Sara asked if he wanted her to do the preliminary research on the island, but R.J. said no, that he’d do it. He wanted her to clear his schedule— which meant he got to sit on a couch and play on the Web, while she had to deal with people who were angry because their appointments had been canceled.
All in all, Sara’s workload doubled. Since she had no secretarial skills to speak of, R.J. used Sara as a sort of living appointment book. He expected her to remember where he was to be every second of the day, where everything he owned was, and she was to make everything work. This meant doing things like getting down on her hands and knees with a screwdriver to fix his swivel chair. When he suggested that he keep sitting in it while she worked, she gave him her best imitation of Ariel’s icy look. He blinked at her a couple of times, then got up, chuckling, and went to the other side of the room. He loved to order electronic gadgets over the Internet, but he didn’t want to bother reading the instructions, so Sara had to figure out how to work whatever he’d bought, then show him how to use it. He often bought a second one of whatever it was and offered it to her, but she refused to accept it. Her philosophy was that when someone gives you a gift, they want something in return. She didn’t want to owe R.J. anything.
At home—not that she could still call it that— she had to deal with Ariel.
For two hours before Sara went to work and until after midnight every night, they rehearsed. Neither was a better actor than the other. Sara’d had years of professional training, but Ariel had had twenty-four years of lying to her mother, so it amounted to the same thing.
They began to put on little impromptu skits in public. They had to put a scarf and dark glasses over one of them when they left the building so no one would realize there were two of them, but once they were outside, they tried to become each other. Their favorite pantomime was that Sara was a rich snot, and Ariel was her overworked personal assistant. They got so good at it that one day Sara said, “Really, Ariel, can’t you do anything correctly?” and Ariel looked shocked. She said that Sara had sounded so much like her mother that … she couldn’t go on. Sara said, “I sounded so much like her that you were overcome with homesickness?”
“Why, no,” Ariel said. “You were—” When Ariel realized that Sara was making a joke, she looked at her cousin in astonishment, then they laughed together and Sara began to think that maybe they could carry this off.
Sara had told Ariel that all she really wanted was a break from R.J., but the truth was that what she really and truly wanted was to meet David. Her best acting was when she pretended to be unconcerned and said, “Oh, yes, what about David? Shouldn’t you tell me about him?”
Ariel didn’t seem to think David was of any importance. He’d been told that they were going to exchange places so he knew everything, but Sara wanted to hear every word about him. She told Ariel that it was the same way that she needed to know everything about R.J. When Ariel was reluctant to talk about David, Sara thought maybe she was jealous, but when Ariel started talking, Sara couldn’t stop her.
After days of hearing about him, Sara thought his personality was even better than his looks—if that was possible. He was sweet and kind, thoughtful, intelligent, and willing to help. In other words, he was everything R.J. wasn’t. She tried to tell Ariel what a pain R.J. was, but Ariel wouldn’t listen to her. For a while Sara thought maybe Ariel’s wanting to trade places was because she was one of those superficial women who’d fallen for him, but Sara didn’t think so. She thought Ariel wanted to get away from her mother and to see how the normal world lived. As for R.J., if Ariel had any romantic feelings for him after all she’d been told, then she deserved what she got.
Two days before they were to leave for Arundel, Ariel told Sara she wanted her to go to King’s Isle too. Ariel’s calmness when she mentioned that island showed how far they’d progressed in becoming each other. When Sara first told her R.J.’s friend was thinking about buying a place called King’s Isle, Ariel had gone ballistic. “He’s crazy if he thinks he can deal with those people!” Ariel said, starting to pace the room. “Didn’t R.J. ask anyone in Arundel what those people are like?” “Anyone” meant the elite of Arundel, the people Sara was to pretend to be one of.
“You don’t know them,” Ariel said, her voice pleading. “The people on that island are awful. There are terrible stories about them. People who go there disappear. They say they drown, but anyone who lives near Arundel knows the truth.”
“Ah,” Sara said, suppressing a yawn. Hadn’t she seen this on a late-night movie? She hadn’t had much sleep since Ariel arrived and she was having trouble concentrating.
It took Ariel a while to calm down and by the time they were about to leave, Sara thought maybe Ariel had given up her childish beliefs about King’s Isle, but she hadn’t. When it got closer to the time of the exchange, Ariel again started voicing her fear of the little island. She said, “You and David have to go with us to that place. You can’t leave R.J. and me alone there. You have to persuade R.J. to let you and David go with us.”
Sara did not want to ask R.J. for a favor. She talked, she reasoned, she begged, she even cried, but Ariel couldn’t be moved. Sara thought about backing out, but by that time she genuinely wanted to do the exchange.
Maybe David and she would get along so well that she could … what? Marry him and join the society that her father had so hated? At the thought of her father’s hatred of Arundel, she smiled. He’d only hated it because they hadn’t let him into it. Sara knew that if her mother’s father had welcomed him, given him a house and a job,
he would have loved it. He would have had chances in his life, but he’d messed them all up. But Sara didn’t want to mess up the one and only opportunity she had of meeting a truly nice man. Her friends at work were trying Internet dating, but so far Sara hadn’t seen any good results from that. Ariel had given Sara an opportunity to be part of a society she couldn’t otherwise penetrate, and a chance to meet men, David among them, who, in normal circumstances, wouldn’t allow people like Sara into their world.
But no matter what she said, Sara couldn’t change Ariel’s mind about David and her going to the island with her and R.J. The only way Ariel would continue with the masquerade was if Sara agreed to ask R.J. if she could go with him. “He’ll need a guide,” Ariel said, “so why not your cousin who lives in Arundel?”
“And her boyfriend?” Sara asked in disbelief.
“Tell him you’ll quit if he doesn’t take us.”
In the end, Sara was too worn down by both Ariel and R.J. to say no to much of anything. Sara was exhausted by the time she and R.J. left for North Carolina. When they got to the beautiful bed-and-breakfast in Arundel that Ariel had recommended, Sara was feeling guilty for what they were about to do to him, but then R.J. started his usual litany of complaints and Sara couldn’t stand him again. Who could hate such a beautiful place? She told him she was going to bed, then went to her own room.
Ariel was waiting for her in her room. If she’d been anyone else, Sara would have thought she’d climbed in the window, but she knew that Princess Ariel would never do such a thing.
“He agreed, didn’t he?” Ariel asked as she handed Sara the pageboy wig.
Sara didn’t know what would have happened if she’d told her no. She said that R.J. had agreed and that tomorrow morning the four of them were heading to King’s Isle.
“And may the Lord have mercy on us all,” Ariel said. In the next second, she raised a window. “Sorry, but it’s the only way you can leave the room and not be seen.” Sara started to protest, but then she glanced outside and there in the dark was David, his arms raised upward, as if to catch her. Sara wanted to put on a white dress, stand on the ledge, and fall backward into his arms.
Ariel misunderstood her look. “It’s not that bad,” she said. “I mean, the part about my house and my mother isn’t so bad. King’s Isle is horrible, but the rest will be all right. You’ll see. Gather your courage and do it.”
Ariel meant that Sara was to gather her courage to be able to jump into David’s waiting arms. Golly gee, Sara thought. I hope I can do it.
Sara wiped the smile off her face, replaced it with a look of resignation, put the wig on, then fell out the window as gracefully as she could. It would have worked better if her foot hadn’t caught on a vine that was devouring the building. She ended up upside down, with one foot in the vine, one flailing about, and the top half of her in David’s strong arms.
“Really, Sara!” Ariel hissed from the window. “You’re going to wake everyone up.”
So much for sympathy from my dear cousin! Sara thought. She wanted to make a snappy comeback, but the sensation of being held by David rendered her incapable of speech. He leaned across her to disentangle her foot, then pulled her more fully into his arms—strong arms—all while apologizing for not catching her properly.
As he carried her to his car, she snuggled her head against his shoulder, and thought that maybe she could forgive him for quite a few things.