“Willa also disappeared,” Clive said.
Nadine shot him a nasty look. “Only after you dropped her. What was it you told her? ‘I’m not going to marry you.’ No sentiment from you! Then you held out your hand for the return of the ring. Which, I might add, wasn’t even a diamond.”
Clive seemed unperturbed. “Ah, the cruelty and poverty of youth. I do hope she hasn’t spent her fortune on...on cats. My bank and I could help her.” He looked at Sara. “We don’t know where she went or what happened to her. Wasn’t she invited here?”
“Yes,” Sara said. “She said she’d be here but she didn’t say when.”
Nadine was leaning back on her arms. “I wonder how she’s made it through life. She had no defenses, no self-protection. And she was the most socially awkward person I’d ever met. What else could she do but go home? After the way Nicky treated the sister, I’m sure they butchered her. We were the only real family she had.” She cut a look at Clive but he ignored her.
“Cried,” Byon said. “My guess is that she cried for years. She was truly heartbroken. She’d lost her friends and her engagement. It would have been a marriage in hell but—”
“Maybe not,” Clive snapped. “We could have—”
Byon sneered at him. “You think if she’d bought you some country estate you w
ould have been kind to her? Treated her like a human being? Or would you have blamed her for...?” He waved his hand. “For all the misery you think other people have given you?”
“I was treated like dirt,” Clive said loudly. “You threw me out of the Pack.”
“Darling,” Byon said, “you were never in the Pack.”
Clive moved as though he was going to hit Byon. Jack looked like he was ready to get between them.
Nadine’s laughter calmed them down. “Oh how I’ve missed this! What a dull life I’ve had. Cutting the ribbons at the village fête. So boring.” She looked at Sara. “We weren’t perfect but we did the best we knew how. And yes, Willa was our audience. She applauded Byon’s plays, she professed love for a man none of us liked—sorry Clive—and championed lazy Nicky against his father.”
“And don’t forget that she looked at you like you were Venus come to earth,” Byon said.
“There was that.” Nadine was smiling in memory.
“What about Diana?” Kate asked.
“And Sean?” Jack asked.
No one responded.
“Anyone for a tart?” Byon’s tone made it clear the conversation was over.
Ten
As soon as lunch was finished, the Americans escaped to Sara’s room. It was the first time Jack and Kate had been in it and it was impressive. It was enormous, with a four-poster bed draped in cream-colored silk trimmed in blue. The walls were upholstered in blue silk. All the furniture was antique and exquisite.
There was a sitting area of a plump couch and chairs covered in blue-and-green chintz.
Sara took the couch, picked up her laptop, inserted the SD disk from her Sony a9 camera and began to look at her photos. “Well?” she asked.
Kate and Jack were in chairs across from each other.
“What did you think of how they met Willa?” Jack asked.
“I think you mean ‘Poor Willa,’” Kate said. “Maybe it should be one word—Poorwilla.”
Jack gave a one-sided smile. “It’s a wonder they didn’t nickname her PW.”
“They used her,” Sara said, “but it was better than she’d had. I know all about families that choose one child over another.” She glanced at Kate. “Sorry.” It was Kate’s father, Sara’s younger brother, who had been the favored child.
“That’s okay,” Kate said. “My dad probably deserved it.”
Sara laughed. “Easy to get along with, charming but devious. Maybe you’re right.” She looked at them. “So who’s on first?” She was playing on the old joke to ask who would tell first.