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Realizing she had made a tactical error, Mama dropped the page.
They moved on to other matters, jousting every step of the way. Sarah had suggested that a certain amount of friction could be productive, producing better solutions in the end. She was right, though that didn’t make the process any more pleasant. But after the unprecedented apology, Kenver dared to hope that it might be, as time went by.
Their business finished, he made his way to the library. This room had become Sarah’s undisputed domain, as his mother’s parlor was hers. Sarah had decorated it to her own taste, and it was now the most welcoming chamber at Poldene, in Kenver’s opinion. Packets of new books also arrived with some regularity. He found his father there with his wife, sipping an herbal tonic. “Has your mother been here?” Kenver asked Sarah. “I’m sorry to have missed her.”
“No, I made it myself,” Sarah replied. She had set up a stillroom near the kitchen. Mrs. Moran was a frequent visitor, training Sarah in its uses. Kenver sat down beside her and felt peace and contentment wash over him.
“Tastes like the elixir of youth,” said his father and smacked his lips.
“You promised you wouldn’t say such things,” Sarah replied.
“That’s how it makes me feel.”
“My mother is very strict about this. We do not claim miracle cures.”
“She is a lovely lady.” He drank again. “I gave Alice some of this. She said it filled her with energy.”
“You had better not tell her I made it,” Sarah joked.
“I didn’t. At first.”
“You have now?” Kenver asked, curious about his mother’s reaction.
Papa nodded. “She allowed as how you knew what you were doing,” he said to Sarah.
“She did not!”
“Yes, she did. Well, once I reminded her of all the good things she’d already said about the drink. She couldn’t deny that, eh?”
“What makes you think so?” Kenver wondered. His mother was perfectly capable of changing her position without warning.
“Well, she could have. But I don’t think she wanted to.”
Sarah raised her eyebrows.
“She knows you saved my life,” Kenver’s father told her. “Took her a while to face up to it, but she did. You managed something she couldn’t do.”
“She was almost cordial at dinner the other night,” Sarah acknowledged.
“Shall we call it grudging respect?” Kenver asked.
“Tamara learned to hold a grudge from her,” his father mused, picking up on the word. “But I think Alice can learn to let one go from you.”
Sarah looked surprised and touched. “Thank you.”
“No, thankyou.”
Kenver met his wife’s blue eyes. They smiled, and he felt all his remaining tension relax.
His father dug a piece of paper from his coat pocket. “Letter from Henry,” he told them. “I must say a grandson seems like a fine thing. Pure enjoyment and no worries.”
His father preferred that, Kenver had concluded. He and Sarah had come to agree with his mother on this topic. Papa actually wasn’t a great estate manager. Poldene had benefited from Mama’s fierce qualities. Which was not to say her methods were the only ones.
“Need any help with your mother?” Papa asked, as if reading his thoughts.
“No, I can handle her.” Kenver thought of mentioning the apology and decided to save that for Sarah alone.
“Well, if you should need me…”
