Gossamer

by Rebecca Hagan Lee

  Delia looked shocked. “Oh, no, miss. That won’t do.”

  “I’m not allowed to take a nap?”

  “Of course you are, miss,” Delia said. “But Mr. Craig insists that everyone in the household eat three square meals a day.”

  “Even if I’m not hungry?”

  Delia nodded. “Even so.”

  “But why?” Elizabeth asked.

  The young maid shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. But everyone eats three meals a day at Craig House. That’s one of the three cardinal house rules.”

  She wasn’t accustomed to eating three meals a day. Lady Wimbley’s Female Academy offered only breakfast and dinner. Lady Wimbley had done away with luncheon for the staff and students in order to economize and keep the school operating within its budget. No one ate luncheon except Lady Wimbley herself, and her luncheons for parents and society patrons were the stuff of legends. “What are the other cardinal rules?”

  Delia shifted her feet from side to side and glanced over at the sheer draperies billowing in the wind from the breeze coming in through open French doors leading onto the balcony. “We must watch the Treasures at all times and the French doors in the governess’s room must be kept closed and locked whenever the Treasures are in the nursery,” she muttered uncomfortably.

  “Oh.” Elizabeth walked over and closed and latched the doors.

  “Mr. Craig must have forgotten to tell you about the rules.”

  And as a consequence Elizabeth had already broken one rule and nearly broken the other two. She looked over at Delia’s tense expression and shrugged her shoulders good-naturedly. “I suppose breaking one cardinal rule a day is enough.” She smiled at the young housemaid. “Thank you for agreeing to sit with the Treasures, Delia, while I go downstairs for lunch.”

  “Thank you, miss,” Delia breathed. “ ’Cause I’d sure hate to have to get used to another governess’s ways of doing things or lose the bonus money you’re going to get Mr. Craig to pay Mam and Rose.”

  That gave Elizabeth pause. “If Mr. Craig feels that strongly about the rules, we won’t worry him by telling him how close I came to breaking them.”

  “Right, miss,” Delia agreed. “ ’Cause Mr. Craig ain’t going to allow anything bad to happen to his Treasures and he ain’t going to let anybody in Craig House go hungry for any reason. Nobody in Craig House is ever going to starve to death. Go on, miss, before your luncheon gets cold. I’ll watch over the Treasures.”

  Twenty

  THE BELL IN the tower of the First Protestant Episcopal Church pealed three times, announcing the end of school. Elizabeth watched as the double doors of the church opened and a dozen or so school-age children hurried down the front steps and ran for the park.

  Elizabeth, Delia, and the Treasures followed the crowd of children toward the park. It was Elizabeth’s first look at the town in daylight, and it hadn’t taken her long to learn that Coryville was laid out on a square grid. Main Street was routed around a large expanse of park land dotted by tall pines at one end and enclosed by a black wrought-iron fence. A brick-paved pathway led the way from Craig House, through the stone and wrought-iron entry gate, into the park, then continued around the perimeter of the park. Wrought-iron benches and lampposts lined the path at quarter-mile intervals. Having already made one revolution around the town square, stopping off to mail a letter with her forwarding address and a request to Mr. Dorminey at the stone works for a final accounting once Owen’s headstone was in place, Elizabeth wheeled the carriage through the stone gate and entered the park. She maneuvered Diamond’s wicker carriage off the path to a nearby bench and parked it before she allowed Delia to let go of Ruby’s hand or Emerald and Garnet to get out of their twin perambulator for a romp in the park.

  Elizabeth sat on the nearest bench and gave a nod of approval for Delia to lead the girls to the play area. She wheeled Diamond’s pram back and forth to keep the baby entertained while her older sisters played tag and hide-and-seek with each other and with Delia.

  Elizabeth sighed. Coryville was a beautiful, model town—full of green areas, trees, brick pathways, lamps and wrought-iron fences—so different from many of the other towns Elizabeth had passed through on her way out West. She shivered at a blast of cool late April air and stared out past the town to the snowcapped mountains far off in the distance. Situated as it was in a protected valley, Coryville could very easily have been one of those quaint little Alpine villages she had heard so much about. Elizabeth pulled her wool cape closer around her, then checked to make sure Diamond hadn’t kicked off her blankets. Ruby and Garnet were warm enough playing tag with Delia. And Emerald was sitting, securely bundled against the chilly breeze, a few feet away in the center of a large sandbox happily pouring sand from one metal pan to another smaller one.

  Hearing the little girls’ delighted squeals and high-pitched laughter made Elizabeth want to join in the fun. She called to Delia and asked if she would mind watching Diamond and Emerald while she joined Ruby and Garnet in a game of ring-around-the-rosy. Delia quickly ran over to the bench and sat down to rest while Elizabeth took her place.

  Gathering the two little girls to form a circle, Elizabeth reached down to take Ruby by the hand.

  Ruby backed up a step, refusing to grab hold of Elizabeth’s hand.

  “What’s the matter, Ruby?” Elizabeth asked as she knelt on the grass to look Ruby in the eyes. “Don’t you want to play anymore?”

  “No!”

  Tears welled in Garnet’s dark brown eyes and her little bow-shaped mouth began to tremble.

  “Don’t you want to play ring-around-the-rosy anymore?” Elizabeth asked, trying again.

  “I don’t want to play wif you,” Ruby told her. “I want Delia.”

  Elizabeth recoiled at the vitriolic tone in Ruby’s voice. The little girl’s words stabbed at Elizabeth’s heart, cutting deep. She took a deep, steadying breath to keep from crying and managed a very calm, “I see.” She slowly rose from her knees and walked over to the bench, where Delia sat watching the two younger girls.

  “I think it might be best if I sat and watched Diamond and Emerald while you play with the older girls, Delia.”

  “Why, miss?” Delia asked. “I thought you wanted to romp around a bit.”

  “I did,” Elizabeth replied, “but Ruby doesn’t want me. She wants to play with you, and it’s more important for her to get her exercise than it is for me.”

  Delia left the bench and walked over to Ruby. “What’s the matter with you? Stop being so mean and let Miss Elizabeth play, too.”

  “No.” Ruby shook her head. “Don’t like Miss Libeth,” she announced. “I like you.”

  “Ruby! You shouldn’t say such things.”

  “It’s all right, Delia,” Elizabeth said as the burn of unshed tears stung her eyelids. “Ruby is entitled to her own opinions. If she doesn’t like me and doesn’t want to play with me, I understand. And I agree that she ought to have playmates she likes. So, I’ll keep an eye on Emerald and Diamond while you entertain Ruby and Garnet. Agreed?”

  “Okay, miss,” Delia replied glumly.

  Elizabeth blinked back the tears and smiled over at Delia. “Good. And now that that’s settled, why don’t you run along and play ring-around-the-rosy with Ruby and Garnet?”

  “DAMN.” JAMES STOOD staring out of his office window overlooking the park in the center of the town square where, two stories below, his darling domineering Ruby was engaged in a war of wills with her governess.

  “What is it?” Will asked.

  “Ruby,” James answered. “Come see for yourself.”

  Will got up from his chair, walked around James’s desk, and moved to stand beside him at the window. Far below, James’s four daughters, their new governess, and Delia, the housemaid, were playing games in the park.

  At least, Ruby, Garnet, and Delia were playing tag on the grass. Emerald was playing in the huge sandbox, and Elizabeth was sitting on a park bench pushing Diamond’s pra
m back and forth with her foot.

  “What happened?” Will asked.

  “Ruby’s refused to participate in any of the games if Elizabeth plays.” James’s voice held a resigned note. “I was afraid of this,” he admitted. “I was afraid Ruby wouldn’t accept Diamond and a new governess.”

  “Still jealous, is she?” Will chuckled, understanding that Ruby enjoyed being the queen bee of the nursery, enjoyed twisting him and James around her little fingers, and lording it over her younger sisters.

  “Very much so.” James plowed his fingers through his hair and shook his head, before turning his attention back to the scene in the park. As he watched, Elizabeth straightened her shoulders and surreptitiously brushed the back of her hand beneath her eyes. Although he couldn’t see it from this far up, he felt in his heart that Ruby’s hostility had wounded Elizabeth deep enough to make her cry. James turned away from the window and started toward the door.

  “Where are you going?” Will asked.

  “To see about Elizabeth and to have a little talk with Ruby,” James replied, torn between his love for his daughter and his desire to comfort Elizabeth.

  “She won’t appreciate you interfering.”

  Will’s words stopped James in his tracks. “No, she won’t,” he agreed. “But Ruby needs to understand that she has to mind Elizabeth.”

  “Elizabeth needs to teach Ruby that lesson. Otherwise, her authority in the nursery will be undermined.”

  “I know,” James said. “I know. But—”

  “Leave it alone, Jamie.” Will slapped James on the back. “Come on, the sooner we get these contracts in order, the sooner I can leave for the city and find out what happened to Elizabeth’s brother.”

  James didn’t say anything else. He simply walked back to his desk and resumed his review of the Central Pacific contracts.

  ELIZABETH GLANCED AT the gold watch pinned to the bodice of her dress, then pulled the schedule James had copied down for her out of her pocket and read it once again. According to the schedule, the Treasures had another hour of fresh air and exercise in the park before it would be time to return to Craig House and get the girls bathed for dinner.

  She shoved the schedule back into her pocket and lifted a fussy Diamond out of her perambulator. She draped Diamond’s soft wool blanket over the infant’s head, then hugged Diamond close, gently bouncing her up and down against her shoulder to soothe her. A young blond woman with two small children approached the bench, and Elizabeth scooted to the edge of the seat in order to make room on the bench for the woman.

  “Hello.” Elizabeth shifted Diamond to her left shoulder, smiled at the other woman, then offered her hand in introduction. “I’m Elizabeth Sadler.”

  The other woman whispered instructions to her children—a small boy of about Garnet’s age and a girl who appeared to be two or three years older—and sent them off to play in the sandbox.

  She looked Elizabeth up and down. “I don’t remember seeing you before. You must be new in town.”

  “Why, yes, I am,” Elizabeth said. “And you must be …”

  “Lois Marlin,” the blond-haired woman replied. “Mrs. Joseph Marlin, Esquire. That’s Deborah,” she said, pointing to her little girl. “And Joseph Junior.” She pointed to the little boy sitting beside Emerald in the sandbox. “Joseph Junior,” she called out to her son. “Move over, I thought I told you to stay away from the little Celestial.”

  Elizabeth sucked in a breath, stiffened in her seat, and hugged Diamond a bit closer.

  Lois Marlin didn’t seem to notice. Done giving instructions, she turned her attention back to Elizabeth. “We’ve been in Coryville since the beginning. My husband is …”

  “The local attorney,” Elizabeth said. “I passed his office as I was strolling with the baby.”

  Lois Marlin leaned closer. “May I see your baby?”

  “Yes, of course,” Elizabeth moved Diamond from her shoulder and settled her into the crook of her left arm.

  “Boy or girl?”

  “A girl,” Elizabeth answered proudly, pulling the edges of the blanket back away from Diamond’s little face so that Mrs. Marlin could see her.

  “My stars!” She gasped. “She’s a Celestial heathen, too.”

  “A what?” Never having heard the term, Elizabeth didn’t know what it meant, only that it was in some way derogatory and that Lois Marlin used it on a regular basis.

  “A Chinese. Good heavens, don’t tell me she’s yours!” Lois Marlin dropped the corner of Diamond’s blanket and moved away, farther down along the bench. “You didn’t actually … marry … one of those. Did you?” Lois wore an expression of rabid curiosity.

  “Diamond is the youngest of Mr. Craig’s four daughters,” Elizabeth answered coolly. “I’m their governess.”

  “Really? When did he hire you?” Lois asked.

  “He didn’t hire me,” Elizabeth replied, not liking Lois’s rude question or her superior tone of voice. “I’m an old friend of the family. Mr. Craig arranged for me to come to Coryville shortly after his wife died.” She crossed her fingers beneath the folds of Diamond’s blanket and said a few silent prayers to excuse the little white lies she was telling. Elizabeth wasn’t about to let a woman like Lois Marlin think she knew all of James Craig’s business. “Surely you had heard.”

  “What took you so long to get here?” Elizabeth didn’t think it was possible for Lois Marlin to look more shocked or surprised or rabidly curious, but it was.

  “What do you mean?”

  “James Cameron Craig’s wife died over three years ago.”

  Elizabeth was stunned. Over three years? Ruby was three and a half. Ruby’s mother had died? But what about Garnet and Emerald? Where was their mother? And where was three-day-old Diamond’s mother? What had happened to them?

  “Were you marooned or shipwrecked or something?” Lois asked eagerly.

  Elizabeth had to think fast. That was the trouble with little white lies. They got you into trouble so fast that soon you were forced to weave a whole fabric of bigger, darker lies. “Oh, no, nothing so dramatic. You see, my family and Mr. Craig’s family are both in banking and finance.” That part was true enough. “And well, they’ve been business associates for as long as I can remember.” Elizabeth began warming up to her story and telling it in the light, gossipy tones of a society debutante. “You see, I had just begun my course of studies at the academy when Mr. Craig spoke to my grandmother about my coming to Coryville after graduation and after my year of finishing school in Europe. At the time, his wife was very much alive. But then, I decided to extend my educational tour of Europe to include a—a—course of Italian and Greek art history—at the Vatican City and in Athens, of course. And by the time I returned to the States to accept his invitation to come to California, James—I mean Mr. Craig—was a widower.”

  “Wasn’t your family afraid for you to come here? Aren’t you afraid?”

  “Of what?”

  “Of Mr. Craig,” Lois breathed. “Of James Cameron Craig, of course.”

  “Why should I be afraid of Mr. Craig?” Elizabeth asked. “He’s an old family friend, a well-respected businessman, and a perfect gentleman.”

  “He appears to be a well-respected businessman and a perfect gentleman,” Lois corrected. “But appearances are deceiving. He’s a criminal, you know.”

  “Don’t be absurd!” Elizabeth snapped. “Mr. Craig isn’t a criminal.”

  “Yes, he is,” Lois said. “Oh, everything is very hush-hush now. You were away in Europe and your family probably didn’t think anything of it because, after all, she was a Celestial. But James Craig didn’t come to California because he wanted to. He came because he was forced to leave Hong Kong to escape punishment.”

  “Punishment for what?” Elizabeth didn’t believe a word of Lois Marlin’s gossip, but her curiosity got the best of her.

  “He killed his wife,” Lois whispered. “He killed her with his bare hands.”

  “I d
on’t believe you,” Elizabeth said flatly. James Cameron Craig was no more a killer than she was. He was too patient, too understanding. Too loving. He would never kill the mother of his child. The idea was unthinkable. James Craig could not have murdered the mother of his child. He loved Ruby too much. And his love for her was the pure love of a father for his child. There wasn’t a hint of guilt attached to it. And James wouldn’t be able to look Ruby in the eye if he had committed the horrible crime of which Lois Marlin accused him. “Mr. Craig is one of the few men I’ve ever known who genuinely likes women and children. In fact, he adores them.”

  “So what?” Lois didn’t appreciate Elizabeth’s superior tone of voice. “Everyone knows he prefers Celestial women. His wife was one and he must have at least one or two mistresses over in Chinatown.” She nodded toward the row of buildings beyond Main Street to the right of the square. “How else could he keep spawning these heathens?”

  “How dare you suggest …” Elizabeth began in a voice shivering with cold fury.

  “I’m not suggesting,” Lois told her. “I’m telling you the truth. Everybody in town knows it. If you don’t believe me, ask him. Ask him what happened to his wife. Ask him how she died.”

  “I would never presume to ask Mr. Craig such a personal and hurtful question.” Elizabeth’s voice cooled even more.

  “Oh, you’ll ask him,” Lois Marlin asserted smugly. “You’ll ask him. You won’t be able not to ask him now that your curiosity has been aroused. But, take my advice, Miss Sadler, and leave while you still have the chance. The other governesses didn’t stay because they were afraid to. Why do you think he’s still eligible? Surely you don’t believe a handsome, rich bachelor like him could remain unmarried in a town full of eligible women, if there wasn’t something horribly wrong with him?”

  Elizabeth got to her feet, then bent and gently placed Diamond in her perambulator before she signaled to Delia to bring the other Treasures. “I suspect you have it backward, Mrs. Marlin,” she said in an oh-so-sweet tone of voice. “I don’t think Mr. Craig has remained a widower because the women in Coryville are afraid he murdered his wife. I doubt they care if he murdered his wife. After all, she was only a Celestial heathen.” Elizabeth sneered the term. “I suspect the reason James Cameron Craig has remained a widower, in a town, of plenty, is that he’s afraid the town is full of women with narrow-minded attitudes like yours.”