Mirror Image, page 10
She usually knew, but sometimes she'd have one of the maids give us castor oil, or things we really hated. And we could always fool them."
"Why would you do that? " One of the girls made an awful face at the thought of a double dose of castor oil. It was a hideous prospect.
"Because I love her, " Olivia said simply, always at a loss to explain the lengths to which she would have gone for her twin sister. The bond between them was beyond severing, beyond challenging, beyond explaining.
"I did a lot of silly things for her, and she for me. Eventually, our father took us out of school because we caused so much trouble. We had a lot of fun though." Olivia smiled at them, and they marveled at her stories. But talking to them had distracted her, and an hour later, Olivia realized that Victoria was still dancing with Toby. They had never left the floor, and Victoria looked as though she were molded into his arms as they circled slowly around the floor, lost in each other's eyes, and oblivious to the hundreds of people around them.
Olivia excused herself from among the young ladies then, and went to look for Charles, and she was relieved when she found him nearly at the front door, with his coat on.
"Will you do me a favor? " she asked quietly, with pleading eyes that he found hard to resist. They matched the tone he'd heard in her voice the day she'd called him and asked him to come to the Fifth Precinct with her.
"Is something wrong? " he asked, concerned, and surprised at how comfortable he was with her. In some ways, she was like a little sister.
It was nothing of what he felt when he was in the presence of her twin sister. And yet side by side, ignoring his instinctive feelings for them, he would have been unable to determine who was who. It was only when he talked to them, when he stood with them for a while, and felt a strange stirring in his soul, that he knew. He liked to think he could have told them apart instantly, if he'd known them better. "Is our friend up to some mischief again? " he asked, concerned. It always seemed to be Victoria who was in trouble, and Olivia who was rescuing her. He had long since understood that much about the relationship between them.
"I'm afraid so. Will you dance with me, Mr. Dawson? "
"Charles .
.
. please. I think we've gotten past Mr. Dawson.
" He took off his coat, handed it to the butler again, without a complaint to her that it had just taken him half an hour to get it, and he was anxious to get home to Geoff. He followed her dutifully through the next two rooms and onto the dance floor, and then he saw instantly what her problem was. Toby and Victoria were dancing closer still by then, and Olivia looked extremely unhappy when she saw them.
Charles led her onto the dance floor and danced as close to them as possible, but Toby was artful at avoiding them, and Victoria appeared to be oblivious to her sister's glances and pointedly disapproving faces.
Finally, she turned her back on them, and whispered something to Toby, until at last they left the dance floor, and disappeared into the next room. And Olivia couldn't see them as soon as the crowd closed around them.
"Thank you, " Olivia said, looking very grim, and Charles smiled down at her.
"That's not an easy job you've set yourself. She's a very headstrong girl." He still remembered how annoyed she had been not to be arrested, and how ungrateful for her sister's succor. "That was Tobias Whitticomb, wasn't it? " He knew all the stories too. All of New York did. But they had more meaning now, if he was planning to make Victoria his next victim. Charles hoped he would tire of her before he did any real damage. Or perhaps the Hendersons would step in before it went any further. Olivia certainly looked as though she meant to. And she thanked Charles again for his help in chasing her sister off the dance floor.
"She's been making a spectacle of herself for the past hour, " Olivia said with eyes full of blue anger.
"Don't worry about it. She's pretty and young, there will be lots of roues running after her until she finds a husband. You can't worry about all of them, " he tried to reassure her, but he had to admit Whitticomb's reputation was worth worrying about, and he couldn't tell Olivia she was wrong to watch them.
"Victoria says she is never marrying. She is going to live in Europe and fight for women's suffrage."
"Oh dear. She'll grow out of it, I'm sure. When the right man comes along, she'll forget all that. Just don't tell him she wants to get arrested, " he teased, "and don't worry about her so much. You deserve to have some fun, " he said, as he said good-bye to her finally and left a few minutes later.
Olivia went to the ladies' room then, and looked in the mirror as she smoothed down her hair. She had a terrible headache, the argument with Victoria had gotten the evening off to a bad start, and seeing her glued to Toby for the past hour hadn't helped it. But before Olivia could turn around, she saw Evangeline Whitticomb in the mirror, bearing down on her, and within an instant, she was standing directly behind her, as Olivia turned slowly to face her.
"May I suggest, Miss Henderson, that you play with children your own age, and at the very least confine yourself to bachelors, rather than married men, with three children." She looked Olivia right in the eye, without wavering, and Olivia felt a hot flush hit her cheeks, as she realized that she'd been mistaken for her twin.
And Toby's wife was livid, and Olivia didn't blame her.
"I'm terribly sorry, " Olivia said quietly, tacitly agreeing to be Victoria, and hoping to pour oil on troubled waters. It was a golden opportunity, and she hoped to convince his wife that it was nothing more than friendly conversation. "Your husband has had several business dealings with my father, ma'am, and it was purely a matter of discussing our families. He has done nothing but speak of you and the children while we were dancing."
"I doubt that, " Toby's wife said angrily. "I'm surprised to hear he even remembers he has us. Just be sure that you do, or I can assure you, " she looked pointedly at her and lowered her voice but not her venom, "you'll regret it. You mean nothing to him, you know. He'll play with you like a toy, for a while, and then he'll drop you, and wherever you fall, you'll lie broken.
He'll come back to me in the end .. . he has to." And with that, she turned on her heel and left, and Olivia felt as though all the air had been squeezed out of her. Fortunately, there had been no one else in the room at the time, and she had to sit down after the other woman left, she was so dizzy. And she was right of course.
Evangeline Whitticomb knew her husband well, she had seen his performance dozens of times, and he always came back to her, because of who she was, what she represented, and because he was far less foolish than the women he played with.
Most of them were young and inexperienced, many of them were virgins.
They were dazzled by him, by his good looks and smooth ways, the breathtaking things he said to them, and their own girlish illusions, or even ambitious aspirations. But whatever they thought, and whatever he told them, in the end, it made no difference, he always left them.
Just as Olivia had tried to warn her. She hoped that she had at least assured his wife of her respectability, or rather Victoria's, but she doubted it, and when Olivia left the powder room again, she saw Victoria back on the dance floor in Toby's arms, and this time they looked a great deal more intimate, their bodies pressed close, their lips almost touching.
Olivia wanted to scream looking at them, but instead she did the only other thing she could think of. She went to tell her father that she had a terrible headache, and he was instantly solicitous, sent a maid to find her coat for her, and went to get Victoria himself. He found her dancing with young Whitticomb, and although he didn't seem pleased, he thought nothing serious of it. He knew they had met in his home, and he hadn't seen them together since then. He did make a comment though on the way home that he had been surprised, after all he'd said, that Olivia had seated Toby next to her sister. But he said rather pointedly that he was sure no harm had come of it, and Victoria was wise enough not to let him woo her. He hadn't seen Toby watching her as they left, or the look they exchanged that only confirmed everything they'd said that evening.
Toby and Victoria had found a delicious little room in a little pavilion at the very back of the garden, and it was there that he had kissed her for the first time, and that they had spent all their time, in each other's arms, whenever they weren't dancing.
"I'm so sorry, my dear, " her father apologized to Olivia for her headache all the way home. "It's been too much for you, after the party last night and the ball tonight, I don't know what I was thinking of when I accepted it. I thought it might be fun for you girls, but you must be exhausted." Victoria looked anything but, and she looked daggers at Olivia as soon as their father glanced out the window. She knew her sister far better than that, and found * hard to believe she had a headache. She had no idea how much she'd upset her.
"That was very clever of you, " she said icily when they got upstairs to their bedroom.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I do have a headache, " Olivia insisted, as she took the hated dress off. She wanted to burn it.
And after the way Victoria had behaved, she did indeed feel like a harlot.
"You know exactly what I mean. But your little ruse won't change anything. You have no idea what you're doing." She knew for a fact that Toby was totally sincere. He had fallen madly in love with her, and it did not shock her in the least that he wanted to divorce his wife.
She didn't even care if he did. She was totally modern in her ideas.
She didn't have to marry him. They could be lovers forever. He had even talked to her about leaving the country eventually, and living in Europe. Toby Whitticomb was everything she'd ever wanted. Daring, brave, bold, honest, willing to pay any price for what he believed. She saw him as a knight in shining armor, ready to rescue her from her mundane little life in their incredibly boring home on the Hudson. He had already lived in Pads and London and Argentina. It was all music to her ears, and every time she thought of him, her entire body trembled.
"His wife attacked me in the powder room tonight, " Olivia said as she put on her dressing gown. "She thought I was you."
"How convenient.
Did you tell her how sorry you were and that it was all a terrible mistake? "
"More or less." Victoria laughed when she heard it. But Olivia went on solemnly.
"She told me that Toby makes a habit of this, just as everyone says, and when it's all over, he drops the girls he flirts with like broken dolls.
I don't want you to be one of them, " Olivia said hoarsely.
This was the first thing that had caused a serious rift with them, and it was making Olivia feel sick as it continued. And she couldn't see how anything would change until Victoria came out from under his spell.
It made Olivia wish, more than anything, that they were back in Croton-on-Hudson. "Victoria, please, be sensible .. . don't get close to him .. . he's dangerous. I want you to promise me you won't try to see him."
"I promise, " Victoria said without sincerity or expression.
"I mean it." Olivia had tears in her eyes when she spoke. She hated him even more now for making them argue. Nothing and no one had a right to come between them. As far as Olivia was concerned, their bond was sacred.
"You're jealous, " Victoria said coolly.
"I'm not, " Olivia said, desperate to convince her.
"You are. He's in love with me, and that frightens you. You're afraid he'll take me away from you, " Victoria said with some truth in it, but not exactly the way she meant it.
"He's doing that already. But don't you see the risk you'd be taking if you let yourself fall in love with this man? I cannot say it often enough, Victoria, he's dangerous. You have to see that."
"I'll be careful. I swear, " she said, softening a little. She hated fighting with Olivia, she loved her too much, and it scared her.
But suddenly she knew she loved Toby too. She was falling head over heels in love with him, and it was too late to stop it. When he had kissed her that night, she thought her entire body would melt, and when he had reached into the bothee of her dress and touched her breast, she would have done anything he wanted. No one had ever done that to her before.
No one had ever made her want them more than life itself, and how could she explain that to her sister?
"Promise me you won't see him, " Olivia begged, now that she had her sister's ear. "Please."
"Don't ask me that. I promise I won't do anything foolish."
"Seeing him is foolish. Even his wife knows it."
"She's angry because he's divorcing her. Wouldn't you be? "
"Think of the scandal that will make. Especially for an Astor.
Why don't you at least wait for that to happen, and for the noise to die down, and then he can come to see you openly, and you can explain it to Father." Now she could do nothing except see him on the sly, and get caught in the cross fire between him and his wife and a world which already condemned him for his past follies.
"Ollie, it will take forever."
"And when we go home again? Then what? Will he come to see you there?
What will people say, Victoria? .. . and Father? .. ."
"I don't know. He says we can conquer anything if I love him.
And I do, oh Ollie, I do love him." She closed her eyes and her heart nearly flew out of her chest as she thought of him, and then opened her eyes again and looked at her sister. "How can I tell you what it's like? I would the for him if he asked me." At least Victoria was being honest with her, but it didn't make Olivia feel any better.
"That's what I'm afraid of, " Olivia said sadly. "I don't want anyone ever to hurt you."
"He won't. I swear. You must come to tea with us one day. I want you to know him. I want you to love him too .. .
Ollie, please ..
. I can't do this without you." But that was too much for her.
Silence was already too much to ask of her, but asking her complicity as well would be far too painful.
"Victoria, I can't help you this time, " Olivia said quietly. "I think that what you're doing is dangerous and wrong, and I'm afraid you'll get hurt. Perhaps I can't stop you, but I won't help you do it. Not this time."
"Then swear you won't say anything .. . swear to me, " Victoria begged her on her knees, her eyes filled with tears, as Olivia began to cry too, and took her in her arms and held her.
"How can you ask me to do this? How can I let him hurt you? "
"He won't .. . believe me, he won't .. . trust me ..."
"You're not the one I distrust here, " Olivia sighed, taking a deep breath and wiping away her tears finally. "I won't say anything for now .. . but if he hurts you, I don't know what I'd do to him..
.."
"He won't. I know him better than anyone in this life, except you." She looked like a child as she rolled onto their bed, and lay there spread-eagled, grinning.
"In two days, Victoria Henderson? I doubt that. You're a dreamer.
For someone so full of radical ideas, you certainly are a romantic fool.
How can you trust the man so quickly? "
"Because I know who he is. I understand him completely. We are two completely independent people, with exactly the same ideas, who were lucky enough to find each other.
It's a miracle, Olhe. Truly, it is. He says he's waited for me all his life, and now that I'm here he can't believe it."
"What about his wife and children? How do they fit into all this?
" Olivia looked skeptical, and Victoria looked momentarily confused, not sure what to answer.
"He says she forced the children on him, he never would have had children in a loveless marriage. It's really all her fault, and her problem now what she does with them."
"That's a nice sensible attitude, " Olivia said, and the sarcasm seemed to go over Victoria's head as she continued to rhapsodhze about Toby.
They turned off the light a little while later, and Olivia lay with her arms around her twin. "Be careful, little sister .. . be wise ..
. be wary .. ." she whispered, but Victoria was already half asleep as she nodded sleepily, and curled closer to her sister.
Victoria's mind was whirling as she thought of him. They had made a date for the following day. They were meeting at the library at ten o'clock the next morning.
Chapter 5.
Olivia was going over their lunch and dinner menus the next morning with the cook when Victoria slipped away. She had told Bertie she was going to the library, and meeting one of the Rockefeller girls, and she would be home late that afternoon. Bertie had had Donovan drop her off at the library, and nobody seemed to notice that she was we'ring the new white suit with the matching hat, copied from Doeuillet, that Olivia hadn't even worn yet. She looked very fashionable as she walked up the library steps, holding her books to return, as Donovan drove away and went back to the house to dave Mr. Henderson to John Watson's office.
Victoria returned the books as soon as she arrived, and as she glanced past the librarian, she saw him standing, watching her, just behind the polite spinster with glasses who had helped her. Victoria stood beaming at him as their eyes met, and a moment later they walked away, arm in arm. It was still early, and no one they knew ever went to the library at that hour, if ever. She had absolutely no idea what they were going to do, but she didn't really care, as long as they were together.
Toby had left his car outside, a Stutz that he had bought just that year, and he laughed when Victoria told him she would love to drive it.
"Don't tell me you know how to drive too, " he said, sounding delighted and amazed. "You really are the modern girl you say you are. Most people pretend they are, but really aren't." He offered her a Milo cigarette as though to prove the point, and she took it, although it really was a little early, even for her. For a little while, they drove around the East Side in lazy circles, and then finally, he pulled the car over and looked at her, as though drinking in every detail of her face, her eyes, her soul. It was as though he wanted to engrave her on his heart forever. "I adore you, Victoria, " he- whispered into her hair. "I've never known anyone like you." His words were like an aphrodisiac to her, and when he kissed her, she felt her soul melt into his. There was nothing she wouldn't have done for him at that moment, and he was breathless as he kissed her. He sat back against the seat of the Stutz after a long moment, and looked at Victoria in total amazement.
