Purling Road - the Complete Second Season: Episodes 1-10 (5 page)

“Ava, stop! We can’t think like that. I’m sure she’s around here somewhere.”

They climbed the stairs, walking around people and ignoring requests for them to stop and join the party.

“What do we do, just start opening doors? I’m sure they’re closed for a reason.”

“I don’t know,” Claire growled.

The stairs blunted at the top, stretching right and left in wide hallways. They looked each way. To the left, they saw a cluster of people standing near a half table set against the wall.

“Let’s ask them if they’ve seen her.”

They slowed as they approached. The group broke out in bursts of laughter, huddled around the small table.

“Excuse me,” Claire said, tapping one woman on the shoulder. She was rail thin. Claire guessed she was young despite the hard lines that ringed her eyes and mouth. Her short white hair was wild and spiky, a fashion they’d not seen around town or in magazines. She was dripping with cheap jewelry. Her eyes lingered for a long time on Ava. She gave a fake smile and spoke with the faintest of accents.

“Line starts on the other side, love. And it ain’t free. You ‘ave money?”

“Money?”

“As in cash?”

“What is…”

The white-haired woman walked away, clearly out of patience with Claire’s ignorance. The table at the center of the commotion could be seen now. Someone was bent over it nearly face down on the table.

She raised her head. Arianna had a euphoric smile and passed the rolled up paper to the next person in line.

Claire’s eyes went wide. “Christ. She’s snorting cocaine.”

Ava rushed around the table and grabbed Arianna’s arm.

“That’s enough. We’re going home now.”

Arianna yanked away. “The hell we are! The party’s just getting started!” She wobbled over to Josh, who was waiting for her by the wall. It was clear by his glassy eyes and disconnected look that he’d already had his time at the table.

“This is not what we agreed to, Arianna.”

“You agreed to come, and now you’re acting like old ladies! Afraid to have a little fun?”

Josh draped an arm over her shoulder.

“She’s married,” Claire said matter-of-factly. “And her husband isn’t exactly small. I suggest you move your arm so we can take her home.”

His eyes slid lazily from Claire to Arianna. “I don’t see her husband here tonight. Do you want to go home, darlin’?” he asked.

She snorted and then laughed. “Go home to what? A boring husband? A crazy mother-in-law? Screaming children and piles of dishes?”

Arianna glared at Claire. “Why don’t you go home?”

“Arianna, you’ve lost your mind.”

Arianna found this hilarious, dropped her purse on the floor, and bent over in fits. Then she sobered her eyes boring into Claire’s.

“If you only knew,” she whispered, and for a fraction of a second, she looked as if she might cry.

If Claire thought there was any chance she could win, she’d slap Arianna senseless, tackle her, and drag her by the hair back to the truck.

“We’re not leaving without you,” Ava said, stepping in.

“Then have fun trying to keep up.”

Arianna and Josh turned away, moving toward the staircase.

“What are we going to do?” Claire asked in desperation. “She could kill herself tonight.”

Ava spotted Arianna’s small beaded purse lying on the floor. She picked it up and fished out the keys. Her eyes flashed with the answer.

“I’ll stay here and keep my eyes on her. You go get Maura.”

***

“I had a fair idea of what this madness looked like from stories I heard ye tell.” Maura watched Arianna dancing on a tabletop, a sea of men surrounding her, cheering her on. It appeared that instead of dancing to the music, the band was playing for her. “But it’s quite somethin’ else to see it in person.”

“Can you get her to leave?” Claire asked.

Ava rushed up and grabbed Maura’s arm from behind. “Thank God you’re here. Another five minutes and she’d be topless.”

Maura cocked a critical eyebrow. “She’s damn near there now. How much has she had to drink?”

Ava lolled her head around, estimating. “Bottles. I don’t know. Enough to put a horse under along with a taste of everything else this place has to offer.”

She patted Ava’s hand. “Aye, I’ll see what I can do.” She shoved her way past people without apology. When she approached Arianna’s personal stage, she whacked the back of a few heads with her handbag to get them out of the way.

With her arms up in the air, her hips gyrating wildly, she caught sight of Maura glaring up at her. The smile slid, the show stopped.

Maura beckoned with two fingers for her to get off the table. Ava and Claire held their breath, wondering if she’d comply. Much to their surprise, she did. Of course, they knew she’d eventually obey Maura. They just didn’t expect her to so without a fight.

She climbed down, holding the hand of a stranger as she stepped from table to chair to the floor.

“Yer husband will be waiting fer ye at home,” Maura said, meeting Arianna’s harsh glare.

She blinked slowly and then walked with as much dignity as she could muster past Maura toward the door.

“How…” Ava looked at Claire.

“If ye think I’ve some magical powers, I don’t,” Maura said as the three followed a stumbling Arianna. “It’s all in the timing. She’s on the verge of passing out.”

Arianna spun around at the door to face them. “I had a
good
time tonight,” she declared. “They
loved
me!” She threw her head back and it, along with the rest of her body, kept going. Maura, Ava, and Claire stared at her lying quite undignified, sprawled out on the floor of the grand foyer.

“Well, I suppose we’ll have to carry her to the truck now,” Maura said with a sigh.

***

Aryl took Claire’s hand. “I’m glad you told me,” he said. “I’m sorry the evening went so wrong.”

“So far as Caleb knows, Maura went with us last night. She agreed to go along with it. It was the only way to explain why she was there to help Arianna home. He wasn’t thrilled to be woken up in the middle of the night to help carry his drunken wife into the house and then have to drive all three of us home.”

“No, I don’t suppose he would be. He’s got a long day of building ahead of him.”

“I had no idea she’d go crazy like that. Not now. I expected her to have a few drinks and be fine. I’ve seen her do it a dozen times over the last few years. I never expected it to set her off like that.”

“With Arianna, a few is fine. But anything past a few, there’s something that disconnects in her mind. Common sense leaves the room.”

“Last night it left the county,” Claire said, shaking her head. “I don’t ever want another girl’s night again.”

“Don’t say that. I happen to think you need them every now and then. Not like last night,” he added quickly. “Definitely something more subdued next time.”

“I don’t want to think about a next time. What’s worse, I don’t know how much of last night she is going to remember. I don’t know if she’s going to be angry at us for bringing Maura into it.”

“I’m going to wager she won’t remember much past the first bottle of bourbon.”

“Why does she do this, Aryl? I thought she was different. I thought she’d changed. I don’t miss this version of Arianna.”

He squeezed her hand, staring at their laced fingers. “I know why she did it then, and why she’s doing it now,” he said softly, “to run away from life when life gets to be too much to take.”

“Like you did?” she asked with a knit brow. She’d never considered the similarities.

He nodded. “As if our life’s implosion wasn’t enough, now she’s got her hands full with Ethel, the kids, Caleb being home and taking this chance on his farm. Frankly, I’m surprised she was able to handle this much before she broke.”

“Aryl, the problems with Ethel and the kids, and even Caleb aren’t going to go away. They are still there this morning, and she still has to deal with them.”

“I know. I think she knows that too—which is why she really went out of her way to get as far away from reality as she could last night. Relaxing wasn’t enough. She needed to forget it entirely.”

“But will she do it again? Especially after having a taste of it?” She touched his face. “You know how hard it is once you get a taste,” she whispered.

“Only time will tell,” he said. “She needs her friends. She needs support. We’ll keep an eye on her.”

“And if it looks like she’s headed down that road?” Claire asked.

“Then we intervene. We find Arianna’s version of being
tied to a tree
.” He smiled. “Let’s go. Caleb needs my help with the house today.”

Her eyes widened, and she opened her mouth.

“Don’t worry, I told you I’d keep this secret and I will.”

She walked into his arms, and he held her closer than he had in months.

The ice that shrouded their relationship lately had broken, and for that, Aryl was very grateful.

***

Claire went straight to her garden, not quite ready to see Arianna. She sent Aryl to feel out the situation. The door was open, and Aryl walked into an empty, quiet kitchen. He helped himself to a cup of coffee, adding cream and sugar, behind him the dragging footsteps of a very hungover Arianna thumping down the stairs. She groaned as she sat down.

Aryl set the coffee cup on the table with a hard thud. Arianna’s face pinched.

“Got a headache?” he asked, fighting a smile as he sat across from her.

Arianna pinched the bridge of her nose, her eyes squeezed tight. “Something like that.”

“You should take some aspirin.. We’ve got a busy day ahead of us. Lots of hammering and pounding and yelling.”

She dropped her hand, red, swollen eyes glaring at his twitching grin.

“Go to hell, Aryl.”

He sat back with a mock frown. “Feisty. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the old Arianna was rearing her ugly head.”

Her stone hard face and silence admitted nothing. Only Aryl could see it admitted everything.

Caleb poked his head in the kitchen door. “Can I get your help with something,” he asked Aryl. Cool eyes slid over Arianna, and he said nothing to her.

“Sure,” Aryl said, standing quickly. “You can have that,” he told Arianna gesturing to the coffee. “You need it a lot more than I do.

After they had left, Arianna was alone for a moment and groaned as she rubbed her temples. She heard Maura calling out to Caleb in the yard and groaned again.

Moments later, all the women were sitting around the table, all the children playing together in the living room.

“How much does Caleb know?” Arianna finally asked, not looking at any of them.

“To Mr. Caleb’s knowledge, I went with ye ladies last night. We’ve not said where, but leaving him to assume that I was with ye, he can’t be imagining anything too terrible. We only said that ye indulged a bit too much.” Maura sat back and folded her arms. “Yer lucky I don’t march out there and tell him every bit of what I saw.”

Arianna appeared irritated but unafraid.

Ava leaned forward. “You scared us last night. I don’t ever want to do that again.”

“And you were a bitch,” Claire added. “We were looking out for you, and you acted like you hated us for it.”

“I’m… sorry,” Arianna managed to say. It was no easy thing and they all knew it. “You’re right. I was completely out of hand. It won’t happen again.” She kept her eyes low, and Claire noticed the sadness in her voice. No one knew if Arianna was sad over what she’d put her friends through or for shame at her outrageous behavior. After all, the inflection of sadness in her voice was only when she said, ‘It won’t happen again.’

Arianna found the courage to look at her friends. “Can we just keep last night between us? Can we just forget about it?”

They all quietly agreed.

“Is Caleb mad?” she asked glancing toward the door.

“He isn’t happy,” Claire said. “You’ll have to ask him if he’s mad. I know he’s hoping to get the foundation in and walls of that house up today.”

“Between the four men, I think they might be able to. If ye can handle the cooking, the girls and I will see to the babes, Ethel, and the gardens,” Maura said. Arianna considered herself lucky to be assigned cooking duty. If Maura really wanted to punish her, she could have saddled her with looking after the children. The very
loud
children.

“Thank you all for coming to help,” she said, holding her roiling stomach. Arianna pushed her chair back with a scrape and went to get dressed.

***

“We got a letter from the orphanage,” Jonathan said just before tearing into a sandwich. He and Aryl sat in the shade of a tree.