“All of which means you’re pissed because we didn’t go with you,” Ellie observed.
“Somewhat,” Vanessa allowed.
“Georgiana wasn’t born until after Daddy’s Miss Vera died,” Ellie pointed out. “And I was too young to remember her. It wouldn’t have been a trip down memory lane for us like it was for you.”
“Yeah, it was silly of me to think you and Georgiana might want to see the town where our father spent his boyhood,” Vanessa said with a shrug and forced nonchalance.
Georgiana scooted closer to Vanessa and put an arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry, honey. If I’d realized the trip meant so much to you, I would have declined the photo shoot. Come on, Nessa,” she cajoled. “We really would like to hear all about it, wouldn’t we, Ellie?”
Ellie drew an X across her chest. “Cross my heart.”
Vanessa focused her attention on two squirrels scampering about in a game of chase. “I thought the West Virginia trip would be a fun thing for us to do together,” she said, allowing a bit of wistfulness to slip into her voice. “Do you realize that this is the first time in more than three months that the three of us have been together? And, yes, we are all so very busy, but somehow we managed before Mother left. Maybe she moved to the other side of the world to force us to forge onward on our own.”
“Or maybe she moved away for exactly the reasons she gave,” Georgiana said as she buffed the nails on her right hand. “She’s a widowed lady who met a nice man and wanted to explore new vistas while she’s still young enough to make the most of it. Now, unless you’re going to punish us for not going with you to West Virginia, I wish you would tell us what you found out.”
“I was kind of excited driving down there, wondering what I would find,” Vanessa acknowledged. “But like Ellie said when Mother showed us that letter, the mysterious Hattie is probably dead by now. And even if she’s still alive, maybe she doesn’t want to be found. After all, she knew where her child was the whole time he was growing up and apparently never came looking for him.”
“Maybe she promised Vera that she wouldn’t do that,” Georgiana said. “Maybe that was part of their bargain. Maybe she even begged Vera to let her have her child back, but Vera refused.”
“In that letter she asked Vera to tell Daddy that she was dead,” Ellie pointed out as she offered Vanessa a slice of cheese.
“She could have changed her mind,” Vanessa noted.
“I suppose,” Ellie conceded, “but even if Hattie is dead, it would be kind of interesting to know something about her—like what sort of a person she was and why she gave away her baby.”
“Come on, Nessa,” Georgiana begged, pausing in her buffing long enough to plant a kiss on Vanessa’s cheek. “Pretty please, tell us what you found out.”
Vanessa nibbled on the cheese. “Not much,” she admitted, “especially considering the cost in money and time, two commodities that are definitely in short supply in my life. I now know that Vera was born in Hancock County in the West Virginia Panhandle and she didn’t move to Pikesville until she was a grown woman.”
“Well, that’s very important information,” Georgiana said as she inspected her nails. “Even if Hattie is dead, some of her relatives might still live in Hancock County and could tell us about her.”
“I suppose that’s a possibility,” Vanessa allowed, “but it all happened so long ago, and I don’t know if Vera’s father had siblings other than the brother who died in a mine accident, and I don’t know if her mother had any siblings. But, unless Hattie was using the term aunt in an honorary way, Hattie would have been the daughter of a sibling of Vera’s. Apparently Vera did have a younger brother, but even if Hattie was born a Wentworth, she could have married and have had an entirely different name by the time Daddy was born. Nevertheless, I went to one of those people-search Web sites and searched for Hattie Wentworth. Unfortunately, there are an amazing number of women with that name. And what does it all really matter anyway? We’ve lived our lives up to this point not knowing anything about Daddy’s pedigree.”
Vanessa took another sip of wine and nibble of cheese. She could almost feel the wine loosening her tongue. It was a beautiful day, and she didn’t want to be surly when she was actually pleased to finally be with her sisters and that her plans for the day had worked out. And maybe they needed to know that finding their father’s birth mother was in all likelihood an insurmountable task.
“If Daddy was born out of wedlock,” she continued, “quite possibly Hattie’s circumstances and her tender years would have made it difficult for her to raise her own child, and she decided—or was forced by her parents—to give him away. If she was married when Daddy was born, perhaps her husband had died in a mining accident like Vera’s uncle had been. Or her husband could have been in the military and killed right before the Second World War ended. Widowed and far from home, Hattie might have asked her aunt Vera to take the baby off her hands. But then, we don’t really know if Daddy was born in Deer Lodge. The closest thing he had to a birth certificate was a document that said he was adopted by Vera Louise Wentworth in Brooke County, West Virginia. Maybe Hattie gave up her baby because she was ill. She might have arranged for her baby’s adoption on her deathbed.”
Ellie put her hands up in surrender. “Okay. I get it.”
But Vanessa wasn’t finished. “There’s another possibility. Hattie might have been raped and decided she wanted to have the baby but could not bring herself to raise a child who would be a constant reminder of the worst thing that had ever happened to her.”
“Well, on that grim note, I think I’ll go see if my nieces are ready for lunch.” Ellie swung first one leg and then the other over the bench. Once she was on her feet, however, she just stood there staring.
Vanessa turned to see what had captured her attention. A man was approaching—a tall, broad-shouldered man wearing freshly pressed jeans and an expensive-looking tweed sports coat.
“Oh my God!” Ellie squealed. “He came! He actually came!” And she went racing in the man’s direction.
“Boone, I take it,” Georgiana said, reaching for her wineglass. “I thought she had gone a bit overboard on the fancy picnic fixings. Now we know why.”
“I thought he’d gone back to his wife,” Vanessa said.
“Maybe it didn’t work out,” Georgiana speculated.
Together Vanessa and Georgiana got to their feet and stood waiting to meet the man. Ellie was clinging to his hand and dancing along at his side. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes sparkling.
“Boone, these are my sisters—Vanessa and Georgiana.” “At long last,” he said with a smile. “I’ve heard so much about you both.” He extended his hand first to Vanessa. “You must be Vanessa, the sister who lives in New Jersey and has two daughters. And Georgiana is the model,” he said as he took Georgiana’s hand in both of his.
Boone was a bit soft about the middle but otherwise attractive, Vanessa decided. He had nice skin, and his smile revealed a perfect set of very white teeth.
Ellie waved Lily and Beth over and introduced them to Boone, then, keeping up a continuous stream of chatter directed toward him, busied herself spreading a tablecloth and laying out the picnic fare. “Do you like pâté?” she asked him. “I bought this at a little French deli in my neighborhood that has the best pâté imaginable—it’s made with goose liver and truffles.”
Behind Ellie’s back Lily and Beth were making faces. Goose liver and truffles? Vanessa gave her daughters a threatening look, then moved to sit between them. Together they watched while Ellie named each delicacy she pulled out of the basket—mushrooms stuffed with crabmeat; artichoke potato salad; a second salad made with black beans, cabbage, and dates; smoked-turkey-and-apple sandwiches on herbed beer bread; and Kahlúa gingerbread with key-lime curd.
Even if her daughters only picked at their lunch, Vanessa found the food delicious but had lost her appetite. The man with whom Ellie had probably convinced herself that she was mad
ly in love and that he loved her in return and was going to marry her and make her pregnant could not take his eyes off Georgiana.
To Lily and Beth, Boone hardly said a word, asking them only how old they were. He did ask Vanessa if she liked living in New Jersey and how long she had been a development officer. But he had an endless stream of questions for Georgiana. Did she live near Ellie? Did she get to spend much time with her nieces? Did she enjoy live theater? Did she belong to a health club? Was she a sports fan? What was her favorite nightspot? How long had she been a hand and foot model? He complimented her on her beautiful hands, adding that the rest of her was beautiful, too, and he loved her magnificent hair.
Ellie was so in seventh heaven over Boone’s showing up to meet her family that she sat smiling beside him, frequently stroking his arm or patting his shoulder. She didn’t even notice that he was trying to make time with her younger sister.
Vanessa and Georgiana carefully avoided eye contact.
Boone left first, announcing that he was going to take his kids out to dinner and a movie. Ellie had obviously thought they would be spending the evening together and did her best not to look crestfallen. Vanessa and Georgiana helped Ellie pack up the remains of the picnic lunch and tidy up. Before heading home, Vanessa gave Ellie and the basket a ride back to her apartment building.
Once they had dropped off Ellie, Beth announced from the backseat, “I don’t like Ellie’s boyfriend.”
“I don’t either,” Vanessa admitted, then immediately regretted her words. Ellie might very well marry the man, and she didn’t want to have gone on record with her daughters as disliking him. “But then, I hardly know him,” she amended. “He may prove to be very nice when and if we get to know him better.”
“He acted like he’s more in love with Georgiana than he is with Ellie,” Lily observed.
“Maybe he was just being friendly,” Vanessa said.
Lily folded her arms across her developing chest and told her mother all in a huff, “Well, he sure wasn’t being friendly with you and Beth and me.”
“Are you going to tell Ellie that we don’t like him?” Beth asked her mother.
“Probably not. If he’s not the right person for her, she needs to figure that out on her own.”
“Well, if Beth goes gaga over some weirdo, I’m going to tell her that the guy is a weirdo,” Lily announced in a firm voice, “and I expect her to do the same for me.”
“I hope they don’t get married,” Beth added.
“But if they do, will Beth and I be in the wedding?” Lily wanted to know.
“I have no idea,” Vanessa said as she drove into the Lincoln Tunnel.
“Are Ellie and the Boone man having sex?” Beth asked.
Vanessa wanted to tell her that the question was improper. That girls her age weren’t supposed to be speculating about whether their aunt was having sex with her boyfriend. But she sighed and said, “Yes, I suppose they are.”
Eight
SCOTT’S car was not in the garage.
Vanessa looked for a note in the kitchen.
The kitchen was just as she had left it with no cupboard doors or drawers left open and no dirty dishes on the counter, which meant he hadn’t eaten lunch here. She wondered if he was feeling worse and had gone to an urgent care clinic. But if that were the case, he would have called on her cell phone or left a note.
Maybe he’d been faking his illness and skipped the picnic so he could play golf and planned to beat them home.
They had soup and sandwiches for dinner, after which the girls tackled their homework, their books and notebooks spread out on the kitchen table. Vanessa went into the family room to call Scott’s cell phone number. When the leave-a-message voice answered, Vanessa said, “Hi, honey. Just wondering when you’ll be home.”
When she returned to the kitchen, Lily said, “I’m worried about Daddy.”
“He probably started feeling better and decided to play poker with his golfing buddies and forgot to leave a note,” Vanessa speculated, then announced that she was heading upstairs to take a bath.
Scott’s cell phone was on his bureau.
His note was on Vanessa’s bedside table. She stared at the envelope for a long time. Scott never put notes in envelopes, and he’d never left a note on the bedside table. Just in the kitchen. Notes telling her that someone had called or that the girls were at a friend’s house.
Her hand was shaking when she finally reached for it.
Dearest Vanessa,
I’ve needed to get away for some time now. I’ll call you in a few days and let you know how to reach me.
For now, just tell the girls I had a chance to sell some property out of state.
Scott
Vanessa sank onto the bed. Needed to get away?
Where could he have gone? They hadn’t had a fight. They’d even had sex last night. Not great sex. They only had that on the rare nights they had a weekend away from the girls and were staying in a hotel. A hotel room offered an aura of romance about it that facilitated great sex. Or sometimes they rose to the occasion when both girls were spending the night with friends and they opened a bottle of wine. Otherwise, sex had long been reduced to a routine, each knowing exactly what was needed to make it satisfying.
But last night was one step up from routine. Sweeter. His kisses more tender. But in the night he was restless. He got up several times and had even gone downstairs once. She asked him if he was okay.
“Just an upset stomach,” he’d responded.
Had he gone downstairs to call a girlfriend?
Scott had plenty of time to wander while she was at work and the girls were at school. Maybe he’d met a bored housewife at the supermarket.
But if he was having an affair, wouldn’t she have had a clue? Lipstick on a collar? A change in his routine? More frequent haircuts and more interest in shaving?
She couldn’t think of a thing that was different. Everything had been the same yesterday as it had been the day before that and the day before that pretty much for years now. He had business cards showing that he was a realtor, but his sales had been few and far between.
But men didn’t just up and leave unless they had someone waiting in the wings. Vanessa looked around the bedroom that she had shared with him since Lily was a baby and she was pregnant with Beth. They had moved to New Jersey with such high hopes. She already was working at the college, and he had been hired as a loan officer by a bank in Paterson. But he hated the bank job—for almost five years he hated it—until finally he opened a store that sold and serviced computers, an endeavor he struggled with for almost three years but at which he never made a profit. By the time he got his realtor’s license, he seemed to have lost whatever ambition he once had. Under the guise of working at home, he played a lot of computer games. And he played pickup basketball at a nearby recreation center. And golf whenever he got the chance. But he also did most of the grocery shopping and cooking and carpooling, which certainly made life more manageable for her. But they struggled financially, and more and more he only did whatever chores she specifically requested that he do and often not even those. Still, she had never thought of their marriage as troubled.
But Scott had needed to get away for some time now.
She knew that he wasn’t happy, but then neither was she. Happiness was the stuff of moments. The rest of the time one simply put one foot in front of the other and did what needed to be done.
In the park today, however, she had admitted to herself the possibility that she and Scott might drift apart after the girls were grown. He would find someone else. Men always did. And she might, too. An interesting man with whom she could go out to dinner and take an occasional trip and share enjoyable sex would be nice. But that was someday and not while she and Scott still had two daughters to raise.
Lily and Beth would be devastated if their parents got a divorce.
Divorce. The very word made her shudder. No, they absolutely could not do that to their
children. Scott would come home, and they would work through whatever their differences were.
So what would they change?
At that thought, tears welled in her eyes, and sobs swelled in her chest. How did two people fall in love all over again?
Georgiana called the next morning. “Did I wake you? I wanted to catch you before you headed off to work.”
Vanessa wanted to snap at her that she hadn’t been able to sleep and had been up for hours. That she had two daughters to roust out of bed and get off to school and needed to get herself ready for work. And that this morning was a particularly trying morning because her husband had left and her life was falling apart. But she wasn’t ready to tell her baby sister or anyone else what was happening to her.
“So, what’s going on with you?” she asked in what she hoped was a normal-sounding voice as she tucked the phone under her chin and began setting bowls, cereal boxes, and the milk carton on the kitchen table.
“I’ve got some ideas about how to proceed with the search for Hattie and wondered if we could have lunch later in the week,” Georgiana told her. “I could even come out to the college, if you like, and we can eat someplace near the campus.”
Vanessa closed her eyes and drew in her breath. Searching for Hattie was the furthest thing from her mind.
“It occurred to me,” Georgiana continued, “that since Mother is planning on Lily and Beth spending next summer in France, that would be the perfect time for you and Ellie and me to go to Montana. I’ve been waiting for something to inspire me to get back into photography, and I thought maybe I could take pictures during our trip.”
Vanessa sank into a chair. “You’ve caught me at a bad time.”
“Are you sick or something?”
“Just a headache. And Scott is away on a business trip. And I need to get the girls up and fed and take them to school.”
“I thought Scott wasn’t feeling well,” Georgiana said.
Family Secrets Page 7
