Before she could even turn the lock, he was there.
Rosa screamed. A scream that would tear a hard man’s heart in two, and Jack was not hard of heart. He picked up a kicking Rosa and held her while she screamed and thrashed. He simply kept her against his chest, in the circle of his arms.
Jack was talking to her, a low river of sound. When she tried to bite him, he adjusted his grip and kept talking. When Mrs. Quinlan and Mrs. Cooper came rushing into the hall, he kept talking. Rosa was still howling, her mouth a dark hole. She ripped the buttons from Jack’s shirt collar and threw them, her other fist hitting him on the jaw, the cheek, the ear. He never flinched, and he never stopped murmuring to her.
Now she was shouting at him, directing all her anger and frustration into his face in a rushing, tumbling stream of Italian. By his expression it was clear Jack understood her. A kind of calm came over him and seemed to pass into Rosa, who slumped against his shoulder.
A door opened behind Elise. Lia came into the light, sleep-tousled, her thumb firmly in her mouth and tears pouring down her face in a sheet.
“Oh baby,” Elise said. “Come here.” She pulled the little girl close and folded her into her lap, smoothing her hair.
“Shall we go into my room and get into the big bed?”
Lia wound her free hand in Elise’s shirtwaist so tightly that she felt the pull of it at her throat.
“Shall we?”
Her head jerked from side to side: no.
“It will be all right,” Elise whispered to her. “I know this is scary, but it will be all right. We’ll all sit down together and find a way to make Rosa feel better. We can do that, Lia.”
She realized then that Mrs. Cooper had come up the stairs and stood motionless, her hands flat on her waist, arms akimbo. Lia’s eyes, brimming with tears, blinked once, and then she held her arms out.
Elise had had more than one uncharitable thought about Margaret Cooper, and she was embarrassed to remember how quickly she had judged. Her whole person, body and mind, belonged to Lia, who had wrapped her arms and legs around Mrs. Cooper’s neck and slender waist. She murmured to the little girl, soft sounds that might have been words but were meant for no one in the world but Lia. When the door to the girls’ room closed behind them, Elise had to put her forehead down on her knees and let herself be swept away, just in that moment, home to her own mother.
Rosa was still talking in ragged bursts. Jack held her safely in his arms, listening. In small, easy steps he moved into the parlor.
Mrs. Quinlan gestured for Elise. She had an errand and didn’t want to wake Mr. Lee. Would Elise be so good?
“Of course. Just tell me what I can do.”
She pressed money into Elise’s hand and closed her fingers over the bills. “Walk over to the New York Hotel front entrance, tell Mr. Manchester I’ve sent you. He’ll get you a cab. Let him get the cab for you, do you hear me? Then go straight to the New Amsterdam and tell Anna what has happened here. Ask her to come home as soon as she’s able.”
All the questions tumbling through her head, but only one presented itself. “What now?”
Mrs. Quinlan was very old, but there was nothing frail about her. She was filled with calm determination that settled Elise’s own jangling nerves. Some women had that strength hidden inside them, a light that flared to life when everyone else was overwhelmed.
She patted Elise’s cheek and smiled at her, a weary but fond smile. “Tomorrow Anna and Jack will take the girls to Staten Island to see their brother Vittorio,” she said. “Nothing else will do.”
37
THE RAINY DAY that Anna had wished for came, and would not be wished away again. All the way to the ferry terminal she worried that their departure would be suspended due to rough waters. At the last moment the winds died back and they were allowed to board.
In the hurry not to miss the ferry she had forgotten things: she hadn’t checked to see if the girls had handkerchiefs, or how much money she had in her pocketbook, or if her hat was pinned firmly in place. A gust of wind made her think of the pins, because it almost took the hat from her head. At the same time it took the only umbrella she had found in the rush and turned it inside out with a great pop.
But they got onto the ferry, and it left as scheduled to plow its way through the chop.
Anna held Lia’s head while she was sick, both of them soaked by rain that was falling so hard that each drop bounced like a grasshopper off rail and deck. Lia’s complexion went a sickly yellow green.