Raquel's Abel (31 page)

I heard Regina’s footsteps behind me. “I already have one in mind for you.” She grabbed a sparkly champagne dress off the rack. “This color will do wonders for your complexion and your hair.” She pulled the plastic cover off it.

The dress was very plain, with an a-line form and a row of large pearls around the plunging neckline.

I gasped. “For me.”

“Of course for you.” She shook it out so that I could see the long skirt with tiny pleats at the bottom. “You need to show off that slender form of yours.”

I just stared at the dress. I’d always bought things that hid my form rather than showed it off.

“You are going to love it. Just go in there and try it on.”

“I don’t think I can.” I pointed to where my stitches had been. “I don’t want to rip anything.”

“Right.” She walked toward the front door. She turned the lock and hung the “closed” sign. “I’ll help you get it on.”

A few minutes later, Regina pulled the dress over my head and zipped it up in the back. I closed my eyes, afraid it wouldn’t fit.

“Open them, silly, it looks great!”

Slowly I took a peak. It fit. Not only did it fit, but the dress clung loosely to my hips and showed off my narrow waist. I opened my lids all the way and saw how the dress accentuated my bust line. The pearls looked like a big necklace on top of my cleavage.

“I don’t think I need to try on any more.” I looked in the mirror and didn’t recall ever seeing my own smile that wide.

Regina disappeared into the back of the store as I stood in front of the three-way mirror, checking how I looked from every angle.

“I’ve got the perfect veil.” She held a delicate piece of lace in her hand as she came up behind me. “This just came in from Paris,” she said as she placed the tiara-like ring of pearls on my head and arranged the lace around the back of my head.

“It’s beautiful,” I said, tears springing to my eyes. “If only mother…” I caught Regina’s gaze in the mirror.

She wrapped her arms around me. “If only mother were here with us.” I saw her eyes grow glassy, then she wiped them off and stood back. “I have some news though.”

I turned slightly, liking the way the satin felt against my skin, but not liking how stiff I was because I hadn’t healed all the way yet.

“Carter is coming to the wedding with me.”

“Carter?” The last I’d heard, they were still arguing about the divorce.

“He’s been helping me out quite a bit with the dress shop—you know, with the accounting aspects and things like that.”

“That’s wonderful.” I didn’t really have anything against Carter. In fact, I’d liked him in spite of the fact that he’d hurt my sister’s feelings when they split up. “So, you’re..?”

“Well, we certainly are talking a lot—a lot more than we used to talk when we were married.”

I turned my back to her so she could unzip me. “I’d be glad to have Carter at our wedding.” I shot her a smile so she’d know I was truly happy her marriage was going to work out after all.

Chapter Nineteen

Workmen carried two-by-fours toward the wing they were revamping for the kids. A layer of sawdust covered the marble floor in the foyer, and the sound of electric saws permeated all the way through to the kitchen almost a football field away.

Maria Elena wandered around helping out by translating. I knew she was looking forward to helping out in the orphanage, but what her role would be was still undecided.

She walked through the foyer toward the kitchen. Her head was hanging down so low she didn’t even see me.

“Maria Elena, a penny for your thoughts,” I said in the sweetest voice I could find with all of the debris flying around.

“I no seeing you, Señorita.”

“You need to start calling me Raquel.”

Her eyelids fluttered covering her big dark eyes. “Yes, Raquel. You right.” She leaned against the staircase.

“You look so sad. Aren’t you excited about the children coming?”

The ends of her cranberry lips curled up. “Yes, I excited about the children and your wedding.” Her mouth trembled.

“You don’t look excited.” I cocked my head to the side to let her know I wasn’t falling for it.

She splayed her fingers out in front of her then locked both hands together. “I will feel better when the kids here, but now I missing your grandmother.”

I stepped closer to her. “You should call your family back in Ecuador.” Maria Elena had run from something for way too long.

“No. When I needing them most, they betray me.” Her dark lips turned hard.

“Listen.” I touched her arm. “Come sit with me for a minute.” I led her into the living room where it was a little quieter.

She sat down on the couch beside me. “This room remind me of your grandmother too much.”

I nodded slowly, trying to think of what to say to her. “Losing her made me very sad too, but you need to get on with your life.”

She squirmed then shook her head. “You are very lucky you met your ghost.”

I couldn’t help beaming when I thought of him.

“You so in love, Señorita Raquel.”

“Just Raquel. I don’t want the employees of the orphanage to hear you calling me that.”

“Yeah,” she said and looked down at her hands.

“I still think you should call your family. They are probably very worried about you after all these years.”

“No, I write my cousin and she tell them where I am. They no want me.” A tear slid down her cheek that she hastily wiped away. “It no bother me though.”

“Doesn’t bother you?” How could it not bother her?

“Well, I having your grandmother and she make me feel so good. Now the children coming and I having family again.”

“That’s not enough.” She had been a true friend to my grandmother and now I needed to be a friend to her. “You’ve been in this country a long time away from friends and family. You need more than your work.” Before I’d met Abel, I hadn’t had much else.

She looked out the doorway to where the men were working. Some of them talked loud enough to hear them, but they spoke in Spanish so I had no idea what they were saying.

“Sometimes I think of the father of my baby.” She glanced at me then looked down.

“Yes, what was his name?”

“Pedro.” Her hand moved to her breast then fell to her lap.

“You should get in touch with him.” I nudged her.

“No, what if he happy with another woman?”

I thought for a second. “I know. Ask your cousin. She’ll know if he’s married.”

“No, no. He no know my family.”

“But she can ask around. It’s a small town down there, isn’t it?”

“
Si
, a small town, but he from a different class. He from very poor family. Things down there, they no like here.”

“And what if he’s still in love with you?”

Her shoulders jumped as if she’d been bitten by something. “Oh, I don’t know about that.”

“You’ll never know if you don’t get in touch with him.” I raised my eyebrows at her.

“And what if a woman answering and then I feel smaller than a worm.” Her eyes slid across and met mine. “Then I feeling worse.” She looked back down at her hands that ran up and down her thighs. “I leave alone the sleeping horses.”

“I think that you need to get the answer to this question, Maria Elena, even if what you find out hurts.” I stood. It was time to go get Regina.

I picked Regina up, and we headed over to the mausoleum.

As I watched her walk to the car, it was like watching a completely different person. Her step was lively, as if she were enjoying life and not trying to impress everyone else with her stride.

She sat next to me. “You wouldn’t believe how busy I am these days.” She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.

“The shop is doing well, then.” My chest swelled with pride. I loved hearing how well her life was going.

“I have a few women that are having me do their entire wardrobe this year.” Her cheeks were round and glowing as she talked. “And, I even had a request to open up a shop on Southside.”

“Are you?” Regina must really be good at this.

She shook her head. “No, that’s not what I want to do. I want to dedicate myself to doing well in this one shop.”

I was glad to hear she wasn’t going to spread herself too thin since she and Carter were in the middle of reconciling. Working too hard wouldn’t be good for their budding relationship.

We were both silent as we passed the pillars that marked the entrance to the cemetery. Finally we were in front of the mausoleum.

“I don’t understand all this.” Regina followed me to the doorway.

I turned around with the key in my hand. “The last thing Grandmother said to me was that she wanted her ashes sprinkled over the Moscva River.”

“Did you know about the jewels?” Regina looked right at me as the winter wind whipped around us.

“Every now and then she’d say she had some jewelry, but I didn’t believe her.” I unlocked the two-story door and tugged it until it opened.

“But does this mean that she was Anastasia Romanov?”

I let my eyes adjust to the dim interior. “I don’t know.” I walked over to where Grandmother’s ashes were sitting in the opening beside Grandfather’s. Regina stood beside me and looked at the brass urn.

“If she were Anastasia, then we are kin to the Romanovs.” Regina shook her head in amazement.

“Not just the Romanovs, but Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles and other crowned heads of Europe.”

“Royalty,” she whispered.