Suddenly she realized Lucy and Daisy were not chattering as they usually did after school. They behaved more like they had on first meeting Angie, shyly and awkwardly. Curious, she examined their faces and discovered they had both twisted in their seats to stare up at her. Nothing in their expressions revealed what they might be thinking, but their eyes spoke volumes.
“Oh my, look at the time.” If Angie was mistaken in her quick assumption, they would correct her. “You have five minutes to get to Mrs. Hooten’s for your next fitting.”
Immediately the girls dabbed napkins at their lips then slid from their chairs. “We’re getting new dresses, Gramma.”
Lucy nodded. “Angie bought us new hats, gloves, and bags, too. We’re getting everything new.”
“That’s an expensive undertaking,” Winnie observed, lifting an eyebrow. She waved the comment aside for one of more importance. “I think you can postpone your fittings. I don’t see you often. I’d like you to stay.”
“We can’t.” Lucy’s posture reflected regret. She looked as if she genuinely longed to stay, even though Angie knew Lucy was perfectly aware the fitting wasn’t scheduled until tomorrow afternoon. Sam was right. That girl should grow up to be an actress. “Angie says shop people work hard and are entitled to respect. It wouldn’t be respectful to ignore our appointment with Mrs. Hooten.”
Angie pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. She didn’t recall saying any such thing. But it was just barely possible that she had. Certainly she agreed with the sentiment. But then, how could she object to Lucy’s lie—if it was a lie—when she had just reminded the girls of an appointment that three of the four people present knew did not exist?
This incident served further depressing evidence of how ill-suited she was for motherhood. She hadn’t the knack for setting a good example.
“I expect you home for supper at the usual time,” she said before the girls threw her a hasty look of gratitude and ran out the back door. Leaving her alone with Winnie Govenor.
And she wasn’t making the best impression, she realized, skimming a glance over the laundry tubs she’d left on the kitchen floor. The water in the wash and rinse tubs had gone cold, flat, and gray. A pair of Sam’s long underwear floated in the bluing tub. The burned jacket that had sent her flying off to see Sam lay beside the sink beneath Lucy and Daisy’s lunch buckets. Her apron was still hanging over the pump handle where she’d carelessly tossed it. Breakfast dishes filled the drying rack; she hadn’t taken the time to put them away. Even with the back door open to the sunshine and air, the house smelled of beans and ham.
Well, she wouldn’t apologize. She hadn’t invited Mrs. Govenor to come calling on wash day.
“Perhaps it’s just as well that my granddaughters ran off,” Mrs. Govenor said. She frowned at the teacup she jiggled against the saucer, but Angie suspected she didn’t really see it. “I have some things to say to you.”
Angie removed her hat and cape and placed them with her gloves on the seat Lucy had vacated. A cup of tea would have suited her, perhaps calmed her nerves, but she’d be switched before she sipped tea out of a thick coffee cup while the mother of her rival sipped from the only teacup in the house.
She couldn’t think of a single word to say to the woman who was trying to take her husband’s children away from him.
“I want you to know that my husband and I were horrified when our daughter took up housekeeping with Sam Holland. I assure you, she wasn’t raised to be a trollop or to steal another woman’s husband. I can’t explain her shocking behavior and I heartily condemn it. You have my deepest apologies for the grievous wrong my daughter inflicted on you.”
Angie blinked. She hadn’t expected such blunt talk, would have supposed that Mrs. Govenor would tactfully avoid a subject as delicate and scandalous as her daughter’s relationship with Sam. Obviously the words cost Mrs. Govenor dearly. This woman detested being placed in a position where an apology was necessary. Yet she’d done the right thing as she believed it to be. She had made the apology.
Angie decided she could be equally generous. “Your daughter wasn’t entirely to blame.”
Mrs. Govenor’s head snapped up and fire blazed behind those fine gray eyes. “We are well aware who was to blame, don’t doubt that for a minute. But we can’t ignore the fact that Laura was too weak-willed and lacking in moral character to do what she knew was right. She allowed herself to be seduced into an adulterous liaison, and now, with your arrival, her sin is exposed! If it were only Laura paying for her lack of moral fiber, one could say she has reaped what she sowed. But a public stain has now blackened the Govenor name.”