If you can't talk like a grown-up, she grumbled to herself, don't talk at all. She picked up a towel and began to dry the glasses draining on the sink.

She had so much work to do; she should be thinking about that. She should stay in Los Angeles, and get back to working the way she always had, sixteen hours a day, seven days a week. And she had to decide whether to take two new clients who had come to her the past week: one famous in television and the other a fashion designer known around the world. Both of them would help her career enormously. Spending time in Tamarack wouldn't do a thing for it.

She stopped drying and stared unseeing at the crowded kitchen. She couldn't ever remember a time when she had let anything come before her career; as recently as July she couldn't even have imagined a debate on whether to take the cases of two such highly visible clients. But Tamarack kept pulling at her. Gail and Leo loved her, and Marian and Nina said they wanted to come back, to spend time with her, and she'd promised Ned and Robin that next time she came they would go on a hike, just the three of them, and she was looking forward to that. In fact, every time she left Tamarack, she found herself already looking forward to being back.

Suddenly, she had more things to balance in her life than ever before. More than enough without thinking about a
man who took off for Egypt just when they were becoming friends. She began to dry the glasses again, and take in the activity in the room. Gail was at the sink with Robin and Ned. Josh and Leo and William were talking together as they carried clean plates and cups to the hutch in the dining room, going back and forth through the swinging door. And Keith . . . Keith was looking at her.

Anne felt a jolt of wariness. He had such an intense curiosity about her; what could she possibly be to him?

William came through the swinging door, and she thought of Charles. They had not spoken since Labor Day when he had been in Tamarack. My father, she thought, and she did not know what meaning the words had for her. She had tried to think about him, but her thoughts kept veering away.

I'll have to do it, though, she told herself: think about him and everyone else in the family. My family. And my work. And my friends in Los Angeles; I've hardly seen them lately. I haven't even had time to read a book. It was a nice feeling, to have such a crowded life. It's quite enough for anyone, she thought, hanging up the damp towels she had used.

The dishes were done; the others were going into the living room. Aware of the sudden silence, Anne looked around. Josh was standing in the doorway, talking to Gail. He looked up and met her eyes, and smiled. Oh, all right, she thought, a little crossly. I can think about Josh Durant, too. And I would like to hear about his trip when he gets back; especially his favorite tombs. I'll probably never see them, so it will be nice to hear him talk about them.

Something else to look forward to, she thought, and went to join the others in the living room.

J
osh sat on the aisle of the plane filled with Arab businessmen and groups of tourists. He had made the trip so many times he could imagine the scene below without ever looking up from his book: an endless expanse of dun-colored desert slashed with black rock outcroppings. And bisecting it, the long line of the Nile, bordered by green, cultivated land that stretched as much as five miles on each side or as little as a few feet. The Nile was Egypt. Whatever the maps showed as the country's boundaries, the people lived along the sinuous line snaking through the desert, and in the fan-shaped delta at the north where the river flowed into the Mediterranean. The rest was sand, and silence.

The plane, from Cairo to Aswan, made one stop at Luxor, and Josh and many of the businessmen got off, descending the metal steps into the dense heat of the October evening. He took off his jacket and slung it over his shoulder. He wore khaki pants and a short-sleeved shirt and carried a bulging canvas suitcase, a scuffed leather briefcase, and a canvas camera bag over his shoulder. “Mr. Durant, hello,” said the young woman who glanced at his passport as he went through the terminal. “Mr. Durant, welcome back,” said the taxi driver who always seemed to be waiting for him when he arrived. “Mr. Durant, how pleasant to see you again,” said the manager of the Winter Palace Hotel, who personally escorted him to his room on the sixth floor
looking across the Nile toward the Valley of the Kings, the center of Josh's world.

He stood at the window. Below, along the entire length of Luxor's riverfront, brightly lit tour boats were docked two and three deep; on their upper decks, tourists were having cocktails before dinner. Beside the Nile ran the wide, newly paved corniche, its lampposts barely illuminating the dim roadway next to it where cars sped by without headlights, their drivers playing their car horns like fervent performers in an orchestra. There were no stoplights. By now, Josh was used to Egyptian traffic and was as adept as a resident at darting nimbly across the street between cars and horse-drawn buggies, and ignoring the buggy drivers' offers to take him anywhere, for a price so low it was hardly worth mentioning.