Three Rivers (35 page)

At the hotel, they got out of the car one by one, and George, the doorman, gave them a resounding welcome. Then they made their way through the Hilton lobby and down to the Ta Nissa Room. Katarina was stopped constantly by people. She was very much loved by the Greeks and seemed to have a kind word for everyone.

As the three of them walked into the Ta Nissa Room, with Gamal behind them, Isabel thought to herself that this was a great mistake. Kate and Ava were going to see her come in with happy people whom they did not know, and they were going to be on the defensive. Well, it couldn’t be helped now.

The maître d’hôtel greeted Katarina with all the fanfare that an actress of her stature gets in restaurants. Isabel and Alexander were introduced, and then Alexander took over.

“I believe that you have a reservation for Miss Wells, a table for three. Have her guests arrived?”

“Yes, sir, her guests are seated.”

“You have a table reserved for me, Mr. Gordon-Spencer, close to Miss Wells’s table?” he continued. “That one is for two.”

“Yes, sir, we are ready for you. May I take your party to your tables?”

“Yes, and by the way, I would be pleased if you would allow my man here to wait for us in reception.”

“Yes, with pleasure, sir.”

Alexander slipped the man a very large tip and saw that Gamal was seated comfortably at a small table in the reception area. Then they were shown to their tables.

It was like the scene in the lobby, only magnified. They walked through the dining room, weaving in and out of
the tables, while various men rose from their chairs to kiss Katarina’s hand, and women stood up and kissed her on the cheek. Finally the entourage made their way to the windows where their tables were.

Kate and Ava were already seated and waiting. Isabel had waved to them when she saw them. Alexander’s table was the first they approached, and so the two women said good-bye to each other, and Alexander said, “After you have finished your lunch, and you are ready to leave, we will be here at the table waiting for you. If I am gone, it will only be to take Katarina home, and then I will return here. Gamal is waiting should you decide to leave and go somewhere. Just tell him where you will be. I will come and pick you up. And, Isabel, if after you and your family have had lunch you would like to join us for coffee, I am delighted to invite you. Simply come and join us.” He kissed her, and she went on to meet her mother and sister.

Isabel kissed Kate on the cheek and then slipped into the chair held back by the waiter. “Hi. I hope I have not kept you two waiting. It is so nice to see you. How are you, Ava? You’re looking lovely.”

“I did not know that Katarina Syndamou was a friend of yours,” Ava said by way of an answer.

“Well, actually, she is not. She is a friend of Alexander’s.”

“And who is Alexander?”

“Alexander Gordon-Spencer. He is a close friend of Alexis Hyatt, and now he is a friend of mine.”

“Well!” Ava fumed, “You really made an entrance, didn’t you? You always have to have center stage, don’t you?”

Ava had been doing all the talking, and Isabel thought to herself,
Oh, she is angry and holding it all back as usual
.

“She doesn’t dress very well for a woman in her position, but what do you expect? You know how the Greeks are about taste,” Ava hissed.

“We have just come from the …”

“Well, I suppose the fact that she is a great lady of the theater covers up a great many of her faults,” Ava interrupted. “They say that she is going to retire, but I don’t listen to the gossips. They say anything just to talk.”

“… the Acropolis was beaut ——”

“All my life I have had the bad luck that people are always jealous of me,” Ava continued. “My looks, my marriage, my home, my career — always the same problem — parasites who do nothing, always jealous. I am sure that she suffers from the same problem. Have you ever heard her Elektra? Oh, but come to think of it, you could not have appreciated it if you had, what with your bad Greek. You should have made more of an effort. Well, maybe now that she is your friend you will go to one of her performances.”

“Isabel,” Kate interjected.

“Yes, Mother?”

“Isabel, is
that
the man that I spoke to yesterday on your telephone? Is
that
your new servant?” Kate pointed, none too discreetly, to Gamal, sitting at his little table far across from them.

“No, Mother. He is the servant of Alexis, and Alexis is the man who you spoke to on the telephone yesterday.”

“Since when do you travel with a strange man’s servants around you? Just because you know one actress? Really, Isabel. Ava is right, you do try and hog the limelight. You are getting to be an actress yourself.”

“Mother, I know it all looks strange to you, but please let me explain. Alexander, that is the man over there at the table with Katarina, and I, and that man, Gamal, flew in on an airplane this morning, and we are flying out of here at seven this evening. Since I was coming to lunch here, they decided to do the same, so that we would all stay relatively close together. Now, does that explain it all?”

With that Isabel called the headwaiter over and said, “We would like to order, please.”

It was during the ordering of lunch that Ava first saw the diamonds on Isabel’s hands. A minute later it was Kate who said, “Isabel Wells, let me see your hands.”

Isabel could not help but laugh and very proudly put down her menu and snowed the women her hands. The two women were nonplussed. Kate finally recovered herself and said, “Where did you get those?”

“Well, that is why I am here. I have something to tell you, but I’m sure that Ava already has.”

“Ava has told me nothing. What were you supposed to tell me, Ava, and why haven’t you?” Kate scolded.

“I have told you nothing because, for the moment, I
am not sure that there is anything to tell. If there is, then let Isabel find a way to explain this latest thing in her life. It has nothing to do with me, and frankly, I can’t get enthusiastic over another one of her ‘projects.’ Well, Isabel, let’s have the laugh of the day.”

“I have no idea why Ava finds it so amusing, but the fact of the matter is that I am going to get married, and I would like to tell you everything. It is just wonderful and I am happier than I have ever been in my life.”

Then the petty, inevitable questions began.

“How can you many a man who you have only known for two weeks? Who is he? Oh, my God, he is an Arab! Oh, my God, he is half-Christian and half-Moslem? How do you know he really has money? Maybe he is a phony? Do you have to change your religion? What are you going to do about your American citizenship? Oh, Isabel, how could you do this to me? What will the family say? Is he very black, I mean brown? If your father was alive, he would put a stop to this. How old is he? Oh, he is so old! How many wives does he have?” And on and on and on it went.

Finally Isabel made it clear to Kate and Ava that she would marry somewhere in Egypt on Tuesday or Wednesday.

“Oh, so you come here like a princess with your three-ring circus, dripping in jewels, and simply announce that you are getting married in Egypt on Wednesday and Thursday,” Kate attacked. “Did it ever occur to you to discuss it with your family?”

“Well, Mother, that is what I am doing here now, or trying to do, is more like it, and the wedding will be Tuesday or Wednesday, not Wednesday and Thursday.”

“Stop interrupting me! What about
my
plans? Have you forgotten that you have a
commitment
to me?”

“I have a what?” Isabel gasped.

“What do you mean ‘a what’? A commitment. I was coming to
live
with you. Did it ever occur to you that I don’t want to change my plans? What am I supposed to do now? What am I supposed to do now?” Kate began to cry, with dry tears, at the table.

“Now you have done it, Isabel.” Ava, on the attack. “For God’s sake, Mother, pull yourself together. Leave it to you, Isabel, to pick a fine time to mess up everyone’s lives.”

“Upset everyone’s lives? Mother coming to live with me?” Isabel managed. “Whatever are you two talking about? I come here to tell you that I am going to be married, that I am happier than I have ever been in my life. I want to share this with you both, and all I get is that I am messing up
your
lives. Are you both mad? Until this minute all I knew about Mother’s plans was that she was going to spend a holiday in London with me, at her convenience, I might add. And as for you, Ava, how does my finding happiness with another human being mess up
your
life? Have neither of you any joy for
me?
”

“No one here is being practical at all,” Ava said, ignoring her. “First of all, Mother is going to London. That is what she wants to do, and I think she should do it. And, I think that
you
should take the responsibility of making her
happy
in London.”

Isabel felt as if she were on the edge of an abyss. She had just come to tell these women that she was marrying and was not going to be in London, and they were going on as if she had said nothing of the greatest change she would probably ever make in her entire life. They were ignoring it, almost as if it were a fantasy of hers.

“Ava, I don’t think you realize that in a few days I am not going to be Isabel, neurotically trying to take care of herself, dying of guilt every day because she cannot take care of her family, but Lady Alexis Hyatt. A wife, married to a man out of a mutual passion and respect for one another. I am going to make this man as happy as he is making me happy. I am in love with him.” She turned to her mother. “You and your trip to London, and whatever else you think I am messing up in your life, are going to have to face it. I am interested in nothing at the moment except making a happy life with this man.”

As her mother began to argue, Isabel silenced her with a wave of her hand. “I am not going to London. You, Kate, are not coming to live with me. You never
could
, and you never
will
. Alexis asked me to invite you both, and Alfred, to come for a long stay with us in Egypt, after we are settled. When he extended that invitation, he was sure that you would like to share some of our happiness. If this dreadful luncheon is an example of your joy for us, I do not see how we could possibly extend such an invitation. Things have changed dramatically for me now. They could change for you also. We could have a settled,
happy family, with a new member. This is something I have looked for, waited for, longed for, all my life: to find another human being with whom I feel complete. Is it so difficult for either one of you to wish me well in that? Not one
word
has come from either one of you wishing me happiness.”

There was silence, and at this point the waiters brought the first course. The silence settled over the table like a Cape Cod fog. Isabel was surprised at herself for saying as much as she had. She picked up her fork and cut into the thick slice of grilled aubergine. She was very angry and shocked, not so much because of their lack of joy, but because of their meanness in not being able to enjoy her happiness. Isabel had pointed out to them all the horrific lack of love and simple affection between the three women. Isabel was forced to face the fact that she was no different from the other two. Her self-interest, her own happiness, were of prime importance to her. Another time, long ago, that was not so, but the years and years of Kate and Ava’s domination and egoism had worn down to nothing her generosity towards them.

Isabel looked up from her plate at Kate, whose face was contorted with self-pity, anger, bitterness and rage. When their eyes met, Isabel saw Kate’s face turn into a hard, mean mask from which the blood had drained.

“This is not the first time that you have done this to me, but it is the last time,” Kate suddenly began. “I have loved you, adored you, given you everything, and you took everything and ran like a thief, and you are still running like a thief. You go to Egypt, you marry this man who has you under his power because he holds you sexually, pays you off with gems. You wait until a younger, sexier thing comes along, and he throws you in the street. Don’t worry, your mother will take you in, just as she always has. Imagine!

“In love! Marry a man because you are in love! Disappointing
me
because you are in love with a man and want to make a life with him. You are smarter than I am. I lived a miserable forty years with your father. He was kind and good-natured and gave me everything he could, but there was no love. During that time someone did come along, but you never saw
me
running off, did you? I did not desert
you
because someone was satisfying me sexually, giving me gifts, paying attention to me. I did not
abandon
you
and
my obligations
to
you
. I missed out my
whole life
because of
you
. You live with that!” She pounded the table with her fists. “You fly out today to your new husband and see what it is like to pick up after a man. To carry for him. To be dependent on him. To be dominated and enslaved by a man, for security, because you do not want to work anymore. That’s what it is, you know.
Love!
Don’t make me laugh! You have
no idea
what the word means. Be honest with yourself. You have never been able to love
anything
but
yourself
for very long. Well, I wish you all the luck in the world because, kid, you are going to need it. We are going to be in Egypt at the same time, you and I. But we won’t see each other. I won’t have
time
this trip, but give me your address, and I
might
send you a postcard.”

Isabel was shattered. With a trembling hand she found a fountain pen in her handbag and a piece of paper. She wrote down the Sharia el Nil address and Alexis’s name and handed it across the table to Kate.

Ava had sat there impassively taking it all in. The waiters served the second course to the silent ladies. Ava picked up her knife and fork and stabbed into her steak.