“We were the distractions,” Vi told him easily. “I pretended to be drunk and giggled a lot. It was inane.”
“Inane? My Vi?”
She rolled her eyes and then held up another dress, the one she’d bought expressly to visit her ward away at school. It was dark with a collar, a tie, and a standard pleated skirt, but had a drop waist and higher hemline. She changed into it, only adding a simple cameo necklace and her wedding ring.
Mrs. Darcy Watkins looked like her mother. Her hair was pulled back into the same tight bun, though with less grey. Her mouth pursed into the same tight look of distaste, but when she sniffed, Vi had to snap her mouth closed to hide a reaction.
“Mrs. Watkins,” Jack said smoothly and respectfully, “thank you for seeing us.”
She sniffed, nodded, and gestured for them to enter her home. It was a contrast in stark opposite from her mother’s. The entire hall was painted grey with even darker grey stripes and only one dark grey rug in the center. On the walls was one grey and black pencil sketch. It wasn’t boring so much as restful, and Vi liked it better.
“What a lovely space,” Vi said softly. “Thank you for letting us into your home.”
Mrs. Watkins nodded and then gestured to the parlor. It was done in shades of blue and felt like the sea on a stormy day. Violet took the seat that was offered.
Jack cleared his throat when Mrs. Watkins took a seat across from them. “My mother hired you?” the woman asked.
“She did,” Jack told her. “She’s worried about Jason.”
The dark laugh from Mrs. Watkins was enough that Vi paused and her head tilted.
“You are not worried about Jason?”
“My mother is not as loving and understanding of Jason as she appears. Why he is her golden boy, no one knows, but I assure you, it is not the same for the rest of us.”
Violet leaned back and met the woman’s eyes. “Your nephew manipulates her?”
“He does,” Mrs. Watkins replied. “She favors him to the exclusion of all others. My son, who admittedly I adore, is worthy of that devotion.”
“Is he?” Vi didn’t mean for it to be a challenge, but what was the difference between this woman and her mother?
Mrs. Watkins, however, didn’t take offense. “I’m not her. I can see my children for what they are. To be fair, Tobias often smells. He spends too much time in front of the mirror, and he’s always been a terrible writer. He can’t make a written argument to save his life.”
“And yet—”
“And yet,” Mrs. Watkins replied easily, “he is kind. He works hard. He loves deeply. That, of course, is the real difference. Jason loves no one but himself, my mother included. Tobias loves quite a few people, myself and my mother included, though I am not certain she deserves it.” That resolute sniff followed her explanation and then she leaned back.
“Your son sounds delightful,” Vi told her honestly.
Mrs. Watkins nodded. “And how did my mother describe him? She normally uses those odd little insults. They’re somehow more painful than saying something truly vile.”
“Then why do you want to know?” Vi shot back with a frown.
“It helps me through the days when I think I should try harder with her. That I should reach out to try to help, to talk to her about Jason, to protect her. Every time I do, it’s like I’m asking her to hurt me and my children again. So, what did she say?”
“Perhaps—” Jack started in a tone that was gentle and Vi shook her head to cut him off.
“She knows already, Jack. Whatever the word that Mrs. Meyers used to describe her children was said and Mrs. Watkins knows already.”
“What was it?”
“Tepid,” Vi told her honestly.
“She hates tepid tea. Tepid anything.” There was a wince of pain in Mrs. Watkins’s voice.
A wince of pain and of knowing. It was an old hurt, Vi thought. The poor woman couldn’t help but know that she’d never measure up to her mother’s description of what she should be. Why was it always family who caused so much pain to each other? Vi knew the pain herself. There was a big well of old hurt in her heart from her father and stepmother.
“Just because she doesn’t see them for what they are, doesn’t mean that they’re not lovely. It just means that she’s blind.”
“She knows what they are,” Mrs. Watkins said, bitterly. “They aren’t the most passionate of creatures. But they’re true and good. I would say she’s blind, but she’s not. She just doesn’t see the beauty in what they are.”
Violet winced again. “She doesn’t seem to see the truth of her Jason.”
“Oh she knows.” That bitter tone again. “Did she put her handkerchief over her eyes and wail?”
Vi bit her bottom lip and nodded. “Tell me about Jason.”
“He was always good at lying and manipulating. As a boy, he was the one who pinched the others, made them cry, and then lied through his teeth with an angelic look on his face. He was kicked out of university. He doesn’t work. He always has some scheme, some manipulation, and when those fall through, there’s always Grandmother.”
“Do you know anything about his schemes?” Jack asked carefully. “Perhaps that is why he has disappeared.”
“I would say that’s highly likely,” Mrs. Watkins replied. “The biggest dirty truth of the Meyers family is that Jason leaves on purpose. To torment Mother and to keep her in line. Everyone else has stepped back from her because time after time she chooses Jason over them.”
“Why?” Violet demanded. “Why would she always choose him?”
“She’s capricious, but she favors him simply because he looks like Father. Her husband, you know.”
“Do you think it’s as simple as that?”
“No, of course I don’t. I think that Mother is damaged in her heart
