Ralph laughed. “Just,” he said.
From the outside, the casita looked like a bit of the main house that the builders had neglected to tack on. The stucco was painted the same faintly coral hue and the red tiles on the roof and white trim around the paned windows were the same. The arched doorway was reminiscent of the larger arch at the main house’s entry. Inside, there was an eat-in kitchen and bar, a cozy living room with a stone fireplace, and a bedroom with an ample bathroom tucked inside. The little house bore no evidence that Hugh had been living inside it except for some suits hanging over the back of an armchair and a pair of polished black dress shoes sitting side by side on the floor next to a box of books.
“Did you spend any time in here at all?” Ralph said, apparently as surprised as I was at how clean the place was.
Hugh grabbed his suits. “It’s been busy at the house with Irene and the children here. I’ve been needed inside.”
Ralph bent down, tossed the shoes atop the books, and picked up the box. “The problems inside that house aren’t your problems,” he said. He addressed his words to the box but clearly he wanted Hugh to hear them.
“I didn’t say they were,” Hugh replied, as he slung the suits on their hangers over his shoulder. “I said I was needed. You haven’t been here, Ralph, so you really wouldn’t know.” He turned to me. “Good night, Elise.”
“Good night,” I said.
They left. When Ralph came back a few minutes later, I hadn’t opened a suitcase or put one thing away. I had just been standing there, studying the little house that would be my home for a while, and wondering what it was going to be like to live with these people, what it was going to be like to discover who I was, here in this environment.
“Okay if we just take sides on the bed?” Ralph said easily, as though he and I were both fifth-grade boys and I’d come to his house for a sleepover. “I’ll sleep on top of the covers.”
He wasn’t really asking. The arrangement he was suggesting was the only one that made sense, since the little sofa in the living room certainly wouldn’t fit either of us if we stretched out.
But I nodded anyway.
An hour later, our suitcases were empty, our clothes had been put away, and Ralph lay atop the bedspread with a loose blanket across him, just inches from me.
I held Mariko’s notebook to my chest in the dark and counted sheep until sleep finally found me.
30
When I awoke the next morning, Ralph was still sleeping heavily. It was a few minutes after seven. I tiptoed out of the bedroom to see about making coffee in the little kitchen, but Hugh had apparently been taking his meals in the house. There was nothing in the refrigerator but an unopened bottle of white wine and a jar of pickles, and no food at all in the cupboards.
I waited for half an hour for Ralph to awaken, and when he didn’t I decided to dress and see if coffee had been made in the main house. I had grown accustomed to coffee after working at the café all those months, and I wanted something warm and familiar.
In the kitchen I met Martha, the housekeeper, who made all the meals at the Dove house. She’d also been tasked with taking care of the children in the early mornings, at least until Irene pulled herself out of bed. She was at least fifty and friendly enough, but she told me within seconds of meeting me that the added chore of minding Irene’s children had not been her idea. She handed me a cup of coffee and told me a light breakfast had been laid out in what she called the breakfast room, or I could wait and eat with Frances and Irene, whenever that would be.
I took the cup, thanked her, and made my way to the next room, which was alight with sunshine. The children were eating at the same table they had eaten at last night. Hugh was sitting with them, reading the newspaper. He was clearly dressed for work at the family company that Ralph had no interest in. I still wasn’t quite sure what the Dove family business was, other than that they found investors to put up the capital so that the studios could produce their films. I knew the investors stood to make a lot of money, and therefore so did the company, so naturally Ralph wanted nothing to do with it. I knew that much.
Pamela noticed when I came into the room. “It’s Elsie!” she said, grinning, and Teddy and Hugh both looked up from their plates of toast and eggs.
Teddy held up a jammy hand. “Hi,” he said, his mouth full of toast.
“Hello,” I replied.
“Good morning,” Hugh said, and then he looked past me, probably to see if Ralph had also come into the house.
“Ralph’s still asleep,” I offered. I sat down in a chair by Pamela.
“Will you and Ralph be needing a car today?” Hugh picked up the plate of buttered toast and extended it to me.
“Oh. Thank you. I guess we will. Probably.” I took a piece and set it on the plate in front of me.
Hugh blinked, as though waiting for me to continue.
“I mean, yes. Ralph said there were things he wanted to do today.”
“I’ll leave mine, then. I can have Higgins take me to the office in Mother’s car.”
He said it politely, as though it wasn’t a huge inconvenience, but it had to be. I felt as though all Ralph and I had done since we’d arrived the day before was inconvenience his brother. The way Hugh looked at us, at me, made me feel as though I was a massive disappointment. And I knew in that moment that I wanted Hugh to like me, accept me, welcome me into his life as his brother’s wife. His opinion of me mattered, I could see that, more than Frances’s or Irene’s. It would take me a few weeks to figure out why, but I would come to understand that Irene and Frances tended to see only their own needs and desires, whereas Hugh wasn’t constantly looking inward. He saw people. He cared about people. The welfare of others mattered more to him than his own. On that first morning, though, all I knew was that I didn’t want Hugh to despise me.
“You don’t have to do that,” I said. “Maybe Ralph was thinking we’d take a taxi or something.”
Hugh smiled weakly as he stood. “I doubt Ralph had thought ahead much about how he planned to get around today. I would offer you Irene’s car, but I’m sure she has plans today. And so does Mother.”
“But I don’t want to trouble you,” I said, and the earnestness in my voice seemed to surprise him.
Hugh regarded me for a moment, studied my face as though he was filing something away about me.
“It’s no trouble,” he replied, in what I can only describe as a more genuine voice. Before he’d been speaking cordially to me. Politely, but from an emotional distance. Now his tone was as sincere as my own. “Higgins can drop me off after he takes Pamela to school.”
“I don’t want to go to kindergarten today!” Pamela said. “I want to stay here with Uncle Ralph and Elsie. I want to show Elsie my dollhouse.”
“You can show her your dollhouse later,” Hugh said kindly. “Run upstairs now and brush your teeth. It’s almost time to leave.”
“I don’t want to go,” the child said defiantly.
“Upstairs now,” Hugh replied, firmly.
“No.”
“Look. You are going to school today.”
“No, I’m not!”
“Pamela—,” Hugh began, but I cut him off.
“You know what, sweetheart?” I said to her. “Your uncle Ralph and I have things to do today so I won’t be home until later to see your dollhouse. But I really do want to see it. Will you promise to show it to me when we both get home?”
She regarded me for a moment. “What things do you and Uncle Ralph have to do?”
“Boring adult things. Will you show me your dollhouse later today, when we’re both home again?”
“All right,” she said, and she got off her chair and headed out of the room, presumably to brush her teeth.
I glanced up at Hugh. I couldn’t tell if he was glad I’d intervened or put out. His face was expressionless. Maybe he was merely surprised I’d been able to change Pamela’s mind so quickly. I wanted to tell him I was four years older than my brother, so I’d had some practice with that age, but those words sounded boastful in my head.
“Well, I hope you and Ralph have a nice day today,” Hugh said as he took his suit coat off the chair back. He pulled a set of car keys out of his pants pocket and laid them on the table.
“Thank you. And thank you for letting us use your car.”
He nodded and started to walk away. Hugh had taken only a couple of steps when he turned back. “Thanks for that.” He tipped his head toward Pamela’s chair. “Walt’s leaving has been hard on them. He’s never been much of a parent to them, but they still miss him.”
Hugh left before I could summon a response.
A second later, Teddy climbed off his chair and onto my lap, christening my skirt with a strawberry jam handprint.
* * *