“Shhhh.” Mrs. Aiken glanced toward the pantry as if she knew her daughter was in there.
Puck pressed herself back against the shelves and put her hands over her ears. No! No! she thought. Don’t let it be true that she knows about me.
When Puck put her hands down, Nicky was crying. He had his face in his hands and he was shivering.
“I will fix it,” Mrs. Aiken said. She pulled a little plastic case out of a drawer. “Nadine left this. Wash your face, then use this to cover those bruises. Don’t let them see you like this.”
“I don’t think I can. I need—”
Mrs. Aiken leaned her face close to his. “You need to be who you are. This will go away. I’ll make sure of it.” With her big apron still on, her mother left through the kitchen door.
Puck stayed in the pantry and watched Nicky douse his face in the kitchen sink and use the liquid soap. He dried himself with a kitchen towel that he threw on the table. It looked to have blood on it. Surely not! she thought.
Then Nicky used the cosmetics in the little bag to cover what he could of the scratches and bruises.
It took him a long time to do all of it and as he did, his body gradually stopped shaking. He’d entered the kitchen as a scared young man. Puck had never seen him so limp, so defeated. But now, the Nicky she knew was coming back. He was standing up straighter and his head was regaining that cocky tilt.
When he was finished, Puck held her breath. It was possible that he would come into the pantry, knowing she was there.
But he didn’t. He stood, put his shoulders back and left the room. She heard him and Byon talking in the hall.
She stayed where she was for a while, but she was afraid her mother would return and catch her. Besides, Puck wanted to know what Diana had made Nicky do. Clean the stables? That would indeed traumatize him.
Puck went into the drawing room and everyone except Diana was there. She went to Byon and asked where Diana was.
“She was just here,” he said. “Come and dance with me.” He drew her to him. “Uh-oh. There goes Clive, slipping away. Bet you a fiver Willa will be right behind him.”
“Are you sure Diana is all right? Nicky doesn’t look too good.” He was sitting in the darkest corner, his head down.
Byon leaned close to her. “I think Diana and Nicky had a moonlight premarriage tryst and he may have landed in the blackberry patch. He tried to cover it with makeup but he doesn’t know how. I’ll do it for him tomorrow.”
Byon whirled her about.
“Everything is very strange tonight. Don’t you feel it?” she asked.
“I feel as though something big is about to happen.”
The music stopped and he stepped away. “Where’s the food you went to get?”
“The dining room.”
“Then let’s go.”
PRESENT DAY
The big lights on their tall stands were turned off, and Sara changed batteries and SD cards on her Sony. The audience was standing to the side in silence.
“I didn’t know what happened to Diana,” Puck whispered. “I should have—”
“You were fourteen!” Nadine snapped. “You weren’t supposed to know, and none of it was your responsibility—especially when you’d been lied to.”
They all looked at Byon. He was shaking so hard he sat down in a kitchen chair. “I thought I was telling a white lie. I didn’t know what had actually happened. I didn’t imagine...” He couldn’t say any more.
“You weren’t aware of the criminal activity of a man you worshipped?” Jack’s voice was cold.
“Sometimes friends surprise us.” Sara gave Jack a pointed look. Last year his best friend had shocked them all.
“Did you cover Nicky’s bruises the next day?” Kate, ever the peacemaker, asked.