To catch a fox, p.20
To Catch a Fox, page 20
Work implied fissures in the relationship. Sebastiano hadn’t had a man in a year. He pictured himself and Nelson hitting the peaks of adjacent waves.
“Do you surf?” Sebastiano asked.
“Every chance I get. Don’t suppose you have waves in your pool?”
His companion laughed and fondled the hem of Nelson’s tunic. The old guy was smitten. Poor dumpy clod.
“Working separately can have its benefits,” Sebastiano said.
So much bounty this week in Julie, Cassandra, and Nelson. Tonight’s focus was Julie, who planned to leave in the morning. Evidently, Aurora wanted Julie to stay. Sebastiano would do everything he could to help. Right now, he couldn’t wait to get into his cottage and unclasp the robe from her shoulder.
Chapter Twenty-One
While Eric gathered the cards from their game of canasta, Brad checked his cell phone.
“No email from either of them,” Brad said.
“I’m sure we’ll hear in the morning.” Rosemary got up from her chair.
Brad scratched his thin hair into a peak, worry lines etched on his forehead. Eric took the pack of cards to the chest of drawers in the hall and glanced upstairs, where Peyton was sleeping with her stuffed toys. One day his daughter would grow up. If she took off to look for an absent Julie and failed to contact him for a day, he’d worry too.
“Can you check before we leave?” Brad asked Eric.
“I left my phone in the den.”
“Brad won’t sleep unless you have a look.” Rosemary removed her coat. “I’ll rest my back on your sofa while you’re upstairs.”
In the den, Eric bypassed his phone for the larger screen. He sat down at his computer desk and opened his email, aware of Brad hovering behind him.
“One from Delilah.” Eric’s heart rose and sank. Delilah might be writing because Julie had cracked up. “It says the email was sent 5:04 p.m. our time, but it wasn’t here when I looked after tucking in Peyton.”
“Aren’t you going to open it?” Brad leaned over Eric’s shoulder.
Eric took a deep breath, clicked the mouse and read aloud. “Julie and I are doing great, Delilah says. So is Julie’s mother. Wow.”
“What?” The chair shook as Brad gripped the backrest.
“Marion is alive.” Eric’s chair rocked back and forth.
Brad leaned closer. “That’s a long message.”
“Delilah goes on about how nice Marion is. Julie and Marion have had long talks. They’ve formed a bond, Delilah thinks.”
“So much for their simple drive in the country.”
“They’re spending the night at Marion’s place. Delilah hopes Julie will want to stay longer. Marion calls herself Aurora.”
“Why?”
“She runs a kind of New Age resort, called New Dawn Retreat. She’s the spiritual leader of it, according to Delilah.”
“Marion?”
“Everyone dresses in robes, stolas, Delilah says. The atmosphere’s like Ancient Rome, with olive trees growing on hills, lush gardens and amphitheatre.”
The chair vibrated. Brad had let go of the backrest. “That’s nonsense. It sounds like a cult.”
Eric skimmed the next effusive paragraph. “Delilah insists that when you’re there, it doesn’t feel weird.”
“I don’t like it.”
Neither did Eric. He swivelled toward Brad. “Isn’t this good news, though? Julie found her mother. She’s alive, doing well and receptive to Julie. It’s all pretty amazing.”
Brad dropped to the spare chair. “Marion running a cult.”
“We don’t know it’s that.” Eric returned to the computer. “Let’s see what we find on the internet.” He searched New Dawn Retreat and found the website. “Located two hours from Los Angeles. Buffet meals, sessions, and guided hikes included. Here’s a picture of Aurora.”
“Let me see.” Brad brushed by Eric and peered at the screen. “Without my glasses, I can’t tell if it’s her or not.”
“The picture’s small and seems in soft focus.”
“Marion would have changed with age.”
“This Aurora looks in her forties to me, not late fifties.”
“I can’t believe it’s Marion. This is a con.”
“For what purpose?”
Brad clenched his fists. “They meet a stranger in Los Angeles, who sends them to this wacko place. Why?” His fists opened. “To get something from Julie. Money, most likely. Are they Scientologists?”
“The retreat people?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me if that sleazy PI is in on it. I never did trust that man.”
“Isn’t that being—” Eric stopped himself from saying “paranoid.” Like father, like daughter?
“If it isn’t a con, it might be worse,” Brad said. “This could really be Marion.”
“How is that worse?”
“You don’t know what she’s like.” Brad’s voice was oddly high-pitched. “I’ve never told anyone this. Not even Rosemary.” He went over and closed the door, settled on the spare chair a few feet from Eric and lowered his voice. “Those last few years with Marion, she constantly berated me. By then, she knew all my weaknesses and pecked and pecked and pecked.”
Chills ran up Eric’s arms.
“She left me a virtual basket case. I could barely take care of myself, never mind a four-year-old. If it weren’t for my parents…”
Brad? A basket case? “I thought you were deeply in love with Marion.”
“Not after I understood her.” Brad leaned toward the computer and squinted. “If Aurora is Marion, we need to warn Julie.”
“I’ll reply to Delilah’s email.”
“Phoning would be better.”
Eric returned to the New Dawn website. “There’s a number for the retreat.”
“No. Go through the girls’ cells.”
“Delilah says her cell phone doesn’t work. We can try Julie’s.”
“Finish reading the email first.”
Eric scrolled down Delilah’s message. “There’s no TV or radio.”
“That’s how cults operate. Cut you off from your family and real life.”
“People only stay for one week. What harm can it do?” Eric clicked back to the search page and opened the first link, a blog entry. ‘The New Dawn Retreat changed my life. I quit my unfulfilling job, left my oppressive relationship, moved to Vermont and took up pottery.’ This wouldn’t impress Brad.
“It’s my fault for sending Julie and Delilah,” Brad said. “I have to fly to LA and see what’s up.” He got up, shuffled to the window, and sighed. “No, I can’t. Work commitments, and Julie would balk at my interference.”
If Aurora was a con, Julie would figure it out. That is, unless the stress or her desire to reconnect with her mother clouded her judgment.
“I have work too,” Eric said.
Something flickered in Brad’s eyes. Hope that Eric would go in his place, if he was able? “This can’t wait,” Brad said. “Give Marion a week and…what does Delilah say next?”
“She raves about California. Palm trees, sunshine, summer weather every day. Sounds a heap of a lot better than Calgary in the dead of winter.”
“I couldn’t ask you to go, Eric,” Brad said.
He just had. Eric’s week was booked with patients, but they could be rescheduled or see one of his associate dentists if Eric claimed a family emergency. How urgent was this? Was Brad overreacting?
“Surely one of the girls will come to her senses,” Brad continued, sounding unconvinced.
Eric finished reading the email. “Marion told Delilah that she would love to meet her granddaughter. Peyton’s welcome there any time. Me too, apparently.” Eric doubted Julie would want him butting in.
“Don’t go for my sake,” Brad said.
He’d be doing it for Julie. Whether he loved her or not, they shared a history, and she was the mother of his child. What was good for her was good for Peyton. And he’d foolishly promised Peyton to bring Julie back.
Eric swivelled in the chair. This crazy plan was actually possible. Rosemary and Brad would willingly stay here to look after Peyton, who would mostly be occupied with day care, preschool and her friends. On the other hand, Peyton was the person Marion really wanted to meet. Presumably, Julie would want to see her daughter, too. And Peyton had been begging him to take her to Disneyland. Half the kids in her preschool had been to that magical park, which wasn’t far from the New Dawn Retreat.
“I’d need Monday to make arrangements at work,” Eric said. “The earliest I could go is Tuesday morning.”
Brad touched his chest and massaged it. “The sooner the better.”
“For fun, I’ll check the airline schedules.” Air Canada and WestJet both had seats available on Tuesday. The most convenient one at a reasonable price would get them to Los Angeles in the late morning. Eric swivelled toward Brad. “The retreat says it’s a mere two-hour drive from the airport. We’d be there after lunch.”
Brad slumped into his chair, forehead dotted with sweat. His eyes, sunken into his face, pleaded with Eric. This could be him in thirty-four years with Peyton off to whatever-the-hell-place. He would want his future-ex-son-in-law to come through for them.
“I’ll reread Delilah’s email,” he said. “Take a deeper look at the New Dawn website, although it seems skimpy. Maybe I’ll read more blogs about the retreat.”
“I’m grateful, Eric.” Hope resurfaced in Brad’s eyes.
“If it seems right for me to go, then okay. Peyton will get to see Disneyland.”
* * *
In her office, Aurora revived herself with homemade tea. Her instinct to withdraw and cut the Sunday morning session short had been right. Fatigue had made opening her mouth an effort. Worse, she’d come close to fainting in the amphitheatre. What a horror that would have been for guests, especially on their first full day, when it was crucial to set the tone for the week.
A woman appeared in the door frame, and Aurora’s heart skipped. Julie. Aurora thought once more how stunning her daughter looked in the mint-green robe, her auburn hair trickling down her bare shoulder.
Aurora motioned her to the chair across from her desk. “The hike finished early?”
“A guest with a sore leg overestimated her abilities,” Julie said. “Sebastiano suggested we all turn back in support.”
Aurora nodded. No doubt he had done this to impress Julie, to prove he had sensitivity. “What did you think of our hills?”
“They’re great, but hiking is awkward in this getup.”
Aurora inwardly cringed. Getup? Yesterday, she hadn’t noticed such lack of refinement, which Julie would have acquired from Brad, his Fox relatives, and her engineering world. A few weeks at New Dawn would smooth those bumps.
Aurora sipped tea to build her courage. “Have you decided if you’ll prolong your stay?” At breakfast, Julie had told her she wasn’t sure if they’d leave after lunch.
Julie’s fingers traced circles on the desktop, her cheeks flushed. From the hike or something else?
Aurora leaned forward. She felt a pull on her collarbone. “You have every right to blame me for abandoning you. And no business blaming yourself.”
Julie’s finger paused.
“My departure was all about me,” Aurora said. “It had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with you.” Her eyes filled with tears, naturally, after years of connecting to retreat guests. “You must understand that.”
“Understanding isn’t the same as feeling a thing is true.”
Aurora nodded. “New Dawn doesn’t teach that feelings are truth. Understanding is a first step away from faulty feelings. Please stay with us.” Her voice quivered with desperation. She had never begged anyone for anything. Marion had, but not Aurora.
“Delilah and I talked it over,” Julie said. “She’s keen on another night, although worried about not having our meds. So far, neither of us has developed withdrawal symptoms. I convinced her we could live without meds for a couple of days.”
This was progress. Aurora glanced at the computer. “There’s a job here for Delilah if she’s interested. I need someone to handle the office and website.”
“Delilah would be good at that, but she couldn’t stay permanently.”
“Why not?”
“For starters, she’d need to get a green card to work in the US.”
Starters. Another crudity. And how unfortunate that Julie had inherited those narrow Fox eyes. Widely set eyes, like Delilah’s, suggested warmth, a valuable trait in a leader. Delilah might balance Julie’s tendency for resistance, another Fox trait.
“Green cards are easy to arrange with the right connections,” Aurora said. The way the outside world worked, that was probably true.
“Did you become a US citizen?”
“For practical reasons, to buy the property.” And with the help of the old lawyer, who had died to give them the money for their venture. Before that, working illegally was no problem. “What about you? Are you eager to return to your job?”
“Not particularly. I used to love work before…the postpartum. I might enjoy it again, once I get into it.”
Julie had given birth four years ago. Despite what Aurora had implied to her yesterday about her own experience, postpartum depression didn’t last that long. Hers had vanished when Julie started sleeping through the night. What woman could tolerate disrupted sleep, a baby’s constant demands, and a husband’s unwillingness to do his share?
“Did you choose engineering because it was your father’s field?”
“Partly,” Julie said. “I was good at science and math. I expect I also wanted to make a statement. It’s still not common for women to go into engineering, especially chemical.”
“I thought you were in petroleum?”
Julie’s faint smile suggested she was pleased that Aurora had remembered. “After first year, I switched to petroleum to land a better job. Oil rules in Calgary, at least until the downturn a few years ago.”
“A practical choice, but not your first love. Or, perhaps, second.”
“It’s too late to change course.”
“It’s never too late.”
“For civil engineering, I’d have to go back to school and then take an entry-level job. I’m not that disillusioned with the oil patch.”
“There’s always an alternate path to your dreams.”
Julie rubbed the shoulder clasp of her robe as though it were an irritant to expel, like a lump on a collarbone.
Aurora changed course. “Are you and Eric legally separated? Or divorced?”
“We’ve lived apart for ten months,” Julie said, her lips tightening in the Fox way. “That’s sufficiently separate.”
“And you share custody of your child?”
“Eric has custody. I see her on weekends, under my parents’ supervision. I mean…my father’s and Rosemary’s. My choice, I didn’t—don’t—trust myself with Peyton.” Julie’s chin quivered.
Aurora sustained her gentle gaze.
“In November, a few days before Peyton turned four, I tried to drown her in the bathtub.” Julie’s narrowed eyes challenged a response.
A mother should love unconditionally. Aurora willed her expression to remain unchanged.
“In my warped mind, I wanted to save her from future pain.”
So, this was her secret, cloaked in childish anger at her own mother. Aurora was certain Julie had purposely mentioned Peyton’s age to imply that Marion’s departure was the cause of her psychotic break. Foxes weren’t quick to forgive. It would take work to jettison the Fox out of her daughter.
“That’s why I can’t blame you for leaving,” Julie said. “I did worse. I might have killed Peyton.” Her voice shook. “My shrink suggested that I knew Eric was coming and would save Peyton. I don’t believe that.”
Julie let go of her shoulder clasp. She stared with the penitent expression Aurora had seen countless times on the faces of guests, whose sins ranged from trivial to greater than Julie’s. One had pushed her younger brother down the stairs. He broke his neck and wound up permanently disabled. The woman had never told a soul she’d done it deliberately. Aurora pointed out that she had been a child, with the normal jealousy of a new sibling. Any child might have done the same without full awareness of the consequences. The guest left the retreat with greatly reduced self-hatred. If Julie were a guest, Aurora would reinforce her therapist’s view, true or not, and point out that Peyton was alive and well.
“What happened has happened.” She locked her gaze on Julie’s. “We can’t take back what we did. For your sake and your daughter’s, I hope you’ll forgive yourself and move forward. I’m no different. I may have left you as a child because I didn’t trust myself with you.”
Julie’s brow creased. Aurora hoped her daughter was considering the truth—that Marion might well have killed someone had she remained in that wretched domestic situation.
“Sometimes we need to sacrifice our own wants for the benefit of another,” Aurora said. “Difficult as that might be. I wanted to stay with you more than anything.”
Julie rose, looking confused. “I should go and get ready for lunch.”
“We don’t say ‘should’ at New Dawn,” Aurora said, standing as well.
They left the office and separated in the hall. Julie went upstairs while Aurora checked the dining room. The staff had set only one chair at the head table. She instructed a server to add two more places and then hurried through the herb garden to Sebastiano’s cottage. She had a few minutes before the lunch bell to find out what he had gleaned from Julie.
She found him lying sideways on his bed, perusing one of his photo books.
“Don’t you knock?” he said. “I might have been naked.”
“I wouldn’t have noticed.” Her collarbone area throbbed. If she couldn’t make it through the afternoon session, guests would start to wonder and gossip about her.
Sebastiano hopped off the bed. “I assume you’re here for the scoop on your daughter and me.”
Aurora tensed. “I heard Julie come upstairs not long after me last night. I trust she rejected any advances you made.”
