“Eric,” Lillian said, “what in the world is this all about?”
Jeff couldn’t wait any longer. “Just tell them!” she hissed at Eric. “We have a lot to plan, and being pregnant, I really need to eat!”
She felt as if she had tossed a bomb into the middle of the room, yet Eric’s parents maintained an impressive level of calm. Lars sat stone faced, while Lillian’s expression was unchanging, the slight shaking of her martini glass, the ice cubes tinkling, the only betrayal of her inner thoughts. Meanwhile, Eric sat with his face lowered, his ears turning bright red.
“Could you please freshen my drink?” Lillian asked her husband in a quiet voice.
Without a word, Lars took her glass and left the room, and no one else spoke until he returned. Lillian continued to look into the distance, while Eric stared at the floor, and Jeff twisted her hands in her lap, a little less sure of herself after throwing down her ace. After Lars handed Lillian her drink, Jeff noticed that she removed two tiny white pills from the pocket of her robe and slipped then under her tongue.
“Well, kids,” Lars said in that same, falsely jovial voice, “that’s certainly some big news.”
That released something in Eric, who cried, “Dad, neither of us meant for this to happen! It was all a mistake. I’m so sorry.”
A mistake? Jeff glared at Eric, forgetting that she hadn’t planned this pregnancy any more than he had, having persuaded herself that the baby was their love child.
“I know you didn’t, son,” Lars soothed. “And I know that Anna here didn’t, either, but now we have to make plans for what comes next. Now, Anna,” he turned to Jeff, “why don’t you go to the kitchen and get some dinner? You said you were hungry, and you need to keep up your strength. Eric can accompany you.”
Eric gave his father a pleading look as if he didn’t want to be left alone with her, which annoyed Jeff. Ever since she’d arrived in Greenwich, she’d had to do everything, from telling Eric she loved him to revealing the news of the baby to his parents. He’d done nothing but apologize to his parents when he should be apologizing to her for getting her pregnant. Still, Jeff thought, he could make up for all of that with a sizeable ring.
“Anna,” Lars said, “do you have a place to stay tonight? I thought not. I’ll have a suite prepared for you and your suitcase delivered to it. We can talk tomorrow morning when we’ve all had a chance to get some sleep.”
“Yes,” Lillian agreed, as if this were the time of day she looked forward to the most. “I’m going to bed right now.”
Jeff followed Eric back into the kitchen, where they sat on stools at the counter. Ravenously hungry, she dug into the pizza without any thought of how it might look to him. She was done with pretending now that the secret was out. Eric, she noticed, hardly ate anything but stared out the window, deep in thought.
After a while, he asked sheepishly, “Are you feeling better?”
Jeff nodded. “I feel a lot better now that your parents know about us. I was so worried about what they would say when they found out about the baby.”
“You don’t need to worry,” Eric replied, as if more to himself than to her. “My father will know what to do.”
Jeff hoped that after dinner he might take her on a tour of the house, but Eric seemed in no hurry to leave the kitchen. If the tables were turned, she’d want to be alone in his bedroom with him as soon as possible. She wondered if he might find her body less attractive now that she pregnant, although she didn’t know why; her breasts were larger than ever, and her stomach wasn’t showing in the least bit. Maybe she just needed to remind him that she was the same person he couldn’t keep his hands off of in Kentucky.
“Should we go upstairs?” she suggested. “I’ve had such a long trip and I’m so tired.”
Eric blinked as if awakening from a dream and stood up. “Of course. Most of the staff is off tonight, so I’ll show you to your room.”
Playfully, Jeff held out her hand for him to help her down from her stool. When he took it, she pretended to stumble and fell hard against him. His arms automatically went around her, and she looked up at him with pleading eyes. Their lips met, and in an instant they were transported back to the dance floor at the Paris Grille, the bedroom at Red Rose Farm. He pressed her against the counter as his appetite for her returned with an intensity that surprised them both. Taking his hands from around her waist, she guided them underneath her sweater to her breasts, then moved her own hands to the front of his jeans. He groaned and lifted her onto the counter, kissing her lips, her neck, and lifting her sweater, between her breasts, moving down her body.
He had just reached her stomach when the sound of forceful footsteps approaching made them both freeze, breathing hard.
“My dad,” Eric whispered.
Jeff landed back on the floor with a thud and adjusted her clothes as Eric quickly moved to put the counter between them. Seconds later, Lars walked into the room, looking from one telltale flushed face to the other. Nervously, Jeff ran her tongue over her swollen lips.
“I was just about to take Jeff to her room,” Eric explained, although no question had been asked.
“I’ll take her,” Lars said. “Go to your room, Eric.”
Meekly, Eric turned and left without glancing at Jeff.
“Come, Miss Jefferson.” With a stern face, Lars escorted Jeff upstairs to the door of her suite. “Your suitcase is inside,” he informed her. “Someone will come get you in the morning. Have a good night.”
As Jeff watched Eric’s father retreat down the hall, she wondered what would have happened if he hadn’t shown up in the kitchen. She knew she hadn’t imagined the fervor with which Eric had kissed and touched her. But she didn’t know if he would dare try anything with her again under his parents’ roof; hopefully they could go somewhere private for New Year’s Eve. The most important thing, she reminded herself, was that Eric still desired her. He still loved her.
Although she was exhausted, Jeff felt a wave of triumph suffuse her body. This morning on the train she had been a poor girl with an unwanted baby in her belly. Now she was staying in the finest home she had ever laid eyes on, and someday it could all be hers. With a full stomach and full heart, she turned the doorknob and stepped over the threshold into her new life.
Chapter 5
OPENING HER EYES THE NEXT morning, Jeff felt as though she were waking up in her scrapbook back home in Kentucky. From the time she was a little girl, she had cut out pictures of bedrooms from magazines like Veranda and Town & Country that her mother had brought home from work. Now she was in one of those extraordinary rooms.
As she snuggled in her canopy bed, which was draped with an embroidered indigo cover, she looked around the room with its soothing dove-white walls. Every single detail was exquisite to her eyes. The white mantle above the fireplace was adorned with Chinese blue vases and chairs. A window seat served as an ideal reading nook, framed by an entire wall covered with books. From the Palladian window she could see the serene, snowy landscape outside. The room even had a skirted dressing table topped with antique perfume bottles and a large silver mirror that she could imagine looking into while putting on her makeup for New Year’s Eve.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock at the door.
“Come in,” she called, drawing the blanket up over her chest, half expecting it to be Eric himself.
Instead, the door opened to reveal a fresh-faced young woman dressed in a black- and-white maid’s uniform and holding a silver tray. She looked to be only a few years older than Jeff.
“May I come in, Miss Anna?” she asked sweetly. “I’m Linda, one of the housekeepers. I’ve brought you some breakfast. Please be downstairs in the living room at nine o’clock and leave out any clothing you would like cleaned or pressed. I will take care of it when I clean your room.”
“Thank you,” Jeff replied, in wonderment at the service. Now this was the way to live.
Her breakfast tray was filled with eggs, ba
con, and buttered toast; obviously someone had taken into consideration she was eating for two, and Jeff ate every morsel. Then she took a shower in her very own bathroom that also had a soaking tub. She couldn’t help comparing it to home where she and her mother shared a bathroom with a pink plastic shower curtain and a rickety old medicine cabinet that hung crookedly on the wall. How could she go back to that after experiencing such heavenly bliss?
After leaving out her travel clothes and the clothes she’d worn the previous day for Linda to get cleaned, Jeff went downstairs to the living room, which was adjacent to the Lalique room where she had met Lillian Langvin the day before.
Although she knew she wasn’t late, everyone else was already assembled in the palatial living room. Below a ceiling etched with delicate molding, the furnishings were all in various shades of white, from linen and cream to a snowy white. Eric sat on a deep cream sofa with his parents on either side. He wore a navy blazer and gray slacks, and a penitent expression on his face. Lars was similarly attired, but it was Lillian that Jeff’s eyes were immediately drawn to.
Lillian Langvin wore an ivory fitted dress that danced just below her knees, fine hosiery that made her slender legs shimmer, and cream crocodile pumps that were fitted perfectly to her feet. Through the thick waves of her platinum hair winked opal earrings encrusted with diamonds, and around her swanlike neck rested a single-strand diamond necklace. Jeff had never seen one person wear so many diamonds before.
“Now that we’re all here, we can proceed,” Lars said. “Please sit down, Anna.”
Jeff felt somehow dwarfed, minimalized, as she sank into one of the sofas opposite the Langvins. Shouldn’t Eric be sitting next to her rather than in between his parents? She tried to catch his eye, but he refused to look at her, focusing instead on the coffee table separating them.
Lars continued to address her. “May I introduce you to Phillip Harris?”
A dark-haired, clerical-looking man stepped forth from the shadows. In his gray vested suit and a sleek, monochromatic tie, Jeff thought he looked like he was going to a funeral. Could he be a minister? No, she was jumping ahead of herself. She and Eric hadn’t discussed marriage yet, and she was not going to be talked out of having a big wedding.
“Anna, where do you want to go to college next year?” Lars asked.
This unexpected question took Jeff by surprise. She had not given much thought about what would happen after she graduated from Paris High School. Perhaps she’d take some classes at the local community college while continuing to work at McAlpin’s; that is, until something better came along. In all honesty, she had hoped that her life would take a substantial turn before then, although she had never envisioned anything as substantial as getting pregnant.
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
“That’s too bad. Because Eric is going to Harvard next fall, just like his brother and I did before him. And he’s going to go to business school after that.”
“Dad, I haven’t decided yet,” Eric muttered, showing a spark of defiance for the first time.
“What’s there to decide?” Lars scoffed. “What’s good enough for the other men in the Langvin family is good enough for you. Don’t think some hobby like taking photos is going to amount to anything.”
“Some people make a good living from photography,” Eric pointed out. “And they’re able to hold onto their souls while doing it—”
“Enough!” Lars roared. “Eric, you’ve done quite enough here. I would advise you to keep quiet.” Composing himself, he turned his attention to Jeff again. “Eric’s mother and I have discussed this, and we’re sure that your parents must feel the same way. Since you and Eric are so young, and you both have such bright futures ahead of you, you mustn’t let a baby get in the way.”
This was the first time since arriving in Greenwich that Jeff felt her plan start to tilt to the side, like a ship hitting a reef. “I’m having this baby,” she said in a shaky voice.
“We’re not asking you to do anything that would put you or the baby in danger,” Lillian spoke up.
Lars looked to Phillip Harris, who now stepped into the spotlight. “Miss Jefferson, the Langvins are prepared to pay you $100,000 in increments of $25,000 a year if you will simply agree to put the baby up for adoption. You must also sign a confidentiality agreement that the father’s name will not appear on the birth certificate and that you will never reveal his identity to anyone.”
Now Jeff was starting to get the picture, and it was not a pretty one. The Langvins wanted her to go away because she and the baby weren’t good enough for Eric. The Langvins didn’t want anyone to know about them.
She looked beseechingly at Eric. “But we’re in love.” She paused. “Aren’t we?”
Eric’s gaze seemed to have moved from the coffee table to the floor. “I’m sorry, Jeff, but I agree that this is for the best.”
In that moment Jeff knew that he would not help her. He was too cowed by his father, too afraid of his family to go against them. She was completely, utterly on her own.
“You’re sorry?” she cried. “I’m the one with the little monster in my stomach, not you! Now I have to go through this all by myself. You can’t just buy me off with a little bit of money and get me to go away.”
Lars shook his head. “I don’t think the amount is insignificant. In addition, you have your mother and father to support you through this time.”
“My father left two years ago and my mother doesn’t know I’m pregnant. She doesn’t know I’ve come up here. Nobody knows about me and Eric, I didn’t even tell my friends. So much for my support! Not everyone lives like your family, Mr. Langvin.” With that final shot, Jeff sprang to her feet and ran upstairs to her suite, barely able to keep back the tears.
In her room, Jeff lay in a crumpled heap on her bed, her hopes dashed. Now she would never become the wife of a multimillionaire, or live like the beautiful young women whose lives unfolded in the pages of her scrapbook. She cried for her mother and for the hours Jenny spent standing on her feet working at the boutique. She cried for her father, who had felt so trapped that he had no choice except to leave his family. She couldn’t stop the tears for her small-town friends, whose visions for their futures were nothing more than attending a no-name college, finding a husband, and having a baby, just like the one in her stomach. What dismal and mundane lives they would lead, never realizing what they were missing.
But most of all, she grieved for herself, for the happy, innocent girl she had once been. Now that she had a taste of what this kind of lifestyle could be like, she knew she could never go back. Only she had no idea how she was going to get there now.
* * *
For the next three days, Jeff stayed in her suite. She hadn’t realized how physically exhausted she was from the trip and the pregnancy, and emotionally exhausted from the grim realities of her situation, which seemed to expand with each passing day. All she wanted to do was sleep. Safe in the veil of her dreams, she turned further into herself.
During this time, she was vaguely aware of knocks at her door, someone quietly entering to leave freshly laundered clothes and trays, and departing just as quietly. She left the food untouched, ignoring the baby’s desperate cry for nourishment that she felt deep inside her. When she was awake, she noticed that snow was falling fast outside the window, cloaking the room in perpetual dusk. Sometimes she opened her eyes to find a fire burning in the fireplace, but it didn’t bring her warmth. Instead, she felt cold like the snow piling up on the streets outside, numb like the ice glistening on the lawns. She was like a princess trapped in the tower of a grand castle, except she was the one who had engineered her own imprisonment.
On the third morning, she woke up to find Linda, the young housekeeper, standing next to her bed.
“Miss Anna, I brought you food,” she said. “You must eat something, especially in your condition.”
Jeff looked at her with bleary eyes. “What do you know about my condition?”<
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“I know that it’s made the Langvins very upset.” Linda leaned in closer. “I’m not supposed to talk to you, but I overheard Mr. Langvin say that if you don’t come out of your room soon, he’s going to call the police. They won’t let you stay here much longer.”
With a sigh, Jeff lay back on her pillow. “They can’t just throw me out.”
“They can, and they will. Take my word for it. These people don’t care about anyone but themselves, they’re only concerned about how their family looks. I’ve just been here six months, but I’ve worked for other people just like them. And I have seen situations like this.”
“So what would you suggest I do?” Jeff asked.
“Take their offer and triple it,” Linda replied without hesitation. “Take what you can from them and go.”
Gazing into the young woman’s earnest face, Jeff saw that she spoke the truth. But before she could thank Linda for the advice, the young housekeeper said, “I have to get to work now. If I get caught talking to you, I’m out of a job,” whereupon she turned and rushed from the room.
Linda was right. Jeff knew she didn’t have time to lie in bed and wait for the axe to fall. As she tried to get out of bed, she realized how shaky she had become without eating any food for the past few days. She didn’t feel particularly hungry, but she knew she had to eat, although certainly not for the little monster inside her, who had caused all this trouble. No, she would eat for her own strength, to prepare for the battle ahead. Jeff started slowly with the scrambled eggs, then as her hunger grew, demolished the bacon and oatmeal. A large glass of milk sat next to her tray, which she knew had been put there because of her pregnancy. Jeff immediately took it and poured it down the toilet. Nothing for the baby! Nothing! Grimly, she watched the white liquid disappear down the drain.
She began pacing the room like an animal in a cage, desperate to devise a way she could outsmart Lars Langvin and Phillip Harris, whom she now assumed to be the family lawyer. They were the ones with the money, the experience, and the authority. The only thing she had in her favor was the baby in her belly. But just maybe that was enough.
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