All She Ever Wanted (37 page)

“You intend to marry her?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Shall we set a date for the wedding, then? I’ll have many arrangements to make. And the wedding must be soon, since my business may require us to return to Dublin shortly.”

What a liar her father was. Fiona felt as though she might throw up any minute. She was terrified of being found out—both by her father and by Arthur. She wasn’t sure which would be worse.

“Unfortunately, it’s not possible to set a date, at the moment,” Arthur said. “That’s why I’ve been eager to speak with you. It would help if I knew how much longer your business will require you to stay in New York and when you might be returning to Dublin.”

Rory took a sip of coffee before answering. Fiona knew he was stalling. “I’m not sure when I’m going back.”

“What exactly is your business here, Mr. Quinn—if I might ask? I have many contacts in the financial world. Perhaps we could help you get settled here on a more permanent basis. If it’s a question of financing, I would be pleased to offer a business loan to my future father-in-law.”

Fiona could scarcely breathe, fearing disaster.

“Which bank would that be, then?” Rory asked, as if he did business with dozens of banks. Arthur told him the name. “Aye, that’s a fine institution,” Rory replied. “I appreciate the offer, Mr. Bartlett, but I have all the business I can handle, at the moment.” He glanced at Fiona, then down at her sapphire ring. “Perhaps we should keep the date open for now.”

“Thank you,” Arthur said. “I assure you that Fiona and I will set a date as soon as we’re able. I love your daughter, Mr. Quinn. I won’t rest until she becomes my wife.”

Her father finished his coffee and quickly excused himself, as if Arthur’s probes into his business affairs had scared him off. Arthur had won this round. But Fiona couldn’t stop trembling for an hour.

Chapter
26

A
t first Fiona promised herself that she wouldn’t go to Arthur’s apartment again, but she couldn’t seem to stay away. They got into the habit of leaving the speakeasies early in the evening so they could spend a few hours at the apartment and Fiona could still return to the hotel at a decent hour. And each time she was with him, Fiona found it harder and harder to leave his bed. Her longing for Arthur grew greater each day. He was so tender, so loving. She wanted to remain in his arms forever. If only his wife would let him go.

Spring arrived, and the trees and flowers on the street where Arthur lived burst into bloom. Central Park, a few blocks away, seemed like paradise— so lush and green it reminded Fiona of Ireland. She hated returning to her apartment on the Lower East Side, but she was afraid to keep nagging Arthur by asking, “How much longer?”

As they lay in bed one Friday evening, listening to the rain beat against the window, Arthur turned to her and said, “Why don’t you move in here with me, Fiona? If you lived here all the time, we wouldn’t have to run back and forth anymore. Please?”

Fiona closed her eyes, imagining how wonderful it would be. She wouldn’t have to go back out in the rain tonight and walk from the hotel to the subway after Arthur dropped her off. She wouldn’t have to ride the train across town, then walk four more blocks from the station to her tenement and sleep on a mattress in a cold room with no plumbing or electricity.

“I wish I could stay,” she said with a sigh. “If only your lawyer would hurry up with the divorce.”

“I’m tired of waiting for it to be final, aren’t you, Fiona? I want to start our new life together right now.”

“I don’t see how that’s possible.”

Arthur didn’t know that she worked in a hat shop all day, six days a week. He didn’t know that she daydreamed of the life they would have together as she fitted hats onto head blocks to steam them or as she cut hat patterns from brocade and felt. He didn’t know that she had a mother and eight sisters in Ireland, waiting for her to earn enough money so they could come to America, too.

“Why not?” he asked. “What’s stopping you from moving in?”

She thought of the parish church that she passed each day on her way to and from work—the church she could no longer go inside.

“For one thing, my father would disown me,” she said, “and then how would I afford to live? I have no money of my own. I’m dependent on him for everything.”

“Let me support you. I’ll gladly pay for the apartment and give you a generous living allowance to spend any way you want. I already feel as though you’re my wife. … You’re my life, Fiona! The only thing standing in our way is a piece of paper with my ex-wife’s signature on it.”

“Do you think she’ll sign it soon?”

“She’d probably sign it much sooner if she knew you were living here. And I’ll marry you the moment she does, I promise you. But I don’t want to lose you. I can see that your father is growing impatient with me. He wants to see you happily married, and I don’t blame him. I’m so afraid a younger, more handsome man will come along and steal you away—a man who is free to marry you.”

“I love you, Arthur. I don’t want another man.”

“Then, move in here. We can tell your father that we eloped—it’ll be true, soon enough. I can only stay here one or two nights a week, anyway, and the rest of the time this place will be all yours.”

“I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t you live here all the time?”

“My lawyer advised me not to. I need to maintain legal possession of my house in Westchester by living there. And there are always matters to discuss concerning the children and so on. Aren’t you tired of staying in the hotel, Fiona? Wouldn’t it be so much better for both of us if you lived here?”

She longed to say yes—but how could she? “I’ll think about it,” she promised. And she did—all the way home on the subway and as she walked though the dark, rainy streets. She had come to America to have a better life, but she certainly wasn’t better off in the tenement. How wonderful it would be to quit her job and live in a modern apartment with electricity and plumbing. She could set aside part of the living allowance Arthur gave her to send home to Mam and the girls.

Fiona was still deep in thought as she climbed the steep stairs to her rooms. She heard a baby wailing somewhere on the first floor and two men arguing in a foreign language on the second. The hallways stank of onions and boiled cabbage. Arthur’s apartment was warm and quiet and clean.

It would be wrong to live with Arthur if they weren’t married. But he had said that he wouldn’t really be living there; she would have the place all to herself most of the time. And she was already committing a sin by sleeping with him; at least she wouldn’t have to come home to this place anymore. Arthur was going to marry her soon—he’d promised.

Rory was sound asleep, snoring loudly when Fiona let herself into the dark apartment. Why should she have to come back here every night to cook and clean and wash for him? What was he doing to make a better life for them in America? As far as Fiona could tell, nothing! She had done all the work of introducing herself to Arthur, flirting with him, getting him to fall in love with her. Now she had a chance at a better life, so why not take it? The fact that she truly loved Arthur was an added bonus. What more did she owe her father? After working in the hat shop for more than a year, she surely must have repaid him for her passage to America by now.

Fiona undressed in the dark and crawled into bed, but she couldn’t sleep. Why should she continue living this way? No one could blame her for choosing a better life with the man she loved. If her father had an opportunity like this one, he would certainly take it.

After tossing in bed for several hours, wrestling with her thoughts and her conscience, Fiona finally reached a decision: This would be the last night she would ever spend in this bed and in this apartment. She fell asleep then, content with her choice.

The next morning, Fiona made breakfast for her father and went to work at Madame Deveau’s hat shop for the last time. “I’m leaving to get married,” she told her boss, Mrs. Gurche. “Today will be my last day here.”

The girls she worked with hugged and congratulated her when she showed them the ring Arthur had given her; she hadn’t dared to wear it to work before.

Fiona collected her pay that afternoon and raced back to the tenement so she could pack her belongings before her father got home from work. She left him her entire week’s pay from the hat shop and a note:
Arthur and I have eloped. I’ve quit my job and moved into his apartment. If you come by once a week, I’ll give you money for Mam and the girls out of the living allowance Arthur gives me
. She wrote down his address.

Fiona had no regrets as she walked away and no second thoughts. She never once looked back.

Fiona was alone in Arthur’s apartment a few days later when the doorman rang for her. “There’s a gentleman down here to see you, ma’am. He says his name is Rory Quinn.”

For a moment, Fiona couldn’t think what to do. The truth was, she didn’t want to see her father. She didn’t want to be reminded of who she really was and where she’d come from. In the few short days that she’d lived here, Fiona already felt like a different woman—a wealthy woman who lived in a lovely, modern apartment and could afford to shop in expensive stores. Arthur was a very generous man. He’d not only given her spending money, he’d gone out and bought new clothes for her himself: a beaded cocktail dress and silk stockings and lingerie that felt as light and smooth as water against her skin.

“Ma’am? Are you still there?” Charles asked when she didn’t reply.

“Yes—thank you, Charles. Tell him I’ll be right down.” The apartment would feel tainted, somehow, if she invited her father up.

“Hello, Dad,” she said when she reached the lobby. She wanted the doorman to know who Rory was in case he told Arthur that a strange man had come calling. “Let’s go for a walk, shall we?”

She was afraid, for a moment, that Rory would refuse and make a scene right there in the lobby in front of Charles. Fiona could tell by the high color in her father’s cheeks that he was angry—and barely holding back his temper. She took his arm and led him outside before he could refuse.

“Isn’t this a lovely neighborhood?” she asked as they walked. “And Central Park is only a few blocks away. The park is so beautiful this time of year, and—”

“I didn’t come for a stroll in the park, Fiona.” He stopped, pulling her to a halt beside him. Fiona glanced back at the apartment building, hoping the doorman wasn’t watching.

“I’m sorry that we ran off and eloped without your permission, Dad, but—”

“Stop the lies, girl! I know the truth. I looked into the man’s background. Arthur Bartlett is every bit as rich as he says he is—a Wall Street banker with investments everywhere. But he’s
married,
Fiona. He’s a married man with two children.”

“I know,” she said quietly. “I’ve known for some time. Arthur told me the truth months ago. But he’s in the process of divorcing his wife, and we’ll be married as soon as it’s final. She’ll probably be eager to sign the papers now that she knows I’m living here. I love Arthur, and he loves me.”

“You’re so nai
ve,” Rory said in a trembling voice. “Now that he’s moved you in here and made you his mistress he’ll never divorce his wife.”

“I’m not his mistress! Arthur
does
want to marry me. He says that I’m his real wife, not her.” Rory closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again Fiona saw tears in them.

“’Tis my own fault for driving you to this—my own daughter. But this isn’t the life I wanted for you, Fiona. I never meant for this to happen. Go get your things. You’re leaving him and coming home with me.”

“No!”

“You’ll do as I say, do you hear?”

“I won’t. I’ve done everything you’ve said, all along, but I won’t anymore. You didn’t get this lovely apartment for me—I got it myself. And now you expect me to just leave it all because
you
said so? You expect me to go back to work in some sweatshop again and live in rat-infested rooms with all the dirt and disease? Never! You’re the one who taught me to want more in life than what Mam had—and I did everything you said. You can’t expect me to go back to that now. I won’t do it!”

“Arthur Bartlett deceived you. He pretended he wasn’t married when all the time he was.”

“And we deceived him, Dad. I pretended to be someone I wasn’t. What’s the difference? You can hardly cry ‘unfair.’”

“What about your mother and sisters? You were supposed to marry well and help pay their way. Do you think he’ll let them move in here with you?”

“I’m certain Arthur will help pay their way once we’re married. Besides, I’ve been giving you my pay every week for almost a year. What happened to all the money we’ve earned? Why haven’t you sent for Mam and the girls?”

“I’ll not have you talking to me this way.”

“And I’ll not have you controlling my life for one more day. I’ve done everything you said—giving up Kevin Malloy, stealing onboard the ship, breaking into stores at night, and throwing myself at Arthur at the theater that first time. But not anymore, Dad. Without me to cook and wash for you, maybe you’ll finally have a reason to send for Mam.”