Palindrome

CHAPTER 23

Liz stopped by the inn to leave her grocery order. It was late morning, the guests had been dispatched on foot, by bicycle, and by van to various parts of the island, bearing packed lunches, and there was no one about but the kitchen staff and Ron, who was mopping the stone floor in the staff dining room. Liz left her list on Germaine's desk and went looking for her. She had fallen into the habit of stopping by for tea or coffee. She trudged up the stairs, had a look around the deserted library and living room, and emerged onto the front veranda. "Good morning," a voice said. Liz turned and saw Hannah Drummond, Hamish's ex-wife, sitting on a big swing, a book in her lap.

"Join me for some coffee?" the woman asked. There were a pot and two cups on the table before her. "I got some for Hamish, but he and Aldred are out in the jungle somewhere."

"Sure," Liz called and joined her on the swing. Up close, Hannah Drummond looked even better. She was carefully but not heavily made up, perfectly neatly dressed in khaki trousers and a madras shirt, and her hair was still pulled back so tightly that Liz wondered how she could blink. "Hamish becomes a little boy again when he and Aldred are together," Hannah said as she poured the coffee. "I think he relives his childhood that way. They're probably out there right now getting snake-bit."

"No snake would dare bite a Drummond on this island," Liz said.

"You're probably right." Hannah laughed. She handed Liz her coffee. "I hear you've been spending time with a Drummond."

"Angus?"

"No, Keir."

"That's right."

"What's he like?"

"You've never met Keir?"

"No. Not quite, anyway. I saw him once."

"On the island?"

"No, in New York. I was doing some shopping on Fifth Avenue, and I stopped at the skating rink at Rockefeller Center for lunch. This was some years ago, when Hamish and I were still married, and I was pregnant with Aldred at the time. Anyway, I had just paid my bill when I looked up and saw Hamish on the ice, skating with a girl. I was absolutely floored-Hamish had never played around with other women-not that I knew about, anyway. They were skating around, quite gracefully together, and I just sat there and stared at them while I got madder and madder.

"Finally, I got up from the table and walked to the railing around the rink and just stood there. I wanted to see his face when he saw me. They came around again, and he looked right at me, and, to my astonishment, skated right past me. I stood there for two or three more circuits, and he went right past me just as coolly as you please.

"Then, they stopped skating, and he left the girl for a moment, went to the men's room, I guess. I walked over to her and asked the name of the man she was with. 'His name is Keir Drummond,' she told me."

"Did you speak to him at all?" Liz asked.

"No, I just left and went home. I was absolutely stunned. I couldn't figure out if it were some sort of weird practical joke, or if I had really caught my husband with another woman. That night, I told Hamish about my experience, and he dismissed it out of hand, said I must be hallucinating."

"Why didn't you know he had a brother?"

"He never told me. It wasn't until a month or so after that that Germaine visited us in New York and put me in the picture. I was mad as hell, and Hamish and I had a big fight about it."

"He wouldn't admit that he had a brother?"

"Not for a minute. I was beginning to think he was crazy."

"But you learned to live with it."

"Exactly. I mean, he was perfectly normal in every other respect. It seemed the only way to handle it."

"That's been my experience with Keir, too. He either just ignores any question about a brother or denies everything. Do you have any idea why they're this way?"

"Not a clue, and neither did Germaine. It apparently started the summer they were eighteen, right before Hamish left for Princeton." Both women were silent for a moment, as if they had run out of things to talk about. "Would you like to meet Keir?" Liz asked finally.

Hannah started to speak, then stopped. "No, I don't think so," she said at last. "I'm pretty much over Hamish, now, and I don't want to get more involved with his family. It's really none of my business anymore."

"I understand," Liz said. They were quiet again, then Hannah spoke.

"What's Keir like?" she asked, almost sheepishly.

"Like Hamish, but different. I mean, you know how alike they are. Hamish has always seemed sort of, well, detached, removed. I don't think I could get close to him."

"I know what you mean," Hannah said, nodding furiously. "I found that terribly attractive. It was a challenge, to get past that and find out what he was really like."

"Did you?"

"Sometimes, at little moments. In bed, mostly, I think. It's funny about some men-you can only really know them in bed." That certainly seems to be the case with Keir, Liz thought, but she felt too shy to mention it. Hannah Drummond was talking as if they were old girl friends, when they'd only just met.

There was an embarrassed silence. "How long are you staying?" Liz asked, to get the conversation moving again.

"I'll go back in just a few days, and Aldred will follow a little later."

"He won't get to see much of Hamish, then."

"Oh, he spent some time with him on Martha's Vineyard early in the summer."

Germaine came through the screen door, mopping her brow. "Whew, actual labor this morning," she said, plopping down next to them on the swing. "I've got a chambermaid with the curse this morning, so I'm doing double duty. Funny, when I've got the curse I work!"

"You seem really busy this season," Hannah said.

"It's true. I've only got eighteen beds, and I could fill three times that many if I had them."

"Why don't you expand?" Hannah asked.

"It's crossed my mind, but it won't happen while Grandpapa is alive. He wants it the way it's always been."

"Not many people are in a position to keep things the way they've always been," Hannah said, rather wistfully. "It must be nice."

"To tell you the truth, I've never much liked things the way they've always been," Germaine said. "I don't like living in the past."

"Will you expand when your grandfather dies?" Liz asked.

"You bet I will. He knows it, too; he just wants me to wait until he's gone."

"How will you do it?"

"I'll build an annex out back, but don't worry, it'll be in the style of the house. I don't want you to get the idea I'm going to screw up the place."

"I know you wouldn't do that, Germaine," Liz said. "There isn't an ounce of developer in you."

Germaine pointed toward the gate. "Speak of the devil," she said. The inn's van pulled up and Germajne's cousin Jimmy Weathers got out, followed by another man. Jimmy was carrying a large leatherette case.

"And it looks like he's brought some plans," Germaine said.

"You mean, he's planning some sort of development on the island already?" Liz asked.

"That's right."

"But how can he do that? He doesn't own any of it, does he?"

"Not yet, but Grandpapa has fired Cheatham, and if he didn't make a will, then his estate will be divided among his heirs; that's me, Hamish, Keir, little Aldred, and guess who."

"But you could outvote him."

"No, my lawyer tells me he could force a division of the property, and that means the island." Liz watched Jimmy's back as he strode confidently into the inn. She felt good knowing that Cumberland Island was now safe from Jimmy and his kind. She thought of telling Germaine about her grandfather's new will, but she felt, somehow, that Angus Drummond would want to tell his grandchildren about that himself.