Chapter Sixteen
Rose looked up from perusing the late afternoon’s newspapers with her mother to see Charlotte entering the parlor.
“Good day, Evelyn, Rose,” Charlotte greeted them. “You’re both looking well.”
“There’s my favorite daughter-in-law,” Evelyn remarked mischievously, since she only had one son. Still, they all chuckled. “Come, have some tea with us.” She glanced at the clock on the mantle. “Or maybe something stronger? A little sherry?”
Evelyn went toward the button that would ring the bell in the kitchen summoning their cook. Emily was no doubt reading the penny paper, as was her custom at that time of day, and drinking coffee.
“Oh, I don’t want to intrude,” Charlotte protested. “I had hoped to have a word with Rose though.”
Evelyn paused, her finger hovering next to the call button mounted on the wall covered in a cheerful flower-embellished wallpaper.
“Is anything the matter?” She looked between Charlotte and Rose.
Charlotte smiled. “Your expression so resembles Reed’s whenever Rose’s name is mentioned. Do you both jump to the same awful conclusions?”
“I’m afraid they do,” Rose said.
Evelyn smiled slightly. “You know our Rose.”
Charlotte nodded. “I do indeed. However, there’s nothing to be concerned about.”
Rose hoped not. How long would her mother linger before Charlotte could tell her anything important?
Her sister-in-law took a seat. “I have a question about the wedding, a small detail.”
How kind of Charlotte not to break her confidence nor worry Evelyn Malloy with talk of nefarious dealings from the long-ago past.
Besides, maybe there were no nefarious dealings after all and Charlotte would tell her such.
“We’ll have tea anyway,” Evelyn said, finally pressing the button, “and then I must get to my ladies’ gardening meeting. I’m sure you and Rose can work out anything after that. If she lets you guide her.
Guide her, indeed! Would the family always think of her as the five-year-old who managed to climb onto the roof’s eave and get stuck until her father rescued her? Or the twelve-year-old who remained on a train to Baltimore after the rest of her siblings had disembarked. When her mother found out about Finn, which eventually she would, Rose would most likely be marked as interminably and incorrigibly flighty.
After the maid arrived with the tea tray and they all had a cup and a biscuit in front of them, Charlotte eyed Rose, who felt as though her skin would burst if she didn’t soon find out what Charlotte had discovered, if anything.
“I can’t believe my last one will soon be married, but it is due time,” Evelyn said.
Charlotte gave her a warm smile. “I for one greatly missed the lighthearted girl I met when I first moved to Boston. She seemed to disappear overnight to be replaced by a quite serious and solemn young woman. Lately, with Mr. Woodsom, however, it seems we have her back again.”
“True,” Evelyn agreed. “He has been good for our Rose.”
“You are both speaking as if I am not in the room,” Rose reminded them.
“That’s because we speak only truths that we don’t mind you hearing,” Charlotte assured her. She focused on her mother-in-law. “If I am not speaking out of turn, I am happy as a rattlesnake in a mouse hole at hearing your good news.”
“A rattlesnake?” Evelyn repeated.
Charlotte cleared her throat. “That is to say, I’m very pleased that you have found a companion once more.”
“Oh, you are referring to Mr. Nickerson,” Evelyn said, and Rose detected a soft blush upon her mother’s cheeks.How sweet. “I have known him for a number of years,” she explained, “and believe we still have a few good ones left to spend in each other’s company — a little closer company than we have enjoyed as yet.”
Rose choked on her tea. Had her mother just referred to the marital bed and sharing it with Ethan Nickerson? She was still coughing when Charlotte leaned over and thumped her twice on the back.
“Thank you,” Rose managed. Then to change the topic, she drew their attention to the most exciting news she’d seen in ages, “Clara Barton is coming back to Boston. She’ll give a talk at Harvard in two weeks.”
Both the others perked up. “I would love to go,” Charlotte said.
