Evvie at Sixteen (3 page)

Nick confirmed their reservation, and they were shown to a table. Evvie noticed the white linen tablecloths and napkins, the roses and candles at each table. The silverware had good weight to it, and the piano was in tune. This was threatening to be one expensive meal.

She checked the menu carefully. Dinner for the three of them would cost roughly a week's grocery budget. Meg would have to be unusually creative with pasta and peanut butter to compensate.

So she ordered one of the least expensive chicken dishes when the waiter came around, and tried not to think about the cost of the bottle of wine Nicky ordered for himself and Megs. Maybe she'd turn down dessert. If her parents followed her lead, that could save them ten dollars or so. And even though she would have loved pate, she claimed not to want any appetizers. One out of the three of them had to be practical.

“This is a lovely restaurant,” Meg declared. “Do you recognize any of the people here, Nicky?”

“That's the mayor two tables over,” Nick replied. “I'm planning to meet him next week. And over there is John Kingsford. He's head of the school board. That's interesting. He's having dinner with Mark Farrell. He owns the biggest construction company in the area.”

Evvie marvelled once again at her father's ability to learn about the movers and shakers in any town they lived in. In a week, he'd be on a first name basis with all of them. In a month, they'd be trusting him with their money. In a year, they'd all be much richer for the association, or else it would be another middle of the night move for the Sebastian clan.

“A new year in Evvie's life,” Meg said. “A new home for us all. New business for Nicky. A new beginning.”

“A wonderful beginning,” Nick replied. “This year is going to make up for all the bad ones, Daisy. I promise you that.”

“I promise, too,” Meg said, and she looked straight into her husband's eyes. Evvie turned her face away from them. There were times when the connection her parents shared was so overwhelming they could block out the rest of the world, forget that others, even their daughters, shared their lives. There was nothing any of them could do then, except wait the moment out. It drove them all crazy, except maybe Thea, and Evvie suspected even she could have done with a little less romance when she needed help with her homework.

It took the arrival of the waiter with their salads to break the mood, and Evvie was pleased both by the food and the interruption.

They ate their salads and their main courses in relative quiet. Nick had no business deals to discuss with them, and Meg, Evvie knew, was thinking about Aunt Grace. So they simply enjoyed the food and the wine and the scent of money in the air. And when their dinner was over, and the pianist was playing, Nick asked Evvie to dance.

There was no one else dancing, but there was a small clearing that she supposed could be taken for a dance floor. She knew Nick would have his way about it. If he had insisted on dancing at the pizza parlor, Thea would have had only the options of dancing or dying.

Evvie smiled her acceptance, and her father led her away from the table. The pianist played a waltz, and she and Nick danced with stately formal grace. When the number ended, Nick kissed her gently on the cheek, and the other people at the restaurant broke into applause. Even the waiters were clapping, Evvie noticed, and she smiled self-consciously as she walked back to her mother.

“Happy birthday, darling,” Meg said. “Nicholas, that was wonderful.”

“You get more beautiful every year,” Nick said, and Evvie knew he meant her this time, and she smiled at him.

“We have a small present for you,” Meg said. “We wish it could be more, but maybe next year. Nicky, do you have the box?”

“Certainly,” Nick said, and he took out of his pocket a small giftwrapped box. “Happy birthday, Evvie,” he said. “May you have a hundred more of them, each more special than the last.”

“That would make me a hundred and sixteen,” Evvie said, taking the box from him. She didn't want to open it, preferring the feel of the gift in her palm to finding out what it would be.

“Open it, darling,” her mother said, so Evvie did. She removed the wrapping paper carefully, to prolong the moment, and then, when she had no choice, she opened the box.

In it was a pearl on a gold chain. “It's beautiful,” she said, dreading the thought of how much it must have cost.

“It's natural of course,” Nick said. “Better to have one natural pearl than a hundred cultured ones.”

Evvie nodded.

“Let me put it on you,” Meg said, and Evvie turned around, so her mother could fasten the clasp. “Oh Evvie, it's perfect. You were made for pearls.”

“I'll treasure it,” Evvie said. “Thank you.”

“Thank you,” Nick said. “For being a perfect daughter.”

There was no point arguing the point with him, denying her perfection, or refusing the gift because it cost too much. The trust fund check had come in, and now it had gone out, and Evvie had a necklace she'd never dare get too fond of, because it was so eminently pawnable.

But even though she was aware of all that, and knew that her parents wanted something of her she had no desire to give them, Evvie couldn't help but feel happy. It was her birthday and summer was summer, no matter where it was spent, and Nicky really had the most amazing ability to land on his feet. They'd been in worse situations before, and always come out of them all right. Nick was a magician when he had to be. He'd pull a fortune out of his hat.

Evvie enjoyed the rest of the evening, and showed off her necklace to Thea, Claire, and Sybil when they got home. She knew each one of them was calculating just what the necklace must have cost, and what their involuntary contributions to it were. But for that moment, Evvie didn't care. It was her birthday, and she'd been given something perfect, even if it was as ephemeral as a dance.

Meg came into the room and sat on Sybil's bed. “Were you telling your sisters about your dinner?” she asked Evvie, who was perched on Thea's bed. Only Claire was alone.

“I told them how delicious it was,” Evvie said. “I had a wonderful time. Thank you.”

“Next year will be even better,” her mother promised. “For you too, Thea. Things are going to get much better this year, I just know it.”

“I know it, too,” Thea said. “Megs, tell us the story of how you met Nicky.”

Meg laughed. “You must have heard it a thousand times,” she said. “You really want to hear it again?”

“I do,” Evvie said. “Tell it to us again for my birthday.”

“All right then,” Meg said. “I was exactly Evvie's age the day I met Nicholas. He came to my sixteenth birthday party.”

“What were you wearing?” Thea asked, although she knew the answer perfectly well.

“A pink chiffon dress,” Meg replied. “A perfectly dreadful dress with ruffles. How I hated it. Aunt Grace had shopped with me for it, and she had terrible taste. She thought all young girls should be decked out in ruffles, and since I was the only one she had access to, she bought me more than my share of them.”

“Pink chiffon with ruffles,” Evvie said, trying to picture her mother in it. “Did you keep the dress?”

“I burned it,” Meg declared. “I don't think I've ever told you that. Nicholas and I burned it later that summer, after Aunt Grace said I could never see him again. We set fire to it by the gazebo. I was never so happy to see anything go up in flames.”

“I will never wear pink ruffles,” Claire said. “I'd rather wear rags. I'd rather wear Thea's hand-me-downs.”

“I like ruffles,” Sybil said. “Not necessarily pink though.”

“Ignore them,” Thea said. “It was your sixteenth birthday, Megs, and Nicky showed up uninvited.”

“He was with Robert and Isabelle Sinclair,” Meg said. “Isabelle went to school with me, and Robert was her older brother. Nicky knew him from Princeton and was visiting them. I suppose he was Isabelle's date, technically speaking, but that didn't really matter, since she was madly in love with someone else that summer. The year-round boy who bagged groceries. Of course she couldn't let her parents know, although everybody else certainly did.”

“What happened to them?” Claire asked.

“Claire!” Thea said.

“Well, I want to know,” Claire said. “I know Nicky and Megs ended up together. What happened to the Sinclairs?”

“Isabelle ended up marrying into the Howe family,” Meg replied. “Certainly more acceptable than the grocery bag boy. Robert went into the Navy. I suppose he's an admiral by now.”

“Get back to you and Nicky,” Thea said. “That's the part Evvie wants to hear about. Right, Evvie?”

“I want to hear it all,” Evvie said.

“Nicky,” Meg said. “All right. I was standing outside, it was an outdoor party, a warm July evening, with the sea breezes making things just cool enough for dancing, and I had that awful pink ruffled dress on, feeling awkward and embarrassed, and I looked up, and there was Nicky, so tall and handsome. I thought to myself, this is the handsomest man I've ever seen. I thought of him immediately as a man, even though he was only nineteen. This is the handsomest man I've ever seen, and then I blushed at the thought. I must have turned as pink as the dress I had on.”

“Was it charged?” Claire asked.

“Why should the dress have been charged?” Sybil asked. “Aunt Grace had lots of money. She probably paid cash.”

“Not the dress, the moment,” Claire said. “Was the moment charged, Megs? Was it electric?”

“He turned around and faced me,” Meg said. “We made eye contact, and yes, Claire, it was charged. It was electric.”

“Did the two of you stand like that for long?” Evvie asked.

“It felt like an eternity,” Meg replied. “It was probably ten seconds, maybe less.”

“Who spoke first?” Thea asked.

“Nicky did,” Meg said. “He asked me my name. And I said Margaret, because that was what Aunt Grace insisted on calling me. And he said no, that wasn't right for me. I should be called Daisy, he said. Had anyone ever called me Daisy?”

“That was what your parents called you,” Sybil said.

“They were the only ones who ever did,” Meg said. “And of course no one had since they had died. Not until Nicky. All his friends called him Nick, but he was Nicky to me, or Nicholas. And I was Daisy. I knew the first time we danced together that my life had no meaning without him, and Nicky knew that someday we'd be married. He told me so, before Clark stepped in to claim his dance. And I nodded because I knew he was right. From that moment on, the only person I lived for was Nicholas.”

“But Aunt Grace tried to break you up,” Evvie said.

Meg smiled. “She tried, but it didn't matter,” she declared. “Nicholas was my soul. That didn't mean I loved her any the less.”

“Does everyone fall in love with someone who's their soul?” Thea asked.

“I don't think so,” Meg said. “I know, I've always felt the luckiest of women.”

Evvie looked at her mother and marveled not for the first time at her capacity to love and accept. And looking at Megs, she knew what she had to do.

“I'll go,” she said. “I'll go tomorrow.”

“Thank you, Evvie,” her mother said. “I'm very grateful.”

“Go?” Sybil asked. “Where are you going?”

“To take care of Aunt Grace,” Evvie said.

“How long will you be gone?” Thea asked.

“For as long as Aunt Grace needs me,” Evvie replied. “Maybe the whole summer.”

“Can I have your room then?” Claire asked.

Evvie laughed. “It's all yours,” she declared. “I guess there'll be room enough for me at Eastgate.”

C
HAPTER
T
HREE

I am not a poor relation, Evvie told herself as she kissed her family good-bye. I am not a poor relation, she whispered as she boarded the train to Boston. I am not a poor relation, she hummed as she waited for the evening train to Eastgate. I am not a poor relation, she repeated endlessly as the train made stop after stop along the Atlantic coastline.

Evvie tried convincing herself that she was the exact opposite of a poor relation, that Aunt Grace was the real poor relation. Not in terms of money, of course. Nicky claimed Grace was positively loaded, and nothing about Grace's life-style argued otherwise. The live-in servants, the annual trip abroad, the summer cottage in the exclusive village of Eastgate, the stingy Christmas gifts. Grace Winslow was old money personified.

But that didn't make Evvie a poor relation. Poor relations went calling because they were desperate, and Evvie didn't feel the least bit desperate. Terrified maybe, irritated, lonely, and tired, but not desperate. Nicky was the desperate one, and since he wasn't there, he didn't qualify for poor relation status, either. He didn't qualify for any relation status, at least in Aunt Grace's eyes.

Grace was the poor relation because she was all alone. She'd never married, and had no children of her own. She'd outlived her brothers and sisters as well. And while she had nieces and nephews, the one she was closest to had to have been Megs, since she was Megs's legal guardian. The spinster aunt had gotten the orphaned girl, and the two of them had shared a home from the time Megs was eleven until Megs had eloped with Nicky. If Grace had only been willing to accept Nicky, then the girls would have regarded her as a grandmother, rather than the forbidding great-aunt of family legend.

Megs loved Grace though, and that was why Evvie was there. Not to maneuver her family into Grace's will, no matter how much Nicky might dream. When her mother had come into her room, had helped her to pack her suitcase with her best summer clothes, and had kissed her lightly on the cheek and said, “Thank you. I feel so much better about Aunt Grace now that I know you'll be there to help her,” Evvie had felt better.