The Happiest Day (5 page)

“You were not put
on this earth to protect Norris.”

“How can I deny
helping him after what he’s done for me?”

“For God’s sake,
Rachel, stop putting the man on a pedestal!  He did what any decent person
would do in the circumstances.  He took in his best friend’s children after
they lost their parents.  He’s no saint.”

“I never said he
was but he’s treated Laurie and me like his own.  He’s given us opportunities
that we never could have imagined.”  She smiled, feeling her muscles growing
loose as the whiskey did its work.  “I got to meet you, too.”

Peter’s face
relaxed.  “Oh Spider, you got me there.  How can I argue with that?”  He raised
his glass to her.  “Congratulations, my dear.  You win.”

She laughed and
drained her glass.  “I kind of like this.”  She weaved unsteadily to the
sideboard and poured herself another drink, and tossed it back in one swallow.

“Oh Lord, I’ve
created a monster.”  He stood and took the glass from her and placed it on the
sideboard.  “It’s late.  Why don’t you go get some sleep?”

“You should just
take me home.”  Her head spun a bit.

“I’ll wake you up
before the sun and get you home before anyone knows you’re gone.  I promise. 
Go rest.”

“What are you
going to do?”

“I’ll just crash
on the sofa.”  He pulled his white linen shirt out of his black pants.  “I’m
bushed.”

“I don’t want to
take your bed,” she argued.  “I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“Stop arguing,” he
groaned, kicking off his shoes.

Her eyes flickered
over his loose clothing and sock covered feet.  His hair was adorably ruffled. 
“You could share the bed with me,” she suggested slyly, feeling liquid courage
coursing through her veins.  “We could both be comfortable.”

He stopped his
disrobing and looked at her soberly, his eyes narrowed.  “What are you doing,
Rae?”

“I don’t know.”

He was silent for
a long moment, staring at her as if mulling something over.  Finally, he
sighed, tension evident in his shoulders.  “Go to bed, Rachel,” he said
sternly.  “I’ll wake you up in a few hours.”

Disappointment
washed over her and she crossed her arms across her midriff defiantly.  “Fine. 
You’ll be sorry someday.”

“More than
likely,” he agreed.  “But I’d rather regret saying no now than have you regret
me saying yes later.”

“I wouldn’t regret
it,” she said, seeing a crack in his armor.  “Peter, I’m going to sleep with
someone before I marry Frederick.  Why wouldn’t I want it to be someone like
you, someone that I know would take care of me?”

He ran a hand over
his face in frustration.  “Shit,” he breathed.  “This can’t be happening.  Are
you really propositioning me?  How drunk are you?”

“I don’t know. 
I’ve never been drunk.”  She smiled.  “I don’t think I can make it to bed on my
own.  Will you take me?”

“Rae…”

“I might trip and
hurt myself.”  To make her point she swayed back and forth.

“Shit,” he said
again and scooped her off of her feet.  He shouldered his bedroom door open and
deposited her on the middle of his bed.  “Go…to…sleep,” he said between
clenched teeth.

“You know you want
me,” she called after him.  “Don’t you want to be my first?  Don’t you want to
teach me?  It would always be our special secret.”  When he didn’t answer, she
taunted, “You’re just scared.”

He turned back and
gazed at her sitting in the middle of his bed, her honey colored hair loose,
her cheeks flushed.  “Petrified,” he admitted ruefully.  “Get some sleep, my
love.”

She did just that,
falling asleep almost immediately.  She was confused and disoriented a few
hours later when he woke her.

“Come on, babe,”
he said softly.  “I need to get you home.  The sun will be up soon.”  She
nodded and he helped her sit up.  “I’ve got your shoes.”  He knelt and placed
them on her feet.  “Can you walk to the car?”

“Mm-hm.”  She
stood and immediately sat back down.  “I’m dizzy.”

“I know.  I’m
sorry, I shouldn’t have let you drink the whiskey.”  He helped her stand again
and slipped an arm around her waist.  “Come on, let’s go.  The fresh air will
help.”

He was right.  The
early morning air hit her like a refreshing wave and she inhaled deeply.  “It
feels nice out here.”

He helped her into
his car and they didn’t speak a word on the thirty minute drive to the estate. 
The sky was still dark as if the sun was loathe to rise.  It was barely five
a.m. when he pulled his car up the drive.

“Drop me at the
kitchen.  I don’t want to wake anyone by coming in the front.”  Before she got
out of the car, she looked at him, biting her lip.  “Peter, I’m sorry.”

He leaned one arm
on the steering wheel and looked at her with an enigmatic gaze.  “For what?”

“For what I did
back at your apartment.  For what I said.”

“Are you?”

“Yes.  I don’t
know what got into me.”

He smiled
slightly.  “I’d say two glasses of whiskey, in pretty quick fashion.”

They stared at
each other in silence and Rachel wondered what he was thinking.  “Well, anyway,
I’m sorry.  I hope I didn’t embarrass you.”

“You didn’t
embarrass me.”  He looked away for a moment, and then looked back to her.  “You
don’t have to marry Stern.  No matter what, you don’t have to.  Remember that. 
I want you to stop offering up your virginity to people…to Toby, to me…as some
sort of…I don’t know, some type of reward for giving you a moment of closeness
and intimacy.  That gift belongs to the man that you love and the one you want
to share your life with.”

Tears filled her
eyes.  “Life is not that easy.  It’s not that cut and dry.”

“It can be.”  He
reached out and cupped her jaw in his hand, his thumb reaching up to wipe away
a lone tear.  “Promise me that you’ll save yourself for the right man.”

She didn’t answer
him but turned her lips into his palm and bestowed a kiss.  “Thank you for
taking care of me last night.”  She opened the car door and started to stand. 
His words halted her.

“If it means
anything to you, saying no to you was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

She looked back
over her shoulder and saw that he was sincere.  She smiled crookedly.  “Always
the gentleman.  I’ll talk to you later.”

She let herself in
quietly, barely hearing his car driving away.  She made her way up the back
staircase which opened out at the end of the hallway near her bedroom.  Without
bothering to take off her crumpled dress, she fell into bed and fell asleep
immediately.  Her sleep was restless, though, and filled with strange noises
and thoughts.  She wasn’t sure how long she had been asleep when she was shaken
awake.  Opening her blurry eyes, she saw Norris, looking uncharacteristically
unkempt, still wearing his tux, but the tie hanging and the arms shoved up to
his elbows.

“Rachel, I need
you to wake up.  Please, wake up.”

She was confused
and wondered if she was still dreaming.  “Norris?  What is it?  What’s wrong?”

“There’s been an
accident.  A terrible accident.”

“Are the boys OK? 
Is Laurie all right?”  She struggled to sit up and Norris fell weakly to her
bed.

“The boys are
fine.  They are spending the night at Bert’s house.  It’s Helen and Frederick. 
Rachel, they’re dead.”

She stared at him,
trying to comprehend his words.  His hair was messy, looking as if he had run
his hands through it over and over.  His eyes were bloodshot and looked
slightly tearful.  She reached out and touched him, convincing herself that he
was real and this was not a dream.  He jerked where she touched him on his chest,
then laid a hand over hers, bowing his head.

“They’re dead. 
They’re really dead,” he choked out.

“Where are they?”
she whispered, fear bubbling up in her.  What had happened?  Was there an
intruder in the house?  Suddenly, she was an eight year old girl, huddled in a
closet.  “Are we alone?”  She grasped the linen of his shirt, her eyes wide and
her heart thudding.

He felt her fear
and pulled her into his arms.  “We’re fine.  You’re safe.  No one is going to
hurt you ever again.  Didn’t I promise you that?”

She nodded against
his shoulder.  “What happened?  Why are they dead?”

“They’re in my
bedroom,” he said, not answering her question.  “Come with me.”

“I…I’m still
wearing my dress,” she said, looking down at the crumpled bridesmaid dress. 
“Let me change.”

She opened her
wardrobe, reaching inside for a robe.  She turned to ask Norris to wait in the
hallway for her, but saw that he had not moved from where he sat on her bed. 
His head was buried in his hands.  She hurriedly shed her dress and slipped the
robe on over her slip, tying it securely.  “All right.  I’m dressed.”

He looked up in
surprise as if he had forgotten she was in the room with him.  “Did I tell you
how beautiful you looked last night?”

She nodded
wordlessly.

“You never looked
more like your mother than you did last night.  You’re truly a woman now, even
though I tend to forget sometimes.”

“It’s all right,”
she said softly, wondering where his mind was right now.  Had he been telling
the truth when he had said that Helen and Frederick were dead or was he just
caught in some sort of sleepwalking dream?  “Norris?  You said you wanted me to
come with you.”

He stood.  “I need
to show you Helen and Frederick.”

A half-hour later,
Rachel sat with a cup of coffee warming her hands, staring at Norris and
waiting for him to speak.  The gruesome scene in the bedroom was fresh in her
mind.  Helen’s face was mottled and purple, her tongue swollen out of her
mouth.  Angry finger marks marred her neck.  Frederick lay next to her, pale
and still, blood saturating the bedclothes around him.  Two long gashes on his
wrists indicated the source of the blood.  Norris seemed to be in shock,
dispassionately staring at his dead wife and friend.  After taking in the scene
and seeing that they were both obviously dead, Rachel gently led him downstairs,
called the police, and fixed a pot of coffee.

“The police should
be here in a moment,” she said gently. “They’ll have a lot of questions.  Can
you tell me what happened, Norris?”

He sat across from
her, in a matching chair, staring into his coffee cup.  “After you and Peter
left the reception, I was out on the terrace with Stern.  I convinced him not
to ruin Maryanne’s wedding day with any kind of announcement.  I could tell
that he didn’t want to do it anyway because then we would have no more leverage
over you or me.  He agreed, but said that he wanted compensation.”

“Money?”

“I assumed so.  I
told him that we couldn’t talk there and asked him to follow me out to the
house after the reception was over.”

“Oh, Norris…”

“It was the only
way.  I saw Bert and Maryanne to their room at the Sinton for the night then
told the boys that they were going to stay at Bert’s house.  They asked why and
I told them that I was going to spend the night at the club and was too tired
to drive all the way back to the estate.  I dropped them at Bert’s house.  I
had already given the entire staff the night off, so I knew the house would be
empty except for you.”

Rachel felt a
blush working its way up her neck but didn’t say anything.  She would be
mortified for Norris to know what had transpired between her and Peter. 
Obviously, Norris didn’t know that she hadn’t been in her room until five in
the morning. 

“It was going on
two o’clock when we arrived here.  Helen got out of Stern’s car and that’s when
I knew that she was involved in this blackmail.  I invited them into my study
and gave them a drink.  Stern started telling me that in order to keep quiet,
he wanted a stake in the newspaper.  If he had just asked for money, I probably
would have given it to him.  But the newspaper?  That’s mine.  I’ll never give
up what I’ve worked so hard for.  Helen sat there so smug, so knowing, I knew
she had a hand in planning this.  We argued back and forth and then…then they
fell asleep.

Rachel shook her
head.  “They…fell asleep?  I don’t understand.”

“I had drugged
their drinks.”  He looked up from his cup to gauge her reaction.  “I put
crushed sleeping pills in their drinks.”

Rachel felt as if
she was in a dream and nothing was real any longer.  “Norris, what happened
then?”

“It took a long
time but I dragged them upstairs and got them into my bed.  I unclothed them
and put them in each other’s arms.  Then I just sat there and stared.  I don’t
even know how long I sat there.  All I could think of was how they were going
to ruin everything, take away everything I had worked for…I couldn’t let it
happen.

Rachel’s hands
were now cold and shaking.  “Did you kill them, Norris?”

He looked up at
her.   “I put my hands over Stern’s and held them to Helen’s neck and squeezed
and squeezed until she stopped breathing.”

Rachel covered her
mouth in horror.  Norris was relaying the story so calmly, that she felt goose
bumps break out over her skin.  “And what did you do to Frederick?

“I took a letter
opener and slit his wrists.  I left it in his hand.  It will look like a murder-suicide,
Rachel.  A lover’s quarrel gone wrong. “  He squeezed her hands.  “It’s all
over.  They’re gone and the secret goes with them.  No one can hurt us ever
again.”  He looked deeply into her eyes.  “I did it for you, too, my dear.  I
couldn’t let you marry that man and I didn’t know how else to stop him.”

Her mouth worked
convulsively, no sound coming out at first.  “Wh-What will you tell the
police?”

“That I fell
asleep at the club in the men’s lounge and just got home an hour ago to find
the scene.  I checked on you…you left the reception early because of a headache. 
You took a sleeping pill when you came home and never heard a thing all night. 
After I checked on you, I went to my bedroom to change and that’s when I found
Stern and Helen.  I woke you up and we called the police.”