26.
On the afternoon of the party, the house is hushed. Expectant. It’s a change. All week, until this morning, it churned with activity. But now the florists and confectioners have gone, dropping off their arrangements, their bowls of trailing ivy and hothouse roses, their iced petits fours, their candied lavender and orange-blossom petals, and other delicacies beyond the household’s practical expertise.
Though our humble kitchen has been busy, too. The lobster bisque, the dripping, spit-roasted beef, the waft of potatoes broiled in tarragon and butter have been planned, prepared, and executed under Mrs. Sullivan’s scrupulous eye. She has chosen most of her recipes from before the war, and I can’t help but worry that they are too extravagant for the sober climate. Certainly they are tastes that I have not sampled in years. The aroma alone sets my stomach into embarrassing gurgles of anticipation.
The table is set with the best lace and linens. Every stick of silver has been polished to luster. Passing through the dining room earlier, I imagine that the very walls and windows hold their breath, as if nothing less than a coronation is taking place tonight.
Quinn calls this evening his mother’s folly, but he’d never trust Aunt Clara to make it a success, so he himself has paid personal attention to every detail. From the wording on Aunt Clara’s carefully penned invitations to the order of the dancing and the proper moment, just before the port and cheese, for announcing our engagement.
Such a delicate evening couldn’t be left to Aunt. We’re both well aware that our news must be managed with grace. “And with respect for our dear brothers, William and Tobias. They are our very own guardian angels, and we pray that they will guide us with temperance and protect us from life’s unhappy vagaries,” Quinn had recited late last night as we’d sat together, watching the dying embers in the sitting room. Quinn had wanted to practice some of his speech out loud to me before he faced down Brookline society.
“Yes, quite right,” I’d answered.
“Then, what’s wrong?”
“I suppose I’m fearful that people might judge me harshly,” I admitted. “One brother, now the other. Geist said my heart might not have caught up to ”
“Ah, to hell with whatever Geist says.” Quinn’s brows had knit as he’d folded the paper into his pocket. “He’s a moldering old bachelor and a gypsy swindler to boot. You know that many wartime widows are remarrying, Jennie. People aren’t meant to live lonely.” But then he’d turned boyish and clinging, dropping from his chair to rest his head in my lap. My hand had reached to stroke the ginger curls, soft as a child’s. I am taken aback. Quinn was so rarely given to acts of vulnerability. I think of how Will used to waggle and bounce, throwing himself at me like an excited puppy.
“You are right, of course,” I’d whispered.
“We’ve been far too isolated here, haven’t we?” he’d whispered back. “It’s bound to make us worry over how we’ll conduct ourselves in society. But a reintroduction to our friends and neighbors ought to do everyone some good. I’ll mourn both our brothers for the rest of my life, but let us resolve to shine some light in each other’s lives as well.”
“You’re right, dear Quinn. Let’s.”
How I’d wanted to put my faith in this thought, how dismayed I’d been that its comfort doesn’t hold.
That night, as I’d lain awake, I’d made a secret prayer that this party will be the prelude to a farewell. Of one thing I was certain: for as long as I remain at Pritchett House, I will live in anxiety and dread.
When the time is right I’ll suggest to Quinn what has weighed heavy on my mind that we need to move from here. We can live in Boston or Hartford, away from Aunt and Uncle. Away from this house of nightmares. No Bible, no prayers or blessing by Father Sheehan or Reverend Meeks could possibly drive out the vengeful spirit in the house. We will escape it instead. I want Mavis to come with me, too, though I haven’t dared put the question to her yet. Pritchett House is all she knows. For now I will keep my plan secret.
That night and the next day pass uneasily as I help Aunt Clara with the minute arrangements of seating charts and music selection.
“Do you think everybody will come?” I ask.
Patches of angry pink appear in Aunt’s cheeks. “Are you implying that anyone would dare refuse?” she snaps. “Jennie, we are
Not I, not really, not yet. But I use her dudgeon to take quick leave, retreating to my room, where I wait for Madame Broussard, who will be making Aunt’s and my last-minute alterations.
Sunlight has ignited my bedroom, but the room itself is cold just as it had been in my attic. I build up the fire and settle back with some lacework.
Percy, the calico kitten that Mavis has given me in secret, looks up at me from his basket. So far, the kitten has not seemed the least bit troubled by malevolent spirits. In fact, he seems quite content with his flannel-lined bed and yarn mouse. He is a sweet thing with unblinking amber eyes, and what Aunt doesn’t know of his presence won’t hurt her.
The kitten’s belled collar tinkles faintly as he jumps into my lap. His purring is warmth and music. My eyes close into memories of a long-ago sled ride. I am waiting my turn on the top of a hill as Quinn prepares to launch Will and me. Quinn had pushed hard and fast, and the sled’s bells jingled as we’d whooped our delight turning almost instantly to terror as one runner caught a buried rock and sent us jettisoning into the air, flipping over the sled, slamming our bodies through space to land hard and skid against the ice-packed earth.
“You did it on purpose!” Will had accused his brother in a spitting fury as we’d collected ourselves. “You wanted to scare everyone off the sled why, you probably planted the rock, too and I’m gonna tan your arse for it!” Invoking the stable boy’s rough language and tone so aptly, it shocked us all.
“Toby, stop him!” I called through my drenched, mittened hands as Toby chased Will, who was chasing Quinn up and down the meadow. Afterward we’d all trod back into the house for cider and molasses cake. The chaos of the event soon forgotten as we’d all indulged our sweet tooth. Later Quinn admitted to us all that he’d wanted to see what would happen if he pushed us with all his strength “but I didn’t hide the rock, Will. And I can’t apologize for something I didn’t do.”
Yet Will had refused to accept this, looking daggers at his brother for the rest of the day.
“
“Oh…” I wince. Strangely, I feel bruised all over, a phantom pain as if I’d taken that fall from the sled only minutes ago. I glance at the mantel clock, and I see with shock that it is stopped at half past two.
The undertow, catching back my past, drowning me deep inside it.
The room is like ice. The fire has died and the window is frosted. Percy has left my lap to shiver in a ball in his basket.
“Let me light the fire.
Outside, the afternoon sun is a butterscotch blaze, sinking fast and igniting the outline of the tree.
“
She will be disappointed. I take my position, standing on the ottoman in my whalebone corset as Madame unwraps the bottlegreen silk dress along with its pounds of accompanying petticoats plus metal-hooped crinoline.
“These latest French fashions are the tiniest bit scandalous, especially with that neckline dipping ever so slightly off your shoulders,” Madame murmurs. “You will be the talk of the soiree.” She sinks to her hands and knees, the better to make last-minute adjustments to the point-jupe cords that pick up my skirt.
“So heavy. I feel as if I’ve doubled my weight,” I remark.
“Eh, I wish.” Madame pinches some of the dress fabric, loose at the waist, though she’s taken it in once before. She works in silence, saving her thoughts until she finishes. “You’re a sparrow in peacock finery,” she
