Chapter 34
“How are you holding up?” Supriya brought the tea tray and sat next to Cassie in the sun porch to watch their husbands heading toward the dock with kayak paddles over their shoulders.
“I’m actually doing okay. The counsellor and I talked it over the day after the funeral and we came to the conclusion that marrying Frank was a much bigger event, emotionally, than Mum’s murder.” Cassie shrugged. “I know that sounds callous but everyone that knew Mum predicted that she would come to a bad end.”
“Frank said you inherited your looks from her. She must have been a very beautiful woman.”
Cassie sighed. “On the outside, sure. But I think Grampa Horace’s death removed her anchor. Granny was not the firmest of parents and she had to work such long hours after Grampa died. I’m pretty sure Mum got sucked in by some of the bad boys in her school and fell in with the wrong crowd. My spare grannies were always warning me about that. They were much stricter with me than Granny ever was.” Cassie sipped her tea. “Mum never did finish high school. Dad met her at a strip club near Windsor – he always said it was a dance club, but Mum told me how they met one night when she got drunk and weepy and was missing Dad. Apparently she behaved herself until I was five. That’s when Dad bought his first truck and started the long haul routes. Mum got bored being home with just me and started flirting with the neighbours.”
Supriya made some ‘I’m listening’ noises and Cassie continued. “Yiayia and her mother are awful gossips and they didn’t think I spoke enough Greek but they used to talk about Mum and how she’d drop me off with them so she could go out to the bars. They used to talk about her boyfriends and how mad Dad was going to be when he finally found out about her fooling around on him.”
Supriya said, “I guess he found out.”
“He did. He finally left us for the last time when I was eight but they never divorced. I think they really did love each other, even if they couldn’t live together. Mum and I moved in with Granny. Mrs. Robertson told me at the funeral that Mum started working out almost immediately so she could dance in the strip clubs again. About two months later she left me alone with Granny for the first time so she could work out of town. When I added it up after talking with the counsellor I think she might have lived with us for a grand total of five months between my eighth birthday and Granny’s death.”
Dorothy joined them and commented, “I had a long talk with Thérèse the morning after the funeral. I don’t think your extra grandmothers would have let you follow in your mother’s footsteps.” She poured herself some tea. “But Anna and Maria are both worried that you haven’t learned how to have fun.”
Cassie shot a look at Dorothy and huffed. “I do too know how to have fun.”
“I’m sure you do. And Francis is much more relaxed than I’ve ever seen him. Anna was worried, that’s all.”
“Yiayia is always worrying about something.”
“I was only trying to figure out why you turned out so well. Maybe I can learn something to pass on to Lita, if she ever settles down and starts a family.”
Lita came in with a glass of wine in her hands. “Pass on what, Mother?”
“Advice mostly. Cassie was raised by a small village of grandmothers. I didn’t do as well with you as they did with her.”
“I’m doing fine, Mother, without your advice. And I certainly don’t need a teenager held up to me as a good example, no matter how prettily she behaves. I’ve seen too many men make fools of themselves with pretty teenagers.”
Cassie said, quietly but firmly, “Your brother is no fool.”
Lita put on a haughty look. “Let’s see. He married someone almost half his age that he’d known for all of sixteen hours, half of those asleep. He didn’t talk to his lawyer about a pre-nup. He didn’t consider what people were going to say behind his back, and he didn’t think about what sort of wife a man in his position needs. I’d say he was a fool.”
Cassie opened her mouth to respond but Dorothy interrupted. “You’ve never seen her work a room, Lita. I must have been forty before I was as good as Cassie is now. Most of the members at the yacht club were shocked when the news wire picked up the story. Some of them were dismissive of course, but the Lieutenant-Governor’s wife asked me at a function on Wednesday if it was true that Francis’ charming young wife was really that young. Apparently Cassie recognized General Grant’s Military Merit medal and asked her what he’d done to earn it because His Honour was being modest. Joan was more than happy to talk about it.” Dorothy held up a hand to forestall Lita’s retort. “All it means is that Cassie is better in social situations than most people we know. I don’t know how Francis figured out so quickly that Cassie would be a good fit for him, but he did. And if it turns out that he made a mistake, which I don’t believe for a minute, then it will be his mistake, not ours. You’ve made plenty of your own. So have I.”
Lita snorted dismissively then stood. “I need a refill.”
Dorothy turned to Cassie and started to open her mouth but Cassie said, “Don’t apologize for her. I’m sure you did the best you knew how to do at the time.”
“It wasn’t good enough.”
“Pastor Ron came to the school and talked about that at chapel a couple of weeks ago. We can’t be perfect, ever, and we never have enough energy or information to be our very best all of the time. Sometimes you just have to believe that your best that day or that minute is good enough and trust that the Lord has a plan for you. I almost didn’t go through with the wedding, you know. I was standing in the hotel room looking at this strange woman in the mirror wearing a fancy dress and wondered if it was possible that it could be me and if Frank was real. But I felt that I could trust Frank. I still don’t know why I didn’t run away while he was in the shower.”
Dorothy reached over to pat Cassie’s hand. “I am very glad you didn’t. You, and the rest of my daughters-in-law, have been exactly what this family needed to shake off our bad habits.” She sat back and said, “Francis was right though. You are stubborn. Polite, charming, diplomatic, and fearlessly honest, but stubborn. I think even my mother would have warmed up to you, eventually.”
“I don’t know about that, Mother. Grandmother Murcheson was an awful old dragon.” Bonnie came in to sit with the rest of the women. “Why is Lita stomping around like she wants to bite someone’s head off?”
Supriya sniggered. “Because Dorothy thought that Cassie would be a good role model for her.”
Dorothy had the grace to look embarrassed. “It was a piece of an off-hand comment that Lita overheard.”
Cassie grinned. “She’ll get over it. She’s a big girl.”
“Well, Jan certainly behaves better when you’re around.”
“I’ll ask Grandmère if she wants to open a finishing school. Maybe you could ship Jan off to her for a summer.”
Dorothy smiled at Bonnie’s confused look. “Thérèse Robertson is one of Cassie’s spare grandmothers from the apartment building in Toronto. Her father was in the French diplomatic corps. She has impeccable manners, aside from a tendency to gossip. She did a very good job teaching Cassie.”
Bonnie smiled. “Finishing school, hmm?” She looked like she was seriously considering it then shrugged. “I don’t think that I really want Jan hanging around with most of the girls who get sent there. If they are anything like those debs that Grandmother Murcheson was always trying to set up with Rob and Dale…”
Dorothy said, haughtily, “Not all finishing school graduates are shallow and petty.”
Bonnie pasted a bright smile on her face and said, with exaggeratedly impeccable diction, “Lovely weather we’re having, aren’t we?”
The women all laughed and Supriya asked Dorothy about the upcoming season at the Neptune.
———
“So, Frank, when are you going to have a real marriage?” Dale looked concerned.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean the sexual tension between you and Cassie is just ama
zing. I should invite Sarah Polley and her writing team to watch you guys for a weekend.”
Frank sighed. “I have to wait until she’s ready, Dale. Really ready, I mean.”
Dale grew serious. “So it isn’t just you having an attack of her being underage?”
“I haven’t thought of her that way since I saw her in her wedding dress. I wish she’d let go sometimes and just be a teenager but I think it all got crushed out of her under the weight of her responsibilities. No, I have to wait because she was being terrorized by her step-father and his cronies before she ran away. She still gets nightmares and she always has me go first when we’re in a corridor and she freaks when my hand gets close to her neck, although it’s much better than it was. The counsellor says it’s PTSD.”
Dale nodded thoughtfully. “Supriya was speculating about that when Cassie froze up coming back from the washroom at Sanjit’s restaurant opening. I saw one of her idiot cousins try to block Cassie out so he could flirt with her.”
Frank sighed. “So that was the cause of the panic attack. I wondered why she plastered herself to me. Not that I minded at all.”
“Now you know.”
“She didn’t mention the reason and I didn’t ask because she was relaxed again by the time we were alone.” He gave a sideways glance at Dale. “Anyway, that’s the real reason I’ve been taking my time with her. I need to earn her full trust. Back in my misspent youth I had more than my share of partners who were hmm… unwilling is the wrong word. Ungiving or uncaring or maybe selfish would be better. Andrea was the first woman that was with me for myself and she didn’t let things get very far though what we shared was her free gift. So I know the difference. I want Cassie desperately but I want her to want me the same way.”
“Oh, she does want you that way, Frank, or at least she wants to want you that way. It’s almost painful to watch.”
“How come no one else is noticing?”
“Everyone else thinks it’s because you can’t wait to be alone with each other. But I can see her flashes of panic and your silent prayers for patience.”
“You always did see more than the rest of us, I suppose.”
“Purely survival, I assure you. Mother and Father went through a very rough patch for several years after you were born. I got very good at reading people’s body language. It helps me when I’m putting deals together.”
Frank said, “I’m sure it does. I’m still waiting for Cassie to be able to relax enough to enjoy the physical part of marriage. She panics when we stumble across one of her triggers and then she starts crying. She’s so frustrated that she can’t control her reaction and I have to stay calm, which isn’t always easy. But she’s told me about some of what happened.”
“It must be killing you that you can’t just make a list and hire someone to fix everything.”
Frank looked at Dale and shrugged. “You know me too well. But you can’t just say ‘Relax and trust me.’” Frank snorted. “Well, I could do just that but even I know that doesn’t work.”
Dale gave a wry grin. “So it’s baby steps and counselling?”
“For both of us. The counsellor insisted on seeing me, too, so that I’d have a better understanding of how people heal from these kinds of trauma. So the counselling is helping but it isn’t a quick fix. But at least I know it isn’t about me or us.”
“She adores you, Frank.”
“She’s never said a thing to me. She still acts like I’m going to divorce her the minute she turns eighteen.”
Dale gave Frank a look of sympathy. “Let’s see. She was abandoned by her father when she was five, her mother when she was eight, her Granny – the most important person in her life – died when she was sixteen after she poured heart and soul into keeping her alive for a quarter of her life. Then she went to live with her self-centered mother and an abusive stepfather. I can see why she might have some trust issues.”
“I know all that. I’m surprised you do.”
“She’s told Supriya some of it and Father mentioned some of the facts his asinine investigation found out when he was trying to prejudice us against her. That was before Mother threatened to leave him. You’re lucky she hasn’t run away now that she can afford to. I suppose that’s an indication that she really cares for you.”
“I suppose.” They turned towards the house.
Dale said, “I know my opinion doesn’t matter but I think she’s worth the effort you’re making. However she got to today, she’s worth more than any dozen of those Boston debutantes Grandmother Murcheson tried to set us up with.”
“I know. I just hope she’ll want to hang around long term.”
“She will. She’s waiting for you to leave.”
“Won’t ever happen, Dale.”
“You have enough patience for that?”
“I guess I’ll find out.” He looked up at the porch to see Cassie grinning at something his mother was saying. She spotted him and gave him a welcoming smile. He waved and returned her smile.
Dale said, in a quiet teasing voice, “I told you I should invite Sarah to observe you two.”
Frank tried to give his brother a dirty look but his gaze returned to his lovely wife and the rest of the world disappeared for an instant.
All the women present gave a knowing smile and Dale began to snicker.
———
Cassie placed forty black candles in an outline of a bat on the mixture of crushed dark and milk chocolate biscuits on the top of the cake and grinned.
Geraldine looked over her shoulder. “Very nice, Cassie, but I think I’ll ask you to bring it out.”
“Chickening out?” Cassie teased.
Geraldine waved airily. “I have to see Bonnie every week. You don’t.”
Cassie grinned and said, “Thanks for the suggestion on how to make the topping look like freshly turned earth.” Cassie stood back and took a picture of the finished product. “I think the candles are a very nice touch. Will you help me light them?”
Frank poked his head into the kitchen. “The natives are getting restless. Do you need help?”
“No, but you can tell them that they should be ready to start singing when the door opens.”
Geraldine helped light the candles then followed Cassie to open the door to the dining room. “Good luck.”
Cassie pasted a bland expression on her face and began to parade the cake towards Bonnie who was sitting with her back to the kitchen. Everyone joined in singing ‘Happy Birthday’. Gray saw the cake first and his eyes widened in alarm and he stopped singing before he shot Cassie a warning glance.
Cassie set the cake in front of Bonnie, who sat very still and immediately glared at Frank after reading “RIP Thirties” on the tombstone sticking out of the cake. She closed her eyes and made a wish then blew out every candle in one breath.
When she opened her eyes she said, “I guess it doesn’t work.”
Frank asked, with an air of innocence, “What doesn’t?”
“Making a wish on your birthday candles.”
“What do you mean, Bonnie?” Frank was having trouble holding onto his laughter.
“Well, you aren’t a pile of ash on the chair.”
“Why do you think this was my idea?”
Various people were snickering by now but Gray looked like he was waiting for an explosion as Bonnie examined each face in turn. Dorothy took a suspiciously long time wiping her mouth with her napkin and Frank caught a glimpse of Geraldine’s twinkling eyes from the kitchen door.
Bonnie looked at Gray and said, “Don’t you dare laugh, you miserable man.”
Gray shook his head nervously.
She turned to Cassie who was now seated next to Frank. “Who put you up to this?”
Cassie shrugged, “Frank knew how much you liked my chocolate pound cake...”
Bonnie rounded on Frank and said, “I knew it was you.”
Dale saw the very smug grin on Cassie’s face and began to laugh. Other people finally j
oined in and the whole room collapsed into laughter, even Bonnie. When he caught his breath Dale said, “Oh, Cassie, that’s the best ‘gotcha’ anyone’s been able to do in years.”
Cassie stood and gave the room a sunny smile and a curtsey. “Thank you.”
Frank asked, “Better than the two left shoes Lita gave you after you crashed out of the ballroom dance competition, Dale?”
Lita spoke up. “I think Cassie’s joke is less mean-spirited but it’s just as funny.”
George said, “It was pretty funny, Mom.”
Bonnie sighed and said, “I guess I’ve been a bit obsessive about it.”
Jan rolled her eyes. “That’s like saying the Atlantic is damp.”
George looked again at the cake. “Didn’t Aunt Cassie say that it was chocolate pound cake?”
Cassie said, “With shaved chocolate and cookie crumbs for the dirt and spearmint cream cheese icing for the grass.”
Sophie’s eyes got wide. “Yum. So, Mom? What are you waiting for?”
Dale took his phone out of his pocket and pointed it at Bonnie and the cake. “Say forty.”
Grant said nothing but caught Cassie’s eye and gave her an approving wink.