No Greater Love (35 page)

Edwina could feel a rustle in the crowd, and as Helen and George took their places under the canopy that was a tradition in Helen’s faith, she watched and cried silently, tears of joy for them, and as she thought of the love she had lost so long ago, there were tears of sorrow and longing.

The wedding was beautiful, and the ceremony just what it should have been, as George broke a glass beneath his foot. They weren’t Orthodox, but Helen had wanted a wedding in her own faith, and after that it didn’t bother her that she and George were of different religions.

It took hours to get through the reception line, and Edwina stood beside Sam, drained at first, from all the emotions she felt, and then laughing at Sam’s jokes, as he shook hands, introduced all their friends, and spoke in a series of whispers whenever he could to Edwina. He was a great source of strength and warmth throughout the wedding. And Edwina introduced him to their friends who had come down from San Francisco, mostly
their parents’ old friends, and Ben, of course, with his wife, who was expecting a baby. And after Helen danced with Sam, and George with Edwina, then Edwina danced with Sam, and with Teddy, and with movie stars and friends, and people she didn’t know and would probably never see again, and they all had a wonderful time. And at last at midnight, the bride and groom left, in the Duesenberg Sam had given George as a wedding gift. And in the morning, they would leave for New York by train, and to Canada from there. They had talked about going to Europe, but George had balked at the thought of going on a ship, and Helen hadn’t pressed it. She knew they would someday, and she didn’t want to rush him. She was happy going anywhere with him. And she had looked blissful as they drove off, and Edwina turned to Sam with a sigh, wondering where Alexis and Teddy and Fannie were. She had seen them on and off all night, and they were having a ball, particularly Alexis.

“It was beautiful.” Edwina smiled at him.

“Your brother’s a fine boy,” he said admiringly.

“Thank you, sir.” She curtsied, smiling up at him in her blue gown. “And you have a lovely daughter.”

He shared the last dance with her, and as Edwina looked around the floor, she was startled to see Malcolm Stone there. She suspected he had come with someone, because she knew that otherwise, he would never have been invited. And a little while later, she rounded up her family, thanked Sam again, and went home, exhausted but happy. And it was only later that night, as they undressed, and she chatted with Alexis, that she thought to ask her if she’d seen Malcolm.

Alexis didn’t answer for a moment, and then nodded her head. She had. She had danced with him. But she didn’t want to admit that to Edwina, and she wasn’t sure if her sister had seen them. She had been surprised to
see him there too, and he had laughed when he told her he’d crashed and pretended to have forgotten his invitation.

“Yes, I saw him there,” she said noncommittally as she took off the pearls she had borrowed from Edwina.

“Did he talk to you?” Edwina frowned, as she sat down, looking faintly worried.

“Not really,” which was a lie.

“I’m surprised he had the courage to turn up.” But this time, Alexis didn’t answer her, and she didn’t say that they had made a lunch date for the next day, to talk about her next picture. He said he had auditioned for a part in it, which surprised Alexis because so far nothing was set, and Alexis hadn’t even been formally signed yet. “It was a beautiful wedding, wasn’t it?” Edwina decided to change the subject. There was no point talking about Malcolm Stone anymore. All of that was in the past now.

And they all decided that Helen had looked absolutely gorgeous, and as she went to bed that night, Edwina smiled to herself, tired, happy, sad, and glad that she’d given her the veil. But Alexis was not thinking of the bride, as she drifted off to sleep. She was dreaming of Malcolm, and their date tomorrow.

ALEXIS AND MALCOLM STONE MET THE NEXT DAY AT THE
Ambassador Hotel for lunch, and when she arrived she was very nervous. Edwina had gone to George’s house to do some things for him, and Alexis had told Fannie she was going out to meet a friend. Fannie had been reading a book in the room, and Teddy was at the pool when Alexis asked the doorman to get her a cab at the hotel, and she had just gone, without telling anyone where she was going.

“My sister will be furious if she hears about this,” Alexis admitted to him. She looked lovelier than ever in a cream-colored suit and a matching hat with a veil that all but obscured her eyes, as she looked up at him like a trusting child.

“Well, then, we’ll see that she doesn’t hear about it, won’t we?” He was handsomer than ever, and a little frightening as he reached for Alexis’s hand. There was something very sexual about him, and yet at the same
time he always made her feel like a little girl, and he was going to take care of her, and it was that side of him that she liked, not the other. “At least your charming brother’s not in town.” He laughed, as though amused by him. “Where did he go for his honeymoon?”

“To New York and Canada.”

“Not to Europe?” He looked amazed. “How surprising.” But Alexis did not explain why. “How long will they be gone?”

“Six weeks,” she told him openly, as he kissed the inside of her palms with interest.

“Poor baby … what will you do without him? He’s going to be all wrapped up with his little wifey, and that leaves you all alone in the world now, doesn’t it?” It didn’t, of course, it left her with very capable Edwina, but as he said it, she began to feel as though she had no one left in the world. “Poor little love, Malcolm will just have to take care of you, won’t he, love?” he said, and she nodded, the memory of Rosarita Beach fading from her mind as he murmured.

He asked about the timing of her next picture, and she admitted that Edwina and George wanted her to wait to sign anything until he got back.

“Then you’re free for the next two months?” He looked enchanted.

“Well … yes … except that I have to go back to San Francisco, because my sister and brother are still in school.” And suddenly, beneath the veil, even to him, she still looked like a child. She had the face and the body of an angel, and with the right direction, she could almost pretend to be a vamp. But left to her own devices, she was still deliciously childish. It was part of her charm, but in the face of Malcolm’s advances, she felt awkward, and she was suddenly anxious to get back to the hotel. “I really ought to go,” she said finally, as he lingered, kissing her again and again and playing with
her hair. He had had a lot to drink over lunch, and he seemed to be in no hurry. And he tried to tempt her to drink some wine with him, and finally she did, hoping that after that, he would finally take her back to the hotel. But when she did, she found that she liked it, it tasted better even than the champagne they’d had the night before. And by the end of the afternoon, they were still sitting there, drinking wine and giggling and kissing, and by then she had forgotten that she had to go anywhere at all. She laughed as they drove back to his apartment. Everything seemed terribly funny now, especially Edwina waiting for her, God only knew where. Alexis couldn’t remember.

He gave her more wine when they got to his place, and he kissed her until she was breathless, and suddenly she knew that there was more she wanted to do with him, but she couldn’t quite remember what. She remembered they had gone somewhere together once, and for a minute she thought that they were married, but then a moment later, that thought was a blur as well. She was unconscious when he put her back in his car with a suitcase. He had thought about this all night, and decided that it was a great idea, and would solve all his problems. He left the money he owed for the rent on the table, and he was planning to leave the car with a note at the station. It wasn’t his anyway, he had borrowed it from someone on his last picture.

The train was still in the station when they got there, and Alexis was half conscious again by then, and she sat up and looked around her.

“Where are we going?” She looked around at him, but the compartment seemed to be swaying around her, and she couldn’t figure out where she was, or where she was going.

“We’re going to see George in New York,” he told
her, and in the condition she was in it sounded fine to her.

“We are? Why?”

“Don’t worry about it, little love,” he said again, and kissed her. He had the perfect plan. Alexis was going to be his ticket to stardom. And once he had compromised her sufficiently, George would have no choice. Particularly now that he was married to Sam Horowitz’s daughter, he would be far from anxious to have his younger sister labeled as a whore all over the business.

The train pulled out as Alexis snored loudly on the seat next to Malcolm, and as he looked down at her and smiled, he had to admit to himself that he could have done worse, she was a very pretty girl. In fact, she was a beauty.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE SHE WENT?”
At the exact moment the train pulled out carrying Alexis, Edwina was questioning Fannie, who was close to tears.

“I don’t know … she said she was going to see a friend or something … I think someone from her movie … I don’t remember …” Fannie was getting panicked, and Teddy hadn’t even been there.

“Did you see anyone?” Fannie shook her head again, terrified that something awful had happened to Alexis.

“She was all dressed up, and she looked very pretty,” Fannie added, and as she said the words, a chill ran through Edwina, and she instantly suspected Malcolm Stone. She suddenly had the feeling that the night before, Alexis had been lying. She had thought so then but she hadn’t wanted to press her.

The doorman told her that her sister had left in a cab. And when she hadn’t come back by nine o’clock that
night, she finally called Sam. She apologized for disturbing him, and told him about her problem. She wanted to track Malcolm down to see if Alexis was with him.

It was two hours later before he called her back, and the other children were asleep then. All he had was an address another actor had given him, and it was in a rotten part of town.

“I don’t want you going there. Do you want me to go there now or in the morning?” He was more than willing to help, but Edwina insisted that she could handle it herself. They argued about it for a little while, and finally Edwina agreed to let him go there with her. It was midnight by the time they arrived and it was obvious that no one was at the apartment.

She decided to call the police by then, no matter how much scandal it caused. And Sam reluctantly left her with them at the hotel at one in the morning. Edwina said she was alright with them, and she didn’t seem to want Sam to stay with her. She tried to tell the police what she could. But all she knew, in truth, was what Fannie had told her. Alexis had gone to meet a friend, and had never come back. But by the next morning, Edwina was truly panicked. There was no sign of the girl. And the police had no leads at all. No body had been found, no one had seen anything. And no one of her description had turned up at any of the hospitals in town. She had to be somewhere, but Edwina had no idea where, or with whom, or why. Her only thought was Malcolm Stone, but she realized she could be wrong about that. Their last run-in with him had been months before, and surely he had learned his lesson.

It was noon when Sam Horowitz called, and Edwina was frantic by then. And what he had to say told her that she had been right. With a little careful checking, Sam had learned that Malcolm Stone had left his room
paid for and deserted. Sam had discovered when he went back that morning, and by sheer luck he’d been able to find out, through an actor he knew, that he’d left the car he used at the station, with a note, and one could assume that he’d left town. But the question was, did he have Alexis with him? That was what she needed to know, and she had no idea how to do it.

“You could tell the police he kidnapped her,” Sam suggested, but Edwina was loath to do a thing like that. What if he didn’t? If Alexis said she’d gone willingly with him, which Edwina assumed she had, then it would be all over the papers, and her reputation would be ruined forever. As Edwina thought about it, she found herself missing George. “Is there anything I can do to help?” Sam offered again, but she told him that she would try to find a solution, and let him know what was happening, as soon as she knew herself. But she didn’t want to impose on him. He had done enough, and this wasn’t his problem. It was also embarrassing to admit to him that she was unable to control her own sister. And suddenly, Edwina was afraid to disgrace George, and Sam, and Helen.

And there was certainly no way to stop Malcolm and Alexis now, or even to catch them if they had left town, and all she could think of to do now was to go back to San Francisco, and wait for Alexis to call her. She called Sam later that afternoon and told him her plan, and the next morning she took Fannie and Teddy home to San Francisco. They were a quiet threesome on the long train ride home. Edwina’s thoughts were filled with worry for her little sister, and Fannie felt guilty that she hadn’t questioned her more, or told her not to go wherever she was going.

“That’s silly,” Edwina tried unsuccessfully to reassure her. “It’s not your fault, sweetheart.” What Alexis had done was her own fault.

“But what if she never comes back again?” Fannie started to cry, and Edwina smiled sadly. She would come back again … but God only knew when, or how, or in what condition. But it was actually more comforting to think of her with Malcolm Stone than to fear that some unknown fate had befallen her. Edwina wasn’t sure which fate was worse, as she and the younger ones rolled into San Francisco.

It was three days before they heard from her, and by then Edwina thought she would go crazy. The call came to San Francisco at ten o’clock at night.

“My God, do you realize how worried we’ve been? Where
are
you?”

Alexis’s voice trembled. She had been almost too embarrassed to call, but even Malcolm thought she should. It had been the worst week of her life. First she had been so sick on the train, she thought she would die, and then he had told her she had slept right through their wedding night. He told her they’d gotten married just before getting on the train, and to prove it, he’d made love to her all during the second night. It had been awful and not at all what she had expected, and now she couldn’t imagine why she’d married him in the first place. He wasn’t anything like he’d been in Los Angeles, and all he talked about were the pictures they would star in, and no matter how handsome he was, in broad daylight, to Alexis, he looked ancient.