In the Shadow of Lakecrest(79)

“You’ll soon know what it’s like to fret over your child’s future. I’ve always known Matthew was more fragile than other boys. Not physically, of course. With his looks, no one guessed a thing. I was the only one who knew how much he questioned himself. Hated himself, at times. Cecily saw it, too. Encouraged him to wallow in it, just as she did.”

“Cecily . . . ,” I said.

“Yes, yes, we’ll get to her. But I must make you understand about Matthew first. I did everything I could for him—encouraged him to make friends with the right sort of people at Choate and join the best fraternity at Yale. I was surprised when he decided to study medicine, but to be honest, I didn’t think he’d last through the training. I didn’t understand how desperate he was to prove himself.”

Hannah sighed, steeling herself. “The war didn’t make Matthew a man,” she said. “It wrecked him, as surely as if he’d been shelled in a trench. Kate, whatever he’s told you about his time afterward . . . it was worse than you can imagine. He acted like a madman, mumbling about ghosts and blood and all sorts of horrible things. He nearly threw himself out the bedroom window because it was the only way to make the visions stop! I cried when I first saw him in that cellar, tied down to the bed. I was forced to do it, out of love. It was the only way to protect Matthew from himself.

“In time, his terrors eased. I was the only one who knew he’d never truly be well. That’s why I couldn’t let him marry anyone in our social set. It’s one thing for people to gossip about an eccentric aunt, but quite another for Matthew’s mental instability to be common knowledge throughout Chicago. I hoped a new setting and new people might lure Matthew out of his gloom, so we spent a few years abroad. It worked for a time, but never for long. I nearly gave up on the idea of him marrying.

“And then Matthew met you. The very unexpected answer to my prayers. Someone who wouldn’t run back to her family when her new husband started raving about his visions. No protective father to challenge Matthew about his odd behavior. Whatever your motives were for marrying my son, I knew you wouldn’t be cruel to him. You’d stick it out, keep your mouth shut, and do everything you could to prove yourself a good wife.”

And so I had. More or less.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to tell you any of this at the time. I had to be an absolute terror to test your resolve. Would you abandon Matthew for the right price? But you didn’t. You made your grand stand, and I admired you for it.

“You were just the wife I hoped you’d be. So wonderful at calming Matthew’s moods. He’d never have been able to run Lemont Medical otherwise. Oh, I make the hard decisions to spare him the worry, and someday you’ll do the same. What’s important is that he believes he’s in charge. It’s such a boost to his confidence.”

Hannah’s voice was so hypnotic that it soothed my fear of the impending childbirth. What a relief it was to no longer run. To surrender to Hannah’s story.

“I’ve never been your enemy, Kate. It wasn’t until tonight that I realized how deeply you misunderstood me. How much Cecily has stood between us, even all these years after her death. The problem is that women like Cecily craft fantasies out of their own lives. How could you possibly understand her from the bits and pieces you’ve heard? She actually saw herself as a character from one of her stories. A tragic heroine! The Lemonts excel at many things, Kate, but I believe their greatest talent is for self-invention.

“You remember that book, with its nonsense about Henri de Le Mont fleeing the French Revolution? A pampered nobleman wouldn’t have the first idea how to survive in the wilderness! Oh no, if he was tracking and skinning animals better than any other white man of his day, his origins must have been far . . . let us say, earthier. He’s the one they credit with the motto Factum est. So bold, isn’t it? Like the Lemonts themselves! I don’t believe there was any romance with an Indian princess. Henri simply took the woman he wanted, as he would any other animal caught in one of his traps.”

I remembered the note Matthew had written on board the Franconia, the one I’d found so charming: The thought of giving up our lively conversations is enough to send me jumping off the deck at the earliest opportunity, so your answer must be yes. No please or if you like. I wasn’t given a choice.

“The men in this family were raised to believe they should get whatever they wanted,” Hannah said. “Henri’s son George was utterly ruthless, from what I’ve heard, and Obadiah . . . there was a man you wouldn’t dare cross. He could ruin a man’s business with one word to his bankers. Berthe Palmer and her society friends might have turned up their noses at Lakecrest’s garishness, but they never refused an invitation from Obadiah. The Lemonts’ wealth has always protected them.

“It’s strange, when you come to think of it, that the only two people who defied Obadiah’s orders were women. His daughter and his wife.”

“Leticia,” I said. “I always wondered why no one talked about her.”

“She killed herself.”

I knew Leticia only as a face in a portrait, but I felt a twinge of grief all the same. Another poor, lost Lemont.

“Jasper was the one who told me. Said his mother had taken the coward’s way out. You’d think a loss like that would have left a mark, but he said it with absolutely no expression. She was Obadiah’s first cousin, you know. A Lemont by birth. I couldn’t stop thinking about Leticia and Obadiah, blood relations, and how both their children had turned out so strange. That’s part of the reason I was so anxious that Matthew marry wisely. The Lemonts needed fresh stock. People like you and me.”