Before he could come up with a response, Eleanor asked, “Is it true that you’re dating her?”
Julien wanted to laugh. “It’s not true.”
Eleanor gave him a look that meant she didn’t believe him. “It’s good that you’re getting out there again, after everything that happened. Honestly, you deserve it, honey.”
Julien knew better than to show how he really felt about this. He took a sip of wine.
“The rumor is that her career isn’t entirely tasteful,” Eleanor offered.
Of course, Eleanor knew more than she’d initially let on. Julien didn’t know why he was surprised.
“It sounds to me like she’s unemployed,” Julien said.
“So you know her situation?” Eleanor asked.
“Not really,” Julien said. “But you know me, Eleanor. I’m not entirely keen on conversation.”
Eleanor laughed, a menacing laugh. “Tell me she’s on her way off our island, Julien?”
“I don’t know how long she plans to stay. I also don’t know why that’s any of your business,” Julien said.
Eleanor clutched her hands together, long, bony fingers that reminded Julien of spider legs. “I’d like to ask you a favor, darling Julien.”
Julien remained quiet. This wasn’t the first time Eleanor had asked him for a favor.
“Stay close to the new girl, won’t you?” Eleanor asked. “Get to know her for us. I can’t imagine she’s here to harm us. I imagine she wants to build community and help her daughter get through high school, and maybe, I don’t know, find love again. But if she gets too close, we need to know. And it looks as though she trusts you.”
Julien kept his lips in a thin line. Eleanor touched his elbow. At that moment, Julien was ripped back through time to childhood. Eleanor had a similar grip on his life back then. Her power was oppressive, never-ending. Sometimes Julien thought it would be impossible for her to die.
“Remember, Julien.” Eleanor’s lips thinned. “You owe us.”
Julien was smart enough not to ask how much longer he’d owe them. He let his chin drop down a half inch, enough for Eleanor to understand his agreement. Eleanor turned and drifted back through the crowd, leaving Julien on his own again.
Julien needed another glass of wine, and stat.
Hannah returned a minute later, all smiles. Julien could tell that Hannah hadn’t learned anything about Nantucket and its secrets, not from the funeral and not from this wake. He half regretted telling her about the city council meeting, but he hadn’t been able to get it out of his mind, and it felt good to talk about it.
“That woman really knows how to wear a hat,” Hannah said of Eleanor as Eleanor and her two friends glided past. “I wish I could say the same about me. I always look like I’m wearing a costume.”
Julien wanted to tell Hannah that, in fact, Eleanor Pike was wearing a costume, as were they all. That was what life was sometimes. It was made up of a bunch of people, pretending to be adults, pretending to make the world go round. But time would always go on without them, regardless of their secrets, regardless of Nantucket and its laws.
Julien knew he needed to stay away from Hannah, if only to keep her safe from Eleanor. But one smile from Hannah told him that that would be difficult. His heart was already writing a different story. He told himself to hold on tight.
11
When Hannah returned home from the wake, taking a cab because she’d had two glasses of wine and had no interest in messing with fate, she found the house quiet and dark. Minnie wasn’t there. Panicked, Hannah called Minnie over and over again, standing up at the kitchen counter, heaving with tears. Was this the moment Minnie decided to leave her? Was this how Minnie taught Hannah a lesson? Each time, it went to Minnie’s voicemail.
In a moment of desperation, Hannah called Kendall, praying that he’d unblock her number. Maybe Minnie had found a way to reach her father, and they were corresponding. But Kendall’s phone went straight to voicemail, as well—proof that he was still on the run. He probably wasn’t thinking about his wife or his kid at all.
Outside, it continued to rain. Droplets pelted against the glass as the wind roared. Hannah sank to the floor, her arms wrapped around her knees. She thought about the previous few hours, about how reckless she’d been, going to that wake and digging around. She allowed herself to think, briefly, about Julien, about how he’d caught her in her lie about beingThomas’s second cousin. He hadn’t cared at all, almost as though he’d known she was lying the entire time.
Secrets were humming beneath the surface of this island. But Hannah wondered if she’d ever have the strength to reveal them.
Maybe she needed to focus on motherhood instead.
Again, Hannah called her daughter. She listened as the phone rang and rang through the night. Standing, she traced a line back and forth through the kitchen, then hurried upstairs to check Minnie’s bedroom again. It was dark.
In Hannah’s own bedroom, she sat on the edge of her bed, her heart thudding. She imagined all manner of horrible things: Minnie in a ditch somewhere, Minnie in the water.
