Lila nodded and puffed again on her cigar. “It’s not your fault, you know. You couldn’t have known that Madeline and Lizette would…”
“Die? My mother warned me something like that could happen. She said I needed to stay, that spares were important. She didn’t sell me my mark out of the goodness of her heart, Lila. I blackmailed her for my freedom. It was my decision, and my family will pay for it.”
“It doesn’t mean it’s your fault. Maybe it’s not hers, either.”
Alex laid her cigar on the rest. “What’s going on? Why are you asking about my mother all the sudden?”
“Because she might be ill. Don’t ask me how I found out, Alex, I can’t tell you.”
“I don’t have to. You went to see Simon, didn’t you? I wish I had known. I would have gone with you.”
“I didn’t know I was going, or I would have brought you along. Keep it to yourself, okay?”
Alex nodded, suddenly looking tired. “Look, about Simon. He told me the same thing when I visited last time. Go see her. Time might run out for the pair of you. He’s worried about nothing. He’s made up some story about her, just to cope with his situation. It’s hard on him, harder because he was always her pet.”
“Are you sure it’s all made up? Are you sure it’s nothing?”
Alex shrugged.
“I wish I’d known before. I might have been able to help.”
“It wouldn’t have looked good coming from you and your mother. It would only have made things worse. That’s why I didn’t tell you. You’ve done enough for us already.”
“If you ever did want to say something to her, even if it’s just to tell her to go—”
“I already did that.”
“Well, if you want to reaffirm that or take it back, i
t should be soon, just in case. I’ll take you. Whenever you want to leave, even if it’s in the middle of the night, just say so.”
Alex shook her head quickly. “I’ve said what I wanted to say, and she’s said enough for the both of us. I’m done with her.”
Before Lila could say another word, Alex grabbed her empty dinner tray and pulled open the bedroom door. “Thanks for the cigar, Lila. Dinner’s in ten.”
With that, she slipped through the door and hurried away.
Lila turned back to the window. Johnny and the slave had finished planting the roses. The pair piled up the plastic pots, hefted them on their shoulders lazily, and carried them down the sidewalk toward the greenhouse. A laugh rose up between them, carried to her window on the back of the chilly October wind.
They turned a corner and disappeared behind Villanueva House.
Lila rolled out her cigar and dug in her closet, pulling out one of her formal uniforms, not all that much different than her casual one, just shinier and better tailored. She always wore the same thing to dinner with her family. It was a chief’s obligation to her matron.
The secret panel in the back of her closet caught her eye. She locked her bedroom door and closed the window, then pulled out a small chest from the hidden compartment. In it sat Captain Beauregard’s old bridle; Nubbins, her favorite teddy bear, rescued from the incinerator by Chef when the chairwoman deemed Lila too old for such toys; a ribbon from her first fundraiser for the hospital; a program from its opening; and a tattered notebook, filled with furious scribbling and conversations trapped in time. She sat on her rug and opened it to the back page.
I would have given it to you. Just ask next time.
The words had been written in Dixon’s block handwriting. She never understood how he had known that she would take it.
She traced his addendum, a smile coming to her lips. Keep it. I have loads. Bring me something of yours next time. It’s only fair.
She had brought him a purple scarf.
After he’d kissed her, Dixon admitted to following her back to the Randolph estate the year before. Or at least trying. It had taken him six months and a dozen attempts before he managed it successfully, and another four just to glimpse her face.
He’d put so much effort into the job.
She couldn’t help but wonder why.