by Sandra Byrd
Chapter 55
I followed to where she pointed and saw them. Rhys! With Natalie! At that exact moment, Rhys caught my eye, grinned, and then leaned in to kiss Natalie. She did not back away.
Even though I hadn’t wanted to be here with him, I was shocked. I felt cold and my hands shook and I wanted to sit down. It all made sense now, and I should have figured it out much sooner. I felt betrayed. And then angry—my parents and I had paid to bring them here in a limo! And then . . . relief. I had dodged the bullet, as we Americans would say.
“Sav, are you okay?” Penny asked. “I’ve got to get back to Oliver.”
“I’m fine,” I said. “Have a great time. I’ll take some good snaps of you and see you tomorrow, right?”
“Right.” She squeezed my arm, then glided back to her date and their table.
I hung out in the corner for a minute to steady my hands and then got back to work. I walked along the edges of the room and also on the outside porticoes, taking photos. I have to admit, I was scanning the room for another couple, even though I wasn’t sure I wanted to see them.
But I did. Tommy looked fantastic in his tux and tails, as I knew he would. He had his hair trimmed just the tiniest amount so that it wasn’t exactly short, but it was clear he’d attended to it for the night. Chloe’s dress wasn’t awkward, despite Penny’s faithful protestations. She looked great. But she wasn’t smiling. She was obviously angry. I suppose I should have been glad, because it seemed she was keeping a physical distance between her and Tommy.
Not wanting to be a stalker, I went back to work, heavyhearted, and stayed in the shadows. I promised myself I would not train my superzoom lens on them to see if they kissed or not.
The night went by more quickly than I’d thought it would, and people began to filter out of the ballroom. I was hanging in the back, resting. I’d taken enough snaps for the paper, for sure. I’d told the coat check people I’d stay and help them clean up afterward.
I heard a commotion and an angry, raised voice in one corner. I stood up to see where the noise was coming from. It was the corner where the Aristocats were hanging out. After popping off my lens cap, I aimed my camera in that direction. I wasn’t snooping. I was a reporter. Right?
The group closed in around the commotion, keeping it as private as possible, and the voices had already been lowered. The band struck up another song to keep things moving along. If I hadn’t had my superzoom, I probably wouldn’t have been able to see what had happened. But I did have superzoom. Chloe had thrown her purse on the floor, where it still lay, and had turned her back to Tommy, who looked pleadingly at her at first; then he walked away.
I couldn’t stand there like a CIA agent with my lens trained on them any longer, so I put the camera away. Shortly thereafter, their group dissolved, and about half an hour later, nearly everyone was ready to leave.
Lovers’ spat, I thought with regret. I packed my camera away and went to help the coat check guys break down the closet and tag the few coats that had been accidently left behind. They’d bring them to the school’s lost and found the next week.
“Savvy, would you mind sweeping up the entry hall?” one of the guys asked.
“Not at all.” I’d texted my mother, and she said she’d be here in half an hour.
I finished sweeping and then took my broom and stood in the ballroom, enjoying the music that the band generously kept playing while the hospitality crew cleaned up. I scanned the room, noting the painted frescoes on the ceiling, when I saw . . . Tommy! In the corner where he’d been sitting with Chloe and the others.
He caught my eye and, after reaching under one of the tables, came to where I was standing in the doorway. “Hey.”
“Hey.” I wished I hadn’t been standing there gripping a broom. “I thought I saw you leave.” Oh! I blushed furiously at that. Now he’d know that I’d been watching him!
He grinned. I’d been caught. But maybe it had helped him to be more honest himself. “I did leave—the boys took all the girls home. But I had to come back. My, uh, mobile phone had been lost. But I found it hidden in one of those.” He swept a hand toward the thick puddles of velvet draperies spilling onto the floor.
“Lost?” I said.
“Well,” he admitted, “Chloe had put it in her purse for the dance. And when she threw her purse, my phone went flying, along with everything else in her bag. I didn’t want to hold up the whole limo looking for it. I forgot about it till the ride home.”
I didn’t ask, but he volunteered. “I’d told her when she asked me to the ball months ago that we’d just be going as friends, and she said okay. Bill and Maddie were going. Our whole group was going, and it seemed like it was going to be fun. But I guess, in the end, she wasn’t really okay with it at all. The friends-only thing. She thought I’d change my mind about it between then and now, but I hadn’t and, uh, it came to a head tonight.”
I tried to keep the smile off my face. I was sorry for her—I was. But honestly? She’d acted like a brat several times now, and I didn’t think she deserved him.
“Silly of me, eh, to think that would all work out?” Tommy asked.
“No,” I said, “I understand perfectly.” More than you know.
“So what happened to Rhys?”
I fished for the right words to say and finally hooked them. I looked at my broom and then up again, grinning. “Let’s just say that Rhys is no Prince Charming. I came on assignment. Photojournalism for the paper.”
“So you didn’t get to dance all night?”
“Afraid not. But it’s okay. I came to do a good job, and I did. And,” I said, particularly happy that I could share this news with him since he’d been telling me for months that he was looking for something I’d written in the paper, “Jack is giving me a full article next month. With a byline. I’ll finally have something in the paper for you to read.”
Tommy nodded. “Shame that you didn’t get to dance, though.” The band started a new song. “One of my favorites!” He took my hand and glanced at the other, holding the broom. “Put the mop and bucket away, Cinderella.”
I dropped the broom and he led me just to the edge of the dance floor.
There were literally five people or fewer in the room, so I didn’t feel self-conscious at all, and honestly, I probably wouldn’t have noticed if there were hundreds of people. I didn’t even remember what song was playing. In my mind, it was Taylor Swift playing “You Belong with Me.”
I wasn’t wearing my beautiful dress, and this wasn’t how I’d planned it. But it was all the more wonderful for being unexpected. My first dance.
Afterward he smiled at me and I smiled back, and the band packed up. He headed toward the door; his dad was waiting for him in the parking lot. Just when he was still within earshot but too far away for me to respond, he turned back and said, “Oh, and, Savvy? I’ve already read quite a bit of your writing.” With that, he laughed a little and waved good-bye.
I stopped dead in my tracks. What?
Chapter 56
We went to the first service the next day, but I didn’t stay for Sunday school because we had to get home and get ready for the garden and tea party.
My phone buzzed twenty minutes before we were to leave. It was Penny.
Be sure to do your hair in those long curls. And wear the earrings, too.
What was up with that? A small quiver of insecurity wavered through me, thinking that maybe she wasn’t sure if we were good enough for her crowd. I already talked to her about that, I reminded myself. I’m going to believe her.
Shortly thereafter I stood in front of the mirror with the Faerie dress on. As I looked at it, I prayed for Becky and her ministry, and I knew—just knew—that my work with Be@titude wasn’t over. It was only beginning.
I’d curled my hair in the long, loose curls Penny had insisted upon; the peridot earrings were buttoned in my lobes. When I went downstairs, my dad pretended to fall backward. “You can’t leave the house like that! T
hey’ll take you to Hollywood. Or it’ll cause a gun riot in the streets, with the boys fighting over you.”
“They don’t allow guns in England, Dad,” Louanne drily reminded him.
“There aren’t going to be any boys there,” I said. “Only moms and girls.”
He stood up and pretended to consider. “Okay, then,” he said. “You can go.” He came up and kissed my cheek, and I smelled his Old Spice and felt his scratchy whiskers. I hugged him back.
When we arrived at The Beeches, Mom asked, “Do I look okay?” She tugged on her dress a little and reapplied some lipstick.
“You look beautiful,” I reassured her, realizing that I was in the strange position of having been here before, and with these people, while my mom had not.
We drove up the long, long drive of The Beeches and parked our Ford among the very swish cars that had already arrived. I thanked God that my dad had taken down the fuzzy dice from his rearview mirror and that Louanne hadn’t let him put a bumper sticker on the back.
Once we were shown into the garden, though, all my fears melted away. First, Penny’s mother came right over and took my mom by the arm and introduced her to everyone. Then she sat down with her at the table. It was clear that she’d saved a place just for her.
I beamed in appreciation as I went to the kitchen to meet up with the girls. Of course! What else would I expect from Penny’s mum—like mother like daughter, right?
Several girls, including Ashley, commented on my dress, though none of them commented on the fact that I hadn’t had a date the night before. Good manners.
The kitchen was abustle. We girls didn’t prepare anything—the caterers had done all the food. We were just there to serve. Penny brought me a silver tray with tall glasses filled with sparkling pear cider. “Chloe’s not coming today,” she whispered. “Embarrassed by her tantrum last night, as well she should be.” She sniffed. “Poor manners.”
Once again I was reminded that my kind friend did have quite a lineage, and I loved her the more for being herself.
A violinist and a cellist played achingly beautiful music in the background, and we poured back and forth from the kitchen with full and then empty trays. After one trip, Penny asked me, “Could you please go to the entry hall and see if anyone has left glasses or dishes out there?”
I nodded, a little confused. As far as I knew, people had only been eating in the back garden area. And if they’d left things up front, wouldn’t the butler have gotten them?
I walked into the hallway and there, in one of the corner armchairs, sat Tommy. He seemed stunned when I entered the room. I stopped, shocked myself.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Waiting for my mum,” he said. “She’s the one on crutches,” he explained. “Broke her foot last month. I need to help her up and down the steps. Penny asked me to get here a bit early—I thought maybe her foot was bothering her.”
That Penny! As soon as she knew that Tommy was helping his mom, she’d texted me to do my hair.
“You look great,” he said, still surprised, I thought, to find me in something other than jeans and boots.
“I clean up well,” I teased, thrilled to have made an impression and ecstatic that he’d seen me in my dress after all. I knew I had just a minute or two before I’d have to go help, or someone was sure to come and find me. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” he said.
“What did you mean last night when you said you’d read my writing?”
He looked around to see if we were alone, and we seemed to be, except for the butler. “Your column. Every other week.”
“How did you know?”
“I found some papers in the back of the church on April Fools night.”
Oh! When my homework and papers were left out. How careless I’d been. “And you e-mailed me?”
He nodded. “But you didn’t e-mail back.”
“I didn’t know if it was a trap.” I could hear the noise in the kitchen growing louder. It was time to get the puddings out, and I needed to hurry.
“And then I tried to call, but you answered and said not to call you anymore because you were very busy.”
“That was you?” I was mortified.
“Uh-huh.”
One of the girls came into the room. “Savvy?”
“Be right there,” I assured her before turning back to Tommy. “I’m really sorry—I didn’t know it was you.”
“Not a problem.” He grinned. “You’d better get back to the kitchen. Don’t worry about it, though. I know how to keep quiet. Your secret is safe with me.”
I knew it was. I waved a little and said I’d see him soon. Really soon, I hoped. And then I went back to serve dessert.
On the way home Mom chattered on and on about what a great time she’d had and how nice everyone was and how Mrs. Barrowman—Lydia—was going to sponsor her for the membership vote next month, and if she was in, they’d all do the Chelsea Flower Show together.
I let her have her moment, her half hour, of delight. I sat in the car and treasured up the day, and the evening before, to myself. When I got home, I’d search through last night’s pictures and find the perfect one for my new screen saver. By an amazing coincidence I’d just happened to snap several dozen of Tommy without Chloe.
What an amazing weekend. First formal dress. First dance with a boy not related to me. What could lie ahead?
My promised article? An amazing ministry? My first kiss?
Hmm . . .
Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Matthew 6:4, NIV
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56