Ruffling Society

by Kay Moser

  Hayden squeezed her tighter. “Do you think Sarah will be with us this fall?”

  “I don’t know. So far the Riverford School Board hasn’t offered her a contract. It’s infuriating! They have the perfect position open; the classics teacher resigned. I guess we’re in for another fight.”

  “Not tonight. Tonight we celebrate. Promise me you won’t overdo. It’s still hot out here.”

  “Oh, Hayden, you’re such a worrier.”

  He released her and tilted her chin up so his eyes could meet hers. “I have good reason to worry. For the last month you have been nauseated by noon and cannot eat for the rest of the day. You are not sleeping. You’re dizzy—”

  “Enough of that. I have never been able to tolerate heat. You know that.”

  “I should have sent you north, even if I couldn’t go—”

  “Oh look!” Victoria interrupted him. “Christine and Richard are at the front gate. And just look at her dress!”

  “Okay, I’ll stop for now, but we are going to discuss your health tomorrow.”

  “No one, absolutely no one, can wear light blue the way Christine does. The way the moonlight sinks through those puffed chiffon sleeves and highlights the curve and whiteness of her shoulders is enchanting.”

  Hayden leaned closer and murmured, “Sounds like you’re envisioning another painting …”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, but not of Christine. I don’t know why, but I’ve felt a great interest in painting a portrait of Richard in the last several days. Maybe I’ll give it to Christine for Christmas. Anyway, I will never be able to get the man to sit still, so I want you to engage him in a lengthy discussion tonight.”

  “Is that all, your majesty?”

  “No, it’s not. You must seat him on the wicker chair facing the library window. I have set up the lighting to the best of my ability. It’s not ideal, but I can make some quick sketches.”

  “Won’t our guests notice that you’ve abandoned your role as hostess and donned your painter’s smock?”

  “They will, but they will think I’m making sketches of the party. Now come on.” She pulled him down the stairs. “Let’s go welcome them.”

  “Has anyone ever told you that you are a conniving woman?”

  “Most of Riverford,” she called back to him as she dashed down the stairs.

  “Oh my, just look at the colorful lanterns; they are exquisite, Victoria!” Christine exclaimed as she took her friend’s hand. “This has to be the most romantic spot in Riverford for a dance. Look at the way the spray of the fountains is catching the lights. Absolutely enchanting.”

  “Sorry we’re late,” Richard added as he shook Hayden’s hand. “My fault. I was too far out in the country. Christine had to hold dinner, in fact.”

  “He has been working too hard lately,” Christine said. “Hayden, you must talk some sense into him.”

  “Have to visit my tenants, darling.”

  Christine took his arm and shook it slightly. “You do not have to visit them in the scalding afternoon sun.” She turned to Hayden. “He was late getting home because he had to stop in the woods and rest.”

  Richard leaned closer to her and whispered, “You weren’t supposed to tell that part.”

  “Where’s the general?” Victoria asked.

  “Reading to the girls,” Christine answered. “They wouldn’t miss a single night of Little Women. He sends his love to Sarah.”

  “Speaking of which, where is our graduate?” Richard asked.

  “Right where we should be,” Hayden answered. “At the refreshment table. Look at those boys, sipping like ladies at a tea party. Let’s go show those young men how to drink lemonade, Richard.” Hayden nudged his friend forward, leaving Victoria and Christine to walk more leisurely, arm-in-arm.

  “When you’ve finished competing with the younger men, you may bring us ladies a glass,” Victoria called after him. “We’ll be on the verandah.”

  “In front of the library window. I know,” Hayden called back.

  Victoria laughed as they watched the men hurry off. “Do they ever lose their competitiveness?”

  “Apparently not. Certainly Father never has. He has the girls on a reading regimen that must surely match his orders as a Confederate general. One chapter per night come hail or high water.”

  “He never slows down, does he?”

  Christine remained silent so long that Victoria stopped and looked closely at her face. “He is well, isn’t he?”

  Christine shook her head. “No, but he blames it all on the heat.”

  “I can certainly relate to that.” She sighed. “I had to come home from the commencement ceremony this morning and lie down on the side verandah with an ice pack.”

  “Are you still suffering from nausea?”

  Victoria nodded as she and Christine mounted the steps. “The afternoons are dreadful; I am not worth anything to anybody. I just lie around under the electric fans Hayden brought home from the store and bathe myself in ice. And it’s only June!”

  “Is there really no way to leave for the rest of the summer?”

  “Hayden says we can’t because of the war, but in truth, I think he’s having financial difficulties he’s not telling me about.”

  “And he won’t take any of your money, of course.”

  “Not a penny!” Victoria motioned toward some wicker chairs. “Let’s sit. I confess I’m more than ready.”

  Christine settled into a wicker rocker. “I’m afraid we are going to have a difficult summer. I’m glad the boys are at camp in Maine.”

  “How old are they now?”

  “Twelve and fourteen. Thankfully, far too young to participate in this war with Spain.”

  “I know they’re having fun at camp, but I’m sure you miss them. I know I can hardly bear the thought that Sarah will soon be leaving for Colorado.”

  “Is she excited?” Christine asked.

  “Very. And nervous, of course. And confused.”

  “Confused?”

  “About Lee.”

  Christine nodded. “Of course. He’s been more than patient.”

  “And supportive, but she has graduated now. I don’t know how much longer he will wait.”

  “Well, they certainly look happy tonight.” Christine nodded her head at the wide sidewalk where Sarah and Lee were laughing as they danced. “What a vigorous dance! Is that the Galop?”

  Victoria laughed. “It’s not the Galop we danced, that’s for sure. They’re speeding it up to match the rhythm of a march. Goodness! Look at them move.”

  “That’s Sousa’s ‘King Cotton March.’ Where do they get such energy?”

  “I can’t imagine,” Victoria answered. “Oh look! Mrs. Logan, Lavinia, and Reverend Neville are coming up the walk.” She sprang to her feet, then cradled her forehead in her hand and sat back down.

  “You sit still,” Christine ordered. “I’ll greet them and see to it that you get some cold lemonade to drink.”

  “Thank you, Christine. I think I will sit a minute longer. Would you ask Frances to bring out the ice cream and cake?”

  “Of course.” Christine turned and hurried toward the new arrivals. “Good evening! Won’t you join us on the verandah?”

  ***

  Once the guests had enjoyed the ice cream and cake, the graduates declared the parlor cool enough to gather around the piano and sing. The adults chose to remain on the verandah, and flashing Victoria a mischievous smile, Hayden directed the men to the chairs by the library window, placing Richard Boyd exactly where Victoria had instructed.

  As the young people belted out the popular “Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom Der E” and “A Hot Time in the Old Town” and the ladies gathered to listen, Victoria picked up her sketchbook.

  When Lavinia perched on the top step rather than joining either the graduates or the ladies, Mrs. Logan leaned toward Christine and whispered, “Poor girl. She doesn’t know where she belongs. Too old for the graduates, too young for us.”
/>   Victoria looked up from her sketch book and called, “Lavinia, come join us.”

  Lavinia shook her head. “The garden is so beautiful all lit up; if it’s okay with you, I’d like to just sit here and enjoy it.”

  “As you wish, dear,” Victoria answered, then turned to Mary Logan. “Did she dance at all tonight?”

  Mrs. Logan shook her head. “She has so few friends—she’s really going to miss Sarah this summer.”

  “We are all going to miss Sarah,” Christine added. “Victoria, can you believe how fast these years have gone by?”

  “No! Can it really be almost three years since that young girl showed up at my front gate? What a blessing Sarah was for me. You’ve probably forgotten, but I had just arrived in town and—”

  The ladies’ laughter cut short her comment.

  “What are you two laughing about?”

  “Victoria!” Mary Logan exclaimed. “No one in Riverford will ever forget your arrival in town. No one!”

  “I should say not,” Christine agreed. “Riverford found itself suddenly thrust into the world, into the 1890s.”

  “Your clothes were absolutely stunning, Victoria,” Mary said. “We’d seen the latest fashions in magazines, but no one here wore such dresses. And the arrival of that elegant fountain and the Christmas party at the store.”

  “And Antonio Santoro,” Christine added. “My word! A famous violinist spending Christmas in Riverford? I thought I had died and gone to heaven.”

  Victoria grinned. “You had. You finally gave yourself permission to be the musician you are.”

  “And through it all—Sarah. Dear Sarah,” Mary Logan added. “We watched her soar, and I watched my son fall in love with her.”

  “Speaking of your son,” Christine said, “do you think he will take Richard’s offer of a position at the bank?”

  “He just might. I know he’s more than ready to leave the family bank in Fort Worth behind.”

  “Hasn’t he been happy there?”

  “Not since they had to take Walter under their wing. I’m afraid my two sons are simply not cut out of the same cloth.”

  “That’s another important part of the last three years,” Victoria said. “Mary, you and I became related when Amelia married Walter.”

  “How are they doing?” Christine asked.

  Victoria and Mary exchanged glances.

  “Neither is content, I’m afraid,” Mary answered.

  “No surprise there,” Victoria added. “Amelia is expecting their second child. She thought that getting away from Mother would be all that she needed to be happy … Well, it turns out that married life is not simply a series of elegant balls.”

  “And Walter hates being under the control of Lee at the bank,” Mary added. “They fight, and both my sons are unhappy.”

  “Then I hope Lee takes the position Richard has offered,” Christine said. “Don’t you, Victoria?”

  Victoria stopped sketching and looked over at Lavinia sitting apart, dressed in her unadorned, high-necked gray silk, with her dark hair pulled into a tight knot. “I want what Sarah wants, whatever she decides is best for her. Oh why must society make it so difficult for women!” Victoria slammed her sketch book closed. “Would the world really stop turning on its axis if female teachers were allowed to marry?”

  Christine shook her head. “This house is filled with magnificent art—your art, Victoria. Why aren’t you being invited to show your work in the city galleries? Why are there no Victoria Hodges shows in New York?”

  Victoria reached for Christine’s hand and held it up. “Why are these hands not allowed to play on concert stages? When you performed in this house with Antonio Santoro, he said you should be on the stage.”

  “Such a kind man …”

  “No!” Victoria exclaimed. “Not just a kind man. A professional violinist who tours the western world playing with the best orchestras. He knows a professional-level pianist when he sees one.”

  Suddenly the graduates began to sing louder.

  “After the ball is over,

  After the break of morn—

  After the dancers’ leaving;

  After the stars are gone;

  Many a heart is aching,

  If you could read them all:

  Many the hopes that have vanished,

  After the ball.”

  Victoria felt her chest tighten with frustration. “Our ball will be over sooner than we think, Christine. Much sooner. Look how fast the last three years have gone.”

  All three ladies fell silent. Christine studied her hands. Mary Logan gazed through the window at the students singing the second stanza of the popular song. Victoria looked down at her sketch book and asked herself the questions which haunted her. Is this all there will be for me? Will my paintings ever be seen by the world?

  Mary’s stifled sob jerked Victoria’s attention back to the others. Victoria found her friend’s eyes filling with tears as she stared out at the garden. When she followed the trajectory of Mary’s stare, she saw Lavinia waltzing under the Japanese lanterns in the arms of Reverend John Neville.

  “Oh my,” Christine exclaimed. “In our self-absorptions, we have surely missed something wonderful.”

  The surprising couple danced on as the students’ voices floated out the windows. “Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me. Starlight and dewdrops are awaiting thee. Sounds of the rude world heard in the day, led by the moonlight have all passed away.”

  “Could it be?” Mary Logan whispered.

  They listened in awe as the reverend’s tenor voice rose above the students’ voices. “Beautiful dreamer, queen of my song, list while I woo thee with soft melody. Gone are the cares of life’s busy throng. Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me. Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me.”

  Mary Logan leaned forward, her eyes on her daughter’s face. “Oh, dear God, dare I hope?”

  “Always,” Christine insisted as she took Mary’s hand. “Always.”

  “Shall we dance?”

  At Hayden’s unexpected question, Victoria looked up. Her husband had crossed the verandah and now stood holding out his hand to her.

  “Oh no. Definitely not,” Victoria answered as she rose to meet him and draped her arm around his waist. “This moment belongs to Lavinia.”

  CHAPTER 5

  At her mother’s insistence, Sarah broke her usual Saturday routine and did not go to help with the Novak family’s washing and baking.

  “You’re an educated town lady now.” Her mother’s eyes had glowed with obvious pride when she’d made the pronouncement before leaving the graduation reception the day before. “You got to act like one. Besides, you’ll be good and tired after your party tonight. You just stay in bed and let the help at Mrs. Hodges’ house spoil you.”

  Sarah did her best to comply in spite of the fact that she had awakened at dawn. In an attempt to redefine herself as a lady of leisure, she lay in bed a good half hour waiting for Delphie to bring her a breakfast tray. Finally, she grew so fidgety that she rose, dressed, and went downstairs to join Hayden for breakfast.

  Hayden laughed at her when she appeared. “I didn’t think you’d be able to lie around on a Saturday morning. Going out to the farm?”

  Sarah shook her head. “I solemnly promised Mama I wouldn’t, not until suppertime. I think she’s planning a family celebration.”

  Hayden studied her face a minute before replying. “And you’re worried about that, aren’t you?”

  “I can’t imagine that Pa and my brothers will be glad to be reminded that they were wrong about my prospects.”

  Hayden passed her the basket of biscuits. “I hate to say it, Sarah, but I think you should be ready for them to be more negative than ever. Men don’t like to be proven wrong.”

  “I know. So I plan to divert the attention away from me. Fortunately, my oldest brother, Norbert, has a new son to show us.”

  “Seems to me he just got married.”

  “Two years ago. He marri
ed Zivanka Sykora. He didn’t want to; he was in love with another girl, but when I refused to marry Havel Sykora, he had to marry Zivanka in order to tie the two families together. At least, that’s how my pa saw it. Norbert has never forgiven me.”

  “But now he has a son.”

  “Two sons! Two babies in two years. You should have seen Zivanka before she married, Hayden. She was full of life, energetic, beautiful. Now, she rarely raises her head. Stares at the ground most of the time.”

  Hayden exhaled loudly. “I see lots of immigrant women like that around town on Saturdays. Totally beaten down; at least, that’s the way they look to me.”

  “That’s the fate you and Victoria saved me from, and I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”

  Hayden flung his napkin on the table as he rose. “Our pleasure. Gotta get to work now, but I want you to remember one thing, Sarah. Victoria and I just facilitated a dream you and your mother had. You did the hard work. You have earned your degree. You keep that fact in mind tonight. Use it as a shield to protect you from whatever is said.”

  “I will.”

  “And one other thing,” Hayden added. “People don’t like it when someone comes along and proves that they could do more, be more, if they’d just make the effort. The men in your family don’t just resent the fact that you stepped outside their definition of a woman’s role in life. They resent the fact that you proved they could be more if they tried.”

  “I would be so glad to help them, to help their children ...” The growing lump in Sarah’s throat choked off her words.

  “They have to want it, Sarah. All we can hope is that your success will plant the desire for more in the next generation. Your brothers have already decided to limit their own destinies.”

  Sarah nodded, and Hayden squeezed her shoulder as he passed behind her and left the room.

  ***

  As Sarah had hoped, when the family gathered around the supper table, her mother was clever enough to pass over Sarah’s graduation quickly. Then she encouraged Zivanka to show off the newborn she cradled.

  “Sons!” Pa exclaimed with pride as he held up Norbert’s one-year-old boy. “That’s what this family needs. Sons to plow the earth and bring in the crops.”