The Great Man by Kate Christensen

Author:Kate Christensen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780307455611
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2008-05-13T04:00:00+00:00

Eight

Katerina opened the door with a motion of her arm like a knife through water. “Hello,” she said. “Come in.” She stepped back and let Teddy and Lila enter. Teddy came in first, of course, striding past Katerina with her head held high like a ballerina’s, her spine, Abigail thought, almost unnaturally straight. Then came Lila, a plump, pretty woman with curly white hair, smiling furtively, timidly at the back of Teddy’s head.

“Have a seat,” said Maxine by way of greeting, not bothering to stand.

Teddy and Abigail looked at each other for an instant of shocked silence. Then Abigail said, “Hello, Claire.”

“Call me Teddy, please,” said Teddy. She took the chair across from Maxine; Lila sat facing Abigail.

Abigail could not stop staring at Teddy. She forced herself to look away, make a joke. “The seconds,” she said, “are in place.”

“Quiet,” said Maxine.

“Seconds,” said Teddy. “Ah! You mean for the duel. This is my friend Lila Scofield. The original owner of Helena.”

Teddy seemed collected, unfazed, even though she couldn’t have known Abigail was going to be here. Shouldn’t she, and not Abigail, have been the one who felt uncomfortable here? Abigail felt foolish for allowing herself to be the one who felt at a disadvantage.

“Hello, Lila,” said Abigail, trying to sound as poised as Teddy seemed. “I am pleased to meet you.”

“Hello, Abigail,” said Lila. She looked as if she might faint. So she, anyway, was appropriately nervous about seeing the mistress meet the wife. Abigail felt somehow reassured by this.

“This must be Ethan,” said Teddy, examining him with curiosity.

“We were just having some whiskey,” Abigail told her. Maxine made a noise in the back of her throat, which Abigail interpreted as an injunction to shut the hell up. “Maybe you’d like some,” Abigail went on. “We were drinking it neat, but you’d probably prefer it over ice.”

“Oh,” said Lila, startled and excited. “That would be delicious.”

Abigail got up and set about making a drink for Lila. “Teddy,” she said, finally turning to look directly at her again, “do you want one, too?”

“Well, yes,” said Teddy. “Thank you.”

Abigail and Teddy looked at each other for an instant. There was nothing in Teddy’s expression but uncomplicated amicability. Abigail felt herself relax. What was there to be upset about now? Oscar was dead. It was all over.

“Goddamn it,” said Maxine, “give me another one, then.”

When everyone had her glass of whiskey in front of her, there was a general sense of this meeting’s being called to order, along with an implicit acknowledgment that Maxine, on her home turf, was the chairman of this meeting, and Teddy was a visiting enemy, equal in stature to Maxine. Ethan sat quietly, as expressionless as a judge.

Maxine cleared her throat. “Well, so this is why we’re all here,” she said. “We need to discuss these biographers, what we’re going to tell them. We need a united front. And this united front must be that we won’t tell the truth about the painting Helena.”

“I don’t care about Helena,” said Teddy.

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