"Oh Leigh, you just can't imagine how difficult it has been."
"What?" I had no idea what she meant.
"Spending these last several days with a man as young and strong as Tony. He never needs to nap and he dresses in a flash," she said with irritation and envy. "Somebody up there must like him." Her delicate eyebrows rose as if in exasperation.
"Then you didn't have a good time on your honeymoon?" I asked to confirm what Tony had told me.
"I did and I didn't. He's so athletic, up at the crack of dawn and expecting me to be dressed and ready for breakfast; and when I complained, he became upset. Can you imagine the lack of consideration? How did he expect me to go down to that dining room without being properly made up and dressed? I sent him down without me, actually glad to get rid of him so I could prepare myself without him watching. He was always finished and ready to go out before I had spent half the time I needed. That annoyed him, but I told him he didn't have to wait for me. I told him to just go right ahead and do his sliding up and down those cold hills.
"You would think that a day of that laborious activity would leave him exhausted. But no . . . he would return every afternoon actually invigorated and you can just guess what a man of Tony's youth and vitality is like when he is invigorated."
She saw the look of confusion on my face and smirked.
"He makes love like it's going to be for the last time, practically raping me," she explained. The blood rushed into my face to hear her make reference to something so intimate. "And once it's over and you expect to have a chance to catch your breath, he's at it again. I felt like some strumpet.
"Why, even in the middle of the night, he would nudge me awake, shock me out of a restful slumber, and want to be amorous. It didn't matter that I was not fully awake. He was angry because I didn't respond the way he hoped I would.
"Well, I couldn't. I wouldn't. I'm not going to sacrifice my health and beauty to satisfy a young man's animal appetite," she added determinedly.
I didn't know what to say. Momma made it sound as if lovemaking was an ordeal, but that wasn't the way it was described in books I had read.
"Oh Leigh," she cried turning to me and taking my hands into hers, "you've got to be my best friend, my ally more than ever now. Will you? Will you?"
"Of course I will," I replied, even though again I had no idea what she meant.
"Good, because Tony likes you and doesn't mind spending time with you. I can see that. It was good that you went to dinner with him in Boston. I'm going to need you to help keep him amused and happy. He requires so much attention and demands so much affection. It's absolutely life draining!" she cried.
"Not that I don't love him. I do. I adore him. I just never expected he would be so . . so virile . so hungry for sex. If I don't had ways to keep him at bay, he'll deplete me, rob me of my vibrancy.
"Yes," she said before I could react, "I've seen that happen to other women. Their husbands are so demanding that they become old before their time and then their husbands go looking elsewhere for satisfaction. A woman has to guard her beauty like a precious jewel, keep it encased, protected, permit men to look upon her, gaze at her longingly, but rarely touch because every touch absorbs, takes away, diminishes.
"Tony wants me by his side constantly. He wants me there whenever he has the urge to kiss me, to take my hand, to embrace me, and then, to take me."
I thought that sounded wonderful----to have a man need and want you that much. And after all, wasn't her big complaint about Daddy that he didn't spend enough time with her, that he didn't want her as much as he wanted his business? Now she found a man who was devoted to her, who worshipped her, and she felt threatened by it. How confusing.
She was quiet for a moment as she
contemplated a line under her eyes. Then she sighed and dipped her finger into a skin cream.
"Oh Leigh," she said as she worked on herself and looked in the mirror, "I'm afraid you'll have to come home weekends from Winterhaven more often than I had anticipated. Tony wants to go on skiing weekends and take little honeymoons frequently. He expects me to fly off with him for three days here and three days there. Such a vigorous pace will age me."
She turned to me again and took my hands again.
"You'll help me, won't you? You'll spend time with him, too, and keep him distracted. A young girl has so much more energy. Maybe you'll be able to tire him out so that he won't come at me like some kind of Casanova at night. Oh please, Leigh, say you will."
I didn't know what to say. What was I agreeing to do? But I saw how much she wanted me to say yes.
"I will, Momma. I'll come home often."
"Thank you, Leigh. Thank you. I knew you were old enough to understand." She hugged me quickly. "It's so wonderful having a daughter old enough to be more like a sister to me.
"Now let me show you all the things I bought in Europe. I bought you some pretty sweaters, too. Did you like your Christmas presents?" she asked without taking a breath.
"I saw that your father sent you something. What was it?" she demanded, her eyes narrowing and filled with suspicion.
"This locket," I said and held it out. She glanced at it quickly. She didn't ask me to open it.
"Very nice," she said and turned to all the things she had brought back from Europe.