Jecca stopped smiling as she tried to translate what Nell was saying. Then it hit her. “Are you saying that Rebecca’s mother shops for her in New York at Bergdorf’s and Saks?”
“That’s it!” Nell said, laughing. “Dorfy and Bags.”
“Hey!” Tris called. “Are you two having a party? Without me?!”
“Yes!” Nell yelled back. “A wonderful party.”
Jecca watched Teccment. ris and Nell run to each other. If anyone saw them they’d think they hadn’t seen each other in a year. He swung her around and her laughter echoed through the woods. Then Nell snuggled against him, her head on his shoulder, and they walked back to Jecca.
As soon as Tris saw Jecca’s face he lifted his brows to ask what was wrong. She mouthed “later,” and he nodded.
As Jecca watched Tristan admiring their paintings, she thought that there must be a way to solve Nell’s problem of the dreaded birthday party. Maybe Jecca felt so strongly about it because it was familiar to her. When she was eight she’d shown up at a birthday party wearing a dress her father had chosen for her: below her knees, ruffles everywhere, a sash tied in a big bow at the back. Jecca knew she’d go to her grave hearing the laughter of the other girls.
Of course Nell wouldn’t go dressed as an escapee from a religious sect, but she’d be competing with “Dorfy and Bags.” From a female point of view it was the same difference.
“What would you like to look like?” Jecca asked.
Tris asked, “What are you talking about?” but Nell understood instantly.
“French,” she said.
“I see,” Jecca said, smiling. “A French exchange student, visiting the U.S., looking at the peasant Americans.”
“Oh yes!” Nell breathed.
“What are you two up to?” Tris asked.
“Secrets!” Jecca said. “Girl secrets. Anybody hungry?”
“Me,” Tristan said, and Jecca and Nell laughed together.
Sixteen
Roan returned that evening with a carload of supplies—mostly unneeded—and the bad mood he’d been in seemed to have left him. He escorted Jecca out of the kitchen and began encasing the fish Tris had caught in a thick layer of salt.
“He’s a good cook when he wants to be,” Tris said.
Their evening meal was pleasant, with Roan making them laugh at things he’d seen in Edilean that day.
After that night they fell into a companionable routine. Jecca and Nell were in charge of breakfast, while Tris did lunch. “If you call getting stuff out of the refrigerator making a meal,” Roan said.
Dinner was Roan’s job, and he took the opportunity to show off his skills. There was an old chest freezer in the back and it was full of meat and vegetables.
“You missed your calling,” Jecca said as she ate a chicken leg that had been marinating in some secret sauce. “You should have been a chef.”
“And hide away in the kitchen all night?” Tris said. “You don’t know my cousin very well. He wants to be in the middle of the action, entertaining people with his verboseccme
Jecca looked at Roan, wondering how he’d take that remark, but he laughed. “Why would I miss the chance to share my great wisdom? The world needs me.”
They all laughed together.
During the day, Tris, Jecca, and Nell went hiking. Tris and Nell knew all the trails around the cabin, and they wanted to show them to Jecca. Sometimes Tris fished, but some days he just stretched out on a blanket and dozed.
Jecca painted everything she saw, including Nell and Tristan. Her sketchbook filled up, and between her and Nell taking photos, she filled an entire digital disk.
At night, Jecca and Tris made love. They slipped out of the cabin and into the moonlight and came together with all the pent-up desire they’d suppressed all day. There would be a first explosion, hard and fast, urgent with their desire for each other. Then they’d go more slowly, taking their time, touching and caressing.
Afterward, they’d lie in each other’s arms and talk of the day. “Do you think Roan minds that we’re taking up his time for writing?” Jecca would ask. “What were you and Nell giggling about this afternoon?” Tris would ask.
On the fourth day at the cabin, it rained hard and they stayed in. As a result, the four of them settled into a quiet domesticity. Tris had brought some medical journals, so he sat on the end of the couch and read. Jecca took the other end, her feet entwined with his, and sketched. Nell made herself a nest in one of the big chairs. She arranged her many dolls and animals into a horseshoe shape, backed into it, and curled up to read a paperback of some sci-fi adventure. Roan took the chair across from her and read an adult sci-fi adventure.
Jecca couldn’t help smiling at the peacefulness of it all. This is how it had been with her dad and brother when she was growing up. If her father was occupied, they were a very calm family. But after Sheila came into their lives, the peace was gone.
After lunch the rain came down harder. Nell went to the bedroom to, she said, give her dolls a rest. Jecca checked on her later, and Nell was asleep. Jecca went back to the couch.
“What are you drawing?” Tris asked. “Something for Kim?”
Jecca looked at him and smiled. She knew his look. If Roan hadn’t been sitting a few feet away, they wouldn’t have any clothes on right now. “Actually,” she said, “I’m designing an outfit for Nell to wear to her cousin’s birthday party.”
“That’s good,” he said, “because it’s a fashion show this year.”
Jecca lowered her sketchbook and stared at him. “A fashion show? What are you talking about?”
Tris put down his medical journal and stretched.
“He means,” Roan said as he got up to stoke the fire, “that those parties Savannah puts on for her kid are extravaganzas worthy of Versailles.”
“They’re not quite that bad,” Tris said. “But they are spectacular.” Jecca was waiting for an explanation. “Every year for Becca’s birthday, Tyler, her dad, shells out for whatever kind of tev#82party his wife can come up with. They run for two days, and lots of kids and adults are there for the events. Savannah plans them and—”
“And Tyler pays for them,” Roan added. He didn’t seem as enthralled with the parties as Tris was.
“That’s his problem,” Tris said. “I’m just happy that Nell is always invited to the sleepover part, even though I don’t think she and Rebecca are buddies at school. Becca is a good kid.”
Jecca didn’t comment on that last statement. “What does Rebecca wear?” she asked.
“I have no idea,” Tris answered, and Roan shrugged.
“Is it possible that Rebecca’s mother takes her to New York twice a year to buy clothes for her?”
Tris gave a little smile. “If you told me that Savannah flies to Paris to have Becca’s clothes made I wouldn’t be surprised. Tyler never stops complaining about how much she spends.”
“If he didn’t have family money, he’d be bankrupt by now,” Roan said.
“What kind of parties has she given?” Jecca asked as she went back to sketching.
“Last year she hired some circus people,” Tris said. “They set up a trapeze and the girls swung out over a trampoline.”
“How did Nell do with that?”
“Great,” Tris said. He was smiling in a way that said he had a secret.
“‘Great’ doesn’t describe what I heard,” Roan said.
“Well,” Tris said, and there was pride in his voice, “Rebecca did hit the edge of the trampoline. If it hadn’t been for Nell’s fast thinking, more than likely she would have gone over the side. Nell probably saved her from a broken bone or two. But thanks to Nell, Becca ended up with just a few bruises.”
“What did the other girls do when that happened?” Jecca asked.
“Stood there in terror, is what I was told,” Roan said.
Tris nodded. “The girls were pretty shook up, but then it happened very quickly. Nell just . . .” He trailed off, but his pride
in his niece was apparent.
No wonder Rebecca hates Nell, Jecca thought. Nell was prettier, smarter, and reacted quickly in an emergency. Jecca would have loved to tell the two men the truth about young Rebecca, but she couldn’t betray a trust. She looked at Tris. “Were you called in for the accident?”
“Yes,” he said. “Why?”
“You wouldn’t by chance remember what Nell was wearing when you got there, would you?”
Tris looked blank, then his face lit up. “Actually I do. She had on a leotard with Mickey Mouse on the front. I remember because I teased her that it was two sizes too small for her. When we got home, she had me go online and order her a new one. No cartoon characters on it!”
Jecca had to bitcca hite her tongue to keep from saying anything. She was willing to bet that Rebecca “forgot” to tell Nell that she needed to bring a leotard to the party, so Nell was given an old one. How humiliating it must have been to have to wear a Mickey Mouse outfit that was too small for her.
“And this year it’s a fashion show?” Jecca asked.
“Yeah,” Tris said, “and I forgot to tell Nell about it. But we don’t have to worry about anything. Savannah told me that they’re supplying all the clothes. They’re from local stores and they’ve invited a lot of kids to be in the show. Pretty much everybody in Edilean will be there. Savannah asked me if I’d MC the thing.”
“And you’d wear your tux?” Jecca asked, trying to keep her face as straight as possible.
She didn’t fool him. “Jecca, what’s going on?”
“Nothing that we women can’t handle.”
The next morning after breakfast, Jecca took Nell into their bedroom and told her that this year Rebecca’s birthday party was going to be a fashion show. Immediately, Nell’s pretty face fell; she looked as though she was going to cry. “You think Rebecca will give you a Shrek outfit to wear?” Jecca was trying to make Nell smile, but it didn’t work.
“Yes,” Nell said. “She’ll give me the ugliest clothes she can find.”
“I have an idea,” Jecca said. “What if you show up with your own clothes? Not only clothes made just for you, but your own line of clothing?”
Nell looked as though Jecca had lost her mind.
Jecca sat down next to Nell on the bed and opened her sketchbook. “These are just rough designs, but I took your idea about being a French exchange student and ran with it. I came up with a few possibilities.” She flipped the pages to show Nell what she had in mind. There was a red jacket with oversize black buttons. It was pleated in the front, smooth in the back. Jecca had drawn it over a straight black skirt with black tights and shoes. A black beret went with it. Next was a simple navy dress with black piping across the bodice and sleeves. A peach party dress had a square neck and a high waist.
All the clothes were simple and very elegant. They weren’t at all like what girls usually wore, layers of seemingly mismatched clothes, one layer on top of the other.
“What do you think?” Jecca asked.
“I love them. But . . . ?” She didn’t seem to know what questions to ask. “How . . . ?”
“Lucy,” Jecca said. “We’ll get Lucy to make these for you. And I’ll help her with the cutting, and maybe Tris can . . .” She waved her hand. “He can give us moral support. And . . . drumroll please . . .” Jecca turned the page to show a rectangle that said in a distinctive cursive writing Nell’s Closet.
“What is it?”
“Your label. You can name it anything you want, but I saw a place online that will make the labels and send them to us. We’ll sew them into the back of the clothes. Thhe ackey’ll be yours alone. No one else on earth will have anything like them.”
Nell held the sketchbook for a moment, staring at it and obviously not understanding what Jecca was talking about, but her enthusiasm was contagious.
“Would you like me to go over it all again?” Jecca asked.
“Oh yes,” Nell said as she picked up an armload of dolls and bears and settled back to listen.
Seventeen
An hour later Jecca went back into the living room where Tris was loading a backpack for a hike, and Roan was putting beef into a marinade of lime juice and spices.
“I have to go home,” Jecca said.
Tris reacted instantly. “But it’s not the end of the summer. You still have weeks. Months. Reede wants me to go back to work, but I’ll postpone it. I’ll go to New York with you and we’ll—” He broke off because Jecca was staring at him.
“You mean back to Edilean,” he mumbled.
Roan was chuckling. “Now that ol’ Ken here has hung his heart out for everybody to see, may I ask what’s up?”
“I need to get with Lucy to start making an entire wardrobe for Nell to wear at the fashion show.”
Tris was trying to recover from his embarrassment. “Savannah said she was getting all the clothes.”
“And if I know her,” Roan said, “it will be the best the state has to offer. Her daughter will probably wear some dress with diamonds on the skirt.”
“That’s just the point,” Jecca said.
The two men looked at her with identical expressions of not understanding what she was talking about.
“Tristan,” Jecca said slowly, “last year when you went to see about Rebecca’s injuries, you thought it was funny that Nell was wearing a Mickey Mouse leotard that was two sizes too small for her. How do you think she felt in that getup? And why do you think ‘good girl’ Rebecca didn’t tell very pretty, very smart, fast-thinking Nell that she needed to bring a leotard for the circus party?”
“Oh,” Tris said, “I guess I missed that. So your plan is . . . ?”
“I don’t trust this Rebecca and her mother to give Nell pretty clothes to wear in the fashion show. I have a hideous vision of dungarees and rubber boots floating around in my mind. I think it would be in Nell’s best interest to arrive with a few of her own garments, designed just for her. Actually, I’ve been thinking of a whole line of clothes called Nell’s Closet.”
Tristan blinked a few times as understanding came to him. He didn’t want to say what he thought of Savannah McDowell and her daughter, but it was in his eyes. “How soon can you be ready to leave?”
“I need to pack and—”
“Why don’t you guys go now and I’ll take your clothes down to you this afternoon?” Roan asked. “And I think you should . . .”
They looked at him.
“I don’t know much about little girls, but it might be nice if Jecca made some clothes for the other girls to wear at the show. It might make Nell feel less like an outsider.”
“That’s brilliant,” Jecca said. “You seem to know a lot about mean girls.”
“I’ve met a few. You guys go. It’ll take an hour to get all Nell’s Kirby dolls in the car.”
“Riley,” Jecca said as she headed toward the bedroom.
Twenty minutes later they were ready to leave. Jecca had scooped all her toiletries into her bag, then done the same thing for Tris and Nell. Roan carried the entire lot of Nell’s animals and dolls to the car—and Jecca couldn’t resist taking a photo of him.
“I’ll send it to Berkeley for you to use to get students to sign up,” she said as she got in the car. “The caption will read, HE MAY LOOK TOUGH BUT HE’S A GENTLE GIANT.”
“As Nietzsche would say—” Roan began, but Tris started the engine and drowned him out. Roan took the hint. “Tell the girls I’ll return their pans this afternoon,” he yelled over the noise.
As Tris pulled away from the cabin, Jecca looked at him. “I take it ‘the girls’ are Mrs. Wingate and Lucy.”
“Yes they are,” he said and glanced in the rearview mirror. Nell, snuggled up with her toys, was already asleep. “I want you to tell me everything you have planned,” he said.
“I’d rather hear about you and Reede. When did you two talk?”
“Me and my big mouth. After Reede saw me dancing with you, he suggested that I take care of m
y own medical practice so he could return to wherever it is that he’s been working lately.”
“But you took Nell and me to the cabin instead.”
“I did,” Tris said. “Besides, Reede needs to face his problems.”
“Which are . . . ?” Jecca asked.
“Laura Chawnley.”
“You’re kidding,” Jecca said. “After all these years he’s still hung up on her? Even though she married the Baptist preacher and now has kids?”
“That’s right,” Tris said. “It’s just that Reede hasn’t seen her since the day she told him she wasn’t going to marry him, and he’s a yellow-bellied coward.”
“Which you probably told him.”
“And loved doing it,” Tris said, grinning.
Jecca was going to ask more questions, but her phone buzzed. “uzz20;AnLooks like we’re back in range.” She pulled her cell out of her bag. “And I have twenty-one e-mails.” She started going through them. “Oh good! A woman in Nigeria has decided to give me her late husband’s fortune of eighteen million dollars. And all because she’s heard that I’m such a very good person.”
“I told her that about you,” Tris said solemnly.
“Then I should give her your e-mail address.”
“I don’t deserve such kindness,” he said and they laughed.
Jecca clicked on Lucy’s cell number, and she answered right away. It took only a couple of minutes to explain what was needed. “We only have a week. Think we can do anything in that time?”
“I think we can put on a show that will make Savannah McDowell faint with envy. And by the way, all of this is her doing, not her daughter’s.”
“I see,” Jecca said with a glance at Tristan.
“I’ll meet you at Hancock Fabrics in Williamsburg,” Lucy said. “I can alter patterns but I’m not a designer. Besides, we’ll need to buy fabric. How many outfits did you design?”
“Six,” Jecca said, “but Roan thinks we should make something for the other girls to wear too.”
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