The Lucky Ones by Anna Godbersen Read Free Book Online Page B

remember that. Get yourself invited to as many parties as possible, and when you’re there, practice picking out the most important man in the room. When I was coming up, I used to time myself—I got so good I could pick out the heavy before the boy had even taken my coat.” Sophia fixed a cigarette into her cigarette holder and paused her monologue long enough to let a man materialize and light it for her. “Thank you,” she said dismissively. “Now,” she went on, when the man was gone, “you try it.”
    Letty sat up straight and brushed her hands across the bright lap of her dress. Her blue eyes went right and left, taking in the faces of the guests. They were interesting, proud faces, wily and shining and gay, and for a moment Letty couldn’t see how any one of them might be singled out as special. Almost every one of them looked as though they had been to Europe twice and kept their own chauffeur and a charge account at Bendel’s. The columnist Claude Carrion, whom she recognized from The Vault, was walking across the floor with his shoulders thrown back, and Letty, who had heard Sophia mention his name several times while they were getting ready, wondered if this were a kind of test and he might be the most important man in the room.
    Then she caught sight of a face that made her smile involuntarily, and she forgot what she had been searching for in the previous moment.
    “Oh… Will you excuse me? I see someone I know.”
    “I don’t think you found the heavy, doll.” Sophia gave Letty’s shoulder a light slap as her red lips parted in a beneficent smile. “But if you must. A man who is not important today may be important tomorrow, and one can’t always tell who happens to be the second cousin of a king.”
    “Thank you,” Letty said gratefully, as though she needed special permission to walk over to the man leaning on the marble balustrade outside on the porch. When he noticed her, he stepped in her direction with his hand lifted in greeting.
    The way it had been the last time she had spoken to Grady Lodge did not fully occur to her until she was beside him. The memory turned her cheeks pink. It was the night he had been planning to introduce her to his parents, but she had behaved badly and forgotten, and by the time she had turned up he hadn’t wanted to anymore. That was the night she learned that he chose to live on the pennies he made as a writer, even though the Lodges were millionaires. She’d seen him only once since, and they hadn’t spoken. He had been escorting a girl named Peachy Whitburn, who was from the same world as Astrid Donal and already knew how to walk across a room like she owned it.
    “How,” Letty said, mimicking his hand gesture.
    “How,” he replied with a laugh. “I am glad to see you still blush,” he went on, and the tone of his voice told her that he wasn’t angry anymore. “It’s a telltale sign that you’re still human, no matter the company you keep.”
    “Oh.” Wishing she could stop blushing now, Letty placed a palm on her cheek.
    “I’m sorry. Did that sound harsh? It was a pretentious thing to say. I only meant that I read about your ascent almost every day.”
    “It can’t be every day.” Averting her gaze, Letty caught a glimpse of Sophia, watching her from the sofa. “I certainly haven’t done anything to deserve that kind of attention.”
    “Perhaps the current coverage is an advance on your future activities. I’d like to think I’m the only one who knows you’re special, but that doesn’t seem very likely.” Saying this, Grady smiled, almost sadly, and put his hands deeper into the pockets of his trousers.
    The flattery sent a pleasant ripple over the naked skin of Letty’s arms that lasted until she saw the sadness persisting in his deep-set gray eyes. “Are you courting Peachy Whitburn now?” she asked awkwardly. “I saw you together that time at The Vault, and you seemed so happy together.”
    “Oh, yes—Peachy,” he