“I’m not much better now,” Megan confessed dryly. “I try. I do try. The cleaning men only come once a week, and things get messy in between. But I hate cleaning. Hate cleaning.” She gave the words individual emphasis. “I’m sure it’s because my mother was a fanatic about it. She always said that just because we didn’t have the money that some people had, that didn’t mean we couldn’t live in as clean a house. So she made me clean everything in sight. As soon as I left the house, I rebelled.”
She grew suddenly quiet and looked down at her hands. “During the time she lived with Will and me, we had a maid. I’m glad she isn’t around to see the mess I’ve made.”
Savannah was thinking of how immaculate the bedroom had been that night, and she would have pointed it out had she not known Megan was talking about a deeper mess. “You had nothing to do with Will’s financial problems, Meggie.”
Megan said nothing.
“Savvy’s right,” Susan said. “You can’t blame yourself for that.”
“Will would have been better off if he’d married someone like either of you. I’ve brought nothing to this marriage.”
“Willadoresyou,” Savannah argued. “He was a bachelor for years, a lonely man. You’ve brought him happiness.”
“I’ve brought him grief.”
“No,happiness.” Taking a breath, she broached what she knew was on Megan’s mind. “What happened the other week wasn’t your fault any more than it was Will’s. It just happened. It was an ugly, hurtful thing, but you can put it behind you, Meggie. You can.”
Megan was very quiet for a minute before murmuring, “I don’t think so.”
“Sure, you can. Once we catch the men who did it, they’ll be put away for life. Any little thing you can remember would help us find them.”
Megan didn’t answer, but seemed to withdraw into a world of her own. She took a sip of the liqueur in her glass, sat back in her chair, and stared off toward the horizon. Clearly, she didn’t want to think about the men who’d kidnapped and raped her, and Savannah could understand that. Savannah could also see that pushing her just then would do no good.
So she tamped down the sense of urgency she felt when she thought of all the leads she didn’t have, and scowled. “How did we get off on this, anyway?”
“We were talking about cleaning house, which I hate, too,” Susan said, “and before that about working, and I don’t care what either of you say, I don’t want the pressure of a job. Studies have found that women are having more and more heart and high blood pressure problems, and it’s because there are more of us—more ofyou—in the work force than there were ten or twenty years ago. Woman wasn’t meant to scurry around from seven in the morning until ten at night wearing a sedate little business suit.”
Savannah had never pictured her sister wearing sedate little business suits. “Seven in the morning until ten at night? What kind of job are you thinking of?”
“The kind that will deliver prestige, power, and respect,” Susan said without pause.
Savannah nodded. “I see.” She took a breath and echoed, “The job has to deliver prestige, power, and respect.”
“If it’s going to be worth the effort.”
“No halfway possibilities?”
“What’d be the point of that?”
“The point is doing something that’s interesting and, therefore, rewarding.”
“That’s an idealistic viewpoint if ever there was one. Realistically, that’s not why people work. People work for the money, which I don’t need, and the power, which I do.”
“Why do you need power?”
“Because that’s the basis for respect. I want people to look at me and know that I’m a somebody.”
“Youarea somebody. You don’t need power.”
“So why should I work?”
Savannah pressed the glass she held to her forehead. “I think we’re back at square one.”
“You’re right. The whole issue of work drives me nuts, but it always comes up. Times have changed. Things were much simpler when we were younger.” Her voice softened. “Don’t you ever think back, Savvy? Your life is hectic. Don’t you ever pine for simpler times, when you had less responsibility?”
Savannah thought about it for a minute. “Not really. There’s a plus side to having responsibility.”
“I might have figured she’d say that,” Susan told Megan, who was sitting quietly, not revealing the direction of her thoughts.
