Sybil at Sixteen (11 page)

“There's every reason,” Evvie said. “And if you insist she leave the room, then I'll follow her and I'll tell her exactly what I intend to tell you, and you won't even be there to defend yourself. It's your choice, Nicky. I don't care how I do it.”

“Tell me what?” Sybil asked. “What about Claire?”

“You're right,” Nick said. “You're not my daughter.”

Evvie smiled, and for a moment, she looked eerily like her father. “You want to hear about Claire, I'll tell you about Claire,” she said, and she pulled up a chair and sat down next to Sybil. “Claire loves you,” she said. “Claire loves less easily than any person I know, Sam included, but, oh, she loves you.”

“Claire loves you, too,” Sybil said. “And Megs and Nicky and Thea. She loves Sam. Claire loves lots of people.”

“Claire was here,” Evvie said. “In Cambridge, visiting Sam and me, and you were in Oregon. Christmas two years ago.”

“I know,” Sybil said. “She eloped with Scotty Hughes, and his parents gave her lots of money for an annulment, and she used it to pay for my physical therapy. Nicky didn't tell her to do that.”

“He didn't have to,” Evvie said. “He'd trained her too well. She knew exactly what to do. When she came to Cambridge, she flirted with Scotty, but that was just to annoy Thea. Claire games. Mostly harmless, slightly cruel.”

“I know,” Sybil said. “She told me.”

“But then you called from Oregon,” Evvie said.

“Evvie, stop this,” Nick said. “Not for my sake. I don't care what you think about me, what you say. I don't care if you poison Sybil's mind against me. But what Claire did wasn't Sybil's fault, and it isn't right for you to imply that it was.”

Evvie laughed. “What do you know about right?” she said. “Besides, Sybil did call. You remember that phone call, Syb? You spoke to Claire. You told her how bad things were, how Nicky and Megs were fighting, how Nicky was threatening a lawsuit to break into Megs's trust.”

“I remember,” Sybil said. “You mean Claire eloped with Scotty just to get money for me?”

“It was Claire's choice,” Nick said. “You don't know Claire the way I do. You think her games are harmless because she's young, because she's your sister. But she's never been innocent, not really. She went for the money to help Sybil, of course she did, and to hurt Thea in some petty schoolgirl way, but she concocted that whole elopement scheme to hurt me and …” He stopped for a moment, and Sybil knew there were things he was still unwilling to reveal, and she wished she could protect him from whatever the truth was.

“Claire sold herself because she knew you were incapable of raising the money to take care of Sybil,” Evvie said. “She felt all the responsibility was hers. You did that to her, Nicky. Once again, you placed all the responsibility onto someone else.”

“Fine,” Nick said, and Sybil could see the relief on his face. “I did. I admit it. I had tried everything I knew to help Sybil, and by that point I was bankrupt in every way imaginable. I had no strength left. Claire had plenty, so she took on the responsibility, and she sold herself, as you so prettily put it, and I let her. I cashed that check, and as a result, Sybil can walk. What do you want me to say? That I willingly damaged Claire to save Sybil? I'll say it. I would have sacrificed anyone or anything at that time to help Sybil. I was willing to sacrifice Daisy by then. Claire was nothing compared to that.”

“That's not true,” Sybil said. “You love Claire. And she did it on her own. You weren't here. You didn't even talk to her. Claire gets these plans and then she acts on them. She's always been that way. It has nothing to do with Nicky, or any of the rest of us.”

“Claire makes her plans, all right,” Evvie said. “She didn't choose Scotty by accident, Sybil.”

“Evvie, please,” Nick said.

“What's the matter, Nicky?” Evvie asked. “You don't want Sybil to know what a bastard you really are?”

“Stop it!” Sybil cried. “I don't care what you want to say. It's not Nicky's fault. None of it is.”

“Claire chose Scotty because his grandfather is Nicky's father,” Evvie said. “Everything Nicky has ever said about his father is a lie. He didn't die bravely during World War Two. Nicky's mother was no poor bereaved widow. There wasn't even a Mr. Wilson to take pity on Nicky and put him through Princeton. Instead Nicky went to see his father, Sebastian Prescott, one fine day, and tried to blackmail him for the money for his college tuition. So Mr. Prescott wrote him out a check for a little bitty amount and kicked him out of his office and out of his life. Sebastian Prescott was nobody's fool.”

“So what?” Sybil asked. “I'm supposed to stop loving Nicky because his parents weren't married?”

“You'll stop loving him soon enough,” Evvie said. “One day you'll look at that handsome face of his and all you'll see is his corrupt, wicked soul. Claire didn't get the fifty thousand from Scotty's parents. She got it from Sebastian Prescott so Scotty and his family would never find out about Nicky. Claire got what she wanted from him because she's tougher than Nicky ever dreamed of being. Nicky made her that tough, and he took that check from a man he should have despised and instead of tearing it up, so Claire could see there are some things you can't buy, he cashed it right away.”

“And he used the money for me,” Sybil said. “Claire loves me, Evvie, and Nicky loves me, and if they were the only two people in the world who did, it wouldn't matter, because as long as I have them, I have people who'll do anything for me. I'm not noble. I'm grateful to them. I wanted to walk. If I needed to sell Claire and Thea and the National Guard to walk again, I would have. Tell Thea your ugly little stories. Tell them to Sam. They mean nothing to me. I don't care.”

“You will,” Evvie said. “When Nicky sells you, the way he sold Claire, the way he sold me. When he asks you to do something you know is wrong, but it's so important to him you feel you can't say no. Someday soon Nicky will beg a little piece of your soul from you. He'll wheedle if he has to, or cry, or worse yet, he'll give you one of those smiles you feel cost him so much, and you'll do what he asks because you love him, because he loves you. Then the corruption will set in, the way it has with Claire, and your conscience will die, and you'll start putting a price on everyone. Fifty thousand for a daughter. Twenty-five thousand for a son-in-law. Who knows how much for a sister. That's what's going to happen, Sybil. Just wait and see. That's what Nicky's love does to all of us.”

“Get out!”

“Daisy,” Nick said.

Meg walked into the living room. Sybil had no idea when she'd come in, how much she must have heard.

“Leave this house immediately,” she said to Evvie. “I won't have you talking about Nicky that way.”

“It's all right,” Nick said. “Most of what she's said is true.”

“Nicky is a good man,” Meg said. “He loves you and wants only the best for you. I won't allow you to suggest otherwise.”

“Fine,” Evvie said. “I just came to return my key.”

“Evvie,” Nick said, and he reached out for her, but Evvie shook her head.

“Not anymore,” she said. “I had a father once, and I used to love him, but not anymore.”

C
HAPTER
E
IGHT

The next morning was gray and damp, and Sybil's legs ached even before she got out of bed.

She lingered there for a few minutes, trying not to think, but painfully aware of everything that was going on. Evvie was in New York. Sam's grandfather's funeral was that afternoon, and following the scene with Nick, she had taken the shuttle, met Sam, and gone with him to Long Island to be with his grandmother. Sybil knew that, because Evvie had called Thea with her plans, and Thea had called Meg to tell her. Sybil could barely imagine an Evvie who couldn't share her pain with Nick and Meg, who had to communicate through one of her sisters. Sybil dreaded the thought of how Evvie would feel should she ever find out Sybil was responsible for the whole horror.

Sybil dreaded most of her thoughts that morning. Nick and Meg had been so silent the night before. They were together in a way Sybil could remember from her childhood. They seemed always to be touching, and when one of them was in a room without the other, there was a sense of loss that Sybil knew she could never compensate for. She had seen Nick and Meg that way before, uniting against a common enemy, but now that enemy was Evvie. Not that they'd said anything bad about her. They hadn't said anything. Sybil loved quiet. She'd spent too many months in public places, hospitals and rehab centers, not to cherish silence, but last night the silence had been suffocating, and she knew she couldn't take any more of it.

She got out of bed, dressed, and went to Nick and Meg's bedroom. They must have been up for a while, because the bed was made, and everything was in its place. Sybil flashed onto the image of Evvie's bedroom, and shook her head.

She dialed Claire's number. There was no one else she could talk to. If Thea knew what was going on, then she probably was siding with Evvie. But if Claire knew, she'd take Sybil's side. Not that Sybil knew anymore what her side was.

The phone rang three times, and then a man answered. “Claire?” Sybil asked, sure she'd dialed a wrong number.

“She's in the shower,” the man replied. “Want me to get her?”

“No,” Sybil said, and she hung up fast. She needed Claire, and she needed Claire alone, and she needed a Claire who didn't have a life separate from hers. But then, there was a lot Sybil needed she obviously wasn't going to get.

She went downstairs, and found Nick and Meg in the kitchen, finishing their breakfasts. Nick was reading the paper. Meg was making a shopping list.

“Sleep well?” Meg asked Sybil as she put some bread in the toaster.

“Fine,” Sybil said.

“Good,” Meg said. “I tossed and turned all night, worrying about Evvie.”

At least Evvie's name could be mentioned. “It must be very hard on her,” Sybil said. “The funeral and everything.”

“I thought about going down there,” Meg said. “But Nicky didn't think it was a good idea.”

“Evvie has a lot of anger to work out,” Nick said. “And her first concern should be Sam.”

“I know you're right,” Meg said. “But I hate the thought of her going through this alone.”

“Evvie'll be fine,” Sybil said. The toaster popped, and she took the bread out, and buttered it. “Remember when you used to bake bread?” she asked.

Meg nodded. “I should do that again,” she said. “It always made me feel good to bake my own bread.”

“It made the house smell wonderful,” Nick said. “What an aphrodisiac that aroma used to be.”

Meg laughed. “In that case, I'll bake some today,” she said. “I'll put yeast on my shopping list.”

“I love you,” Nick said to Meg, and Meg nodded.

“I love you, too,” she said, and she took Nick's hand and held it for a moment.

Nick smiled. “How about a walk?” he said to Sybil. “Before this gray turns to rain.”

“My legs hurt,” Sybil said.

“The walk will do you good,” Nick replied. “Take your cane, and we'll keep it short.”

“I'll be out grocery shopping when you get back,” Meg said. “Don't worry about me.”

“I don't,” Nick said. “Bake a raisin bread. Something sweet.”

“All right,” Meg said.

Sybil walked to the front hall, got her cane, and followed Nick outside. She wished she'd taken some painkiller with breakfast.

“We didn't walk yesterday,” Nick said. “Your legs are probably stiff.”

“They hurt more when things are tense,” Sybil said, angry that Nick was forcing this walk on her. “And things are very tense.”

“They'll work out,” Nick replied. “They always do.”

“I'm not so sure,” Sybil declared. “I've never seen Evvie so angry.”

“Evvie loves me,” Nick said. “Sooner or later she'll remember that.”

Sybil wanted to ask Nick if he was going to accept the reward. She knew if he did, Evvie would never speak to him again, but she wasn't sure that if he didn't, Evvie would forgive him, anyway. He'd be better off with the money and no Evvie, than without it and no Evvie. But she knew she couldn't ask.

“I know you don't want to take this walk,” Nick said. “But I needed to talk with you, and I wanted some privacy.”

“We could have talked back home after Megs left,” Sybil replied. She was unsure how easy she wanted to make this for Nick.

“I never feel private in that house,” Nick said. “I can always feel Grace there, staring down at me. She hated me more than anybody else in this world did, except maybe my stepfather, and he hated everybody. Grace disliked most other people, but me she hated.”

“Because Megs fell in love with you,” Sybil said.

Nick shook his head. “There were a lot of men Daisy could have fallen in love with that Grace wouldn't have minded,” he said. “Clark, of course, but there were others. Grace hated me because I stood for everything she couldn't abide, and in spite of that, Daisy loved me. Sometimes I felt sorry for Grace. I did that summer when she hurt herself, and we sent Evvie to keep her company. Grace knew she'd been in the right, and it didn't matter. I still had Daisy, and Grace had nothing as a result.”

“We need to walk slower,” Sybil said. “I can't keep up this pace.”

“All right,” Nick said. He started taking smaller steps, and Sybil found it easier to stay with him. “You'll be all right, you know,” he said. “Oh, your legs may keep bothering you on days like this, but you'll be all right. You'll get whatever you want in this world, love, family, power, money. Whatever you set your mind on, you'll get it.”