She's Up to No Good(63)

They settled on Monday, in two nights’ time, when Joseph would return to the cottage for supper after a day at the store. Gertie, Helen’s husband, and Margaret would all be gone, making the scene less chaotic.

Supper ended and Joseph retired to the porch to smoke a cigar in the twilight. Evelyn dropped two dishes, and Miriam finally banished her from the kitchen. She went to the living room and paced instead.

“What is the matter with you?” Miriam asked, coming to the doorway, a dishtowel in her hand. “Evelyn.” She turned to look at her mother, whose face went pale when she saw her daughter’s wild eyes. “What did you do?” she asked in a whisper. “Chas vehalilah.”

The sound of a car approaching and then pulling to a stop came in through the open windows, followed by a door closing. Evelyn and Miriam both ran to the window.

“Officer Delgado,” Joseph said pleasantly. “Is everything all right?”

“Delgado?” Miriam asked.

“Mama, hush!”

Under normal circumstances, Evelyn wouldn’t have gotten away with that, but Miriam wanted to hear what was happening outside as badly as her daughter did. They had missed Tony’s reply, but whatever it was, Joseph invited him to sit and offered him a drink and a cigar.

Evelyn’s heart was racing. The hospitality was beyond what she could have hoped for—whatever Tony had done to lay the groundwork, he did it well.

“No, thank you, sir. But I’m here on an important matter.” Evelyn could just make out the tense set of his shoulders through the screen, her mother next to her. She felt him take in a breath. “I don’t know if you know this, but your daughter Evelyn—”

Joseph’s free hand gripped the armrest of his rocking chair tightly. “What did she do now?” he asked. “I’ll pay for whatever the damage is. Thank you for coming to me instead. I thought she had grown out of that mischievous streak—”

“Sir, no, she didn’t do anything wrong.”

“She didn’t?”

“No. I—I’m here tonight because I’m in love with her. I want to ask your blessing to marry her.”

Miriam and Joseph drew in a sharp intake of breath simultaneously, Miriam grabbing her daughter’s arm with a viselike claw.

Joseph rose to his feet and Tony followed suit. “No,” he said stonily, then turned toward the open window and bellowed Evelyn’s name.

Evelyn struggled out of Miriam’s grip and ran out to the porch, stopping short at her father’s face.

“Did you know he was coming here to ask this?” Joseph asked her.

She nodded, afraid to speak.

“This—this was the boy—all that time ago—?”

“There’s—” Her voice cracked hoarsely, and she took a deep breath before trying again. “There’s never been anyone else, Papa. I love him.”

“I forbid this!”

Evelyn looked up at him, drawing from a reserve of courage that surprised even her. “You can’t.”

“What?”

“You can say no, but you can’t stop me from loving him. And you can’t stop us from getting married.”

“Evelyn,” Tony warned.

Joseph’s eyes narrowed. “Do you know what you’re saying?”

Tony came to stand between Joseph and his daughter. “Sir, no. I won’t do that without your permission.” He turned back to Evelyn. “Go back in the house.” Then quieter. “Please.”

“Don’t you tell her what to do!” Joseph grabbed his daughter’s wrist, but she flung his hand off.

“Don’t either of you tell me what to do! I won’t sit here and let the two of you negotiate over me like I’m some prized goat. Papa, I love him. And you should know that the only reason we haven’t run off is because he wanted to get your blessing. So you might as well give it unless you want to lose me.”

Her breathing was ragged, and she could feel not just her mother’s presence at the window but Helen’s, Vivie’s, and the children’s too. She didn’t care. She was gambling everything on her father being unwilling to sit shiva for her—or that he would later forgive her even if he did.

“Mr. Bergman, I—this—isn’t how I wanted this to go. You have my word that unless I have your blessing, nothing will happen. I’m sorry.” He looked at Evelyn, pleading silently with her. “Family is everything,” he said finally, then lifted her hand to his lips, kissed it, and went back down the porch steps to his car. No one spoke as he drove away.

“Papa,” Evelyn said finally. “Look at me, Papa.”

But Joseph walked past her into the house without a word.





CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT





There were three places set at the table when I came down for breakfast. I shook my head.

“Are you expecting company?” I asked my grandmother. She was at the stove, cooking a monstrously huge breakfast.

She turned around. “I suppose it’s too much to hope that Joe is in the shower.”

I pressed two fingers to the bridge of my nose and shook my head. “Is this how you were with Mom and Aunt Joan?”

“If they’d been your age and single, I would have been.” She turned back to the stove and slid the contents from the pan onto a plate.