The Gilded Hour (51 page)

In fact Sophie didn’t doubt the news at all, but studying the telegram gave her a few moments to think of other things without being observed too closely. A necessary deception, she told herself. Cap was still recovering from Friday, and she had gone to some lengths to see that nothing new was laid before him for as long as humanly possible. If their places were reversed she would not thank him for such interference, but she was his physician as well as his wife, and as such it was her responsibility. And more than that, she could not bring herself to open up the discussion of the Campbell boys; she could barely stand to think about them at all.

And still the image of Janine Campbell as she had last seen her would not be banished. All over the city people were convincing themselves that she had killed her sons, but Sophie hadn’t seen any evidence of psychosis when she saw her, just weeks ago. Depression, yes. Anger, too, and despair. But to deliberately set out with the boys to kill them and return home alone, that required a coldhearted forethought or a complete break with reality, neither of which she could see.

When the door chime came to them Cap said, “Go on, I know you can’t wait.”

She flew across the room and smiled at him from the door as she took off her protective mask. “I’ll bring them straight up.”

•   •   •

A
NNA
LOOKED
ALMOST
burnished, as if she had been buffeted by hard winds off a cold sea and then polished by sunlight. And she was smiling, a sincere smile without artifice. Sophie folded her cousin into her arms and hugged her as hard as she could.

“Ouch.” Anna laughed, pulling away. “You never will learn your own strength.”

Sophie turned to Jack and hugged him, too, and got no complaints.

“You two,” Sophie said. “Always up to tricks.” She had tears in her eyes, but she didn’t care and for once Anna didn’t seem to mind at all. Her calm, resolute, generally impenetrable expression was gone. For today, at least.

“How’s Cap?” Jack wanted to know.

“Fairly calm. Recovering.” It was close enough to the truth. “He met with Conrad for two hours this afternoon and then I put an end to it. But we can talk about that later.”

They started up the stairs and Sophie noticed the paper tucked under Jack’s arm.

He caught her gaze and nodded.

Sophie said, “Let’s leave that sorry business aside for now too, can we do that? He hasn’t seen the paper yet.”

Anna raised a brow in surprise. “Cap without the Sunday newspapers—”

“It took some finagling,” Sophie admitted. “And now I’m going to insist that we leave everything else aside, to celebrate—”

“Anna’s capitulation,” Jack supplied.

Anna paused on the stair to look over her shoulder and raise her brow at him. “I’ll argue with you about that word later.”

“And I’ll look forward to the argument.”

It was good to see them bantering and at ease with each other. Sophie wished she could say the same of herself and Cap. He was distant and worried and in pain, and she wanted very badly to get him on the next ship that left New York harbor. Anna would know all this without being told in explicit terms. No doubt she had spoken to Jack about it. For the moment, though, Anna’s attention was focused in a different direction.

“Have you had word from Roses today?” she asked.

From his room Cap called out, “An avalanche of words. One note after the other.”

Anna stopped in the doorway to look at him. “Not about a party, I hope.”

Sophie nudged her into the room and took Jack’s arm to get him moving, too. Then she closed the door behind them.

“Of course,” Cap said. “You didn’t really think you could talk them out of one, I hope.”

Jack said, “Cap, you look a sight better than the last time I saw you. Marriage agrees with you.”

Cap’s lopsided grin came and went. “You have dark circles under your eyes, so I’ll assume the same for you.”

Sophie let out a squawk of surprised laughter, but Anna just frowned at Cap. “Marriage hasn’t done anything for your manners. But I am glad to see you, nonetheless.”

Jack said, “So you’re saying we need to be prepared for a surprise party when we get to Roses?”

Sophie shot Cap an irritated frown, but she should have known he couldn’t keep the news to himself.

“You might as well tell us,” Anna said. “What is Auntie up to?”

“Never mind about Auntie for the moment,” Sophie said. “Let’s sit down. I want to hear about this sudden launch into marriage. Every detail. Right from the beginning.”

The conversation stretched from one side of the room to the other, where Cap sat in strict isolation. Sophie thought she might someday get used to this, this being close and far at once. If fate was kind she would have the chance.

Cap said, “If you wanted to get married in a hurry you didn’t need to go off to Staten Island. You could have done it at City Hall with less fuss.”

“We didn’t go to Staten Island thinking we’d get married,” Jack said. “That was just fortunate timing and my good luck.”

“They went to talk to the priest about the littlest Russo boy,” Sophie reminded Cap. She turned to Anna. “No success?”

“We didn’t find Father McKinnawae,” Anna said, and then hesitated, her face turned toward the closed door. “What are those voices I’m hearing downstairs?”

Sophie shrugged at her apologetically. “You knew Auntie couldn’t help herself.”

“Everybody? The whole household is here?”

“Your people too,” Cap said to Jack. “You never said your father was a giant.”

Jack’s expression had been calm, almost sleepy, Sophie thought, but his head came around with a jerk.

“My people?”

“Your sisters, and your parents,” Sophie said. “Aunts, uncles, a couple brothers. I didn’t catch all the names.”

Anna gave a small shake of the head, and then she laughed.

“We thought we were so clever,” she said. “That will show us.”

Jack put a hand on her neck and kissed the top of her head. “Between my sisters and your aunt it was inevitable. None of them has any self-control when it comes to a party.”

“They love you,” Sophie said. “We love you. And we’re all happy for you.”

Cap said, “You’d better go down before they storm the castle, but tell us first about what happened on Staten Island. You didn’t find your Father McKinnawae, but something happened, I can tell from Anna’s expression.”

Anna said, “We can’t talk about this with the Russo girls in the house. Not a word about Father McKinnawae or Staten Island. Not today. Maybe not ever.”

“You found him,” Sophie said. “You found Vittorio?”

Anna nodded and Jack studied his shoes. Another set of complications, something Sophie hadn’t anticipated.

“You’re right,” Cap said. “This is a discussion for another day. Go on now, there’s a party waiting to get started in the garden. Come back up here when you can,” he added. “That will be time enough to talk about the inquest and the Campbell boys.”

Sophie froze where she stood.

From the door Anna looked back at her. “Of course he’s read the papers. You know how he is.”

“She did her best to keep them from me,” Cap said. “But all she had was Mrs. Harrison helping her, while I had Mr. Vine on my side, and Mr. Vine has a checkered but quite useful past when it comes to smuggling.”

•   •   •

I
N
THE
HALL
outside Cap’s room Sophie said, “I did try to hide the news from him. Or I suppose I was trying to hide it from myself. I can’t bear to think about those boys.”

Anna put an arm around her shoulder and kissed her cheek. “Sophie, I
don’t mean to be unfeeling, really. I am terribly worried about the Campbell boys, but I’m asking you to put all that aside for just a little while. I’m about to meet my parents-in-law and I can’t think of much else.”

“Come on then,” Jack said with a resigned smile. “Let’s put you out of your misery.”

“I don’t even have time to change into better clothes,” Anna mumbled, but she let herself be led downstairs.

“We’ve been outmaneuvered,” Jack said, squeezing her hand. “Let’s surrender with our dignity intact.”

•   •   •

T
HE
FIRST
THING
Anna noticed as they walked into the garden was Rosa and Lia, each of them hopping in excitement, their arms full of flowers. They hurtled themselves toward her, and she crouched down, arms spread, to catch them up. She thought,
Your brother is healthy and well and I’m sorry I can’t say even that much to you
. Instead she hugged them and kissed their cheeks and took the bouquets they thrust at her, fat pink and white peonies so full of scent that she sneezed, and set the whole party to laughing.

When she looked up Aunt Quinlan was there, leaning on her cane. Anna went to her, this small woman as fragile as an iron rod, unflinching and absolute in her love and devotion. She pressed her face to her aunt’s and drew in a deep breath. There was nothing to say, because she couldn’t put what she was feeling into words.

“Come now,” her aunt said. “Let me have a look at this husband of yours, and then we’ll sit down with your new family.”

•   •   •

F
ROM
THE
HALL
windows Sophie and Cap watched as Anna was drawn into the circle of Jack’s family, with his mother at the center and his father as tall and solid as a tree trunk beside her. Jack was very tall, but his father was a half head taller still. Mrs. Mezzanotte was straight and strong too, a woman sure of herself, with a gaze that was not stern, exactly, but missed nothing. Very much like Anna herself. Her two daughters were with her, the quiet and gentle Celestina and Bambina, younger and harder of heart, and two aunts. All of the women stepped forward to draw Anna in while the men of the family looked on.

“At least this way she doesn’t have to meet the whole family at once,”
Sophie said. Most of Anna’s new family had stayed behind at Greenwood. Mrs. Mezzanotte had explained the reasoning to Sophie in her excellent English, almost as if she were apologizing for failing to produce every Mezzanotte on the continent.

She had said, “They are all of them unhappy with me, because they wanted to be here to welcome Anna into the family. But my daughters-in-law are a force to be reckoned with, and I put down my foot. I wanted her to myself for this afternoon, at least.”

For Sophie it had been an awkward introduction, because Bambina was standing next to her mother and she had heard more about Bambina than she really cared to know. But the younger Mezzanotte sister had smiled and spoken to Sophie with all good manners. Either she had undergone a change of heart, or she had been threatened with dire consequences. Sophie knew it was most likely the latter, but Mrs. Mezzanotte’s kind smile gave her some reason to think that the situation might turn out well.

•   •   •

I
N
THE
GARDEN
Jack’s father took Anna by the shoulders, eyes narrowed as if he were examining a botanical specimen, and then kissed her on each cheek, breaking into a smile so much like Jack’s that Sophie found herself laughing.

“I’ve never seen Anna so nervous,” Sophie said, still at the window. “And all for naught. They love her.”

“Italians are supposed to be shouting at each other all the time,” Cap said. “I thought there would at least be some sparks.”

Anna, who was uncomfortable with strangers and never overly demonstrative even with those she loved best, her cousin Anna was being passed from stranger to stranger like a precious but unbreakable treasure. They turned her one way and another to examine her from all sides, touched her face, ran hands over her hair. And she was smiling, answering questions and asking them, too, sometimes looking to Jack and sometimes not.

“That man is besotted,” Cap said. “And damned lucky, too.” His voice wavered, as Sophie knew her own voice might.

“Let’s go sit together,” she said. “Side by side. Can we do that, just for a little while?”

His hand came to rest lightly on her shoulder, a gentle brushing. Such sadness and resignation in his face. Sophie followed him, listening to the
sounds of the party in the garden that would go on, as was right and necessary, without them.

•   •   •

A
NNA
PLEADED
EXHAUSTION
and an early start to her Monday, promised long visits and dinners and talks, tours of Roses and Weeds and the New Amsterdam, and finally with Jack’s help she was able to extricate herself from the crowd of Mezzanottes in Cap’s garden. She corrected herself: in Cap and Sophie’s garden.

Rosa and Lia made impassioned pleas to go back with them to Waverly Place but were distracted very easily by Mrs. Mezzanotte. Anna listened to a very serious discussion in Italian, and remembered what Jack had said about the comfort of hearing your own language in a strange land.

In the end they climbed into a taxi alone. They had never managed to talk to Sophie and Cap about the inquest or about the Campbell boys. Like so many things, it would have to wait.

Jack put an arm around her and she leaned into him and hummed. “I like your parents.”

“I hoped you would. It wasn’t the way I planned it happening, but there were some advantages to the spontaneous.”

“Aunt Quinlan,” Anna agreed. “She got hold of them first and paved the way. She does that a lot. She would have made an excellent ambassador.”

“Did you notice Lia?” Jack said. “She wouldn’t let go of my father. Margaret didn’t seem to mind, she was off in a corner talking to Aunt Philomena.”

“Everybody was on their best behavior,” Anna agreed. “But I still feel as if I was run over by an omnibus.”

•   •   •

M
R
. L
EE
WAS
waiting for them at the house. The minute he took her hands in his, the calm and dignity that Anna had held on to so tightly all afternoon just melted away.

“Miss Anna,” he said. “I wish you and your new husband the very best.”

Her voice suddenly hoarse, Anna said, “Why thank you, Mr. Lee. And I almost got through the whole day without tears.”