Lies and Weddings(41)
“What made you think I was sleeping with Freddy?”
“My mother told me.”
“Your mother?” Eden grimaced in disbelief, not comprehending how the countess could have come to that conclusion. “Either your mother’s deranged from all the stress or someone’s been spreading vicious gossip.”
“No, you’re right, Mummy’s deranged. But I was watching the two of you all weekend…dancing at the ball, laughing like old friends during our excursions…I’m not sure…I got worried.”
“Worried? Rufus, I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I told you, Freddy’s a sweet soul underneath all that swagger.”
“So you do like him. Today when I saw how intimate you were with him down by the pool, I just—”
“Intimate?”
“You were caressing his hand…”
“I was comforting him. He was telling me about his mother, she died when he was twelve.”
Rufus suddenly felt very foolish. “Oh god, I’m sorry. I’ve gotten everything all wrong, haven’t I? I was sure he fancied you, and I thought that you were trying to make me jealous.”
“Why on earth would I do that?”
“Because…bloody hell, I’m so confused…” Rufus found himself fumbling his words. He took a deep breath and gazed deep into Eden’s eyes. “It’s just that I’m in love with you.”
“Whaaat?” Eden stared at him in utter shock.
“I’m utterly, crazily in love with you, Eden. This entire week has made me realize how special you are to me, how special you’ve always been. Remember how I told you in Tintagel that you were the only girl I’d ever want to marry?”
“We were so young then—”
“I meant every word of it. And after you spent the night in Puako, after that shower under the moonlight, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. I can still smell you on my sheets, and seeing you tonight, looking so unbelievably beautiful, I just needed to—”
“Stop. Please stop before you say something you’ll regret,” Eden pleaded.
“I’m not going to regret this.” Without any warning, Rufus pulled Eden into an embrace and kissed her.
Eden could hardly process what was happening, but she found herself yielding to his passionate kiss. She found that she could not stop kissing him, she found that her lips were on fire and the ground beneath her feet was spinning out of control but she couldn’t make it stop even though she wanted it to stop. “STOP! STOP!” It took Rufus a second to realize that it wasn’t Eden speaking.
They parted and looked up to see Jackie rushing toward them through the bushes. “DON’T SAY ANOTHER WORD!” Jackie shouted breathlessly as she reached behind his waist for the microphone remote pack that was clipped to his belt and turned it off. “You’ve got a hot mic! You must have brushed up against something—the mic was on the whole time. Everybody at the banquet could hear you! Even the queen of Denmark!”
Rufus and Eden looked at her in horror.
“Actually, Rufus, they could only hear you,” Jackie clarified.
“I’m not sure if that’s better or worse,”[*5] Rufus said, grimacing. “My god—Solène!”
Jackie nodded slowly. “Yeah, Solène heard you loud and very clear. I’ve never seen anyone on crutches run off so fast.”
Eden stared wide-eyed at Rufus, too shocked by everything that had just happened to say anything. A beam of light suddenly hit her face, and then more lights began to shine on all their faces as five firemen wielding bright flashlights emerged from the thicket.
“Everybody out! We need to clear this entire site now.”
“Clear? What do you mean ‘clear’?” Arabella cried.
“We’re evacuating everybody. Party’s over.”
Jackie shook her head vehemently. “That’s not possible, sir. We are in the middle of a wedding banquet, and Bonnae Gokson’s wedding cake hasn’t even been served yet. Do you know who our guests are? The governor is here, Senator Mazie Hirono is here. The Weeknd is about to perform.”
The lead fireman snorted. “The Weeknd’s going to have to find another weekend to perform. Don’t you people see the orange glow over there? A big new fissure vent has opened up and the lava’s moving downhill fast. Your lives are in danger! We need to get everyone out NOW!”
Skip Notes
*1 Forbes calls this seventy-five-year-old Generations Mortlach single-malt scotch a “bargain” at $30,000 a bottle.
*2 At Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art auction in 2013, Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Lucien Freud sold for $142.4 million.
*3 The request for a royal stay from Edward VII was considered both an honor and a curse by many of the English aristocracy, who would go to such elaborate lengths to make sure their great estates were up to the royal standard (knowing the king’s legendary appetite and penchant for luxury) that they would sometimes go into debt renovating, redecorating, and hiring new chefs before the royal visit. Pity there wasn’t a Best Western in those days.
*4 Ellison, Zuckerberg, Omidyar.
*5 Go back and read just Rufus’s lines again if you wish. It was far worse if you could only hear one side of the conversation.