A-Splendid-Ruin(2)

“I’m grateful that you sent for me, Uncle. And you must call me May. Please.”

“May, you’ll want to meet your cousin.” He stepped back, gesturing to a young woman almost hidden amid the gold-flocked wallpaper, ornate woodwork, and bibelots crowding every surface.

When I saw her, there was no noticing anything else.

“I’m Goldie.” She got to her feet with a grace and poise I envied. From that first moment, I was dangerously spellbound. Her smile made me forget I’d ever been lonely.

I had never met anyone who matched a name as perfectly as did my cousin. Her blue tea gown was the color of her eyes and cut to show off her fashionable hourglass figure. Her blond hair was artfully pompadoured in the style featured in all the latest magazines. The electric light glaring off the wallpaper haloed her, making her an angel to match the hordes of painted and porcelain ones decorating the house.

Uncle Jonny said, “Why, look at the two of you! A perfect match! I’ve no doubt at all that you will become fast friends.”

Goldie enfolded me in a jasmine-scented embrace. “How wonderful that we’ve found you. You look so like family that I think I would have known you on the street.”

It was an exaggeration, but a kind one. Goldie was about my age, or perhaps a bit younger, but there any similarities ended. My cousin looked more like my mother than did I. Mama had been beautiful, too, and I’d often despaired at my unremarkable brown eyes and hair and sallow skin.

Now, I felt my lack even more, and it didn’t help that I was dust and travel stained, or that my sleepless nights must be reflected on my face. I looked around for the woman I’d come three thousand miles to meet. “And Aunt Florence?”

My uncle and cousin exchanged a quick glance. Uncle Jonny said, “She wished to be here to meet you, but I’m afraid that—”

“She has a headache,” Goldie put in.

“Oh.” I tried not to betray my disappointment. I had so many questions for this aunt I’d never met. My mother’s secrets, the mysteries of her life, of mine . . . But that afternoon, I believed there was plenty of time to discover those things. I’d only just arrived.

Goldie took my arm in a flurry of animation. “You must be dying to change out of those clothes. The train is so awful, isn’t it? I swear it’s impossible to travel in anything nice at all.”

This morning, I had changed into my best suit, wanting to impress my relatives. I knew Goldie could not see the mend in the shirtwaist—it was at the back, hidden by the smart jacket Mama and I had sewn to match my brown skirt—but it seemed suddenly horribly visible.

My cousin rushed on before I had time to register my humiliation. “We shall have so much fun! I’m simply dying to introduce you to everyone.”

“Everyone?”

“They’re all so excited to meet you. The talk has been wild for days. You were even mentioned in the Arrivals column of the Bulletin!”

Uncle Jonny made a face.

“It shows we are people of note,” Goldie said pertly to her father. “It’s of course why Mrs. Hoffman is coming.”

“You’re confusing May, my darling,” Uncle Jonny said kindly, and then, to me, “I do hope you’re not too tired from travel. Goldie insisted you wouldn’t be.”

“No woman is too tired for a party, Papa,” Goldie said.

“A party?” I asked.

My uncle explained, “In your honor. I hope you don’t mind. We felt it the best way to welcome you and show you off to our friends.”

Goldie said, “Why else do you think all these servants are underfoot? I ordered fifty dozen roses and enough candles to light the entire street.”

Uncle Jonny winced.

“Oh hush, Papa. It will look beautiful, and it will smell divine, and isn’t it worth it to welcome my long-lost cousin? Are you all right, May? Oh, please don’t tell me you are too tired!”

“Perhaps she’s a trifle overwhelmed, my dear,” Uncle Jonny suggested with an understanding glance to me.

A trifle? Much more than that. “Never give Them a reason to think you don’t belong,” Mama had always said. She had meant Society. This was the life for which I’d been trained, though I’d never expected to need Mama’s lessons. I was a shopgirl in Brooklyn, and at best, I’d thought Mama’s teaching would help me get a job at one of the bigger department stores, where my perfect manners might impress a customer into buying a more expensive brooch.

I composed myself quickly and smiled. “I’m delighted. You are both so very kind.”

Uncle Jonny said, “We could do no less. You are family, after all. Why don’t you show May to her room, my dear? Are you hungry, May? I’ll have tea sent up.”

“Before a party, Papa? No woman wants tea before dancing.” Goldie dragged me from the drawing room and again into the vast and bustling foyer, expertly angling past the activity. She took me up the stairs, which were laid with a murky green runner the hue of algae skimming a stagnant pond.

“Papa’s asked Mr. Sotheby to perform tonight.” Goldie gave me an expectant look.

It was obvious that I was supposed to know the name and be delighted. “What a treat.”

“I expect everyone who matters in San Francisco will be here. I sent Alphonse Bandersnitch an invitation, so it will undoubtedly be written up in the Bulletin.”