Part 26 (1/2)

”Just do it, Brit,” Gaynelle said briefly, and Britney did.

I had bought Camilla a new lavender cashmere cardigan, and we draped it around her, over her housecoat, as we sat on the porch for lunch. She looked revived, reborn, pink flushed in spite of the garish bruise that made us all wince.

”This is heaven,” she said, closing her eyes and breathing in the sweet breeze. ”Why would anybody want to be anywhere else?”

”Except maybe that gorgeous loft of yours, or Anny's perfect little jewel of a house on Bull Street,” Lila said. ”And as for Henry, with that wonderful old pile on Bedon's Alley-”

”It's decided,” Camilla said. ”We're staying. Except if I can persuade Anny to go home and just come on weekends. She's a pretty young woman still. She ought to be somewhere there's companions.h.i.+p and a little fun-”

”I'm staying,” I said. ”End of discussion. Don't you think I love it out here, too?”

Camilla studied me, and then smiled and nodded.

Gaynelle brought out trays of shrimp salad and tomato aspic and fresh-baked cheese straws, and we had a wonderful, light trifle with fresh berries for dessert. After coffee, Henry went out and scooped Britney up from the lawn and carried her off, squealing and giggling, for a ride in the Whaler.

”Did you put Honey in the house?” Lila shouted after her.

”Yes, ma'am,” Britney called, and they glided slowly out of sight down the creek. Camilla wanted a nap, and Gaynelle settled her and went into my kitchen, where she had made lunch, to wash up. Lila and I went out to the end of the dock and sat in the sun, swinging our legs.

”This reminds me a little of the island,” Lila said. ”When we'd sit out on the dock and wait for the guys to come in from sailing. Does it you?”

”No,” I said. ”That's one reason I can stay here. It's just itself. It's not much a part of any other time in my life.”

She nodded in understanding.

”But you do think about the beach?”

”Oh, Lila. Every day. Every day.”

”You've been braver than I could ever be,” she said, and squeezed my hand.

”I've got a good support team,” I said.

She turned to face me.

”People are asking me if there's anything, you know, between you and Henry. I mean, being out here all the time and all...”

”Lewis was it for me, Lila,” I said, annoyed. I didn't want Charleston's ceaseless speculations to stain the creek for me.

”Besides,” I said, ”I thought it might be Henry and Camilla. I mean, Lewis said they were so close before Charlie came along....”

”Well, they were. Almost joined at the hip. We were all surprised, but Charlie came, and that was it. But he's been gone a long time.”

”Lewis once said there was just too much history between them,” I said, and she nodded.

”That can happen.”

After a while a brisk little wind came up, and we grew chilly. We got up and ambled toward our houses, agreeing to meet for lunch one day soon, after my half day at the office. I was suddenly stunned with sleepiness, and wanted a long nap. Lila said she had to get back to Charleston. We hugged briefly, and I turned into my walkway and went inside my little house. It was cool and silent. My lids were heavy.

When it came, Lila's scream literally made the hair at the back of my neck stand up. It was almost an inhuman sound, an animal howl. I dashed for her house, my heart pounding in my chest. Gaynelle came out of the kitchen, running.

Lila stood on her front porch, tears streaming down her face.

”She left the door open,” she sobbed. ”The front door was wide open when I got here. Honey isn't anywhere; I've looked all over. It's been at least two hours. She's gone down to the creek, I know she has. I told that child to close the door, and she said she had....”

We looked for Honey until dark. When Henry brought Britney in from the creek, Lila came screaming down on her, and Gaynelle stepped in front of her daughter. Henry put his arms around Lila, and led her to her porch. We could hear Camilla calling agitatedly from her house, ”What's the matter? What's wrong?” Gaynelle, tight-mouthed, sent the sobbing Britney inside, and joined the search. We scoured the creek and the marsh, and Henry even took out the kayak, so he could be closer to the water and the bank. But there was no sign of the little white dog. Neither was there any sign of the gator.

Lila wanted to stay the night and look, but Henry convinced her to go home.

”We'll keep looking,” he said. ”We've got the security lights. She's probably gotten lost, or she's hiding. Don't you remember how Sugar used to hide when she thought you were going to take her home from the beach?”

”It's not the same thing,” Lila sobbed. ”I know Honey is gone. I just know. I want an apology from that child, and then I don't ever want to see her anywhere near my house again.”

Gaynelle came in from ministering to Britney.

”Miz Howard, she says she's sure she closed the door. She double-checked. You know how much she loves that little dog. I've never known her to be careless that way.”

”Just keep her out of my house,” Lila said. Her face was red and swollen; her eyes were sealed shut with grief.

”She's not likely to want to go in it,” Gaynelle said levelly.

”And I'm waiting for an apology.”

”Well, you're not getting one from my daughter. If she said she didn't do it, she didn't,” Gaynelle flared.

The two women stood glaring at each other, and then Lila, still sobbing, went home. Gaynelle took her stricken daughter home. Henry and I went in to check on Camilla. She was sleeping, so we went out again. We searched with flashlights until midnight, we called and called and called. But we never saw Honey, and n.o.body ever did again.

The next weekend Lila and Simms left for a month in the Grenadines, which, Simms said, was some of the best sailing in the world.

”They won't come back,” Camilla said bitterly at dinner the night that they left. ”Not to the creek. I know Lila. I knew we might lose them. But I never thought it would be over the cleaning woman's juvenile delinquent.”

Henry and I looked at each other, but we did not speak. Neither of us really thought Britney had left the door open, but we did not know what precisely had happened, and in any event, it was not the time to challenge Camilla about it. We all felt the loss of Lila and Simms and the little dog deeply. First, let the healing begin.

15.

BRITNEY WOULD NOT COME BACK to the creek. No matter how we coaxed, and offered Whaler excursions and swimming afternoons and hamburger suppers on the grill, she dug in her heels and set her small mouth and refused.

”What's wrong?” Henry and I asked Gaynelle over and over. ”She must know we don't blame her about Honey. And you've told her, haven't you, that she won't have to see Lila again? We miss Britney so much. She's a breath of life in this place.”

”I've told her all that,” Gaynelle said. ”It doesn't do any good. She won't come and she won't talk about it. She cried for a long time after that day, but she doesn't do that now. She just seems...sad. She loved that little dog. And n.o.body has ever talked to her the way Miz Howard did.”

Gaynelle herself had lost some of her insouciant sparkle, though none of her energy and competence. I thought that she was thinner, too. Her shorts hung loose on her now, and you could see her ribs plainly under her cropped T-s.h.i.+rt. The weight loss made the astonis.h.i.+ng b.r.e.a.s.t.s even more so. Somehow, the sight of them, jutting bravely out over Gaynelle's ribs, made me sad.

Pain flared in Henry's eyes. Then it was gone. His face was back to the noncommittal mask he had worn lately. I knew that he was very angry with Lila, and puzzled about the little dog. But mostly, he missed Britney. His missing her hurt me.

”What does she do after school now?” I asked, when Britney first refused to accompany her mother to the creek.