Come Pour the Wine (28 page)

“You know how much I’d love that. But maybe you won’t like the house.”

“If you do, I will. Can we see it tomorrow?”

“It’s vacant, so you probably can. I’ll call the agent. And since you’ll be here, stay for dinner. I’ll call in the morning and give you all the information.”

With Nicole bundled up, they drove to Westchester in relative silence. Janet’s discomfort now bordered on guilt.

When they stopped in the driveway, Bill helped Janet out and took Nicole. Kit had been waiting for them. Today she wasn’t one of his favorite people. If she hadn’t gotten into the act …

As glowing as Kit’s description had been, it hadn’t done the house justice. Before entering the rambling, ten-year-old house, Janet stood looking at the magnificent fieldstone facade and the heavy shake roof. When the double oak front doors were opened she found herself standing in a square stone foyer that led to a large octagon-shaped living room. The garden could be seen from every window. There was so little partitioning that one room seemed to flow into the next, giving the house a sense of openness.

They walked through the library, exclaiming over the ebony bookcases on either side of the fireplace, and then down the long loggia separating the main part of the house from the bedrooms. The master suite was enormous, with sliding doors opening to a terrace. There were double marble washbasins in the huge bathroom, two dressing rooms, and an adjacent sitting room. The other four bedrooms were not as large but they were just as bright and airy. But the pièce de resistance was the kitchen. It was Janet’s dream of what a kitchen should be. There were oak cabinets, red brick tile floors, terra-cotta drainboards, built-in stainless steel ovens, a table-top stove with six burners … it was a cook’s joy. Imagine the things she could create. And the laundry had every built-in convenience. It was overwhelming.

They went back to the living room and looked out of the windows. Beyond was the pool. It was early spring and the trees had blossomed into a profusion of delicately colored flowers and the daffodils and iris were altogether a beautiful sight to behold. So far Bill had only wandered about, showing little enthusiasm. Should she hope? What was he thinking? Yes or no …

“You’re sure you want this house,” he asked tonelessly, “or should we keep looking?”

“Not unless you want to …”

“Well, it’s really for you, Janet … A house is a woman’s domain—”

“Oh, Bill, I do adore it, darling—”

“Then it’s yours.”

She looked at Kit, then at Bill and the child in his arms. She thought of how much he had given her … “Thank you, darling, this house means so much to me, but are you sure—?”

“I’m
sure.
” His smile was a little thin, but she felt reassured … she
needed
to … knowing how hard a decision it was to give up Manhattan …

Three weeks later the William McNeils were living in Westchester with only the furniture from Bill’s apartment. It was just enough to furnish the den. The king-sized bed that had seemed so enormous in their apartment looked like a postage stamp in the master bedroom. They agreed that Nicole would sleep with them until the nursery was complete, but even the clutter of things that had crowded them out of their apartment looked lost in the huge bedroom. Janet urged the decorator to
please
have the draperies hung, and they were installed just in the nick of time.

Janet’s mother and Erne arrived to help Janet with the preparations for Bill’s birthday celebration, and Dr. Stevens joined them three days later.

Effie took over the kitchen immediately, and soon the house was permeated with smells so familiar to Janet. Effie baked and decorated Bill’s birthday cake, made her special bean casserole with brown sugar, ham with cloves and pineapple, molded salad, corn muffins and peach cobbler. The only thing that annoyed her was the extra help Janet insisted was necessary for the large gathering they were expecting for Bill’s birthday. “Faddle, they only get in the way.”

The gathering of the clan was on a Sunday. Bill’s family arrived en masse, with all the children. The senior Weisses drove to Westchester with Charles, Carol and their son Brett, now a year old. And of course Kit, Nat and the twins were there.

They spent the afternoon outside, enjoying the clear, warm June day.

Betsy called everyone’s attention to her son Gary, the Olympic candidate from Brookline, as he executed a perfect dive into the pool. Alice kept out of the sun because it caused skin cancer and wrinkles, so she said.

Harriet and Gordon had brought their putters and were out on the lawn practicing. Of all the McNeils, only Violet seemed subdued. As she sat looking at the house her son had bought for Janet, she couldn’t help remembering that Janet had promised to spend the summer with her on Long Island …

Nat and his father played gin rummy while Martha and James Stevens chatted with Mrs. Weiss, agreeing that grandchildren were almost more rewarding than children as they watched Bill showing off his daughter. Children were clearly the focus of everyone’s attention today. Charles and Carol took turns teaching Brett how to swim and Kit was keeping a close eye on the twins, who were into everything.

Janet took snapshots and kept the motion picture camera going. This day would be recorded for Nicole’s grandmothers, aunts and uncles, cousins and best friends….

They ate dinner on the veranda after the younger children were fed and put down for naps, but when the birthday cake came Bill got up, went to the nursery and picked up a sleepy Nicole.

While everyone sang “Happy Birthday” he blew out the candles, took a bit of frosting and touched it to Nicole’s lips. Nicole was duly appreciative, crying for more.

What a day this had been, Janet thought as she snapped a picture. A day that seemed to end too soon.

Bill took Harriet aside as the party began to leave. “I want you and Gordon to take your holiday, go away for a few months … mother’s going to stay with us—”

“You don’t have to do that, Bill. Janet will go nuts with her around every day.”

“It was her idea … and I agreed.”

“We’ll see.”

At first Violet refused when Janet extended the invitation for her to stay the summer. She reminded Janet of what Bill had said, that no house could tolerate more than one mistress, and her feelings had been very hurt at the time.

“I’m sorry about that, mother,” Bill said, taking up the lance for Janet. “But you forget you wanted us to come and
live
with you. This is different.”

“How so?” she answered, pursing her lips.

“This will be a vacation for you.”

“Well, you also said you’d come to my place for the summer.”

He looked up at the ceiling. “Now that we’ve bought the house, there’s no need for your generous offer. And there’s too much work to be done on the house to take off for the summer.”

“Indeed. Well, Janet’s a very lucky young woman. You’ve been a very … giving husband for her.”

Strange, Bill thought, nothing was good enough for her daughters. Their whims were indulged by their husbands. But it was a little different for Janet, even though his mother knew as well as he that he wouldn’t even be talking to her now if Janet hadn’t intervened that day he’d announced his intention to marry.

“You’re very fortunate to have a daughter-in-law like Janet. What am I supposed to do, deny my wife and my child the things I’m capable of giving them?”

“Bill, I simply do not understand why you persist in debating everything I say.”

Oh, for God’s sake. If it weren’t that he knew how badly Harriet needed to get away from mama, he’d call the whole thing off. “I’m sorry, mother. I didn’t mean to do that … Now, have your things ready and I’ll pick you up next Saturday.”

“I don’t know, Bill. How will Betsy and Alice feel about my spending such a long time with you when they’ve asked … and I never like leaving my home …”

They’ll be thrilled to get off the hook, they only asked out of duty, he thought … “I’ll call and explain how much we’d like you to enjoy Nicole. They’ll understand, mother. I guarantee you.”

“And you, Janet?”

Well, finally … “I’m looking forward to it, mother.”

“Well … if you really insist—”

“We do.”

Harriet was indeed grateful that the yoke was being lifted, but she knew Janet was in for a less than tranquil summer….

Her prophecy, unfortunately, more than proved out. Violet found fault with
everything …
the bed was too hard so she sent for her own and had Janet’s stored. The food was too hot, too cold, too soggy, too lumpy. There were never enough towels in her bathroom and the air conditioning gave her a
dreadful
headache and dried up her sinuses. She couldn’t understand feeding a baby canned vegetables … “In my time it would have been unthought of …”

The instant Nicole cried she picked her up and rocked her (like mother like son?), which caused Nicole to expect to be held every time she let out a whimper. “There, there, grandmother’s little darling …”

In the evening she monopolized Bill’s time with her reminiscences. “Oh, yes, things were so different then. I remember when …”

Bill tuned her out. Or tried. Janet had less luck … with her all day long.

She also chastised the housekeeper, Sarah, for not cleaning under the sofa and in the
corners …
Sarah finally told Janet, “I’m sorry, Mrs. McNeil, but I’ve taken as much as I intend to.”

Janet was approaching that point too. But she couldn’t walk away as Sarah could, nor did she want to complain to Bill and increase his obvious irritation with his mother. All she could do was keep her frustration to herself and pray for the summer to be over.

By the time September came, Janet had lost ten pounds and Bill was in a knot. Harriet had never been so welcome as when she returned from her holiday to pick up Violet and go back to the house on Long Island.

The moment Violet said good-by, Bill shut the front door and leaned hard against it. Silence, peace, as though a presence had been exorcized, the house depossessed.

Even Sarah came back.

Months slipped away. Once again the landscape changed. It was autumn. The falling leaves of red and gold covered the earth. The air was crisp with the season’s change.

And then it was time to go to Violet’s home for Thanksgiving. For the first time in Bill’s life he knew what Thanksgiving meant. It was impossible to believe that only a little over two years ago he had sat here in this selfsame place, pining away for Janet and not even fantasizing that a Nicole McNeil might ever exist. How much had happened in that short span of time … It was, indeed, a rhetorical point.

In December the McNeils shopped together for gifts, the lists becoming longer and longer …

Alice’s son Gerald had married a girl from Ann Arbor, Michigan. And Betsy’s daughter was announcing her engagement on Christmas Day. Betsy was annoyed with brother Bill and sister-in-law Janet when they told her they’d have to miss this momentous announcement, but by this time Bill was a bit weary of his family. He was taking Janet and Nicole to Kansas for the Christmas holiday.

A fir tree laden with ornaments and tinsel stood in the corner of the large living room, just as it had for Christmas at the Stevenses for as long as Janet could remember. Ten-month-old Nicole sat in her father’s lap on the carpeted floor and looked dazzled by the ornaments and blinking lights.

Her white organdy dress made her round cheeks glow. Her eyes were the color of blue star sapphires and her hair, just enough now to be tied up with a thin red velvet ribbon, promised to be the same color as Janet’s. She jabbered inarticulate things to her father, waving her hands and kicking her legs excitedly.

Janet snuck up and took a picture, then joined them on the sofa. Taking Bill’s free arm, she snuggled close to him. “Do you know, two Christmases ago I cried an ocean of tears because I missed you so. Then last Christmas I had you. And look what I have
this
Christmas.”

“Funny, I was thinking the same thing this morning.”

By two o’clock on the day before Christmas the house was filled with family and friends. Presents lay heavily stacked under the tree. It was a time for eggnog and mulled wine, for a lavish dinner of orange duck, mince pies and hard sauce, chestnut dressing and plum pudding. A time for Christmas carols, and a time for love.

The whole week passed in such simple pleasures, and then it was New Year’s.

Cheers and laughter, kisses and tears, a new year of promises was welcomed in, a year that could hardly surpass the previous one but that held every sign of being a very good one indeed for the William McNeils.

Except signs could be deceptive—as the ancient gods had taught even the rulers of the earth.

W
HEN THEY RETURNED FROM
Kansas on January 3rd, Harriet called.

“Bill, mother’s rather ill.”

Bill couldn’t quite take it in. He’d spoken to Violet at Christmas and early on New Year’s Eve. She’d sneezed a bit and coughed slightly, but when he’d questioned her she assured him it was a simple cold.

Yet Harriet’s voice sounded strangely ominous. “Don’t you think I should have been told, Harriet?”

“I didn’t want to spoil your holiday … she’s been taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital—”

“How long has she been there?”

“Since yesterday.”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Well, as you know, she had a cold during the holidays and it seems to have worsened. This morning the doctor found she has a little fluid in her right lung. We’re all at the hospital—”

All …
the whole family? “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He hung up, unable to control his trembling hands.

Janet looked at him. His face was colorless.

“What’s wrong, Bill?”

“My mother’s in the hospital. I’m going into the city. Chances are I’ll stay.”

“I’m going with you.”

“What about Nicole?”

“She can go to Kit’s. I’ll send her over with Sarah.”

While Bill packed his suitcase Janet called Kit. She was terribly sorry to hear the news, and of course Nicole could stay as long as need be.