Anna Godbersen - Envy

“There, there, Miss Broad,” said Mr. Cullen, as he removed the rain-soaked coat from her shoulders. “Did you get caught in the rain?” he went on dubiously as he examined the coat, which had in truth spent all night inches from the downpour, and now smelled unmistakably of the street. He gestured to a bellboy, and when the offending garment was out of sight he placed a hand on Carolina’s shoulder and said, “We will send that to the cleaners and see what can be done. But my dear, you are freezing. We must get you warm and into some dry clothes.”

Carolina put her face into her hands and nodded vigorously, although she had not yet found a way to stop crying.

“Do try to contain yourself, my dear,” Cullen went on as he drew her into the office. “You are here for the reading of Mr. Longhorn’s will, aren’t you? Surely the old gentleman must have left you something….”

Carolina pushed her hand against the underside of her nose, wiping away the snot, and tried to believe this. In truth, she didn’t hope for much anymore, and had only come to the hotel because she had woken up in a doorway and had no place else to go. She could see, too, in Cullen’s face that he was only trying to make her feel better, and this was such a rare kindness that it took all her will not to begin crying again. He called one of the housekeepers, and had her find Carolina a dress, and only when she was properly put together again did he himself escort the young lady to the suite where she and Longhorn had spent so many evenings, talking over what his youth had been and what hers then seemed to promise.

Mr. James, the lawyer, was sitting at a wide table and he looked up at Carolina in a way that made plain how unwelcome she was. Luckily, Cullen was still there with her, and he walked her to one of the chairs that had been set out, and only once he was sure that she was solidly placed in her seat did he leave her side. There were a few other women, occupying chairs and crying theatrically into their hankies. Lucy Carr was among them, but she would not meet Carolina’s eyes.

“Welcome, ladies, gentlemen…” Mr. James began, before coughing rather disgustingly into his hand. A preamble followed that Longhorn’s former favorite could hardly listen to. This was a document that the old bachelor had ordered drawn up when he was contemplating his own end, and she had failed him so miserably there. She was still enduring the consequences of that selfish decision, and she suspected she would endure them for a long time to come. Most of the beautiful objects in the room had been wrapped up, she observed, and the life had gone out of it.

“To my second cousin, Mrs. William Barre,” Mr. James was saying. That lady gasped a little and sat up like a rod. “I leave all my large silver platters and one thousand dollars.”

Mrs. William Barre then loudly praised Longhorn’s generosity, even while looking slightly disappointed.

A series of small bequests followed, to which the people in the chairs made tepid responses. Carolina couldn’t expect anything from the old man — she had known him only a few months, and had failed him when it most mattered — but still she couldn’t help but think how much more five thousand dollars would mean to her than to the Society for Young Girls Orphaned by Fire, which had been her former benefactor’s favorite charity. She too was an orphan, she thought as she dabbed her eyes.

Then she heard the words that let her know it was the end, and she stood to leave.

“And the remainder of my estate,” Mr. James was now saying, somewhat reluctantly, “including all of my holdings in real estate, stock, business, and cash, I do leave to my dear friend, who gave me such joy in the final chapter of my life, Miss Carolina Broad.”

Everyone in the room gasped and turned to look at the girl who already appeared headed for the door. For a moment, Carolina thought that she had been called out for bad behavior or some other infraction against good taste, and her eyes roved back and forth from the women assembled there to the lawyer. Then she saw Lucy Carr smile at her, and she knew that her fortunes had turned around again. She was still cold, and it would take several hours before she began to really understand how utterly her life had been transformed. But already a sense of safety was returning to her limbs, and the women who had come with hopes of their own crowded around her to wish her all the best. Longhorn had seen promise in her youth after all, and oh, with what infinite kindness, what eternal magnanimity had he gone about ensuring that that promise would be fulfilled.

Some hours later, and outfitted from the wardrobe that had been rightfully restored to her, Carolina arrived at a west side address of no particular distinction and instructed the hansom to wait in the street. The rain had finally stopped and you could feel the coming of a kinder season in the air. Still, she pulled her coat — the old broadtail one, which Longhorn had purchased for her in the springtime of their friendship — close around her shoulders as she crossed and approached the stoop.

The housekeeper, when she opened the door, did not at first have anything to say.

“Don’t worry,” Carolina said with a smile that showed off every one of her teeth. “I am not here for my back pay. Nor will I ever be.”

The older woman’s eyes darted down the hall, and she was evidently nervous, because she had to pause to wipe the sweat on her palms against her dress. “I don’t think Mrs. Tilt will be happy to know that you came here.”

“Oh, I don’t give a fig about that!” Carolina laughed. “And anyway, I didn’t come for her. Is Mr. Wrigley here?”

“Yes, but—”

“Good.” Carolina brushed past the woman and into the hall, where she turned just enough so that her long, lavender skirt could twist up sculpturally behind her and catch all of the electric light from the ceiling. “Where are they?”

The housekeeper glanced at her hands. “First-floor parlor.”

“Ah, yes.”

Carolina entered the room with her furs still on and her face incandescent with victory. She knew perfectly how well winning looked on her, and posed in the doorway so that Mrs. Tilt and her friend Tristan could take in the full glory of the effect. At that moment, all of her suspicions about her own greatness seemed to have been confirmed, and so she had no trouble at all using one of the tricks of fine ladies everywhere, the proper employment of which had eluded her until that evening. Her timing was all right.

“I told you never to return here,” Mrs. Tilt said eventually, and though she was trying very hard for cold, the strain melted some of the ice out of her tone. Tristan, sitting next to her in a red and white upholstered wing chair, appeared uncomfortable for perhaps the first time in their friendship. She was gratified to see that he was already dressed up, however, in a black jacket and waistcoat, and with his light-colored hair more neatly arranged than usual.

“Did you? Since I have no desire ever to return to this place, I believe I shall be able to do as you ask.” Carolina leaned insouciantly against the doorframe. “Tristan,” she went on, lowering her voice and taking her gaze permanently off Mrs. Portia Tilt, “come with me.”

Tristan’s chair scraped against the floor as he adjusted awkwardly, but he did not yet stand. “Mrs. Tilt and I were planning on dinner at the Waldorf. We were just having a cocktail to begin the evening and then—”

“Nonsense. You are having dinner with me, at Sherry’s. You see”—and here she paused to smile Carolina’s smile—“I have just inherited a great fortune, an amount higher than I think your Mrs. Tilt even knows how to count to, and I want to toast myself.”

Tristan did not hesitate after that. He came to Carolina’s side without so much as acknowledging the western lady, and they left the room without bidding her goodbye. Carolina did decide to glance back at her one last time, and the look of wounded pride and indignation that her former employer wore at just that moment was something the Longhorn heiress would have paid quite dearly to see. As it turned out, though, this was a sight Carolina was able to enjoy for free.

“It will be in all the papers tomorrow!” she called over her shoulder.

Tristan helped her into the hansom, and as they sat beside one another being jostled by crosstown traffic, she found that all of a sudden she had run out of things to say. The story was too large to begin to tell, and she only wanted someone to celebrate with for a night. Her old friend the Lord & Taylor salesman would do very well for that — not for much else, she had come to realize over the last few months, though he had been very useful in putting Mrs. Tilt in her place. She would have preferred Leland a thousand times over, of course, but she had read in the paper that afternoon that he was already on a ship many miles out into the Atlantic, and so she had resigned herself to waiting a few more months before their romance resumed. For now, the rain had cleaned the air, and she was dressed regally, and her escort — whoever he was — looked very handsome indeed. The night was young, and so was everything else.

More than one new society bride is with child, although I am not yet at liberty to say which ones….

— FROM CITÉ CHATTER, FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1900

THE FIRE SNAPPED, AND ELIZABETH’S BROWN EYES twitched upward to meet her mother’s. Neither woman flinched, and they went on staring at each other for a long minute. The rain was again falling outside after clearing for a time that afternoon, and Diana was still asleep upstairs despite the fact that the evening was nearly upon them. Edith had the look of death about her, and could form no words about the party at the Hayeses’ the previous night. So they had run out of things to talk about, and now the elder of the Miss Hollands could do nothing but try to keep warm by the fire and suffer her mother’s accusatory glances. She felt a little nervous and unsure of the future, but now she had something greater than herself to protect, and it made her feel less frightened.

“Mrs. Holland,” Claire said, adjusting the pocket door as she came through it. The shadows of a gray day played across her milky face.

Edith made a grunting noise and covered her eyes. “For God’s sake, be mindful of my headache and keep a little quiet,” she said, even though Claire had most certainly spoken in a quiet tone to begin with.

“I’m sorry,” Claire whispered. Since Mrs. Holland steadfastly refused to look up from the hearth, the maid glanced at Elizabeth, who nodded for her to go on. “There’s a guest here.”

“Who is it? We’re in no state to receive anyone,” Mrs. Holland went on sharply. Edith groaned, but did not mention her headache again.

“It’s Mr. Cairns.”

“Ah!” Mrs. Holland’s expression changed. “Show him in.”

Elizabeth straightened as he entered the room. She had been so absorbed in her own troubles that she had not noticed the outdoorsman’s absence since her return from Florida, and indeed his thick features, and the extreme paleness of his blond hair, were almost unfamiliar to her. She felt a little bad about this, because he had done so much for her family, and she tried to smile more broadly at him to make up for it.

“Mrs. Holland, Miss Holland, Miss Elizabeth,” he said and bobbed his head.

“How lovely that you’ve returned to the city,” said Mrs. Holland as she rose from her chair. She looked less worried somehow, and Elizabeth felt grateful to him for it. Her father’s old associate had such a knack for showing up when the family was in the greatest need, she observed, and that made him seem not so strange to her. “I wasn’t sure you’d be back.”