Willow (DeBeers 1)

He laughed and led us to a table in the gazebo room.

"Anybody who's anybody in this town will be here one night or the other during the week." Thatcher said. "The combined wealth of the people eating and drinking here is probably close to the gross national product of most Third World nations."

I glanced around and mentally agreed.

"Despite the location, the prices aren't outrageous," Thatcher said when the waiter brought us a menu and asked if we wanted a cocktail.

Thatcher looked to me.

"I'm not sure," I said.

He ordered a Cosmopolitan, and I acted as if I knew what it was and ordered the same.

"So," he said. "aside from the geriatric Don Juan at the pool, did you get some rest?"

"Yes, but I'm not here for rest," I said.

"Still disappointed about the Montgomery's?" he asked.

I looked up. "Yes. I can't help wondering about them, how they ended up this way."

He shrugged. "Most of what I know about their past. I've been told, you understand. I was only a little boy when Grace Montgomery returned from what everyone knows was a mental clinic in South Carolina.

"In the beginning. Grace's mother. Jackie Lee, attempted to fool Palm Beach society by putting out the story Grace was suffering from a brain tumor and had to have a delicate operation, but as time passed, the reality overtook the fiction. and Jackie Lee fell off the A-list."

"What does that mean exactly?"

"In Palm Beach, that's akin to haying leprosy. She was no longer invited to the important balls, dinners, and parties. She was already involved with Kirby, who everyone believes seduced Grace and made her pregnant, which might have exacerbated her mental condition, When Jackie Lee's fortune was depleted and her reputation was lost. Kirby decided to seek greener pastures."

"When was Linden born?"

"About a year before Grace went to the clinic. Jackie Lee was able to perpetrate her fiction for quite a while, my parents say. because Grace was so withdrawn and such a recluse: none of her

contemporaries saw or socialized with her for months and months. She was so rarely seen that she was forgotten, so she could have been pregnant and no one would have known."

'"Why did they permit her to have a child?"

"Bunny, my mother. says Grace kept her pregnancy a secret and actually wore girdles. She says it was part of the girl's madness or shame. It's not uncommon for a woman to blame herself for a man's aggression. I have had to talk some of my clients into going after the men in their lives, and justly so."

"What did Jackie Lee do to make it look as if she were pregnant, stuff pillows in her dress?"

"Exactly."

'That's hard to believe.'

"Not really. Take it from one who knows." he said. "For the residents, creating fantasies about themselves is a Palm Beach parlor game, and even if you know someone is fabricating, you go along with it It's almost being considerate to do so."

"What does Linden do?" I asked. "I mean, just paint, or did he go to school for something?"

Thatcher laughed.

"What's so funny? You said he didn't make much money painting, didn't you?"

"You can always tell when someone isn't from Palm Beach, People here don't do anything. They live to spend, not earn. If you don't know that, you're not from Palm Beach."

"But you said the Montgomerys were destitute."

"In Palm Beach terms but not in actuality. They have a handsome income from the rental and some trust and Social Security funds. Linden is just an artist, or at least he believes he is. As I said, occasionally, people buy one of his paintings as a form of amusement. They are all so dark and depressing, but they've become something to stimulate talk at a cocktail party. If yon really are interested. I'll take you to the Richard Hanson Gallery on Worth Avenue and you can see a few."