Chapter 16: The Benefit

At five in the morning I walked down the drive in my father's old coat and knocked on the sedan window.

Giles was awake.

He rolled the glass down, and I saw that he had been awake all night.

"You stayed," I said.

"I said I would be here."

"You said it about something else."

"It's the same thing."

I didn't forgive him.

I stood there with my hands in the pockets and the grass wet around my shoes.

"There's a benefit at the Meadowbrook tonight," I said. "The harbor fund. The whole board will be there, and my sister."

"Do you want me to come?"

"I want you to stand behind me."

"Where?"

"One step back and a little to my left," I said. "Like on the plaza."

His mouth moved a little.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Don't talk to me until then."

"Understood."

I went back up the drive, and I knew he watched me all the way to the door.

The benefit was held in the club ballroom, under chandeliers my father's friends had paid for.

I wore green, with no ring.

Giles stood a step behind me and to my left, in a black jacket, with his hands behind his back.

People looked at my left hand and then at him, and I let them.

"Hallie, dear," said the charity chair, in pearls and a feather. "What a night. Is it true about the yard?"

"What have you heard?"

"That your sister's bought a hole in the ground."

"I'm sorry for her."

"Of course you are." She patted my arm. "She's coming in now. Poor lamb, she looks done in."

Reese came through the double doors on Wayne's arm.

She wore a long-sleeved dress in dark blue, buttoned at the wrist.

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