The Sins of the Mother (36 page)

“Both,” she said with a grin. “Today, probably because of the movie, usually because of the book and the money.
And
,” she added for good measure, “you’re a terrific handyman, and you’re going to keep my house from falling down around my ears.”

“That’s a good point. I’ll admit, my carpentry is excellent. I hadn’t thought of that, although I’m not sure I love the idea of your sleeping with the handyman. Have you ever done that before?”

“Never,” she said with a grin, “but you’re really good.”

“True, I am. So tell me, how much is your family going to hate me when I meet them at Thanksgiving? How much interrogation will I have to endure? Quite a bit, I imagine. For all they know, I’m just out of prison, which might be a bit unsettling for them.” They had been dating for three months, and he had met Sophie, but not Carole, when she came home for a weekend. Sophie loved him, and Carole was sure she would from everything she’d heard.

“My family is going to love you,” Liz reassured him. Andrew was never insecure, but he was nervous about them. He knew all about The Factory and its remarkable history, and he was curious to meet her mother. He thought she should write a book about her life, although Liz said she would never do it. She was much too discreet and modest to write about her own life. He told Liz that she should do it in that case, but she didn’t think her mother would like that either. “Besides, my sister’s boyfriend is going to upstage you,” she said about Thanksgiving, “He’s twenty-four years old, a rock star, and they’re having a baby in June.”

“What a fascinating group of people you are,” he said, intrigued by her, and the stories she had told him about her life and youth. “I can hardly wait to meet them, although it’s disappointing that the rock star will upstage me. Maybe I should get a tattoo,” he said, musing, and then he pulled her toward him, and suddenly they were both laughing, and he was kissing her and they made love again. She always laughed a lot with him, and she loved his sense of humor.

And when they all assembled for the Thanksgiving weekend, it was like Maribelle’s funeral without the sadness. They were happy to be together and they missed her, but they chattered constantly, and the house was bulging at the seams. It was the first time anyone had met Taylor, and they were all interested in her. She was a little overwhelmed at first, but she was genuinely nice to everyone, and obviously madly in love with Phillip. She stayed close to him, and they held hands most of the time. And after talking to her for a while and walking with her in the garden, Olivia came back beaming and it was obvious that she approved. She was everything Amanda wasn’t and everything Olivia had always wanted for him.

Liz and Andrew were the next arrivals from the city, and he charmed everyone with his quick wit and very dry sense of humor. He regaled them with stories about allegedly ghastly hunting weekends in England, and his misspent youth. And he assured them all that Liz was a very, very talented writer, and he was sure that she would be famous one day. It was music to Olivia’s ears.

And the hit of the weekend was Danny Hell. He was funny, irreverent, and outrageous, he had a cockney accent an inch thick that Andrew imitated to perfection, and the two of them bantered endlessly in slang no one else could understand. He was young, talented, and hip, and it was obvious he was crazy about Cass, and he said he was thrilled about their baby, and played guitar with the kids while the adults stared in amazement. It was an utterly perfect time, as Cass watched Danny like a mother hen. Cass and her mother got a little quiet time together, and she stunned Olivia by asking her if she’d come to the birth.

“To be honest, Mom, I’m scared to death. Of the delivery and everything else. Danny keeps saying everything’s going to be fine, but what does he know? He’s twelve years old,” she said with damp eyes, and her mother was deeply touched. She gave her a warm hug.

“He’s right, it will be fine. And I’d be honored to be there.” She couldn’t believe that after all this time, Cass wanted her at her child’s birth. It didn’t get better than that. And Maribelle had been right. It had all worked out in the end. “I’ll come and see you before then. There’s a château in Provence I want to check out this spring, for next summer’s vacation. We’re going to need a very, very big place this year, with all of these new faces.” She was expecting Liz to bring Andrew, if he was willing. Taylor would be with Phillip instead of Amanda, and Cass was finally joining them, with Danny, the baby, and a nanny.

“I’ll be in New York a few more times before the baby,” Cass told her, and they went back to the others, excited about their plans. Cass felt much better about the delivery knowing her mother would be there. But she was still terrified she’d never learn how to be a mother. Labor and delivery seemed like the easy part to her.

Olivia told Peter all about it when he called to wish her a happy Thanksgiving. She was full of news about her family and described the newcomers to him, including the exuberant and exotic Danny Hell, who was basically just a lovable child. She could see why Cass had fallen in love with him, although it was hard to imagine him as a father. Cass would have to be adult enough for them both, which scared Cass even more.

Peter was with his own family for the weekend, as he always was for holidays, which was the downside of dating a married man. Holidays were not included, but she was busy and happy with her own clan.

“I’d like to come and see you on Monday,” he said before they hung up, sounding unusually official.

“Is something wrong?” She was instantly worried.

“No, I just want to have a quiet evening with you, after everybody leaves. I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” she said softly. He was always the unseen person in the room. They all knew he existed, but he was never there when they were.

“See you Monday,” he said, and they hung up, and she went back to her children and grandchildren. Danny and Andrew were singing a cockney song that Olivia suspected was profoundly rude if they could have understood it. It amused her to see the aristocrat and the wildly successful cockney boy arm in arm, and all the others laughing with them. It made her miss her mother all over again, and before they knew it, it was the end of the weekend. It had been a huge success, and as they left, they agreed that the new additions had made it even better. Everyone was happy for Phillip and loved Taylor as they got to know her, and Andrew and Danny were a huge hit with old and young alike. And Andrew had enjoyed finally meeting Carole. They had spent a good two hours talking about the movie business, about which she was learning a great deal. She had found her niche at last.

Olivia stood waving at the door as they all left, more excited than ever now about their summer plans, and the baby who would be born six weeks before that, if it arrived on time. Unfortunately, all of them had separate Christmas plans, so Olivia wouldn’t see any of them for Christmas. Liz and Andrew had agreed to rent a house in Stowe with John and Sarah, and Alex and Sophie were going with them. Carole was staying in California with her father. Phillip was taking Taylor to St. Bart’s. And Cass and Danny were staying in England for Christmas—they hadn’t been home in months, and Cass wanted to take it easy. But at least the following summer they’d all be together, and Olivia knew she’d see them individually between now and then.

“So how was it?” Phillip asked Taylor as they drove back to the city on Sunday night.

“Incredible. You have an amazing family,” she said, and he could see that she meant it.

“A little crazy maybe, but we all seem to get along. And now that my sister Cass is back, my mother looks really happy.” He was just sorry his grandmother hadn’t lived to see her come home. But he also realized that her death had brought Cass back, that and her baby with Danny. “I really like her boyfriend,” he admitted.

“So do I. And Andrew is nice too. Your sister really seems to like him.”

“I think this time she found a good one.” Then he turned to Taylor with a grateful look. “And so did I.” He leaned over and kissed her, and they drove home reviewing the high points of the weekend.

In her bed that night, Olivia did the same, thinking about all of them and missing them. The house was like a tomb without them. She was glad she’d be seeing Peter the next day.

Chapter 24

A
s promised, Peter arrived shortly after Olivia got home from work, but he looked unusually somber, and Olivia was instantly worried. She had sensed it on the phone two days before and he had denied it. With the recent loss of her mother, reminding them of their mortality, she was suddenly afraid he might be sick.

They chatted for a few minutes about a worrisome situation that had come up in the office, a fire in their warehouse in New Zealand, and then Olivia couldn’t stand it any longer.

“Peter, are you all right?”

“Yes, I am,” he said smiling at her, “very much so.”

“You seem so serious,” she said, and he smiled at her and took her hand in his own.

“Something unexpected came up this weekend, and I want to talk to you about it, but I didn’t want to do it on the phone.”

“Is something wrong?”

“Not at all,” he reassured her. He was still a little stunned himself. “Emily has decided to go into rehab. I think the children talked her into it. It’s long overdue, and it would be wonderful for her if she can finally stop drinking. I can honestly say it’s ruined her life, and ours, and impacted the children. We talked about it after the children left on Thanksgiving. She’s very determined. She has the place all picked out, and it’s supposed to be very good. They have a very good success rate, and she’s prepared to stay there as long as it takes.”

“I’m happy for her,” Olivia said quietly. She knew what an agony his wife’s drinking had been for him. And she was silently wondering what that change was going to do to them. Maybe if his wife got sober, he would want to end their affair. If so, she had no right to object, and she wouldn’t. Emily was his wife after all, and Olivia had no claims on him. He was a married man. She accepted the fact that she had no right to him at all.

“As it turns out,” Peter went on, “she wants to make a clean slate of it. She’s convinced that one cause of her drinking was her unhappiness in our marriage, and I think she’s right. It’s an addiction, but we were never happy, right from the beginning. We were never suited to each other. She feels now that she wants to cut our losses. She’s filing for divorce. And I agreed. I think it will be a huge blessing for us both.”

“My lord,” Olivia said, stunned. She had never expected that in a million years. “Well, that is a surprise. Do you really think she’s serious?”

“Completely. She had already called her lawyer when she told me. And we’re in complete agreement about the divorce and the division of property. I think it will all be taken care of very quickly. And what that means,” he said, looking deep into Olivia’s bright blue eyes, “is that I’m about to be a free man.” And before she could stop him, he was in front of her, down on one knee. She hadn’t seen that since Joe had proposed to her forty-seven years before.

“Peter, what are you doing?” she asked with a look of astonishment. She hadn’t been prepared for this at all.

“I’m proposing to you, Olivia,” he said with his deep love for her in his eyes. For the second time in her life, a worthy man was asking for her hand in marriage. “Will you marry me? I would be deeply honored, and I will try to make you happy for the rest of my days.”

“I’m sure you would,” she said with a lump in her throat. “But Peter, I’m seventy years old. I’m too old to get married.” She had never considered it a remote possibility for them, and she still didn’t now. They had always had their own lives, and there had been no hope of their getting married as long as Emily was alive.

“As the French say very intelligently, love has no age. Olivia, will you marry me?” he asked again, and she dropped her face into her hands and then looked at him.

“Peter, I truly love you, but I can’t. I’ve never considered getting married again. I never thought you’d get divorced.”

“Neither did I,” he said sincerely. And he had never held that hope out to her. He was an honest man. “Emily is giving me a great gift now. We haven’t been in love with each other in years. She knows it as well as I do. And with the hope of being sober, she wants to be free as much as I do. We don’t belong together, we never did. But you and I do. I think we’d be happy together and a very good match.”

“So do I. But why do we have to get married? Why can’t we just date, and do what we do now? Spend the night together when we can?” He was sitting in a chair, looking at her by then, and had come up off his knees. It hadn’t gone as smoothly as he thought it might. He had expected her to throw herself into his arms, or hoped she would, after all these years of loving each other in secret. She suddenly wondered if her mother had felt this way when Ansel’s wife died, but her mother had said they’d gotten engaged. She didn’t even want to do that. She loved Peter. But she would have felt unfaithful to Joe if she married someone else. And she really didn’t want to be married. She was comfortable now the way things were. He looked infinitely surprised, and sorely disappointed by her answer.

And he laughed ruefully at what she had just said. “You feel too old to get married. I feel too old to date. I want to be at home in my own bed, with the woman I love. Dating may be exciting, but it’s not for me. It never was.” She knew that he and Emily had married very young, and made a colossal mistake. She didn’t want to make one herself. And she thought getting married would be, for her in any case, although maybe not for Peter. She wondered if he would look for someone else, and the prospect of that hurt, but not enough to force her into marriage.

“So now what do we do?” Olivia said sadly.

“I guess we go on as we are,” he said with a look of resignation. “I’m not going to lose you, and I’m not going anywhere. I love you. But I don’t consider this dating. You’re the woman I love. I’ll stay with you as often as you let me. I’ll look for an apartment in the city. Emily thinks we should sell the apartment. I think she’s right—it’s a depressing place, it’s seen too many unhappy times. I’ll get something small, for me. You can stay with me if you like, if you want to spend a night in the city, and I’ll stay here with you whenever you’ll have me.” He was a very reasonable man, and he loved her very much.