Stabbing Stephanie (23 page)

“I want you to apologize to her.”

“I knew you were going to say that,” he grumbled.

“Let's get it over with.”

To her surprise, he put down his magazine and got right up from the bed, leading the way out of the room and down the hall to the guest room. Halfway down he turned to Jane. “Is she in there?”

“Probably.”

Jane knocked on the guest room door. “Come in,” Stephanie called.

Jane looked in. Stephanie sat at the small vanity that stood against the wall opposite the bed. There was nothing on the vanity's surface. Had she been staring at herself in the mirror? She gave Jane a wan smile.

“Stephanie, Nicholas has something to say to you.”

“All right.”

Jane ushered Nick into the room. He stood just inside the doorway like a soldier and said, “I'm sorry I said those rude things to you.”

She gave him a sweet smile and nodded. “Thank you, Nick. And I'm sorry for what I said.”

He looked surprised at this, as if he might reconsider what he'd said about her. He looked up at Jane for permission to leave.

“Thank you, Nick,” she said, and pulled open the door. He walked out, still strangely stiff.

Jane closed the door again. “I'm sorry, too, Stephanie. I don't know what came over him.”

“No, it's okay, Jane, really.” Stephanie indicated the bed. “Sit for a minute.” When Jane had sat, Stephanie went on, “It's something I needed to hear, because he's right. What is it they say? From the mouths of babes?” She looked at Jane searchingly. “What do
you
think, Jane?”

“About what?”

“About me. Am I such an awful person?”

Despite the invitation, Jane just couldn't be as honest as Nick. “Of course not,” she scoffed.

Stephanie looked at her shrewdly, the corners of her mouth curving upward. “Tell me what you really think.”

Jane paused, considering. “All right,” she said at last, and keeping her voice reasonable, unaccusing, went on, “I do think it's wrong to have an affair with your friend's husband.”

Stephanie grabbed her lower lip between her teeth and nodded. “I knew it. It would look awful.”

Jane frowned.
“Look
awful?”

Stephanie turned in her chair to completely face Jane. “Faith doesn't love him, Jane. She hasn't for a very long time.”

“She's told you that?”

“No . . . Gavin has.”

“Does he love her?”

“He says he did, once. That was a long time ago—long before they were married, actually.”

Jane's eyes widened.

“It's true,” Stephanie said. “I know from Faith that he started flirting with her almost immediately after he starting working for Ravi. And I know from Gav that he was absolutely enchanted with her the moment he set eyes on her. She was beautiful, forceful, glamorous . . .”

“And what was he to her?”

“Interested. Ravi had already lost interest in Faith by this time. Remember, when Gavin arrived at the palace, Faith was near the end of her pregnancy with Surya—Sam. Ravi had no interest in a pregnant wife. Besides, Faith had lost respect for him a long time before. He was a lazy, self-indulgent child. Faith was also fairly certain he was having an affair, maybe several. After Sam was born, relations between Faith and Ravi only got worse. He showed no interest in the baby.”

“Neither did she, apparently. In her own book she says she entrusted him to the care of nannies.”

“She
had
to. She had responsibilities, things she had to do for Ananda because Ravi the playboy wasn't doing them. But even so, she did find time to spend with the baby. Ravi, on the other hand, went for weeks at a time without seeing him.

“Once, when Ravi flew to Calcutta on what he said was state business—Faith was pretty sure he was going to see one of his women—Gavin asked to be excused from going with him, saying he was ill. Since hiring Gavin, Ravi had never gone anywhere without him, but he said he understood, told Gavin to rest, and flew off by himself. But Gavin wasn't sick. He wanted to be with Faith. And she welcomed his attention.

“They finally surrendered to their attraction,” Stephanie said dramatically, stars in her eyes. “Faith told me it was the deepest of passions. Of course, they continued seeing each other, taking elaborate precautions not to be discovered.

“Once in a while, when Ravi remembered she existed, he slept with her, and soon Faith was pregnant again with Ravi's child.

“It was a girl. Faith called her Ketaki, the Hindi name for a cream-colored flower.

“Only a few weeks after the baby was born, three off-duty palace guards went down to the village, which wasn't far from the palace. Several men appeared in the middle of the street and shot the guards dead. The killers were members of a new pro-Chinese rebel group. They disappeared and were never caught.

“Faith wrote to me that she was terrified. The political climate in Ananda had changed completely; it was volatile, dangerous. She pleaded with me to come to Ananda and stay with her at the palace for a few weeks.”

“Did you go?”

“Of course! I was thrilled to be able to see her again, see the children. When I got there, I was immediately struck by how much Faith had changed. She'd always been so carefree and fun-loving. Now she was serious, guarded. I could tell she was terribly troubled—by what was going on in her marriage, in the country. She told me her only comfort was Gavin, and of course the children. Only when she was with her babies did the warm, happy Faith I'd always known show herself.

“But her life was a misery. One day at breakfast she touched my hand and asked if I would stay on indefinitely. She said she needed a friend with her. I told her I had a job back in Boston, that I couldn't just throw it away. But she pleaded with me. She told me I could always get another job, but that if I ever did have trouble getting one, she would help me, either by giving me money or by using her connections to get me a job. She truly was desperate. Of course I said I would stay.

“Then a horrible thing happened. In the palace there was an elderly servant, a shriveled old man named Satyajit who'd been there since before Ravi was born. He hated Faith, and as we later learned, he'd been watching her carefully. He caught on to her affair with Gavin—actually saw them . . . together—and told Ravi.

“I know what happened next because Ravi told it to Faith later. Ravi, by his own account, was shattered to learn about Faith's infidelity. He adored Faith and said that despite his reputation as a playboy, he'd never been unfaithful to her.”

Stephanie rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Right. Anyway, he decided to wait before taking any action. In the meantime, he asked Satyajit to keep watching Faith and Gavin and to report to Ravi. Over the next few weeks, Satyajit told Ravi he'd seen Faith slip out of the palace, presumably to some unknown meeting place, but Ravi still did nothing. He didn't know what to do; as he told Faith later, his heart was broken.

“But finally he couldn't stand it anymore. One day he lied to Faith and Gavin that he had to leave on business in Agra, a city in India not far from Ananda. In reality, he was waiting for a signal from Satyajit that Faith was leaving the palace. When he got it, he secretly followed her to a tiny abandoned temple on a mountainside near the palace. He waited; then he burst in on Faith and Gavin.

“They were making love—quite savagely, Faith told me later. Faith wore the necklace that bore the Star of Ananda, that magnificent jewel. And that was all she wore.”

J
ane leaned forward, fascinated.

Stephanie continued, “There was a hideous scene. Ravi went into an insane rage and screamed to them that they had brought shame to him and his country. He told Gavin he'd thought they were friends and that Gavin had committed the ultimate betrayal. He ordered Gavin to leave Ananda immediately and never return, or he would reveal Gavin's treason and have him executed—now that Faith had made executions fashionable in Ananda again.

“He screamed to Faith that he would divorce her, said he should never have married a spoiled American debutante in the first place. He said he was ashamed and angry at himself for letting her coerce him into treating his own people as abominably as he had. He shrieked at her to remove the necklace. Frantically pulling on her clothes, Faith took off the necklace and dropped it in her pocket. Then she ran back to the palace in tears. When she got to her rooms, she placed the necklace in a small safe in which she kept all of her jewelry.” Stephanie raised one eyebrow. “You'll see in a minute why I'm telling you these details.

“In her overwrought state, Faith apparently closed the safe but forgot to lock it.

“She gathered up her courage and went to see Ravi. She told him he was right and that she was ashamed of her behavior. She said she and the children would leave immediately. But Ravi forbade this.
She
could leave, but
his
children would remain in Ananda. Faith was terrified. She said she couldn't accept that; then she burst into tears. She told Ravi they would discuss the matter again and ran out.

“When she returned to her rooms, she realized she'd forgotten to lock the safe. When she went to do it, she discovered that the Star of Ananda, that fabulous necklace, was gone. She heard a sound and saw one of the doors to her room closing. She ran to the door, looked out, and saw the back of a servant, a woman draped in robes, running. Faith ran after her, but she lost her in the maze of corridors. And she had no idea which servant it had been.”

“Satyajit?” Jane said.

“That was my first thought. But if Ravi had wanted the necklace back—which he would have—he would simply have demanded it back. And Satyajit would never have done that on his own. He was as loyal to Ravi and the royal family as anyone could have been.

“Faith went to Ravi immediately and told him what had happened. Ravi called in the police, and all the servants were searched and questioned—but no necklace. The entire palace was searched minutely, but the Star of Ananda was nowhere to be found.

“That night Faith paced in her rooms, mad with fear that she'd lose the children. Suddenly Gavin was standing on her veranda. He told her he'd only pretended to leave. He had to see Faith. He had to tell her that if she left in disgrace, she would get nothing. She had rights, he said. She was the Queen of Ananda; she was married to the king, was the mother of his children. Ravi couldn't just throw her out like some peasant who'd been caught stealing a loaf of bread.

“Faith told him it was only what she deserved for what she'd done—what they'd done—but that she couldn't bear to lose the children. If she could just get them away, she said, she and Gavin could have a life together—a freer life, without secrets—in Paris, London, Rome, New York . . . wherever he wanted. She was sure Ravi would give her
some
money; that wouldn't be a problem. Besides, she had some money of her own, from her family; not a lot, not as much as everyone thought, but enough. It was the children she was worried about. She couldn't leave them. She needed them. They needed her. She told Gavin they would work something out. What mattered was that they loved each other and would be together.

“She asked him jokingly if he would still love her when she wasn't the queen and had gone back to being just plain old Faith Carson. She said maybe moving back to America would be best; they'd fit in best there, be nearer to her family. But first she had to resolve the matter of the children.

“Gavin tried to calm her down. He said of course what mattered most was that they'd be together—
where
didn't matter—but surely Faith must see that Ravi would never let her take the children.
He
was the one with the power, especially after discovering Faith's infidelity. Surely Faith must see that Ravi would manipulate the situation so that he kept the children—one of whom was, after all, the crown prince.”

“Did Faith agree with this?” Jane asked.

“She told Gavin she thought Ravi was more reasonable than Gavin was giving him credit for. She was sure she could get Ravi to agree to a joint-custody arrangement. After all, this was the twentieth century. Ravi was enlightened enough to see that children needed their mother. Gavin said he would be back; then he slipped back out onto the veranda and off into the shadows of the palace grounds.

“The very next morning, Faith and Ravi discussed the future. I happened to be in a nearby room, having my breakfast, and I heard them yelling at each other. Faith told me afterward that to her horror, Ravi flatly refused to even consider joint custody of Surya and Ketaki. He wanted her to simply leave the country as soon as possible. If she fought him, he would tell the world what she and Gavin had done, shame her. Faith told him she didn't care about herself, but that that would be terribly unfair to the children. Ravi said that in that case, she had better leave immediately. Faith burst into tears and ran out.”

“Did Gavin come back?” Jane asked.

“Yes, later that morning. Faith told him what Ravi had said. Gavin told her to speak to a lawyer—perhaps her family's lawyer, back in Boston. Gavin said he was sure things could still be worked out. Faith agreed to call the lawyer.

“Gavin came back about a week later. She told him she'd spoken to the lawyer, who was working on the case and would be flying to Ananda within the next couple of weeks. Ravi had agreed to speak with the lawyer. Gavin urged her not to leave the palace until she had an agreement, signed by Ravi, that she was satisfied with.

“Faith agreed that this made sense and said that in the meantime, she and Ravi had agreed to keep up appearances. In a few days they would ride together through the village on festival day.”

Stephanie's face darkened. “That day came. Faith and Ravi, though they weren't even speaking to each other, rode together in the back of a white Mercedes from the palace down to the village, where people waved and cheered. I was riding with Satyajit two cars behind them.

“Suddenly a gunshot rang out. Time seemed to stand still.” Tears welled in Stephanie's eyes. “Faith told me later that Ravi's head whipped back sharply and masses of bloody matter burst out of the back of his head. Faith went into a kind of shocked hysteria and climbed up the back of the seat to get this matter . . . Ravi's brains. Then when she realized what she'd done, she pressed against the car's closed window and raised her bloody hands—that famous photograph everyone has seen, that would be published and broadcast all over the world.

“Women in the crowd screamed. There was another shot. I told our driver to stop and got out. At the side of the road I saw a man lying dead. Then there were police all over him. The police had killed Ravi's assassin. Later, the man was found to have been a member of the pro-Chinese rebels, the same group that had killed the palace guards. They were rabidly in favor of China's annexing the kingdom and hated the decadent, apathetic royal family. The assassin may even have been a spy for China; they never found out for sure.”

“How horrible,” Jane whispered.

“Yes . . . That's when I flew home. Faith was now the king's widow, the queen mother. Fortunately, Ravi hadn't yet told anyone of his and Faith's troubles. Faith immediately dismissed Satyajit, warning him that if he ever spoke about the royal family, she would have him arrested for treason. Now there was no longer any reason for Faith to leave Ananda. She attended Ravi's lavish funeral and made her plan. Gavin would continue in his position as assistant—Faith's assistant—handling top-level affairs of the palace, and their secret affair would go on.

“The night of the funeral, he came to her again in her chambers and they made love. They were elated. They could enjoy the privileges of the palace without ending their affair.”

Jane said, “But it didn't happen that way.”

“No, it didn't. Less than a month after Ravi was assassinated, a large band of rebels stormed the palace gate and brutally murdered the guards. Faith, Surya, and Ketaki barely escaped with their lives, smuggled out by dark of night just as the rebels descended on the palace itself. On the outskirts of the village Gavin met them, and together the four of them fled Ananda into India, taking advantage of the general confusion in the country and of special arrangements Gavin had made with the guards at the Ananda police checkpoint.

“From India they flew to London, and from there they watched televised reports of Ananda's bloody overthrow. The palace was ransacked. All the symbols of the Anandese royal family—priceless objects, centuries old—were destroyed. The rebels turned the palace into their headquarters. Ananda was put under military rule. Within a matter of weeks, China annexed the country.

“Faith wanted the comfort of her family in the States, so she and Gavin and the children flew to Boston and set up household in the Carson compound in Cambridge. They maintained strict privacy from the prying eyes of the press and the public. Of course, Faith and I saw each other often.

“Gavin and Faith married and lived a lavish lifestyle in a house they bought in Cambridge. Surya and Ketaki—Sam and Kate—attended the best private schools. But it wasn't long before Gavin and Faith's money had nearly run out, including Faith's own family money. She and Gavin needed a source of income.

“Faith had the idea of trading on her grandfather's famous name and starting a publishing company. She and Gavin and the kids moved to New York, and she and Gavin founded Carson & Hart. Faith was excited about this venture. She went after the same big projects the major publishers were going after. She even got some of them. But she quickly saw that if she continued this way, Carson & Hart would soon be out of business.

“Faith and Gavin decided it had been a mistake to try to compete with publishing's big players. Instead they decided to use their connections to find society figures who wanted to publish their autobiographies, novels, photo collections, that sort of thing. These books would be published on what amounted to a vanity-press basis, with the wealthy authors themselves subsidizing publication.”

“Which is what they're doing now,” Jane said.

“Mostly, yes. And it worked, but they still found themselves struggling financially, barely keeping their heads above water. For one thing, they needed to move to cheaper office space.

“One day Puffy went to New York to have lunch with Faith, and Faith mentioned that she and Gavin were looking for new space. Puffy told her about the building she and Oren own. A doctor had moved out of one of the suites, and Puffy still hadn't found a replacement. She said Faith and Gavin were welcome to use the space rent-free, if they were willing to move to New Jersey.

“I don't think Puffy ever thought Faith and Gavin would live in New Jersey, but they were very interested. A few days later they drove out here, looked at the suite, and liked it. They told Puffy they would accept her offer. Then they started looking for a place to live out here, not wanting to do a reverse commute from New York City every day. They ended up buying the house in Mountain Lakes.”

“Hardly an inexpensive community,” Jane said.

“True, but still more affordable than the place where they were living in the city. They're going to sell that—it's a co-op. When I lost my job at Skidder & Phelps, I called Faith and said I wanted to come here for a visit. I rented a car and drove down. I told Faith I'd lost my job and begged her for a job at Carson & Hart. Without even consulting with Gavin, she said I could be an editor.”

“Do you think Gavin resented her doing that?” Jane asked.

“Faith told me he did, that he even told her to tell me it was off, but Faith refused.

“As I've told you, I was thrilled. I'd never worked in publishing, and to be working with my old friend would be priceless. That night, after dinner with Faith and Gavin, Faith showed me around the house. It's a massive old place; Faith says it's a Hapgood—he was some famous developer. Most of their stuff was still in boxes, but on the wall above the fireplace in the living room, Faith showed me her royal portrait. She looked so serene and beautiful, and around her neck was the Star of Ananda, that magnificent star sapphire among diamonds.” Stephanie closed her eyes. “I've never seen anything so magnificent.

“I told Faith I was surprised she'd been able to smuggle the portrait out of Ananda, even though the whole painting couldn't be more than two and a half feet square. Faith looked at it sadly and said if she couldn't have the Star, if she couldn't be a queen anymore, she would at least have this portrait, to remember.”

For a moment Jane regarded Stephanie, seemingly lost in her own memories of her role in the fairy-tale phase of Faith's life. Then she looked at her watch and realized she'd been here in the guest room with Stephanie for nearly an hour. She rose. “I had no idea it was so late.”

Stephanie snapped from her reverie as if she'd been awakened from hypnosis. “Yes,” she said, shaking herself a little, “I guess it is. How did I end up telling you that whole story?”

“We were discussing whether it's nice to have an affair with your friend's husband.”