Chapter Twenty, part two

Henry looked over at Violet before answering. “The yacht club is nearby.”

“Yes,” Sadie answered. “The yacht club. Can you take us there?”

Violet frowned at the windscreen. What was this about? Maybe Sadie wanted to explain her actions in private. But why not in their room at the Breakers? Why this need for secrecy? Her mouth was very dry. They’d had tea and coffee that morning, but no water, no juice. She swallowed with effort and wondered how long this might take.

Henry pulled up just beyond the front doors. Violet waited for Sadie to join her, then they walked past the entry where the veteran had stood on their first visit, through the building, to the floating dock beyond. Just the day before, she and Charlie had walked happily down this dock, and then back up it in angry silence. At least today she wasn’t in sopping wet cotton.

The club stewards were busy shuttling passengers out to one of the yachts. No one was at the far end of the dock where the one-man sailboats were moored. Violet turned to her sister, shielding her eyes from the sun.

Sadie, now that they were here, looked down at the dinghies, at the planks under her shoes, at the water lapping between the boats. Everywhere but at her sister’s face. Again, Violet’s stomach clenched. She waited, saying nothing, ready for Sadie to launch into the story of her escapade with Floyd.

“It’s not that I’m a dunderhead at cards,” Sadie blurted at last. “I was just unlucky. So unlucky! You have to believe that.”

Icy foreboding crept across Violet’s skin. This wasn’t about Floyd at all. “Perhaps I should sit,” she murmured, sinking down onto the rough planks.

“Yes, you had better.” Sadie sat as well. Twin pink spots highlighted the apple of each pale cheek. She plucked at her skirt. “This is bad.” She wrapped her arms around her knees and rocked back and forth. “So very bad!”

“Just tell me. Do it quickly, just tell me.”

Sadie nodded, but it took her a minute to speak. “You’ve seen how expected it is that everyone play cards after supper. Reggie practically demands it. I went in that first night thinking it would be fun, just a friendly game. And I was winning at first! I was up nearly one hundred dollars at one point—a hundred dollars! My head was swimming with it. I was thinking of the clothes I could buy, the restaurants I could visit.” She lifted a shining, tear-streaked face, then dropped her head. “I’d had champagne and one of those gin fizzes. And the next thing I knew, I was losing. Badly. Reggie had me over a barrel. I’d put in all the money from my handbag, and I ended up having to write out a note of debt to Reggie.”

Violet was gripping her hands together so tightly, parts were turning white. She clenched her teeth and waited for more.

“The next night I went back, determined that I would earn back what I owed him, and then I could try to get out of the game.”

“Where did you get the money?”

Sadie looked down her right sleeve. “Flora lent me a little. And I took a check from your checkbook.” She sniffled and coughed, her tears flowing fast. “I’m so sorry.”

Violet’s mind spun through the curiosities of the past few days. Five checks missing. Mother’s jade earrings. Sadie’s ruby necklace. She closed her eyes, longing to block it all out. “How much money did you lose in total? You took five checks. Plus the one I wrote you. And your jewelry?” She was up on her knees, her voice rising with the heat in her face. “How much money, Sadie?”

The whisper was so soft, Violet nearly didn’t hear it.

“Three thousand.”

“What? You couldn’t have said—”

“Three thousand.”

A sheet of white cut through Violet’s middle. Her brain was numb, encased in fog, but her stomach knew enough to be horrified. She scrambled to the edge of the dock and retched into the water.

Behind her, Sadie was practically keening. “I thought we had well above that—until you told me, I had no idea that was our entire year’s income! And then it was too late. I was already in so very deep. Reggie loved watching me squirm. He never missed a chance to dangle the hope that I could win it all back with one good hand.”

Violet wiped her mouth. The waves tossed a broken reflection back up at her, eyes running askew from a mouth, a hat. A headache bloomed at the base of her skull. She sat back on her heels. Her brain was still swaddled in that fog, protected like a baby from scratching itself.

This has happened, she told herself. Mother and Papa died, that happened. Now this has happened. But Sadie was still here. She crept back to her sister and pulled Sadie’s wet hand from her face. They sat side by side, a navy skirt and a pink one, hands wrapped together.

“So, you see,” Sadie went on, her voice small, “why I said yes when Floyd asked me to marry him. It seemed like a perfect way out of my mess.” She sniffled. “And I do like him. I really do. I thought he liked me. I never dreamed of his parents reacting like that—”

Her voice caught, and Violet squeezed her hand. The fog was still there, thicker if anything, but now Sadie was in it, too. They were in it together. Anger was sure to come later. But Sadie had gambled away her own future, really. Violet could survive at their grandparents’ house without new clothes or restaurants. It was Sadie who would feel suffocated by another year in Cold Lake.

Sooner or later, everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences. Who had said that? Robert Louis Stevenson? Well, it was apt. Sadie’s banquet was about to be wretched.

The fog continued to encase Violet all the way back to the car. But as she caught sight of Charlie’s face through the passenger window, a stabbing sensation seemed to separate her heart from the rest of her body. She would have to give up on Charlie completely now. When it had only been a question of her bending her life to make room for him, that was easy. But she couldn’t continue with him as anything more than friends now that she and Sadie were destitute. His parents would be just as appalled by the connection as Floyd’s had been. More importantly, she would feel the imbalance of it. Like she’d tricked him with this sudden change in her circumstances. No, she had to let Charlie go.

That hurt like nothing else had.

–

Something was wrong. Charlie could taste it after Violet and her sister reentered the car. Both women were silent, except for Sadie sniffling softly. He longed to reach forward and put his hand on Violet’s shoulder, but that was too intimate a gesture to make in public. Instead, he waited, counting his breaths in and out, hoping she would tell him what made the air around her clench with misery.

When they arrived, he climbed out of the car and closed his door, then waited. She came, kind as ever, and took his arm, but the only words she spoke were to suggest Sadie head to a bath and then to bed since she’d been up all night. At the top of the stairs, he hesitated, letting Sadie go on ahead of them.

“Are you all right?”

She gave a little off-kilter laugh. “You mean as right as I could be after my sister eloped with a fellow she’s only known a little over a week?”

He wasn’t sure how to answer that. After all, his feelings toward her were very serious, and they’d known each other the same amount of time. Who was he to estimate the size and scope of what Sadie and Floyd felt? Though Floyd had given her up quickly enough.

If I were fighting for Violet, I’d do far more than that.

“It’s been a hard morning,” he agreed. “I leave soon, as you know. But could we talk a little more? Alone? Perhaps on the loggia.”

Once there, they stood at the half wall on the edge of the room. Charlie knew, logically, that the sky arced over the scene before them, and that the waves kept up their endless shushing below, but what he knew for certain was the freshness of the air and the ache of leaving the woman on his arm. She was upset, clearly. But she didn’t seem to want to talk about it. Well, he could respect that and still do what he could to help.

Their arms were entwined. He lowered his until his hand found hers and curled around her fingers. She squeezed, and he squeezed back. Encouraged, he shifted until their bodies met, side to side. A minute later, her forehead pressed against his shoulder. She was crying; her sobs shook him ever so slightly, a glass vase trembling in a thunderstorm.

He reached his free hand around and stroked the side of her face, thinking, this is the closest I’ve ever felt to another human being. We’re woven together. She needs a trellis for her climbing branches, and that’s a thing I can be with or without vision. How could I think I would leave today and not come back? The idea was madness.

Her sobs softened, but he didn’t move. After a long while, she lifted her head.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “You need to be packing.”

“I need to be here.”

She exhaled a shuddering breath. “You should go. You have your appointment. And your calling, to create the home for the blind here in the states. It’s important work, and you mustn’t be bogged down by someone like me.”

Suddenly, her fingers felt cold against his hand. He stood very straight. “Are you saying you want me to go? And not return after?”

“That was your plan, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, but—” But I’ve been coming around to your way of thinking. Your arguments are strong. Your kiss was very persuasive.

“Then I think you should stick to it. It was your instinct, and it’s probably right. I think it is right. You should go and not come back.”

The air washed out of him. What was wrong? What had Sadie said? Criticized him? She might have advised Violet to cut him loose. Reminded her that she could do better.

He let go of her hand. “If that’s what you want.”

“I want a million things at once,” she said in a near whisper. “And most of them are impossible.”