A Collar and Tie (Ganymede Quartet Book 4) (54 page)

“It’ll be nice,” Henry agreed. “Come on. I’ll show you the
ballroom.”

Henry didn’t remember what color the reception room had been
before, but it was now pink and yellow with wallpaper featuring gilded birds,
and the sitting room was done up in the same pink. The ballroom remained canary
yellow, just as Henry had wanted, but now that he saw it sandwiched in between
the redecorated rooms, he thought perhaps he should have let Mother update the
wallpaper after all.

“Why is it so—?” Jesse began, gazing around in slight
confusion.

“It was my idea,” Henry admitted, blushing. “I didn’t want
it redecorated. I wanted her to leave it alone because I was feeling
sentimental.”

“About what?”

“I saw a ball here when I was little. That was the last time
I saw Reggie before he left for Italy. I wanted to have my party in the same
ballroom, everything the same.”

“That
is
sentimental,” Jesse remarked, rolling his
eyes and laughing. “Well, it’s very pretty with all the mirrors. It’s just
old-fashioned, that’s all.”

Henry recalled Jesse at Reggie’s going-away party,
immediately losing interest when Reggie claimed he was planning to redecorate
Henry’s room. “Do you actually care about decorations, though?”

“Not really,” Jesse admitted. “But you wouldn’t believe how
curious I’ve been about this house, Henry! Boys at school knew I was related to
your family, and they’d ask me what the house was like inside, and I hated
having to tell them I didn’t know.”

Henry had never imagined that anyone wondered about his
house at all, though it was notably large and he supposed that might make
people curious, especially if they were inquisitive boys who went by it going
to and from school each day.

“I used to tell whopping great lies about your house,
actually, when I was littler. I told everyone you had a bowling alley in the
basement, and a swimming pool. I said that airships landed in your garden. I
said there was a mad scientist’s laboratory in the attic.”

Henry supposed it was plausible that an airship could land
in the extensive gardens adjacent to the house, a feature of the property
maintained by Pat the gardener entirely to his own tastes, as none of the
Blackwells had any preferences in greenery or flowers. “A mad scientist, eh?”

“Something like Frankenstein,” Jesse explained.

“You really do think it looks like a forbidding castle,”
Henry said, laughing. “Well, I’m sorry to disappoint, but we don’t have any of
those things. It’s pretty boring, actually. It’s just really big.”

“Show me the rest anyway,” Jesse urged. “Show me how boring
it all is.”

Henry was a little reluctant to go inside Father’s
study—site of both lectures and his own shameful thieving—but he resolved not
to show his discomfort and ushered Jesse and the slaves within.

“Wow. This is…manly,” Jesse said. “Lots of cigar-smoking
happening in here, that’s plain enough.”

“It stinks,” Henry said by way of agreement. “Mother’s not
allowed to change this room. It’s purely Father’s domain.”

Henry showed them the library with its rolling ladders and
book stands supporting rare volumes. He showed them the glassed-in conservatory
that contained only a lone palm in a huge tub. They walked through a long empty
room with skylights that reminded him of the picture galleries at the museum,
and he supposed that might be what it was. He opened doors onto
sparsely-furnished rooms he thought possible he’d never seen before.

“I think that’s it for this floor,” Henry said, leading them
back to the front hall. “Did you want to see the upstairs still?”

“Of course,” Jesse assured him. He turned to Russ and said,
“This is interesting, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Sir,” Russ said. “I’ve always wondered about this
house, too.”

“I imagine Martin’s quite used to it by now,” Jesse said,
smiling at Martin. “Was it a shock to find you’d be living in such a big
house?”

“I was a little in awe at first, Sir,” Martin admitted
shyly, giving Jesse a warm smile. “But, in truth, the Blackwells only use a
small part of the house, so it’s not too overwhelming.”

The second floor went more quickly than the first, if only
because the rooms were mostly boring bedrooms, furnished without any particular
character or style. Henry’s own room was remarkable only for being larger than
most. Mother’s and Father’s rooms were larger still, with dressing rooms
attached. The family parlor, where they spent nearly every evening, seemed to
impress Jesse mostly with its lack of character.

“There’s no real sense of your family here,” Jesse noted. “I
hope you don’t mind me saying so, but it’s a little impersonal. The whole
house, really, though the new rooms are better.”

“I don’t think we’re much of a family, though,” Henry confessed.
“My parents don’t get along—even with Mother doing so much better, they still
don’t like one another very much.”

“They care about you, though,” Jesse said. “You and Cora.”

“I didn’t used to think so,” Henry admitted, “but you might
be right. There are things about me that I thought would be problems for them
that…really aren’t, I guess.”

Upon first returning from the Calamus, Henry had been so
busy thinking about how humiliated and hurt he was, that he hadn’t quite
understood at first that all his fears had been for naught. Martin hadn’t been
sent away. He hadn’t been cast out or disowned. Louis had promised he wouldn’t
tell, and he hadn’t. His mother was so fond of her queer brother that it was
very possible she might even enjoy having a queer son. He had felt so certain
of being persecuted, and there
were
people in his life who might harass
him if they knew his secrets, but, really, everything was fine. It was
embarrassing how he had overreacted.

“Well, that’s good,” Jesse said. “Say, speaking of Cora,
where’s she at?”

“Oh, the nursery is up on the third floor. I don’t know if
she and Nurse will be in or not, but we can go try to say hello.”

In addition to the nursery, many of the slaves had their
quarters on the third floor. As they passed the numerous doors, all painted
glossy black, Jesse asked, “So how many slaves do you have, anyway?”

Henry knew it was a great many, but he wasn’t certain.
“Martin? You know, don’t you? It’s more than twenty.”

“Twenty-seven, Sir,” Martin said. “Of course, the stable
slaves live with the horses, and the kitchen slaves live downstairs, and the
gardener has his own little house, but the rest live up here, Sir.”

“Except for companions,” Jesse pointed out.

“Except for companions, yes, Sir.”

They came to a halt in front of the nursery door and Martin
knocked.

“Nurse, someone’s here!” Cora called, her voice full of
giddy excitement.

Nurse opened the door and took a startled step back.
“Goodness! Sir! Mr. Wilton! Welcome, boys! Please come in!” She ushered them
inside with a happy smile.

Cora hurried to greet them. “Hello Martin, hello Henry,
hello Jesse, and hello…?”

“It’s Russ, Miss,” he told her, smiling. “At your service.”

“I was going to guess that,” Cora said. She stood before
Henry and reached for his hand, which he gave to her. “Martin, come here,” she
said, holding out her hand expectantly. Martin took it. “I have bad news,” she
said, pausing dramatically. “Baby Ann has
died
.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that, Miss,” Martin said, sounding
so sincere.

“My condolences,” Henry told her.

“Baby Ann?” Jesse said, confused.

“Her doll, Sir,” Nurse explained.

“She died on Sunday. We tried to cremate her, but her head
wouldn’t burn.”

Henry noted that Jesse’s eyebrows went up at this, and was
amused that anything would shock his cousin.

“What will you do with her head, Miss?” Martin asked.

“Pat will make me a grave in the garden and I’ll bury it.
Nurse, do you think Pat dug the grave yet?”

“I don’t know, Miss. I’ll find out. I know you want to give
her a proper burial.”

“Were you sad, Miss?” Martin patted her hand.

“I cried and cried,” Cora said blithely. “I was
so
sad. But Celery’s the princess now. Life goes on, isn’t that right, Nurse?”

“Yes, Miss. That’s a good attitude to have.”

“Celery?” Jesse asked.

“Another of her dolls, Sir,” Nurse said.

“Her dolls have unusual names,” Henry told him. “She always
makes me be one called Brindle.”

“Brindle? Really?” Jesse seemed baffled.

“Jesse, Jesse, come see my circus.” Cora let go of Henry and
Martin both so she could take hold of Jesse’s hand and drag him deeper into the
room. Russ trailed loyally after his master, and Henry and Martin followed
along.

Jesse loved the circus, and he loved the dollhouse, and he
laughed heartily at Dollhouse Cora watching the boy dolls from her bedside
chair. He was introduced to the big dolls: Brindle and Celery and Minnow and
some others Henry wasn’t familiar with. Cora showed them the blackened pieces
of Baby Ann’s head jumbled together in a cigar box and they all made
sympathetic noises again.

Jesse turned to Russ and said, “I hope we have girls when we
grow up. I want to have a dollhouse,” and the closeness and affection implied
by that ‘we’ made Henry ache for his former intimacy with Martin. The only
reason he had been willing to consider having children someday was because he
knew Martin wanted them, but was that even true now? Would Martin care about
Henry’s children anymore?

Nurse put a hand on Henry’s arm. “Sir, I’m sorry to say, but
Little Miss has an engagement.”

Henry tried to shake off his melancholy. “Oh, is that so?”

“She’s meeting some of her little friends at the menagerie,
Sir, and we’ll have to get ready.”

“Well, we’ll clear out. We just wanted to say hello.”

“I’m glad you did, Sir. As you can see, it’s made Little
Miss very happy.”

Cora hugged everyone, including Jesse and Russ, goodbye.
When Henry put his arms around her, she seemed feverish and squirmy and she
huffed her hot breath on his neck. He watched her hug Martin, leaning her whole
body against his and tightening her arms around his neck. It couldn’t be
comfortable for Martin, but he put up with it, and even seemed to enjoy it.
Martin was so generous with Cora, and Henry envied her his indulgence.

They made their way down to Henry’s room, and Henry began to
feel a heavy apprehension, a hint of dread. He expected Jesse would want to
talk now, and he had no idea what he might say, whether it be in response to
Jesse’s questions or simply things he blurted out. With the door shut behind
them, he felt suddenly shy, and he stood with his hand on the back of an
armchair, staying closer to the door than not.

Jesse went and flopped down across Henry’s bed, as Henry had
rather expected he would. “So! I’ve been dying to know why you ran away, Henry.
Your parents called our house looking for you, you know.”

Henry flushed and cleared his throat. “No, I didn’t know.”
Of course they would have, though.

Jesse propped himself up on his elbows. “My parents had all
sorts of questions for me about where you might go, but I had no idea. Someone
called when you were found—I think your father’s Timothy—but no one said what
happened. You’ll tell me, won’t you?”

Henry gave another little cough and felt his face grow a few
degrees hotter. “I…I can’t tell you with Martin here. With the slaves here.
They’ll have to leave.” How embarrassing to say so, but he really couldn’t bear
to talk with Martin anywhere nearby.

Jesse blinked, surprised. “Well, all right, I suppose. Where
should they go? Martin’s room…?”

“No, not there.” He addressed Martin without meeting his
eyes. “Martin, take Russ down to the kitchen for a bit.”

Martin was pale and nervous. “If you’re sure, Sir.”

“Of course I’m sure.” Henry frowned at him. “Go, please.”

Martin led Russ to the door, giving Henry worried glances as
he went. They exited into the hall and Henry locked the door behind them.

“Wow, you really don’t want him in here!” Jesse said with a
surprised laugh.

“Jesse, I’m not going to be able to talk about this at all
if you’re going to tease me.” Henry crossed the room and sat on the edge of the
bed.

“I’m not teasing, I promise. I’m just a little shocked. You
were so close with him last time I saw you. What happened?” Jesse pushed
himself up to sit at Henry’s side and nudged him with his shoulder. “It’s not
what I expected, is all.”

“Okay, let me tell it from the beginning.” Henry took a deep
breath and collected himself, looking down at his hands in his lap. “Something
happened at the ball. I was…indiscreet. I was seen doing something I shouldn’t
have been doing.”

“With a girl?”

Henry scoffed at this. “No.”

“Oh.”

Henry swallowed hard. “With Martin.” He could feel Jesse
looking at him intently, but was unwilling to meet his gaze.

Jesse put his hand on Henry’s arm. “Don’t take this wrong,
Henry, but I guessed this about you already.”

Henry gave a short, rueful laugh. “Am I that obvious?”

“No, not at all. But we’re alike in that way, aren’t we? You
knew that about me, too, right?”

Henry shrugged. “I guess so. I wasn’t entirely sure.”

“I dropped a lot of hints,” Jesse pointed out.

“It seems like you don’t care if you get found out, though,”
Henry said. “At
my
school, being accused of being a fairy is a real
problem. I’d have no friends if people found out what I’ve done. And besides,
I’m not like you, Jesse. Maybe you’re not
normal
, but you’re more normal
than I
am
.
You have Elizabeth, and you’ll probably marry her, and
if not her, then you’ll marry some other girl you desire, and I won’t have
that.”

“But you’ll get married,” Jesse said, confused.