LITMIR.BIZ

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expensive, when all they seem to do is sit around and watch soap operas.”

      “Maybe this one will do a bit more.”

      “Mrs. Mayhew does seem more conscientious. She keeps Grandmere’s room and bathroom clean, and sees to her own bedroom and bath, but I’ll probably have to get a cleaning team in for the rest of the house before long or the spiders will take over.”

      “Well, don’t you try to do it. That place is big as a stadium.” Marian bent to her needle. “And all those knickknacks and sitarounds to dust. Why not ask Jonas to help you out?”

      “His hands are already full with Grandmere’s garden. At least the neighbors can’t complain about that. He’s not getting any younger either, you know. He does the marketing and takes her back and forth to the doctor’s.”

      “How long can you keep this up?” Marian asked.

      Annabelle dug her fingers into the aching muscles along the tops of her shoulders. “As long as I have to. She’s always been terrified of nursing homes. I can’t do that to her.”

      Marian mumbled something as she bit off the thread.

      “What?”

      “Never mind.”

      “Don’t bite the thread that way if you expect to have any teeth left when you’re seventy, and don’t mumble,” Annabelle said. “Tell me what you said.”

      Marian picked up the embroidery scissors that hung from a silk cord around her neck and ostentatiously clipped the end of the thread she’d just bitten. She sighed and looked at Annabelle. “I said it would serve the old witch right.”

      Annabelle plucked the last paillette from the crack and rose easily to her feet. “I don’t want putting her in a nursing home on my conscience as well.”

      “Pooh! Stop it. Get it through your head that you don’t carry any weight or any guilt for what happened to your mother. Your father admitted it and went to jail for it.”

      “To save me, you mean. Everybody knows that. Grandmere—”

      “Mrs. Langley is a poisonous viper who did everything in her power to destroy anyone and everyone who crossed her path. Lord knows why it gave her so much pleasure, but it did.”

      “She took me in and did the best she could with me. She’s a very unhappy woman,” Annabelle answered.

      “Oh, no doubt. If there were an object lesson in the Golden Rule, she is it. Not one of the nasty things she has ever done to anybody has made her one bit nicer or one bit happier. She’s like one of those poison toads—the more venom she uses, the more she has.”

      “Why, Marian, I knew you didn’t like her, but I never realized you loathed her that way. What’s she done to you?”

      “Watching what she’s done to you is bad enough. And laying so much guilt on you that you came home to tend to her after all these years, and your career in New York and all.” Marian sniffled and wiped her hand under her eyes. “I’m glad to have you, but the whole thing makes me sick.”

      Annabelle slipped the paillettes into the pocket of her shirt and walked around the table to drop a hand on Marian’s shoulder. “She’s my only family. Besides, I screwed myself up before she got the chance.”

      “No, you did not.” Marian covered Annabelle’s hand with hers. “You were a little bitty girl. But all those years in that house with that harpy—well, child, you need about ten years of therapy, is all I’m saying.”

      “Oh, thank you very much.” Annabelle laughed. “I’ve had years of therapy. Otherwise I’d probably be dead. This is as good as it gets. I function extremely well in my own milieu, and people leave me alone. And it’s nice to have friends who understand.”

      “Well, you just understand that whatever you have to do to make your life come out all right, you do it. I mean that, you hear?”

      “Yes, ma’am.” Annabelle saluted. “Now, where did you put that piece of lace I bled all over? I’ve got to soak it in some ice water before the stain sets.”

      Marian indicated the side table with a nod of her head. “Over there. Not much blood. Only a drop or two.”

      “I’ll run it across to my place and put it in the kitchen sink. Then I can flatten it out when I go back after work.”

      “After work is now.” Marian set down her needle and embroidery hoop. “I should have this piece mended in an hour or so tomorrow.”

      Annabelle leaned over her. “You do incredible work, Maid Marian. Nobody would ever know how much damage this piece endured before Elizabeth rescued it.”

      Marian laughed. “And now it will have a new life in the Countess So-and-So’s gown for the opening of the Paris Opera, or Mrs. Texas Oil for her daughter’s wedding.” She laid the piece down with satisfaction. “I am good, aren’t I? You know, nobody ever called me Maid Marian but Ben, when he was a little boy. I used to read him the stories about Robin Hood. Even then he had a drive to right all the wrongs in the world.”

      “It fits you.”

      “True, unfortunately.” She carefully spread the piece of ecru lace on the worktable in front of her. The table was covered in fine green felt, so the lace-work showed clearly. “There. The actual mending is finished—the tatting, I mean. Now I just have to catch the edges so nothing ravels.” She pushed herself to her feet, removed her half glasses, stowed them in a navy leather case on the table, reached into her pocket for a red case, and slipped her bifocals on in their place. “Ah, now I can see you.” She peered at Annabelle. “And you look like hell. Go home, watch television, read a book. Go to a movie. Call an old school friend. Get out and do something.”

      “Nope.” Annabelle carefully folded the delicate white lace, slipped it into a piece of tissue paper and followed Marian to the door. “Don’t fuss. I’m fine. This is what I enjoy. I’ll put on some Mozart or some Stones, fix myself a quick meal, put this lace in water and run over to check on Grandmere. I don’t have time for much else.”

      She clicked off the lights in the workroom and followed Marian down the back stairs. As she passed the swinging door to the front of the house, she wondered whether Ben and his current tootsie were still there with Mrs. Jackson.

      He was still the best-looking, most charismatic man she’d ever met. And if anything, even farther out of her reach and her orbit than he was when he was a senior and she was a freshman. “A cat can look at a king,” she whispered, and opened the baize door a tiny crack.

      What she saw was not Ben, but Brittany, now relaxed on the sofa with her long, lovely brown arms stretched along its back, her slim ankles crossed, her streaked blond hair falling as precisely to her shoulders as though her hairdresser had cut it with a laser level. Maybe he had.

      Annabelle let the door close softly.

      Totally out of her league. Like comparing Claudia Schiffer to Ma Kettle.

      And that was just looks. Add in social grace, acceptability, education, and it was like comparing Claudia Schiffer to a female Cro-Magnon.

      She walked across the backyard and opened the door to the stairs that led to the apartment that Elizabeth Jackson had turned into guest quarters.

      The stairs were narrow and precipitous, but were covered with a creamy plush carpet. The walls were painted the palest yellow, and charming old French flower prints stair-stepped up the wall beside them.

      Annabelle kicked off the backless clogs she wore while she was working, remembered the paillettes in the pocket of her shirt, pulled them out and carefully dropped them into a cut-crystal ashtray.

      Since she didn’t smoke and wouldn’t dream of allowing smoke anywhere near the fragile fabrics she worked on, the ashtray was clean. She carefully unwrapped the white lace from its tissue and laid it on the

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