The Widow's Fate They Chose Was My Escape Plan novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Gala
The cook opened the canvas bag on her shoulder and showed me what was in it.
The ledger. The notebook on its string. The doctor's vial wrapped in a dish towel.
"I took them out of your suitcase while you were fighting," she said. "Go on, Mrs. Keane."
I took the bag.
Rory took my hand, and his mother took his arm, and we walked out of the dark onto the lawn.
Nobody noticed us at first.
Four hundred people stood under the tent with champagne in their hands and the light on their faces.
A woman in green silk turned, saw Rory, and dropped her glass.
It broke on the flagstones.
"That's Rory Keane," someone said. "He's supposed to be dying."
"He's walking."
"And that's his mother. She's been in Europe for years."
"She's been in a room for fifteen years," I said, loud enough for the three tables nearest me.
The talk stopped.
The guests parted in front of us without being asked.
We walked down the center of the tent between the round tables, Rory with blood on his shirt and a split lip, me with one swollen cheek, his mother between us in a borrowed gray dress.
On the stage at the far end, the quartet lowered their bows.
Desmond stood at the microphone in his tuxedo with his hand frozen on the stand.
"My boy," he said, and his voice came out in the speakers. "You should not be out of bed."
"I know, Uncle," said Rory. "You made sure of it."
A few guests laughed, uncertainly, and stopped.
I climbed the steps onto the stage.
Desmond put his hand out toward me, and his guards moved at the tent flaps.
"Mrs. Keane is unwell," he told the room. "She is overwrought, and I think we should let her rest."
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