Elizabeth’s fist knocked on the beautiful black-lacquered door. She felt Rome’s hand on her shoulder.
It was all so simple, inadvertently out of Adara Said’s mouth at the hospital, yet Elizabeth still nurtured the hope it was somehow a mistake. They were wrong, had to be wrong; there was another explanation. The thought it could be true hollowed her out, shattered her heart. Her neck began to throb and she welcomed it.
Tommy opened the door, stared at her. He gave a joyous shout, grabbed her and pulled her against him. “You’re all right! Mother called me and told me what happened, that a bullet actually grazed your neck. I could hardly believe it, but now you’re here with me, and safe.” He kissed her cheek, pulled her closer. The sound of his voice, the feel of his arms around her felt so familiar and comforting, his scent the same she’d known for so many years.
He eased her back. “Sorry, I’m forgetting you’re wounded. Mother said she’d covered it with one of her scarves. Yes, very stylish. Does it hurt? Are you all right, really?”
“Yes, yes, I’m fine.”
Tommy looked her up and down. “Mother told me you were attacked close to Darlington Hall, like she was when they tried to kidnap her. What are the police doing? And MI5? Do they have any idea who’s behind this insanity? I’m sorry, Elizabeth, of course you’ve already been answering all their questions. And you’re hurt. Please come in and sit down, both of you, rest.
“Rome, I’m so thankful you were with my sister and protected her. Come in, both of you. I have some more biscuits from the bakery and some tea.”
Rome looked around. “Where’s your friend Al?”
“Al? He’s in and out, but I haven’t seen him today.”
When Tommy went out to the kitchen, Rome and Elizabeth walked over to the wide window in the sitting room with its full-on view of the Thames and the London Eye. The rain had finally lightened to a sluggish drizzle. A sliver of sun was trying to fight its way through the clouds. A few brave riverboats had come out on the water carrying hardy visitors on their decks, their black brollies lined up like a funeral cortege. A tour guide was speaking into a megaphone, but the sound didn’t penetrate the thick glass.
Tommy was back within a couple of minutes carrying a loaded tray. Rome and Elizabeth sat on his beautiful brocade sofa and Tommy poured them tea, offered them biscuits on a napkin. He sat opposite them, his hands clasped between his knees.
“Rome, again, I want to thank you again for watching over my sister, here and in the United States.”
Rome said easily, “I can’t take the credit for saving Elizabeth in the attack this morning. It all goes to an MI5 undercover officer, Khaled Aziz, a very brave man. He saved both of us, as I’m sure your mother told you. Without him we wouldn’t have stood a chance.”
“I hope I can meet him and shake his hand.” He gave a boyishgrin so like his father’s, a grin she’d seen on his face since he was a toddler and she his big sister, always looking out for him. “Hey, maybe you should get a distress alarm yourself.”
She forced the words out. “Your timing with that distress alarm was amazing, Tommy. What happened to Mother certainly brought me back here fast. You must have known I’d come.”
He cocked his head at her, smiled, but said nothing.
Elizabeth sat forward, reached for his graceful hands, long fingered with buffed nails, like their father’s. “Tommy, I have some things to say to you, things I obviously didn’t say enough to you over the years.” She drew a deep breath, looked into his eyes. “I loved you from the moment Mother birthed you. I held you in my arms in the hospital, snuggled you, rocked you when you cried. Of course, Father was so very happy. You were his long-awaited son. Looking back, I’ve come to realize I encouraged you to think you were the prince of the kingdom. I spoiled you just as our parents did. All of us gave you too much, never corrected you. We always made excuses for anything sketchy you did, even if it was obvious what you did was malicious. And then you went up to Oxford and you came back hooked on drugs.”
Tommy cocked his head at her. “Why are you saying all this, Elizabeth?”
“Because I enabled your drug habit for years and I want you to know I’m sorry. My only thought was to keep you safe if I couldn’t talk you into another rehabilitation program. And I knew if I didn’t give you money, you’d owe it to dangerous street people, and to be honest I was terrified you might become a criminal if you were desperate enough for money to buy your cocaine.
“I should have continued to push you into rehab, but I didn’t. I should have cut off your money, but I didn’t. I loved you andI kept making excuses for you. I convinced myself you’d stop taking drugs when you realized you weren’t really living your life, you were existing, and only for your drugs.
“Every time you went to rehab, I tried to convince Father this time would be different, you’d change, but it never lasted. When he wanted to disinherit you, both Mother and I begged him not to, to wait, please wait, he’d see, you would change. But Father finally had enough.” She felt tears sting her eyes. “I’m sorry, Tommy, I’m so very sorry for my part in what happened to you.”
Tommy was shaking his head. “Stop blaming yourself, Elizabeth. I’ve always thought of you as my guardian angel, so please don’t feel guilty for my own decisions. When you left, Carlos told me you’d given him enough money not only for my drug supply but for my expenses.
“Then Mother came to see me and for the first time we talked, really talked. I realized she and Father were terrified of what had happened here in London to you and they were afraid of what could still happen to you. She didn’t think it would stop because you’d left. And who was behind it all? She cried, Elizabeth, and I sat there, high, unable to do anything, for you or for myself. After she left, tear tracks on her cheeks, it was then I really saw myself, saw what I was, and I knew if I didn’t change, I wouldn’t be good for you, for anyone. I would die.
“I stopped that day. I refused to see Mother for weeks. You know all about what withdrawal is like for me, you’ve seen me go through it in rehab. Honestly, at the beginning I thought I’d rather die, and I wanted cocaine so badly I would have robbed the king himself, but I didn’t, I stuck to it. And now it’s over.” He gave her his grin again. “You’re here and you’re safe, both you and Mother, and you both say Father just might be coming around to welcoming me back in the fold, might be ready to trust me, finally.” He paused, cocked his head. “I know you’resupporting me. Let me swear to you, I will never go back to cocaine.”
Elizabeth said slowly, her eyes on his face, “No, I don’t believe you’ll ever do drugs again.” She paused, swallowed. “Tommy, when did you stop taking cocaine?”
He shrugged. “I told you, I made up my mind a few days after you left. Why?”
She didn’t know how she got the words out, but she did. “I wonder about that now, Tommy. I wonder when it was exactly Mother told you I was in Maryland at Hurley Janklov’s camp, because I know you’d talked the information out of her. You also knew when I drove to Washington to ask the FBI for their help.”
“Yes, of course I knew. Mother saw how frightened I was for you. That can’t surprise you. I wanted to help, I was desperate to help. Why do you bring this up? Why is that important?”
Even as he spoke, Elizabeth saw it in his eyes, eyes so much like hers—a flash of knowledge, of guilt. And contempt? She felt hope crumble.
Rome pulled out his phone, scrolled through photos, handed his phone to Tommy. “Do you know this young woman?”
