Part 16 (1/2)
He gave her a warm smile. ”Lady Emma. It's nice to meet you.”
”Just Emma is fine. Thank you both for inviting me.”
”It's our honor,” Shelby gushed, then gestured toward one of the banquettes. ”Tell me how you're enjoying your trip. Both Warren and I love London, don't we, Warren? Do you live near the city?”
Emma explained that she lived several hours away by car in Warwicks.h.i.+re, then answered Shelby's questions about her trip. Before long, Shelby was regaling her with stories of backpacking in England after she'd graduated from college and a research project she'd once done on D. H. Lawrence. As she spoke, Torie stood off to one side, sipping a gla.s.s of wine and watching Kenny and Peter with a deeply unhappy expression on her face. Warren, in the meantime, seemed content to sip his bourbon and let his wife do the talking.
Shelby, who looked plump, blond, and merely pretty in this family of dark-haired demiG.o.ds, glared at Torie as she lit up. ”Put that out. You know I don't like it when you smoke around Peter.”
”We're outside. I'm not even near him.”
”No, you never are, are you?” Hurt clouded Shelby's eyes, and Emma remembered what Torie had said earlier about not being able to have a child. Had that caused the sadness that lurked just beneath her outrageousness?
”Warren, Lady Emma doesn't have a drink,” Shelby said.
”What would you like?”
”A soft drink would be fine.”
Warren wandered over to a bar set into one end of the terrace and addressed his son in an overly hearty manner. ”Kenny, what about you? I've got one of those sissy red wines you like.”
”I'll get it later.” Kenny didn't even bother to look at his father. Instead, he propped Peter on his shoulders, holding his arms to keep him steady, and took his little brother over for a closer view of a squirrel that had climbed into the branches of an olive tree.
Torie folded her fas.h.i.+on model's body into one of the banquettes and crossed her legs. ”So what do you think of Mother Shelby, Lady Emma?” She splayed her fingers through her dark hair and propped one elbow on a paisley pillow. ”I know you're dying of curiosity, but too polite to ask. Shelby's twenty-seven, exactly thirty-one years younger than our daddy and a year younger than me. Doesn't that just about turn your stomach?”
”Torie, can't you at least wait until Petie's in bed?” Kenny said.
She ignored him. ”Daddy knocked her up about a year and a half ago, and they had to get married.”
Warren looked amused, but Shelby had stiffened. ”You'll have to excuse Torie's rudeness, Lady Emma. She's very threatened by my relations.h.i.+p with her father.”
”Revolted is more like it,” Torie snapped.
”That's enough, girls.” Warren spoke mildly, as if he'd grown so used to their bickering that it didn't bother him all that much. He sipped his drink and looked at Emma. ”Shelby was Torie's little sister in their college sorority. They've been best friends for years, although you wouldn't know it now. They even shared an apartment between one of Torie's marriages.”
”I was only married twice,” she retorted. ”Don't make it sound as if there were a dozen. Besides, the first marriage barely lasted six months, so it didn't count.”
”You made me buy that awful pink and lavender maid-of-honor dress,” Shelby said, ”so it definitely counted.”
Torie blew a thin stream of smoke. ”Yeah, well, all of us know that Kenny had you out of that dress by midnight, so it couldn't have been too awful.”
Emma sat up a little straighter. Tonight's episode of Dallas Dallas had taken an unexpected turn. It occurred to her that just being a.s.sociated with the Traveler family might be enough for Beddington to call into question her character. had taken an unexpected turn. It occurred to her that just being a.s.sociated with the Traveler family might be enough for Beddington to call into question her character.
Kenny sighed. ”I didn't have her out of the dress, and you know it.” He kissed Peter on top of his head and swung him back into his play yard. ”Do we have to do this every time we get together?”
”Leave 'em alone,” Warren said. ”It's part of their ritual.”
Torie gave a dry laugh. ”Wouldn't it have been funny if Kenny'd knocked you up, too, Mother Shelby? One of those corny father-son bonding activities.”
”That's disgusting even for you,” Kenny said. ”Now settle down, Torie. I mean it. Shelby and I had one date. We kissed each other at the door, and that was it.”
”Did you use your tongue?”
”I don't remember,” he growled.
”I remember.” Shelby shot Torie a superior look. ”And I'm not telling.”
Kenny headed for the bar.
Warren Traveler chuckled. ”Home sweet home. Right, son?”
”Whatever.”
The Rolex on Warren's wrist gleamed as he took a sip from his drink. ”I hear you and Ted Beaudine went at it today. Word is you beat him by three strokes.”
”He shot two under. We both had a decent round.”
”I swear, when I get my hands on that sonovab.i.t.c.h Beaudine ... If I was you, I'd have my lawyers all over this.”
Emma realized he wasn't talking about Ted Beaudine, but his father, Dallie.
”I'm handling it,” Kenny said.
”It's the week before the d.a.m.n Masters! Every top player in the world is heading for Augusta except Kenny Traveler. You can't let Beaudine get away with this. All you have to do is call Crosley. He's the best lawyer in the state, and he told me-”
”I asked you to stay out of it, all right?” Emma heard the edge of steel in Kenny's voice and watched Warren's almost invisible withdrawal.
Torie made a languid movement on the banquette. ”I'm half starving to death. If we're not eating soon, I swear I'm gonna order a pizza.”
As if on cue, a maid appeared with a large tray holding individual salads. Shelby rose and directed them to their places. As Kenny moved toward the table, Peter let out a wail and gazed piteously at him, then extended his arms to be picked up.
”Leave him alone,” Warren said. ”You'll spoil him.”
”That's what big brothers are for, right, Petie?” Ignoring his father, Kenny walked over to the playpen and lifted Peter out.
Shelby frowned at her husband. ”You can't spoil a baby by picking him up, Warren. I keep telling you that. I'm not like your first wife, and Peter's not going to end up useless and lazy like Kenny, so stop worrying. Besides, all my books say that, if you don't meet their needs when they're little, you'll pay the price when they're older.”
He regarded her with a mild irritation that didn't mask his fondness for this too-young wife. ”I guess I might know a little more about raising kids than you.”
”Like you did such a wonderful job,” she retorted.
”She's got you there, old man.” Kenny threw his father a faintly mocking look as he tucked Peter under his arm.
The maid had set out five bone china plates holding salads that combined Bibb lettuce, avocado slices, and wedges of ripe pear with a crumbling of Gorgonzola. Shelby took Peter from Kenny and tried to set him in his high chair, but he started to fuss, so Kenny took him back, then sc.r.a.ped off the Gorgonzola to give the baby a piece of pear. As he began to eat his salad, Kenny seemed oblivious to the mushy bits of fruit that were dripping on his slacks.
Shelby questioned Emma about any contacts, no matter how remote, she might have had with the royals, then Torie cut in with a story about a European trip she and Shelby had taken several years ago. The two of them began trading stories and, for a little while, they seemed to forget they'd become enemies.
The salads were replaced with an entree of herb-crusted lamb and roasted potatoes. Kenny and his father began discussing some new computer softwear being developed by TCS, and Emma noticed that Warren acted as though Kenny couldn't understand the technology, even though Kenny didn't appear to have any trouble.
When Warren introduced Dexter O'Conner's name to the discussion, Torie immediately reacted. ”Could we talk about something else, please?”