“Don’t goad me, Holly. I’m trying to apologize. Besides which, you’re the least of my worries right now.”
“You worry too much. What’s bothering you now?”
“Maggie, for one thing. Have you seen her since my wedding?”
“I don’t think anyone has.”
“I have. She was so damned vague on the phone that I flew to New York a couple of weeks ago, and I was horrified. She looks terrible. She’s chopped off all her beautiful hair, lost too much weight, and seems to spend all her time either alone in her apartment or at some damned karate place.”
“Karate?” Holly echoed, interested for a moment. “Sounds okay to me.”
“She looks like a … a nun. All her clothes are black or gray, her apartment has nothing in it, and she has this sort of distance that I couldn’t even begin to break through. Something’s seriously wrong, Holly.”
“Maybe she’s in love.”
“That’s not it. Maggie had help getting us out of that mess in Chicago. She had Randall Carter, and I’m not blind. If she’s in love with anyone she’s in love with him, and he’s been off in the Far East for the last few months.”
“So maybe she misses him?” Holly suggested.
“I don’t think so. There’s something else going on between the two of them, and it isn’t as simple as her being in love and missing him. No, it goes deeper than that.”
“Having never met the man, I’ll have to take your word for it. Maybe she’s still mourning Mack. I thought she’d finally gotten over him but maybe not.”
Kate shook her head, and her brown eyes were troubled. “All I know is something’s terribly wrong, and she won’t tell me what it is, or let me help.”
“Maybe she has to go through it herself,” Holly suggested gently, shaking out her cloud of midnight-black hair.
“If she does, she’s going about it the wrong way.”
“I don’t see what we can do about it. She’s in New York and we’re here. In four months I haven’t gotten anything but her answering machine and breezy little postcards saying exactly nothing.”
“There’s not much we can do, I suppose, short of flying back east. Much as I’m tempted, I simply can’t do that right now, not with starting a new job.” Kate sighed. “We’re just going to have to count on Maggie’s usual level-headedness and concentrate on Sybil.”
“Maybe you’d better concentrate on Sybil,” Holly said, pushing away from her dressing table and rising to her willowy five foot nine. “I’m busy enough on my own.”
“Don’t you care that our mother is botching her life?”
“So what else is new?” She headed toward one wall of closets and pulled the mirrored door open, staring at the racks of brightly colored clothing with a bored expression. “She’s gotten through fifty-seven years without our help, I think she’d be happy to continue that way.”
“I’m worried about Tim Flynn.”
“Don’t be. The man looks just like Mother’s usual type.”
“You’ve seen him? When?” Kate demanded. “I thought Mother wasn’t letting anyone near him.”
“She didn’t have much choice in the matter. I needed to borrow her emeralds and she forgot to messenger them over, so I braved those damned attack dogs and went to get them myself. I saw the great Flynn himself out by the pool. He didn’t see me, and Sybil refused to introduce us. Said he’s shy.” Holly snorted with indelicate amusement. “He looked about as shy as a barracuda. Very handsome, of course, but that’s to be expected. Sybil doesn’t mess around with anything less than physical perfection.”
“Don’t you think she’s a little too carried away with this one?” Kate persisted. “I just keep feeling something’s wrong.”
“You’re being paranoid, Kate.” Holly pulled out a shimmering aqua silk dress that mirrored her eyes. “Sybil’s had him for four months now. If she runs true to form it should be just about time for her to dump him. Then you can worry about the next one.”
“I’m still worried about this one, thank you,” she snapped. “You realize Caleb and Chrissie are waiting for us and have been for the last forty-five minutes while you’ve been primping?”
Holly smiled her ravishing smile, and Kate stared at her stonily. Holly Bennett, Sybil Bennett’s third daughter, was, by anyone’s estimate, one of the most beautiful women in the world, and strangers and friends succumbed to her charming smile and astonishing beauty. She was the daughter who most resembled their famous actress mother, with her midnight-black hair and aquamarine eyes. The only one immune to her incredible beauty was her older sister Kate, and even for her it was an uphill battle not to smile back.
“But you know Caleb has a marvelous time with Chrissie,” she said calmly. “Stop frowning, Kate. It adds lines, and you already have enough character on your face.”
“Don’t push your luck, Holly,” she snapped. “Will you put that damned outfit on and get going? I’m starving.”