Deceit (8 page)

And now this morning, as early as it was, a crowd of people had gathered on the front steps of SwanSea, the first site of the day’s shooting. Liana, dressed in a wrapper, sat before a makeshift table while Rosalyn laid out makeup, combs, and brushes.

Usually by this time in a day’s shoot, her concentration was firmly in place. This morning, though, her thoughts were scattered. Leonora and her lonely resting place still bothered her and she didn’t know why.

She chided herself. What a foolish thing to get upset about. She was being far too impressionable, too open to sentiment. It wasn’t like her, and she needed to put a stop to it immediately.

She glanced up at the impressive facade of SwanSea. There was no doubt that it was magnificent, but she couldn’t help wondering how Leonora had felt about SwanSea as a home. Living in a small, cozy house as she did, she would have a hard time viewing such a huge place as a home. Had it been just as overwhelming to Leonora as a seventeen-year-old bride? All at once she remembered another Leonora..

“Which dress is first, love?” Rosalyn asked her. 

“What? Oh, the gold.”

“I saw that one,” Rosalyn said, reaching for the pot of foundation. “It's gorgeous, but then all the gowns are. I’ve overheard several ladies plotting their strategies for the auction. ”

Liana smiled. “It should be interesting.” Rosalyn applied a light base of foundation to Liana’s cheeks, then a cream rouge. “You think we’ll see any cat fights?”

“Here? No way. SwanSea is much too dignified.” Rosalyn made a sound halfway between a snort and a laugh. “Listen, sweetie, women and their love of beautiful clothes are the same no matter where they are. You mark my words. It’s going to get down and dirty at the auction, and I for one can’t wait. ” She broke the seal on a new jar of loose powder and screwed open the top, then she dipped a puff into the powder and held it toward Liana’s face.

But Liana turned toward Sara, who was sauntering up to them.

“Clay’s ready for you, Liana. ”

Liana smiled. “Thanks, Sara. I won’t be much longer.”

Rosalyn peered at her own image in the mirror. “We’re leaving her hair straight for this shot,” she said to Sara and idly dusted a sprinkling of powder over her own face. “All I have to do is brush it.”

“Okay, I’ll tell Clay. You know what? He’s in a good mood. He should take more days off. If you call taking pictures of me a day off.”

Rosalyn laughed. “Sounds like a busman’s holiday to me.”

“And for you, it doesn’t sound like a day off,” Liana said. “Besides, I thought you didn’t like to have your picture taken. ”

“I don’t, but it was all in fun. I even got to wear some of your designer gowns.”

“Really?”

“Oh, don’t worry. I was very careful with them.” “Sara, you don’t have to reassure me. They’re not
my
gowns.”

Suddenly Rosalyn made a sound of pain, dropped the puff, and clutched at her face.

Liana looked up at her. “Rosalyn, what’s wrong?” “My face,” she gasped. “It bums!”

Alarmed, Liana jumped up and guided Rosalyn into the chair. Even as she did, she could see red blisters rising on Rosalyn’s face. “My Lord, she must be having some sort of allergic reaction. Sara, go see if there’s a doctor registered. ”

“It’s the powder,” Rosalyn cried.

“Try not to touch yourself.” Liana glanced frantically around and spied two ladies standing nearby. “Quick, run into the hotel and tell them we need cold, wet cloths immediately.”

Steve came rushing up. “Sara yelled that something's wrong with Rosalyn as she raced by. What is it?”

Liana took one look at the worsening blisters on Rosalyn’s face. "God, Steve, go call an ambulance. Now!”

Fifteen minutes later. Liana was watching the ambulance with Rosalyn in it roar off. “I need to be there for her,” she said to no one in particular. “I’d better get dressed.”

“Just a minute.” Steve restrained her with a hand on her arm. “I heard you tell the paramedics that she’d had an allergic reaction to face powder. What exactly happened?”

“I’d like to know that myself,” Richard said, coming up to them.

Her already distressed state was worsened by the sight of Richard. Intellectually, she knew that he was staying here at SwanSea. She was even on the alert against a sudden appearance by him. But she still couldn’t get used to
him
—the flesh and blood presence of the man.

“I’d like to hear the story again, myself,” Clay said, joining them.

Agitated and anxious to be with Rosalyn, Liana gazed at the three men around her. “I’ve already told you. She had an allergic reaction to the face powder. ”

Clay walked to the table behind them and picked up the still open jar. The paramedics had peeled off the label that listed the ingredients and had taken it with them. “Is this what she normally uses?”

"Yes, except normally she uses it on me, not on herself.”

“Had she put any on you yet?” Richard asked, scrutinizing her face with narrowed eyes.

“No, she was just about to.” “What about when we last worked day before yesterday?” Steve asked. “Did she use it on you then?”

“No,” she said, exasperation and impatience giving the word emphasis. “It was a new jar. She had just broken the seal.”

"Could it have been tampered with in some way?” Richard asked.

“I don’t see how,” Clay answered, eyeing the seal that still lay on the table.

“And I don’t see why,” Liana said. “Look, it was an allergic reaction, plain and simple. Sometimes it just happens.”

“Maybe something went wrong at the factory with the batch,” Steve said.

Clay nodded. “I know a chemist I can send this to for an analysis. I’ll take it into town right now and get it off to him. ”

“Fine. Do what you want. But I’m going to the hospital and see about Rosalyn.”

Richard caught up with her just inside the massive front doors of SwanSea and grabbed her upper arm. “Wait a minute. You shouldn’t go just yet. ”

She looked down at his hand on her arm, and he immediately released her. “Rosalyn is my friend, Richard. We’ve worked together for quite some time, and I want to be there for her.”

“I understand that, but I also can see how shaken you are.”

She wrapped her arms around herself. “It was an awful thing to watch happen.”

“It would have been even worse to have it happen to you.”

“Hearing that isn’t helping me, Richard.”

“Okay, okay. All I’m saying is that you should give yourself some time before you drive into town.”

She had thought all hope long dead in her, but she found herself saying, “It almost sounds as if you’re concerned about me. ”

He stiffened; his voice mocked. “I just want to make sure you stay in one piece until we go to bed together. ”

Anger and hurt whipped color into her cheeks. “It’s not going to happen.”

“It has to, Liana.”

She felt a cold shiver that affected her like heat. “Look, believe whatever you like, but I have to see about Rosalyn now.’”

“Then, I’ll let you go. For now.”

Five

The designer gown arched through the air, a beautiful streamer of shiny sequins and orange and gold chiffon.

Sara caught the gown, her eyes wide with astonishment.

Liana’s mouth twisted wryly, knowing what the younger girl was thinking. Anything less than careful handling for such a gown would be called sacrilege by some. “Sorry. Clay took so long with that last shot. I’d begun to feel like the dress was plastered to me. I had to get it off. I didn’t harm it, did I?”

After a brief inspection of the gown, Sara shook her head. “The gown’s fine.” She began to fold the one-of-a-kind creation with tissue paper. “Clay’s been hell on wheels the last two days, hasn’t he?” she asked, darting a glance at Liana.

“He’s just trying to do the best possible work he can.” Why was she defending him, she wondered as she reached for her jeans and a T-shirt. Clay had been almost unbearable to work with, pushing her and everyone else to the limit.

With the breakneck speed she had learned backstage at runway shows, she threw on her clothes. She wanted to get
away
from SwanSea. Nothing had gone right since she had been here, but then in all fairness, she had only herself to blame, not SwanSea. She had let imagination and emotions rule, and as a result, she’d had control over almost nothing that had happened.

She could pack up and go home, she thought for the one hundredth time, and as always, she discarded the idea. There was something keeping her here, and it was time to admit to herself that it was something that went beyond her feeling of responsibility for the assignment.

The obvious answer was Richard, but unable to cope with the volatile repercussions of that particular idea, she rejected it. Suddenly the image of the small concrete burial house on that windswept hill came to her. How very odd, she thought. Was she losing her mind?

“I can understand Clay trying to do a super job,” Sara was saying, “but nothing any of us has done has been good enough for him.”

It was true, Liana reflected. Under normal circumstances, she could have coped, but these circumstances were anything
but
normal. The past two days had been hard on her, both physically and mentally. She had tried time after time to retreat into her mind, but all her usual blocking devices had proved useless. Too many hands had touched her. Too many people had stared.

Today, it had reached the point that if Clay had told her to strike one more pose or to smile one more time, she would have cracked. As it was, she was hanging on to her composure by a thread.

With cream and tissue, she wiped off every last bit of makeup, then quickly ran a brush through her hair.

“Are you all right?” Sara asked abruptly.

No, she thought. She was far from all right. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“It’s just that you’ve looked pretty frazzled since we’ve been here.”

The younger girl seemed so solemn, Liana had to grin. “Are you afraid you’re going to have to step in for me?”

Sara started. “Goodness no! I know what a professional you are. It would take something pretty awful to keep you from work.”

Funny, Liana thought. Lately, she'd been thinking that it would take very little. The idea of retiring was becoming more and more desirable. “Well, don’t worry. I have every intention of finishing this shoot. Now I’d better be on my way. ”

“Where are you going?”

“Into town to visit Rosalyn.”

“You saw her yesterday, too, didn’t you?”

Liana nodded.

“I’ve been meaning to get in to see her myself, but I’ve been so busy. Tell her hello for me, will you?”

“Sure will.”

The sun was setting as Liana walked briskly toward the parking lot. Over the years, she’d found that an engrossed expression and a purposeful stride would deter all but the most ardent of her admirers. And it almost worked.

She was nearly to the rental car when she heard Richard ask, “You’re certainly in a hurry. Is there a fire somewhere?”

Her heart leaped and an inconsequential thought fluttered through her head—she certainly couldn’t categorize Richard as one of her admirers.

She turned and, as always, became momentarily helpless at the sight of him. They hadn’t spoken to or seen each other in two days, but she had known he was still at SwanSea. She had actually
felt
his presence. And feeling him without seeing him had been irritating, maddening, and had made her very, very skittish.

He smiled. “Missed me?”

“Have you been gone?”

Her pose of arrogance made her beauty that much more remarkable, and he felt a quickening of warmth deep in his gut. “That’s good, Liana. Very good. No, I’ve been right here. ”

“Really? I can’t remember seeing you.”

“That’s because I’ve been closed up in my suite. Something came up with one of my companies, and I’ve had a series of meetings that have lasted well into the night.”

“Everything all right now?” Why in the world was she asking? It wasn’t as if she cared.

“Everything’s fine,” he said. “Where are you going?”

She wasn’t used to accounting to anyone for her time. But she had told Sara, and she would tell him if it would get her away from him quicker. “I’m going into town to see Rosalyn.”

“Your friend who used the face powder, right? How is she?”

“I’m glad to say she’s getting better every day.” “That came very close to being you in the hospital, you know. Have you thought about that?”

Of course she had. And the idea had stolen several hours of sleep from her. “It was a freaky thing to have happened. Fortunately Rosalyn didn’t suffer that much. They were able to stop the burning almost Immediately, and the doctor is certain that the blisters won’t leave disfiguring marks.” “How long will the blisters last?”

“About a week. They’ll leave red marks for a little while longer, but they say there are salves that will help the discolorations.”

“Wasn’t it lucky she put that powder on her instead of on you?”

She crossed her arms over her breasts. “Lucky for me, not for her. I feel awful for her.”

“I’m sure everyone does, but still, the shoot hasn’t been held up, has it?” *

She sighed. She would answer this last question, she decided, and then she’d go. “No, it hasn’t. I’ve been doing my own makeup, and Sara’s helped when I’ve needed her. Clay’s talked of flying someone in from New York, but I don’t know whether he will or not.”

“At least he won’t have to fly in a new model. That really would have screwed things up, wouldn’t it?”

Her brow furrowed. “Is there something you’re trying to say, Richard?”

He tilted his head to one side, studying her. “Actually I wasn’t. Normally if I want to say something, there’s no
trying
about it.” Suddenly an altogether unexpected teasing glint came into his eyes. “Although now that I think about it, have you considered the possibility that someone’s after your job?”

Steve had told her he felt it possible that the light could have been rigged to fall—the light that had initially distracted her and led to her tumble down the marble stairway. If Richard hadn’t been there to catch her, she could have suffered broken bones or even much worse. Then they would have had to replace her or cancel the assignment, which they wouldn’t do. She had talked Steve out of the notion, but what if—
no.
It just couldn’t be true. There was simply no one she could think of who would want to harm her.