Allan wanted to show Eddie his idea for the squash court in the barn. Since Ruth had given up the game, Allan had a plan to convert the court into either an office for himself or an office for Ruth. That way, one of them could work in the house—in Ted’s former workroom— and the other could work in the barn.
Ruth was disappointed that she didn’t get to go off with Eddie alone, because she could have talked all day to him about her mother. (Eddie had brought with him Alice Somerset’s other two novels.) But with Eddie and Allan in the barn, Ruth was left alone with Hannah.
“You know what I’m going to ask you, baby,” Hannah told her friend. Of course Ruth knew.
“Ask away, Hannah.”
“Have you had sex yet? I mean with Allan,” Hannah said.
“Yes, I have,” Ruth replied. She felt the good whiskey warming her mouth, her throat, her stomach. She wondered when she would stop missing her father, or if she would stop missing him.
“And?” Hannah asked.
“Allan has the biggest cock I’ve ever seen,” Ruth said.
“I didn’t think you liked big schlongs, or is it someone else who said that?” Hannah asked.
“It’s not too big,” Ruth said. “It’s just the right size for me.”
“So you’re fine? And you’re getting married? You’re gonna try to have a kid? The whole deal, right?” Hannah asked her.
“I’m fine, yes,” Ruth replied. “The whole deal, yes.”
“But what happened ?” Hannah asked her.
“What do you mean, Hannah?”
“I mean, you’re so calm—something must have happened, ” Hannah said.
“Well. My best friend fucked my father, then my father killed himself, and I found out that my mother is a journeyman sort of writer— is that what you mean?”
“All right, all right—I deserve that,” Hannah said. “But what happened to you ? You’re different . Something happened to you.”
“I’ve had my last bad boyfriend, if that’s what you mean,” Ruth replied.
“Okay, okay. Keep it to yourself,” Hannah said. “ Something happened. But I don’t care. Go on and keep it to yourself.”
Ruth poured her friend a little more of the single-malt Scotch whiskey. “This is good, isn’t it?” Ruth asked.
“You’re a weird one,” Hannah told her. It struck a chord. It was what Rooie had told Ruth the first time Ruth refused to stand in the wardrobe closet among the shoes.
“Nothing happened, Hannah,” Ruth lied. “Don’t people simply come to a point when they want their lives to change, when they want a new life?”
“Yeah . . . I wouldn’t know,” Hannah answered. “Maybe they do. But only because something happens to them.”
Ruth’s First Wedding
Allan Albright and Ruth Cole were married over the long Thanksgiving weekend, which they spent at Ruth’s house in Vermont. Hannah, together with a bad boyfriend, was a weekend-long houseguest, as was Eddie O’Hare, who gave the bride away. (Hannah was Ruth’s maid of honor.) With Minty’s help, Eddie had identified that George Eliot passage about marriage—Ruth wanted Hannah to read it at her wedding. Of course Minty couldn’t resist a small lecture upon his success in locating the passage.
“You see, Edward,” Minty informed his son, “a passage of this kind, which is a summation—both in its content and in its tone—is certain to be an opening passage to a chapter or, more likely, a concluding passage. And as it suggests some deeper finality, it is more likely a passage to be found near the end of a book than it is to be found near the beginning.”
“I see,” Eddie said. “What book is it from?”
“The hint of irony gives it away,” Minty intoned. “That, and its bittersweet quality. It’s like a pastoral, but more than a pastoral.”
“Which novel is it, Dad?” Eddie begged his father.
“Why, it’s Adam Bede, Edward,” the old English teacher told his son. “And it’s well suited for your friend’s wedding, which is a November wedding, the same month Adam Bede himself was married to Dinah— ‘on a rimy morning in parting November,’ ” Minty quoted from memory. “That’s from the first sentence of the last chapter, not counting the Epilogue,” the old English teacher added.