She washed her face and considered herself in the mirror. Her family history was there to read, in her bones and skin and hair, in the blue-green eyes that identified her as redbone in the south, a term some thought as offensive as anything Undine Belmont could come up with. But Cap didn’t care about any of that, and Cap was the only thing that mattered.
Sophie took her time, and still managed to cross paths with Undine as she came into the hall, righting the veil over her face. She stopped and turned.
“Miss Savard,” she said.
Sophie inclined her head, acknowledging both the greeting and the denial of her medical degree. “Miss Belmont.”
“Very cleverly done,” Undine said.
Sophie smiled at her, her best manners on display. “Yes,” she said solemnly. “Cap has done very well for himself.”
Then she ducked around Undine and into the parlor, where Conrad was laughing silently, his whole long thin shape contorted with pleasure. Cap’s smile was quieter, but he looked at her with all the love and affection he had to offer. And that would be more than enough to put all the Undines of the world out of her mind.
? ? ?
ANNA HAD SET out on this expedition determined to hold on to her sense of humor and patience both, and found it easier than she had imagined. It was the little girls who made the difference, in part because they were amazed by everything and in part because shopkeepers seemed to be drawn to them, and in equal part because their presence kept Margaret from starting conversations sure to cause a disagreement.
They picked out lace and bonnets and summer-weight stockings, stopped by the seamstress to have pinafores and skirts pinned up for alteration, retrieved purchases Aunt Quinlan had ordered from a jeweler. At four they had come as far as the Lilliput Children’s Emporium, where the girls were allowed to look at toys and dolls as long as they did not touch. They finished up in the shoe department, where both of them were fitted with buff-colored leather half boots suitable for both summer outings and a small wedding.
Lia was beside herself with joy; Rosa, still somber, expressed her thanks and appreciation and fell back into silence. Anna fought still with the impulse to tell her about the upcoming trip to Staten Island and the hope that they would find her little brother, wanting so much to see some hope in that small serious face. But Jack and Sophie and Aunt Quinlan were united in the belief that it would be worse to raise her hopes only to dash them yet again, and so she had to content herself with small gestures instead of fragile promises.
As a last stop they went to the confectioner’s just two doors down, a place that smelled of caramelized sugar and yeast and cinnamon, French pastries filled with cream and drizzled with chocolate, layer cakes and tortes and little petit fours crowned with fruit as bright as jewels. They were shown to a table while Lia expressed her wishes in very concrete terms, waving the menu as if it were personal standard.
“Chocolate ice cream,” she said. “With wafers and cherries and whipped cream.”
“After something more substantial,” Anna said. “Sandwiches and a pot of peppermint tea, I think.”
A hint of rebellion showed itself on Lia’s face, but her sister’s sharp look was enough to nip insurrection in the bud.
“You’ll like these sandwiches,” Margaret promised the girls.
And they did. A plate of small triangles, white and brown bread trimmed of all crust and filled with delicate slices of cucumber, potted cheese, and slivers of pink ham. The little girls hesitated at first and then ate up the whole platter under Margaret’s watchful eye and constant small corrections.
Anna was just starting to long for home when she saw Rosa’s face transform itself, her worries falling away to reveal a little girl whose fondest wish had just been granted. Even as Anna turned to follow Rosa’s gaze, she knew that Jack was coming toward them, bold and dark and strong in this pastel-colored place designed for ladies and children. She twisted around and met his gaze, and knew that she could not hide from him or anyone at all what she was feeling.
His fingers brushed her shoulder as he passed by her chair and to the other side of the table to stand behind Rosa, who was chattering at him in Italian. He put his hands on her shoulders and leaned down to talk to her, just a few words in Italian, but the tears that had been welling in her eyes subsided as she nodded and smiled and swallowed. Then Lia had hooked her hands around his forearm and demanded her share of his attention.
Anna watched all this and felt her own throat swell so that even when Jack came to her and leaned over to kiss her cheek, she had not a word to offer him.
The waiter brought another chair and there was a good five minutes of adjusting and moving and ordering of more sandwiches and ice cream, during all of which Anna had nothing to say. Finally Jack turned to her, pressing her shoulder with his own. Under the table he caught her hand and put it on the long hard plane of his thigh to trace her ring. Her fingers twitched, and he folded his hand around hers.