The Impersonator (25 page)

Me neither.

33

The next day I became a modern woman. I drove into Dexter, found the beauty parlor, and had my long hair bobbed.

Back home, I slipped upstairs to change for dinner and paint my fingernails dark red. Rainy helped me out of my day dress and buttoned me into one of my new silk dinner frocks, the coppery one that matched the color of my hair, fussing all the while over my short locks as I applied a little rouge to my cheeks and drew a dark red bow on my lips.

“Oh, miss, your new hair is wonderful, but it was so beautiful and wavy, all long down your back. Don’t you miss it?” Her hand went to her own long hair, pulled into a bun and topped with a white cap, as if to check that it was still attached to her head.

“To tell the truth, Rainy, I’m glad to get rid of it.” I blotted my lipstick on a handkerchief. “For so long, it was schoolgirl braids or curls tied back with ribbons. Now I am free of all that, I can look my age. And wear those chic cloche hats!”

A sound from the open door behind us turned our heads.

“Excuse me,” said David Murray, knocking politely on the doorjamb. Evidently he and Henry had arrived while I was in town. “I was on my way downstairs and heard you talking … and I just wanted to say hello. If I’m not disturbing you?”

I looked at him warily, this pawn of Henry’s.

“I’ll take this down to the laundry to brush the dust off,” said Rainy as she ducked out of the room.

“You’ve bobbed your hair,” David said. “I knew something was different.”

“Just today, as a matter of fact. I wanted to look older.”

“You look swell.”

“Thanks. Aunt Victoria cried out in horror when I walked through the front door. She’s crazy for long hair.”

“Most older women are. But that makes me wonder why she let Caroline bob hers.”

“She didn’t. The story I heard was that Caro hacked off her own hair and made such a mess of it that a bob was the only way out.”

“I knew that girl had spunk!” David chuckled. “And I’d say you accomplished your goal. You really do look young for your age, and this gives you a more sophisticated appearance.”

“Well, thank you for the compliment. But I can’t complain about looking young. After all, it was my living for many years. Won’t you come in?”

“No, I’ll just say what I have to say from here.” Reminded of his mission, he swallowed nervously and wet his lips. “I just wanted to say that I am sorry as heck for the trick we played on you. I would never have done it, but Henry told me you were an impostor that he needed to flush out. I know that’s not true now, and I am ashamed I was so gullible to believe everything he said. That’s not me, not usually. I don’t judge people before I get to know them. I should have met you myself and made up my own mind. And now I hope you will forgive me and we can start fresh.”

There wasn’t an ounce of guile in this man. I couldn’t help liking him, even if he did pal around with Henry.

“Of course I forgive you. Henry can be … well, never mind Henry.” Maybe he saw only Henry’s charming half.

“It’s just that I’m not used to having blood relatives. Until a few months ago, I thought the only living person in the world related to me was my mother. Then I met Henry by accident, learned who he was, and found I had four cousins and a half sister. I don’t mind saying it about bowled me over.”

And he had gone a little too far trying to please his newfound cousin. I understood him quite well, though I couldn’t say as much. I was as alone in the world as he. More so. I think I’d go giddy if I were to discover I had one living relative, let alone half a dozen. My eye fell on the silver gilt picture frame on my dressing table.

“Have you ever seen a picture of our father?”

He shook his head.

“Here’s a picture of him with my mother when they were married. He was about thirty then, a little older than you, but the resemblance is there, don’t you think?” David picked up the photograph and looked at it for a long time before setting it gently back down on the dressing table. “You can keep that if you like.”

“I’ll tell you straight, I don’t think much of him. My mother wasn’t good enough to marry, and I wasn’t good enough to meet. But no one’s all bad, I’ll hand you that. Maybe you can tell me some things about him that would make me see his better qualities.”

“Does your mother ever speak of him?”

“Never.”

I sighed. It sounded all too familiar. “Well, to be honest, I didn’t know him very well either. He was away from home even when he was home, if you know what I mean. Spent most of his time with friends in casinos or at racetracks, and sailing in regattas. I was only eleven when he died. My lasting impression is of a man in formal dress heading out the door. It wasn’t so much that he wasn’t interested in
you,
it was more that he wasn’t interested in children. I think his better qualities were that he was young, handsome, rich, and the life of the party.”

“You’re a remarkable person.”

“Am I?”

“Most people wouldn’t have anything to do with an illegitimate brother, yet you don’t seem the least ashamed.”

“Me ashamed? Why on earth? I had nothing to do with it. Nor did you.” The clock pinged. “Come on, that’s the signal,” I said.

He gave me his arm and we descended the stairs.

Nine at the table made for a noisy meal. Aunt Victoria sat at one end and Grandmother opposite, with David placed between the twins on one side and Mrs. Applewhite, Henry, Ross, and I opposite them. The awkwardness that had plagued us at David’s first meal with the family had receded, now that he had been acknowledged and, to some degree, accepted.

“Henry says you’re a cowboy,” began Caro, before the soup course was even served. “Tell us about your ranch.”

“If rounding up cows makes a man a cowboy, then I plead guilty as charged,” said David with a wide smile that brought a dimple to both sides of his mouth. I realized it was the first time I’d seen him smile. “Although I’m afraid I don’t have the ranch any longer.”

“Why not?”

“Sold it.”

Aunt Victoria shot Caro a reproving look to warn against personal questions, but she was not easily reined in. “Why?”

“My mother was ill, and I couldn’t take care of her from Montana. It wasn’t much of a ranch anyway, so I sold it last year and came back to Portland.”

“Is your mother better?”

“Yes,” he said, but the response lacked conviction.

“Where was your ranch? Was it big?”

“It was a little bitty ranch, just a few thousand acres near the Little Bighorn River.”

“I know that!” said Val. “Custer’s Last Stand! You must have been sad to sell it.”

“Not so sad as you might think. It’s awful lonely out there, and the living is too rough for a woman, so it was best all around for me to sell up and come back home to Portland. I left when I was sixteen to make my way in the world, so here I am back again after ten years.” The significance of his age when he left Portland struck me. Aunt Victoria knew as well, but I didn’t think anyone else understood that it was the same year the trustees had cut off Mrs. Murray’s allowance. David had left school to find a way to support himself.

The girls’ tutor, Mrs. Applewhite, joined the questioning. “What are you doing with yourself in Portland these days?”

“Well, ma’am, my mother has a store”—he looked at me when he said the word, and I realized Lawrence Carr had something to do with that store—“and I help with that. Merchandise in, merchandise out. Not too hard a life.”

“What kind of store?” asked Val. “Is it near Meier and Frank’s?”

David shook his head. “No, it’s on the other side of town. Just a small dry-goods store.”

“Oh,” gasped Caro, “that makes me remember! Do you remember, Val, when we were at the ice-cream parlor in Portland, and we saw him? We saw you out the window, David! Across the street from the theater. And I wanted to invite you over to join us but Jessie said the table wasn’t big enough.”

I felt the need to explain. “And you were gone before we could even think about another chair.”

Plainly, this was unwelcome information. David looked at Henry with a frown, and neither said a word. Aunt Victoria broke the silence.

“How is the campaign going, Henry, darling?”

Never one to turn down an invitation to dominate the conversation, Henry responded with vigor. His campaign was going brilliantly. His speeches were excellent, his wit much admired, his popularity rocketing like a Chinese firecracker in the night sky. Hardly anyone even knew the name of his opponent.

“Would that be Conrad Livingston?” asked Mrs. Applewhite innocently. Henry grunted. “You’re running as a Democrat, are you not?” Another grunt. “Mr. Livingston has a reputation in Portland as a respected lawyer. You may not find him so easy to beat.”

“A Democrat?” I asked, ignorant of party politics.

“Democrats have dominated our state legislature for years now with the support of the Ku Klux Klan,” said Henry, “and their influence is starting to pay off. Last year they barred the Japs from owning land and banned private schools. This year we’re following up on Congress’s immigration bill, the one Coolidge signed in May, to keep out undesirable foreigners and Communists. ‘One hundred percent Americanism’ is our motto. Not that we’re against foreigners, mind you. They’re fine as long as they stay in their own country.”

Angel food cake was served. Mrs. Applewhite used the change of courses to look across the table at me and ask, “What are your plans for the future, Jessie? Will you be staying in Dexter for the time being or perhaps moving to Sacramento to work for Carr Industries?”

Henry took refuge in his linen napkin, laughing so hard he nearly choked on his food.

“You find that amusing, young man, that a woman would hold a position of responsibility in a business?”

“No. No, ma’am, not at all,” he said with his napkin to his face, pretending his laughter was really a coughing spell. “Ahem, let me just say … ahem … some women make wonderful secretaries or switchboard operators.” He gave up and collapsed with laughter again. This time Ross joined him until they were holding their sides. Aunt Victoria pursed her lips and shushed to no effect. “If they hired Jessie,” Ross gasped, “they’d get a gal who can’t file or type or write a letter, but man alive, can she tell jokes and cut a rug!”

“Henry, Ross, one more word from either of you and you’ll leave this house at once. Do you hear?”

“Yes, Mother,” they said in unison.

“I am mortified by your behavior. Apologize at once.”

They mumbled something. I nodded my head to accept it, but only for Aunt Victoria’s sake.

“Now then, Jessie,” said Mrs. Applewhite. “Do tell me about your future plans.”

“I’d be delighted. I’ll be going to Sacramento to sign papers on my birthday, and then I’m planning to sail to Europe to visit the places I lived as a child.”

“Oh, no!” exclaimed Caro. “How long will you be away?”

There was nothing to be gained by telling them I was not coming back. “Several months, probably. I might try to look up some of the people I knew, some friends of Mother and Father, if they are still in the area. You girls must take care of my car while I’m away.” They brightened a little at that. “And you must come visit me after I’m settled.”

The moment the words left my tongue, I knew I had blundered. Oliver’s plan had been for me to take legal control of Carr Industries and then go someplace far away where my contact with the family would, forever after, be limited to an occasional postal card. Now I’d have to find an excuse to withdraw the invitation. My increasing fondness for the twins had come in the way of good sense.

Oliver was right. Being around Henry and Ross was too unnerving, and Henry’s rapidly growing political power would afford him too many ways to make my life miserable. I needed to be out of reach, someplace where the men of the family couldn’t find me.

I glanced up at Henry, who had gone very still. He was watching me with a fierce speculation that brought goose bumps to my arms. I much preferred the mocking Henry to this serious one.

“We must have a party for you, Jessie,” said Aunt Victoria. “A bon voyage party! Or—why didn’t we think of it sooner? A birthday party to celebrate your majority! It’s been ages since there’s been a real party at Cliff House!”

I managed not to cringe. The girls loved the idea, but all I could picture were scores of people who knew Jessie Back When, asking questions and reminiscing about those Good Old Days. I put on what I thought was a convincing smile.

Then I saw Henry’s narrowed eyes and knew there was one person who wasn’t convinced at all.

34

“Is there anything else you need, miss?” Rainy gave my dress a brisk shake, hung it in the wardrobe, and gathered up my underthings for laundering. I climbed into bed.

“No, thank you. It’s late. You go on to bed too.” The house was as quiet as midnight although the clock had not yet struck twelve. I threw back the blanket. “My word, that bath made me hot. Would you open both windows, please? A cool breeze would feel good.”

“Certainly, miss. You do look flushed.”

I felt flushed. And my heart was beating hard, as if I’d been running a long way on a hot day.

“Mercy! I think I need some cool water…”

“Stay in bed, miss, I’ll get it.”

I heard the water streaming through the pipes to the sink in the hall bathroom. By the time Rainy returned, my heart was galloping like a runaway horse.

“You’re very red.” Rainy gave me the water and then, her face wrinkled with worry, a hand mirror. My cheeks looked like boiled beets.

I fell back onto the pillows and saw myself from a dizzying height, as if I’d been leaning over the balcony rail of a large theater. My arms flailed weakly. I watched my bed begin to tilt, then spin, slowly at first, then faster. My mouth opened but no words came out.

I clung to the sheets so I wouldn’t fall off the bed. Rainy was beside me. Rainy was gone. Rainy was back, seconds, minutes, hours later, with the gardener, of all people! She really wasn’t very bright. I lay on my back, unable to speak, watching with curious detachment as the bedside drama unfolded.