Beautiful Wild - Anna Godbersen Page 0,21
curious about a map room. “Yes, of course.” The loveliness of weather, of moisture, of the air so suggestive of things to come, renewed her pleasant prospect of Fitz, of knowing more about him, of making him hers. What could it hurt to know what went on in his private lair? Anyway, she enjoyed this sneaking, this little bit of mystery.
“Come on,” Sal said, and she followed.
They went quickly now, up and down stairs and into the hall where a few days ago she had schemed, hesitated, and flopped. Sal did not hesitate now. He leaned against the door and pushed it open with his shoulder.
They both jumped a little in surprise when they saw the female figure.
Vida’s mind was slow to catch up—there was supposed to be no one here. But there was someone here. A woman was here, with eyes wide in surprise to match Vida’s own, framed in the doorway, blocking their path.
The woman’s hand was lifted, her arm extended as though she had been about to grab the doorknob, as though she had been about to leave the map room Vida was trying to go into. The woman’s beautiful fair hair was spilling over the front of her dress. Her cheeks were ruddy with some feeling that Vida did not like. She made an exclamation, somewhere between an “Oh!” and an “Ahhh . . . ,” flat at first and then soaring upward in surprise.
“Who’s there?” barked a man’s voice, deeper within, at about the same time that Vida’s mind put together that this was Camilla, who she had found so beautiful earlier on the deck.
A little hope burst through Vida and died. For a minute she had thought maybe it wasn’t Fitzhugh; maybe it was the brother who looked so like him. And then she knew that wasn’t the case. It was Fitzhugh. Sal’s long body stepped sideways to block her view. She tried to see around him, though she was at the same time contending with a strong urge to turn and run away.
“Fitz?” Sal’s voice was pinched with confusion. “I’m sorry,” he said, backing away. “I didn’t think . . .”
“Sal—” Fitz was saying as he came out of a dark corner into the illuminated part of the room. His hair was as polished as usual, and he was dressed for dinner in white tie and tails, and he was comporting himself with the sureness that made him so winning to newspaper columnists and the ladies who read those columns. “I asked you to see to Miss Hazzard.”
“He did as you asked,” Vida said, pushing around Sal and not hiding at all her stricken expression. Camilla stepped backward, maneuvered herself behind Fitz. “But maybe you should have been straight with him about what you were doing. Then he might have known not to bring me here.”
Now she could see Fitzhugh Farrar’s famous map room and felt sad for herself and all female kind that they were made to pretend that this was a fun place to visit. The walls were paneled in dark wood, and the ceiling was carved wood, and on a large wood table many old papers were spread out. It was just like every uncle’s study. There was a painted globe, and a lot of leather-bound books, and a nook with a pair of large leather chairs and between them there was a glass tray with a set of crystal glasses and crystal bottle full of amber liquid. In the midst of all that solemn furniture stood the lovely Camilla, the wife of Fitzhugh’s brother, and Fitzhugh’s former fling. Or maybe not former. Vida was finding it difficult to make sense of the scene.
“We were—” Fitzhugh began.
But Vida couldn’t stand to hear an explanation and began to drown out his speech with her own: “I know what you were doing. Please. I am a lady. I really oughtn’t hear such things.” Why had she said that? It was precisely her unladylike behavior that had gotten her into this mess in the first place. She had acted too free, and now look at her. She’d behaved like all the other girls foolishly chasing after men who were indifferent to their efforts. And hadn’t a little part of her been hoping that maybe Fitz would kiss her, in the dark of this map room, just as he had apparently done with Camilla? It felt better to act indignant than to appear hurt, however, so she went on frowning as though this scene