The Bright and the Lost

Eleven (2)

"Would you mind terribly?" Vita replied, with her most charming smile.

He hurried down the stairs, and Tallulah said, "You didn't have to do that. I would have settled for lemonade."

Vita shrugged and grabbed a glass of champagne. "It's a debutante ball. You're a debutante. You shouldn't have to settle for anything you don't really want."

She drank and the fizzy drink was a welcome cool stream down her burning throat. When she put down her empty glass, she met Tallulah's astonished stare and an amused smile tugged at her lips. The girl was so easy to impress.

"How's your secret plan to go to Paris shaping up?" Vita asked.

It seemed eons ago when she had interrupted the girl's sketching at the Royal Academy.

"Slowly," Tallulah said, her expression brightening. "I've written to a few friends there who think they can help me get settled if I decide to move."

The music stopped at that moment, and Vita walked over to the gramophone to wind it up. Tallulah joined her and leafed through the records in a pile on a pedestal table.

"Al Johnson?" she said. "Cole Porter? George Gershwin?"

Vita extended her open hand to her. "Whichever you like."

That was when heat rippled through her body and exploded at her fingertips. A wave of electricity shot from her feet to her hands, crackled through her veins and came out as tiny blue lightning flashes.

Tallulah screeched and jerked back, the pile of records collapsing on the ground behind her.

Everything slowed.

Tallulah tripped over the discs on the ground, and her back hit the terrace's wrought iron railing as her feet left the ground. Propelled by her momentum, she toppled headfirst over the edge of the terrace.

Vita thrust her weight forward, her hand extended to catch her. Electricity had stopped coming out of her fingers, and for an instant she thought she would stop Tallulah's fall. But in a reflexive gesture, the girl pulled her arm away. She locked eyes with Vita, green eyes wide with fear and incomprehension. Then the empty air swallowed her body.

Vita screamed.

Her arm was still extended over the railing when the sound of Tallulah's body crashing onto the street below shattered the night's quiet hum.

A buzzing sound rang in Vita's ears, her blood pumping loud against her temples and her breathing shallow in her chest. Strong hands gripped her arms and pulled her away from the railing, shaking her out of her trance.

For a confused second she thought it was Archie holding her, but instead it was the young footman, his face pale and panicked.

A tray of fruit squash-filled glasses lay on the ground, broken shards spread in the spilled liquid.

The footman's lips were moving, but Vita couldn't understand what he was saying. Her mind was numb. He forced her to sit down on a gilt chair by the buffet and other figures emerged from the staircase, running in confusion on the terrace.

She closed her eyes, and tried to block out the vision of Tallulah's broken body on the pavement. It replayed in her mind over and over, surreal and horrific, until two hands gripped the sides of her face and she looked into Archie's depthless eyes.

***

Tears welled up in Izzy's eyes.

She stood at the bottom of the grand staircase as the last of the guests left the house without saying goodbye, whispering among themselves with the bright eyes of people who know they've just witnessed the scandal of the century.

Constables in uniforms roamed the corridors, and servants gossiped while clearing out glasses and forgotten accessories. Izzy's parents were somewhere upstairs, talking to the police.

Izzy's lips quivered, but she swallowed her tears. She wouldn't break down in front of these strangers.

Suddenly Archie emerged at the top of the stairs, wrapping Vita in her coat as they made their way down the steps. Vita's face was ashen and she shivered in Archie's embrace.

Fury rose in Izzy's chest, tightening her throat and flooding her mind.

She didn't care if the footman had said Tallulah had fallen off the terrace by accident. She didn't care if Vita had tried to catch her.

All she knew was that this had been her perfect day, and it had been ruined. No one would remember her dancing with the Prince of Wales. There'd be no news article about the elegance of her outfit. There'd be no photograph of her with Mr. Lang on the front page of the Tatler. Instead, there was a dead girl at her ball, a scandal in her house and a reputation to rebuild. And she had so little time to do it.

It was all Vita's fault. If she hadn't taken Tallulah to the terrace before the scheduled time, and if she hadn't sent the footman away on some stupid errand, Tallulah wouldn't have fallen off. She'd still be alive, and Izzy would still have a chance of being Debutante of the Year.

Vita was supposed to be on her side, yet she always ended up bringing trouble and stealing the spotlight.

Archie and Vita reached the ground floor, and before she could think of what she was doing, Izzy slapped her friend with all her might.

"This is all your fault, you selfish floozy!"

Vita staggered backwards in Archie's arms, and Archie shouted abuse at Izzy. She couldn't hear him over her own yelling.

She screamed at them, letting go of her frustration without caring who heard her. She pursued them as they descended the house's front steps and got into their car.

It was only when they drove away and disappeared at the corner of Grosvenor Square that she stopped in the middle of the street and broke into heavy sobs.

***     

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