Olivia took the chair across from them. “The whole story would present me in a very bad light. I was obnoxious.”
“You?” Elise said. “But you’re perfect. You are calm and thoughtful and have great insight into people. You—”
“So help me if you say you hope to be like me when you’re my age, I’ll throw you out into the rain and let Young Pete have you.”
“I would really like to hear,” Kathy said. “And please tell us the truth about yourself. About everyone.”
Olivia closed her eyes and seemed to be trying to make a decision. “I tried so hard to forget, but I never could.”
She was silent for a moment. “It was 1970,” she began. “Nixon was in the White House and young men were dying in Vietnam.” She held up her wineglass and looked at it. The expression on her face wasn’t happy. “And the Food and Drug Administration had issued a warning that birth control pills might cause blood clots, so we were reluctant to use them.”
The women began to eat as Olivia talked.
“I graduated from college in the morning and took a plane to New York that afternoon. My drama teacher had arranged for me to audition for Elizabeth in a new Broadway production of Pride and Prejudice. I’m ashamed to say that when I got the role I felt more ‘of course’ than grateful. I had never had a bad thing happen to me so I had a feeling of being invincible. Nothing bad was ever going to happen to me!
“We went right into rehearsals and I loved every minute of it. I shared a tiny fourth-floor walk-up apartment way downtown with the girl playing Jane. She was from a small town in Nebraska and we were hungry for everything New York had to offer. It was a truly marvelous time and I thought my life would be like that forever.
“But then, the theater caught fire from old, worn-out wiring and was shut down for a complete overhaul. Actually, the theater needed a full remodel. The show was put on hold until September. I couldn’t afford to stay in New York with no job so I had to go home.”
Olivia paused. “As I said, I was obnoxious. My parents had liked the quiet of their lives while I was in college. But I returned full of New York energy, critical of boring little Summer Hill, and angry that ‘my’ show wasn’t opening immediately.”
She smiled. “I didn’t know it then but my mother was a very wise woman. She and Dad put up with me for three whole days. But Mom had so accurately foreseen what I was going to be like, that she’d found me a summer job. She told me I was to be the live-in cook-housekeeper for two old men.”
“What did you say to that?” Elise asked.
“I very dramatically said that I’d rather die than spend my last summer as a normal person cooking for some old men.” Olivia shook her head. “You know, my last remaining time before I became an internationally renowned star.”
She laughed. “It’s hard to think about now, but I was the spoiled only child of older parents and you can’t get much worse than that. But my mother knew that it was time for me to grow up. She handed me my packed bag and told me that Mr. Gates would pick me up in ten minutes. I was shocked! But I told myself that if all I had to deal with were two old men, both of whom I knew to be sweet tempered, I’d have time to go over my lines and perfect them.”
Olivia drank of her wine. “It was on the drive over that Mr. Gates told me the job was open because Mrs. Tattington, a relative who usually cooked for them in the summer, had broken her arm. She was there with her husband and five-year-old daughter. And Dr. Everett’s five-year-old son was staying with them in the Big House. Mr. Gates said it would be nice if I helped with all of them too.”
“How many people is that?” Kathy asked.
“Two old men, one of whom was in a wheelchair, three in the Tattington family, and a young boy. It was six people I was supposed to take care of.”
“But wasn’t Kit there too?”
“Not for the first few days. The night he arrived I was so exhausted from cooking and cleaning that I slept through the turmoil. The next morning, when I was told that a nineteen-year-old boy had been added to my workload, I was furious. Volcanoes were less angry than I was.” Olivia was smiling.
“I guess something changed your mind,” Elise said.
“Think of the way Alejandro dresses.”
“Yes,” Elise said. “Shirtless.”
“And nearly pantless,” Olivia said in a dreamy way. “In 1970, I’d never seen a man with less clothing on than he was wearing. And I’d never, ever in my life seen a body as beautiful as his.”
She grinned. “Nor have I since.”
Chapter Fourteen
Summer Hill, Virginia 1970
Olivia put the dishcloth onto the big porcelain sink and looked out the window. It was beautiful on the grounds of the old plantation, but when you were as angry as she was, nothing looked good.
Behind her at the kitchen table were Uncle Freddy, Mr. Gates, and the two little kids.
Uncle Freddy’s wheelchair was beside Mr. Gates’s old cane-backed seat and the children’s legs dangled off the bench. They were eating the Campbell’s soup and grilled cheese sandwiches she had fixed for lunch. Again.