A Tangled Web Read Free Page A

Penrose.”
    â€œYou’ve never had Waterford, period. Until lately, that is.”
    â€œThat’s true.” Sabrina barely noticed her small slip; no one else did, either. By now she did not guard her tongue as she had in the beginning; if she spoke occasionally from Sabrina’s background and experience, or did not know what they were talking about when they reminisced together, the others found ways to explain it away. They explained everything away; they always had, from her first night home when they were in the kitchen and she’d asked Garth and the children where they kept the pot holders. After that there had been dozens of mistakes and slips of the tongue, but no one was suspicious or even curious because, Sabrina realized, people see what they expect to see and they find reasons for oddities to protect the comfortable order and predictability of their lives.
    Now, in her living room, she set the decanter on the coffee table and stretched her arms wide. “What a wonderful birthday. The best I’ve ever had. It’s so perfect, being here with all of you, knowing this is where I belong . . .”
    â€œDad, you didn’t give Mom a present,” Cliff said accusingly.
    â€œWhere is it?” Penny demanded. “You told us you got it.”
    Garth grinned at Sabrina. “Right again.” He pulled a small velvet box from his shirt pocket and put it in her hand. “With all my love. For now, for always.”
    Sabrina kissed him, then opened the box. A long sigh broke from her.
    â€œWhat is it? What is it?” Penny cried.
    â€œHold it up, Mom!” said Cliff.
    â€œIt’s a ring,” Nat said, looking into the box over Sabrina’s shoulder. “Stunning. A star sapphire, yes?” he asked Garth.
    â€œYes,” Garth murmured, his eyes holding Sabrina’s.
    She put her hand along his face. “My engagement ring.”
    â€œBut you’re already married,” Penny protested.
    â€œI never had an engagement ring,” Sabrina said.
    â€œNeither did I,” said Dolores. “Probably for the same reason: Nat couldn’t afford it.”
    â€œNeither could Marty,” Linda said. “Garth, what a nice idea.”
    Garth pulled off Sabrina’s gold wedding band and slipped the engagement ring and wedding band together onto her finger. Sabrina closed her eyes. This ring was for a wedding the others knew nothing about. This was for a rainy December day when Garth had come to London to say he loved her and wanted her and it no longer mattered what she and her sister had done; and for another rainy day two days later, when they took the train to Canterbury, where no one knew them, and bought two gold wedding bands and found a magistrate to marry them. The narrow streets and stones of that ancient town were dark gray, streaked and dripping in the steady downpour, but Sabrina wore a red raincoat and rain hat and she bought Garth a red carnation for his lapel, and when their eyes met as each slipped a ring onto the other’s finger and the magistrate said “husband and wife,” they saw in each other the sun, and spring, and hope.
    â€œThank you,” Sabrina said, her lips close to Garth’s. “It’s the most wonderful gift I could have imagined. And the most private; you were right about that. So when we’re alone . . .”
    The telephone rang, and abruptly she began to tremble. She knew Penny and Cliff were watching, but she could not stop. She could not hear a late night ring withoutrecalling in terrible detail the night last October when Brooks had called from London, crying, to say that Max Stuyvesant’s yacht had gone down and everyone on board . . . everyone on board . . . everyone on board—
    â€œIt’s all right.” Garth drew her tightly to him. “It’s all right, my love, we’re all here, it’s all right.”
    â€œMy