Mark Lee - The Canal House

He took the necklace out of the box and fastened it around her neck. Julia put on the earrings and touched the dark green stones. They seemed to absorb some of the warmth from her skin. “It does look nice. Doesn’t it, Nicky?”

“Yes. It’s quite beautiful.”

Julia pushed back her hair and turned to Richard. “What happens at the end of the party? Does a little man appear and take it all away?”

“Billy is in charge of the emeralds. He’ll make sure they’re safe.” Richard slipped on his dinner jacket. “Nicky, if you don’t mind, Julia and I need to talk about the guest list. A few special donors are coming tonight and I want them to receive extra attention.”

“No problem. I’ll see you at the party.”

I went downstairs and followed a red carpet out into the courtyard. About a hundred guests had already arrived and they were drinking and chatting with each other in the reception tent. A string quartet sat on a platform and played classical music. Couches, chairs, and potted trees from the conservatory had been arranged around the portable dance floor.

The clean-cut young people were serving drinks and hors d’oeuvres. They wore skinny black neckties and white shirts with the Hand-to-Hand logo silk-screened on the front pocket. The staff was inexperienced but cheerful, and one of the women coaxed me to try an egg roll. Miss Hedges had changed into a blue satin evening gown. She wore a radio headset with a tiny microphone and clutched her binder. I grabbed two flutes of champagne off a tray and approached her. “You said you’d have a drink with me.”

“That wasn’t a promise, Mr. Bettencourt. I didn’t write it down.”

“Here. Take it anyway.” She accepted a glass and took a cautious sip. “These servers look great. Very impressive.”

“Yes. Mr. Seaton didn’t want professional waiters.”

“I didn’t know that Hand-to-Hand had so many volunteers.”

Miss Hedges scrunched up her nose and giggled. “Oh, they’re not volunteers. Hand-to-Hand doesn’t have any volunteers. They’re a Mormon youth group who wanted to get money for their missionary work.” She took another sip. “I tried to hire Jehovah’s Witnesses or Seventh-Day Adventists, but they refused to handle alcohol. The Mormons will serve wine, but they won’t drink it.” A server walked past us and she put her champagne glass on his tray. “And isn’t that what you want from a waiter?”

A voice had apparently come over her radio headset. “Of course,” Miss Hedges said. “Right away.” She left me and hurried over to the bandstand. Bright lights glowed from outside the tent. Richard had let in a TV news crew to shoot the beginning of the party. I was about to get another drink when I saw Daniel entering the tent.

He wore a tuxedo and dress shirt with black jade cuff links. His appearance was quite presentable, but there was a fierce intensity in his manner that made me cautious. If we were strangers, meeting in a bar somewhere, I would have concluded that he was going to start a fight or end a fight before the evening was over. Several women turned their heads, staring at him.

“Where have you been?” I asked. “Haven’t seen you all day.”

Daniel took a glass of champagne from one of the waiters. “I borrowed the motorcycle and rode west down some country roads. This is a beautiful country, Nicky. Lots of streams and stone bridges.”

“Julia was looking for you. She knocked on your door.”

Daniel’s relaxed manner disappeared. “When was this?”

“About twenty minutes ago. I saw her in the hallway and then Billy came along. Right now she’s up in the tower with Richard, talking about donors.”

“What did she say to you?” His voice was calm and deliberately neutral.

“She wondered if you’d gone back to London.”

“No. I wouldn’t do that.” Daniel stopped talking when Julia and Richard entered the tent. He watched Julia intently as people approached her and shook hands.

More guests arrived and the circus performers slipped into the tent. I thought that Miss Hedges would have to tell them where to go, but she had already handled that. Strips of masking tape had been placed on the floor at precise locations. There were no clown acts or flaming torches, but all the performers were talented acrobats. They didn’t smile, speak, or play the crowd. Wearing a skin-tight cat suit, a female contortionist got up on a pedestal and began to do her act.

More guests arrived. People glanced at each other, not knowing how to react, and realized that it was sophisticated to ignore the circus performers. A woman wearing spangles did a one-armed handstand on a man’s head while the people around them sipped champagne and talked about joining the League Against Cruel Sports. People laughed a little louder. They grabbed for the champagne when the tray drifted by. The woman doing the handstand seemed bored and the man supporting her looked like he was waiting for a bus. It was only when I got closer that I saw the slight trembling of her biceps.

When most of the guests had arrived, Richard climbed up onto the bandstand. He tapped his finger on the microphone and everyone stopped talking.

“Welcome to Westgate Castle. I want to thank all of you for coming tonight and showing your support for Hand-to-Hand. We’re going to have a wonderful meal along with dancing, entertainment, and lots of wine. Your only responsibility is to enjoy yourselves so let’s get started!”

Miss Hedges raised her hand like an officer leading a charge and the guests followed her out of the tent. Billy emerged from the crowd wearing a headset and carrying a cell phone. He walked up to us and smiled as if he had just won the lottery. “The home secretary is coming here in a helicopter.”

“Nice way to beat the traffic,” I said.

“They told us he had an important meeting, but now he’s on his way. I guess this party is important enough for him to change his plans.”

Miss Hedges had placed Daniel and me next to each other in the dining tent. Each of the round tables had a centerpiece of flowers and ferns. Two electric cables fed up from the center of the table and they were attached to a pair of small robots. There was no fake skin—you could see the wires and little electric motors—but one robot was definitely a dog and the other was a cat. I thought they were just for decoration until the dog walked across the table and stopped in front of Daniel’s soup bowl.

“Hey, boyo,” the dog said with a Irish accent. “You going to eat that soup?”

The robot cat sauntered over, making little buzzing and clicking sounds. “Ahhh, leave him alone. Can’t you see the man wants a pint?”

I could see a video camera hidden in each centerpiece and figured that the two comedians I had met that afternoon were controlling the robots and providing their voices. The robot cat wagged its mechanical tail while the young Mormons served sea bass, Chateaubriand, or a vegetarian casserole. They weren’t very good waiters, but people felt better about drinking too much and stuffing themselves with food if they were sponsoring such a clear-eyed group of volunteers.

I glanced around the room as people talked and forks clattered against dishes. Julia sat up on the dais between Richard and Digran Petrosyan. The poet was swallowed up by his rented tuxedo, and his shirt collar made a stiff white circle around his neck. I noticed Daniel glancing at Julia as he ate, but she didn’t look at him at all.

After the coffee and cognac had been served, a spotlight was pointed at Richard and he stood up with a microphone. “Good evening to my friends and tennis opponents,” he said. A few people laughed and the room quieted down.

“I was told by a gentleman who works for the humane society that the best time to ask for money is after the dinner but before the indigestion. Actually, most of you have already contributed to Hand-to-Hand and I expect some spirited bidding during our auction. Although this evening is a fund-raiser, it’s also a celebration of Hand-to-Hand’s first year of operation. In business, I’ve never been afraid of trying something new, and I hope that Hand-to-Hand reflects my own philosophy. We have formed an organization without a cumbersome bureaucracy. When an international crisis occurs, Hand-to-Hand will be there on the front line, saving lives.”