Nancy’s Theory of Style (35 page)

“Are you cooking? Because I just had the
oven fixed. The temperature gauge was off. It should be fine now.”

“I’m not using the oven. Thanks for
telling me.”

“Have you seen the kitten?”

“What kitten?”

“A mama cat had her babies under the
deck. I got all but one of them and found homes, but one is still hiding there.
Little stripy thing. I leave food.”

“I haven’t seen any kittens. Maybe you
could call someone to trap it.” How much longer would he trap her here?

“Might do that. Well, you got my number
if you need anything.”

“Yes, thanks so much,
Lowell
. You have a good weekend.”

“You, too.”

When
Nancy
finally reached the house, her heart
was racing. Far from doing anything wrong, she’d diverted suspicion.

Derek was in the kitchen making
sandwiches.

“Hi!” she said with more cheer than she
felt. “That was close. I think I managed to throw Bailey off our trail.”

“No need to explain, Madame. You said
nothing that wasn’t true.” He smiled politely, but it wasn’t his usual smile,
the one that carried to his eyes.

“You know I am very fond of you, Derek.”

“Thank you. Would you like to eat in or
outside?”

“On the back patio. It’s warm there.” She
watched as he sliced the sandwiches in half and put them on a platter. “Are you
sure everything is all right?”

“Between us, yes. But
Prescott
called a few minutes ago. He’s
returning home and he’d like me to be there tonight. If you have no need of my
help with the drudgery or chores, I’ll find a bus back to the city.”

“I didn’t mean it that way. Please,
Derek, you know me better than that.”
Nancy
wanted to throw her arms around him and ask him to forgive her and have
everything be the way it was this morning.

“But I’m afraid, Madame, that you don’t
know me at all.”

As
Nancy
looked at his cold expression she realized that she’d fallen for a man who
could never feel the way about her that he did about
Prescott
and that was the moment that her
heart broke for the first time in her life. The anguish was so overwhelming and
surprising that
Nancy
didn’t understand what she was feeling for long seconds. She blinked back tears
and composed herself. “I’ll give you a ride if you want to go.”

“Yes, I’d like to.”

“I’m happy that you and Prescott are
working things out.” Her words sounded shrill to her own ears. “We’ll have
lunch and go. Where’s Eugenia?”

“She’s playing on the patio.”

“I’ll take out our drinks.”

Nancy
’s hand trembled as she poured lemonade
for them. She carried the drinks to the back door. Thankfully, the cover was
secured atop the spa. She hadn’t even thought of all the dangers that lurked in
everyday life.

Eugenia was lying on the deck, her
little legs kicking as she tried to wiggle under the crawlspace of the house.

“Eugenia, what are you doing? Get out
from under there.”

The child grunted in her effort to
squeeze further under the house.

“Eugenia Carrington!”
Nancy
put the drinks on the teak table and
went to the girl. “Come out of there right now.” When Eugenia continued her
wiggling,
Nancy
gripped her waist and pulled her out.

Eugenia was holding a striped kitten and
smiling triumphantly. “Look what I found!”

The kitten twisted and scratched
Eugenia, but the girl kept holding it.

“Let go of that thing! It’s probably got
diseases.”

“No!”

“Give it to me.”
Nancy
really didn’t want to touch the cat,
which was obviously feral.

“No! You said I could have a kitten.”

“No, I didn’t. I said you could ask your
mother.”
Nancy
tried to take the kitten from Eugenia, who shrieked, “No!” and darted away.
Nancy
followed right
behind and they both crashed into Derek who was coming out of the house with
their lunch.

The tray of sandwiches clattered to the
deck, and Eugenia deftly squeezed past Derek into the house and up the stairs.

“What was that?” Derek said as
Nancy
rubbed her arm.

“She found a wild kitten under the house.
It’s probably carrying bubonic plague.”
Nancy
chased after the girl with Derek right behind.

The door to the bathroom was closed and
Nancy
heard water running.
She tried the doorknob, but it was locked. “Eugenia, open this door this
minute.”

“Go way!”

Nancy
looked at Derek and said, “That tub is
big enough for you to drown in.”

“Have you been plotting my demise?” he
said. “The lock is simple. Stay here and I’ll find something to jimmy it.”

“Try the utility room. There are tools
there.”
Nancy
banged on the bathroom door. She heard the cat yowling and Eugenia’s own animal
noises. “Don’t you drown that cat, missy, or you’ll be in serious trouble. You’ll
never eat pudding again. Eugenia!”

Nancy
heard things clunking to the floor. “Eugenia!
Did you break something? What are you doing in there?”

Derek was back in a few minutes with a
small screwdriver.
Nancy
stepped aside as he put it in a small hole in the knob and fiddled with it. He
turned the handle and the door opened.

Eugenia, her clothes drenched, was in
the tub with the water running. She held the angry, soapy kitten and said, “Now
you are all nice and clean.” Containers of bath products were on the floor, and
a shampoo bottle spilled its fragrant contents on the tiles.

Derek turned off the water and
Nancy
hauled Eugenia,
still holding the kitten, out of the tub.
Nancy
wrapped the animal in a towel and handed it to Derek. She clutched the wet
child to her. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again!”

After
Nancy
had washed and dressed Eugenia’s
scratches with antibacterial ointment and dressed her in dry clothes, she went
to find Derek. He’d made a collar and leash for the cat out of a length of
nylon cord and tied the creature to a chair leg.

“My kitten!” Eugenia said.

“She found her treasure after all,”
Derek said.

“I am not keeping that thing. Do you and
Prescott want it?”

“
Prescott
is allergic to moggies.”

The adults were both somber as they
salvaged lunch.
Nancy
tore at the crusts on her sandwich to make it seem that she’d eaten a few bites.
Then she and her assistant packed their things, put the kitten in a cardboard
box with air holes poked into the top, and got in the car.

The drive home seemed to take forever
and not just because of weekend traffic. Eugenia was happy in the backseat with
the cat beside her, but Nancy and Derek were silent for most of the journey.

Maybe Derek wasn’t angry with her, but
preoccupied with the thought of seeing his wayward lover again. The thought of
Derek with someone else…Derek kissing someone else. Derek laughing in bed with
someone else.
Nancy
felt sick. It was the curvy road. She focused on driving and kept quiet.

When they got to the city, she said,
“You know, I’ve never seen where you live.”

“It’s best if I go there by myself today.
I’ll take the bus from the Château.”

“I am going to show Miss Wiggles my
kitten,” Eugenia said.

“You are not keeping that animal.”

“You promised.”

“I did not.”

Eugenia began kicking the back of the
passenger seat and
Nancy
wondered how they had gone from an idyllic morning on the beach to this. “Eugenia,
you’re going to have a time out when we go home!”

Derek helped
Nancy
unload the car and carry things
upstairs. “Thank you for the holiday,” he said. His blue, blue eyes didn’t meet
hers. “I shall see you Monday morning.”

She wanted him to stay. She wanted him
to smile at her and like her again, and call her Mrs. Carrington-Chambers in
that teasing tone. “Last night...” she began, but what could she say? “I hope
everything goes well with
Prescott
.”

He nodded and left.
Nancy
heard a ripping sound. She looked
around the room and saw the kitten climbing on her custom drapes, while Eugenia
giggled.

Nancy
could have screamed. She wanted to
scream. But a lady doesn’t scream when her unexpected houseguest destroys her
furnishings and the gay object of her desire returns to his boyfriend.

Chapter 19: Must-Haves for Luxurious Living

Nancy
made scrambled eggs for dinner. Even
the cat ate them.
Nancy
was so worn out that she went to bed at the same time as Eugenia. She could
hear the kitten mewling faintly in the laundry room. It stopped after an hour. Derek
and Prescott might be going out to a club now, or having a romantic dinner by
candlelight.

Prescott
was probably looking into Derek’s
l’heure bleue eyes and planning their future.
Nancy
should be thankful that this thing with
Derek had stopped now, before she became too entangled with him. Because he was
gay and he was staff. Somehow that wasn’t important anymore.

She put the butterfly pin in the drawer
of her writing desk, because she wanted it to be close to her.

On Monday, Derek came to the apartment
and went about his job as if they’d never shared any intimate moments. He made
a cappuccino for her, but not for himself, and sat at his desk methodically
going through his tasks for the fundraiser.

Nancy
tried to keep her voice normal as she
called the caterer and the photographer and set up meetings. Sometimes she
glanced over at Derek, but he kept his eyes on his computer.

GP stopped by to say he’d hired people
from a welfare-to-work program to act as costumed extras at the event. He
talked excitedly about giving people employable skills, but
Nancy
had a hard time following the
conversation with Derek sitting silently across the room.

 
Nancy
said, “It will be so fabulous to see the grit and
depravity of the
Barbary Coast
,” but her
fabulous sounded hollow to her own ears and she said, “If you’ll excuse me,
I’ll get water for us. GP, do you like sparkling or flat?”

Derek stood up and said, “I can—”

“No, I’ll do it,”
Nancy
said. “Sparkling is better.”

She went to the kitchen, opened the
refrigerator, and stared at the contents without seeing. The cold hit her and
she grabbed the closest tall bottle, which was shoved in the back behind the
juice bottles and milk.

She poured the water into three glasses
and added ice cubes and slices of lime. She dropped neon-bright straws in the
glasses and carried them out. When she was in the dining room, she heard GP
talking to Derek and paused to readjust the slippery glasses.

GP’s voice was clear. “
Nancy
saved me, you know.”

There was a low rumble of Derek’s reply.

The GP spoke again, “No, really. I had,
like, no social skills and my family had gotten buckets of money, but I didn’t
know how to act with these rich kids. My roommates used to torture me every
fucking day. I was going to drop out, but
Nancy
started talking to me. She’d come sit on my bed and talk about her classes,
clothes, movies. She told me that I was her tech czar and had to update her
stuff.”

This time she heard Derek saying, “You
served a purpose for her.”

That’s how he saw her, as using people
for drudgery and chores.

GP said, “Yeah, I thought so, too. That’s
what she wanted me to think because it made me more comfortable when I felt
useful. But when other people saw that
Nancy
was my friend, their whole attitude changed. Even my jackass roommates started
including me in on things.”

Nancy
moved a chair loudly so they would hear
her coming and then took the water into the living room.