Chapter 12

#Rhett

I had just enough time to push the drawing into my jacket pocket before Celine reached the bottom of the stairs.

"There you are," she said, looking from me to Lyra. "Sweetheart, why are you out of your room? Come, let's get you something to eat."

Lyra stood very still, holding her rabbit by one ear. She did not move toward Celine's open hand.

"She wanted to show me a school drawing," I said. It was the first lie I had told Celine in eleven years, and it came out smoothly. That bothered me more than the lie.

"How lovely." Celine smiled at Lyra. "May I see it?"

"I lost it," Lyra said.

For a second, nobody spoke. Then Celine laughed softly and stroked Lyra's hair. Lyra flinched, only a little, but I saw it, and I saw Celine see it.

"Dinner is at seven," she said. "Your grandmother is coming."

My mother arrived at seven exactly, in dark green silk, with a driver carrying a box of pastries for Celine. She kissed Celine's cheek and asked about her ankles, her sleep and her appetite. She did not ask about Lyra. She did not ask about me.

We sat at the long dining table. The maid brought soup. Lyra pushed hers around the bowl without eating.

"Lyra, sit up straight," Victoria said. "Celine is carrying your brother. She needs a calm table. You will call her Mommy tonight, and you will thank her for dinner."

"No," Lyra said.

Victoria put down her spoon. "I beg your pardon?"

"She is not my mommy." Lyra's voice shook, but she kept her eyes on her bowl. "My mommy is gone, and nobody will say where."

"Lyra," Celine said gently. "Darling, that is unkind."

"You told me to say it. You told me to say I did not want her. You said Daddy would be happy."

The room went quiet.

Celine's hand went to her chest. Her eyes filled with tears, and I had seen her do this a hundred times. This time, I watched her do it, and I saw how quickly it happened.

"Oh, Lyra," she whispered. "I only wanted you to feel safe."

"Rhett." My mother's voice was cold. "Deal with your daughter."

I opened my mouth. I did not know what I was going to say. I looked at Lyra's small, tight face, and I thought about a woman on the stairs asking for five minutes.

"Leave her alone, Mother," I said.

Victoria turned very slowly. "What did you say?"

"She is eight years old. She is scared. Leave her alone."

I had never said that to my mother in my life. For a moment she looked almost curious, the way you look at a dog that has suddenly spoken. Then her face closed.

"You will not speak to me like that at my own family's table."

"It is my table."

"It is paid for by my husband's company, and kept running by my work." She stood, and her chair scraped the floor. "I gave up everything for you. And you sit there while a child insults the woman who is giving you your heir."

"Victoria, please," Celine said faintly, one hand on her stomach. "I don't want to be the cause of this. Maybe I should go."

"No," said my mother, and then, to me, "See what you have done."

I did not know what I had done. I knew only that my head hurt, that my soup was cold, and that I wanted to be anywhere else.

My phone rang in the middle of it. It was Mr. Whitlock, the chairman of our board, and he never called after six.

I stepped into the hall.

"Rhett," he said. He sounded tired and careful. "I am sorry to do this tonight. I wanted you to hear it from me. The Brandt distribution contract has been awarded."

"Awarded." I put a hand against the wall. "We had a year of meetings. We had the final presentation on Friday."

"You were not at the final presentation."

I closed my eyes. Friday was the day after Aveline left. I had been sitting in my study with a necklace box, telling myself she would come back.

"Who got it?"

"Hale Group. Sebastian Hale walked in with a proposal, and Brandt signed in the room." Mr. Whitlock paused. "It was eight hundred million over five years, Rhett. The board is asking questions."

"I will fix it."

"I hope so." The line went dead.

I stood in the hall a long time. Through the dining room door I could hear my mother's voice, low and steady, and Celine's soft replies. They were already talking about me.

When I went back in, my mother looked up. "Who was that?"

"The board." My voice came out flat. "We lost Brandt."

"Because of that woman," Victoria said at once. "Because you spent a week running after a ghost. Do you see now? Do you see what she has cost you, even gone?"

"I lost it, Mother. Not her."

"Do not be foolish." She turned to Celine. "My dear, you must go and rest. The shock is bad for the baby."

Celine rose with one hand on the table and the other on her stomach. As she passed me, she touched my arm. "Everything will be alright, darling," she whispered. "You have us."

I watched her walk out. It was only then that I noticed Lyra's chair was empty.

I found her in the hall, standing beside the coat stand, with her face turned to the wall.

"I did not mean to make everyone angry," she said.

"You did nothing wrong."

I knelt and put my arms around her, and she held on to my shirt. She was so small. I had not held her like this in months, and I could not remember why.

My mother's footsteps came up behind us.

"The drawing," Victoria said.

I looked up. She was holding out her hand, palm up. "The one you hid in your jacket. I saw you."

"It is a school drawing, Mother."

"Then you will not mind showing me."

I did not move. My mother waited. Slowly, because I had no choice, I took the paper out and unfolded it. She looked at the three figures under the sun. She looked at the woman with long dark hair. Then she turned it over and read the single word on the back.

She folded it in half, and then in half again.

"Rhett," she said calmly. "This child is being poisoned by a woman who is not even here. I will not allow it to continue under my roof."

"Mother..."

"I have already called Saint Brigid's. They have a place for her in the boarding house. She will start on Monday."

Lyra's fingers tightened in my shirt.

"You cannot send her away," I said.

My mother tucked the folded drawing into her handbag and snapped it shut.

"Watch me," she said.