“Okay, so what did they look like?” Hiram pressed.
Gwen pulled Mimi tighter in her arms. “Don’t make her relive it,” she murmured to him, but Hiram was just as adamant.
“I’m going to find out who they are,” he whispered fiercely. “No bratty kids are going to gang up on Mimi and get away with it.”
But they would get away with it. Even if Hiram figured out who those boys were and scared the daylights out of them, children could be cruel, and there would be more who would find an easy target in Mimi’s thick glasses and malformed legs. Mimi was only just beginning to understand that she was different, and the coming years were going to be hard for her.
Jake was more pragmatic as he examined the damaged wheel. He cautiously rolled the walker forward. It still worked, but the wheel made a knocking sound as it rotated. “I’ll bet Professor Jenkins can fix this in short order. He’s an engineer and can probably have it repaired before lunchtime.”
“I don’t think it will ever be the same again,” Mimi whispered, and Gwen’s heart split wide open because it wasn’t the walker Mimi spoke about. She scrambled for a way to make the girl feel better.
“Why don’t we go over to my house for a snack?” she suggested. “I have a pan of brownies, and I can’t eat them all myself. I think the three of you deserve a treat.”
Hiram carried Mimi piggyback-style on the short walk to Gwen’s house. Jake dropped off the walker with Professor Jenkins and joined them for brownies with milk in the garden. Word about what had happened spread quickly on campus, and soon the students who worked in the library came over to help cheer up Mimi.
The girl ate part of a brownie, then became engrossed by the fish swimming in the pond. She asked permission to feed them, and Gwen fetched her a slice of bread. Within an hour, Professor Jenkins showed up, wheeling the repaired walker, which had been decked out with ribbons and a bouquet of carnations tied to the handle.
Mimi beamed when she saw it. Even more professors and a couple of graduate students accompanied Professor Jenkins. The garden was full, and Gwen raced inside to assemble a platter of fruit and cheese for the impromptu party.
It was bittersweet. She loved this garden and the parties that had been held here over the years. She loved that Mimi felt safe here, and that the people of the college came out in support of this much-loved little girl. There would come a time when the staff and students of Blackstone College could no longer protect Mimi from the cruelty of others, but it would be better for the girl to have a few more years to grow strong and confident before facing the harsh realities of the world.
Gwen pulled Hiram aside. “Can you stay with Mimi for a few minutes? I have an errand I need to do.”
He looked a little befuddled but readily agreed. “Sure thing, Mrs. Kellerman.”
Tears blurred her vision as she closed the door of her house and began walking toward the heart of campus. Each block was laden with memories. She passed the president’s house, where she had been born and raised. She passed the biology building, where she earned her degree, and the quadrangle, where endless summer days had been spent learning, growing, and making lifelong friendships. She walked beneath the elm trees and silver maples that shaded campus. They were tall now, but she remembered when they were newly planted saplings during the early years of the college.
It had been a wonderful place to grow up. She had been surrounded by adults who were as protective of her as they were of Mimi. This college was a cocoon of learning and a celebration of the world around them. Gwen would be forever grateful for her years here, but she didn’t need the safety of a cocoon anymore.
Mimi did.
It was cool inside the administration building as she headed toward the accounting office. Vivian sat at the front counter, her fingers clicking on an adding machine. Her face cooled when she saw Gwen, but she didn’t move.
“The house is yours,” Gwen said. “You and Mimi can move in at the end of the month.”
It was time to say good-bye to Jasper and the life they once shared. She was ready to move out into the real world and discover who she could become if she had never hidden herself away in an ivory tower.
It was the morning of the vote to buy Carnegie Steel and merge it with ten other mills to form the United States Steel Corporation. Patrick expected it to be a stressful day, but he hadn’t realized he’d spend the final hour before the meeting in the men’s washroom of Blackstone Bank, helping Liam battle the nerves that were getting the better of him. Liam was sweating so badly he’d had to wash his face, and he was now leaning over the green marble washbasin with gold-plated taps.
“Don’t be so nervous,” Patrick counseled Liam. “The vote is a foregone conclusion.”
Liam closed the taps and blotted his face with a towel handed to him by a uniformed attendant. What sort of place had staff in the washrooms to hand out towels? Whenever Patrick thought he’d gotten used to the foibles of the Blackstones, something like this rose up to smack him in the face.
“Yeah, but I’m not used to double-crossing people,” Liam said. “I’m scared to death about what Frederick is going to say when he finds out I’ve flipped to Oscar’s side. I feel sick to my guts about it. Andrew Carnegie is going to be here. J.P. Morgan too.”
For the past hour Patrick had been using kind, priestly counsel to gently build Liam’s confidence, but none of it had worked. Perhaps it was time to change tactics. He grabbed Liam’s shoulders to jerk him upright and toughened his voice.
“If you want to serve on the board of directors, these are the kind of men you’ll be working with every day. Stand up straight, look them in the eye, and treat them like equals.”
Liam glared. “They’re not equals; they’re the enemy.”
“Knock it off,” Patrick ordered, his voice loud enough to echo off the tile. “As of today, they are your business partners. Start acting like it.”
Liam took a bracing breath, then blew it out and stood up straight. “You’re right.” He adjusted his collar and tugged down the vest of his insanely expensive suit.
Just before leaving, he tipped the washroom attendant. “You didn’t hear anything, right?” Liam said to the man.
“Of course not.” The attendant flashed Liam a wink. “Good luck, sir.”
