“I frankly can’t wait to have you.”
“Oh, Vincent, I’m so sorry for everything!” I wished I could pull him into my arms. I suddenly thought of Mimi and Pop. I longed to see them, but would they ever want to see me again? “What about your parents?” I asked. “How much do they know? Will they ever forgive me for leaving the way I did?”
He moved my hand until it was nestled between both of his. “I told them why you left,” he said. “I told them where you’ve been. And I told them what you’ve been doing.”
I made a face. “They must think I’m a terrible person,” I said.
He smiled. “They think you need their prayers,” he said. He leaned forward and kissed me lightly on the cheek. “And now they’ll think their prayers have been answered.”
77
Over the next week, Henry and I settled into the most placid period of our marriage. It was amazing what our heart-to-heart talks could do, I thought, as I ate dinner with him and Ruth that Friday evening. Ruth still had Hattie set a place for Lucy, but I’d learned to ignore it. If this was the way she needed to grieve—or to express her anger at me—so be it. Over dinner, Henry and I would catch each other’s eye and share a secret smile. He knew I’d told Vincent everything and he said he was happy I would have the future I wanted with him. He hadn’t told me if he’d decided to start an affair with Violet or not, but he assured me the divorce would come, one way or another. I trusted him to keep his word on that. He knew the consequence of not following through could be dire. I only needed to be patient.
Now that Jilly was nearly well, Honor stayed home with her rather than work in the hospital kitchen, so I didn’t see her every day as I had been. I thought that was probably best for both of us. I occasionally spotted Zeke at the hospital—Henry was still giving him time off from the factory to volunteer as one of our maintenance men—but unless it was my imagination, Zeke was avoiding contact with me. A couple of times, when he was repairing a broken bed or a window screen in the ward where I was working, I’d catch him looking at me, but he’d turn away quickly before I could read his expression.
I spent a lot of time with Amy Pryor, who was still in the iron lung. I had caring for her down to a routine now. She was well enough to look at pictures of her baby sent over by the mayor and his wife, and she told me about her little two-year-old son, even though she was only able to speak with each exhalation the machine allowed her. We talked as I brushed her hair or washed her face, and she was well enough to be bored, so one of the volunteers read to her off and on during the day.
The Life article came out and issues of the magazine flew off the newsstands. Ruth cut out the pictures and added them to her scrapbook, right next to the newspaper photograph of Vincent, Grace, and myself as we stood with the mayor and his wife after the birth of their grandson. I’d been touched beyond words when she showed me that picture in her scrapbook. She had no idea, of course, that the handsome doctor standing next to me in the photograph was the man I dreamed about day and night. I felt not only moved that she’d finally accepted me into the family, but guilty that I knew what she didn’t: I would not be a part of her family for much longer. She’d get over it, I thought. Oh, she’d be upset, since there were “no divorces in the Kraft family,” and angry with Henry for bringing shame to the Kraft name. But she’d be so delighted once she had Violet Dare as her daughter-in-law that I doubted her unhappiness would last for long.
*
That Monday evening, Henry told us that he had a community meeting to attend and left the house right after dinner. I was certain there was no community meeting. Most likely, he’d be with Honor at the factory. I knew in the long run his relationship with her was impossible, yet I envied him his ability to be with the person he loved when I was with Vincent only in my dreams.
Ruth and I were reading in the library around eight o’clock when the doorbell rang.
“Who on earth could that be?” Ruth asked.
Through the library window, I saw an unfamiliar black car in the driveway. Hattie had left for the day, so I walked through the foyer and opened the front door. Two men stood on the step, one tall and lanky and very young, the other in his fifties with gray hair and mustache. They both wore suits, despite the muggy evening heat.
“Good evening, ma’am,” the older man said. “We’re from the federal Office of Price Administration, and we’re here to speak to Mr. Henry Kraft.”
Ruth appeared at my side. “What on earth is the Office of Price Administration?” she asked.
“Mr. Kraft isn’t home.” I felt perspiration break out across my back, recalling Teddy’s cryptic note to Henry about the OPA. Now I knew what that acronym stood for, though I wasn’t sure what they wanted with Henry.
“Where is he?” the man asked.
“He’s at a meeting,” Ruth said. “What do you want to talk to him about?”
“We’re investigating counterfeit rationing coupons,” he said.
“Counterfeit rationing coupons!” Ruth laughed. “Here? My Henry? That’s ridiculous.”
“We have a warrant to search the premises, but we really need to speak to Mr. Kraft,” the older man said.
“Search the premises!” Ruth said. “This is nonsense.”
My heart gave a thud as I thought of the money and gasoline coupons in the bottom of the armoire. Surely the coupons weren’t counterfeit. Henry was wealthy. He had no need to involve himself in something so foolish. I realized though that I’d never asked him where all that cash had come from.
The skinny younger man produced a document from inside his suit jacket and the older man snatched it from him, unfolding it to hold out to us. “You need to let us in, ma’am,” he said to both Ruth and myself.
“Oh, this is so silly!” Ruth said. “I don’t want you tearing up my house.” But she stepped back to let them pass. I had a helpless feeling, wondering if there were other caches of money or coupons hidden around the house for them to find.
“We won’t do any damage,” the mustached man said as he stood in the foyer, looking left and right.