The Jane Austen Society(58)
This struck Adeline as so ironic coming from the other girl that she could only step silently away at the sound of another knock at the front door. She started to wander down the hallway and realized she had never before been this far inside. Halfway down the corridor, a steep staircase led upstairs. Adeline’s breath caught as she saw the sharp edge at the bottom that jutted out from the banister and had killed Jennie Gray.
At the end of the hall there was a step down into the back kitchen, and this galley-shaped room was very different from the austere medical quarters in the front section of the house. Bright and cheery, the kitchen featured white-painted cabinetry, a row of windows that stretched the width of the back wall above the butler sink, and a maplewood butcher block in the middle of the tiled floor. Feminine touches were everywhere: from the delicate cream-and-rose-patterned curtains that covered the bottom halves of the windows, to the collection of Cornishware on the open shelving trimmed with Victorian lace edging.
She was picking up a little blue-and-white-striped pitcher from one of the shelves when she heard a cough behind her.
Turning around too quickly, she fumbled with the pitcher and just managed to hold on to it as she put it back in its place.
“I’m sorry, you startled me.”
Dr. Gray came into the room. She noticed that he wasn’t wearing his usual suit jacket and tie, just an open blue shirt beneath a brown tweed vest that matched his eyes. He looked like any regular husband, busying himself about the kitchen.
“The meeting’s in the drawing room,” he said.
“I know that. Liberty’s out there playing hostess, have no fear.”
He nodded at the kettle warming up on the stove set back inside a former inglenook fireplace. “While you’re in here snooping, why don’t you help me with the tea?”
She nodded and got out of his way just as he reached for a matching creamer jug and sugar bowl from the bottom shelf nearest her.
“The spoons and napkins are in those drawers over there.” He gave another curt nod behind him, his back turned to her, and she went to count them out.
“We’re seven, right? Or has Liberty developed a sudden appreciation for Jane Austen, too?”
“I’m not sure if Liberty actually reads.” His back was still turned to her. “Anyway, I think we’re eight. Miss Frances is bringing two guests now from the city.”
Adeline counted out the cutlery and napkins and brought them over to the tray he had set down on the butcher block. As she placed them down, he did the same with a stack of saucers, and their hands touched just so slightly, and she jumped back.
He didn’t say anything, just looked down at the jumble of tea things in the middle of the tray for a second as if distracted, then turned back to get the teapot and teabags from a nearby tin canister.
The water in the kettle was starting to boil on the stove, and as he walked past her to get it, something in her stomach dropped. It felt as if they had done this kitchen routine a hundred times before, and she realized for the first time how very aware of each other’s body they both were. They never brushed against each other, yet they never kept more than a foot apart.
The sound of the kettle whistle crashed into her thoughts, and he came over to pour the water into the teapot.
“Watch yourself,” he said as he passed by her again.
She took a step back and then realized to her astonishment that she didn’t want to.
“Are you okay?” He poured the water into the large Brown Betty teapot. “You’re being remarkably silent for once.”
“I can’t do two things at once,” she tried to say lightly, as she placed eight teacups down in a few separate stacks.
“I highly doubt that.”
“So,” she said, trying to change the subject, “Miss Frances told you, about Mimi Harrison coming? I couldn’t believe it when I heard. Samuel and I used to see her movies together all the time.”
“Miss Frances seemed to think we men would need time to get used to the idea. Meanwhile it’s Liberty Pascal I’ve got running around town screaming her head off in excitement.”
“Oh, is that why she’s here?” Adeline smiled. “Movies are definitely much more her thing as I recall. Although she can read.”
Dr. Gray put the kettle back down on the stove. “That was probably a little unfair of me.”
“Just a little. Is everything going . . . well, though, with the two of you?”
He wiped his hands on a little flowered tea towel hanging from the oven door. “Well enough. I do need someone around here to help out, with the housekeeping and the practice, and Liberty is very eager to do whatever I ask.”
“I’m sure she is.” Adeline quickly regretted her words as he raised an eyebrow at her. “No, listen, it’s great. She will keep things under control as you said. And unlike Miss Peckham, Liberty doesn’t know a soul in town to gossip with. At least not yet.”
Dr. Gray leaned both his forearms down on either side of the tea tray, then looked up at Adeline, always a little surprised at how tall she was.
“Adeline, back at Christmas, when I came to your house . . .”
“With my present.”
“Yes, that, too. But your mother—she said Harriet had called first.”
Adeline shifted uneasily on her feet. She was starting to realize where the conversation might be heading, and it was something she had successfully blocked out of her mind until now.