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It was the room of a ten-year-old child.
7
I never slept here after Mother died,” Erich explained. “When I was little I used to love lying in bed, listening to the sound of her moving around in her room. The night of the accident I couldn’t stand to come in here. To calm me down, Dad and I both moved to the two back bedrooms. We never moved back.”
“Are you saying that this room and the master bedroom haven’t been slept in in nearly twenty-five years?”
“That’s right. But we didn’t close them off. We just didn’t use them. But someday our son will use this room, sweetheart.”
Je
Beth tugged at her restlessly. “Mommy, we’re hungry,” she said positively.
“Oh, Mouse, I’m sorry. Let’s go to the kitchen.” Beth raced down the long hall, her footsteps noisy for such little feet. Tina ran behind her. “Wait for me, Beth.”
“Don’t run,” Erich called after them.
“Don’t break anything,” Je
Erich lifted the mink off her shoulders, dropped it over his arm. “Well, what do you think?”
Something about the way he asked the question was disturbing. It was as though he was too eager for approval, and she reassured him now the same way she answered a similar question from Beth. “It’s perfect. I love it.”
The refrigerator was well-stocked. She heated milk for cocoa and made ham sandwiches. “I have champagne for us,” Erich said. He put his arm over the back of her chair.
“I’ll be ready for it in a little while.” Je
They were just about to get up when the doorbell rang. Erich’s scowl changed to a look of pleasure when he opened the door. “Mark, for heaven sake! Come on in.”
The visitor filled the entry. His windblown sandy hair almost touched the top of the doorway. Rangy shoulders were not hidden by his heavy hooded parka. Piercing blue eyes dominated his strong-featured face. “Je
Mark Garrett. Dr. Garrett, the veterinarian, who had been Erich’s closest friend since boyhood. “Mark’s like a brother,” Erich had told her. “In fact if anything had happened to me before I married, he would have inherited the farm.”
Je
“I’ve always said you had good taste, Erich,” Mark commented. “Welcome to Mi
She liked him immediately. “It’s lovely to be here.” She introduced the girls to him. They were both unexpectedly shy. “You’re very, very big,” Beth told him.
He refused coffee. “I hate to barge in,” he told Erich, “but I wanted you to hear it from me. Baron pulled a tendon pretty badly this afternoon.”
Baron was Erich’s horse. Erich had talked about him. “A thoroughbred, flawless breeding, nervous, bad-tempered. A remarkable animal. I could have raced him but prefer having him for myself.”
“Were any bones broken?” Erich’s voice was absolutely calm.
“Positively not.”
“What happened?”
Mark hesitated. “Somehow the stable door was left open and he got out. He stumbled when he tried to jump the barbed-wire fence on the east field.”
“The stable door was open?” Each word was precisely enunciated. “Who left it open?”
“No one admits to it. Joe swears he closed it when he left the stable after he fed Baron this morning.”
Joe. The driver. No wonder he had looked so frightened, Je
“I told Joe not to discuss it with you until I had a chance to see you. Baron will be fine in a couple of weeks. I think Joe probably didn’t pull the door fast when he left. He’d never be deliberately careless. He loves that animal.”
“Apparently no one in his family inflicts harm deliberately,” Erich snapped. “But they certainly manage to inflict it. If Baron is left lame…”
“He won’t be. I’ve hosed him down and bandaged him. Why don’t you walk out and see him now? You’ll feel better.”
“I might as well.” Erich reached into the kitchen closet for his coat. His expression was coldly furious.
Mark followed him out. “Again, welcome, Je
It took a warm bath and bedtime story before the children finally settled down. Je
“Let’s leave it, darling,” she said wearily. “I know it’s every which way but I’ll put it right tomorrow.”
It seemed to her that he made a deliberate attempt to sound casual. “I’m afraid I couldn’t go to bed and leave this.”
It took him only a few minutes to completely unpack, to stack underwear and socks in furniture drawers, to hang dresses and sweaters in the closet. Je
When he was finished, the room was infinitely neater and the children hadn’t awakened. Je
In the hall, Erich put his arms around her. “Sweetheart, I know what a long day this has been. I drew a tub for you. It should be about the right temperature now. Why don’t you get changed and I’ll fix a tray for us. I’ve got champagne cooling and a jar of the best caviar I could find in Bloomingdale’s. How does that sound?”
Je
The bath helped. She soaked in it, enjoying the unaccustomed length and depth of the tub, which was still mounted on its original brass claw feet. As the hot water soothed the muscles in her neck and shoulders she determined to relax.
She realized now that Erich had carefully avoided describing the house to her. What had he said? Oh, yes, things like, “Nothing much has been changed since Caroline died. I think the extent of the redecorating was to replace some curtains in the guest bedroom.”
Was it just that nothing had worn out in these years or was Erich religiously preserving intact everything that reminded him of his mother’s presence here? The scent she loved was still lingering in the master bedroom. Her brushes and combs and nail buffer were on the dresser. She wondered if there might not still be a few strands of Caroline’s hair caught in one of the brushes.
His father had been desperately wrong to have allowed Erich’s childhood bedroom to be left intact, frozen in time, as though growth in this house had stopped with Caroline’s death. The thought made her uneasy and she deliberately pushed it aside. Think of Erich and yourself, she told herself. Forget the past. Remember that you belong to each other now. Her pulse quickened.