Lies and Weddings(28)

Solène laughed lightly. “Viscount St. Ives, don’t tell me you are a socialiste?”

“Do not mock a man when he speaks his truth,” Gopal Das, who’d overheard their exchange from across the table, suddenly interrupted. “Do you know where you are, young lady?”

“What do you mean? Aren’t we on top of Mauna Kea?”

“The Native Hawaiians call this mountain Mauna a Wakea, the place where Wakea, the sky god, communed with Papa Hanau Moku, the earth goddess, leading to the creation of these islands. This is one of the most sacred places to all Hawaiians, and only the highest-ranking chiefs were ever allowed to set foot here. We have no right to be here, least of all throwing a party—it is a grave offense to the gods. We have made Pele angry, and mark my words, there will be a price to pay.”

At the far end of the ice palace, the orchestra began to play the first notes of a grand waltz, as Prince Max ceremoniously led his mother onto the dance floor while Augusta took her father’s arm. “Well, if the gods are angry, we might as well dance for them!” Solène declared, dragging a reluctant Rufus onto the dance floor. As more of the guests got up from their tables, Freddy turned to Eden and said, “My lady, may I have this dance?”

“Of course,” Eden said. They made a beeline onto the dance floor, where Eden discovered Freddy to be a more expert and enthusiastic dance partner than she had been expecting. Freddy had some serious moves, twirling her around the dance floor with great flair, and as the waltz reached its crescendo, he suddenly dipped her dangerously low to the ground.

Eden burst out laughing. “You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you? Where did you learn your moves?”

“I was a finalist on Dancing with the Stars. Just kidding. My mom enrolled me in the Arthur Murray studio in Beverly Hills when I was twelve. Other Persian moms sent all their kids to Mohammad Khordadian to learn Persian dance, but my mom insisted that I needed to learn how to ballroom dance if I ever hoped to marry a beautiful princess.”

“Do you think your mom was right?”

“Well, I’m dancing with you, aren’t I?”

Gazing upon Rufus and Solène on the dance floor waltzing graciously, Arabella turned to Solène’s mother with a triumphant look. “What did I tell you? Don’t they make a dazzling pair?”

Olimpia de Courcy gave an almost imperceptible nod.

Arabella continued eagerly, “I can’t help picturing how our grandchildren will look. They will be so stunning, and of course they will speak fluent French, English, and Chinese.”

“Does Rufus speak Chinese?” Olimpia inquired.

“Sadly, no. Back when I was first living in London, I had the notion that I needed to raise my children to be more British than the British. I didn’t want them to have even a hint of a Hong Kong accent like I had.”

“But you don’t have any accent. You sound as English as Claire Foy.”

“Precisely.”

“Who is that Asian girl over there?” Olimpia said, noticing Eden with Freddy looking as though they were reenacting a sequence from La La Land.

Arabella peered onto the now-crowded dance floor. “Which girl?”

“The one wearing the ice-blue Chanel. Is she the Thai princess everyone keeps talking about?”

“No, the Thai princess isn’t arriving until tomorrow. That girl is nobody.”

“She dances quite beautifully,” Olimpia commented as she wondered why Rufus couldn’t seem to take his eyes off the nobody.




Skip Notes

*1 This iconic Norwegian stave church was also the inspiration for much of the architecture in Disney’s Frozen. (Unbeknownst to even her children, Arabella would watch Disney musicals late at night during her bouts of insomnia. Rufus liked to think that his surf cabin had inspired his mother to open the resort in Hawaii, but actually, it was because of her secret love for Moana.)



*2 For reference, mere mortals can only dream of creating a strand of graduated sixteen-to-eighteen-millimeter pearls. To assemble an opera-length necklace (thirty-six inches) composed entirely of twenty-millimeter pearls would take decades and cost more than a beachfront pad in Malibu.



*3 It was a Jon Snow Halloween costume.



*4 “Long time no see!” in Cantonese.





VIII



Puako Beach Road

BIG ISLAND, HAWAII ? AFTER THE WINTER BALL




Eden stood under the shower on Rufus’s back deck, feeling the spray of hot water stream down her neck and shoulders and letting the warmth soak through her entire body. The shower was separated from the rest of the deck by a stacked wall of volcanic rocks and a thicket of tall bamboo, and the smooth ocean pebbles on the ground only added to the tranquility of the space. Staring up through the steam at the stars in the night sky, Eden felt completely blissful.

“You still alive?” Rufus called out from the other side of the wall.

“Ummmm, I’m in heaven.”

“There is nothing quite like an outdoor shower at night, is there?”

“Especially when you’re trying to defrost your bum! It was positively arctic up there!”

“I saw you laughing nonstop on the dance floor, so it mustn’t have been that bad.”