Compass Rose (38 page)

“The Hazard property?” Mary said. “You mean that old barn where Mr. Hazard stored his books?”

“A bit more to it than that. That’s in the offing. I’m keeping in touch with the daughter. As it is now, it’s landlocked, but as part of Sawtooth it’ll have access to Sawtooth Pond and our bit of beach. And presto—it’s vastly more valuable. The same thing applies to the Pierce property. That’s on a creek, but it hardly counts as waterfront—you can’t take anything bigger than a skiff up it. The new Sawtooth members will be able to moor their sailboats here. We have a ketch in here now, forty-two feet length overall, seven-foot draft.” He swiveled his chair to look over Sawtooth Pond.

Mary was glad he’d appended his boat footnote. It gave her time to recover from the news that Jack considered himself still in the hunt for the old Hazard place. It also let her begin to consider her own wishes without Jack’s exhalations fogging up the room.

She said, “It’s time I got back to the kitchen. I’ll be having another talk with Rose in any case, and I’ll tell her about your college notions, but I won’t be your agent. I’ve already told her what I think.”

“And what do you think?”

“I love her singing.”

“And I hope you have some feeling of obligation to Sawtooth.”

Mary kept herself from saying, “That’s apples and oranges.” She said, “As soon as we get this evening’s meal on the table, I’ll be thinking of ways to make things come out right.”

Halfway down the stairs she thought, Dear God, at the very end there I might as well have bobbed and curtsied. It was that sliver of shame that pricked her into examining her conscience. She hadn’t lied, but she’d prevaricated. “That old barn …” Odd—she’d started out no more than going along with JB, but now she’d become the hungrier one. And what difference was there between Jack’s land hunger and her own? She could say to herself that she wasn’t in it for money, but the priest lecturing her old confirmation class on the seven deadly sins would have made short work of that. Avarice wasn’t just about money. It was desire for the things of the world.

When she reached the swinging door from the dining room to the kitchen, she looked through the porthole and stepped out of the way of a waitress with a tray of napkins and silverware. And what if she went to Jack and said she’d give up her contract to buy the Hazard place if he’d let Dick and May stay where they were? She hadn’t examined her conscience this relentlessly for ages, but the sisters and priests had taught her well enough how to do it as painfully as possible. Now she pictured Rose in front of her asking her to save May and Dick’s house.

A
fter Phoebe found out that the township was considering—or possibly already planning—to take May and Dick’s house and three acres by eminent domain, May and Dick went to see Phoebe and Eddie’s lawyer.

Dick asked right off what it would cost.

“Hard to tell,” the lawyer said. “It’s an interesting case. That’s not good news for a client. Now, if you were suing for damages, I could work on a contingency-fee basis. But you’ll be defending against a taking. If you win, you’ll end up with what you started with.”

“And your bill,” Dick said.

“Yes.”

“Can’t we sue Jack Aldrich? He’s the one behind all this. He’s the one aiming to end up with our land.”

“He hasn’t done anything. I mean, nothing actionable.”

“He’s pushing the township.”

“I know. It’s not right. But this is a troubling area of the law. Here’s what’s happened to the law concerning eminent domain—”

“This going to take a while?” Dick said. May put a hand on his arm.

“This is a preliminary consultation. No fee. Then we’ll see what you want to do. Okay, then—eminent domain used to be for things like public roads or parks. In 1954 the Supreme Court said that a project ‘need not actually be open to the public to constitute public use.’ ”

“Sounds like mumbo jumbo to me.”

“Yes. On its face it does sound self-contradictory. Anyway, that opened the door to what they said last year—eminent domain can be used so long as the project is ‘rationally related to a conceivable public purpose.’ It looks as though that means simply increasing a township’s tax base.”

“So any son of a bitch rich enough to build something fancier than what’s there can just grab it? That’s the goddamnedest thing I ever heard of.”

“I know, I know. I can see how you’d like to punch Jack Aldrich in the nose. If I thought that was the only satisfaction you could get, hell, I’d hold your coat.”

Dick gave a grunt. May turned and saw the side of his mouth twitch, as close to a laugh as she’d seen anyone get out of him since he lost
Spartina
.

The lawyer said, “I understand Jack Aldrich made you an offer—”

“I told him our place isn’t for sale.”

“If it looks to him as if this eminent-domain taking is going to drag on, he’s likely to get impatient. You ever hear that old song ‘I want what I want when I want it’? He’s that kind of guy. If you make it look like you’re going to fight—”

“He knows we can’t afford it.”

“I’m saying if it
looks
like a fight. As it happens I’ve asked around, tried to find some help. Unfortunately the groups that are fighting this sort of thing are stretched thin. But Jack Aldrich doesn’t have to know that. If we can make enough of a show, he’s likely to make you a better offer. You could end up with an equivalent house and something more toward a new boat.”

May was glad this lawyer was talking to Dick in a way that seemed to settle him down. Easier on her if Dick was mulling things over instead of stomping around. This lawyer said “new boat” and got Dick looking out to sea. She said, “Mr. Aldrich said something about a little house in Snug Harbor. It doesn’t have but a scrap of a yard, let alone a place for a garden.”

“Okay. Phoebe told me about your garden. I can see you’d miss that. What else would you miss?”

May squeezed her hands together and looked away from the men. The lawyer said, “Just give me some idea. It’ll help me if I have some sense of the place.”

“It’s where everything is. It’s where Charlie came to get better after he got hurt. It’s where I cook. I’m pretty much either in the kitchen or in the garden. It’s where someone like Phoebe comes to visit. It’s where Mary Scanlon used to bring Rose when she was little. It’s where Rose and Tom came to visit Charlie. And we were all there together when Charlie came to tell us
Bom Sonho
picked up Dick and his crew.” She stopped when Dick shifted in his chair and scraped his feet back. She said, “It’s where Dick keeps his logbooks and his accounts. And there’s his gear, some of his bait barrels and pots and harpoons. So it’s a workplace, too. I expect that has more to do with what you’re asking.”

“No, it’s good. It helps to have the family story. Jack Aldrich tells a story about public benefit. We’ve got a story about a family place. Where your son came home after his accident, where your family gathered to wait for news of a ship lost at sea. It has some weight. Jack Aldrich has to have some concern about how this’ll play out in the court of public opinion.” He got up. “Let me know if you’d like me to represent you. I can’t promise to rectify the situation, but I think I can improve where you come out.”

Dick didn’t say anything on the ride home. When they got there Dick didn’t get out, just stared straight ahead with his hands on the wheel.

May said, “What did you make of that?” Dick bobbed his head a couple of times but didn’t answer. May said, “I’m not so sure I like that it’s all going to be a story. I thought I was just talking to him. He said ‘court of public opinion.’ That makes it sound like he’s going to put us on a float in the Fourth of July parade.”

Dick said, “I was there. I was thinking what it would all cost, where the money would come from. And I heard your story. Charlie, Tom, Rose. Kitchen, garden. Charlie, Tom, Rose. And, oh, yeah—it’s where Dick keeps his gear.”

May closed her eyes, couldn’t think straight. That wasn’t what she’d said, was it? She certainly hadn’t said it like that.

“You can get out here—I’ve got to get going,” Dick said. “A guy saw Rose out in that boat I built for her. He wants one just like it, willing to pay pretty good money. I’ve still got the plans over at Eddie’s. Might as well be doing something to earn a dollar.”

May said, “Will Rose mind?” The words just popped out.

“I talked to Rose. I guess you think I don’t talk to Rose. She said it’s okay as long as I paint her a different color. I got to get going.”

P
hoebe started talking before she was through the front door. “I’m getting the old heave-ho, too, so I can totally relate. Of course, I knew the school was going to get my house sooner or later, but still … Anyway, now I’m going to roll up my sleeves for you. I don’t care if Jack Aldrich never speaks to me again. Oh, I know I dreamed of buying a Sawtooth cottage, but there we are—some things matter more than others.”

May said, “Let’s go into the kitchen. I’ve got to keep an eye on a pot that’s boiling.”

Phoebe followed her, sat down at the kitchen table, and pulled out a notepad. “I’ve made a list of people who’ll be on your side, and we’ll get a committee together and then we’ll plan a bigger meeting. I thought it might be a little awkward for you, so I’ve already talked to Elsie. She told me that Rose is going to drop out of her show, so that’s a start.”

“I don’t want that,” May said. “I want Rose to sing.”

“Oh, May. I really think … I mean, we need every bit of pressure we can think of.”

“Not that.”

“Honestly, May, I’m as big a fan of Rose as anybody, but—”

“No.”

Phoebe frowned and shifted her notepad on the table. “Well, we can revisit that. I’ve talked to Mary Scanlon—”

“I’m sure she’ll want Rose to sing.”

“This was on another subject. Mary wouldn’t say exactly, but she has something in mind. Maybe it’s about Mr. Bienvenue—he
is
her nephew-in-law, and he is running for Congress. But the main thing is to get out and beat the drums. I know that’s not your cup of tea, so I’ll do as much of it as I can, but you’ve got to get in a fiercer mood.”

“I don’t know what good a mood’s going to do. Dick and I talked to your lawyer, and he as much as said the whole thing’d cost more than we’ll ever have.”

“That’s if it goes on and on. If you just show you’re ready to fight … Eddie and I can lend you enough for the first round.”

“That’s generous of you, but I can’t borrow money I don’t see a way of repaying.”

“Well, then, we could start a defense fund, get some donations.”

“I can’t see going begging, either.”

“Really, May—there are perfectly good people out there who just don’t want to see something unfair. If you let your scruples tie you in a knot, you won’t have a chance against Jack Aldrich. He’s already out there claiming he’s a public benefactor. We have to be proactive; we have to get our story out there, too.”

Phoebe was being as emphatic as ever, but she’d slowed down. May got up and stirred the pot of rose hips and apple slices. She fitted her jelly bag in a sieve over another pot and poured the fruit in. For a moment she listened to the juice trickling through. She said, “What kind of a story do you have in mind?”

“This is your house. This is where you raised your two boys. Not to mention Rose.”

“That’s the part I don’t want getting out all over.”

“What part?”

“Rose.”

“But as far as you and Rose go, it’s all to your credit.”

“Credit or not, I don’t want people saying things about Rose. Not unless it’s about how she sings.”

Phoebe sighed. “I guess we can work around that. At any rate let’s have a little gathering, just a few people you know well. Of course, I’d like to invite Piero, too. He’s still a shareholder in Sawtooth—a minority shareholder, but he’s someone to be reckoned with. He’s a great admirer of yours, he knows you and I are friends, and he and I are very simpatico these days.”

“I thought that statue of yours was all done.”

“It is, but he’s teaching me Italian. I’ve always wanted to pick up a little Italian.” Phoebe knitted her brow. She said, “I think I may have made a mistake.” May was afraid she was about to learn more than she wanted. Phoebe said, “Piero and I are plural, so I should have said
simpatici.
” Phoebe laughed. “Oh, May. You looked stricken. I hope you’re not … He’s a dear, dear man, and that’s really all there is to say. Of course, his daughters are grown up and his wife spends most of her time in a convent up in Worcester—Piero has been very generous to it—so he’s rattling around by himself in that big house. Oh, he has his garden and his business interests—he’s still very vital. But the essential point is that he can help us, and I’m in a position to ask him.”

May lifted the sieve off the pot. The juice looked about right for a half-dozen jars. She turned the burner on. Warm as the juice was, it wouldn’t take long to come to a boil. She looked at Phoebe, who seemed to have plumped up. May didn’t want any more of Phoebe’s darting this way and that. She didn’t want to be curious, let alone
suspicious. What was Phoebe up to, telling her these things—“he’s rattling around in that big house,” wife and daughters gone?

Did Phoebe want her to get wide-eyed at how she made men go weak at the knees? Did Phoebe want her to admire what a friend she was to go up there and trade on her charm? May said, “If Mr. Salviatti wants to talk to Mr. Aldrich, seeing as how they’re partners, I guess that’d be all right. But just as a matter of what’s fair and what’s not. I’d as soon you didn’t talk about anything private.”

Phoebe wrinkled her forehead. “Oh, for heaven’s sakes, May. It’s not as if Piero isn’t involved—Jack has already called him to have a talk about all this. Maps and financing and who’ll make a fuss and what Jack means to do about it. We’re just lucky that I happen to be on such good terms with Piero.” Phoebe took a breath. “And I may as well come right out and say that of course Piero and I talked about Rose. One of the reasons he admires you so much is that I told him how good you’ve been with Rose.”