Isabella recalled hearing about that trip to America and how Lottie had to stand by and witness her sister suffer an agonizing death, taking her unborn child with her. That she died in Angelo’s arms had eased Lottie’s sorrow at the time, but Isabella knew what a horrible shock it must have been to learn that, while Rosa was still alive and with child, Angelo and Gladys were making love not far from where she was waiting for him. She now understood that every time Lottie looked at Gladys she would be reminded of that time. Isabella vowed that she would try to be as nice to Lottie as she was to Gladys.
Victor and Angelo had decided they would take the next day off. Victor wanted to spend time with his boys and Angelo and Gladys wanted to be alone with Eddy for a time.
Gladys and Angelo were lying in bed enjoying a cuddle while waiting for Eddy to wake up. They intended to call Eddy into their room so he could see them sharing a bed and know this was the way things would be from then on. Angelo wasn’t worried, but Gladys was afraid he might not approve. As soon as Eddy woke, he jumped out of his bed, came skipping into their room, jumped into their bed, and said, “Move over, another monkey’s coming in,” before he wiggled down under the blankets between them.
They were still in bed when they heard a loud knock on the downstairs door. Angelo opened the window, looked down, and saw a delivery wagon with the name “White’s Furniture” printed on the side. He realized it must be the furniture that Peter had ordered, so he called out that he would be down directly. He dressed quickly and went to knock on Sandy’s door, but the cook didn’t answer.
Luckily, the delivery man had a helper with him. Between the three of them, they managed to store all the furniture in the empty rooms until Gladys could help sort it out. Later, two more wagons arrived with the rest of the pieces. Sandy was back from having his breakfast by then, but Gladys wouldn’t allow them to put the furniture anywhere but the empty apartment until she had scrubbed the floors in her apartment and Sandy’s.
The thing that pleased Gladys the most was that there were three wardrobes for each of the two-bedroom apartments, and two wardrobes for the one-bedroom apartments. She could hardly wait to unpack her clothes and hang them up.
Besides the six chairs and matching dining table, there were two comfortable easy-chairs and a divan for the living room. For each bedroom, there was a velvet-covered chair and a dresser. The furniture was very plain compared to the furniture Gladys was accustomed to, but, once she had everything properly placed, the apartment felt like a palace to her.
Gladys had lived at Four Oaks for the past eight years, where she had enjoyed the peace and quiet of the countryside. When the three of them stepped outside the building that morning, they were surrounded with noisy shoppers, merchants selling their wares, and horses and wagons lined up waiting to deliver or collect goods, which made Gladys suddenly realize how much she had missed city life.
When Theresa Rutten heard that Gladys was going to be living in one of their apartments, she had been shocked. She said it was far too near the docks and warned that there were all sorts of unsavory characters loitering about that would rather commit robbery than do an honest day’s work. Gladys almost blurted out that she had been brought up in a far worse place and knew how to look after herself. But she realized that it might be best if Theresa didn’t have any idea of her past, so she just promised to be extremely careful. Eddy hadn’t been brought up in the slums, so Gladys was a bit worried about him, and she made him promise to stay inside the apartment or the restaurant unless he was with someone.
It was a lovely day, and, as they walked up and down the streets, Gladys felt more light-hearted than she had since leaving England. There were so many interesting shops that she soon had a collection of little gifts to send to Eliza and Dolly. She also bought all the staples she needed for baking and a large supply of other groceries. On their way back to the apartment, they happened to walk by a Singer’s Sewing Machine factory. The machines had become so popular during the last few years that Mr Singer had recently expanded his business by adding a few more New York factories.
“Oh, Angelo, I must go in and see if the same man is here that I met at the fair in England. Do you mind?” Gladys asked. Angelo said he and Eddy would wait in the ice cream parlour across the street. There was a small office directly inside the building, but since no one was behind the desk, Gladys was on the verge of leaving when a very portly gentleman came out of what she thought must be the factory. In fact, the gentleman was so portly that he had to squeeze through the door.
He looked nothing like the man she had met in England, but he was just as friendly. When she inquired if she could purchase a machine, he said she could indeed and that he would even have it delivered free of charge. Gladys intended to sell the silver toothbrush and tongue scraper set that James had given her as a wedding present to pay for the machine, so she kept her fingers crossed when she asked the gentleman how expensive the sewing machine would be. She was pleasantly surprised when he said ten dollars. It was still expensive enough to be beyond the average buyer, but Gladys was lucky to have received money from Aunt Jean.
The next morning, Victor, Carlotta, and the twins arrived early in the morning. Victor and the twins went upstairs to knock on Angelo’s door, but Lottie, not wanting to see Gladys, said she would go directly into the restaurant and start to work. The door was open, which surprised Lottie. When she entered, she noticed that all the tables were pushed to one side of the room with the chairs stacked on top of them while a cleaning lady was down on her knees scrubbing the rest of the floor. She didn’t stop but walked right through into the kitchen.
The door to the alley was open, and a heavyset fellow was sitting on a chair drinking a cup of coffee and looking out at a heap of waste piled up under the roof over the alley door. He heard her coming, turned, and held out his hand, saying, “Hello, you must be Victor’s wife, Carlotta. A pretty name for a pretty woman.”
Carlotta hated false flattery, but his smile portrayed such honesty that she returned his smile. “And you must be Sandy. I have been told that you are an excellent cook.”
“Well, I’ve been at it for a time, but your man tells me you make the best Italian dishes he’s ever tasted. I’d be very grateful if you would be kind enough to share some of your recipes with me.”
“I can do that. Well, I came here to work this morning, but it looks as though you have most of it done already. And by the shine on this floor, that cleaning lady has finished in here and has almost done the big one out there. How on earth did you find such a worker so fast?”
“Cleaning lady? We don’t have a—oh! You must mean Gladdy. She was at it when I came downstairs this morning. I tried to get her to stop for a cup of tea, but she said she’d rather wait until she was finished. Nobody can work like that girl. Laura Watt used to say she did more in one day than three of her other housemaids.”
“Housemaids? Gladys, a housemaid?”
“Not a housemaid, Sandy.” Gladys had finished the floor and was coming into the kitchen and heard them talking. “I was a mere chambermaid when I first worked for the Watts.” She then addressed Carlotta. “I was also a barmaid in the same establishment in Dover. You were correct, Carlotta, when you said I probably was used to entertaining by myself. I often sang for the customers.” She went to the stove and drew a measure of hot water from a pot with a dipper. She took the dipper to the sink where she washed her hands before she said, “Now, Sandy, I would love that cup of tea.”
Carlotta had been so sure Gladys was a woman of high quality that she didn’t know what to say. Before she could think of something, Victor and the twins came in the through the front door and Angelo came in the back.
“Ah, there you are,” Victor said to Angelo. “What have you been up to?”
“Well, it took a little time to find the fellow who is supposed to pick up our garbage, but I finally found him and arranged for him to come b
y this afternoon and haul that trash away from the back. I signed a contract for him to come twice a week from now on. It took a bit of talking though, since most of his customers only want him once a week.”
Sandy didn’t wait for Victor to complain but confessed, “Sorry, Victor, that’s my doing. I can’t tolerate rats, and if you don’t keep the garbage away, you soon have more of the vermin than you can handle, even with the help of cats, dogs, or traps.”
“Whatever you think best, Sandy. The running of the kitchen will be up to you for as long as you wish to work here. Is that agreeable to you, Lottie?”
Lottie, still trying to take in the sight of Gladys dressed in working clothes with her beautiful hair hidden in a dust cap, just nodded her head.
“Well then, I think it’s time you showed Sandy how to make a good cup of American coffee, then we should have a meeting to decide where we go from here. You should join us, Sandy. You may have some ideas we can use,” Victor suggested.
The meeting lasted for three hours. Gladys was careful not to pick fault with any of Lottie’s ideas. Whenever she had an idea herself, she always asked Lottie her opinion, which took a lot of restraint on her part. Everyone, even Lottie, was pleased and excited with the end results. Sandy suggested that they name the restaurant “The International Café because they intended to cater to a variety of different nationalities. Everyone thought it was a good idea, and Gladys said they could try having different menus for different nights.
They also agreed that, although the walls of the restaurant were freshly painted, they were far too bare and stark. It was Paulo, one of the twins, who came up with the solution. He was quite an artistic lad, and Lottie had been sending him to art school. “My teacher could paint pictures of different countries on the walls,” he had suggested. At first no one took him seriously, but the more Gladys thought about it, the better it sounded. Finally, Gladys said she thought it was a brilliant idea, and Lottie agreed because she was proud of her son.
Teachers didn’t make a great deal of money, so when he was approached, Paulo’s teacher, a handsome young Italian named Bruno, was thrilled to accept the challenge. It took him many weeks to complete the task. Although the restaurant had opened before he was finished, he continued painting early in the morning and late at night, so it didn’t bother the customers. He painted a scene from each country, along with a likeness of their flag. These were done on both side walls and on the wall at the end of the room where, except for the door to the kitchen, he painted scenes of America and a very large flag with stripes and thirty-three stars. The murals were almost as popular with the customers as Sandy and Lottie’s cooking.
Isabella soon tired of staying alone while Lottie was at the café, and she persuaded Victor to allow her to move into the one-bedroom apartment next door to Gladys. Gladys, knowing how lonely life could be for the elderly woman, invited her to help with the shopping. It wasn’t long before she became acquainted with some other elderly Italian ladies, who, although not from as high a station as herself, were seasoned gossips and made interesting company.
Although Lottie still found it difficult to be civil to Gladys, she had to admit that she did more than her share of the work around the restaurant, so she kept her temper. Things went well for the first three months, then something happened that caused her pent-up anger and resentment to burst forth like water from a broken dam.
A letter from Dolly had fallen out of Gladys’s handbag, and Lottie found it on the restaurant floor and read it. When Gladys and Isabella returned from shopping, Lottie was waiting. She grabbed Gladys by the arm and said, “You cold-hearted witch.”
Isabella tried to clam her down, but Lottie shouted, “No, Nonna, it’s time you knew what sort of woman she is. She’s a cruel, cold-hearted adulteress, who is not only a home breaker, but a terrible mother as well. To think I was blaming Angelo for Rosa’s death as much as I blamed her. Now I can see that she had seduced him, hoping he would take her out of the country.” Then she addressed Gladys, “But that time he came to his senses and left you, didn’t he?”
Not waiting for an answer, she directed her words to Isabella once more. “So then she had to find another poor man who would marry her and look after her and her bastard son. When she found out that Angelo was back in England, she arranged a meeting where she talked him into saying they were married so she could come to America with him. I don’t know what she is running away from, but it must be something serious because she has left her two daughters in England.”
Isabella couldn’t help but look shocked, so Lottie continued, “Yes, Nonna. Your sweet little Gladys has two daughters and one is practically a baby. What kind of mother leaves her baby and runs off with a man?”
Isabella looked at Gladys pleadingly, “Gladys, is this true?”
Gladys couldn’t deny it. “Yes, Nonna, it is true, but they are in excellent hands, and I promised I would go back inside of a year. You see, Eddy needed his real father and I didn’t know what else to do. Perhaps if you knew the whole story you would agree.”
Gladys turned to Lottie, and, in a low voice that had a timbre of strength and admonition to it, said, “Lottie, I don’t blame you for hating me, but if you ever, ever, refer to Edward by that name again, I shall not be responsible for my actions. Do you understand me?”
“You don’t frighten me, Gladys, but I will admit that I shouldn’t have used that name. I think we all have a right to hear what sort of woman Angelo has brought into our family. I’m sure Auntie and Uncle will want to hear it too.”
This time Nonna agreed with her. Gladys said she would be happy to tell everything and would arrange a meeting with everyone.
Chapter Thirty
Sandwich, England
It had been two weeks since Gladys and Edward left Four Oaks, but their absence still cast an ambiance of gloom over the entire household. Dolly had taken over her mother’s duties as mistress of the manor. Although she had tried her best to run the household as efficiently and as seemingly effortlessly as Gladys had, the staff took little interest in their work and did no more than necessary, causing her to think they resented her.
Actually, they all liked and respected Dolly, but Gladys’s cheery disposition had a way of making their chores enjoyable. Since she had left, there didn’t seem to be any joy left in the house.
Even James began to fear that Four Oaks would soon revert back to the dismal state it was in before she became his housekeeper. She had not only brought new life and vitality to the manor but to his life as well. Up until then, except for his business dealings in London, he’d lived the life of an introvert without friends. And it was because of Gladys that he had met Percy.
During the two weeks since Gladys had left Four Oaks, James had done a lot of thinking, and came to the conclusion that she had had no other alternative and was right to leave. Edward deserved a father who loved him, and James had shown him nothing but mistrust and dislike since he was born. He also thought a lot about his own future and past, and he finally admitted to himself that he would never be happy without Percy.
When he first discovered that Percy was a homosexual, he was shocked. But what frightened him the most were his own feelings. Believing that such thoughts were as sinful as taking action, he immediately broke up their friendship. He hadn’t talked to or seen Percy for four years, but the last thing Gladys had said to him before she left was, “James, please go and see Percy.” Now he had finally decided to take her advice.
The following morning, he and Dolly were sitting in the conservatory and had just finished breakfast when Dolly excused herself and got up to leave. James stopped her saying, “Please sit down for a minute, Dolly. I want to talk to you.”
Dolly, afraid he hadn’t been pleased with her work, waited for him to say as much as she held her breath and clenched her fist under the table.
“I have decided to go to London and I am not certain
if I will be there for a day or a week. I pray this won’t leave you with too much responsibility to handle, my dear. Auntie has offered to help, and I know she means well, but she is becoming exceedingly forgetful. I dare not trust her with important jobs. I am sorry, Dolly, but I haven’t told you what a splendid job you are doing. Your mother would be very proud of you. In fact, I shall write and tell her how splendidly you have done.”
Although she was relieved, Dolly still harboured a lot of anger toward her mother, so she merely mumbled, “I doubt she cares.”
James surprised her when he replied, “She does, Dolly. I can assure you, she does. You know, your mother has been through some very difficult times, but she loves both you and Eliza; you must believe that. Now, do you think you can manage while I am away?”
“Yes, James, I think I can, but I wish I had Mother’s talent for cheering everyone up.”
“It will come, don’t you worry. Now I shall run up and say goodbye to Eliza. I hope Auntie doesn’t give you any trouble.”
“I think I can find her something to do that will satisfy her,” Dolly replied, smiling.
James shook his head, thinking that Dolly had a lot more of her mother’s talents than she knew.
James felt four years of Percy’s absence keenly, and he slept very little the night before he left for London. He was worried that Percy wouldn’t want to see him, and he could hardly blame him. Percy had tried to be friends, and had even written to James, but James had thrown the unopened letter into the fireplace.
The train ride seemed to take forever, but after the cab driver let him off in front Percy’s flat, he wished it had taken even longer. He probably should have gone directly to his own flat, but he had only brought a small valise with him, and he could easily walk from Percy’s. His heart was pounding as he took hold of the knocker. When no one came, he didn’t know if he was relieved or sorry, but he started to leave. He had taken a few steps when the door opened and Percy was there.
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