“What did Willa say?” Jack asked.
“Nothing,” Byon answered. “She just stood there, unnoticed by anyone, and let the woman thank the wrong person.”
“What did Nicky do?” Kate asked.
The three smiled and Byon leaned forward. “You never wanted to get on Nicky’s bad side. That day, he tore them apart. Woman, man, cashier. All of them. Then he pulled Willa into our group.”
“And that was it,” Nadine said.
“And the lot of you got an adoring audience and an open checkbook.” Sara got up and began taking photos of them.
“We did!” Byon said in delight.
Nadine didn’t laugh. “We took care of her. Protected her. Her family was horrible.”
“Or great,” Clive said. “Depends on how you look at it. Her sister, Beatrice, certainly was beautiful.”
“And talented,” Nadine said.
“She could do anything,” Clive said. “And she was tall and lithe. Utterly splendid.”
“There was nothing about the sister that wasn’t perfect.” Byon smiled, but it was so malicious he looked like the devil.
Sara lowered her camera. “Tell me every word of it.”
“Willa never said much about her childhood,” Nadine began.
“She did tell me that she was the third of four kids,” Clive said. “This was back when I was part of the group.” He put up his hand to ward off Byon’s comment. “I felt sorry for Willa.”
Nadine continued the story. “One night, when we’d all had too much to drink, she told us that when she was a child, three different times, her family left her behind. Forgot about her. Once was when they were on holiday in France. She was nine years old and she found herself alone, but she managed to find a police station. She knew the name of the hotel where they were staying and the police called. Her family said they would pick her up when they finished dinner. She waited for hours.”
“A forgotten person,” Sara said. “No wonder she worshipped the lot of you. Did she invite her sister to meet you?”
“No,” Byon said. “The sister invited herself. She told us that none of the siblings could believe that Willa actually had friends. They were curious about us, so the youngest sister was sent by the siblings to see what we were like.”
“She took the bed and Willa slept on the little sofa in her own bedroom.” Nadine’s eyes glittered.
“And how did she fit in?” Jack asked.
The three of them smiled.
“She was charming,” Clive said. “And so very helpful. Even then I was doing the Oxley accounts and she caught an error.”
“She showed me some makeup tricks that I still use today,” Nadine said.
“She gave Mrs. Aiken a recipe for piecrust that was easier and tasted better than any she’d made before,” Byon said. “And she sang rather well.”
“And she rode a horse like a wood sprite,” Nadine added.
“She called someone about the roof, and it was repaired. For free,” Clive said.
When they finished, they sat in silence, looking at Sara.
“I’m surprised you didn’t murder her,” Sara said. “I bet she was as welcome to you as a dinner with a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist would be to me.”
“Less,” Byon said.
“What did you do to her?” Kate asked.
“We released Nicky onto her,” Nadine said. “On Sunday morning, Puck packed the sister’s bags and set them outside. Mrs. Aiken called a cab. We stood by while Nicky told her that her jealousy made him sick. He said she couldn’t bear for Willa to have anything so she’d come there to take away what little Willa did have.”
Clive nodded. “Nicky said Willa was a better person than she could ever be.”
“Did Willa hear this?” Kate asked.
“She was standing right there,” Nadine said. “Her sister said, ‘Are you going to let them treat me like this?’”
“And what was her reply?” Sara sat back on the cloth.
“Willa opened the cab door for her sister. Never spoke a word,” Byon said.
“Then she walked back to the house.” Nadine was smiling. “I’d never seen her stand up so straight.”
They were looking at Sara as though waiting for praise for what they’d done.
Sara glanced at Jack and Kate, letting them know she’d speak her mind later. For now, she was keeping her true opinions to herself. “No wonder Willa loved all of you,” Sara said. “So what happened after that night when the others...left?”
“Willa also disappeared,” Clive said.
Nadine shot him a nasty look. “Only after you dropped her. What was it you told her? ‘I’m not going to marry you.’ No sentiment from you! Then you held out your hand for the return of the ring. Which, I might add, wasn’t even a diamond.”
Clive seemed unperturbed. “Ah, the cruelty and poverty of youth. I do hope she hasn’t spent her fortune on...on cats. My bank and I could help her.” He looked at Sara. “We don’t know where she went or what happened to her. Wasn’t she invited here?”
“Yes,” Sara said. “She said she’d be here but she didn’t say when.”
Nadine was leaning back on her arms. “I wonder how she’s made it through life. She had no defenses, no self-protection. And she was the most socially awkward person I’d ever met. What else could she do but go home? After the way Nicky treated the sister, I’m sure they butchered her. We were the only real family she had.” She cut a look at Clive but he ignored her.
“Cried,” Byon said. “My guess is that she cried for years. She was truly heartbroken. She’d lost her friends and her engagement. It would have been a marriage in hell but—”
“Maybe not,” Clive snapped. “We could have—”
Byon sneered at him. “You think if she’d bought you some country estate you would have been kind to her? Treated her like a human being? Or would you have blamed her for...?” He waved his hand. “For all the misery you think other people have given you?”
“I was treated like dirt,” Clive said loudly. “You threw me out of the Pack.”
“Darling,” Byon said, “you were never in the Pack.”
Clive moved as though he was going to hit Byon. Jack looked like he was ready to get between them.