The High Season(103)

“Oh, who can stop Helen?”

“No, Mindy. Catha, too. You knew she was after my job.”

The lobster roll arrived in an explosion of chive. Ruthie stared down at it, a glossy pink lump. She could not imagine eating it. She took a sip of her iced tea. Carole picked a sliced roasted pepper out of her salad.

“I hate roasted peppers,” she said. “Why do they put them on salads without telling you?” She scraped them onto her bread plate.

Ruthie pushed a box across the table.

“It’s a texture problem,” Carole said. “Slimy.” Then she noticed the box. “What’s this? Did you get me a present? And I didn’t bring you back anything from Paris! You know how the city closes down in August!”

    “It’s not a present,” Ruthie said. “And it comes with a story.”

Carole opened the box and took out the watch. “Oh, my God! You found it! Why didn’t you tell me? I looked everywhere in the city this weekend. Lewis is ready to divorce me.”

“I found it in Verity’s dress-up box,” Ruthie said.

Carole sat back. “That’s amazing. That little thief! I should have known! But when?”

“Right before Spork. I wore it with the pink shirt and the white pants.”

Carole went very still. “You wore Lewis’s watch?”

“I didn’t know it was Lewis’s watch. I thought it was a knockoff. Along with all the other junk in Verity’s box.”

“But I called you…”

“By then I had misplaced it.”

Carole’s face! Such confusion! “But…I looked in every pocket, every purse, every shoe! I almost ripped open the linings of our suitcases! I’ve never been so desperate!”

Ruthie gripped her hands under the table and told her the story. How panicked she was, how she just wanted time to find it. That she was sorry.

“So between the time I called and today, it’s…over a month? And you let me think it was missing?” Carole’s tone was icy.

“I kept thinking I’d find it. I was a little crazy. I’d lost my job, I was going to lose my house…”

“Lose your house? Why?”

“Because I’d lost my job,” she said.

Carole looked confused. “But why would you lose your house?”

“Because that’s what happens, sometimes. I just sold it to Adeline Clay.”

“Adeline Clay is going to live in Orient?”

“I’m just here to give you the watch and profoundly apologize for all the worry I caused you.”

    Carole pushed the plate away with its stripes of red pepper. “Ruthie, I don’t know what to say. It’s an all’s well that ends well situation, I guess.” She put the watch back in the box and tucked it in her purse. “So where do you think you’ll move? Back to the city?”

The seconds ticked on while Ruthie stared at Carole. The bright, birdlike interest, the frown at the continuing presence of a roasted pepper in her salad, the mask of affability.

“Can we go back to the question?” Ruthie asked. “About why you didn’t stop Mindy? About why you didn’t warn me that Catha was after my job?”

“I told you she wasn’t your friend!”

“That was a little vague, don’t you think? Do you think if I’d known that she was actively trashing my reputation behind my back to everyone who held my future in their hands, I might have done something differently?”

“Well, I don’t know. Isn’t it a moot point?”

“And then why reward her for lying? The committee then handed her my job. She’d still have it, if Lark hadn’t come along.”

Carole smiled, a tight, patronizing smile Ruthie had never seen before. “This is turning from an apology into an interrogation.”

“Imagine this, though,” Ruthie said. “Imagine if everybody who was distressed at what Mindy was doing said it out loud, instead of behind her back.”

“Well, that wouldn’t change her.”

“I’m not talking about changing her. I’m talking about the right thing to do.”

“I was in the Hebrides! I did everything I could!”

“You didn’t answer my emails for weeks.”

“They told me I shouldn’t contact you until the paper was signed. Listen, I’m all about transparency. It was hard for me.”

“All along, you could have done one thing. One thing simpler than all the rest. You could have told the truth about how you felt. Publicly. You could have stood up and said This is happening and it’s wrong.”

    “I don’t know why I’m getting the brunt of your anger, Ruthie,” Carole said. “All this rehashing is so pointless. And I wasn’t even going to mention that Baccarat wineglass that’s missing at the house. Margarita told me about it.”

“I’m not angry anymore,” Ruthie said. “Truly I’m not. I’m just trying to understand how it all happened. Now the Belfry is being run by someone who will change it utterly. I don’t think Lark Mantis cares about schoolchildren and family day.” Ruthie folded her napkin. “But that’s not my concern. My concern is finding another job and a place to live.” She pushed back her chair.