Where the Light Enters

by Sara Donati

  “Of course you must have a typewriter,” she said. “You can have whatever model you find best. This is the study, I hope you can turn it into an office that will meet your needs. I expect you’ll want to set up an account at Mackintosh’s, or any place else you prefer. Mr. Belmont is expecting you in his office so he can explain how the banking works and arrange introductions.”

  She paused to gather both thoughts and courage.

  “Let me make something clear, Mr. Reason. I will not be peering over your shoulder to judge your every decision. If I didn’t trust you, you wouldn’t be here. I’ll ask questions when I have them, and you should do the same. We can start every day by meeting to discuss goals, and then at the end of the week I’d like a summary of where we stand. Does that sound like a reasonable approach?”

  “Yes,” he said. “I think that will be a good start. With one addition. I would like to go over the bookkeeping with you once a week. To avoid confusion.”

  Something in his tone caught her attention. She considered him for a moment. “I am not distrustful by nature—”

  “But I am,” he said. “And I want no room for doubt.”

  Sophie stood. “Fine. We can go over the bookkeeping once a week. I can approve larger purchases before you make them, would that help?”

  She leaned over to snatch a pen, dipped it in the ink bottle, and scribbled her initials onto his neatly typed sheet. Aware that she was overreacting, but unable to stop herself.

  “If that is satisfactory, I’ll leave you here to get started. You should know that I will be gone over the weekend. You are in no way obligated to start before Monday, but if you would like to get a head start on things while I’m away, I will gladly pay you overtime.”

  There was something in his gaze she couldn’t name. Not anger or irritation, nor was it surprise or confusion. Then it came to her: Sam Reason was finding it as hard to read her expression as she found reading his. And that struck her as a good thing.

  33

  IT WAS NED Nediani, or Baldy-Ned, as the younger family members liked to call him despite—or because of—his unruly head of thick black hair who was pressed into service as majordomo on the long-awaited trip to Greenwood.

  Sophie watched as Ned organized the transport of three older ladies and their mountain of baskets, hampers, bags, and reticules to the foot of Christopher Street in time for the eight o’clock Hoboken ferry. When they were safely aboard and had seats, she congratulated him.

  “You could organize an army with less trouble,” she suggested. “Maybe you missed your calling.”

  “They wouldn’t know what to do with Ned in the army,” Jack said.

  “And we wouldn’t know what to do without him here,” Anna shot back, elbowing her husband.

  Sophie settled Pip on her lap and watched the way Bambina’s eyes followed as Ned made his way across the cabin to check on Aunt Quinlan, Mrs. Lee, and Jack’s Aunt Philomena. Bambina dropped her gaze when she realized that she was giving too much away. Somehow or another, she had fallen in love with a young man two years her junior, an orphan who had lived on the streets by his wits, and who spoke a variety of Italian she found distasteful, according to Anna.

  And more than that, also according to Anna, Jack was unaware of the connection between Ned and his youngest sister. That seemed unlikely to Sophie, but now she saw that most of Jack’s attention was on his wife. As it usually was.

  For his part, Ned focused on the task at hand and rarely looked in Bambina’s direction. Maybe the affection was all on Bambina’s side. Trouble of another kind.

  Anna plopped down beside her quite suddenly and made Sophie jump.

  “Finally,” she said. “Once again we overcome the odds, all of us here. With Mrs. Lee’s cake box in pristine condition. The last time somebody sat on it.”

  “Who sat on the cake box?”

  Anna held up a hand, eyebrows raised. “I’m sworn to secrecy. I will tell you this, if it happened on this trip she would torture us one by one until somebody confessed. That’s the cake for Jack’s birthday party she’s guarding so ferociously.”

  “She made Jack a birthday cake?”

  “She did. It’s so big that Mr. Lee had to construct a special box for it. And Jack insisted on paying them both. It’s an Italian custom.”

  This seemed especially odd, and Sophie said so.

  It was Jack who explained. “If it’s your birthday party and you’re Italian, you pay for all the food and drink and especially for the cake.”

  “You see?” Anna said. “Italians are, you must admit, odd in many of their habits.” To temper this, she smiled sweetly at her husband.

  Now Sophie had to raise her voice to be heard over the noise of the river and the steam engines. “And how many trips will this make for you, Anna?”

  It took her cousin a minute to work it out. “Since last June I think this will make six. Wait, it will be seven, counting—”

  She broke off, her expression shifting for the briefest moment, but Sophie saw it and understood. The Russo children had gone to Greenwood in January when guardianship had passed to Leo and Carmela. She wondered how hard these visits were for Anna, if they made the separation more or less tolerable.

  To Jack Sophie said, “Isn’t your sister Celestina joining us?”

  “No,” he said with an unusually awkward smile. “Celestina can’t travel just now.”

  Behind his back Anna mouthed the word pregnant to Sophie, who nodded. Jack Mezzanotte might be shockingly modern in many ways, but even he would not discuss his sister’s pregnancy in a public place with strangers nearby. Or it might be that he was superstitious. She would have to ask Anna about this another time.

  “Jack,” she said now. “I have a whole list of questions. Things I’d like to know before we get to Greenwood.”

  He sat up straighter, a student waiting to be examined. “Go on, then,” he said. “But I don’t doubt you’ll stump me before long.”

  * * *

  • • •

  ANNA WAS HAPPY to listen to Jack talk about the family farm, which was a complicated undertaking that she still did not entirely comprehend, ranging from floriculture and the development of new species of roses—if species was in fact the right term, she would have to ask again for a repeat of the introductory lecture in botany—to supplying grafting stock to growers as far away as Japan and Australia, and honey to bakeries and restaurants from Philadelphia to Boston.

  Sophie seemed to be catching on to the details quite quickly because she was asking about the way greenhouses were designed and built, and here Anna learned something: Jack’s brother Matteo was often called away to other nurseries to oversee the construction of specialty greenhouses.

  Sophie, reminded that there were five Mezzanotte brothers involved in the farm, asked what part each of them had in the larger operation.

  “Sandro and Jake are in charge of the apiary, Jude has responsibility for the sheep, goats, and dairy cows, and Matteo is in charge of the greenhouses themselves and everything mechanical. Leo does everything, everywhere, it seems. And he breeds Maremanno, Italian sheepdogs.”

  Pip’s ears rotated and he raised his head.

  “You know the word dog,” Jack said to him.

  Sophie said, “He knows at least fifty words in English, and more in German. I keep thinking I should make a list. What are your brother’s dogs like?”

  Jack glanced at Anna as if she might be better able to answer this question.

  “Nothing like Pip,” she said. “Huge, all snow white, and not so very interested in human beings. They are shepherds first and last, I think. Not pets.”

  “That must be sad for all the nieces and nephews. Children like dogs.”

  “Then it’s fortunate that there’s no lack of dogs at Greenwood,” Jack laughed. “There are dogs, and there are Maremanno. Pip will ge
t along well with the former and stay away from the latter. Now I should go pay some attention to the older ladies.”

  When he had gone Anna caught up her cousin’s hand in her own. They both wore thin summer gloves, but she was aware of the warmth of Sophie’s skin. “I’m so glad we could do this. I think you’ll like Greenwood.”

  The smile her cousin gave her was small and reserved, for reasons Anna understood and felt the need to address.

  “You’ll be welcome there, I hope you know.”

  Sophie’s gaze slid toward Bambina and away again. Jack’s sister had been openly shocked to find that her future sister-in-law was related by blood to people with dark skin. When Anna realized this, she had made Jack aware of it in unambiguous terms, knowing that it might be the end of their relationship, so newly begun. To her relief, Jack had responded perfectly and handled his very young, very inexperienced sister’s prejudice effectively and quickly.

  But Sophie and Cap had left for Europe just after Anna married, and she knew even less about the rest of Jack’s family. Now she must be wondering which of the Mezzanottes would feel the way Bambina had felt—the way Bambina might still feel, beneath the polite exterior kept in place by the knowledge that she would reap the full measure of Jack’s displeasure if she demonstrated anything else.

  Anna said, “You met Jack’s parents so briefly, but you must realize—”

  “Yes,” Sophie said. “I did get the sense that they are open-minded and welcoming. Anna, I’m still the same person I was.” She settled Pip more comfortably on her lap while she composed what she wanted to say.

  “You needn’t worry so much about me. After Switzerland I won’t be so easily offended or even distracted. And I have a very specific goal. I think that with a lot of work, and perseverance, I may succeed with this plan of mine. Of course at this moment everybody on Seventeenth Street is very busy while I sit here enjoying the weather and the fine salt air.”

  “And what are they doing, so busily?”

  “Sam Reason has a list as long as my arm he intends to work through today. Filing cabinets and a typewriter and office supplies, from blotters to—” She paused and smiled. “I’m running on.”

  “Keep running, if you like,” Anna said. “It’s good to see you so full of energy.”

  “Then you’re not put out about my hiring Sam Reason.”

  Anna glanced at Jack, who was deep in conversation with Ned and his Aunt Philomena.

  “I wasn’t put out, Sophie. Taken aback, yes. And I did mean to ask you quite a few very pointed questions. But if you truly think that Sam Reason is able and willing, well. I’ll respect your decision. And keep my questions to myself.”

  “I have some worries,” Sophie admitted. “He sets my teeth on edge, but it will be a setback if it doesn’t work out. I can hardly imagine anyone more capable and suited for the position.”

  “And you want to be able to like him.”

  Sophie gave a short, sharp bark of laughter. “What an odd thing to say.”

  “Talking to Jack made me realize I was being insensitive.”

  “Surely not,” Sophie said, but with the hint of a smile.

  Anna grimaced. “You need an excellent secretary, but you need friends as much as employees. And it seems like Sam Reason is someone who could be both.”

  Sophie was aware of the impulse to turn her face away, out of the need to hide her thoughts. “Enough of Sam Reason. Now I’m going to sit with the old ladies and ask for gossip about your many sisters-in-law.” She set Pip on his feet, took up his leash, and started to weave her way across the cabin.

  As soon as she had stepped away Ned fell into the empty spot beside Anna and began rattling at her in Italian.

  She watched him for a long moment. “I’m catching half of every other sentence,” she said. “I haven’t made much progress since you stopped tutoring me.”

  He rolled his eyes at her. “Making excuses, really?”

  “Tell me,” she said, leaning closer. “Exactly what is going on between you and Bambina?”

  If she had pulled out a gun and shot him he couldn’t have been more surprised. He sent a panicked glance in Jack’s direction, ran a hand over his face, and sat back.

  “Don’t even joke,” he said. “Your husband will kill me.”

  Anna studied him for a moment. “Do you have something on your conscience?”

  “No.” He said this with a firm shake of his head. “Not a thing.”

  “Then there’s nothing to worry about.”

  Ned was clever, as anyone who had survived a childhood spent largely living on the streets must be. He anticipated danger long before it showed its face, and just now he was calculating risks. She watched him come to a decision.

  “Let me tell you something in confidence,” he said. “Is that possible?”

  “As long as no one is in danger, yes.”

  He nodded. “She won’t have me.”

  “Bambina won’t—”

  He held up a hand to stop her from saying the words out loud.

  “That is hard to believe,” Anna said. “I’ve seen the way she looks at you.”

  “Let me put it differently. She won’t have me”—he lowered his head and voice both, so she had to strain to hear him—“now. Not for three years.”

  “She wants to wait three years before—”

  “Yes. Three years. To prove myself. If I have saved enough money, and I haven’t brought dishonor on myself or her, then.”

  Anna considered. Three years would seem like an eternity to him. And it would be very difficult, for a young man with healthy appetites. Certainly it would test his affections to the limits of endurance. On the other hand, Bambina was also vulnerable. It occurred to her for the first time to wonder if she needed to talk to the girl about fertility and contraception.

  And then another idea came to her.

  “You don’t have to spend the three years here, do you?”

  When he frowned his brows drew together to make an arrowhead. “Here?”

  “You could go live somewhere else for three years. Find work in Boston or Chicago or go all the way to San Francisco.”

  “Why would I want to do that?”

  “You don’t, I know,” Anna said. “But if you raise this possibility to her, it will make her think about what she really wants.”

  He considered. “And if she tells me to go?”

  “I doubt that,” Anna said. “But then at least you’d know how she really feels.”

  He made a grumbling sound in his throat that she could hear even over the noise of the ferry. “Hard to imagine.”

  Anna stood as the whistle announcing their arrival rent the air. She used her free hand to make sure her hat was sitting properly and smiled down at Ned. “What an interesting weekend this will be,” she said. “I can hardly wait.”

  * * *

  • • •

  THE COMBINED PARTIES from Waverly Place and Stuyvesant Square were met by a carriage and a wagon from the Mezzanotte farm, the first driven by Jack’s father and the second by his brother Leo. The wagon had been fitted with a second bench seat, but the bed was empty of children. A trickle of unease made itself felt on the nape of Anna’s neck. She had expected Rosa and Lia, at the very least.

  Sophie raised a brow in silent query, but before Anna could say anything, her father-in-law appeared in front of them. He was such a big man, a half head taller than Jack, the tallest of his sons, but his manner was easy and warm and his tone gentle.

  “We meet again.” He took both Sophie’s hands in his. “May I say how sorry I am. You have suffered a great loss.”

  Sophie caught her breath and nodded. “Thank you. And thank you for having me.”

  “Having you, what does this mean? You are always welcome at Greenwood. You are our Anna’s cousin, and so yo
u are family. Now I don’t like to be short, but I think I should go ahead with the older ladies. They are all settled in.”

  In fact Aunt Quinlan, Mrs. Lee, Aunt Philomena, and Bambina were packed into the carriage without an inch to spare. They were so busy talking that they didn’t even look up when Mr. Mezzanotte climbed up and set the team moving. Even Bambina failed to notice Ned, who waved his cap in farewell.

  “So,” Leo said. “If we’ve got everything—”

  Ned pivoted toward the wagon, his eyes moving over the luggage. “We do.”

  “Then I have to take a moment to introduce myself.”

  Anna had never doubted Leo, but it was good to see that he was just as careful and welcoming with Sophie as his father had been. While they were talking she slipped her hand into the crook of Jack’s arm and pulled him closer.

  “That was odd, the way your father rushed off.”

  “It was,” Jack agreed.

  When they were settled—Sophie between Leo and Ned on the front bench, Jack and Anna behind—he put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “I take it you’re supposed to fill us in.”

  “On what?” Anna said. “Is there something wrong?”

  Ned turned toward her. “Dr. Anna, I wonder, why is it you are always looking for a problem to solve?”

  “Am I?” Anna turned to Jack, but Sophie answered Ned directly.

  “It’s the nature of our work,” she said. “People don’t come to see us when they are healthy. So when someone walks in the door, we start asking ourselves why they are there, what could be wrong, and how to address the problem.”

  “Yes,” Ned said, his tone studiously respectful. “But sometimes on a summer day it might be good to look at things and ask, what is right, what is good, what makes me happy?”

  Sophie laughed, a liquid trill that made Anna think of her cousin as a much younger girl. One who had smiled more often and easily. For that alone she had the urge to grab Ned by the ears and kiss him on the brow.