“Mother said I could wear the tent, but I liked this color better,” she joked with an old friend, and Sarah smiled as she drifted past them. She looked better, and happier, than she had in a long time, but Jane was still very worried about her.
“Sarah’s gotten so thin.”
“She … she was sick earlier this year.” She had lost even more weight since the miscarriage, and Jane sensed, although Sarah didn’t admit it to her, that she was still wracked with guilt and grief over losing the baby.
“No babies yet?” people asked her repeatedly. “Oh, you two will have to get started!” Or finished. She only smiled at them, and after the first hour, she suddenly realized that she hadn’t seen Freddie since the party started. He had been near the bar with his friends an hour ago, and then she had lost track of them as she greeted the guests, standing next to her father She asked the butler eventually, and he said that Mister Van Deering had left in a car a few minutes before, with some of his friends, and they were heading toward Southampton.
“They probably went to get something, Miss Sarah,” he said, looking at her kindly.
“Thank you, Charles.” He had been their butler there for years, and he stayed on in the winter when they went back to the city. She had known him since she was a child, and she dearly loved him.
She started to worry about what Freddie was doing. He and his friends had probably gone to one of the local bars in Hampton Bays to have a few quick, stiff drinks, before returning to the gentility of her parents’ party. But she wondered just how drunk they would be when they got back, and if anyone would notice their absence in the meantime.
“Where’s that handsome husband of yours?” an elderly friend of her mother’s asked, and she assured her that he’d be back downstairs in a minute. He’d gone up to get a wrap for her, she explained, and the friend thought his attentiveness was very touching.
“Something wrong?” Jane sidled up to her, and asked in an undertone. She had been watching her for the past half hour and knew her too well to be convinced by the smile she was wearing.
“No. Why?”
“You look like someone just put a snake in your purse.” Sarah couldn’t help but laugh at the description. For a minute, it reminded her of their childhood, and she almost forgave Jane for being pregnant. It was just going to be so hard to see her with her baby two months from now, knowing that hers was gone, and she might never have one. She and Freddie had never made love again since the miscarriage. “So, where’s the snake?” Jane asked.
“Actually, he’s out.” The two sisters laughed for the first time in a long time at Sarah’s comment.
“That isn’t what I meant … but actually, it’s pretty apt. Who did he go out with?”
“I don’t know. But Charles says they went out half an hour ago, headed toward town.”
“What does that mean?” Jane looked worried for her. What a headache that boy must be to her, even more than they all suspected, if he couldn’t even behave for a single evening at her parents’.
“Maybe trouble. Booze, in any case. A great deal too much of it. With any luck, he’ll hold it pretty well … until later.”
“Mother will really enjoy that.” Jane smiled as they stood together and watched the crowd. People seemed to be having a good time, which was at least something, even if Sarah wasn’t.
“Father will actually enjoy it more.” They both laughed again, and Sarah took a deep breath and looked at her. “I’m sorry I’ve been so awful to you for the past few months. I just … I don’t know … it’s hard for me to think about your baby….” There were tears in her eyes as she looked away again, and her older sister put an arm around her.
“I know. And you haven’t done anything except worry me to death. I wish I could do something to make you happy.”
“I’m all right.”
“Your nose is growing, Pinocchio.”
“Oh, shut up.” Sarah grinned at her again, and they went back to the other guests shortly after. By the time they sat down to dinner, Freddie was still not back yet. His absence, and that of his close friends, was instantly noticed as the guests sat down to dinner in their appointed places at tables on the lawn, and Freddie’s seat of honor, to the right of his mother-in-law, was visibly vacant. But before anyone could make comment, or Mrs. Thompson could ask Sarah where her husband had gone, there was a frantic sound of honking, and Freddie and four of his friends drove across the lawn in his Packard Twelve Phaeton, shouting and laughing and waving. They drove right up to the tables, as everyone stared, and stepped out of the convertible with three local girls, one of them adoringly wrapped around Freddie. As they approached the assembled company, it became obvious that the ladies were not just local girls, but women who had been paid for their services for the evening.
The five young men were blind drunk, and it was evident that they thought the stunt the funniest that had ever been accomplished. But the young women looked faintly unnerved as they looked at the well-heeled, and clearly shocked, people around them. The girl with Freddie was nervously trying to convince him to take them back to town, but by then all hell had broken loose around them. A group of waiters was trying to remove the car, Charles, the butler, was trying to remove the girls, and Freddie and his friends were stumbling everywhere, tripping over the other guests and embarrassing themselves, and Freddie was the worst of all. He absolutely would not let go of the girl they had brought back with them. And without thinking, or seeing clearly, Sarah stood up, watching him, tears brimming in her eyes, remembering their wedding only a year before, all the hope she had had then, and the nightmare it had become since her marriage. The girl was only a symbol of the horrors of the past year, and suddenly it all seemed unreal to her, as she stood there in silent anguish and watched him. It was like watching an absolutely ghastly movie. Only the worst part was, she was in it.
“What’s the matter, babe?”—he called across several tables to her—“Don’t you want to meet my sweetie?” He laughed at the look on Sarah’s face, and Victoria Thompson began to make her way swiftly across the lawn to her younger child, who looked as though she were rooted to the spot in shock, frozen beyond reason. “Sheila,” he continued to shout, “that’s my wife … and these are her parents.” He waved an arm grandly, as people watched in amazement. But by then Edward Thompson had swung into action. He and two waiters removed Freddie and the girl as firmly and swiftly as they could, and the other young men were escorted away, with the ladies, in the company of an army of waiters.
Freddie was a little more belligerent as his father-in-law led him into the little beach cottage they used to change clothes in. “What’s the matter, Mr. Thompson? Isn’t this party for me?”
“No, as a matter of fact, it’s not. It never should have been. We should have thrown you out months ago. But I can assure you, Frederick, that all of that will be taken care of very quickly. You are leaving here immediately, we will send your things to you next week, and you will be hearing from my attorneys on Monday morning. Your years of torturing my daughter are over. Please do not return to the apartment. Is that clear?” Edward Thompson’s voice boomed in the tiny cottage. But Freddie was too drunk to be frightened.
“My, my … sounds like Papa is a little upset! Don’t tell me that you don’t have a few girlies too from time to time. Come on, sir … I’ll share this one with you.” He opened the door, and they both saw that the girl was just outside, waiting for Freddie.