a shortish chapter but still important!!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Why are you nosing into my life?!" Zelda yelled at the woman facing her. "You never used to do this before!"
"I'm only trying to help you!" Greer protested. "You know that only trouble will come out of having an affair with Link Harker, you know it! I don't want to see you going and getting hurt!"
"What makes you think you've got the right to come down here and order me about?!" Zelda demanded. "Who are you, my mother?"
"No, and you'd better be damn grateful I'm not! She would bury you alive if she found out you were in love with Harker!" Greer stopped to take a breath as Zelda looked down at the floor. "And what about Loxley, and Mayer?! What'll they think about this? You know it doesn't meet the studio's standards! The publicity! You'd never be left alone if the secret got out! Link is a married man!"
"Shut up!" Zelda screamed. "Shut up, I won't hear any more of it!" There was a loud silence between them as Zelda trembled with anger at Greer and at herself.
"I knew this would happen if I tried to talk to you," Greer finally said in a whisper. "I told Din and Farore that I would speak to you about all this at once. I said that two weeks ago, because I was afraid that I might hurt you. And I don't want to do that, Zelda! You're my best friend, and the only thing I'm trying to do is save you from inflicting pain upon yourself!"
Zelda's eyes returned to the floor. She began to cry silently. "We....Link and I have never gone all the way, in spite of what you may think. You know I'm not that kind of woman."
"I didn't think you were the kind of woman to steal another's husband!" Greer retorted hotly.
"You don't understand! Link isn't happy with Malon! They hate each other, they really do! They get into fights all the time, she only loves his money and fame, and he gets more and more sick of her every day! I'm only trying to help ease his pain!"
"Quiet, Zelda!" Greer cried out. "For the love of Peter, you make yourself sound like a prostitute!"
"How dare you say something like that!" Zelda shouted. "I love him! And I can tell he loves me, he's not just using me!"
"If Link doesn't love Malon, then why doesn't he--" Greer stopped mid- sentence from realization. "Oh....that makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? I suppose Malon would WANT him to divorce her, in California of all places." She sighed heavily. "I don't know how to help you."
"I don't need help," Zelda growled. "I just need a way to get HER to divorce HIM, so that she wouldn't be left with all the--" She stopped abruptly, then her face formed an almost evil grin. "I know exactly what to do."
"Oh no," Greer said seriously. "The last time you got that expression on your face was when you were devising a plot to get back at Katharine Hepburn for calling you a stubburn impertinent brat."
"Hey, YOU were the one who helped me put the rats in her drawer," Zelda defended. "I appreciate you trying to....'help me out,' Greer, but it really is impossible to change one's heartfelt devotions." And with that, she marched out of her dressing room.
"Well, I tried," Greer said to herself, rubbing her temple.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Where were you?" Link asked Malon as she came parading through the door at one in the morning.
She jumped at the sound of his voice. "Why Link, dear, I didn't expect you to be up at this hour!"
"Obviously," Link said coldly. "Now answer my question: where were you?"
Her false smile evaporated quickly. "What business is it of yours, you nitwit?"
"I'm your husband, aren't I? Or have you forgotten? Malon, you tell me where you've been right this instant!"
"I don't have to tell you anything I don't want to," Malon sneered. "All I have to do is tell the cops you threw a beer bottle at my head, and whoosh--off to probation or prison for you, Linky dear!" Laughing menacingly, she trotted up the stairs.
He glared after her, then whirled around as he heard another set of footsteps approaching him. This time it was his sister, Saria.
"Oh Link, don't you know?" she asked softly.
"Shut up," he growled.
"If she wouldn't tell you, why not let me?" Saria pleaded him. "Link, you know what Malon is like....flaunting her lovers about town...."
"You know about that?" he whispered.
"Almost everyone does," Saria sighed wistfully. "Well, everyone that can be trusted to keep a secret, anyway. Apparently, Malon trusted me too, at one point. That's how I know about it." She gulped. "She just came from Errol Flynn's; she told me."
Link sank his fist into a pillow on a nearby couch. "She doesn't know I know," he told Saria. "But at Clark Gable's party last week, I saw her in the bedroom with Flynn. She doesn't ..... know that I ....know! Why isn't there any way I can get back at her!?"
"Just divorce her, Link!" Saria shouted, but not loud enough so that Malon could hear her from upstairs. "It's not like you couldn't earn your money back after the divorce, and besides! WE could help you after it was all over, until your next paycheck! Please, Link! I hate to see you in this kind of pain!"
There was a long silence. Link gazed into his sister's pleading eyes. Then he stalked towards the stair case. "You're right, Saria! I've only just realized it for the first time! Money isn't worth all of this, it just isn't worth it! I'm going upstairs and talking to Malon right now!"
He ran up the stairs and wrenched up the doors to her bedroom. "Malon, get up!"
"I was never asleep," she yawned. "What is it?"
"This is the last straw, Malon! I know where you've been all night, and it's time I said that I want a divorce!"
"You what?!"
"You heard me, you monster! I want a divorce! Whaddya say, huh?! You could marry Errol, or Dick, and have just as much as you do now!"
Malon stared at him a long time, then sank back beneath her covers. "No."
Link gaped at her. "What did you say?"
"I said no! I don't want to get a divorce, it would disgrace us!"
"You wouldn't care about disgracing me! All you want to do is hurt me, you want to see me suffer, you sick beast!" Link ran over to her bed and dragged her out of it. In one quick move, he slugged her across the face. "You agree to this divorce, or I'll kill you! I swear to God I'll kill you!!"
Furious and screaming with rage, Malon grabbed a knife from her nightstand and swiped it at Link. He stooped to the floor as she plunged it into his shoulder. But before she could strike again, he shoved her into the wall, and punched her hard enough to bang hre head back into the plaster. She sank to the floor, unconcious again.
Shaking with nervousness and fury, Link gripped his shoulder tightly. Then he ran over to the phone and dialed a number.
Zelda bolted upright in bed, the phone ringing right next to her. Her eyes blurred with drowsiness, she tried to pick it up.
"C'mon, pick up!" Link moaned. "Please, pick up, Zelda!"
"H-hello?"
"Baby, it's me....it's me!"
"Link, it's a quarter after one, what is it?!"
"Another fight between me and Malon....she stabbed my shoulder, and I need--I need to talk to someone. C-could you meet me on the edge of Lacienega?"
"Of course, I'll be there right away!" Zelda said. She hung up the phone and ran into her closet. She grabbed the first dress she saw (purple satin) and slipped it over her skimpy nightdress. Then she grabbed a long overcoat and hurried out of her door.
She almost screamed when she saw her mother standing right outside her door. "And where are you going at this time of night, may I ask?" Madeline asked her sweetly.
"Please mother, I've got to go!" Zelda cried, trying to get past her.
"It was the phone call, who was it from?" Madeline insisted. "Not me nor your father picked it up, and the maids are all in their bedrooms, where they are too far away to hear any phones ringing. Who was that call from?"
"I can't tell you! And if I don't leave immediately, he's going to--"
"He? Who's he?" Madeline inquired suspiciously. "Zelda, are you going around with some admirer I don't know about?"
"Yes!" Zelda said, anything to make her mother shut up. "Yes, Richard Vey, Greer Garson's co-star! She introduced him to me one day at the studio and now we're lovers and he got in a fight with his wi--sister and he's dreadfully hurt and I have to go see to him immediately!"
"Of course, child," Madeline said, after a pause. "You must go to him at once."
Zelda flew down the staircase and grabbed the keys to her father's car. Within two seconds, she was out the door. But she knew eventually her mother would find out there was no relationship between her and Vey. She'd nose about, asking everyone everything about the two of them until she realized it was all a lie.
But she'd had to say it at the moment, or else her mother never would've let her go at such an hour. Hastily, Zelda turned on the windshield wipers as rain began to pour down at an alarming rate.
She was cruising down Sunset as fast as she could, she wouldn't need to stay on it much longer--and then there was Lacienega Boulevard. Zelda pulled over immediately as she saw a stooped figure in the rain. Hurriedly she rolled down her window and said, "Quickly, get in the car!"
Zelda stared as a strange man stepped into the car and said, "Thank you, Miss." She looked at him again, and then noticed Link on the other side of the street.
Impatiently, she shoved the man out of the car. "Not YOU, I don't even know you!" Then she got out of the vehicle herself and ran across the gritty street to Link. "Link, I'm over here!"
Link turned around and grasped his arm again as she ran towards him. "Where's your car? I need to sit down..."
"It's right over here, come on!" She led him carefully into the automobile and then got in herself. "We've got to get somewhere where we can be alone," she said to him. After about twenty minutes of silent driving, she managed to find a deserted lot. Instantly, she parked the car and turned to face Link. Zelda gasped as she saw a large, bleeding bandage wrapped tightly around Link's arm. "Link! What did that cat do to you?!"
"I told you," Link said through gritted teeth, trying to kill the pain. "She stabbed me with a knife."
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Sympathetically, Zelda positioned herself on his lap so as not to disturb his arm. "I wish there was something I could do!"
"I told her I wanted a divorce," Link wheezed. "Saria helped me realize that I won't go broke if I divorce her. But when I told her about it, she refused. I tried to force her to agree with me, but she wouldn't. So I slapped her, she stabbed me, and then I slugged her again and now she's unconcious." He took a deep breath to steady himself.
"I....oh Link, that's terrible...."
"And she's been having little facades here and there," Link said. "Sometimes even not coming home at night, probably at Flynn's or Gable's or something like that." He choked on his words. "I don't know how to get back at her."
Zelda lifted Link's hand and placed it at the base of her neck. "Use me at the next party you go to. Kiss me in front of her, make her jealous! We've got to come out about this at some point, Link!"
His eyes widened. "Zelda, you know we could never do that! Besides, Hedda Hopper is at all of those parties, she'd have us on the front page in no time! And our families, what would they say? They would murder me, and I don't know what your folks would do to you!"
"Not if they weren't there!" Zelda said desperately. "Please, I have to do this, I want to!" She emphasized this desire by kissing him passionately. Her mouth moved over each part of his lips, not wanting to leave any space untouched. Zelda's hands massaged his back and neck, stroking nearly every part of him except his wounded arm.
"Maybe....you're right," Link breathed between kisses. "Did you get an invite to the next party at Davis'?"
"You mean celebrating her new movie?" Zelda breathed, running her lips down his cheek. "Yeah."
"Perfect," Link whispered sensually. "I'll be there, too. I'll take Malon along with me; she'd be thrilled to go. And then I'll give her a taste of her own medicine right there. And what's more, who's house to go to with a plan like this other than Bette Davis'? She'd revel in my revenge, she's just that kind of person."
"I know," Zelda said softly, tracing his ear with her mouth. "I'd like very much to see her reaction...." Suddenly she pulled away from Link and asked, "But what if she tells your parents about all this?"
"She won't," Link chuckled. "Or else I'll threaten to expose HER to her own parents. Her mother would highly disapprove of her running about with two other men while she's married to me."
"How smart," Zelda cooed, smiling. She ran her tongue along his bottom lip slowly. "She'll never know what hit her."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Greer, I think I owe you an apology," Zelda said the next day.
"You mean you dropped Link?" Greer asked hopefully with a grin.
"Nope, not even close!" Zelda said, still smiling. "But I used your crush as an excuse to go see him in the middle of the night the other day. But only to talk with him about an argument he had with Malon."
Greer's mouth dropped. "You mean that you said something about you and Richard? MY Mr. Vey?!"
"Sorry," Zelda apologized. "But don't worry about it, my mother will figure out the truth sooner or later; and by then I'll have thought up another excuse."
Sighing, Greer stood up. "All right, I just hope you know what you're doing."
"Of course I do. You going to Bette Davis's party next week?"
"I'm not sure if I want to go or not....why?"
"You may be in for a pleasant surprise if you decide to show up, that's all." She smiled brightly. "I do hope you'll be there."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
a/n: hope that was okay
just wait till i add more! MUA HA HA HA!!!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Why are you nosing into my life?!" Zelda yelled at the woman facing her. "You never used to do this before!"
"I'm only trying to help you!" Greer protested. "You know that only trouble will come out of having an affair with Link Harker, you know it! I don't want to see you going and getting hurt!"
"What makes you think you've got the right to come down here and order me about?!" Zelda demanded. "Who are you, my mother?"
"No, and you'd better be damn grateful I'm not! She would bury you alive if she found out you were in love with Harker!" Greer stopped to take a breath as Zelda looked down at the floor. "And what about Loxley, and Mayer?! What'll they think about this? You know it doesn't meet the studio's standards! The publicity! You'd never be left alone if the secret got out! Link is a married man!"
"Shut up!" Zelda screamed. "Shut up, I won't hear any more of it!" There was a loud silence between them as Zelda trembled with anger at Greer and at herself.
"I knew this would happen if I tried to talk to you," Greer finally said in a whisper. "I told Din and Farore that I would speak to you about all this at once. I said that two weeks ago, because I was afraid that I might hurt you. And I don't want to do that, Zelda! You're my best friend, and the only thing I'm trying to do is save you from inflicting pain upon yourself!"
Zelda's eyes returned to the floor. She began to cry silently. "We....Link and I have never gone all the way, in spite of what you may think. You know I'm not that kind of woman."
"I didn't think you were the kind of woman to steal another's husband!" Greer retorted hotly.
"You don't understand! Link isn't happy with Malon! They hate each other, they really do! They get into fights all the time, she only loves his money and fame, and he gets more and more sick of her every day! I'm only trying to help ease his pain!"
"Quiet, Zelda!" Greer cried out. "For the love of Peter, you make yourself sound like a prostitute!"
"How dare you say something like that!" Zelda shouted. "I love him! And I can tell he loves me, he's not just using me!"
"If Link doesn't love Malon, then why doesn't he--" Greer stopped mid- sentence from realization. "Oh....that makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? I suppose Malon would WANT him to divorce her, in California of all places." She sighed heavily. "I don't know how to help you."
"I don't need help," Zelda growled. "I just need a way to get HER to divorce HIM, so that she wouldn't be left with all the--" She stopped abruptly, then her face formed an almost evil grin. "I know exactly what to do."
"Oh no," Greer said seriously. "The last time you got that expression on your face was when you were devising a plot to get back at Katharine Hepburn for calling you a stubburn impertinent brat."
"Hey, YOU were the one who helped me put the rats in her drawer," Zelda defended. "I appreciate you trying to....'help me out,' Greer, but it really is impossible to change one's heartfelt devotions." And with that, she marched out of her dressing room.
"Well, I tried," Greer said to herself, rubbing her temple.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Where were you?" Link asked Malon as she came parading through the door at one in the morning.
She jumped at the sound of his voice. "Why Link, dear, I didn't expect you to be up at this hour!"
"Obviously," Link said coldly. "Now answer my question: where were you?"
Her false smile evaporated quickly. "What business is it of yours, you nitwit?"
"I'm your husband, aren't I? Or have you forgotten? Malon, you tell me where you've been right this instant!"
"I don't have to tell you anything I don't want to," Malon sneered. "All I have to do is tell the cops you threw a beer bottle at my head, and whoosh--off to probation or prison for you, Linky dear!" Laughing menacingly, she trotted up the stairs.
He glared after her, then whirled around as he heard another set of footsteps approaching him. This time it was his sister, Saria.
"Oh Link, don't you know?" she asked softly.
"Shut up," he growled.
"If she wouldn't tell you, why not let me?" Saria pleaded him. "Link, you know what Malon is like....flaunting her lovers about town...."
"You know about that?" he whispered.
"Almost everyone does," Saria sighed wistfully. "Well, everyone that can be trusted to keep a secret, anyway. Apparently, Malon trusted me too, at one point. That's how I know about it." She gulped. "She just came from Errol Flynn's; she told me."
Link sank his fist into a pillow on a nearby couch. "She doesn't know I know," he told Saria. "But at Clark Gable's party last week, I saw her in the bedroom with Flynn. She doesn't ..... know that I ....know! Why isn't there any way I can get back at her!?"
"Just divorce her, Link!" Saria shouted, but not loud enough so that Malon could hear her from upstairs. "It's not like you couldn't earn your money back after the divorce, and besides! WE could help you after it was all over, until your next paycheck! Please, Link! I hate to see you in this kind of pain!"
There was a long silence. Link gazed into his sister's pleading eyes. Then he stalked towards the stair case. "You're right, Saria! I've only just realized it for the first time! Money isn't worth all of this, it just isn't worth it! I'm going upstairs and talking to Malon right now!"
He ran up the stairs and wrenched up the doors to her bedroom. "Malon, get up!"
"I was never asleep," she yawned. "What is it?"
"This is the last straw, Malon! I know where you've been all night, and it's time I said that I want a divorce!"
"You what?!"
"You heard me, you monster! I want a divorce! Whaddya say, huh?! You could marry Errol, or Dick, and have just as much as you do now!"
Malon stared at him a long time, then sank back beneath her covers. "No."
Link gaped at her. "What did you say?"
"I said no! I don't want to get a divorce, it would disgrace us!"
"You wouldn't care about disgracing me! All you want to do is hurt me, you want to see me suffer, you sick beast!" Link ran over to her bed and dragged her out of it. In one quick move, he slugged her across the face. "You agree to this divorce, or I'll kill you! I swear to God I'll kill you!!"
Furious and screaming with rage, Malon grabbed a knife from her nightstand and swiped it at Link. He stooped to the floor as she plunged it into his shoulder. But before she could strike again, he shoved her into the wall, and punched her hard enough to bang hre head back into the plaster. She sank to the floor, unconcious again.
Shaking with nervousness and fury, Link gripped his shoulder tightly. Then he ran over to the phone and dialed a number.
Zelda bolted upright in bed, the phone ringing right next to her. Her eyes blurred with drowsiness, she tried to pick it up.
"C'mon, pick up!" Link moaned. "Please, pick up, Zelda!"
"H-hello?"
"Baby, it's me....it's me!"
"Link, it's a quarter after one, what is it?!"
"Another fight between me and Malon....she stabbed my shoulder, and I need--I need to talk to someone. C-could you meet me on the edge of Lacienega?"
"Of course, I'll be there right away!" Zelda said. She hung up the phone and ran into her closet. She grabbed the first dress she saw (purple satin) and slipped it over her skimpy nightdress. Then she grabbed a long overcoat and hurried out of her door.
She almost screamed when she saw her mother standing right outside her door. "And where are you going at this time of night, may I ask?" Madeline asked her sweetly.
"Please mother, I've got to go!" Zelda cried, trying to get past her.
"It was the phone call, who was it from?" Madeline insisted. "Not me nor your father picked it up, and the maids are all in their bedrooms, where they are too far away to hear any phones ringing. Who was that call from?"
"I can't tell you! And if I don't leave immediately, he's going to--"
"He? Who's he?" Madeline inquired suspiciously. "Zelda, are you going around with some admirer I don't know about?"
"Yes!" Zelda said, anything to make her mother shut up. "Yes, Richard Vey, Greer Garson's co-star! She introduced him to me one day at the studio and now we're lovers and he got in a fight with his wi--sister and he's dreadfully hurt and I have to go see to him immediately!"
"Of course, child," Madeline said, after a pause. "You must go to him at once."
Zelda flew down the staircase and grabbed the keys to her father's car. Within two seconds, she was out the door. But she knew eventually her mother would find out there was no relationship between her and Vey. She'd nose about, asking everyone everything about the two of them until she realized it was all a lie.
But she'd had to say it at the moment, or else her mother never would've let her go at such an hour. Hastily, Zelda turned on the windshield wipers as rain began to pour down at an alarming rate.
She was cruising down Sunset as fast as she could, she wouldn't need to stay on it much longer--and then there was Lacienega Boulevard. Zelda pulled over immediately as she saw a stooped figure in the rain. Hurriedly she rolled down her window and said, "Quickly, get in the car!"
Zelda stared as a strange man stepped into the car and said, "Thank you, Miss." She looked at him again, and then noticed Link on the other side of the street.
Impatiently, she shoved the man out of the car. "Not YOU, I don't even know you!" Then she got out of the vehicle herself and ran across the gritty street to Link. "Link, I'm over here!"
Link turned around and grasped his arm again as she ran towards him. "Where's your car? I need to sit down..."
"It's right over here, come on!" She led him carefully into the automobile and then got in herself. "We've got to get somewhere where we can be alone," she said to him. After about twenty minutes of silent driving, she managed to find a deserted lot. Instantly, she parked the car and turned to face Link. Zelda gasped as she saw a large, bleeding bandage wrapped tightly around Link's arm. "Link! What did that cat do to you?!"
"I told you," Link said through gritted teeth, trying to kill the pain. "She stabbed me with a knife."
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Sympathetically, Zelda positioned herself on his lap so as not to disturb his arm. "I wish there was something I could do!"
"I told her I wanted a divorce," Link wheezed. "Saria helped me realize that I won't go broke if I divorce her. But when I told her about it, she refused. I tried to force her to agree with me, but she wouldn't. So I slapped her, she stabbed me, and then I slugged her again and now she's unconcious." He took a deep breath to steady himself.
"I....oh Link, that's terrible...."
"And she's been having little facades here and there," Link said. "Sometimes even not coming home at night, probably at Flynn's or Gable's or something like that." He choked on his words. "I don't know how to get back at her."
Zelda lifted Link's hand and placed it at the base of her neck. "Use me at the next party you go to. Kiss me in front of her, make her jealous! We've got to come out about this at some point, Link!"
His eyes widened. "Zelda, you know we could never do that! Besides, Hedda Hopper is at all of those parties, she'd have us on the front page in no time! And our families, what would they say? They would murder me, and I don't know what your folks would do to you!"
"Not if they weren't there!" Zelda said desperately. "Please, I have to do this, I want to!" She emphasized this desire by kissing him passionately. Her mouth moved over each part of his lips, not wanting to leave any space untouched. Zelda's hands massaged his back and neck, stroking nearly every part of him except his wounded arm.
"Maybe....you're right," Link breathed between kisses. "Did you get an invite to the next party at Davis'?"
"You mean celebrating her new movie?" Zelda breathed, running her lips down his cheek. "Yeah."
"Perfect," Link whispered sensually. "I'll be there, too. I'll take Malon along with me; she'd be thrilled to go. And then I'll give her a taste of her own medicine right there. And what's more, who's house to go to with a plan like this other than Bette Davis'? She'd revel in my revenge, she's just that kind of person."
"I know," Zelda said softly, tracing his ear with her mouth. "I'd like very much to see her reaction...." Suddenly she pulled away from Link and asked, "But what if she tells your parents about all this?"
"She won't," Link chuckled. "Or else I'll threaten to expose HER to her own parents. Her mother would highly disapprove of her running about with two other men while she's married to me."
"How smart," Zelda cooed, smiling. She ran her tongue along his bottom lip slowly. "She'll never know what hit her."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Greer, I think I owe you an apology," Zelda said the next day.
"You mean you dropped Link?" Greer asked hopefully with a grin.
"Nope, not even close!" Zelda said, still smiling. "But I used your crush as an excuse to go see him in the middle of the night the other day. But only to talk with him about an argument he had with Malon."
Greer's mouth dropped. "You mean that you said something about you and Richard? MY Mr. Vey?!"
"Sorry," Zelda apologized. "But don't worry about it, my mother will figure out the truth sooner or later; and by then I'll have thought up another excuse."
Sighing, Greer stood up. "All right, I just hope you know what you're doing."
"Of course I do. You going to Bette Davis's party next week?"
"I'm not sure if I want to go or not....why?"
"You may be in for a pleasant surprise if you decide to show up, that's all." She smiled brightly. "I do hope you'll be there."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
a/n: hope that was okay
just wait till i add more! MUA HA HA HA!!!