“Okay,” Stone said. “I don’t have a problem with that, as long as he behaves himself.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want any scenes at the party.”
“It’s not a problem for me,” Stone said.
“Well, it’s a problem for him. I’m afraid he didn’t take the news of our marriage very well, and you may not find him exactly friendly.”
“That’s all right. I don’t need to be friends with him.”
“I want you to be nice to him, no matter what he says or does,” Arrington said.
“I try to be nice to everybody,” Stone said.
“Tim can sometimes be difficult,” she said. “He’s quick to anger, and sometimes intemperate in his remarks.”
“So I may have to slug him, if he acts up?”
“Don’t you dare. Remember, he’s in tight with most of the people who’ll be here, who are my neighbors, and I want you to exercise some forbearance. I don’t want him to be able to say an unkind word about you that anyone would believe. Remember, you only have one opportunity to make a first impression, especially with the local gentry. I want you to be not just charming but gallant.”
“All right, I’ll wait until we’re alone to slug him. You know, I think I still have my old cop’s blackjack somewhere. I’ll dig it out.”
“Oh, stop it!”
“All right, all right, I won’t harm a hair on his architectural head, and I’ll charm the locals right out of their socks.”
“That’s better.”
“Does Peter know him?”
“No, Peter was at school when I was seeing him, so they’ve met only once, briefly. Be careful what you say about Tim when you’re around him.”
“Is there anybody else to whom I have to show forbearance?”
“Practically everybody,” she said. “It’s an inbred society down here, and they’re not likely to display any genuine warmth toward a stranger. They’ll be nice, because I’m a local girl, but believe me, they would have been much happier with me if I’d married Tim Rutledge.”
“Well, I’m not going to give you up just to please them.”
“You’d better not give me up for any reason!”
“You, my love, are a keeper,” Stone said with feeling.
“And so are you,” she said.
43
K elli Keane got to work on time and ran into Prunella Wheaton on the elevator.
“Come see me,” Wheaton said. “I may have a little something for you.”
“Certainly,” Kelli replied. She dropped her coat at her desk and walked back to Wheaton’s office, looking forward to her delicious coffee.
“Come on in,” Wheaton said. “Coffee’s on.”
Kelli took her usual seat. “You’re looking lovely today,” Kelli said. “As soon as I can afford it I’m going to start asking where you shop for clothes. To know now would just hurt.”
Wheaton laughed. “The way you’re going, that will happen soon enough, and maybe what I’ve got for you will help.” She handed Kelli a cup of coffee.
“I’m all ears.”
“I found out where Arrington Calder Barrington is.”
Kelli sat up straight. “Oh? Spa? Mental hospital?”
“Neither,” Wheaton said. “She’s in Virginia, where she has been living during the years since Vance’s death. She was born and raised in Albemarle County, and she’s just built a house there. She’s getting it ready for a housewarming next Saturday night.”
“How on earth did you learn that?” Kelli asked.
“I had dinner with a friend last night, and he works at Architectural Digest. They’re photographing it on Friday for the magazine, and my friend says it’s going to be really something. It seems that a little over a year ago, Arrington bought Champion Farms, a racehorse breeding establishment in the county. A house had existed on the property since the mid-eighteenth century, but it burned down early in the 1920s. Arrington unearthed the plans for the house in the University of Virginia Library, and an architecture professor there drew plans for a nearly identical new house on virtually the same footprint as the old one, but with all mod cons, of course. It’s going to be the showplace of the county.”
“Wow, that sounds marvelous. Now, how am I going to get an invitation to that housewarming?”
“I think that’s reaching a bit, my dear, but there is another way you can get a very good look at it.”
“Tell me,” Kelli said, eagerly.
“Well, first of all, you have a lunch date today with a handsome young man-in fact, the person I had dinner with last night. He’s the son of an old friend of mine, and you’re meeting him at twelve-thirty at the Harvard Club. Do you know where that is?”
“West Forty-fourth, next door to the New York Yacht Club.”
“That’s right,” Wheaton said. “His name is David Rutledge. Now go do yourself some good.”
Kelli walked into the Harvard Club and surveyed the scene: to her left was a reception desk, and the door ahead of her, through which she now walked, opened into a large lounge with a fireplace and a lot of comfortable furniture strewn about. She looked around and saw a man coming toward her-tall, very slim, early thirties, dressed in a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches, a blue chambray shirt, and a brown knit tie. A thick mop of sandy hair fell across his forehead. He had his hand out.
“Kelli Keane?”
“And you’re David Rutledge,” she said, shaking his hand.
“Shall we go in for lunch?” He led her into the dining room, a gothic glory with an enormously high ceiling and a quiet buzz from the tables. A headwaiter seated them near the fireplace. “What would you like to drink?” he asked.
“Oh, just a glass of Chardonnay,” she said. “I do have to go back to work later.”
He ordered the wine and a martini for himself, and they clinked glasses. She was showing some cleavage, and he was noticing. “Prunie speaks highly of you,” he said.
“That’s sweet of her. She says your mother is her old and dear friend.”
“My grandmother, actually; they were classmates at Stanford. Tell me about you. Where did you spring from?”
“I sprang from West Chester, Pennsylvania, and I worked on the paper in Philadelphia right out of Bennington, then I came here last year. How about you?”
“Charlottesville, Virginia, Herald Academy in Jamestown, UVA School of Architecture, then an MBA at Harvard. I went to work at Architecture Magazine right out of school, then moved to Architectural Digest six years ago. I was promoted to executive art director right before Christmas.”
“Congratulations! That sounds like a wonderful job.”
They chatted on through lunch, played who-do-you-know (nobody), then over a second drink warmed to each other.
She waited for him to bring it up, and he didn’t, so finally she said, “Prunie tells me you’ve got an interesting shoot next weekend.”
“Yes, we do.” He told her about the history of the house. “The architect is a cousin of mine, Tim Rutledge. He teaches at UVA.”
She pretended not to know about it. “It sounds beautiful,” she said. “I just love that sort of thing. You don’t need an assistant for the trip, do you?” she asked, trying to sound facetious.
“Oh, something might be arranged, if you play your cards right,” he said, leering a little.
She leaned forward to give him a better view of her cleavage, an act, she had discovered, that tended to concentrate the minds of men. “I’m a pretty good card player,” she said. “And I’ll pay my own airfare. You can deal with the hotel arrangements.”
“You’re serious, then?”
“I am.”
His eyebrows went up. “We’re staying at a small country inn near the house, and I think they’re pretty booked up.”
“I don’t mind sharing,” she said, “as long as I’m not in the stable.”
He shook his head. “Of course not. You can bunk with me, if that’s all right.”
“That’s fine.”
“Why don’t we have dinner before we go down there?” he asked.