Chapter 25 #2
After initial greetings, Evalyn invited everyone to join her in the parlor.
Bea motioned to me to follow, but I was deeply aware Evalyn hadn’t invited me with the others.
Perhaps I was overthinking things; she had a large array of important guests after all, and I hardly fit that description.
Still, I followed and managed to secure a seat next to her on the sofa.
She immediately fell into a conversation with a guest to her right, ignoring me entirely.
I minded my posture and smoothed the nonexistent wrinkles in the scarlet fabric of my dress.
As I watched women swan across the room and gentlemen laugh boisterously in corners, I felt increasingly uneasy.
“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?” the woman on Evalyn’s right said during a pause in their conversation.
“Hello,” I said with a faint smile. “I’m Elisabeth.”
Evalyn didn’t make eye contact and waved her hand toward me. “Oh, this is only my jeweler, Lizzie Beaumont of Beaumont Jewelers.”
Only her jeweler? Had I been demoted from friend to “the help” as Gwen had once called me? I was too stunned to realize Evalyn hadn’t bothered to have the courtesy to tell me the woman’s name either.
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” the woman said. “I’m Tabitha.”
“How do you do,” I managed, trying to ignore the panic trickling through me. Evalyn had demoted me, relegating me to just another member of her staff. Carrie had warned me this was Evalyn’s way. I hadn’t wanted to believe it.
“I’ve heard your work is divine,” Tabitha cooed. “I’ll need a new necklace for the gala I’m hosting this autumn. Are you taking new clients?”
I couldn’t tell if she was trying to be polite or if she’d truly heard I was skilled. I glanced at Evalyn. She avoided my eyes and looked around the room.
“Yes, I’d be delighted to show you the Beaumont collection,” I said, my stomach churning.
“Let’s set a date,” Tabitha said, her tone eager. “By the way, your dress and hair are lovely. You look a bit like Evie. Has anyone told you that?”
“Doesn’t she though?” Gwen added. “Our little Lizzie was once a caterpillar but now she’s our butterfly.”
“Careful, you two,” Evalyn said, “I know I’ve done good work here, but you’ll give Lizzie a big head.”
I felt my cheeks go hot with as much embarrassment as irritation.
A big head? Suddenly it was clear that Evalyn didn’t know me at all, and it was obvious she didn’t care to.
In fact, I couldn’t remember her asking me a single question about myself.
I was nothing but a passing amusement, and her interest in me was already evaporating.
She wanted to keep me at my lowly position, to keep me dependent on her.
She wanted everyone beholden to her, just as Carrie had warned me she would.
The power I felt dressed in Evalyn’s clothes and Father’s jewelry vanished.
All I wanted was to be me, to look like me, to be home, away from the never-ending charade.
Sympathy flashed across Tabitha’s face, and she changed the subject. “Are there any new jewelry pieces you think I’d like? Anything specific?”
I eyed the diamond necklace stacked with baguettes that came to a V a few inches below her throat and knew precisely what she’d like. “My father has been working on a new exquisite emerald necklace, bracelet, and earring set.”
The truth was he had been working on the set since last summer, but he’d abandoned it. Now he was too busy poring over the sketches for his new collection.
Evalyn’s head snapped in my direction. “Why did you keep that news all to yourself? I’d like to see it, too.”
Of course she would. She couldn’t let anyone else purchase a new item unless she had a chance to first.
“I’d be happy to show it to you.” I touched Evalyn’s hand, making a show of our “friendship,” despite the many snubs she’d delivered that night.
She withdrew her hand. “Why don’t I take a look at it tomorrow. I can stop by the boutique on my way to meet Carrie and some friends for lunch.”
A lunch I wasn’t invited to either. So it was true; Evalyn was becoming bored with me.
I thought again of Carrie’s warning the morning she had stopped by my workshop.
I could see now she’d told me out of kindness.
She’d wanted to warn me not to become part of a world as shifting as the waves and as perilous as a riptide.
And yet I’d dismissed her warning out of hand.
I was too desperate for work, too desperate for answers, too desperate for approval of who I was and who I wanted to be.
I swallowed the rest of my champagne, trying to quell the panic clogging my throat.
“If you’ll excuse me. I’m off to the ladies’.
” Once in the safety of the hall and out of sight, I inhaled sharply, deciding whether to stay or to go home.
But I’d come all this way, and it would be rude to leave so soon, despite Evalyn’s slights.
With a deep breath, I joined the others as we filtered back to the ballroom with the larger party.
Soon, I found myself receding from the crowd to stand near the window and nibble hors d’oeuvres while I sipped from my champagne glass until the wine grew too warm to drink.
I was biding my time until I might slip away, unnoticed.
As I edged around the exterior wall, I mingled with various guests.
When I glided toward the door to make my exit, a conversation drifted past me, and I stalled beside a waiter carrying a tray of full glasses, pretending to consider another drink.
“Her brother?” Sharon’s voice. “I could see why she had a tryst with him. He was so handsome. Those blue eyes and that smile.”
“He was a golden boy for sure,” Bea replied. “He stood out, even among our husbands, didn’t he?”
They giggled.
I snatched a fresh glass from the waiter’s tray and tucked in against the wall a few feet away, waiting, listening. What golden boy? What brother? Dread pooled in the pit of my stomach.
“Jet was driving like a maniac that night, drunk out of his mind. It’s not at all a surprise that he had an accident.”
Jet? Carrie’s husband? My breath grew shallow.
“No,” Bea said, shaking her head. “Jet doesn’t have it in him.”
“Carrie swears he was out of town that week on business,” Gwen said.
“He was definitely out of town,” Bea confirmed. “Ned was with him.”
Sharon’s voice. “Which was how Carrie was able to meet up with her lover boy in the first place.”
My stomach heaved. Did they mean Carrie and Julien? I listened intently, straining over the music and the hundreds of voices. Who else could they mean? There was the accident, the car.
“It’s a shame, isn’t it?” Gwen replied. “Carrie is such a flirt. It’s not as if he was something special to her.”
“Mmm, yes, she’s always been a bored wife. Like the rest of us.”
They giggled again, as if it were the funniest thing in the world to be a bored wife, planning their next tryst.
“I don’t have any interest in dabbling with other men,” Bea said. “One is more than enough. Most of the time, I want him out of my hair, too.”
“Wouldn’t it be grand if they were out of the picture entirely and we lived in one big dormitory?”
“Like college.”
They prattled on, but I didn’t hear the rest.
Carrie’s lover. Jet was driving like a maniac.
Suddenly I couldn’t play coy anymore. I inserted myself into their conversation. “Whose brother? You said Carrie had a lover.”
They glanced at me in surprise. Sharon and Gwen wouldn’t meet my eye.
“Rita’s brother,” Bea said, filling the silence. “He’s a handsome devil. What are you doing there hiding behind the curtains? Come play with us.”
I ignored her attempt at humor. She was lying. I could sense it in the way she wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Jet was driving drunk?” I persisted.
“Darling, he’s always driving drunk,” Bea said. “The lot of them are. He wrecked his car not long ago.”
“We aren’t exactly angels in that department either, are we?” Gwen said, and they all laughed.
My instincts flared, and I had to push them for more information. I had to know for sure that they weren’t referring to Julien. “Carrie’s lover was Rita’s brother?”
“Carrie will be mortified if you bring that up,” Bea replied. “Let’s drop it. How about we dance instead?”
They all smiled at me, put a hand on my arm as if to console me like a child, and directed me across the ballroom.
I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t be in the presence of these people another minute. “I…I’m not feeling well,” I stuttered. “Why don’t you dance without me? I’ll see you soon.”
“Good night, Miss Lizzie,” Bea replied, blowing me a kiss.
The others made their goodbyes but didn’t try to stop me.
I walked to the door as if in a fever dream.
“You seem rather gloomy tonight, ma’am,” Jerry said, as I reached the doorway of the ballroom.
“I don’t feel quite like myself,” I admitted.
“I hope you haven’t come down with something,” he replied. “You’re shivering.”
I was. I couldn’t stop shaking. Carrie and Julien. Jet, the car accident. Did Jet have it in him? I squeezed my eyes closed an instant. This was all conjecture, I told myself. Not a single word of it could be proven.
“You’re definitely ill. Here.” Jerry put his jacket around my shoulders. “Come, I’ll order the car to take you home.”
“Let me just tell Evalyn.”
But as I stood in the doorway and peered across the ballroom, my eyes met Evalyn’s icy gaze. She didn’t nod, didn’t smile, didn’t wave. She gave me her back, and I knew my welcome to her illustrious world was coming to an end.