9. Chapter Nine #2
“God, that’s good,” Tallulah said when she was done. Unlike us, she’d downed the entire flute in one gulp. Gadfrey materialized at her shoulder with a refill as if by magic. “Alright. I’ve interrogated these two already.” She turned to Caroline. “Your turn.”
Oh shit.
Only now did I realize the danger.
Tallulah was one hell of a perceptive woman. And while the news about Marcie’s pregnancy had certainly done something to change her mood where we were concerned, I wasn’t sure it would be enough to get the Harrington account signed as one of our clients.
What would finding out about Caroline’s real story do to our credibility with this woman?
I could tell Caroline was following my train of thought, though she hid it well. She leaned forward a bit in her seat, looking almost eager to begin the questioning. “Yes?”
“You used to work for that TV program,” Tallulah said. “Which means you’ve been working for the sultan for all of… what? Two weeks?”
Caroline let out a little laugh at the word sultan. “That’s about right, yes. I made a very strong connection with Mrs. Yukiko Avery when she appeared on the program. And after seeing what our team did to her… well, let’s just say it wasn’t a terribly difficult decision to jump ship.”
Tallulah’s gaze traveled lower. To where, beneath the table—how had I not realized this until just this moment?—Marcie and her assistant were holding hands.
“Uh huh.” Tallulah’s eyes narrowed. “So you are schtupping him?”
I tensed up, waiting for the explosion.
And Caroline just laughed.
“No, I’m not,” she said, sounding delighted. “Not yet, in any case. Why, were you looking for tips on how to best infiltrate the Avery harem?”
Now it was Tallulah’s turn to look shocked. “You’re a bold little thing!”
Marcie grinned. “It’s not her fault,” my angel said, her expression turning almost impish. “She has to come to work every day and watch a dozen women falling all over themselves to get my husband’s attention.”
“I can only imagine the hormones,” Tallulah said dryly. “You don’t find it all...?”
“All what?” Caroline asked innocently.
Tallulah shrugged. “Like someone ought to call the police and break the whole thing up?”
The words hit Caroline directly in the gut. She went pale; for a second, I was sure she was about to get up and run from the room. “Excuse me!?”
“Well, it’s just so twelfth-century,” Tallulah harrumphed.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that, Miss Aitchison.
I know that no one’s actually doing anything illegal over there in Boston.
I’m just saying, this is an outfit that wants to carry the Ramsey Engineering banner into the next generation.
It’s not just about professional standards.
Both companies are explicitly advertised as family businesses, but when one family is four times the size of the other and involves three different wives, what is… ?”
Caroline pushed back her chair, her shoulders shaking. “I’m sorry,” she blurted, closing her eyes. “I… I sincerely beg your pardon, but I think I may need to be excused.”
Tallulah’s mouth snapped shut. “I’ve offended your assistant,” she said flatly.
Marcie leaned over and rubbed Caroline between her shoulder blades. She leaned in close, raising the raven-haired woman’s shaking face to hers, and spoke a few words too quietly for me or Tallulah to hear. They calmed her a bit.
“I’m sure it wasn’t intentional,” I said, trying to smooth things over. “It was a long drive for all of us—”
“Is this really necessary?” Marcie snapped.
Every head in the room turned towards my angel. Tallulah’s eyes went as wide as saucers.
“I thought you were going to stop when you found out about the baby,” Marcie said, her face filling with quiet fury.
“I thought we’d snapped you out of whatever…
whatever funk you’ve been in since the moment we got here!
” She held Caroline closer, while the woman herself closed her eyes and moved her lips in what looked like a silent prayer.
“But you’re just a bully. Asking my friend whether she’s having sex with my husband!
Like you’re angry at Jack for being successful, or for having women who love him! ”
Tallulah looked stricken. “Honey, you opened the door—”
“You poured us a toast just so you could twist the knife a little more!” Marcie said.
“That’s not the Tallulah I remember from my Dad’s firm, Miss Harrington.
That’s not the woman who’d look at the bridge your husband and my father built together and see something worth protecting.
” She drew herself up to her full height, her bottom lip trembling.
“I would’ve kept that thing pristine. For my entire life.
I would’ve kept that promise like an oath, Tallulah.
” She shook her head, tears sparkling in the corners of her eyes. “When did you become this person?”
For what I could only assume was the first time in a very long time, Tallulah Harrington sat speechless.
“I think we’ve learned what we came here to find out,” Marcie told me, her tone brusque.
“Let’s go, husband. Thank you for the lovely food and the champagne, Miss Harrington.
We’ll see ourselves out.” Her hand strayed to her belly, her lips compressing to a tight line.
“At least something good came out of this evening…!”
A sigh broke from Tallulah. “Miss Ramsey—”
“No, please,” Caroline whispered, shaking her head. “This is my fault. Samantha… I can’t…”
“I will talk to Samantha,” Marcie assured her. “Eliza, you didn’t do anything wrong—”
For a heart-stopping moment, I thought that Marcie letting Caroline’s real name slip gave the game away.
“Stop!” Tallulah cried.
The whole room went silent.
She stared at Marcie, her face flickering with irritation. But underneath of it was something I don’t think I’d seen from her before. Something that just might have been respect.
“You really are your father’s daughter,” she said, trying for a snicker. “Daniel’s girl.”
Marcie waited.
“If I say I’m sorry,” Tallulah ventured, “will you three sit back down?”
I hadn’t even realized I’d gotten to my feet until she said something.
Marcie glanced over at Caroline, who was nodding like a bobblehead. Together, the pair sat down.
“That’s better.” Did Tallulah look relieved all of a sudden? It seemed impossible, but I thought she did.
She lowered herself back into her chair, and for a moment the grand dame of the Harrington mansion fled the building.
I was looking at an old woman in a red dress—one who’d maybe started this night with the expectation of settling a few scores and embarrassing the ‘sultan’ who’d dared try to take over Daniel’s legacy.
Only she’d clearly bitten off more than she could chew.
Because Marcie wasn’t the girl she’d expected.
“I’m going to say something, and before I do, I need to swear the three of you to secrecy. It must never be repeated outside of this room. The damage to my reputation would be catastrophic.”
Caroline nodded. After a moment, Marcie and I did, too.
“Good.” She turned to Caroline. “I am sorry.”
Whatever the makeup artist had braced for, I don’t think it was this.
“No,” she said, one hand straying to her throat. “That’s not—”
“Don’t. Otherwise I’ll lose my nerve.” There was a faint smile on Tallulah’s face now, but the look in her eyes was anything other than mirthful.
“I am old. I buried three husbands, and after the first two I thought I’d gotten used to it, but the third one happened to be the one I loved.
” She swallowed. “It’s made me mean. Like I decided the whole world ought to hurt over it the way I do.
” She looked at Marcie. “Mean enough that, when a poised young woman comes into my house—invited by me—and tells me exactly what I need to hear about my Carl’s legacy, I’m still spiteful enough to turn her down.
” She balled up her napkin. “Filthy habit. Unfortunately, I’m very good at it. ”
Marcie just stared, amazed.
“And you—” Tallulah pointed a finger at Caroline.
“I don’t know what I said that upset you so badly, dear, but I clearly hit some kind of nerve.
I have a knack for finding where people are weakest, and it’s the sort of thing that my Carl used to make sure I only used for good.
” She raised her hands. “I shouldn’t have done it. ”
“Thank you,” Caroline said softly.
Finally, Tallulah turned to me. “As for you…”
Her mouth worked silently for a moment.
“I don’t know what you did to get all these women to go gaga over you,” she said with a shrug.
“Much less for them all to somehow have convinced each other it’s a good thing, and makes them look stronger instead of weaker.
But clearly, whatever it is, you’re doing it well.
” She grimaced, clearly uncomfortable. “And if you ever stop, you can be sure those buns you’ve got in the oven are the only ones the Avery bakery’s ever going to make.
You understand what I mean, Jack? Snip snip? ”
“Perfectly,” I said mildly. I’d like to see you try.
Tallulah looked at me like she could read my mind. Then she nodded, sat back, and took a sip of her champagne.
“Mmh. Alright, now stop looking at me like I’ve sprouted a halo, all of you. It doesn’t suit the killers you’re going to need to be if you’re going to bury that Ruocchio woman and take Daniel’s company back.”
There it was. In the end, there was no grand moment where Tallulah and I stood up and shook hands, or met on the windswept lawn behind her mansion and swore oaths of fealty to each other. No one needed to kneel, and no one had the flat of a sword pressed against their shoulder.
Tallulah just said that was the way it would be, and Marcie and I both knew. We had her.
There were about a billion formalities in the way, of course. But the hard part was over.