Ivy Secrets (33 page)

As she picked up the phone, Charlie remembered Christmas Eve their sophomore yean The memory was clear: the stocking for Pop, the sapphire and diamond ring stuck inside the toe, the humble gesture of a princess that had saved her family. Charlie took a deep breath and dialed Peter’s number at Harvard.

“I thought I’d never hear your voice again,” Peter said.

Charlie’s hand began to tremble. His voice sounded the same, as though they had spoken only yesterday.

“I …” she started to speak, but was stopped by surprising tears. She had no business calling him. He was probably seeing someone else by now, someone better suited to the Hobart family, someone who would not flee from the pressure of Elizabeth Hobart. Then Charlie thought of Marina again and clutched the receiver more tightly. “I miss you, Peter.”

The silence lasted a moment, vet seemed an eternity. Finally, Peter moaned. “Oh, God, Charlie. I’ve been miserable without you.”

Her tears fell freely.
Yes
, she commanded herself.
Yes, this is right. This is worth taking the risk.

    He drove in from Boston and waited for her at four o’clock, after her last class of the day. They walked in silence to his black Corvette; he opened the passenger door for her
and Charlie got in. She leaned against the leather seat, closed her eyes, and breathed in the scent of the car, Peter’s scent, the scent she had known so well from so many nights together, then so many weekends.

He got into the driver’s seat and closed the door behind him. He reached to put the key in the ignition, then stopped. He turned to Charlie, his soft brown eyes coated with tears. He reached out and she fell into his arms. They held each other and Charlie cried, and cried, and cried.

“I can’t believe what I did to you,” he said quietly. “I am so sorry.”

“No, Peter, it was my fault. I was pushing you. You weren’t ready.”

He pulled away, and gently touched her tears. “I was such a fool. Can you ever forgive me?”

Charlie smiled and nodded, hardly able to believe this was happening. It was everything she wanted, yet it was so hard to believe.

“What are we going to do?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I guess it’s your decision.”

“My decision? How can it be my decision? How can I bring you into a family that’s so … so strange?”

“Strange? What do you mean?” Charlie couldn’t grasp what he was saying. Why was he saying his family was strange?

“We’re not good enough for you, Charlie. Me. My mother. We aren’t good enough for you.”

“What?”

“The only thing that matters to my mother is money. You deserve so much more than that. You deserve so much love.”

“Peter, I love you.”

“And I love you, Charlie. But my mother …”

“She hates me.”

He laughed. “You said that before. You said that that night.”

“It’s true. Maybe she doesn’t hate
me
, but she hates the idea of me. I’m not good enough for her son.”

Peter shook his head. “If that’s what she thinks, she’s got it all wrong. I’m the one who’s not good enough for you. You’re so loving, so wonderful.” He reached over and kissed her slowly, softly. “God, you deserve so much better.”

Charlie was surprised. Did he really feel this way? “You mean, you really don’t care that I’m not rich? Peter, I would never fit with your family.”

“You’re wrong, Charlie. I’ve thought about it a lot these past few months. I think I love you even more because you’re not rich. You come from a wonderful family. Your background is wonderful, and you’re wonderful. Besides, you’re the only girl I know who’s not afraid to be herself.”

“I was afraid when I first met you.”

“That was a long time ago.”

“Before I met you, I waited for my dates at the Quad. I wanted them to think I was rich.”

Peter laughed. “You never did that with me.”

“It was too late. You knew I lived in the same house as Tess.”

He smiled and began kissing her throat.

“Aren’t you afraid I only want you for your money? I’m sure that’s what your mother will think.”

“My mother can think what she likes. She’s not the one asking you to be her wife.”

“Peter,” Charlie asked slowly, “are you sure?”

He pulled back and looked into her eyes. “I’ve never been more sure of anything. Will you?” he asked, “marry me?”

Her mind began to reel. So it would all happen just as she had once dreamed. Charlene O’Brien from a working-class family in Pittsburgh was going to marry the enormously wealthy, world-traveled Peter Hobart.

“Yes,” she cried. “Yes, Peter Hobart, I will marry you.”

    The day before graduation was Ivy Day. Hundreds of alumnae, dressed in white and adorned with colorful ribbons to depict their graduating years, had gathered on the campus and marched in the customary Alumnae Parade. The junior class—wearing sherbet-colored dresses and linked by a chain of laurel leaves that rested upon their shoulders—had escorted the seniors to Seeley Hall for the traditional planting of ivy by the senior class, the class of 1980.

Charlie stood with Marina and Tess, awaiting the ceremony. She held her senior rose tightly and looked around at
the hundreds of faces of other Smith graduates, the Smithies, the loyal family members, of which Charlie was now a part.

She glanced at Tess—somber, probably suffering a private grief that her mother was not among the Smith alumnae here today, that her father would not see her graduate. She glanced at Marina—head held high, wide mouth set stoically, braving the crowd who hopefully would not notice the bulge beneath her flowing tent dress. Charlie was amazed at how controlled she appeared—not at all like a princess with a devastating secret. Marina must have sensed Charlie’s gaze, for without turning her head, she reached over and squeezed Charlie’s hand.

The ivy was planted, the seniors—Charlie, Marina, and Tess included—raised their roses in salute. Cheers swelled and tears fell. Charlie hugged Tess, then Marina. After a slight hesitation, Marina and Tess hugged, too. Charlie smiled. Bygones were bygones. The future was all that mattered now.

“Okay, you two,” she said, “my parents want to take us all out for dinner before the illumination ceremony tonight.” Charlie was pleased that her parents had come for graduation, and she looked forward to sharing with them the evening of candlelit paper-colored lanterns that would glow softly throughout the central campus. She looked forward to sharing it with them, and with the man she loved. “You’ll come for dinner, won’t you?”

“Thanks anyway,” Marina said, “but I think my ‘out in public days’ should be kept to a minimum now.”

Charlie nodded and turned to Tess. “How about you?”

Tess squinted in the harsh sunlight. “Sorry, but I’m spending the evening with Dell. She’s an alum, remember?”

“Why don’t you both join us? My parents would enjoy meeting her, I’m sure.”

Tess shook her head. “Thanks anyway, but she’s going to help me go over plans for the studio. I’ll see you later.”

Charlie watched her disappear into the crowd. “I hope it’s not because she knows Peter will be there.”

Marina took her elbow. “Tess is a survivor. She’ll be fine.”

Charlie nodded slowly but wondered if, indeed, Tess would be fine. Especially once Tess heard about Charlie’s plan—and that she’d been able to get Peter to agree to it.

“Married?” Jack O’Brien said as he set down his glass of Chianti and wiped his brow. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

“Jack,” Charlie’s mother protested, then turned to Charlie and Peter. “It’s wonderful. We’re very happy for you.”

“There’s more,” Charlie said, as she squeezed closer to Peter in the wood booth at Fitzwilly’s restaurant.

“More?” Jack O’Brien asked with a scowl.

“We want to get married here,” Charlie said. “In the Helen Hills Hills Chapel.”

“When?” her mother asked.

“July first.”

“July first?
This
July first? We can’t plan a wedding that fast! Why the rush?”

Her father raised his glass again. “I hope it’s not for the reason I’m thinking.”

“Oh, Daddy,” Charlie said. “No. I’m not pregnant.” She took a deep breath and pressed a hand on Peter’s thigh under the table. “But we are planning to have a family. Soon.”

“Why soon?” her mother asked. “You’re so young. You have your whole lives.…”

Charlie wasn’t sure how to get the words out.

“Maybe I should explain,” Peter said.

Charlie moved her hand up to his arm. “No. They’re my parents. I should explain.” She bit her lip and began. “We’re going to adopt a baby,” she said slowly. “A very special baby.”

“You’re going to adopt a baby?” her mother cried. “Why on earth would you do that?”

Charlie put a finger to her lips. “Please. This must be kept very confidential.” They had decided that only her parents would be told the truth. It was why Charlie had told them to come to graduation alone, not to bring her brothers and sisters. They had decided that no one else would be told that Charlie and Peter were going to adopt Marina’s baby. Let the others think they had been married last fall, or let them think Charlie was pregnant when they married. In the end, all that would matter was that they would raise Marina’s baby as their own. They would give the new prince or princess the Hobart name, and no one else—not even the child—would ever be told the truth.

When Charlie had finished relating their plans, Jack and Connie O’Brien sat openmouthed, speechless.

“We decided it’s the least we could do for Marina,” Charlie added. “After all she’s done for us.”

“But a baby?” her mother asked.

Charlie nodded. “Yes, Mother. Marina’s baby. But as far as anyone else is concerned, it will be our baby. Peter’s and mine.”

Jack looked at Peter. “And you’re willing to go along with this?”

“Even my mother will not know the truth,” Peter said.

Charlie felt a surge of pride.

“Well, then, I guess congratulations really are in order,” Connie O’Brien said.

Jack shook his head. “I don’t like it. These things never work out.”

“That’s what you thought when they shut down the mill,” Charlie said quickly. “You thought you would lose the house. And then a miracle appeared. That miracle was Marina.”

Jack sucked in a long breath and held it. Slowly, he let it out. “You’re right,” he said. “It was two years before I found work again. Without Marina, we would have lost everything.”

Under the table Peter took Charlie’s hand. She looked at him and he smiled. Yes, she thought, everything was going to be fine.

    The next day, Tess sat on the folding chair on the quadrangle green and tuned out the words of the graduation speaker. She gazed off in the direction of the Laura Scales House—the place where her mother had once lived, the place where Tess had so unhappily spent her first days at Smith. She thought it odd now that her mother had never told her which room she had. Perhaps the room hadn’t mattered to Sally Spooner, perhaps those details hadn’t been important to her.
Sometimes
, Tess thought,
I wonder if I ever knew my mother—or my father—at all.
Then a wave of sadness swept over her, as Tess realized she would never see her parents’ faces again, and that lately, when she tried to picture them, even an image couldn’t come to mind. Still, she knew her
parents would be pleased that Tess, at last, had graduated, and that her name, too, would now be included on the prestigious list of Smith alums.

The girls around her stood; mortarboards were tossed into the air. It had happened; it was over. Tess joined the others in applauding their accomplishment, and in cheering for their future. For hers would soon be wonderful, with a family all her own.

“Tess!” she heard Charlie’s voice call out. “Come join us for a picture!”

She made her way through the crowd to Charlie. Charlie’s parents were there, grinning wider than the grads themselves. Marina was there, too, with Nicholas behind her. Next to him stood Peter.

“You want me to break the camera?” Tess called out.

“Stand over here with Marina and me,” Charlie said. “Peter wants to take our picture.”

“The three musketeers,” Peter said, raising his Nikon.

Tess moved to Charlie’s right side; Marina to Charlie’s left.
Charlie
, Tess thought,
is now the rose between two thorns: the wealthy, pregnant princess, and the wealthy, lonely orphan. And in between, the poor little girl from the wrong side of the tracks who won the charming prince.

“Smile,” Peter commanded.

Snap.

“Take two more,” Charlie said, “so we can each have a copy.”

Snap. Snap.

Tess pulled away. “Send it to my new address on Round Hill Road,” she said, trying to sound happy.

“I’m psyched that we’re all moving there tomorrow,” Charlie said. The plans had been arranged: the three of them were to live with Tess until Charlie and Peter married on July first. Then, Marina would stay on until her baby was born.

“I wonder if we will kill each other before it is over,” Marina said.

Charlie leaned close to them both. “Nicholas will make sure we don’t.”

Marina giggled. “His duty will be above and beyond the call—living in the barn.”