As Bright as Heaven(94)
“Then it’s the right thing to do, isn’t it?”
I’m instantly whisked back in time to the day Mama lay dying and I stood at her door listening as she told Maggie she did the right thing by bringing Alex home. And I wonder, not for the first time, if the right thing to do is always the best thing. When I don’t answer right away, Maggie continues.
“You’re so busy with your work and studies, and Willa is only fourteen and still in school. Papa can’t take care of Alex by himself. He’ll be having to ask Dora to take Alex during the day, and now that . . . that Jamie is home, she may not want to.”
I hear the way Maggie says Jamie’s name. I hear the buried wound there. The long-ago yearning for his affections.
“Please tell me this is the right choice to make, Evie.”
“Which choice are we talking about?” I ask her. I know my sister well enough to see she is conflicted about other decisions she has made besides the one regarding Alex’s future.
Maggie holds my gaze for a moment, relieved, I think, that I have seen through her questions.
“Jamie kept all my letters,” she finally says. “Every one for the last seven years. I saw them in his rucksack. He had hardly anything in it, after all these years away, but he had my letters. He kept them. Why would he do that?”
The answer is obvious to me. Surely it is to her as well. “You need to ask him, Maggie, if it matters to you that he kept them. You can’t guess or wonder.”
I can see in her eyes that she knows I am right.
And now I know, too, what I need to do.
CHAPTER 58
Maggie
It doesn’t take long for news of my engagement to Palmer Towlerton to spread. I told Ruby the day after Palmer gave me the ring so that I could ask her to be my witness, and she told everyone we’d ever known in school, even if they were only acquaintances. In a matter of days, it seems everyone has heard, including the coroner of all people, whom Papa knows on a first-name basis.
The words of congratulations have been followed by the question “So, when is the big day?” Palmer has already looked at the calendar, and suggested the day after Christmas, a Saturday, because if any extended family have come to town—meaning his—they will still be here on the twenty-sixth. He hasn’t asked if I agree; he’s merely thinking it’s the date that makes the most sense, so how could I not be in favor of it? He’ll be in town; his sisters and their families will be in town. It’s the perfect day for a wedding.
When people ask me when the big day is, I keep saying we’re still looking at dates. Palmer laughs when this happens and tells the inquirer that it will likely be the last Saturday in December. Then when whoever has asked has walked away, Palmer says something like “People just want to wish us well, Maggie. They aren’t fishing for an invitation to the ceremony.” Then he will bring my hand up to his lips to kiss it.
Palmer and I told Alex yesterday that we want him to come with us to New York after we marry. He seemed cautiously pleased by the plan, and he asked more than once how far away Manhattan is. He has no frame of reference for distance. We don’t get to Quakertown very often and that’s the farthest he’s ever been from home. He also asked if the rest of the family is coming, too, and he seemed sad when I said Papa, Evie, and Willa are staying here. Willa wasn’t that happy about the idea, either.
“So, why, again, are we leaving?” Alex said after we’d answered all his queries. I wanted to turn to Palmer and ask the same question.
With all the fuss over the engagement, I’ve been too busy to talk to Jamie and it seems the Sutcliffs have been happy to have Jamie all to themselves. Dora hasn’t been over since Jamie came home, other than to bring us a plate of pralines as a thank-you for letting him spend the night. She didn’t stay for a visit, though, so I couldn’t ask her anything about how Jamie is doing now that he is home or why he came back or if he is planning on staying. And while I’ve kept my eye on the Sutcliffs’ home and business, I haven’t seen much coming and going. I am guessing that Dora perhaps wanted to make a celebration out of Jamie’s return and he’d asked her not to.
I’ve been pondering Evie’s advice to me, though, every spare second. And I know I need to talk to Jamie and that it cannot wait. Today, after the morning’s restorative work, and while Willa and Alex are at school, and Evie’s at the hospital, I will walk over to the Sutcliffs’ to return Dora’s plate and ask to speak to him.
? ? ?
Dora answers the bell, happier than I’ve seen her in years.
“You didn’t have to trouble yourself to bring this old plate over!” she says as I stand at the threshold of their apartment above the accounting office.
“It was no trouble. The pralines were wonderful. Thank you.”
“My mother’s recipe! And what’s this I hear about you and Mr. Towlerton?” She beams at me but doesn’t invite me in.
“Oh. Yes. He proposed.”
“Lucky you! And I hear you’ll be setting up housekeeping in New York City after the wedding. My, my. Manhattan!”
“Yes. Um, do you think I could speak to Jamie for a minute?”
“He’s downstairs in the office.” Dora leans toward me in glee. “He’s back at his old desk, Maggie. Working! He’s home. Home to stay!” Her gray-blue eyes flood with tears.