A Broken Promise

Chapter 21

Georgia placed her glasses back on her nose and turned towards Diana and Carrie. She couldn't help her puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks but she did her best to regain her composure. "Did you want to review where we were on the party?" she asked as she moved back towards the table.

"Was Mr. Mailler hugging you?" Carrie asked, her eyes rounded in awe.

"Yes," Georgia said, unwilling to elaborate which caused there to be a tense silence.

"Carrie, would you please leave us alone. I need to talk to Georgia in private."

Carrie looked from one to the other than nodded as she slowly left the room. Georgia had little doubt that she was running off to tell what she had just witnessed to the first person she could find.      

Georgia sat in the chair at the table while Diana paced the room, looking at this and that, not saying a word. "Diana, it's alright, ask your questions. You need to know."

Diana spun around to face her, a look of hurt on her face. It was a look she had never seen on Diana before.  She was honestly upset and for Georgia it was a relief to see. She had always known that Diana had deeper feelings than she let on about. Many times she had defended the girl to Ewan, saying that she was lost and needed direction. Now she had confirmation that what she had felt was true.

"And you'll be honest just like you were the first time I asked you, right?" Bitterness hung on every word.

"I know it was semantics, but I was not, at that time of your question, having a relationship with your brother. It was understood that there was no place for it here, in the real world." Georgia swept her arm around her.

Diana was staring at her hard and she looked so much like Ewan at that moment that she couldn't help the sad smile that stole across her lips.

"What!" Diana demanded as she caught the look.

"You look so much like your brother right now. You're wearing the same obstinate look that he gets when he's not happy with me."

Diana suddenly broke into tears and fell onto the little settee behind her. Georgia rose and moved to sit beside her, taking her in her arms and letting her cry, and Georgia's tears started all over again. "I know, Diana. I do know." And she did.

"Why can't he love me, why do you know him so much better than I do? He's my brother, my family, and I've never known him, he has always been a stranger. I used to blame the age difference but that's not it is it?"

"No, that's not it. Why don't you ask your questions and I'll do my best to answer them and this time I'll be honest no matter how much it hurts you or me. I think maybe you'll find some of your answers that way."

Diana nodded sniffing as she pulled away and sat facing her. Georgia followed her lead and turned to face her keeping her body language as open as possible.

"When did it start? Why? How? How often?"

Georgia cleared her throat. "It started after about a year. I had to travel back to the U.S. to keep my work visa, Ewan was on the same flight as I was and we had a layover in Dublin. We talked, admitted to a mutual attraction, and our loneliness took care of the rest."

"Ewan, lonely?" Diana snorted her doubt.

"He's very lonely Diana. Who does he have? All he does is work and take care of others. There's no time for him.  Together we made time." Diana looked at her and she could guess her next question so she answered it. "One week every year at my beach cottage. When we came home that was it until the next year."

"If you love him like you claim too, how could you stand it?"

Georgia shrugged looking down at her hands. "I loved him, I took what I could get. But it turns out we both broke a promise. A promise not to fall in love.  All we had was one week a year and no more. I wanted so much more and it turned out so did he, but we were both too scared of losing what little we had, making us both afraid to share how much more we wanted."