She hoped that her father would approve of Louis and the marriage, and that her grandmother wouldn’t make a fuss because he was French. She had warned him that her grandmother was very opinionated and eccentric, and that her great-uncle lived with them and was even more so, but she didn’t tell him that the house was full of ghosts and the people who lived there never seemed to leave. Even if they died, they came back, and nothing changed. She didn’t want him to think that her family was strange before he met them. This was her chance to have a normal, happy life, and she didn’t want anything to spoil it. And there was always the risk that the ghosts wouldn’t appear at all, which might be simpler.
Their crossing to New York on the ship was almost like a honeymoon for them, except that they were in separate staterooms. He was very respectful of her. Having understood that her previous conjugal life had lasted for exactly one night, he didn’t want to press her for more than they had until they were married. There would be time enough to discover each other then. He could hardly wait. She was so young and beautiful that he felt like a very lucky man. And he was acquiring a daughter too. He was wonderful to her as well.
On the ship, they dined with the captain, talked to people on deck, played shuffleboard, lay in the sunshine, swam in the pool with Lili, talked for hours on deck chairs, and went dancing every night. Bettina had never been happier in her life. She even enjoyed Lili more, knowing that she had provided a father for her who would love them both. The burden of motherhood that had seemed so weighty to her before, seemed lighter now that she knew that it would be shared. And she was relieved that he didn’t want more children. He was the perfect spouse for her.
When they docked in New York, they stayed at the Plaza again, and took the train to California the next morning, in three first-class compartments, as they had done on the ship. The journey was tedious and long, and Lili was fussy. At nineteen months, she was running everywhere by then, and hated being confined in the small compartment. Louis walked her up and down the passageway with the nurse, when Bettina took her afternoon rest.
In San Francisco, they were getting ready for her return, thinking she was coming home to stay. She had given them no warning that she was going to be there for only a short time, and that the guest she was bringing home was important. They wondered who it was, but all Gwyneth could think about was Lili. She couldn’t wait to have her granddaughter home again. Their five-month absence had seemed interminable to her. It had been a long summer. The Gregorys had rented a house in Maine for two months for their annual vacation, and they weren’t due back until the end of August. Andy was going straight back to Edinburgh from the East Coast, and Caroline was flying directly to Los Angeles. Quinne was with them, and Magnus missed Charlie terribly. Everyone at the Butterfields’ house had been bored without the Gregorys and Bettina, particularly Josiah, who had been reading novels to Lucy at night, for lack of anything else to do, and missed his conversations with Bettina.
The family had gone to the house in Woodside briefly in July, but it was tiresome there too. They’d been happy to get back to the city, and Gwyneth wanted the house to look beautiful when Bettina got home. The day they were due to arrive, she put vases of fresh flowers everywhere, and the house was fragrant with the scent. She had cut them from the garden and arranged them herself.
“You’d think we were expecting a royal visit, instead of your daughter,” Augusta complained, but she was excited too. Angus had offered to meet the train and pipe them in, but Augusta had convinced him not to, and to wait for them at the house. It was a foggy day and chilly, as San Francisco tended to be in the summer, and she didn’t want him to catch a cold. “Who’s she bringing, by the way?” Augusta asked her daughter again, thinking she might know by then, but it was a mystery to them all. Bettina had just said “a friend,” and her mother assumed it was some nice woman she’d met in Paris who was coming to stay for a month or two, as people did from Europe, because it was so far to come for a shorter visit.
Gwyneth was pacing the halls around the time Bettina was expected to be there. She had wanted to go to the train station in Oakland, but there would be so much confusion with all their trunks and bags that they had sent the chauffeur with the car, and the carriage and coachman, and had agreed to meet at the house. Bert had come home early, and was excited too. Augusta and Angus were playing a card game in the drawing room, Josiah and Lucy were watching, and Magnus was up to some sort of mischief in the garden. The whole family was there, waiting for her.
And then, finally, they heard the car pull up in front of the house, and the carriage wheels, and they all ran outside to greet her. Bettina was the first one out of the car, wearing a white linen suit and a huge hat she’d bought in Paris. She looked very stylish. The nurse was carrying Lili and stepped out right behind her, as Gwyneth rushed forward to hug them, and Bert was beaming. Louis stepped out of the car last in a dark suit and a homburg, looking very much like the banker he was, and he smiled, watching the scene of Bettina in the arms of her family. They hadn’t even noticed him until the grande old dame stood at the top of the stairs to the house and stared him into the ground, her fierce scowl suggesting he didn’t belong there. She normally would have disappeared with a stranger among them, but she stood visible and undaunted.
“Bettina!” she said in a booming voice that would have carried for miles. “Who is that?” As Bettina heard her, she looked up and smiled at her grandmother, pleased to see her so clearly, and ran up the stairs lightly to hug her, and then hugged her brother and sister and great-uncle right after her father. She turned to glance in the direction her grandmother was pointing and saw Louis behind her, waiting discreetly before he approached. Bert gazed at his daughter and then at the man in the hat and dark suit with a question in his eyes.
“I’m sorry.” Bettina remembered her manners immediately, beckoned to Louis, and introduced him to her parents. “Louis de Lambertin, may I present my parents, Bertrand and Gwyneth Butterfield.” She smiled proudly and Gwyneth took her in her arms again and held her, to make sure she was real. “I wrote to you that he was coming,” she reminded them, because the entire family looked stunned to see Louis. They just stood there and stared.
“You didn’t tell us you were bringing a gentleman,” her mother said gently, “you only said ‘a friend.’?”
“I thought it was better for you to meet him,” Bettina said, since she wanted the reason for his being there to be a surprise.