And then years and years later, her daughter, my mother, found herself here, going to sleep to the same sounds, perhaps feeling just as alone. In time the great house became home to both of them, as it might now to me. In a real sense Tony was right. I shouldn't feel like a stranger in Farthy. Too much of my past lived here. But all the unanswered questions, the lingering mysteries, the dark shadows that surrounded me and my presence here, made it so confusing.
Perhaps with every passing day another shadow and another mystery would disappear, until Farthy was brilliant with light again the way it might have once been for my grandmother Leigh and for Mommy.
Funny, I thought, but it's as if I'm in the middle of the maze outside, trying to find my way back.
But back to where?
Back to what?
I fell asleep counting questions instead of sheep.
ELEVEN Drake
. I awoke to the sound of laughter in the hallway and recognized Drake's voice. He would never know how much I welcomed that sound, something familiar, something from home. The laughter stopped and then I heard footsteps. A moment later he appeared carrying my lunch on a solid silver tray. He snapped on the lights and came into the room.
"Oh, Drake!" "Annie, I've come all the way from Boston to serve you your lunch."
He laughed and brought the tray to the bed table. Then he kissed me and held me firmly for a few seconds. A film of tears formed over my eyes, but they were tears of happiness, and tears of happiness did not burn; they simply clouded my vision and made me sniffle.
"Oh, Drake, I'm so happy to see you."
"You're okay, aren't you?" he asked, backing away and looking at me with concern. Handsome, tall, dark Drake, I thought, with his bronze skin and ebony eyes. How mature he looked, how grown-up, as if I had been asleep for years and years as a little girl, like Rip Van Winkle, and awakened to find everyone had passed me in the night. Would Luke look as grown-up and beyond me, too?
Drake wore a double-breasted, light blue silk suit, a suit identical to the suits Tony wore. His hair was cut shorter and brushed back and down on the top like Tony's hair. If I had come upon him on a city street, I thought, I might not have recognized him.
"I'm okay. Drake, you look like a. . a banker." He laughed.
"Just a businessman. You've got to look the part, Annie. People respect that. It's something I've quickly learned. So, tell me all about your arrival here, as you eat, of course." He pushed the table over the bed and helped adjust my pillows so I could sit up.
I glanced at the doorway and he caught my look. "Oh, I gave your nurse time off, told her I would give you lunch."
"Where's Tony?"
"He's in his office, trying to straighten out the mountains of papers strewn about. Says he's got to get it looking decent enough for you to visit someday, so you can watch him work. He says that was something your grandmother used to do."
"Drake," I whispered, pausing between spoonfuls of hot soup, "it's exactly as you described in your letter and phone call . . all of it looks like it hasn't been touched for years and years."
"It hasn't been."
"But Drake, Tony doesn't seem to see it that way. Haven't you noticed?"
He swung his eyes away and thought for a moment. "He can't get himself to see it as it really is right now. I suppose it's too painful for him. He remembers it the way it was . . a magnificent estate."
"But--"
"Give him time, Annie. He's like a man who has been in a coma for years and is just coming out of it."
"He's nice, very considerate and all . . but sometimes he scares me." There, I'd said it out loud.
"Oh, why, Annie? He's a harmless, elderly man who lost everything that had any real meaning in his life: family. If anything, you should pity him."
"I do. It's just . . ."
"What? You'll get whatever you want. The doctors will be coming to you, instead of you going to them. Tony's asked the doctors to order any machine, any therapeutic device, that would speed up your recuperation, no matter what the cost. You'll be attended by a professional nurse and waited on hand and foot by an army of servants. Tony has already hired an additional maid and two more
groundskeepers. He's doing so much for you."
"I know." I gazed at the photographs in the silver frames. "I guess it's just that I miss Mommy and Daddy so much."