Adventurer Gone Page 4

  It was a confusing riot of wardrobe colors, activities, and behavior, and Hettie wondered if this was what anarchy looked like. Except that it was orderly somehow, even in the seeming chaos.

  Dara touched Hettie gently on the shoulder. “It’s a lot to take in, isn’t it? The ambience is unlike any other place I’ve been.”

  “Yes! It’s wonderful and slightly confusing, but mostly just a delight.”

  Wesley took Hettie and Ro each by the hand as though he hadn’t just been nearly assaulted by his friend, who stood a few paces behind him.

  “Let’s get a drink and we’ll show you around inside the clubhouse.”

  “Dara, I need to speak with you privately.” Herbert had been so quiet that Hettie forgot he was with them.

  Dara tensed at his suggestion, but she replaced her faltering smile with one even wider than before. “Of course, darling. Shall we dance?”

  Hettie watched Herbert and Dara peel off from the rest of the group after the pair made promises to meet back up at the patio lounge. Sadie, Hettie noticed, watched the pair walk away with a troubled expression.

  Wesley, who was towing Hettie and Ro along, said too brightly, “Don’t worry about those two. Volatile lovebirds, they are. Before long, we’ll find them nuzzling each other in the shadows.”

  Josiah grunted and muttered something under his breath.

  She glanced at Ro who was smiling and laughing, but when they made eye contact, Ro nodded a slight nod. Yes, that had been odd.

  Wesley led them to a large table below a big window that looked out on the grounds. “Shall we switch from beer to cocktails? Lawrence is making drinks, and he’s imaginative.”

  This was a move Hettie could fully support. “Please.”

  “Let’s.” Ro nodded vigorously.

  After a round of drinks, Josiah muttered something and left, chased by a nasty look from Wesley.

  Sadie rose a moment later. “I’m sorry. I won’t leave you here for too long.”

  “Don’t worry, love,” Hettie said. “Ro is going to dance with me and we’re going to discover the wonders that your Lawrence can make with gin.”

  “Oooh.” Ro’s speech had the tiniest bit of a slur to it and she was flushed. “We’re big girls and can entertain ourselves quite nicely. Don’t you worry about us.”

  Once Sadie left and they were finally alone, Hettie demanded, “This is too good to be true, isn’t it?”

  “It is quite fabulous. You know, I had the most horrible thought.”

  Hettie lifted her brows and stole Ro’s last sip of cocktail.

  “I think we’re too used to being sad,” Ro told Hettie, sniffing. She glanced out at the laughing crowd and Hettie followed the gaze. “We can’t trust that we will find happiness.”

  A woman was spinning by herself, silver and black dress flickering in the light. She looked like a fairy creature.

  “Before Harvey’s death,” Hettie admitted, standing and stretching, “I was resigned and angry.”

  “It doesn't feel right. I’m rather delirious with joy right now, Hettie. It’s like I’ve put on a favorite coat that I’ve loved and loved and it doesn’t fit anymore. It’s too tight in the arms and too big in the back.”

  “Take a deep breath,” Hettie advised. “We’ll embrace the joy. Sooner or later, it will feel natural enough again and until then, we’ll mix happiness with gin.”

  “Bit of a joy crutch?” Ro asked with a wink.

  “A helping hand,” Hettie suggested.

  “My glass is empty, which will simply not do,” Ro said, clearly trying for a merry tone. “Let’s pay a visit to our dearest, newest friend behind the bar and see what fabulous concoction he’ll mix up for us.”

  “Happiness with a splash of gin is what I’m going to order and see what he makes.”

  They moved to the bar and stood in a brief line and continued chatting about the grand details of the adventurers building.

  “Wrecking my Rolls Royce was the most brilliant idea I’ve had in a while, Hettie. It seems to have been the start of the journey that led us here.”

  Hettie laughed. “Oh, you did it on purpose, did you? For our greater good? I’ll let you have that one, I suppose. Even though we both know it’s an enormous delusion.”

  A high-pitched female voice behind them in line cut their conversation short.

  “Did you see him practically dragging her down the hall toward his room?”

  Hettie pinched Ro to get her attention so they could eavesdrop together. Ro’s sideways glance told Hettie that she was listening.

  A lower, feminine voice answered. “Yes. I don’t know why she lets him get away with that behavior. Dara deserves so much better.”

  “He’s handsome,” the high-pitched voice said. “That has to account for something.”

  “But,” the lower, saner voice added, “I’d have to use both hands to tick off the number of times she was trying to cover bruises he gave her. I prefer men to give me jewelry or a mink coat.”

  Ro squeezed Hettie’s arm and Hettie tangled their fingers together. Hettie’s husband had been a bit of an apologetic hound dog who’d never even considered laying a hand on her. Ro, however, had not been so lucky.

  “Have you ever asked her about the situation?” the high-pitched voice asked again.

  “No,” the other voice said, “but I’ve asked Sadie about it. Sadie’s tried and failed.”

  “No wonder her mother drones on about thorns.” The high-pitched voice sounded almost gleeful. “Her mother wants her to stand up for herself with that fiend. I find my stomach quite turned by the thought. Let’s go outside.”

  The voices floated away and Hettie waited until they were completely gone before she leaned in and whispered to Ro. “Do you think that Herbert is hurting Dara?”

  “They were awfully tense.” Ro looked sick and Hettie hoped that her friend’s memories weren’t assaulting her. The best that could be said of Leonard was that he didn’t target Ro particularly, and she was able to avoid him. “And they were talking to each other, not us,” Ro continued. “It didn’t feel like gossip so much as a commentary on their lives. He didn't seem the type, but we know better than most how appearances are generally lies.”

  Hettie nodded and then it was time to order their drinks.

  “Lawrence, my love,” Hettie said, striving for extra merriness to help Ro snap away from her thoughts. “I’ll take a happiness with a side of gin.”

  He slowly grinned. His eyes weren’t kind, but they were lascivious and seemed to find something to appreciate in Hettie. “Happiness, you say.”

  “With a side of gin,” Ro added as playfully and Hettie relaxed.

  “Ah—” His head cocked. “I believe that’s got a rather large splash of orange juice.”

  “With a berry muddle,” Ro suggested.

  “And a bit of lemon. Happiness,” Hettie said carefully, “is like a sunny day. We’ll be needing four of them,” she added with a look to Ro.

  Lawrence worked quickly, adding salt and sugar to the rim of the cup. With the layers of colors, the drink looked to have the touch of a rainbow. When he finished mixing, Ro looked at him playfully. “Could you point us in the direction of Herbert’s room? We promised Dara and Herbert happiness and I’m afraid we’ve gotten turned around. I’m a bit lost.”

  “Down that hall, all the way to the end, last door on the left.”

  “You are such a dear. Thank you, Lawrence.”

  With two drinks each, Hettie and Ro moved down the hall.

  “What is your plan?” Ro asked.

  “We’re going to eavesdrop. To learn if there was any truth to what we heard.”

  “Oh,” Ro squealed and spilled a bit of her drink in the process. “Oops. I think I have indulged rather heavily. The next thing you know I’ll be tripping over my toes. Eavesdropping sounds like a…fun adventure?”

  “A wicked and prying one,” Hettie agreed. “But we are adventurers, are we not? I don’t want
to be caught up with a club that allows membership to a man who leaves his love bruised. I won’t. I might love this place, and I do, but we could build our own place like this. Perhaps with less interlopers. I don’t care for much of mankind. We’ll be more exclusive.”

  They found the last door on the left in the vacant hallway and pressed their heads against the door. Hettie couldn’t hear a sound except the sound of her own heartbeat and Ro’s quicker than usual breath.

  “I don’t hear anything, do you?”

  Ro shook her head. “I don’t. But I’ve got an idea of my own.”

  She lifted her glass, drained the liquid and placed the glass on the door. “I read a novel once where the heroine eavesdropped using her crystal glass. This might work.”

  “Oh, I don’t know if it was such a good idea for you to guzzle that.”

  Ro whisper-laughed.

  Hettie followed suit, draining her own glass. “It’s the only responsible thing to do to keep up with you. Besides, now we only have to carry one drink each, instead of two.”

  They both listened while also keeping an eye out for anyone who might turn down the hall.

  “I still don’t hear anything, Ro.”

  “Me either. Let’s see if we can find the window outside. If our ears are failing us, let’s let our eyes pick up the slack.”

  Hettie led them to the other end of the hall that had a door that looked like an exit. When it opened at the first attempt, they both squealed and then shushed each other in a fit of hysterical, not-at-all quiet giggles.

  “Ro, I mean it. If we are going to peek in their windows and see what Herbert and Dara are up to, we have to be quiet. If we’re not quiet, they’ll find out that we’re incorrigible and retract their membership offer.”

  “If we see love-making,” Ro said, “I won’t blame them. If we see something else, well I’ve retracted my interest.”

  They were both snickering rather tipsily as they tiptoed around the side of the building.

  “Hettie,” Ro whispered, “I think I drank too much. I am seeing two of you.”

  “I’m confident we both drank too much. I’m also confident that it will wear off before we have to get on those motorcycles and drive home. In the very worst scenario, we’ll call my driver to retrieve our drunken carcasses.”

  “We aren’t the ones giving our girlfriend bruises, now are we? If we are the creepy ones in this scenario, then…”

  Ro’s speech faded out as they approached what looked to be a window to inside Herbert’s rooms. This time they could hear a loud male voice. Hettie took Ro’s hand with her empty hand—they both still clung to their secondary glasses of gin with a splash of joy. They eased toward the window. Luckily for their purposes, there was a hedgerow they ducked behind, hiding their antics.

  "I’ll stand up and take a peek,” Hettie said, even as what was likely Herbert’s voice continued to rise over the sound of glass breaking. What started out as an adventure in eavesdropping and tomfoolery was quickly escalating into a situation that was sickening to Hettie and quite dangerous for Dara.

  “Let me take your glass,” Ro said, and Hettie gladly handed it over.

  When Hettie got a good look inside, she gasped and dropped back down into the bushes. Dara was completely overpowered by Herbert, and he was a big man.

  “Ro,” she whispered frantically, “he’s really hurting her. We need to do something.”

  Ro handed both glasses to Hettie and stood up to get a look of her own and immediately plopped back down.

  “What do we do?”

  Silence hung between them for a moment and they both looked around as though they’d find a solution in the garden.

  “I have an idea,” Ro said. “Do you see that pathway right there, through the trees and behind that other building?”

  Hettie nodded.

  “And that couple by the roses?”

  Hettie nodded, but this time with a smirk.

  “I’ll count to three. On three, we’ll both throw our glasses at the window. The shattering will make a lot of noise and draw their attention. Perhaps it will keep her safer if there is an audience?”

  Hettie nodded, impressed by Ro’s ability to problem-solve after so much booze. Zozzled Ro was an effective Ro. “Let’s do it. But first—” Hettie tipped her glass back and drained the last of the gin. “No point in wasting a perfectly good drink,” she said and winked at Ro.

  Ro followed suit, downing her drink, and then started counting in a whisper. “On three. One. Two. Three.”

  In one motion, they both stood, threw their glasses at the window and darted from behind the hedges, across the path, and towards the trees. Hettie was impressed with their catlike reflexes, despite both of them having dived so far into their cups.

  “Keep going, Ro. All the way to the building,” Hettie encouraged. They both ran, caring little about the rips on their clothing.

  Chapter 6

  The next morning dawned uncomfortably sunny considering the pounding in Ro’s head. She woke to Hettie swinging open the drapes, humming. Ro groaned, burying her face in the pillow. They’d upgraded Hettie’s rooms into a larger suite once Ro decided to join her at the hotel full-time. Instead of making it to her own bedroom, Ro had fallen asleep on the sofa which was why she was Hettie’s victim.

  “Close the drapes, Hettie. Are you immune to hangovers? Remind me to never drink again. Happiness in a glass? It isn’t happiness that has brought me to such a point as this.”

  “Being as this is not my first go around the track, I drank plenty of water before I went to bed last night. Everyone knows you force as much water down as possible. I left some more out this morning with aspirin, took it when I woke, and waited until the remains of my headache dispersed.”

  “Well, aren’t you brilliant?” Ro asked meanly. “Go away.”

  Hettie laughed. “If you fall asleep on the sofa, then you have to get up when I say. When I fall asleep on the sofa, you can decide what time I have to get up. We’ve been over this.”

  Ro peeked out from the pillow to stick out her tongue. “Fine. Next time you are overcome with exhaustion and nap on the sofa, I’ll let you sleep for twenty minutes and then insist you wake up. I’m sure that’s all you let me have.”

  “Ha. Try ten hours.”

  “Really? That can’t be right. You’re a deceitful wench.”

  “I only lie sometimes, but rarely to you.” Hettie laughed again.

  “Why are you so cheerful this morning? What could we possibly have to do? It’s not like we are employed. Wealth means that you don’t have to get up early. Of this I am certain.”

  “Noon is not early as my mother would say.”

  Ro shuddered at the thought and then memories of their evening flooded in.

  “There you are,” Hettie said cattily. She opened the door to the room for room service a moment later and wheeled in a cart. “You wanted eggs, yes? Poached and runny. Perhaps with some grilled fish? A little caviar?”

  Ro gagged, but it wasn’t the food that was making her feel so sick. “Oh no, Hettie. Is my memory of snuggling with Josiah accurate? Tell me that was a terrible dream?”

  Hettie laughed as she pulled the silver dome off of the platter and revealed nothing more nocuous than toast, scones, and fruit. “It was not a nightmare. I think you’d have flirted with every man there if I hadn’t got you out when I had. Speaking of last night, we need to decide what to do about Herbert and Dara. And all of those adventurers, really. But I think—perhaps—oh! I don’t know.”

  After they’d stopped Herbert and hidden behind the second building, they’d tried to join the festivities. It hadn’t taken long before they found Sadie and asked about the commotion and breaking glass.

  Hettie was surprised their pants hadn’t immediately been set on fire with the way they’d widened their gazes and pretended to be concerned—even a little afraid.

  Sadie waved her hand dismissively and answered with a brief, “Some of the members
tend to get a little rowdy. It was nothing.”

  Ro had noticed a strain in Sadie’s eyes that hadn’t been there before and wondered if Sadie knew there was more to it than she let on. Throughout the evening, they’d watched Dara and Herbert interacting with other guests but they didn’t spend any time together as far as Ro saw.

  “I think it is problematic that some of her friends suspect that Herbert is no good, but none of them do anything to correct the issue,” Ro said, frustrated. “What kind of friendship is that? You’d destroy anyone who was hurting me like that, not joke with him over a cocktail. It’s disconcerting to say the least. I don’t have any desire to clutter my life with more Leonards and Harveys.”

  Hettie scoffed as she poured Ro hot coffee and handed her the cup with aspirin. “I don’t think they’ll be for us after all, Ro. They might have an amazing building and do exciting things, but I have no intention of putting on a pretty face and smiling at Herbert.”

  “Agreed. Research needed. In the meantime, I think we should talk to Dara. We’ll take her out…shopping? Shopping, dinner, cocktails, without Herbert. If we can get her to confide in us, we might be able to decide what is best for us. And perhaps for her.”

  “Perhaps the bathhouse? We became excellent friends there. Maybe that’s all Dara will need to reveal all to us. We haven’t been since the first night we met and I could use a good soak. I’ll bring champagne. You bring gin. If she doesn’t succumb willingly, we can always get her to the confessional stage of zozzled.”

  “We can bring it, but I won’t drinking any of it.”

  “I’ll believe that when I see it.”

  Ro watched Hettie cross the room to the telephone through scrunched eyes. She made a move to sit up but instant nausea sent her back to horizontal and under the blankets.

  Hettie laughed at Ro’s discomfort. “Maybe next time you’ll remember to drink water before bed. I made sure to get Dara’s telephone number last night.” She first dialed the bathhouse for information and then dialed Dara. She spoke to what sounded like a servant. It took a few more minutes for Dara to arrive at the phone. Ro wondered if Hettie had woken her, too.