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Lucy put her into bed, then propped herself on the couch with her book and told him to get lost so she could concentrate on what she was reading. He thought about telling her that her matchmaking wouldn’t work, but decided he’d be a fool to pass up a chance to be alone with Nell.
Outside, the moonlight in the old orchard made gnomes from the gnarled tree trunks. She stood in the long grass with her head tilted back, gazing at the stars that were just becoming visible. She was a million miles away.
He moved quietly, unwilling to disturb her. Light silvered her hair and fell softly on her skin. She looked beautiful and exotic, both at home in the old orchard and alien to it.
Once again, he felt that uncomfortable tingling at the back of his neck, along with an odd pitching in his stomach. She was just Nell. Nell Kelly, an upper-crust runaway with a soft heart and a zest for life.
The night was too peaceful to spoil by talking, especially when all he wanted was to make love, so he was surprised when he felt his lips move. Even more surprised by what he said.
“Mrs. Case?”
“Yes?” She turned automatically.
13
FOR ONE ETERNAL second, Nealy stood there with an idiot smile on her face waiting to see what he wanted. And then, when she realized what she’d said, she felt as if the ground had fallen away beneath her.
A thousand thoughts raced through her head, a jumble of images—her hopes . . . her dreams . . . her lies . . .
Too late, she said, “You’ve . . . you’ve really got this fixation with . . . Cornelia Case, don’t you?”
He didn’t respond. Didn’t move.
She tried to brazen it out. “W-what’s wrong?”
Only his lips moved. “This is . . . this is crazy.”
She began to push her hands into her pockets, but her arms were as stiff and creaky as the Tin Man’s, and they wouldn’t move. “Did you get Button settled?”
“Don’t.” The word was softly spoken, intense.
She tried to conjure up something to say that would make everything right again, but came up empty. She turned away and crossed her arms over her chest as if that would contain her secrets.
“It’s true.” There was no doubt in his voice.
“No. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“It’s been all over the news since last night.”
“What?”
“The fact that Mrs. Case . . . that you disappeared from the White House.”
She hadn’t bought a paper this morning—hadn’t even glanced at them in the grocery. She didn’t want to know. Now she remembered the way he’d been fiddling with the radio while he drove.
The mantle of the First Lady was enveloping Nell Kelly like a magician’s cape. But she didn’t want Nell to disappear. Nell was a new person being born inside her, the person she might have been if she hadn’t allowed herself to become a tool of her father’s ambition. Nell had Cornelia Case’s strengths, but not her insecurities.
“I’m sure you’re aware that everyone in the country is looking for you.”
She heard formality in his voice. That awful formality people used when they addressed the First Lady. He’d never once sounded like that with Nell, and she knew right then that she’d lost him. Before they’d ever had a chance.
The secret fantasy she hadn’t known she was weaving unraveled. The fantasy of Mat and Nell traveling around the country in a battered Winnebago with two kids. Fishing in the Great Lakes, visiting Disney World, seeing sunsets over the Rockies, making love in the Arizona desert. An endless road trip.
“The wind’s picking up,” she said in a creaky old woman’s voice.
“I think you should call someone.”
“Lucy’s showers take forever. I hope there’s enough water in the tank.”
