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Mama paled and clutched the collar of her dress. “Delphia, you are too much. Goodness, you’re going to send me to an early grave. You do realize there have been seven of you? I’m tired. The hardest of you seems to have come last.”
Delphia frowned, then burst into tears. “I thought I was doing good. For once. I truly did.”
I couldn’t stand to see her cry and went to sit next to her, taking her into my arms. “We know you meant well.”
“I want everything for you. All the happiness you deserve.” Delphia drew away, swiping her dirty, tear-stained face. “Why should that awful Lena get James?”
“You’re not God,” Mama said to Delphia. “You don’t decide these things for others.Heis the judge and decider of fates, not you.”
“Maybe God was working through me,” Delphia said in a small voice. “Did anyone ever think of that?”
“God would not have used treachery and deceit, my dear daughter.” Mama sighed and sank into the armchair. “Not even for Addie and James.”
“Well, what then?” Delphia asked. “How was I supposed to make sure my sister gets what she wants—what she deserves?”
Mama touched her fingers to the sides of her face and tapped. “You’ve added to an already complex problem.”
“You admit it is a problem, then?” Delphia asked. “That Addie should be protected and looked out for?”
“I understand your motivation, darling.” Mama clasped her hands on her lap and rocked back and forth. “However, we have more of a mess than we had before. If Mr. Masters discovers today’s activity, he may react with great anger and vengeance. Not to mention James. He’s trying to save his family despite what he desperately wants, and now he has to untangle yet another situation he hasn’t made for himself.”
“He wants Addie,” Delphia said. “He’s in love with her, Mama. And she with him.”
“Yes, dear, I understand that,” Mama said, sounding weary.
“Then how can you sit there calm as can be and watch Addie’s heart break?” Delphia asked.
“Let me tell you something, dearest,” Mama said. “There is no greater hardship than watching your child’s heart break. I’m quite aware of Addie’s feelings, and I want more than anything for her to be happy. However, you mustn’t interfere with something like this. Lives hang in the balance. It’s not for a sixteen-year-old girl to solve.”
“But no one was doing anything,” Delphia said, her voice high-pitched. “I will not have it. It simply won’t do.”
“Delphia, it’s sweet of you to want to help,” I said. “But this has to be James’s decision. He is the one who has to wake up and look at himself in the mirror every morning.”
“Yes, and it’s an impossible choice.” Mama was quiet as she lifted her face to the ceiling. “A boy wants his father’s approval, perhaps more than anything else.”
“Not love. Not that,” Delphia said. “You’re wrong.”
“Delphia Barnes,” Mama said.
“I’m sorry.” Delphia looked down at her hands. “It’s just too hard to sit by and watch as the love of your sister’s life marries someone else. What would you have done for Annabelle?”
“It is an excellent point,” Mama said, less sharply than before.
“What will happen now?” I asked, as if either of them had an answer.
“We must think of solutions to the problems we’ve caused,” Mama said, with a pointed look at Delphia. “I’m afraid for Lena. If her father disowns her over this, then we must offer to take her in and shelter her.”
“Shelter? At our house?” Delphia’s mouth dropped open before she shut it hard enough that her bottom and top rows of teeth clapped together.
Mama nodded at Delphia. “Your interference in this has made her our responsibility.”
“It’s like a fox living in a henhouse,” Delphia said.
“In this particular case, you’re the fox, darling, not Lena.” Mama’s mouth lifted in a grim smile as she rose up from the chair and looked over at me. “Your father told you of his offer?”
I nodded, scarcely able to breathe. Was it possible? Dare I hope?
“As your father promised, we’re willing to take James’s mother and sister into our home,” Mama said. “This will be disruptive to all our lives, but we’re willing to do it if that’s what James decides he wants. However, the hold his father has over James is tight. You must remember that, Addie.”
