Outfoxed

CHAPTER 20

A light wind kicked up at twilight and by seven o’clock had some bite to it. Sister, walking to the stable, turned back and grabbed the blue barn coat with the blanket lining. With Raleigh at her heels, she caught up with Doug on his way back to his cottage.

“Sorry I couldn’t get back to you until now. It’s been pandemonium. The caterer lost the menu. Had to go over the entire thing. Marty Howard called to ask if she could come by tomorrow regarding her ex. Betty Franklin called to say she disavows herself from Bobby’s support of Crawford. My sister called to say she thought she should have Mother’s china for the next year. I’d had it long enough and would I ship it to Sutton Place. I swear, Manhattan isn’t far enough away. I think I’ll suggest that Kay spend the next year in Paris. God, what a pain in the ass she is. Oh and the load of pearock we ordered for the walkways was delivered to the Haslips instead and they think they’ll keep it. Fortunately, they paid the bill.” She suddenly smiled brightly. “And how was your day?”

“Pretty good. Aztec jumped a whole course today. I think you should hunt her Saturday. The jumps have settled in at Rumble Bars.” He mentioned Saturday’s fixture. “She’ll do fine.”

“Why not? Lafayette can stay home and loll about. Sorry to dump my worries on you. It’s been that kind of day.”

“I still don’t see why you hire a caterer for opening hunt. The members can feed everyone. You do enough.”

“No. The members host breakfasts throughout the season. It’s fitting that I should host the first one.”

“I guess.” Douglas was always thinking of ways to save Sister money. As far as he was concerned people could bring their own drinks and sandwiches.

“What’d you think of Crawford?”

“Barreling up the driveway?” His green eyes noticed a cobweb on the stall bars. He attacked it immediately. “Spider intelligence.”

“Huh?”

“They come where the flies are.”

“Fortunately, there aren’t many of them.” She loved fall and winter for that reason as well as others. “Crawford.”

“If you need the money that badly, okay. If there’s any other way to steer this ship into the future—do it. I’m sure that Attila the Hun was more offensive but you know, Attila’s dead.”

“M-m-m.” She walked with him to the end of the aisle.

They rolled back the tall double doors, stepped outside, rolled them back.

He shivered. “That came up fast.” Looked at the treetops. “Out of the northwest, too. No point standing out here. Come on.”

Once inside his two-story cottage, Sister sat by the fireside. Doug quickly built a fire, throwing on a walnut log, which released a warm aroma. He took good care of the cottage. The heart-pine floors shone. The old Persian carpet Sister had given him fit perfectly in the living room, as did an old leather sofa facing two wing chairs with a simple coffee table between, a square one.

A flintlock with a powder horn hung over the fireplace. A cow horn, a true Virginia hunting horn, hung on a peg next to a nineteenth-century hand-colored hunting print. A white buffalo-plaid blanket was folded over the back of the leather sofa.

Spare, clean, yet inviting, Doug had a way of pulling things together that Sister Jane envied. She’d had to pay Colfax-Fowler to decorate her house back in the sixties and she’d updated it about every seven years since then. Sister never pretended to be aesthetically attuned but she had sense enough to follow those who were. Raymond evinced more interest in these things than she did.

Doug had absorbed a lot from Raymond not only in the way he arranged his cottage but in how he dressed. With an uncanny sense of color, he could pick the exact right tie, the correct fold of pocket handkerchief, the right break of the trousers over the shoe.

When Ray died Sister gave Douglas his clothing, generously paying to have everything altered for Doug, who was Ray’s height but thinner. Ray’s clothes were so classic that they looked as good today as the day he’d bought them. As Shaker was a short man, none of Ray’s clothes would fit him so she gave the huntsman Ray’s beautiful gold watch and his saddle.

“Coffee?”

“No. Too late for me.”

“Where’s Raleigh?”

“Asleep in the hall. He didn’t hear me go out. I won’t take up much of your time. You work all day. You don’t need your nights—”

“I like having you here.”

“Thank you.”

“Sure you don’t want anything?”

“No. Before Crawford barged in I wanted to ask you if you’re still in love with her. It’s none of my business and yet it is. If I can help you in any way, you know I will.”

“I know that.” He sat opposite her in the big wing chair. “Summer, well—let me start again. When she ended the relationship in May, it hurt. But I learned a lot about myself. I can’t blame her. Then last weekend she ran into me on purpose and well, we’re talking again.”

“Yes.”

“So I don’t know where I am.”

“But you know where she is.”

“Physically, yes.”

Sister drummed her fingers on the arm of the sofa. “These are hard habits to break. Usually the person is broken instead. I hope she makes it. But you can’t get yourself in a relationship where you’re worrying about her all the time.”

“I know. I’m glad she went in voluntarily.”

“She’s a beautiful woman.”

He sighed. “That makes it harder.”

“Funny how we get turned around by looks. My mother said, ‘You can’t judge a book by its cover.’ She was right but I fell for Raymond because he was big, blond, and handsome. But in those days you couldn’t just jump into bed together or live together. The courtship process was definite. As I got to know him I discovered he was quite a lovely man. Well, I don’t need a trip down memory lane and neither do you. If I can help you in any way, I will.”

“I know.”

She rose and he rose with her. “You know the people who sell these damned drugs should be shot. Either that or we legalize them. We have years of dolorous evidence to prove that what we’re doing now doesn’t work.”

“That’s for sure.” He walked her to the door. “Wasn’t it something to see Walter Lungrun? He was in high school when I was in junior high. Went to all the football games. All-state. I loved to watch him. I think he could have made pro even though he went to an Ivy League school. He’s grown up, though. Something’s different.”

“Yes. I suppose facing life and death every day grows up most everybody.”

“I’d kill Crawford if I were Walter.”

She smiled at Douglas. “I don’t know if I would, but I’d take pleasure in long, slow suffering.”

They both laughed as she hopped out the door into the biting wind. She hurried to her back door, opened it, and hung up her coat.

Golliwog sauntered into the mudroom. “You’re late and I’m hungry.”