Jacqui stayed silent.
"Anyway, what did you want to tell me, 'Liza? Why shouldn't I be mad?" Mara asked, starting to braid Eliza's hair, which was hanging over the back of her seat. "What happened in Palm Beach?"
Eliza sucked her teeth. "Over winter break I ... I ..." Eliza felt her throat dry up. She exhaled. "I decided not to work for the Perrys this summer. I'm not going to be an au pair."
"What?!" Mara and Jacqui both said, shocked for very different reasons.
Eliza gnawed on her bottom lip. She'd meant to tell Mara-- really she had. She'd been going to confess everything and get it over with. Mara was different from Lindsay and Taylor, those two-faced former best friends who'd turned on Eliza last year.
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Eliza always felt like she could tell Mara anything. Okay, so maybe they hadn't kept in touch all that much over the school year, but that was irrelevant, Eliza almost felt like the year apart hadn't even happened.
Eliza shrugged her shoulders helplessly at Jacqui. She knew Jacqui would think she was a coward and a liar. She could live with that, but she couldn't live with Mara's disappointment. She was just too scared to hurt her friend. Besides, she reasoned, maybe keeping her mouth shut was the best option. That way, Mara and Ryan could get back together without having any bad feelings between them. If Eliza ignored the problem, then it would surely just go away, right?
"What are you doing, then?" Mara asked, interrupting Eliza's internal debate.
"I'm working at Seventh Circle, this new nightclub," Eliza said proudly. "It's really cool--I'll be learning all about public relations and stuff. I don't really need the money from the Perrys this summer. My dad's doing better, and we might even move back to the city next year."
Mara slumped in the back seat. "Jac, you knew about this?" Jacqui nodded.
"And you didn't tell me?" Mara whined.
"I'm sorry--I thought Eliza e-mailed you." Jacqui shot Eliza another daggerlike look. Then again, if Mara was this upset about not knowing about Eliza's summer plans, Jacqui was kind of glad she hadn't told her about Palm Beach.
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"That's great and all," Mara said. "I mean, I'm really happy for you lize. But what are we going to do without you? Who's going to scare William into submission? Are we ever going to see you?"
"What are you talking about? We'll see each other all the time," Eliza promised.
Eliza turned into the Perry driveway, where several expensive cars were parked. The newest addition to the fleet was a shiny new Toyota Prius, a gas/electric hybrid car that was the latest Hamptons automobile obsession. Priuses were politically correct, environmentally friendly, and incredibly hard to find-- there was a six-month waiting list, and cars were selling for fifty percent over sticker price. Next to the Prius was Ryan Perry's Aston Martin. But since Ryan was a touchy subject, nobody said anything.
Laurie, Anna Perry's personal assistant, a frowsy-haired fortyyear-old woman who wore a cell phone around her neck on a leash and lived vicariously through her employers, greeted them at the front door.
"Girls! Welcome back! Eliza, what are you doing here? Anna and the kids arrive tomorrow morning from the city. They were supposed to come in today, but Kevin needed the heli for some emergency meeting in Connecticut, and Anna didn't want to sit in traffic. Ryan and the twins are around somewhere. Jacqui, Mara, you have the night off after getting the kids' rooms ready."
They all followed Laurie inside and found the Perry house
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the same as ever, with immense floral arrangements in every corner, the striped zebrawood floors polished to a high sheen, every room perfectly appointed and camera-ready for an Architectural Digest shoot. Laurie told them that the Perrys paid a skeleton staff to keep the house looking this way even in the dead of winter. It was important that the house be prepared for their arrival at any moment, even if months passed between visits during the off-season.
"What's that noise?" Mara asked. "Is that a cement mixer?" Her father was in construction, and she recognized the sound.
Laurie grimaced and put her hands to her ears. "It's the Reynolds Castle. They're not supposed to have construction after five. I've already told Anna we should report it to city hall."
The three girls scurried to the picture window and spied a humongous structure being built over a traditional Victorian house. The sprawling wood skeleton, complete with turrets, towers, and what looked like a moat, seemed to span the entire length of the property, all the way down to the beachfront. A huge crane was lifting up several gold-plated Grecian columns. They stared, fascinated, as a forty-foot-wide stained glass cathedral window was positioned on the top floor.
"It's a shame what they're doing to the old Rockefeller place," Laurie sniffed, as insulted as a true East Hampton blueblood. "It's a monstrosity!"
"Here, I'll help you guys with your things," Eliza said, grabbing Jacqui's makeup bag and Mara's magazines.
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The girls walked through the kitchen to the back door that led out to the terrace and garden. The grounds were pristine, the croquet set laid out for a game, and in the distance, the tennis and basketball courts shone with new paint.