It was Leslie who broke into the gloom that had descended on the three of them. “How about if we forget about our troubles for a couple of hours and go look at this town? Maybe we can buy each other birthday gifts. Anybody know what she’d like to have for the big four-o?”
“A new start?” Madison asked.
“Hmph!” Ellie said. “I’d just like revenge. No! I’d like to have justice!”
“I think I saw both those items in the little store on the corner. You know, the one by the fishmonger?”
For a second both Madison and Ellie blinked at her; then they smiled.
“Okay,” Ellie said, “I know when I’m losing my audience. Actually, I think I saw a little lamp shaped like an alligator in one window. I’d like to investigate that because my editor collects alligator things.”
“In that case, I met a guy from Fort Lauderdale she might like,” Madison said, smiling as she got up, then pushed the chair back.
“Sounds like the plot of the last book my editor didn’t buy,” Ellie said as she, too, got up. Then, as she turned and looked out the kitchen window, she thought that she felt oddly lighter. Maybe the telling of what had been done to her had released some of the bitterness that filled her because of the injustice of the court system. Of course she’d told every detail to Jeanne, but, somehow, telling someone you were paying a hundred and fifty bucks an hour wasn’t as satisfying as telling these two old friends.
“I’ll go shopping with you two, but on one condition,” Leslie said. When Madison and Ellie turned to look at her, she was standing with her hands on her hips and glaring at them.
“What condition?” both Madison and Ellie asked.
“That no one—and I mean that, no one—asks me to make an intimate, soul-searching exposé of my marriage.”
At that Ellie looked at Madison. “She always has to win, doesn’t she?”
“Mmmmm,” Madison said, then smiled at Leslie. “So what did you say when your husband took over the summerhouse you had restored?”
“While she was pregnant,” Ellie said to Madison. “Don’t forget that part.”
Leslie narrowed her eyes at them. “The next one to talk about me gets to wash dishes tonight.”
“Alligators!” Ellie said. “That’s the only thing that’s going to be on my mind.”
“Is there anything to do in this town?” Madison asked. “I mean, you’ve heard my story and now we’ve heard Ellie’s and if Betty Crocker here won’t reveal anything about her life, what are we going to do with these remaining two days?”
Smiling, Leslie took both women by the arm and led them toward the front door. “How about if we find three sea captains named Josiah and have mad affairs with them?”
“Count me in!” Ellie said instantly, then heard herself laugh. It was the first time she’d had a lighthearted thought about sex in three whole years.
“I’m with you!” Madison said, and they left the house laughing together.
Part Two
Sixteen
In the end, they decided to separate for a little exploring and to get together again for lunch. “That way, maybe we’ll have something to talk about besides the rotten part of our lives,” Leslie said.
Of course each woman agreed because she wanted to have time alone to buy birthday gifts for the other two. They decided to meet at one at The Wharf, and laughing, they challenged each other to eat some of the stranger types of seafood offered in Maine.
Leslie headed toward the used-book store that she’d seen down a tiny alleyway, and she hoped that Ellie hadn’t seen it. So what gift did you buy for an internationally famous person? she thought with a sigh.
She was still wondering as she entered the bookstore. As she closed the door behind her, she felt as though she’d entered another time and place. The walls were lined with packed bookcases, and books were everywhere else, on chairs, on the floor, on and under little tables. The shades had been pulled down to protect the books piled high in front of the windows. There were a few ceiling lights and a couple of wall lights that, unless Leslie’s eye was wrong, were antiques and quite valuable.
“May I help you?” came a voice that sounded ancient.
It took Leslie’s eyes a moment to adjust to the low light, and when they did, she saw a little old man, thin to the point of emaciation, but with thick white hair and such an erect carriage that Leslie knew that he’d once been a heart stopper. Something about him made her feel . . . well, pretty. And, compared to him, she was very young.
She gave him a radiant smile. “I’m looking for gifts for two women friends of mine. They both have birthdays tomorrow.”
He was shorter than Leslie, but she had an idea that no woman had ever felt shorter than he. “Could you tell me something about the women? What do they like?”