Nantucket (18 page)

“I'm changing my ways,” said Rosemary.

“I'm retiring,” said Shiva.

“You are?” said Joe, pleased but clearly surprised.

“Hadn't I mentioned that?” said Shiva. He sounded like Rosemary suggesting he take Judy to see a tiger. “I want you to run the whole thing – not just the company Andrew is making us invent, but also my whole empire. It will make the tax authorities unable to attack Andrew's structure. It simplifies everything, in fact. This way, you and I won't have to spend three months on the shareholders' agreement. This way, I'll never have to argue with my brothers again. Can you do that for me? I will pay you a dollar a year.”

Joe laughed.

“He isn't kidding,” said Judy.

“Your idea?” said Rosemary.

“Partly,” said Judy. “You said he needed a vacation, and I said to myself, why not a long vacation?”

“And Janis will write it all up this morning,” said Shiva, “having had a good night's sleep.”

“Along with the fee agreements and the confidentiality agreement regarding last night's activities,” said Janis.

“Is a confidentiality agreement necessary?” said Joe.

“It needs to have nine signatures,” said the Governor.

“Umm,” said Andrew.

There was a brief silence.

“Is she up yet?” said Janis. “Did anyone hear her moving in her bedroom?”

“Evidently not,” said Sally.

“You don't suppose she would have killed herself?” said Rosemary.

“Rosemary!” said Andrew.

“Very badly brought up,” said Shiva.

“But honest,” said Rosemary.

“I was having the same thought,” said Janis.

“What I think we should do,” said the Governor, “and before some citizen with an iPhone discovers the eight of us looking like a sequel to
Lord of the Flies
, is go back and make pancakes and be very nice to the Emmy-winning Cynthia McAllister.”

“Oh, God, I forgot she was a journalist,” said Andrew.

“I suspect
she
forgot,” said Joe.

“She did get rather carried away,” said Janis.

“But to no effect,” said Rosemary, smiling slyly at Andrew.

“Um, yes,” said Andrew. “Let's be
very
nice to Cynthia.”

“She'd be implicating herself, if she wanted to spill the beans,” said Janis.

“She wouldn't like the publicity,” said Joe. “Her audience wouldn't like it, is what she'd say.”

“
Lots
of pancakes,” said the Governor.

The eight of them started back for the stairs. “I think we look like a painting,” said Judy happily. “One of those French paintings…”

“Goddesses and warriors,” said Andrew.

“Flashing breastplates and diaphanous gowns,” said Sally.

“Fabulous vistas,” said the Governor, enjoying the way Judy had triggered everyone's imagination, “and puffy white clouds.”

“That's just what I meant,” said Judy.

The house was full of the smell of bacon frying. Cynthia was in the kitchen attending to it on the stove's built-in griddle. She seemed a different person. Her hair was pulled back and tied with a sky-blue ribbon. She was wearing nothing but a long black apron, with “Rome, Paris, Nantucket” in large white letters down the front. “When the fat splatters, it hurts,” she explained.

“Of course,” said Rosemary sympathetically.

“I looked out an upstairs window and saw you all leaving. Nudity seemed to be the uniform of the day.” Definitely a new day, Andrew said to himself. Whatever demons had possessed Cynthia the previous evening seemed to have been exorcised.

“I burn,” said Rosemary. “I have to put on clothes before the sun gets any higher. I hope the rest of you will join me so I won't be self-conscious.”

“Oh, all right,” said Joe.

“I'll finish the bacon first,” said Cynthia. “Then the men can do the pancakes.”

Andrew followed Rosemary into the servant's room to get dressed. “Do you think he knows?” said Rosemary.

“Are you thinking what I am?”

“Regarding Judy?” said Rosemary.

“Yes to all your questions. You can see it in the way he speaks to her, the way he
doesn't
look at her.”

“Do you think
she
knows?” said Rosemary.

“I'd say not. Janis says she's a blurter, and there hasn't been a hint.”

“Do you think he's going to say anything? Do you think he wants to? You know him better.”

“He wants to but he won't,” said Andrew. “He hasn't yet. For a man with his reputation, he's remarkably self-disciplined.”

“He funded her scholarships?”

“Unquestionably.”

“Should we do anything?”

“If a deal is meant to happen, it will happen,” said Andrew. To be honest, he didn't know the answer to Rosemary's question.

“Time to make pancakes,” she said.

The thing about pancakes, Andrew reminded himself, is
that you can't make enough for everyone at once, so there have to be people eating while others have nothing. So there is the issue of what order people get served in. If people are polite, they won't sit down because that amounts to asking to be served ahead of others, so there is a lot of milling around. Needless to say, assigning seats is impossible.

Rosemary extracted a large carving knife from the knife block and began cutting oranges in half. Joe had bought dozens. Sally began pushing them down on the electric squeezer. Janis started setting the table.

Joe appeared and started reading the instructions on the box of pancake batter. “I happen to be good at making pancakes,” he said.

“He is,” said Cynthia, coming in. “And good at eating them.” For the first time all weekend, she looked like she was on holiday. “I'll mix, you pour and flip.” She searched under the counter and found a bowl.

“You've done your part with the bacon,” said Joe. “Pancakes are men's work.”

“Eggs are in the refrigerator,” said Sally. “Maple syrup's in the pantry.”

“Should we warm the plates?” said Judy.

“That's always a good idea,” said George.

“Plates are still in the dishwasher,” said Sally. “Shiva, out of the way. You do not belong in a kitchen.”

“No, he doesn't,” said Rosemary. Shiva backed off as far as the door, but everyone wanted to be in the kitchen, it appeared.

As Joe produced pancakes, three plates of three at a go, Andrew handed them out. “If you're fast,” he said to Joe, “we may eventually get everyone sitting down at once. I sense that Cynthia wants to say something.”

“I agree with you,” said Joe, hurrying up. “Let's see if we can get enough done to sit down ourselves.”

The tide of people and second helpings flowed back and forth. Joe piled up a final platter. He and Andrew took the last of the plates out of the oven and went in. As people will, most of his guests had returned to the seats they'd occupied the night before, but Cynthia had elected to sit next to Sally, displacing Judy, who hadn't decided where to go.

If truth wants to manifest itself it will. “Here,” said Andrew, pulling out the chair between himself and the Governor, “sit next to your father.”

He'd been thinking about Eleanor, he told Rosemary later. “I was distracted. Being hated is painful,” he explained.

“She doesn't hate you,” said Rosemary. “It's just displacement activity from some other issue. Anger often is.”

“You're a wise woman,” Andrew told her, earning a quick smile. She knew what he was doing but she still liked it.

But that was later. Andrew's unplanned announcement made Judy gasp; for a moment she appeared shocked and confused, but then she smiled broadly. Joe exclaimed, several others dropped their forks, and the Governor of Massachusetts looked for just a moment like he might get teary. “See?” said Judy, looking around at everyone. “I have a father.”

“Who is very proud of you,” said George, as Judy wrapped her arms around his neck.

It took about five minutes for the laughing and sniffling around the table to stop. Judy explained that she'd had a suspicion that George was her father since she was fifteen.

“Why was that?” asked George.

“Well, for one thing, my mother voted for you when you first ran for Congress. She never voted for Republicans.”

This made everyone except the Governor laugh. “I won a lot of swing voters in that election,” said the Governor.

“There've been other hints over the years, but when my Justice told me I was moving back to Boston to join your staff, I was pretty sure,” Judy continued. “And then there was this impulsive visit to your famous family's house.”

“A family Judy is part of,” Janis added.

“You'd figured it out too?” said Judy.

It seemed to Andrew that Janis hesitated for half a second before she responded. “No,” she said.

Pretty soon everyone was talking at once. All the women kissed Judy, including Cynthia. All the men congratulated George. “Does anyone want more pancakes?” Joe said finally. No one did.

“Would anyone mind if I said something?” said Cynthia. “About yesterday.”

“Today is better than yesterday,” said Andrew.

“Today will be famous,” said Judy.

Cynthia took a deep breath. “I just wanted to apologise.” She looked at Joe. “To all of you,” she added. “I lost my balance for a while.” She paused again. “I suppose I should explain…”

“Not necessary,” said George.

“We probably all have things to apologise for,” said Rosemary.

Andrew realised that George was looking at his daughter.

“We'll talk,” said Judy.

“So let's call it even,” said Rosemary.

There was a general murmuring of agreement.

“I wondered if I could leave early,” said Cynthia.

“You certainly don't have to,” said Andrew.

“And I'm afraid it isn't possible,” said the Governor. “The
boat that brings the papers and the milk has come and gone. There isn't another ferry until the afternoon, and that won't get you to New York before the plane I assume Andrew has booked you on this evening.”

Janis spoke: “We also thought we might make some promises to each other about confidentiality.”

Cynthia thought about that for a moment. “That would be good,” she said. And then: “So, let's do the dishes.”

That would have brought down the second-act curtain, but as everyone was beginning to get up from the table and carry their dishes to the kitchen, the front door opened and Andrew's errant wife, the primary Cathy, walked in.

12

Cathy had come on the ferry that brought the milk and Sunday papers and gotten a taxi to the house. She was wearing clothes Andrew had never seen before: a short skirt of some silver fabric that danced around as she moved, a light blue tee shirt with no bra, ballet slippers, a lot of silver bracelets. The overall effect was more feminine than anything she'd worn in years – or would have been except that she had had her hair cut so short it
just
lay down.

Cathy walked briskly around the room, introducing herself and shaking hands: “I'm Cathy. I'm Cathy. You must be Shiva.”

“And you must be Ariel,” said the Indian.

“Being set free,” said Cathy.

“So
this
must be the end of the play,” said Shiva.

It was clear to Andrew that Cathy was engaged in an enormous act of will. She had decided to be a different person. She could be charming and cheerful when the spirit moved her, but she was never this brisk and bold. And she
never
dressed to call attention to herself. What was going on?

When Cathy got to Sally she kissed her on the cheek. “How did it go?” she asked.

“All right, I think,” said Sally. She introduced Cathy to Joe.

“Andrew told me I'd be impressed,” said Cathy, looking the billionaire up and down as if she were flirting with him.

“It was quite a party,” he said. Andrew didn't think Joe knew what to make of Cathy. But then, he didn't know what to make of women generally.

“My pleasure,” said Cathy, as if she'd arranged it all.

When she got to Andrew, though, she just stood and looked at him. “I'm sorry,” she said.

Rosemary had come around the table and was standing next to him. She had slipped her hand into his, which Cathy would have seen. “Eleanor was trying to reach you,” he said. “You left your phone here.”

“I know,” said Cathy. “I bought another one. She's fine.”

“You said she was having a minor crisis. But then, you said you'd gone to Germany to see her and you obviously haven't.”

“I didn't say that,” said Cathy.

“We need to talk,” said Andrew. There were too many spectators for the talk they needed to have.

Cynthia approached, stopped a few feet away and waited for a break in the conversation – like a six-year-old on a school playground trying to make a new friend. “I'm Cynthia,” she said, advancing a step.

“I know,” said Cathy. “I like waking up with you. Watching you on television, that is.”

“I like your outfit,” said Cynthia.

“It was a mistake,” said Cathy.

“But you're beautiful,” said Cynthia.

“No I'm not,” said Cathy. “Did Andrew tell you I was?”

“He didn't tell us anything,” said Cynthia, taken aback by Cathy's tone. “He pretended Sally was you.”

“You did?” said Cathy, looking at Andrew and then at Sally.

“It seemed like a good idea,” said Andrew, not letting go of Rosemary's hand.

“What exactly did you say, Sally?” said Cathy.

“I told Andrew that you'd gone to see Eleanor. Not a serious crisis, but your sense of responsibility as a mother compelled you to go. That sort of thing.”