A JEALOUS HOLT ... IS DANGEROUS!
It had been three days since Remington had been lying. She knew it. She didn't need almost any concrete clue to know. But she knew it. The way he avoided looking her in the eye, the way he explained without explaining anything, the nerves he tried to hide. His eyes. He lowered his eyes when he gave false explanations. Mildred tried to calm down her but she could n't calm down so easily. Not when Remington was lying and hiding something. A shadow crossed her face and the wrinkle on her forehead that he would have considered delicious appeared when she thought it might be the presence of another woman in the life of HER . But ... that was so ... strange, incredible if she ... well, if she kept in mind that her marital activities had not diminished at all.
He loved her. She loved him. The big doubts were not there. They had their beautiful meetings at night, which were repeated at dawn and that happened every night and all the dawns. A man who had an affair with another woman had to have something of a mythological hero or be a cartoon superhero to be such a fiery lover capable of supporting wife and clandestine relationship. Hmmm ... throughout her career as a detective she met some. Albie ... the Rattoi Games, even with his beautiful wife Sheila needed that girl who didn't hesitate to kill when he had invented George Kapplan. Donald's partner dentist with that striking assistant who hadn't bowed to the faithful Donald ... The "tetrahedron" of the baseball players ... The tangles of the Texan in love with Rocky Sullivan ... The beautiful Úrsula of the Friendlich Spa ...
The wife of the financier that they had met in early 1987 ... when all their problems had been solved for them and the agency marched again to the command of the two as husbands ... what was it that he was called? Ah yes, Herbert Sheridan ... he was unfaithful to Susan with his best friend ... according to them they could check ... She could list many cases involving lovers of whom the spouses seemed to be faithful men and really were not ...!
Laura tried to calm herself. Remington had her vote of confidence. Did he have it?
Well, I had paraded a lot of exuberant blondes something silly and pretty brunettes ... he swore that it was over but she was not so sure after all ... he was too attractive a man. Women buzzed around him like bees in the honeycomb. Of HER honey, she thought. She never found him with anyone in her bed. Well, except when Clarissa the beautiful prostitute, gymnast and Latin teacher of Bernard, Mildred's nephew ... borrowed Remington's pajama jacket and he fell apart before her in explanations so she wouldn't see things "out of proportion" or she was exaggerated when in reality that Silver guy almost killed her an instant before finding him half undressed and the girl barely covered. Oh, she saw everything red then. It seemed to her delicious the way in which he -which still didn't have to give explanations to her- began to babble one thing and another Incoherent in the beginning to emerge unscathed from the sword to the wall ...
Laura smiled. But she wrinkled her nose again. He had gotten up much earlier than usual three times in that week. That was very weird. He never got up early even though life was in it. He never arrived at nine at the agency. He had arrived three times in a week before Mildred herself did it. Mildred told her that he did not say where he was going or why he was leaving so early, so Laura decided to follow him one morning. Remington left and went in the limousine driven by Fred. They arrived at the Beldevere hotel. The famous hotel where they defined the Delanian case. Harold Delanian, whose skin Remington had taken to make it appear to the press that he had not been killed by Silver, the hired thug ...
There, in the dining room hidden behind a huge ficus' pot, she discovered that Remington was talking very seriously with ... a beautiful girl! She wasn't a silly or exuberant blonde, she wasn't a 'stunning brunette. She was a beautiful girl. Very beautiful. With brown hair like hers. Dressed with elegance and sobriety. Like her. In a way, she found her very similar to herself. Is it that men were all that obvious and had a target when choosing a lover? Remington did have a lover! She bit her lower was furious. She really was decidedly boiling with rage and jealousy. Curse!
The girl cried. He took her hand in his and apparently consoled her. He was being very affectionate. She wanted to kill him!
Jealousy made her see everything absolutely black now. He was cheating on her with another woman! He played the girl with a lot of familiarity. How long was the romance? Laura felt that disappointment touched the doors of her heart. That scoundrel! That vile scoundrel! That unscrupulous thief of her heart! Oh, Remington Steele, you're going to have to start running! She told herself and started to move towards them determinedly. Remington couldn't see her 'because she had her back to where she was heading determined as a war tank to attack.
Great was the surprise painted on her husband's face when she appeared on the scene with her chocolate eyes that seemed to pour fire through her pupils. As she expected, he began to stutter an explanation.
Laura, I ...
Don't tell me anything! She shouted angrily
Is that you don't understand ... LAU-RA ... He tried to start explaining
There is nothing to understand! She mumbled under her breath but full of contained fury
If there is, love ... she is ... this girl is ...
DO YOU THINK THAT I AM SILLY? Laura shouted again calling the attention of the first guests who entered the hotel dining room
Believe me, Laura, you have no idea ...
What do I have no idea? What kind of fool do you think I am? I have to see something else to know what is happening here?
The girl smiled amused and surprised. That set off a greater fury in Laura.
And you, skinny, what are you laughing at, you make fun of the wife who has just found her husband ...
LAU- RA ... I'm begging you not to say something that you'll probably regret ...
Mr. Steele ... I think ... I ...
Don't tell me, Mr. Steele, call me Remington ...
Ah, of course for what formality, right? Mr. Steele ...! Laura growled more angry if that was possible
It's that Mr. Steele ... I do not think that…
What do you, oh, you little girl looking for ... do you have to believe? And do not ever tell him Mr. Steele, call him Remington! You do not see that she told you to call him Remington, "she said ironically," and God knows what else you'll call him when ... you lose both the formalities ...
The girl could not help but laugh.
Remington was suddenly between two fires. Laura was flaring with her eyes and she was red, absolutely red, her features unhinged, her cheeks burning ... She was capable of killing that girl. The girl defying Laura, standing, like him, crossed arms, putting more fuel in the fire.
There's no doubt that what you told me, Remington, is being fulfilled ... he said haughtily.
Oh, Lucille ... let Laura understand what's going on here ... it's obvious she's drawing the wrong conclusions ... Sit down, Laura!
What do I feel? YOU SEND ME TO ME TO SIT AT THE SAME TABLE YOUR WITH YOUR LOVER?
Laura ... for God ...
You would have thought of it before, Mr. Steele, long before you were looking for a lover. It's too late to pray to God ...
Laura, honey ...
Sweetie? What kind of disgusting cynic you are that you call me sweetheart when you're with ... with ...
Laura was so furious that she did not find a qualifier for the girl or for him but when she heard what Remington barely murmured red of shame ... she was left in one piece.
With Lucille Holt. Your sister.
Of all the lies and barbarities that you have invented in your life, this is ... my ... my sister?
There was an ominous silence. Laura looked alternately at the girl and her husband ... Suddenly she felt like a fool. An extremely silly woman. Something was here that had just fallen on her and she ... Oh, my …oh…boy….
Laura fell sitting with her mouth open, in the chair that Remington hurriedly arranged.
Lucille sat on hers, her gaze still defiant on Laura.
Laura Holt ... Lucille Holt ... your sister on her father's side. She's the daughter of Frederick Holt ... of your father with ... someone else ... explained. He expected a reaction in Laura but there was not. Laura was ecstatic. Stiff It looked like a stone.
Lucille ... it did not happen as planned, but ... well ... this is your sister Laura. My wife, also if you have not been clear with the tremendous demonstration that has been able to offer ...
Lucille laughed frankly ... but seeing Laura's face again, she did not hesitate to be serious again.
Well, it's a Holt. I am 20 years old but ... I understand what it is to be a Holt ... determined, possessive, of very bad character ...
Hey, what's the matter with you ... little lady ... "Laura reacted.
She tensed. Lucille did not flinch.
Remington felt a little less worried now about the blood reaching the river but not that these two women managed to understand each other, let alone accept it.
Lucille Holt had called the office four days ago. She was in Los Angeles to see Laura. He knew he had a sister and wanted to meet her because his father in Minneapolis had told him everything about Laura and Frances. He had told her the whole truth. Her mother, Eleanor Grant, met Frederick Holt the exact year that Frederick Junior had died. Somehow Elenanor was Frederick's restraint in his moment of pain and the marriage of Abigail and Frederick had already been shipwrecked for some time. Eleanor was for two years only a good friend, an ear willing to listen. She was a school teacher. She was single and was very happy to be one since she was an independent woman. When the friendship with Fred, as she called him, something else was done, she got pregnant and did not want to ask him anything, because he still did not define his situation with Abigail. Remington had listened to this explanation closed to the possibility that Laura understood that only about five years before finally leaving home, when she was eleven, she, Lucille, had come into the world. Laura was 31 years old and Lucille 20, Frances 34 ... it was a big gap between the sisters ...
Remington was interviewing the girl to find coherence in their story and some common points waiting for Laura not suspect but his beloved researcher (and he should know too much) could not ignore anything that was moderately suspicious. A single movement and she was already knowing what was happening. A change in what she considered habitual or routine and her brain was flying. And when it came to him, jealous as he was, it would never be a good thing to think ... It was not that he had given her reasons for being married. Laura had never admitted that she was a possessive woman. He had always diplomatically removed his potential rivals. Felicia, Anna, Shannon ... others like Millicent Fairbush had to beat her because she was a murderer and it was his life or hers and hers too. Remington would never forget the negative reaction of his beloved when he pretended to talk on the phone with an invented Darlene to prove if she was jealous or not. He gave her a kiss that left him unarmed ... him ... the winner with the damsels ... the conqueror with the blue eyes and the buying smile ... She made it difficult for four long years ... from Nadine onwards all her girls were chased away like plague His telescopic sight and none could penetrate the iron fences that Laura interposed around him. Neither Moriah of Fortuna magazine who had been sufficiently daring could with her. All the possible candidates to occupy their bed paid a high price and cost them the withdrawal. Laura was Laura. I let him do it. That he would kiss everything he wanted but what he wanted, what he really wanted was not going to get from her as easily as all those busconas ...
Remington looked alternately at both women, so similar and so different ... Lucille was
more blonde than Laura, but never more beautiful than her lovely wife. Only younger, but he had met Laura at 25 and was much prettier, he told himself. This girl still had to grow, even she did not have very marked features of maturity, she looked like a teenager. He thought Laura had been like that, maybe shorter, this girl was tall and her eyes were green, not brown. Besides, she did not have Laura's proverbial freckles that drove him crazy. DO NOT. Laura and she seemed to share very precisely a character of the thousand demons ... both persistent, both firm, both ironic ... The two with the same love: Frederick Holt. He had talked for three days in a row with Lucille planning the strategy to appear before Laura knowing that he could not lie or deceive her for a long time about the nature of her trips or escapades, to achieve it, because Laura would discover it as it had just happened.
While he was absorbed in such thoughts, both sisters measured themselves, studied each other. Laura, recovered from her surprise, listened, asked, "digested" the news as best she could, taking back her sanity and the imperturbability that was characteristic of her. He excused himself and left the Holt sisters alone so they could chat quietly. He, knowing Laura, knew that what they talked about would be left between them, if Laura did not want to tell her, she would not tell him. There were fences that only very rarely did she allow anyone to trespass. Remington understood that because he himself had his fences and his secrets. Still some revelations were inconvenient to him, such as telling him that he had been beaten when he was barely a child or locked in dark places as a penance. She only intuited those things and since they were painful for him, she never asked. But both knew that certain eyes, long gazes and silent abortions came to accompany them on typical family dates. He prayed to God someday to build a family with her so solid that those family things would be inaugurated in a lasting way for them. Home, sweet home, beautiful children, made by both to the warmth of an immense love like the one they professed.
At night, Laura, who had arranged to meet with Lucille the next day to eat, arrived at her house and Remington was already there. A wrinkle appeared on his face in a frown of worry. Laura, leaving the wallet and coat aside, looked at him when he gave her the kiss of arrival and detected the inquisitive look in his eyes that was as clear as the day itself had been and could read in it as in an open book .
I'm fine, Mr. Steele ... and I owe you an apology ...
You do not owe me anything, Laura ... to see me in that hotel with a girl ... is not the most natural thing in the world for any wife and ... let's agree that you are anything but ... any wife ...
But I'm not jealous myself ...
He laughed in his face.
Are not you jealous? You became almost irrational, you almost killed that girl ...
My sister…
Do you notice irony in your voice?
No ... do not get me wrong ...
So you accept willingly that that girl is your little sister and you are going to build a relationship with her?
I do not know if it's that simple, Mr. Steele ... still ... even I am processing a huge amount of information that came to me one after another in a very short time ... I have a sister ... my father dies ... she needs help from us and my father also needs that same help ... it's not something simple for me ... no ... it's not!
Come here. I have heard that there is nothing like a big hug from a husband who loves you so that the sorrows are less sorrow ...
I need that remedy please, love ...
Laura ... I love you, I love you, my love and I want to see you happy. If I kept secret these few days it was because ...
Oh, no, love, Lucille told me everything. I do not know what to do ... do you realize? I do not know what to do ... Laura is sure, she is a fool with a handful of nerves just thinking that she chatted with her new sister. Besides the tremendous piece of paper when you met her ... Was everything as horrible as it was heard?
Remington nodded. I was serious. He seemed angry.
You have all the right in the world to be angry, love, I treated you very bad today ... will you forgive me?
Oh, I already did, unlike you, I do not care about many things that cause jealousy but I can understand the emotion ...
What are you not jealous? Look, I can name two or three pretty influential things in you that should be called jealousy. The call that of Giovanni, the craftsman, that you took imagining thousands of nonsense, Creighton Phillips, the lawyer, how did you inquire about Wilson that boyfriend of mine whom you fascinated like everyone you know so they can tell you everything ... Smith de Stanford , Clay, Milton ... Butcher ... Smith of the ship Beau Geste ... how did you play James Bond going to rescue me from the "clutches" of that diamond thief when he used to apply sunscreen ... I do not even remember his name ... Murphy ... The first and only time I felt inclined to give you an explanation ... because it was unfair to him ... or when you thought I saw Donald at the dentist's convention hotel ... you ran furiously to intervene!
He raised his eyes ... and with all sincerity he admitted:
I am jealous. I am jealous of you at all times, LAURA HOLT. I love you and if that makes you feel intense, wild, deep jealousy, it's because I love you for myself in my world, in my life, in my things, in all my hours and in my thoughts. I have tied myself to your life with the intention of keeping you in mine every day of my existence, my love. I have something precious with you and I deeply desire to take care of it. I do not want anything to hurt you. Nothing. I wanted to avoid the pain of something that you were not ready to listen to or accept ... When Lucille appeared I wanted to protect you from the pain, from the disappointment of knowing that your father ... well, you know ... I know I was not very good at doing it ... you suffered the same with All this…
Oh, love, do not feel sad ... my sweet little sister must still be laughing at how I appeared in the Beldevere ... she says that I brought out the Holt vein ... and it's true, I'm jealous, I'm possessive, why should I deny it? I love you from the day you peeked your head in the agency and from that moment you did a compliment I do not know ... to Berenice, I could make you a scene ... I love you, Remington Steele and with this from my sister, for trying to protect myself ... I warn you ... of course I warn you! But you've been so sweet in enduring me that I want only one thing ...
He looked at her inquisitively.
What? The moon, a star, the whole sky ?
A kiss that says you forgive me ...
A single kiss, love of my life?
Well ... it could be one here and the rest ... let's say ... somewhere where you think I can have a good time in penance ... do you have any idea of somewhere like that?
Yes, I have ... let's go, to fulfill that penance, Mrs. Steele ...
With pleasure, Mr. Steele ... I need it tonight, and all my nights ... today you will have to deal with a weeping, emotional, absurdly passionate Laura ... can you?
With all my soul, my love, with all my soul ...