Delia’s mouth thinned. “I plan to get the cake from the bakery on Carleton Street. They do exceptional work. I’ve also arranged for a magician to surprise everyone with a release of doves during the party. Won’t that be nice? Oh, and Marianne, you can take photographs of the guests. That job of yours ought to come in useful for something. After you develop the pictures, I shall send them to the guests along with a thank-you note.”
“I’d be happy to.” Marianne had heard the sideways swipe at her profession but didn’t bother defending it. In Delia’s eyes there was no higher calling than being a mother, and she often managed to craftily point out Marianne’s failure to marry and continue building the Magruder family dynasty.
Marianne wandered to a chair and sat, fiddling with the pendant at her throat and wishing she could be with Luke. He was always so fun. He never indulged in underhanded gamesmanship. When they disagreed, he came straight out and told her his issue.
“Marianne, please don’t sit on that chair,” Delia said. “It’s an antique, not really a piece of furniture.”
Marianne immediately stood, but Vera’s tone turned icy. “And which piece of furniture is acceptable for my daughter to sit on?”
“Mama, it’s all right,” Marianne said, eager to smooth her ruffled feathers.
“Of course it’s all right,” Delia rushed to say. “Please sit anywhere except the chairs that have the curved gilt legs. They’re from the Regency era and very fragile.”
Before Marianne could sit again, there was a disturbance in the front hall. It sounded like a child was crying, followed by Andrew’s voice as he stomped inside. It was a Wednesday, so Andrew was supposed to be at Magruder Food and Sam ought to be in school, but something must be wrong.
“Now, stop that sniveling and go apologize to your mother,” Andrew ordered, his tone furious.
Sam came down the front hall, shoulders cringing and his hands fisted in front of his chest as he sobbed uncontrollably. “I’m sorry, Mama,” he managed to stammer through his tears.
Delia looked horrified as she rushed to kneel before the boy, pulling him into her embrace. “My goodness, what’s happened?” she asked, looking to her husband for an explanation.
Andrew stood in the doorway of the parlor like a thundercloud, two bright spots of anger on his cheekbones. “Tell her, Sam.”
Sam flung himself deeper into Delia’s arms and shook his head against her neck, too distraught to speak.
“Andrew, what’s going on?” Delia demanded, her voice losing patience.
“Our son was caught cheating on a mathematics test. Isn’t that right, boy?”
Sam only cried harder. Marianne’s heart ached for him, but there was little she could say to heal the wound. He was obviously guilty or he wouldn’t be so distraught. Andrew continued to fulminate, recounting how he’d been notified at the office of Sam’s transgression and how he immediately went to the private school to yank the boy out of class for a good dressing down.
Marianne gestured to Vera. “Come, Mama. Maybe we should leave for a while.”
“No, no,” Andrew said. “This sort of humiliation is what happens to boys who get caught cheating. It is a stain on the family name and will require a public show of remorse.”
“I’m sorry,” Sam said again, still not lifting his head from Delia’s neck. “I said I’m sorry, and I don’t know what else to do.”
From deep in the house came Bandit’s yelps. Delia insisted the dog be kept confined to the servants’ workroom, but he’d obviously heard Sam and was trying to get out. What a terrible mess! These visits to Andrew and Delia’s house were always difficult, but this was simply awful.
Andrew stomped down the hallway, slamming doors and yelling orders at the servants. Soon he came back to the parlor, leading Bandit by the leash.
“Say good-bye to your dog, boy. If you can’t be trusted to handle a school test, you can’t be responsible for a dog.”
“No!” Sam said as he sprang away from Delia. His crying stopped, replaced with a white look of fear. “Please don’t take Bandit away again.”
“You should have thought of that before you cheated. You won’t be seeing Bandit again.”
Andrew led the dog down the front hall, but Marianne couldn’t believe he truly meant to give the dog away. He was probably just taking him down to their parents’ house, which was fine. She wouldn’t mind looking after Bandit until Sam’s punishment was over.
“Calm down, calm down,” Delia shushed Sam. She used a lacy handkerchief to blot his tears, then held it to his nose. “Blow,” she coaxed. With Andrew gone, Delia proceeded to mother Sam the way she usually did when her husband wasn’t there. “Now, tell me what happened and why you had to cheat on that test.”
Marianne met Vera’s eyes. She fully expected Delia to find some way to blame Sam’s transgression on the teacher or perhaps even the school itself. Sam tearfully admitted he didn’t understand how to add fractions because the teacher didn’t teach it very well, and lots of students in his class cheated. Bythe time Andrew returned a few minutes later, Delia was fully armed to defend her son.
“Apparently the whole class was cheating, but Sam was the only one singled out for punishment,” she told Andrew, who was in no mood to hear it. He demanded Delia follow him to his study to discuss it in private, which was a good thing, because Sam shouldn’t hear his mother defend the indefensible.
It was hard to continue planning Andrew’s birthday party after the blowup, especially since Delia remained sequestered in the study while a muffled argument could be overheard. Marianne and Vera didn’t have enough insight to discuss the guest list, but they walked through the main floor of the house and considered ideas for decorating. Everything in the mansion was already so lavishly ornamented, it was hard to think of ways to make it look even more festive.
Dinner was a somber affair. They dined at Andrew’s house, and her father carried the bulk of the conversation because Andrew was still silently fuming. Sam wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes and barely touched his food. After dinner, the grown-ups went to the parlor to enjoy a late-night cordial, but Sam retreated upstairs.
