‘No, Lynsey did.’
‘Now where is the darn thing?’ Susannah declared.
Emer found the phone on top of a pile of books on the dresser, and handed it to Susannah, who gave her the first – if tight – smile she’d offered her since Emer had arrived.
‘Hello, honey.’ Susannah’s tone immediately softened as she answered the phone.
Emer got up from the table.
‘It was Rebecca’s mom, my sister Kate, who made the quilt,’ Susannah said to Emer, putting a hand over the mouthpiece.
So Susannah’s sister had been a seamstress. Had she made all the furnishings in the house? Cushion covers, quilts on all the beds, and quilted throws on the couches? Emer left the kitchen, wandering into the main downstairs room, coffee mug in hand. The view overlooked the front porch with a swing seat, round table, wicker chairs and a white trellis covered in red leaves. Beyond the porch was the garden. Many years ago it might have been looked after lovingly, but now things clearly needed some management. She’d never been much of a gardener, but the way Susannah was reacting to her help inside the house, she guessed she’d have plenty of time on her own to give it a try.
Surveying the front room, which also appeared to be Susannah’s study, Emer determined it could do with a big clean and tidy up. Her eyes were drawn to two photographs in frames on Susannah’s desk. In the first one she recognised Lynsey, though a child, the red hair blazing around her pale face, and next to her was a younger girl, with blonde hair and blue eyes. Clearly her sister, the adored Rebecca. Emer put the photograph down and picked up the second frame. It was an old black and white photograph of a young woman sitting on the same veranda she had just looked at and smiling shyly. Emer guessed this must be the sister, Kate. She was very pretty. Emer peered at the photograph but it was hard to make out her features in the dim light. Balancing her coffee mug on top of a stack of papers on the table at the window, Emer leant across to pull back the curtains properly. Dust flew up from the heavy drapes, making her sneeze. She put down the framed picture as she sneezed again, lifting her hand to cover her nose, and knocking over her coffee cup. Dark brown liquid streaked across the stack of papers. Emer picked up the top papers in a panic, making the mess even worse in the process.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ Susannah came storming into the room and snatched the papers from her hand.
‘I’m so sorry. I was opening the curtains and I knocked my cup over.’
Susannah looked furious as she dabbed the top of her papers with her handkerchief.
‘You have copies, don’t you?’ Emer asked in a panic.
‘Of course I don’t have copies!’ Susannah indicated the old typewriter. ‘Can you not just mind your own damn business?’
‘I really am so sorry. Please, what can I do?’ Emer felt stress and panic building up in her body.
Susannah shook her head. ‘This isn’t working out. You being here, I mean. It’s not personal. I just can’t have anyone else in my house.’
‘It was an accident,’ Emer defended herself.
‘That may be, but this house is too small to have a stranger living in it with me,’ Susannah countered. ‘You can see I am quite able to look after myself.’
Susannah stood tall, but Emer could see the pain outlined in the face. Her mouth was pulled into a severe line, her forehead creased with focus, and her eyes glared with pain.
Emer took a breath, determined not to get annoyed with Susannah. ‘You might think you don’t need me, but things can change all of a sudden with pancreatic cancer,’ she said. ‘Besides, Lynsey is paying me to help you. I can’t just walk away.’
‘Don’t know why she doesn’t come and mind me herself,’ Susannah moaned. ‘But oh no, I forgot, she’s too busy being a charlatan fortune teller, making money on the back of the real history of persecution and suffering in Salem.’ Susannah shook her head, looking fierce. ‘My niece is an embarrassment.’
Emer felt sorry for Lynsey, responsible for an aunt who clearly thought her career as a tarot reader was shameful.
Susannah shrugged. ‘Well, I guess you’d better stay if Lynsey is paying you,’ she said, trying to sound indifferent. ‘Rebecca’s coming back soon. You won’t need to stay on then, she’ll help me.’
Emer plastered a smile on her face. Its rigidity made her chin tremble. ‘That’s good,’ she said. The sooner the better. Emer wanted to have a go at Susannah. Tell her how lucky she was to have a nurse all to herself. How it had been a constant stress to give all of her patients on the oncology ward the attention they needed, and yet Susannah, one woman, seemed to take up so much more space in her life after only a few days.
Susannah
July 1957
What was taking Kate so long? Susannah had been sitting outside the library for nearly a quarter of an hour waiting for her sister. Like every other day this week, she’d gone straight from school to the library. Sat at the table right at the back and by the window, away from the island gossipers up front, waiting for Mrs Matlock to come down to her. The foliage on the trees was thick, casting a green light on her hands as she turned the pages of the book. Everything was bursting with life outside. But Susannah had a lot of study to do if she was going to have any chance of her scholarship. It was less than a year ago that Mr Samuels, the principal of their small island high school, had called her
