Nancy’s Theory of Style (27 page)

Nancy
laughed and jumped back. “Not now! Eugenia
might come in.”

“As always, you are right, Mrs.
Carrington-Chambers.”

“It’s silly, isn’t it, how Eugenia
thinks we can all live together.”

“Children live in a fantasy world where
anything is possible.”

“Fortunately, we can be realistic about
this. I don’t want it, us, to interfere with Froth and business.”

“Of course not. But as it is my day
off…” He gave her a long, lingering kiss before saying, “Good day, Mrs.
Carrington-Chambers.”

“Bye, Derek.”

He got his things from the bedroom, and
then she heard him saying bye to Eugenia and leaving.

She felt as if she was in a dream world,
so she didn’t mind lingering at the park with Eugenia. Since she’d been playing
outdoors so much, the girl’s hair had taken on amber tones that shone in the
sunlight and her complexion had become rosier. Later, as promised, they made
another cape. Eugenia picked out a pink and purple daisy print, big brass nautical
buttons, and silver lamé for an appliqué.

“That sounds a bit much,”
Nancy
said as she
smoothed the fabric out on her sewing table.

“I want it like that!”

Nancy
noticed a more strident tone in her
ward’s voice. Eugenia’s leaf-brown eyes shone and her little pink lips were
firmly set.

“I seriously question this decision, but
I believe you must be allowed to follow your own creative muse. Don’t come
crying to me if you are mocked in the school yard.”

“Auntie Nanny, when do I go to school?”

“Your mother will decide. I loved school.
I was a delightful kindergartener. I always colored neatly within the lines and
knew the name of every crayon color in the big box. Carnation and Prussian Blue
were my favorites.”

“Do you have crayons?”

“We’ll get some and I’ll teach you the
names of all the colors.”

“I need to color the stories I made with
Derek.”

“Where are the stories?”

“I’ll get them.” Eugenia skipped out of
the room and came back with a manila folder. There was a drawing of a ship on
the high seas and ornate lettering that said The Adventures of Pirate Girl. “We
made the story but I need to color the pic-tures.”

Nancy
opened the folder and saw several
sheets of paper with a cartoon version of Eugenia as a pirate. Dialogue
balloons boldly announced explosions and exclamations as the heroine faced a
sea of sharks, battled enemies, and steered her ship in a storm.

“I told Derek what to draw,” Eugenia
said. “He’s going to make a book for me.”

“This is a terrific story, Eugenia. I
didn’t know Derek could draw like this.” There was still so much
Nancy
didn’t know about
him, so she didn’t understand why she trusted him so instinctively.

“He showed me how to draw a shark with
big teeth.” Eugenia sat on the floor with a pen and began adding to Derek’s
illustrations.

“Eugenia, you better not get ink on my
rug.”

“Huh!”

“And don’t you ‘huh’ me, little girl.”

 
As
Nancy
made a cape pattern and cut out the cloth, she realized that her evening out
with Bailey dimmed after her experience with Derek. Sex with Todd or anyone
else had never been as good. Perhaps gay men were more attuned and sensitive. It
was a pity they weren’t interested in women, because they had so much more to
offer a girl than any of the straight men she knew.

Nancy
felt a desperate need to talk to
someone about what had happened. Milagro could keep a secret and was sort of
wild, so she wouldn’t judge.

Nancy
phoned her friend and arranged for her
to come for dinner on Wednesday. “Come at five, because I want you to meet my
fabulous assistant,”
Nancy
said.

“Will you feed me something besides
expensive water and cocktail olives, or should I bring something?”

“My kitchen is a Copacabana of gourmet
foods,”
Nancy
said as she opened the cupboard to make sure she had a box of organic mac and
cheese. “Bring a large box of crayons. My niece, Eugenia, is still here. Her
twin passions are pirates and cows.”

“Cows are overrated, but I love
pirates.”

“It is a universal dream to dress like a
pirate,”
Nancy
said.

“Truer words were ne’er said. Crayons,
it is, but I’m going to throw away the Flesh one. No human being has ever been
that color and it skips badly when you try to use it.”

“You’re thinking of Sienna which is
flawed in some unfixable way, possibly at the molecular level. See you
Wednesday.”

While Eugenia was splashing in her bath
that night,
Nancy
sat on a low stool. Water glistened on the child’s smooth skin, and her wet
hair clung darkly to her scalp. Her nose wasn’t bad. It was a Carrington nose.

“Can I get a pirate ship, Aunty Nanny?”

“It won’t fit in the bathtub. Pirate
ships are huge.”

“Not a real one!” Eugenia giggled. “A
toy one.”

“Wouldn’t you rather have dolls? We
could make pretty dresses for them.”

“No.”

“But all little girls like dolls.”

“I’m a pirate. I like pirate toys, like
swords. Can I have a sword?”

“When you’re old enough. You could take
up fencing. It’s like sword fighting and the fabulous costumes inspired a whole
line by Jean Paul Gaultier.”

“Okay. I want a shiny sword.”

Even though
Nancy
was reminiscing over her hours with
Derek, she noticed that Bailey didn’t call. That’s how it was with straight men
– they always had a strategy. But Bailey probably hadn’t pursued anyone who’d
absorbed Sun Tzu’s many tactical lessons.

The next day
Nancy
wore a deep violet blouse with a short
gray skirt, charcoal tights, and brown riding boots so she could show off her
legs. Not that she had to dress to impress Derek.

He came in wearing his business casual,
jeans, a button-down shirt, and a blazer.
Nancy
would have been happy spending the day looking at him.

Eugenia came from the kitchen and threw
herself at him. “Derek!”

He laughed and lifted her up in a hug. “Good
morning, Eugenia. Are you happy to see me?”

“Yes! We made a new cape and Aunty Nanny
is going to teach me crayon colors and I’m going to color our stories!”

“That sounds very exciting. You can show
them to me later.” He swung Eugenia around before putting her down.

 
“Hi,”
Nancy
said. “I love that shirt on you.”

“Thank you. Would you like your
cappuccino now, Mrs. Carrington-Chambers?”

“I’ll come to the kitchen with you.” Turning
to Eugenia who was looking at a picture book about Blackbeard, she said, “I’ll
call you when your breakfast is ready.”

Nancy
followed Derek down the hall and said,
“I’ll fix her a dish of fruit and yoghurt.” In the kitchen he went to the
refrigerator, took out the milk and handed
Nancy
a container of vanilla yoghurt.

While he measured coffee beans into the
burr grinder, she spooned the yoghurt into a dish and sliced strawberries into
it. “We’re so efficient together,” she said.

“Like a well-oiled machine,” he said
with a wink.

“Are you talking dirty to me?”

He picked up one of the strawberries and
held it up to her mouth, saying, “Would you like me to?”

She ate the strawberry and felt her
cheeks grow warm. “I didn’t know you could draw so well. I love the ‘Adventures
of Pirate Girl.’”

“American comic books were one of my
boyhood obsessions.”

“What were your other obsessions?”

“What were yours?”

He was standing only a few inches from
her and she realized that it might not be easy to keep work and platonic sex
separate. Then the intercom buzzed.

“Maybe it’s Birdie,” she said and they
looked at each other, neither needing to say what they were thinking about the
girl going back to her mother.

Nancy
went to the intercom by the front door
and said, “Yes?”

“Delivery for Nancy Carrington.”

“I’ll come down,”
Nancy
said. She turned toward the kitchen and
called out to Derek, “It’s a delivery! Deliveries are always good.” Maybe
Bailey was sending flowers.
Nancy
took the steps down quickly and opened the Chateau’s front door to a man in a
brown uniform with a very large flat parcel wrapped in brown paper.

“Morning. I need a signature.”

Nancy
signed for the package, thanked the
delivery man, and carried it upstairs to her apartment to examine it. It was
light for its size and the package had customs labels in another language.
Nancy
had an unpleasant
sense of foreboding as she walked into her apartment.

“Open it! Open it!” Eugenia said,
dancing around. “Is it a birthday present?”

“No, it’s not my birthday.”
Nancy
put the parcel on
her writing table and cut through the wrapping with scissors.
Nancy
tried not to panic when she saw the Greek
lettering on the layers of newspaper held with twine to the flat object inside.
She snipped the twine and began to remove the newspapers.

Derek came into the room just as
Nancy
took off the final
layer of papers.

It was a painting of a beautiful naked
woman on a balcony. She was leaning back against a white balustrade and in the
background was a cobalt blue ocean.

Eugenia said, “Mama!”

Nancy
turned the painting over and found a
thin sheet of notepaper taped to the wood frame. “It’s from Birdie. She’s in
Greece
.”

“Read it!” Eugenia said excitedly.

Nancy
skimmed the letter first and then said,
“Your mama says, ‘Dear Nanny, I was so busy that I didn’t have a chance to call
you before my flight. Give all my love to Eugenia. I know she is having a
wonderful time with you. Kisses.’”

Eugenia reached out to touch the frame. “Put
Mama on the wall.”

“I’ll have to find the right place for
her.”
Nancy
looked at the painting and had to admit it was well done. She saw a scrawl in
the corner that she guessed was Yannis’s signature. “Time for your breakfast,
Eugenia. Come to the table.”

When the child was eating her food,
Nancy
called Derek into
the hallway.

“Yes, Madame?”

She was still holding the note. “That
isn’t all Birdie said. ‘Take care of my angel. Yannis and I will be exploring
the world’s wonders and the wonders of each other’s bodies.’ Ewh. She always
gives too much information.”

“The painting looks well executed.”

“When you sex up enough artists you
occasionally find one with talent.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I can’t have Eugenia spending her days
drawing until Birdie trades in Yannis for the next creep waiting to explore her
well-charted geography.”

“Now may be the time to engage a nanny.”

“Then there would be another person
cluttering up the apartment. Sloane may know where we can park Eugenia during
the day. Uhm, somewhere educational and enlightening.”

So
Nancy
called Sloane, who was eager to help. “I’ll look into it right away. Do you
have any preferences? There are co-op preschools, Montessori, Walden,
language-intensive, art based, and---”

“I’d like some place where Eugenia will
learn manners, good posture, and how to color. Where she can play outside. A
pirate-themed facility would be ideal, particularly if they have a pet cow.”

“I don’t know if there are any—”

“Wonderful! Call me back!”
Nancy
hung up, glad to
have delegated the task to someone who cared about the minutia of
child-rearing.

Nancy
called her Aunt Frilly and told her
about Birdie’s gift and letter. “Aunt Frilly, it might be weeks before she
returns. Are you having any luck convincing Uncle Robert to take Eugenia in?”