“They kept most of the rooms the same,” Reggie said. “They extended the dining room by putting tables in the library, so they could seat more people, but all the bookshelves are still there. Now they house trophies and sailing memorabilia.”
They went toward the laughter and stepped into a bright, elegant room with large mirrors in between posts of rich, golden wood paneling. A mural of an Atlantic shoreline dominated one wall above a long sideboard. Several round and oval tables occupied the room. A party of eight was eating breakfast at one table. One of the ladies called to Reggie. They went over and Reggie introduced everyone.
“Vera!” A woman jumped up and enveloped Vera in a warm hug.
Vera hugged her back, but without the enthusiasm of the other woman. “Georgia, how nice to see you,” she said, ending the hug.
A man stood. “Alvera,” he said, holding out his hands. He took her hands and leaned over to kiss her. She pulled back, barely allowing him to brush the side of her cheek.
“Hello, Derrick. How are you? You’re looking well.” She smiled politely and removed her hands from his grip.
Derrick arched one eyebrow. He was tall and dark-haired and had a sophisticated appearance. His white sweater with blue trim was monogrammed. His white shorts were sharply creased. “You look lovely, as always. If anything, you’ve grown more beautiful,” he said.
“And you haven’t lost any of your charm,” she replied, putting her hands in the pockets of her khaki slacks. She did look nice, Alice thought. Her blue eyes held warmth and friendliness and a spark of humor. Alice had never considered the fact that Vera’s natural poise might have come from the society in which she’d been raised.
“Anyone like to join us for a set of tennis this afternoon?” Derrick asked, looking at Vera, then her companions.
“Unfortunately, we already have plans,” Reggie said. He turned to Vera. “We’d better get on with our business.”
“Bye. Nice to see you again,” she said as she allowed Reggie to lead her away.
“Sorry,” he said when they were out of earshot. “I didn’t think about your running into him. He never married, you know.”
“I’m sure that had nothing to do with me,” Vera said.
Reggie grinned at his cousin. “I don’t know. I think you broke his heart.”
“Or his pride. I suppose that isn’t very charitable of me, but he said some mean things about Fred.” Vera turned to Alice. “I dated him after Fred and I broke up. Everyone expected me to marry Derrick.”
“Including Derrick,” Reggie said.
“I’m glad you and Fred got back together. Is that why you hesitated before coming in?” Alice asked. She didn’t want to pry, but she had been curious. She and Vera had become friends when Vera accepted a teaching position in Acorn Hill and moved in with her grandmother, a long-time member of Grace Chapel and friend of Alice’s mother. Alice knew a romance had blossomed between the new schoolteacher and Fred Humbert, the young man who’d returned to Acorn Hill to manage the hardware store. She’d learned that the couple had known each other in college, but she’d never heard much about their lives before Acorn Hill.
“Some of it, I suppose. I’d rather remember this house the way it was when I was a child than to see what it’s become. Besides, that last year was stressful. My parents wanted me to marry Derrick. When I broke up and insisted on marrying Fred, they had a hard time accepting my decision. I think they believed I was going to Fred on the rebound.”
“You never cared much for the social scene, although you played the part well in college,” Reggie said.
“I enjoyed socializing in college. I think we were all spreading our wings and feeling independent. It was exciting and frenetic.”
“Frenetic? There you go, sounding like a schoolteacher. I remember you could still find time to party.”
“I do prefer a good book.”
He reached over and ruffled Vera’s hair. “Which is why you’re the teacher and I’m the carpenter.”
“Carpenter? Far from it,” she said, smoothing her hand over her hair. “Not that there’s anything wrong with carpenters, but I’d call you a designer and a craftsman.”
They went up to the top of the front tower to a circular room with seats beneath the windows all the way around. “This is my favorite place,” Vera said. “I used to come up here to read and daydream about adventures in other times or places. No one would bother me.”
“I knew I could find you here, but I preferred to go out in the dinghy. That’s where I did my daydreaming,” Reggie said. Alice could almost see them as children, living out their daydreams in their own ways.
They left the tower and went down a hallway on the main floor that opened up to a round anteroom that rose three stories high. A wide spiral stairway wound upward, with a landing at each floor. To the outside were stained glass windows that cast a rainbow around them. Reggie opened a double door on the left.
“This is the ballroom, where Vera danced the night away,” Reggie said. “They still hold balls here.”
Vera stepped inside and looked around. Her eyes sparkled. Alice followed her gaze as she pointed toward a carved figure of a cherub playing a horn on the frieze that circled the room between the picture rail and the crown moldings. All around the room were similar cherubs playing various instruments.
“I loved this room for the angels. Mother had a huge tree brought in here every Christmas and she decorated it with angel ornaments. When I was ten, she let me help decorate. She would have a chamber orchestra play for her charity parties. I always had to dress up to make an appearance at the beginning of the party. Then I was sent upstairs.”
“That must have been hard, knowing there was a party going on down below,” Alice said, still trying to understand why Vera hadn’t wanted to visit this lovely old house.
“Oh no. The doors were always left open so people could wander from the ballroom to the refreshment area that was set up in the parlor. When I was little, I’d sit on the stairs and watch from up above. My father would bring me a plate of dainty desserts and punch, and he’d sit with me until he saw mother down below looking for him.”
“What a wonderful memory,” Alice said.
Vera nodded. “Mother would pretend she didn’t see me. Then later, she’d come upstairs with one of the party favors and she’d give it to me, then tuck me in bed. My room is up there,” she said, pointing up the circular stairway. “There’s also a sitting room, where the ladies would gather to chat, like the Ladies’ Necessary at Aunt Agatha’s.”
They wandered up the staircase. The bedrooms had been redecorated as guest rooms for visitors from other yacht clubs or for occasions like weddings. Vera’s room looked like a luxurious hotel room. She frowned, then turned and left without a word. She walked down a hallway farther back into the house, with Reggie following. He hadn’t said much. Just let Vera wander.
They came to a locked door at the end of the hall. Reggie took a key out of his pocket. “The club doesn’t use the rest of the house,” he explained, unlocking the door.
They stepped into a dim, cold hallway with older, worn carpet on the floor. Their footsteps echoed as they walked down the hall.
“When I was little, this was my Grandma Lindsey’s wing when she’d visit from Acorn Hill. I remember her holding court with her old lady friends.” Vera laughed. “I suppose they were about my age, but they seemed ancient. I was in awe of them.”
“I remember,” Reggie said. “I had to put on a monkey suit to come have tea with a bunch of old ladies. I hated it.”
“And we’d sneak out after a while and go down to the cove. Remember, you tore your good pants on the old row-boat and I lost my gloves.”
Reggie laughed. “Boy, did we get in trouble, but it was worth it.”
“I remember your grandmother,” Alice said. “Louise and I adopted her, since our own grandmothers died before we were born. She came to our tea parties and helped with the church choir and the social co
mmittee. When Mother died, she organized the ladies at the church to bring in meals and help us take care of Jane. We’d have been lost without her.”
“I loved the short time I lived with her before Fred and I got married. She adored Fred, which helped convince my parents to accept him. They didn’t dislike Fred. They just didn’t think he was the right fellow for me.”
“They were certainly misguided about that,” Alice said.
“We all were,” Reggie said.
Back on the main floor, as they went toward the front section of the house, Vera commented, “I don’t know what you’d use these rooms for now, unless the club opened it as an inn or rented offices to members.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Reggie said. “Maybe I’ll move my office into this study. It’d be a lot quieter. A lot of your parents’ furnishings are still here. Is there anything you’d like to take? If you’d like some of the furniture, we can have it shipped.”
Vera looked around the study. A large carved desk and chairs and bookshelves occupied one end of the room, and a heavy brown leather couch and chairs were arranged around the fireplace.
“It’s all set for your office, Reggie. I don’t want anything. I have my memories and I don’t have to dust them.”
Alice smiled inwardly. Vera didn’t care for housekeeping. Although she kept things clean, she didn’t pay much attention to clutter. Whenever she was expecting company, she’d say she needed to “redd-up” the house. Now Alice realized she was probably raised with a housekeeper and there would have been a massive cleaning campaign before each of her mother’s large affairs. Alice had always loved Vera’s casual approach to her home. It had the homey atmosphere where you could sink into an easy chair and relax. That was not the way Vera had grown up. She’d purposely turned her home into a refuge where she could relax and be her unpretentious self.
“It’s nearly lunchtime. I’d be happy to spring for lunch,” Reggie suggested.
“How can we refuse such a generous offer?” Vera said.
Reggie showed them to a table on the large sun porch overlooking the cove and the river to the east. Out on the water, boats with rippling sails unfurled rode the breeze. All manner of craft from rowboats to yachts bobbed in the water. A jet ski raced past, weaving in and out between the boats, scaring the fish.
“It was a lot quieter here when we were kids,” Vera said. “Maybe you’d like to jet ski this afternoon.”
“No thank you. I want to make it back to work in one piece.”
“I nearly forgot. You’re still a schoolteacher, aren’t you? Have you thought about retiring?” Reggie asked.
“Retire? And do what? I love teaching.”
Alice found it difficult to reconcile her friend Vera, a beloved Acorn Hill teacher, with the girl who grew up in Shelton Cove amid the wealthy yachting set.
Alice gazed out at the deep, blue water. This may have been Vera’s life, but no longer. The Vera she knew was humble, down-to-earth and seemingly unsophisticated. At her childhood home, Vera’s favorite memories had to do with reading and playing with her cousin and spending time with her father and mother and aunt. She remembered the parties, but commented on them as an observer, not a participant. Alice suspected that Vera had always longed for a simpler, quieter life than the one she knew as a child, and she’d found it with Fred in Acorn Hill.
Chapter Twenty-Three
There. That’s my dad,” Vera said, pointing to a faded color photograph in a large album. The pictures were mounted with corner tabs on black construction paper. Alice and Vera sat on a floral print couch in Agatha’s parlor Friday evening, surrounded by albums.
The picture in question showed Vera at about eight years of age, dressed in a plaid flannel nightgown, her knees up under her gown, hugged to her chest. Beside her, a handsome, elegant blond man in a black-and-white tuxedo sat balancing a plate of food, feeding her an hors d’oeuvre. He was smiling at his daughter, who was making a silly face at the camera.
“That must have been Uncle George taking the picture. He always had his camera with him. I doubt if my parents had this one. Mother wouldn’t have approved.”
“Of the snack?”
“No, of my face. She used to tell me my features would be permanently deformed if I kept making such faces.” Vera laughed. “I did it a lot. I think I did it to tease my mother. She never raised her voice, but she’d give me that glare. You know what I mean.”
The next picture showed a good-looking young man, whom Alice recognized as Fred. “That was taken shortly after we got back together.”
“I didn’t know you had broken up with him before your engagement. That’s when I met you, after you and Fred got engaged at Fairy Pond. I thought that was so romantic.”
Vera sighed. “It’s a miracle Fred and I managed to get married. I almost let my family and peer pressure persuade me that Fred was wrong for me and that I’d hurt him in the long run if I married him.” She shook her head.
“You weren’t from Acorn Hill. How did you meet?”
“As you know, Fred and I met at college. I majored in education, but I needed math credits and math wasn’t my best subject. My professor recommended a tutor. Guess who? It was Fred. He was two years ahead of me, majoring in business and economics. With his help, I actually discovered I liked math. Then we saw each other at church. We became friends, studying together and going to church together.”
Alice nodded. “That’s a good solid basis for a relationship. Fred’s so thoughtful and steady, he must have been very attractive.”
“Cute too. That didn’t hurt,” Vera said, grinning. She looked through the album and found one of her standing next to Fred. He had on a suit. She wore a beautiful dress and heels. “Fred held down two jobs to pay for college, so there wasn’t much time or money for dating. I found out later that he went without lunch for a week so he could pay for our date. Then I invited him to a Christmas dance at our house. Poor Fred. I was crazy about him, and I wanted my parents and friends to meet him. He went just to please me. He hated it. All the guys wore tuxedos. Fred wore his Sunday suit. I know he was embarrassed. My parents were polite, but the evening didn’t go well. I was disappointed. I didn’t ask him to do things with my friends again.”
“That must have been hard. You’d known these friends for a long time, hadn’t you?”
“Years and years. And they were nice people. It was just … different. We didn’t move in the same circles. My parents made sure to point that out. They came up to college for parents’ weekend and attended church with us, then took us out to dinner at a really posh restaurant afterward. Dad grilled Fred on his plans for the future. Fred didn’t seem to mind, but I was mortified. Following all that, they encouraged me, privately, of course, to date someone from our social set.”
“Like the boy Reggie tried to set you up with?”
“Yes.” Vera laughed. “I wasn’t even tempted. He might have impressed the guys—he played sports and drove a brand-new, bright-red Lincoln convertible. Poor Fred didn’t even have a car. Then Fred graduated and got a job across town from college. He worked overtime to get established. I hardly ever saw him. We argued about it. Fred insisted he needed to establish a strong work record so he could get ahead and provide for a family. I wanted him to spend time with me. I wanted to be more important than his job. Besides, my family owned a lucrative business. Fred could have worked for them, but he wouldn’t even apply.”
Vera thumbed through several more pages of pictures. “I tried to understand his need to work hard and his refusal to work for my family, but I wasn’t very successful. I decided my parents might be right. Maybe Fred wasn’t the guy for me. The next week a friend invited me to her home for the Thanksgiving holiday. I told Fred I’d be busy, even though I knew he’d be alone, and I went to Connecticut with my girlfriend. When I got back, Fred was gone. He’d moved. I couldn’t believe it.”
“Is that when he moved back to Acorn Hill?”
Vera nodded. “But
he didn’t tell me. I was crushed. I got a letter from him. In it he said he’d been offered a job in Acorn Hill that could be a real opportunity. The owner of the business hired him as manager with the possibility that someday he could buy the business. I knew about Acorn Hill from Fred and from my grandmother. I’d visited her one summer.”
“I think I remember her bringing you to a church potluck once.”
“That’s right. I thought Acorn Hill was a nice town, but it didn’t have a lake or a river. No boats. I didn’t believe I could be happy away from the water. Fred called and asked me to come visit Acorn Hill, to see if we could work on our relationship. I told him I didn’t want to live in Acorn Hill. I said if he would come back and try to be part of my life, then we could talk. He actually got angry. I couldn’t believe it. He told me I had to choose between him and my society friends. I said, if he loved me, he wouldn’t ask me to choose.” Vera shook her head. “I was so self-centered and shortsighted that I couldn’t see he was offering me a chance at a new life of my own. I hung up on him.”
“I remember there were a couple of single gals at church who were interested in Fred, but he never dated as far as I know,” Alice said.
“He told me later that he believed I was the one for him and he was saving up for a house. He intended to have something to offer me before he tried again. But then I met Derrick Dalton. You met him at the yacht club. His family moved to Shelton Cove from Boston. He came for the summer. We hit it off immediately. We liked the same things.
He even liked my favorite ice cream, pistachio. He was everything I thought I wanted. Smart. Friendly. Charming. Ambitious. My parents adored him. He transferred near me for graduate school. We talked about the future. Everyone thought we’d get married after he finished school.”
“So how did you and Fred get back together?”
“When I got my degree, I rented an apartment near the school where I was teaching and I guess I got a dose of reality. Mom and Dad weren’t paying my bills. I had to watch my pennies. Then I saw how Fred had struggled to pay his bills and complete college, and my respect for him grew. I finally understood how much he’d sacrificed for the future. I became more and more disillusioned with the social life my parents enjoyed. I realized that Derrick really didn’t share my faith. He encouraged me to go to church because it looked good, but he would have been happy for me to represent him there while he played golf. He said he was making business contacts. In contrast, I remembered how Fred had refused a chance to go sailing because it would have meant missing church.
Eyes on the Prize Page 18