“Hello, Sebastian,” Lizzie extracted herself from his grip and cast a brief glance at him before redirecting her attention back to her grandmother.
“I hope that you’re pleased!” Hazel said eagerly and followed it with a single, loud clap that echoed throughout the room.
“Surprised and pleased,” Lizzie answered. “Where are you staying? How long are you here for?” she asked in quick succession.
“For a week,” Virginia answered. “And Hazel’s been gracious enough to let me stay with her so I can be close to you.” Virginia wore an easy, satisfied smile as she hugged Lizzie once more. “I’ve missed you, my sweet girl. I didn’t realize how much you until you were gone.”
“It doesn’t feel the same without you,” Sebastian added, confessing how he felt. Lizzie eyes shifted towards him and found him staring straight at her. “Every time I go to tell you something, I have to remind myself that you’re not there. Your being gone has left a big empty hole.” A passing shadow clouded his eyes. Lizzie felt a thrill upon hearing what he said but swallowed it down.
“Why don’t we call it an early day? I’ve got a leftover pork roast and I’m sure that you two are tired and hungry after your journey,” Hazel announced, suddenly breaking the growing tension in the room. For the first time in months, Lizzie left work without reluctance.
Minutes later, Lizzie found herself clocked out and seated in the back of Hazel’s Audi next to Sebastian. Due to her rheumatism, Virginia claimed the front passenger side. Conversation was light and casual as they traveled to Hazel’s home. Once they came to a stop on the long, curved driveway, Hazel headed straight to the kitchen and tossed the leftover pork roast into the oven, along with an assortment of root vegetables coated in olive oil, rosemary, thyme, butter, salt, and pepper. Lizzie escorted Virginia to the bottom-floor guest room while Sebastian brought in all the luggage.
“Tell me, how are you doing? Are you enjoying yourself?” Virginia asked as she plopped down upon the edge of the canopied bed and patted the mattress beside her. Lizzie crossed the room and took a seat next to her grandmother.
“I’m having the time of my life. Dr. Trelawney’s team is the best. I love my co-workers, except this guy named Marc Jacobs. He’s a bit of a prat and treats me like he’s my dad. Other than that, I love the work. Hazel has been very accommodating, and I’ve learned so much from her. She has at least one person from the Museum over every night for dinner. It’s been an easy way to get to know everyone,” Lizzie answered honestly but sensed that there was something unspoken hanging in the air.
“What about home?” Virginia continued to prod her granddaughter. “Do you miss us at all? Everyone misses you, especially Sebastian. He’s been moping around the house with no one to talk to except me. Between you and me, I think he’s underplaying just how much he misses you.”
“That maybe so but I’m sure Sheila loves me being gone,” Lizzie barked angrily, instantly regretting her tone. “I have no doubt that she keeps him distracted enough to forget that I’m not there.”
“I wouldn’t say that.” Virginia reassuringly patted Lizzie’s leg before sending her to have Sebastian bring the bags. Lizzie was up and just out the door when she and Sebastian nearly collided in the hallway.
“Hey,” Sebastian said awkwardly as he and Lizzie stared at one another for several seconds.
“Are those my bags?” Virginia called out, interrupting their brief interlude.
“I’ve got them right here, Virginia.” He brushed past her without so much as another glance.
Lizzie watched Sebastian disappear into the room. With a semi-dejected shrug, she went to help Hazel. Forty minutes later, everyone was gathered at the table, devouring the leftovers.
“So, what’s new in your world,” Hazel asked her grandson after swallowing a well-seasoned piece of potato.
“Nothing much,” Sebastian replied. “My dissertation was accepted, and my job at the college starts next semester.”
“That’s wonderful, my boy! I’m so very proud of you.” Hazel radiated joy. Unable to help herself, she rushed around the table and kissed his cheek. “Your parents would be so proud of you, too.” She kissed him again before returning to her chair.
“Congratulations, Sebastian,” Lizzie chimed up, secretly thrilled that he would be staying close instead of heading off to another university. Despite her vow to keep him at arm’s length, it would have killed her to not see him from day to day.
“Thank you.” He gave her a thankful nod. “We can talk about that later, though. Tell me, how do you like England? Especially since this is your first time here.”
“This isn’t Lizzie’s first time in England,” Virginia spoke up before her granddaughter could answer. “Lizzie’s mother was a British citizen and Lizzie was born in London.”
“Your mother was British? Why didn’t I know that?” Sebastian said with surprise. Lizzie nodded as she watched his eyebrows raise with wonder.
“Mum was born and raised in Ripon. She moved to London when she was nineteen. That’s where she met my father while standing in the National Gallery.”
“Hannah Sargent’s daughter settled in Ripon, if memory serves,” Hazel injected her say into the conversation.
“That’s right,” Lizzie said. “Supposedly her home was just a few houses down from where my grandparents lived. There’s a large plaque hanging by the front door. It’s one of the few things that Mum would say about her past. I don’t even know which house Mum lived in.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that you were born in England? I swear that I thought I knew everything about you.”
“Not everything, Sebastian. You don’t know everything,” Lizzie offered in return but fell silent as she contemplated what to say next.
“A woman must have her secrets, my boy,” Hazel interjected again, rescuing Lizzie. “Let Lizzie have hers. Speaking of secrets, why didn’t you bring that doxie that you’ve been dating?” Hazel spoke of Sheila and didn’t hesitate to express both her dislike of the young woman and her relief at Sheila’s absence. In an instant, she had Lizzie’s full and complete attention.
“We broke up a few weeks ago,” Sebastian said off-handedly. Lizzie found it strange that he was so detached, especially since he and Sheila had dated for more than two years. Each break-up before had at least some effect on him but this one clearly did not.
“You’re not together anymore?” Lizzie asked unable to stop the question.
“No,” Sebastian met her eye as he responded. “She and I had different plans for the future. She kept pressing me to apply for a position at Columbia or Harvard, where we could hobnob amongst the crème de la crème of academic society. I wanted to teach at the college, and eventually move here. When I told Sheila that I had no intention of going anywhere, she threw a vase at my head and threatened to leave if I didn’t comply with her demands.”
“She threw a vase at you?”
“Yes,” he sighed unaffected. “My mother’s faux Ming vase. Fortunately, Sheila’s got a lousy arm. The vase missed me and bounced off the carpet instead of shattering against the wall.”
“What a bitch,” Virginia said, echoing the thoughts of everyone in the room, especially Lizzie. “I told you from the beginning that I didn’t like her.”
“Yeah, you did. So, that’s when I told her that it was over and to get out. I told her that I’d wasted enough time on her nonsense and that I wanted no part in the future she planned.” Sebastian paused momentarily as if reliving the whole ugly incident again.
“Tell us the rest,” Hazel urged him to continue as she refilled everyone’s cup.
“Three days before the flight, Sheila showed up at Virginia’s.”
“He cleaned out the gutters and weeded the garden for me,” Virginia explained. Sebastian nodded to confirm what Virginia said was true.
“Sheila showed up sobbing. I remember thinking that she looked like a raccoon because her mascara was smeared and left black-tinted tracks dow
n her cheeks. Little did I know that she’d come to try to manipulate me. As she stood there crying, she said that she was pregnant, and that the child was mine.”
Lizzie’s eyes bulged out, but she managed to remain otherwise controlled despite the chaotic swirl of anger, jealousy, and the urge to kill that twisted like a cyclone inside of her.
“I knew she was lying. Her eyebrows always twitch when she’s lying. Not to be crude, but we hadn’t been… intimate… in almost six months. Naturally, I demanded that a DNA test be done. She claimed to be four months pregnant. Needless to say, the math didn’t add up.”
“Why would you need a DNA test?” Lizzie asked absently before the reason struck her like a boxers’ glove. “She was cheating on you,” she said in a quick rush of surprised air.
“Two days after I called it off, Phil, my former research partner, called and admitted that they’d been having an affair for over a year. He wanted to clear the air because he was planning on proposing and he didn’t want any bad blood between us. He wanted to start their lives with a clean slate. As Sheila stood there in the doorway, trying to convince me that no tests were necessary, all I could think of was what did I ever see in her? How could I have ever attached myself to a woman who would lie and try to manipulate me like that?”
“Because you were dazzled by a pretty face and flattery. She only wanted you because you have money, my boy,” Hazel answered his question. “She was only after you because your father left you a comfortable inheritance. And, as you put it, she was manipulative and a liar.”
“And a bully.” Lizzie’s pent-up rage and frustration released with three simple words.
“A bully?” Sebastian’s features twisted with confusion.
“She was a tyrant,” Lizzie declared as Virginia beamed with pride. “She was awful to me. Every time she was at the house, she’d order me around like I was the scullery maid. She’d tease me and play horrible practical jokes on me. She put Nair in my shampoo. Fortunately she didn’t realize it affected the fresh apple smell. That’s not all, though. She’d hide my books and my school stuff. One time she stole my book report on Henry David Thoreau and burned it in the kitchen sink. As it went up in flames, she laughed and taunted me that she’d burn the next one I wrote, too.”
“Lizzie, why didn’t you tell me any of this before?” Sebastian went on the defensive. As Lizzie watched him stew furiously in his chair, she took note of the sudden tension in his shoulders and the way his fingers curled as if wringing Sheila’s throat.
“Because you wouldn’t have listened… and she threatened to do worse if I didn’t stay away from you,” Lizzie admitted. Not even Virginia knew about Sheila’s ultimate threat. That if Lizzie even so much as looked at Sebastian, she’d hired a goon to break into the house and slit Lizzie’s throat while she slept. With nothing left to lose, Lizzie told them all every single disgusting detail.
Everyone stared open-mouthed and blank-faced with horror as Lizzie detailed Sheila’s final decree.
“If I ever see her again, I will kill her!” Sebastian’s furious fist slammed down upon the kitchen table with the force of Thor’s hammer, rattling the teacups, silverware, and nearly knocking the sugar bowl to the floor.
“Not if I don’t get to her first,” Virginia hissed, red-faced and thirsting for blood.
“Is that why you’ve been so distant?” Sebastian asked her suddenly. “Is that why you haven’t been returning my emails or answering my calls?” Lizzie cast her gaze to her fingers wrapped around her cup.
“Yes,” she admitted. “I didn’t want to invite anymore danger. I figured that it would be best to just distance myself from you. That it would be best for everyone involved.”
“Lizzie, you should have told me what she was doing to you!”
“And risk my life?” Lizzie’s voice rose with a sudden wave of unharnessed anger. Sebastian flinched as if he’d been slapped. “She threatened to kill me if I went near you again, Sebastian!”
“You could have at least told your grandmother,” he bit back with of mixture of defensiveness and aggression.
“Would you have believed her?” Virginia said suddenly. “Sebastian, I am only saying this because I love you and I consider you to be my own,” Virginia drew in a long, steadying breath and quickly released it. “For many years, you were so wrapped up in Sheila that you were blind to everything. The only things that you could see clearly were your research and her. Everything—and I mean everything—that girl did was beyond your notice, isn’t that right, Hazel?” Virginia looked toward Hazel who gave a single, emphatic nod. “Everyone saw that girl for what she was. I watched in silence as Lizzie suffered at her hands but didn’t interfere because I knew that it was something that Lizzie was determined to sort out on her own. She gets that from her father and from me. Now that I know just how depraved that conniving little bitch was, I wish I had done something.”
“There was nothing that you could do,” Lizzie said before either of them had a chance to add anything further. “And I don’t want you blaming yourself.” She turned and looked straight into Sebastian’s eyes. “You two are through, right? That means Sheila is gone. From this night on, I don’t want to think about her or be reminded of what she’s done to me. As far as I’m concerned, Sheila is gone. Kaput. Finis. Done. Over. Do you all understand that?” Lizzie demanded as she teetered on an emotional breakdown. The three other people sitting with her each showed that they understood, and that they’d comply with Lizzie’s wishes.
The rest of dinner went by quietly with very little talk. Each minute that ticked by felt as if a knife hovered over the table and threatened to drop at any time. Once dinner was over and the dishes were washed and put away, Lizzie headed outside in search of relief in the cool, earthy-scented night air.
She left Hazel’s cottage and walked down to the lakeshore. The moon hung high over her head, casting the landscape in a green-tinted glow that reminded her of the light described in her mother’s much-loved fairy stories. Lizzie sat down upon a wooden bench that had been built decades before and offered a tremendous view of the entire lack. Memories that she wanted to forget and fought to dispel surged back with a vengeance as she recalled every horrid thing she’d endured. Within seconds, Lizzie’s eyes were wet, and several tears rolled silently down her cheeks. They left icy trails on her skin and Lizzie made no move to wipe them away.
“Lizzie?” Sebastian’s voice sounded suddenly behind her. “Liz?” He came around and took the open seat beside her. “Oh, Liz.” He reached out, but Lizzie hesitated. Sheila’s influence still had the power to affect her choices, she realized before remembering that that hose-beast was out of her life forever. Wordlessly, Lizzie accepted Sebastian’s embrace. Clinging to him, she sobbed against the soft fabric of his sweater and purged herself of all the pain, resentment, and anger that she’d stored up for years. “It’s all right now, Liz.” Sebastian leaned in and whispered in her ear as his hand cradled the back of her head. “It’s all right. Nothing will ever come between us again.”
Sebastian held her for the better length of an hour. Lizzie’s tears dried as she pulled herself from the comfortable security of his arms. As she sat silently, studying Sebastian in the sage-colored moonlight, Lizzie exorcised Sheila’s cruelty and jealousy with a deep sigh. Lizzie sucked in a long, slow and steady breath. Holding it for a few brief seconds, she expelled the controlled rush of air over the lake, giving her secrets to the water just like her mother had taught her. Those secrets would rest safely in the water until she was ready for them to be told.
Just as the moon was cresting overhead, Lizzie announced that she was cold. Wrapping a warm, protective arm across her shoulders, Sebastian escorted her up the hill and back inside the cozy cottage where a pot of fresh-brewed chamomile tea sweetened with honey waited for them.
That was the night that Lizzie let her fears and torments go. Sometime before her parents had died, her mother had told her that water safeguarded the secrets that
we couldn’t tell anyone else. That water was the ultimate confidant. It would protect what it was told for as long as the teller wished. Sheila’s torture and the trauma it had caused her still resided in the lake resting at the base of the hill. The words that Lizzie could never bring herself to say—the remnants of her lost hopes and dreams—rested within those watery depths, as well, and would stay there for the rest of eternity.
************
“Do you ever regret breaking up with Sheila?” Lizzie asked as the natural lull of silence came to an end. Sebastian startled and met Lizzie with a look of confusion. They still stood by Edith’s pond. The sun had just started to dip below the tree line, harkening the end of day and announcing the beginning of twilight.
“Not at all. What made you think of her?” he asked a little too harshly, but Lizzie paid it no mind.
“Because your life would be so different. I know that you really loved her... for a time.”
“And you’re obviously forgetting that she was a lying, cheating gold-digger who threatened to kill you.”
“I will never forget that, Sebastian. Not in a thousand years.”
“Neither will I. I remember when you confessed to me how she treated you. That night has stayed with me ever since. When you said that she threatened to kill you, I wanted her blood. If she’d been anywhere near, I would have choked the life from her.”
The Secrets of Water Page 14