The Winters(26)

I fell back, too, and for a while we both lay blinking into the velvety darkness of the cold bedroom, before Max got up to stir the fire.





TEN


Max was up early the next day and I shadowed him, using him as a shield for my reentry into life at Asherley. If he sensed this was what I was doing, he was sympathetic enough to say nothing. When we reached the top of the stairs, I could hear a different woman’s voice, coming from the foyer downstairs, not Dani’s or Katya’s.

“Max, are you up?” she yelled.

“Ah, Louisa,” Max said to me. “I promise you this will be less painful.”

Max’s sister was older than him but looked younger than I had expected. Next to her was a man who stood at least a head shorter, with white hair and a matching moustache. Louisa’s eyes shone bright when she spotted me. Here might be a friend, I thought, taking in her wide-open face. As soon as we reached the bottom of the stairs she pulled me into an athletic embrace that was over by the time I had a chance to raise my arms to return it.

“It is so nice to finally meet you. I’m Louisa, Max’s older, bitchy sister,” she said, still clutching my shoulders to take in my face and hair, and repeating my name until she got the pronunciation right. “And this is my first husband, Jonah.”

“She’s been saying that for twenty-six years. Someone should break it to her that I’m as good as it gets.” Jonah hugged me, too, adding, “You’re a slip of a thing. It’s a wonder you don’t float away in a storm.”

Louisa hooked her arm in Max’s and then mine and we drifted into the dining room, following the smell of coffee.

“Max, I’ve had it,” she said. “That kid thinks she can just bolt from people to cross the Atlantic or wander around New York all by herself like a stray cat. You have to have a talk with her or I can’t take her places anymore. I’m old. I get nervous.”

“When she gets kidnapped, don’t pay the ransom,” Jonah offered. “That’ll teach her. In fact, I know a guy who can arrange a lesson.”

The dining room table was the size of a small pool, and on the sideboard a breakfast buffet, not unlike the ones at the club, awaited us. I was drawn to the window, needing a glimpse of Asherley’s grounds in the daytime to orient myself. I still felt stuck in that vague in-between place. I wasn’t in the Caymans anymore, but I was not fully here yet either.

A snow-covered lawn sloped down to a stand of spindly black trees. Beyond that was Gardiners Bay, a greener, angrier version of the ocean I grew up looking at. Gray clouds hung low at the horizon. As I stepped closer to the window I spotted an icy spire poking above the treetops. Its incongruity gave me a little jump.

Louisa joined me at the window. “I have always hated that god-awful thing. Rebekah was the only one who understood the greenhouse. I still think it’s a stain on the whole aesthetic.”

“It is riveting, though.”

“So are mushroom clouds. And I don’t want to see one of those on my lawn, either.”

Over breakfast, I could feel my shoulders start to drop as a part of myself I’d stifled around Dani began to surface—a confidence, I guess, at least in showing my affection for Max. I let my hand graze his forearm now and again. I laughed a little too loud at his and Louisa’s stories about growing up on the island. The conversation between Louisa and me was easy, chatty, and light. She asked all the usual questions a sister might ask of her brother’s new love: where was I born, who were my parents, what was my schooling, the broader strokes of my life that eventually led to meeting Max and ending up here, ensconced on Long Island and betrothed in a little more than a month. Every new detail I offered seemed to delight rather than disgust Louisa.

Dani, thankfully, slept through breakfast, as was, apparently, her habit. And if Katya was the one responsible for cooking the delicious spread—bacon, scrambled eggs, a quiche—we didn’t see her. The only person who made an appearance was a rather sullen Gus, who came in from time to time to take away the dirty plates and cups or bring in a freshly filled coffee carafe.

“I thought he just worked in the barn,” Louisa whispered.

“Katya doesn’t think he has enough to do in the winter,” Max replied. with a shrug. “And he’ll have less to do once the rest of the horses go.”

Louisa said how sad she was that most of the horses had been sold, the final two retiring to a stable in Montauk soon. Max reminded her that they were Rebekah’s passion, one that Dani didn’t share.

“She’s got to find something to do, something to care about,” Louisa said.

“She likes playing with makeup and clothes,” Max said, sneering a little. “And her phone, of course.”

“Like every single fifteen-year-old girl on the planet,” Louisa said. Max seemed on the cusp of a testy rebuttal, until a look passed between them.

“Yes, that’s true. She is still a teenager, still quite young,” he said, fussing with his fork. “But I do expect a little bit more from her. She’s got privileges when it comes to her education. I want her to take advantage of them.”

Louisa abruptly stood and asked me if I wanted to take a tour around the property with her. I looked at Max. This was something he’d said he wanted to do today.

“Go. Jonah and I have some business to catch up on,” he said. “Louisa’s just as qualified as I am to be your guide.”