"Why would you do that?" I said. filling my voice with new strength and assurance.
"What?"
"Interfere in your brother's love life so often." "I told you To protect him. To protect my family."
"Really? Could it be that you are the one with a sick fascination for a brother? That you are the one who dotes unnaturally on him? Despite what you think of yourself and your precious Palm Beach reputation. I have just come from lunch with a group of women who think that of you,"
"You're lying."
"I can see to it that you hear it from some of them, if you like. You're frustrated in your own marriage. Your husband has been heard saving things about your cold bed. You're driving me out because you want Thatcher for yourself."
"You sick. evil--" "Me?"
I stood up.
"Hardly me. I don't hire the maid in your house to listen in on conversations and steal things to give to me. But. I venture to say, some of the servants here don't feel all that devotion to you that you think they do, and they could be coaxed to talk about how you show excessive affection for Thatcher," I said in a threatening tone.
"You wouldn't dare attempt such a thing. I'll tear you to bits out there."
"Maybe and maybe not. Maybe we'd both be bloodied beyond repair, but don't worry. I'm becoming a therapist. Years from now, I'll treat you pro bona."
She stared at up at me, the doubt, the indecision and insecurity finally getting a beachhead on the shores of her evil mind.
I glanced at my watch,
"It's a little after three. By six o'clock today I will expect those pictures to be delivered to me. If I ever hear mention of them again or any more slimy rumors about my poor brother and me, I'll become a one-woman tabloid newspaper. You won't be able to go to a single charity ball, a single dinner party, a single restaurant in this town and not wonder about the eyes on you and the whispering behind your back.
"I could live anywhere," I said cheerfully, "even Boca, but you, you'd die if you left your precious Palm Beach home."
The expression on her face made me smile.
"That's right. Whitney. Think of it Both Thatcher and I could practice our professions anywhere. were can you practice your profession, Whitney, except here... and hell?"
I turned and walked away, paused and looked back at her. "Six o'clock. and I mean not a minute after," I said.
My heels clicked on the tiles, sounding like bullets of rain behind me.
15
A Second Honeymoon
.
"I find myself continually underestimating how
complicated and complex family relationships can be," Professor Fuentes said after listening to me describe my conflict with Whitney. We were in a cafe near the campus. "In fact." he said, looking up from his cup of coffee and smiling at me with that gentle ripple that traveled from his lips up into his eyes. "I daresay Whitney doesn't understand her motivations herself.
"Without even having met her," he continued. "I think she really believes she is doing something good for her family, her brother in particular. If I was practicing therapy and had her as a client_. I would probably suggest she is using that as a rationalization for darker purposes, and it would be best for her to admit that, to stop lying to herself."
"Yes, eventually you might help her, if it's possible to help her, but by then it would be too late for poor Linden and myself." I said.
He nodded. "Probably. I think you were right to face up to her. to confront her and demonstrate that you are not some helpless pawn. At least you will get her to retreat to whispers. but I'm not optimistic that she will stop altogether." he said.
"I know that."
"For now. it would be wise to continue to work on Linden's development of outside interests. Nothing would work faster and more successfully than his finding someone else in whom he could invest his interest and attention."
"I know that, too."