The Bright and the Lost

Six (2)

Shaken out of her reverie, Vita turned to her.

"Rien."

Izzy frowned. "I know you're lying, you know." She poured lemonade into a glass and handed it to her. "And I also know you lied when you told me what happened to you."

Vita didn't blink. She sipped her lemonade, her gaze back on the lawn. The players appeared, and soon the two teams took their positions on the field. Archie and Mr. Lawrence were focused on them, and Izzy took this opportunity to lean in next to her friend.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" she said in a low voice. "I'm here for you."

"I already told you everything," Vita replied.

Izzy sighed, angered at being shut out. After all, she had shared her darkest secrets with Vita.

"Fine," she snapped. "Be that way."

She stood up and walked over to Archie. He wore a double-breasted white suit, far more expensive than Mr. Lawrence's single-breasted brown suit, but she still liked the latter better. He didn't have Archie's cold stare and intimidating stance. And he was handsome, for a commoner.

On the flawless lawn, the match had started. The ponies galloped up and down the field, the players hitting the ball with their mallets, Mr. Lang at the centre of the melee. Izzy hoped his team would win.

"Do you know the rules of the game?" Archie asked.

Izzy pouted. "A little bit."

She didn't want a lecture from him. Archie turned around to check on Vita, but she had lit another cigarette and hadn't moved to join them.

"She lied to me," Izzy said. "She won't say what really happened to her and she pretends I don't know she's hiding something from me."

It stung to admit this to Archie, but if Vita had confided in him rather than in her, Izzy needed to know.

"She lied to me too," Archie replied. "I hoped she'd say something to you."

Izzy shook her head. "And I hoped she'd talked to you. What do we do now?"

The crowd shouted and clapped, as Mr. Lang's team scored a goal. She whooped before focusing back on her conversation.

"How was she when you found her?"

Archie's face darkened.

"Strangely calm and composed. She had a superficial cut on her thigh and quite a few bruises, and she was incredibly filthy, but the doctor assured me she hadn't sustained any other injuries or suffered any... violence."

Izzy paled, the reality of what had happened to Vita hitting her again.

"What did she say to you?" she asked.

"What she told you the other day, almost word for word."

Izzy pressed her lips together. If Vita's tale was so well-rehearsed, it could only mean she was indeed hiding something. Hopefully not for long.

"Maybe she's just in shock," she said. "Shall we ask her about it? It could only help if she got it all off her chest, couldn't it?"

But Archie turned his gaze back on the game. "No. She'll speak when she's ready."

Izzy sighed at his uncompromising tone. On the field, Mr. Lang's team scored another goal, and the spectators erupted into cheers. Izzy clapped along with them. Archie might be right. Vita would speak when she wanted to. When that moment arrived, Izzy would be there for her.

In the meantime, she had a suitor to dazzle.

***

At halftime, the crowd spread onto the field to put the displaced lumps of grass back into place, as tradition required. 

By then Vita was ready to go home. Pretending she was listening to Tallulah's chatter or cared if Robert Lang had indeed looked their way when he had scored that goal was becoming too difficult. She stamped on a churned-up piece of turf as Izzy spoke with Mr. Lang and played with her strand of pearls in an absent-minded gesture. Vita wasn't sure she understood why Izzy was so nervous around the man. He was handsome enough, but Izzy had enough qualities to charm him. And it wasn't as if he was the only bachelor in town.

Vita shielded her eyes from the sun and whistled to call Pixie. Archie had let her dog off her lead for a few minutes, and she came running towards her with her tongue out. She bent down to pet her, sweat beading on her temples. Yet she seemed to be the only person here suffering from the heat. Everyone else talked and wandered the lawn, praising the beautiful weather and showing off their pastel and white outfits.

A dark silhouette on the edge of the ground caught Vita's eye. Unlike the other spectators, this man stood unmoving, with his hands in the pockets of his black suit.

Vita blinked, and a chill ran down her spine. The man stared right at her.

She stood up, and dried her sweaty palms on her dress. The man was too far for her to see his face clearly, but there was something oddly familiar about his silhouette.

He reminded her of Holden.

"What's wrong?"

Archie's voice startled her. He frowned at her with a concerned expression.

"Nothing, I..." Vita turned back to where the man stood, but he was gone. She gaped. "I just thought I saw someone."

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Archie said.

He put Pixie back on her lead and took Vita's hand. She remained rooted on the spot, scanning the lawn and its surrounding area for a sign of the man in the dark suit. He had vanished.

"Let's get you into the shade," Archie added.

She let him guide her back to their picnic blanket, her heartbeat unsettled. Was she having visions now, like the traumatised soldiers from the war? She had seen Holden die, of that she was certain. She had been delirious with blood loss, thirst and panic, which made the rest of her memories from the warehouse sound crazy and unreliable, but when it came to the sight of Holden's vaporised body, she had no doubts. The man had died in that warehouse. The guilt of having been unable to save him, combined with the day's heat, made her see him in places he couldn't possibly be.

On the blanket, Izzy mixed Pimm's with lemonade and added mint leaves and ice cubes. Vita grabbed the glass she offered her and gulped down half of it, not caring if anyone watched. She had thought she could put her kidnapping behind her and move on, pretending she had just come down with the flu for a couple of days. She had thought she would carry on with her life, and her stupid summer of social commitments.

But Holden's ghost appearing to her in broad daylight wasn't going to go well with the splendid plans Izzy had made for their Season.

***     

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