Lillie’s smile was bittersweet. Grace squeezed her hand. Lillie had chosen to officially study and work with Dr. May, despite her parents’ threats to cut her off. She was no longer living at home or within her parents’ means. Someday, when Oliver inherited it all, he would assuredly share their family fortune with her. But Theodore and Grace quietly supported Lillie now, by asking her to live with them and funding a new women’s house she was working in with Dr. May.
It was strange, how their positions had shifted. And yet it was fitting. They both recognized the joy of giving generously to someone they loved and the humility it took to receive it.
“I think someone’s looking for you,” Grace said, glancing over her shoulder.
A strikingly handsome man was glancing their way. Thomas Kenton was someone Theodore had known since childhood and heartily approved of. Someone kind, with a proven character that wasalmostworthy of Lillie.
Lillie smiled and Grace said behind her gloved hand, “He’s already requested strong interest in your dance card.”
“And should I take him up on it?” Lillie asked with a faint touch of wariness.
She had become much more guarded in friendship and in love. Grace worried that Frannie and Earnest had forever ruined the delicate something in Lillie that made her so special, but somehow Lillie had come out the other side with a toughness that made her even lovelier.
“I think he’s the exact opposite of Earnest,” Grace said firmly. “And therefore, a good man in every way.”
Lillie threw back her drink, shot Grace a mischievous glance, and accepted Thomas Kenton’s hand onto the dance floor.
In the far corner, Harriet’s sister Penelope was also present, swaying as she listened to the voice of Ethel Adams fill the ballroom. She had agreed to come when Grace explained that the Ball was given in honor of Harriet—a benefit in her name to save the theater she had so loved.
Grace came to stand beside Penelope.
“That’s beautiful,” Penelope said, glancing up at a framed painting.
It was new. It was a scene of the fairgrounds at daybreak, when the sun was just awakening, and the rest of the grounds were still hidden in shadows. It had captured the whole experience, with its light and darkness, so exquisitely.
Grace had climbed up the ladder herself and hung it, replacing a large portrait of one of the Parker ancestor’s dogs. Theodore had slow clapped.
“Thank you,” Grace said now to Penelope. She smiled and added proudly, “My brother did it.”
Her eye caught on someone who had just arrived. “Excuse me,” she said, and went to greet Frannie Allred with genuine warmth. “Welcome.”
Frannie glanced stiffly around the party. “Thank you,” she said.
She had been summarily turned out of all other social circles after what Earnest had done came to light. He and Copper were in jail, awaiting trial for the murders of Harriet Forbes and Sylvestor Watson, and the attempted murders of Theodore and Grace Parker. Frannie had no fortune and no family name or reputation left to speak of.
But what she had done that night at the fair had likely saved the Parkers’ lives, and they would never forget that.
Grace took Frannie by the arm and introduced her to a few people who might be willing to look past the surface stories and actually see the faceted, frustrating, more complicated woman for who she was.
“Is that Frances Allred?” an older woman to Grace’s right sniffed. She pulled Grace aside, a concerned look further creasing her lined face. “I know you’re new to these circles. Would you accept a little friendly advice?” Giant diamonds sagged from the woman’s ears. “I am not sure I can stay if this is the company you choose to keep.”
Grace shrugged. “Our butler would be happy to call your carriage, if you prefer. I’d advise you take some of the pecan buns for the road. They’re divine.”
The woman looked stunned. “Well, I never.” She grasped her husband’s arm and backed away.
“Becoming better and better at gardening, aren’t we?” Theodore came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist.
She turned toward him. “Gardening?”
“Helping people to weed themselves out,” Theodore said.
Grace snorted. She loved Theodore Parker. She felt it in every part of her body. And she was willing to spend the rest of her life enduring society gossip about her motives for marrying him when the truth was, she had fallen in love with him despite herself. She felt a new kind of freedom now to let people believe what they wanted. They could run and run with false versions of the truth until mercifully, reality sometimes intervened—just like it had with Walt; just like it had with Earnest.
Fantastical worlds could be built temporarily, but at some point, they always had to come down.
As the night wore on, Ethel sang, they held a moment of silence in Harriet’s memory, the head of Harriet’s theater proposed a toast, and Oliver convinced enough people to pledge donations that Harriet’stheater would be saved for the immediate future, if not many years to come. Grace leaned into her role as mistress of the house with the grace and poise of her mother, who looked utterly at ease back in high society. Nell Covington smiled as the exquisitely cultivated appetizers were served around her.
“These bacon-wrapped dates are divine,” Lillie said.
