40036.fb2 The Luxe - читать онлайн бесплатно полную версию книги . Страница 26

The Luxe - читать онлайн бесплатно полную версию книги . Страница 26

Twenty Five

There are so many parties being given, so many festivities planned, that it seems certain that one man will be much talked about but seen not nearly enough. That would be the man who licked the Spanish in the Pacific: Admiral of the Navy, George Dewey.

— FROM THE FIRST PAGE OF THE NEW YORK IMPERIAL, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1899

SITTING IN THE BALLROOM OF THE WALDORF-ASTORIA hotel felt to Diana like being buried in the most heavily ornamented mausoleum ever constructed. The walls and ceilings and even the floors seemed to glow a divine shade of yellow, as the profusion of mirrors reflected every bright thing in the room. Light blazed down from the forty-foot ceilings, casting the faces of the guests in warm, sparkling light. There were all the usual people the sons and daughters of old New York families mixing with the new millionaires, in black tails and skirts of tulle and spangled satin and the naval men, with their epaulettes and swords, too. With every passing day, Diana thought, she was seeing more of the world.

“Did you see Agnes?” Penelope was saying to Elizabeth now. The three girls were sitting on one of the plush sofas that lined the walls, fanning themselves with real lace fans and resting between dance partners. Their skirts lavender, pink, and red spilled across the floor. Every time the door opened from the hall, they looked to see if it was Henry who was coming in, but none of them seemed particularly bothered that it never was. Diana had been able to think of nothing else since receiving his note yesterday afternoon, of course, but Henry’s arrival would only mean watching him dance with her sister for hours on end.

“Agnes really is in dire need of a new dress,” Elizabeth replied in a low voice, bringing Diana back from her thoughts of Henry.

“And dancing with a soldier! She would make a good soldier’s wife, I suppose.”

“Oh, hush…let’s not be mean.” Elizabeth’s voice fell to a whisper. She was embarrassed, but Diana could hear the amusement in her voice, too. Sometimes it seemed like her sister had two personalities, warring with each other over whether to be cunning or good.

“I would marry a soldier,” Diana put in merrily. The words immediately produced an image in her mind of Henry in uniform, looking very straight and clean and handsome.

“Then I could go anywhere in the world.”

“But Di, you already can go anywhere in the world,” Penelope said.

Diana remembered her comment of the other day, about Newport and New York and not needing anyplace else, and decided that Penelope’s idea of what constituted the world was very far from her own. She kept her mouth shut and leaned back into the overstuffed velvet cushions of the sofa. In front of them couples moved across the shiny floor, keeping one eye on their partners and the other on the constant ebb and flow of guests.

“Did you see your neighbor Brody Fish?” Penelope went on, above the din. “He’s gotten better-looking, I think.”

“Yes,” Elizabeth agreed. “There’s something broader about the shoulders with him, isn’t there?”

“Well, someday, when you’re a matron and very bored by everything, perhaps you can have a little fling on the side with him.”

Elizabeth put her gloved hands over her pink cheeks. This was the response Diana would have expected of her sister, of course prudish and proudly shocked but she couldn’t help but pity her for the deepening red shade of her face. Diana reached out and squeezed her sister’s hand. “Liz, we all know how very, very moral you are, and we don’t think any less of you because you think Brody Parker Fish has nice shoulders.” She paused and looked out at all the men, young and old, in their tailored suits, and thought how merely adequate they all looked compared to the boy in her thoughts. “I think so, too,” Diana offered.

“It’s just that I would never…” Elizabeth trailed off, before changing the subject. “What do you think our mothers are talking about?”

The three girls turned and saw the dour faces of Mrs. Holland and Mrs. Hayes. They were seated across the room, on a golden crushed-velvet couch of their own, watching the crowd and leaning back occasionally to whisper to each other. Diana could remember a time when her mother wouldn’t so much as call on Mrs. Hayes, despite her husband’s entirely neutral feelings for Penelope’s father, but those days were past, apparently. Even their mother could not afford to be snotty anymore, Diana thought happily, as a group of dancers waltzed in front of the older women.

“The Misses Holland, Miss Hayes…” Diana looked up to see Teddy Cutting, in black pants and tails, making a little bow. His blond hair was slicked to the side, and there was a touch of sunburn on his nose.

“Teddy,” Elizabeth said warmly.

“Hello, Mr. Cutting.” Penelope gave him a remote smile.

Teddy went down the line kissing each of the girls’ hands. Diana looked past him, through the scrum of bodies. Her mother had bade farewell to Mrs. Hayes and was moving along the wall with her chin raised. Diana was watching to see whom she was walking toward when she heard their male visitor say, “I’ll be wanting to dance with all of you, of course. But perhaps tonight, if you’ll allow me, I will begin with the youngest. Diana, may I?”

Diana looked up, startled. Though Teddy was one of her sister’s friends, and so generally around, he had always seemed too taken with Elizabeth to notice her existence. It felt somehow odd that he was smiling at her now and offering his hand. She took it, noting out of the corner of her eye that her mother was now speaking with a large, familiar-looking man.

“No sign of Henry?” Teddy asked as they moved onto the dance floor. Diana tried not to smile at the mere mention of the name, but then she noticed that Teddy was looking back in the direction of Elizabeth and Penelope, anyway. She suddenly wondered if there wasn’t a reason he was asking her in particular. Perhaps Henry had even mentioned her name. Everyone knew that he had been friends with Teddy since forever, after all, and it seemed likely that if he were going to talk about her with anybody, it would be with the man she was dancing with right now.

“Not a one.”

Teddy’s hands were barely touching her, and she couldn’t help but wonder if he might somehow think of her as Henry’s girl. Teddy might even like that then he might still have a chance with Elizabeth, whom he had always obviously desired.

Diana tried to concentrate on her steps she was not so polished a dancer as her sister, but she seemed to be following along well enough. As they moved, she got a better view of her mother and realized that it was William Schoonmaker to whom she was talking. He was bowing his head in a confidential way, but his face had taken on a hue that suggested some sort of rage. She was wondering what it must be like for Henry, to have a father like that, when Teddy spoke again.

“Elizabeth seems all right, though.”

“Oh.” Diana paused and tried not to give Teddy a pitying look, though it was sort of pathetic how enamored of her sister he remained. They turned and then Diana could see, over Teddy’s shoulder, that Elizabeth’s face was lit up with laughter. She and Penelope were holding hands and shielding their open mouths with their lace fans. “Yes, actually,” she said. “She seems entirely happier not to have Henry around.”

She had meant it as a joke, and Teddy laughed. But as soon as the words escaped her mouth, she realized they were true. How curious, she thought, peeking back at her sister, that the perfect girl with the perfect-catch fiancé was relieved not to be with him.

“We were on the yacht together this afternoon. I should have made him come with me,” Teddy was saying. “When I left, Henry was still there with that Buck fellow who is apparently now one of the groomsmen.” Teddy shook his head in disbelief. “And Buck assured me he would see to it that Henry arrived here on time. But now I see he hasn’t.”

Diana looked at her partner, whose concerned features were flattered by the golden light, and wondered why he was so worried about his friend, anyway. Certainly Henry could take care of himself. They had done a turn around the floor, and she could again see Henry’s father over the black coat-covered shoulders of the men and the elaborate hairpieces of the ladies.

“Well, I see someone who isn’t so pleased with his not being here on time,” she said, jutting her chin in the direction of her mother and Mr. Schoonmaker, who was still speaking into her mother’s ear and gesticulating with his hands. He seemed to be demonstrating some plan with the movements of his broad fists. Teddy looked and shook his head sadly.

“I wouldn’t want to say anything bad about Buck, but he seemed intent on making us all have too good a time.” Teddy exhaled audibly, and as they stepped lightly around, he looked out of the corner of his eye at Elizabeth again. “And by us, I mean Henry.”

Diana found herself involuntarily smiling again at the mention of Henry’s name. Teddy was saying it an awful lot, which seemed like more evidence that he might know of their flirtation. The music swelled and then all of a sudden stopped. She and Teddy came to a halt and turned toward the door along with the rest of the guests in the crowded room. Loud cheers of “Bravo!” suddenly erupted into the cavernous space.

Diana stood on her toes and peeked around the bodies in front of her until she got a glimpse of the man who had just entered. He was of average height and had a drooping gray mustache, and wore a handsome dark blue uniform with tassels and gigantic brass buttons, and a long, slender sword attached to his belt. He raised his hand and smiled at the shouts of “Admiral” and “Hooray!”

“So that is the hero of the Pacific?” Teddy said as he joined in the clapping. Several of the guests in front of them had taken out small American flags and were waving them about in the air.

Diana began to clap, too. The whole crowd was on its feet, applauding the admiral of the Navy. William Schoonmaker nodded to her mother and then moved to a spot just behind and to the right of the admiral. The color of his face had not mellowed, but he did smile as he began waving at the crowd, as though he, too, were some sort of military hero.

Diana smiled as well, but not because she was in the presence of military greatness. She smiled because the man who had just arrived was not Henry. He might have come and danced all night with her sister, but she felt sure, as she threw her hands together and called out in celebration, that he was out in the dark somewhere, thinking of her instead.