Part 4

“Thank you, Irene.” Maddie stood and went over to take the call on her office extension. She could feel Honey’s eyes following her into the office, but deliberately closed its door behind her as she entered.

“Hello, this is Madeleine Wheeler,” she said after picking up the receiver.

“Good morning, Mrs. Wheeler. This is Margery Trask. I’ve read over the contract and given a lot of thought to your offer, as well as my obligations. I’ll accept the position you’ve offered.”

“I’m so glad.” Maddie did her best to insert warmth into her voice. She still wasn’t sure she wanted to share her daughter with another woman with whom Honey already felt a close bond. But it was best for Honey, and she was determined to put her daughter’s needs first. “When can you start?”

“That’s a bit difficult.” Miss Trask seemed hesitant. “I have a contract at Briar Hall for the school year. It will be mid-June before the summer holidays. I suppose I could give notice and leave, but there’s currently no one on staff who could take all of my classes.”

“What if you gave them six weeks’ notice? I know that wouldn’t take them quite to the end of the school year, but it would allow time to plan and to advertise the position. After all, people sometimes need to leave jobs due to family emergencies, whether their places can be covered or not.” Maddie crossed her fingers, hoping this idea would be acceptable. She understood Miss Trask’s position, she really did. But her own life would be much more difficult if she had to rearrange her schedule to be with Honey all the time until mid-June.

“I’ll do that. My only worry is if the school holds back part of my contractual salary for not teaching until the end of the year. My sister’s care home takes most of my monthly pay.” On the other end of the phone, Miss Trask’s sigh could be heard.

“If the school won’t pay out your contract, we’ll make up the difference,” Maddie promised. She was determined to do whatever it took to get Honey’s beloved teacher to agree to take the governess position, despite her own jealousy of the other woman. It hadn’t been so difficult to get Miss Lefferts, but Miss Lefferts wasn’t supporting a family member. And she wasn’t Honey’s choice.

“You’ve found a way around all of my obstacles,” the older woman said with a little laugh that was almost a sob. “I’ll contact the headmistress today and will be back in touch after I’ve spoken with her. Thank you, Mrs. Wheeler. Thank you.”

“I’m the one who should thank you for agreeing to take the position,” Maddie assured her, fingering her pearls again. “I’m sure it’s a move we won’t regret.”

Ending the call, she walked back out to the living room, where Honey had solved one whole corner of the puzzle to six inches into the picture.

“Well done,” she exclaimed, clapping her hands. “Let’s take a break and eat some fruit now.”

Maddie never ate between meals, but she was anxious to see Honey’s appetite return, and for her to regain some of the weight she’d lost during her illness. She picked up a banana and offered it to her daughter.

Honey smiled but shook her head. “I don’t really care for bananas unless they’re a little bit green,” she apologized. “But this orange looks good.” She picked up an orange.

“Let’s sit in the breakfast nook with our fruit,” Maddie suggested. Still holding the perfectly ripe banana, she walked over to the breakfast nook and then realized she needed a paring knife to start the banana peeling. As Honey settled herself in a chair and started to peel her orange, Maddie knocked on the kitchen door. Cook’s heavier tread could be heard shuffling over to the door. She opened the door to her employer.

“May I have a small knife, and a couple of luncheon plates? Honey and I are going to eat some fruit.”

“I’ll bring a tray with plates, napkins, and a knife,” Cook promised.

“Thank you.” Maddie walked back to the table.

“Only one bad thing about oranges,” Honey said with a smile. “They make your fingers sticky!”

Cook appeared with two luncheon plates, a couple of small knives, napkins and a clean wet cloth on a tray. She set the tray down and proceeded to set a place for each of them.

“Thank you, Cook,” Maddie said. “This is lovely, but I think we can take it from here.”

“It’s good to see you up and looking so much better, Miss Honey.” Cook gave Honey a broad smile of real affection. “You’ll soon have your strength back.” She turned to Maddie. “You’ll let me know if you need anything else, won’t you, Mrs. Wheeler?”

“Of course! Thank you again.” Maddie smiled and the cook shuffled back to the kitchen, disappearing again as its door swung shut behind her.

“What did Miss Trask say, Mother?” Honey looked up from her orange after puncturing the end with her thumbnail and pulling off a piece of the peel.

“She accepted the position, but needs to give sufficient notice to Briar Hall. It will be several weeks before she'll be able to start.” Oranges take a long time to prepare, Maddie noted as she watched her daughter remove all of the peeling and pick off the white membrane that clung to each section. She ate her banana as slowly as she could, but she was still finished first.

“I can't wait! Thank you, Mother!” Honey's eyes shone like stars. But a moment later she set the last three sections of her orange down on her plate. “I don’t think I can eat all of this now. Maybe for lunch.”

“Do you want to go back to the puzzle for awhile?” Honey’s doctor had urged Maddie and Matthew not to put too much pressure on Honey to eat. “She doesn’t have an eating disorder,” he’d said—frightening Maddie because she’d never heard of such a thing—“but being ill has caused her stomach to shrink and it will take time before she can eat more. Once she’s able to be more active her appetite will return.”

“I don’t know... we worked on it for over an hour. I’m ready for something different, I think.”

“Would you like to look at a magazine?” Maddie felt at a loss, not for the first time when dealing with her daughter. “I think I have the latest issue of Vogue.”

“No, I don’t think so.” Of course, Honey was a bit young to be very interested in fashion. In fact, Maddie knew she wouldn’t have liked it much if her pre-teen daughter was interested in the latest styles and cosmetics.

“If only I had a good book about sewing,” Honey mused. “I’ve got a few ideas and would like to read up on how they’re done before I get in the middle of a project.”

“I have to admit, we don’t have any sewing books,” Maddie said with a laugh. “But maybe we can visit the Strand this week and try to find something for you. I didn’t realize you enjoyed sewing so much.”

“I love it!” Honey’s face shone. “It’s so amazing when you can take a piece of material and turn it into a skirt, an apron, a pair of cafe curtains, or whatever your imagination can think of. And everyone else doesn’t have exactly the same thing.”

“I’d love to see some of the things you’ve made at school,” Maddie told her. “You’re right about being able to customize your clothing. I never sewed, but my sister Natalie learned to sew after she married. Now, some of the things she’s made are way out there, kind of beatnik-looking. But she’s very creative. You must have gotten some of that from her. I never was very creative.”

“Oh, Mother! Don’t say that. No one can put together an outfit the way you can. Maybe you’re not a designer, but you have a wonderful eye.”

Maddie was struck to silence at her daughter’s praise. While on one hand she felt it was a bit pitiful to feel so warmed by a child’s praise, it was so rare for Honey to seem to enjoy her company that she couldn’t help basking in it for just a moment.

“Thank you, darling. It’s lovely of you to say that. Well, if you don’t want to look at the latest Vogue, what would you like to do until lunch time?”

“Do you think you could read to me? You read so beautifully, I’d love that. Maybe Alice in Wonderland?”

“Of course I will, dear. You bring the book and we’ll sit on the sofa and read until lunch time.”

Honey disappeared down the hallway into her room but was soon back in the living room with her old favorite. Maddie settled herself on the sofa and patted the seat next to her. Honey sat down a bit primly with her feet on the floor, but Maddie urged her, “Slip your shoes off and snuggle up if you want to. There’s plenty of room.” She reached out to encircle her daughter’s shoulders with her arm, and Honey toed off her shoes and tucked her feet under her skirt with a smile. She rested her head against Maddie’s chest, under her outstretched arm.

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do...

Maddie’s voice was soft and soothing, but also clear and well-modulated. She read for about ten minutes before glancing at her daughter again. The child’s eyes were open but heavy. Maddie could feel Honey relaxing against her body. She kept reading until a few minutes later, Honey’s head dropped. Maddie reached carefully for the coffee table, setting the book down and reaching to the end of the sofa for a pillow for Honey’s head. She scooted as gently as possible to get closer to the end of the sofa so she could lower Honey so that her head rested in her mother’s lap. Once she had them both situated, she found she couldn’t move. However, it was both pleasant and unusual to feel such closeness with her daughter, so she stroked Honey’s smooth hair and watched her sleep.

When Irene came to let her employer know lunch was served, she found both mother and daughter asleep on the sofa. Maddie had somehow managed to rearrange them both so that she was lying on her back with her head on the cushioned arm of the sofa, while Honey rested almost on top of her, but with one foot dangling off the sofa.

Honey was overjoyed to learn that her beloved teacher had accepted the position as her governess. Normally a quiet, serious girl, she was almost ebullient for days after the news, humming and dancing around the apartment. Maddie again felt stirrings of jealousy, although she had to admit to herself that she would be happy when Miss Trask was able to take over some of the time she spent taking care of her child. Maddie felt she couldn’t leave Honey alone with the Wheelers’ longtime staff in the apartment, and also that she needed to monitor her activity as well as her eating.

“You’re going overboard,” Matthew said a few weeks later, as he was undressing in their bedroom for the night. Maddie was already in her negligee. Exhausted from a day spent in mothering, she sat curled up against her pillows, knees to chest.

“Honey is twelve years old, not a toddler,” he continued. “We couldn’t find more reliable staff than Cook and Irene. If you want to attend a meeting of the Sloane Hospital Foundation, our daughter would be perfectly safe to stay here under their supervision for a couple of hours.”

Maddie sighed. “I’m sure you’re right,” she admitted. “But I’d worry about her the entire time I was gone.”

“When does the Trask woman start working?” Matthew asked.

“Two more weeks. I’m glad we’ll have some time to observe her here before we move out to the country. When do you think the house in Sleepyside will be ready?”

“What day is it—April 30? The contractor is supposed to be finished with repairs to the drainage system and terraces by the middle of May, as well as updating the plumbing and electric service. You wanted to do some redesign and approve the floor plan before new cabinets and painting start, didn’t you?” Matt slid under the covers next to her and pulled her close to him with a kiss to the top of her head.

“Yes, I’ll line up Mr. David and go out there for a walk-through as soon as we’ve approved the contractor’s work. Miss Trask should be here by then. I want Honey to see the place before we move, but I don’t want her to be out there in all of the dust and construction debris.” She tilted her face to him and cupped his face in her hands, leaning forward to capture his lips in an intimate kiss.

“That Mr. David! Do I need to set a private detective on the two of you?” Matthew leered at her even as his hand moved lower on her back.

“Well, I don’t think his boyfriend would appreciate it if you did!” She giggled and dove under the covers to find his ticklish spot. Matthew muffled his laughter by leaning over and taking the soft skin of her shoulder between his teeth. Helpless giggles and raspy chuckles transformed into moans and sighs and neither Maddie nor Matthew gave more thought to Miss Trask or Mr. David.