"A waitress? Never."
"Daddy is not going to give you any more money," I said sternly.
"Daddy," she pleaded, turning to him. I looked at him and he raised his heavy, sad eyes to me. I made a face, warning him to hold fast.
"Olivia's . . . right," he said. He struggled with his words, but he got them said. "I've been wrong not to make you do something before this."
"That's great. The both of you ganging up on me!" She folded her arms under her breasts and pouted for a moment, her conniving little brain twisting and turning in that spoiled head like some snake in a basket. Then her eyes brightened. "Am I getting an allowance for Boston, then?"
"You'll get what you need, what you reasonably need," I said.
"Daddy will decide how much I get," she fired back at me. "Then I'll go."
I looked at him and he closed his eyes, opened them and nodded at me.
"You're a spoiled brat, Belinda. You've only taken from your family and you haven't given back anything."
"I do the best I can," she cried. "Don't I, Daddy?" He grimaced.
"Let's end this," I said. "Daddy can't take much more. I'll make arrangements for your transportation and call Cousin Paula tonight."
"You can't wait to get rid of me. I don't know why," she sang, her eyes bemused. "I'm not trying to take anyone away from you."
"There is no one you could take from me that I wouldn't give up if they went with you anyway, Belinda."
"Huh?"
"Forget it," I said. "I hope you really try to do something this time. I really do. Otherwise . ."
"Otherwise, what?"
"I'll sell you to the highest bidder," I said and left to make the arrangements.
Despite her protestations, Belinda was happy to be leaving the house. She was always excited about going to Boston. She got Daddy to buy her a new wardrobe, over my objections, and I knew she was planning on moving out of Cousin Paula's house and getting her own apartment as soon as she could work it out. She would then invite her bubble-gum friends to Boston and the whole attempt to help her make something of herself would be another bust, I was sure. However, I had at least tried. I owed that to Mother and after this, I felt that my debt was well paid.
Little did I know I was just beginning to endure the true cost. I was actually fooled into thinking that I had finally made the right choice for Belinda. She enrolled and began her schooling without any more whining and crying. She even got along with Cousin Paula at the start, and after a few weeks, she sent us rather good reports from the school.
With her gone from Provincetown, the stories died and I was able to concentrate on business and my family. We expanded even more. Samuel told me Nelson thought we should consider offering stock in our company on the stock exchange.
"Let him come and discuss it with me himself," I told Samuel, but Nelson didn't come.
His father retired from the firm and Nelson became the senior partner. He won some significant cases in Boston and was written up in the local papers as well as the Boston ones. Nelson was then appointed to fill out the term of a judgeship. It was assumed he would run for political office in the near future.
I remember feeling that our lives had rounded some long and arduous turn and we were coasting along now, relatively secure and content. Jacob was running about and spending many of his afternoons with Daddy, who had begun to feel so good he started to violate the rules about smoking and diet. When I chastised him, he begged me to let him have the simple pleasures. That was all he had left, he claimed.
I was so involved in my own work that I paid little attention to Samuel and never noticed that he was unhappy. One night at dinner, he put down his silverware and put his elbows on the table.
"I think it's time you and I had a little talk, Olivia," he began firmly, his eyes so fixed on me they were like two welding torches.
It was quite uncharacteristic of Samuel to take this tone of voice with me, especially in the presence of our servants. I raised my eyebrows and then looked at Thelma who had just finished feeding Jacob.
"You can take him to his room now, Thelma," I instructed and she did so. "What is it, Samuel?" I asked as soon as she was gone. "What could possibly be bothering you so much that you would speak like that to me in front of Thelma?"
"You have no idea?" he said amazed.
"No, I don't. I'm sorry, but I've been quite busy these days. In any case I'm not in the mood to play some game of Twenty Questions. If something is bothering you, tell me what it is directly, without any unnecessary dramatics."
He shook his head and looked away a moment before turning back to me.