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Oh, there'd been vibes in the air. Worry, curiosity, but she'd dodged even those. She'd survived a hangover as well, and the world had not come to an end.
Maybe, just maybe, Laura Templeton did not have to be perfect after all.
She left her daughters and crossed the hall to her own room. There she freshened her lipstick, brushed her hair. She needed to go and join her parents and the old friends who had come for dinner. She needed to make certain everyone was comfortable and entertained.
And, oh, she needed to stretch out for five minutes. Just five, she promised herself as she lay down crosswise on the bed. A quick catnap would set her up, help her get through the rest of the evening.
The minute she closed her eyes, she was dead to the world.
"Something has to be done, Mrs. T." Hands gripped tight at her waist, Ann stood in Susan's quiet sitting room in the tower suite. "It has to be."
"All right, Annie, sit down." It had been a long evening, and though she'd been pleased to see old friends, Susan had hoped for a few moments of solitude before bed. The look on Ann's face warned her she wouldn't get it. "Now what's the trouble?"
"You know what the trouble is, Mrs. T." Too fretful to sit, Ann wandered the room, fussing with curtains, realigning candlesticks, fluffing pillows. "You saw how pale and tired Miss Laura was today. You had to see for yourself."
"Yes, I did see. And I've been pale and tired myself the day after I've overindulged in champagne."
"Oh, as if that was all of it. And that's something she's never done before him, either."
Perhaps she should have, Susan thought. She sighed. "Annie, stop tidying the room and sit down."
"She spent the night with him. The whole of it. Over there with him above the horses."
Because her lips wanted to twitch, Susan glanced down at her own hands as Ann sat across from her. "Yes, Annie. I'm aware of that."
"Well, it can't go on." And that, Ann felt, was that.
"Just how do you expect to prevent a grown woman from doing as she chooses? The fact is, Laura is very attracted to Michael, perhaps more than attracted. She's been lonely and unhappy, and now she isn't."
"He's taking advantage of that. He's a bad influence. Why, she didn't even come down and say good night to her guests. She's never shirked her duties that way."
"She was tired, Annie, and the Greenbelts are my and Tommy's friends. Which isn't the point at all, really. You can't worry yourself so about all of this."
"You're her mother, but you know I love her, just as you love my girl. When Margo had troubles, you worried yourself for her."
"Yes." Understanding, Susan laid a hand over Ann's. "They're our children, and that's as it's always been. But children grow and go their own way no matter how we worry. That's how it's always been, too."
"She'd listen to you, Mrs. T. I've been thinking on it." The words came out fast now and seemed so logical to her. "Miss Laura, she hasn't gone away with the girls for such a long time. She's been working hard and hasn't had a holiday. The spring vacation's coming up for Ali and Kayla. They could go away for a while. You know how the girls love to go to Disneyland. If you put the notion in Miss Laura's head, she'd take them. And it would give her time, and distance. She'd have a clearer eye about what she's doing."
"I think Laura and the girls deserve a break, but a week in Disneyland isn't going to change her feelings for Michael, Annie."
"She's just caught up right now. If she had some time without him clouding her mind, she'd see that man for just what he is."
At a loss, Susan threw up her hands, let them slap down on the arms on her chair in a show of impatience. "For God's sake, Annie, what is he? Why do you dislike him so intensely?"
"He's a brute is what he is. A brute and a user and probably a fortune hunter as well. He'll hurt her in more ways than one, and I'm not having it." She pressed her lips tight together. "I'm not."
To clear her own temper, Susan took a long breath. "I want you to explain to me what he's done."
"You know very well that when he was no more than twelve he was sneaking around this house."
"He was Josh's friend."
"And giving Mister Josh stolen cigarettes, daring him into all manner of foolishness."
"Boys do foolish things at twelve. Christ, Annie, I taught my best friend how to smoke when we were fourteen. It's stupid, but it's children."
"And was it a child's foolishness that sent him to jail?"
