"Let us take you back to your place," Tom told her. "You need to rest."
"Aren't they going to start the digging up at the cabin in a couple of hours? Don't you want to be there?"
"It's more important for you to take care of yourself," Tom replied. "Let us help you get home."
She picked up the Leavenworth letter and shook her head. "I can drive. I'm fine. You all go on to the cabin. I never want to see the damn place again." With her free hand, she smeared the tears from her eyes and forced a sour laugh. "I must look awful. I need to do something about my makeup, don't you think?"
We followed Leah to her old house overlooking Main Street, then went home. I surveyed my lustrous cherry cabinets, bright new windows, and gleaming Carrara marble countertops. This was a kitchen I could enjoy, I decided, as Tom and I began to pack up for our meal at the cabin. Arch, joining us, announced: "Elk Park Prep called and said after Tom talked to Leland, he paid my tuition." While I offered a quick prayer of thanks, my son looked around and exclaimed, "Man, this place rocks! The marble's cool. I told Lettie she could come over after school tomorrow to see it. That's okay, isn't it?"
"Yes," I said with a smile. "Invite her for dinner, if she can stand the smell of paint. And you're right, Arch, this kitchen positively rocks."
Tom beamed wordlessly, surveying the result of his labors over the past weeks with unconcealed pride. It wasn't quite done, but who cared? The floor still needed to be sanded and finished, the walls painted, the molding put in, and a hundred details attended to, but Tom, unlike the late Gerald Eliot, would take care of everything. My spirits soared.
"One thing I forgot to tell you," Tom said as we were packing up chilled wine and salads. "Litchfield's attorney tried to cop a plea on the charge of criminal mischief, tainting your food. Andy Fuller turned him down until Litchfield told Fuller that John Richard's guy, Leland, was paying him, Litchfield, to sabotage the food. And that John Richard was calling the shots during the weekly visits that Litchfield made to the jail. That bit of info motivated Leland to pay Arch's school bill. It looks as if Litchfield will get probation, which probably upsets him less than the facts that Edna Hardcastle's daughter put off getting married again, and Merciful Migrations has yanked him from doing this year's Soir‚e." I blinked. Litchfield had lost two jobs in one day? Things were looking up. Tom went on: "Your ex will be charged as a principal in the criminal mischief situation. Might add to his jail time."
"Might make him think before he tries to wreak vengeance on his ex-wives," I observed. "So. Eventually, I'll still be dealing with Litchfield." I thought about that while mixing fresh basil into tomatoes vinaigrette. Was I secure enough to deal with the competition? You bet. "On an even playing field," I said finally, firmly, "I can compete." To Arch, I said, "Are you ready?"
My son nodded. His face had turned tight with apprehension. This was, after all, a big day for him.
On Sunday night, Rustine and Lettie had called to invite Arch to accompany them the next day, when they met their father's flight from Juneau at Denver International Airport. Their father had given up on finding a job and was skipping the California leg of his trip to come home; he missed his daughters. Julian had generously offered to help the sisters clean their house Monday morning. I shuddered, remembering the chaos and dust we'd encountered on our visit. For his part, Arch had spent the morning getting clean himself and deciding on his wardrobe.
Julian returned; half an hour later, Rustine finally pulled up in front of our house. By that time, Arch was so nervous you'd have thought he was flying in from Alaska. I didn't hug him good-bye. I didn't tell him to be polite to Lettie's father. I told him to have fun.
Julian had proposed that Marla, Hanna Klapper, and Sergeant Boyd join us at the cabin dig. To celebrate, Julian added, we should have a feast for all the workers: crab cakes, pasta, salads, Parker House Rolls from The Practical Cook Book, and Andr‚'s famous Grand Marnier Buttercream Cookies, which I had given a new name. They were a delicious treat my teacher had left for me to serve my clients: Keepsake Cookies. Plus, I had made a flourless chocolate cake that was really a collapsed souffl‚... when you want a souffl‚ to fall, it can be delicious - like life, once you've put it back together.
But Julian's words haunted me as I packed the food. Celebrate what? I'd wondered. I hadn't had the heart to ask what Julian's plans for the future were, but I sensed the feast was a kind of good-bye. He'd declined to accompany us to church on Sunday. I concluded it was because he was on the phone, making his plans to get a ride back to Cornell so he could plead his way in for the fall semester.
"Time to go," Tom said. "I swore to Sylvia that we'd be there by one o'clock. They aren't allowed to bring anything out of the ground until we get there."
Boyd and Tom carefully packed a chilled white chocolate cream sauce I'd made for the cake into the cooler; I covered the rest of the food with foil.
By the time we arrived at the Merciful Migrations cabin, the crew of diggers made up of members of the Anthropology Department of the University of Colorado and volunteers from the Furman County Historical Society, including Cameron Burr, were hard at work at the base of the elephant rock. We set up our feast on the deck of the cabin. The diggers had vowed to have no treat until they found what they were seeking.
"Good school, the University of Colorado," Julian said idly as I handed Marla a very small advance taste of the tomatoes vinaigrette. "I just finished a transfer application. For the spring semester, of course."
I gasped. Marla giggled. Boyd brought his mouth into an o. Tom shook his head and said softly, "I knew it." Even Hanna Klapper smiled.
"Something else," Julian went on mildly, his eyes sparkling. "I called Leah Smythe on the cellular, on my way home from Rustine's house. Woke her up, I think."
"You called Leah?" Hanna demanded. "Why?"
"Well," Julian said as he tilted his handsome face knowingly at Tom and me, "you know, Leah and I are related, sort of I'm her nephew once removed, since Brian Harrington, her brother-in-law, was my biological father. I mean, Weezie has made it very clear she doesn't want to be involved with me. But I thought Leah might want to know she had more family than just Bobby. That she could, you know, call on me - "
"You never said I could call on you," Marla hrumphed good-naturedly. "And I'm your biological aunt."
Labor Day flourless Chocolate Cake with Cherries, Melba Sauce, and White Chocolate Cream
7 ounces (1 _ sticks) unsalted butter
7 ounces best-quality bittersweet (semi-sweet) chocolate (recommended brands: Lindt Bittersweet, Bernard C. Semi- Sweet, Godiva Dark)
1 tablespoon espresso or strong coffee
5 large eggs, separated
2 tablespoons best-quality unsweetened cocoa (recommended brand: Hershey's Premium European Style)
7 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 small package fresh blueberries (approximately 6 ounces)
1 small package fresh raspberries (approximately 6 ounces)
Melba Sauce (recipe follows)
White Chocolate Cream (recipe follows)
Place the oven rack in the middle to Iower (not the lowest) part of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350øF. Butter the bottom and sides of a 10-inch springform pan. Make sure you have the bottom of another 10-inch sringform pan on hand.
Place the butter, chocolate, and coffee in the top of a double boiler and melt over boiling water. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool slightly then stir in the egg yolks and whisk until smooth. Sift the cocoa and sugar together, then sift this mixture directly into the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Stir in the vanilla and set aside. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Fold half the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then pour the chocolate mixture on top of the remaining egg whites and fold in. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and set it on the lower rack of the oven. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the cake is puffed and the center no longer appears moist.
Remove the cake from the oven and immediately press another springform pan bottom onto the cake to deflate it. Allow the cake to cool on a rack.
When the cake is cool, remove the springform ring and place the cake on a serving platter. Decorate the top with concentric rings of blueberries and raspberries. When serving, ladle large dollops of Melba Sauce and White Chocolate Cream on top of each slice.
Makes 8 to 12 serving
Melba Sauce
« cup currant jelly
2 (6-ounce) packages fresh raspberries, sieved (approximately 1 cup after sieving)
2 teaspoons cornstarch
7 tablespoons sugar
Heat the jelly and sieved raspberries in the top of a double boiler (placed directly on the burner) over medium heat until bubbly, about 4 or 5 minutes.
Remove from the direct heat and place on top of the bottom of the double boiler that is filled with boiling water. Mix the cornstarch with the sugar and stir into the jelly mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and clear. Remove from the heat, cool, and chill at least an hour before serving.
White Chocolate Cream
6 ounces best-quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 _ cups whipping cream
Over low heat, melt the chocolate: with _ cup of the cream, stirring ,-constantly. When the mixture is melted and smooth, remove from the heat. Pour into a bowl and, stirring occasionally, allow the mixture to come to room temperature. Whip the remaining cup of cream and, whisking constantly to ensure smoothness, stir into the chocolate mixture. Chill before serving.
Keepsake Cookies
Cookies
2/3 cup blanched, slivered almonds
2 cups (4 sticks; 1 pound) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons very finely minced orange zest
¬ cup Grand Marnier liqueur
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
« teaspoon salt
Granulated sugar, for preparing the cookies
Filling
« cup (1 stick; ¬ pound) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons whipping cream
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier liqueur
Grind almonds in a blender until they resemble large bread crumbs; set aside. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter until it is very smooth and creamy. Slowly add the confectioners' sugar and beat until the mixture is very smooth. Beat in the zest and liqueur. In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, and ground almonds. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until very well combined. Chill the mixture for at least 3 hours, or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 375øF. Butter two cookie sheets. Measure out the cookie dough into « tablespoon increments. Roll each spoonful of dough into a ball and place them, two inches apart, on the cookie sheets. Butter the bottom of a glass, then dip the glass bottom in sugar. Flatten each cookie with the buttered and sugared glass bottom to a diameter of 2 ¬ inches. (Do not make the cookies too thin.) Dip the glass into the sugar before flattening each cookie. Bake approximately 7 to 10 minutes, or until the cookies are just cooked through but not at all browned. After removing the cookies from the oven, allow them to cool 1 minute on the cookie sheets. Then transfer them to racks to cool completely.
For the filling, in the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Add the sugar, cream, liqueur, and beat until very smooth and creamy. Spread about a teaspoon of filling on the flat under side of half the cookies; make a sandwich with the flat underside of the other half of the cookies. Store tightly covered.
Makes 64 sandwich cookies
"I didn't need to," Julian rejoined. "You knew you could call on me day and night, and you did, when I went through rush and was visiting all the fraternities, and you called every night to make sure I'd gotten back to my dorm safely."
"Marla, you never mentioned this," I accused. "Calling like a mother hen when he was going through rush!"
"I thought we agreed you weren't going to tell, Julian," Marla said.
"Well, just don't give me this stuff about how you never call," Julian zinged back. "Plus, Arch and I have decided it's an effect Goldy has had on you. Arch told me, 'You'll never be able to do anything again, without Marla checking to see if you're still alive, or telling you that whatever you're doing is dangerous or will make you sick.' "
"Uh, excuse me," I interjected, smiling. "If people want to eat, they need to be nice to the caterer."
Julian patted my shoulder. "Let me finish about Leah, okay? I think at first she was relieved I wasn't her biological nephew. She figured I wanted money, or land, or her cabin, just like Bobby and Ian. I told her I just wanted her to know that she has another relation besides Weezie and Bobby. So then she got like, all teary, and said she was just so vulnerable since Ian had died. And I did I want to move in with her in the big family house in Aspen Meadow until she sold it, that she would enjoy having family around her, besides Bobby. And I could help her with her move to Phoenix, she said. There was lots and lots for me to do, to help her."
