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From up above,Delphia and I watched as James’s father got into the back seat of one of our cars. Jasper, who apparently would drive him to the station, put Mr. West’s suitcases into the trunk.
“He’s going?” Delphia whispered. “What’s happened?”
“I don’t know.” We knew nothing, other than we’d seen Theo’s arrival and heard hushed voices behind the closed door of the guest room where they were hopefully making Lena better.
Jasper got in the car and pulled out of the driveway, faster than usual, I noted, with some humor.
“What could have happened?” Delphia asked again, then answered her own question. “James told him. That has to be it. He finally told him he can’t marry Lena.”
She had to be right. Why else would Mr. West leave? He’d done it. “He’s done it,” I whispered out loud.
“He’s done it,” Delphia said. “Brave, brave James. Go downstairs and find him.”
“But Mama said to stay here. I don’t want to be in the way. And what about Mr. Masters? He’ll be there, and I can’t face him. It’s all out in the open now. I think it must be, right?” I realized I was rambling, but the excitement and drama of the day had stolen my reticence.
“It must be.” My sister reclined into the corner of the window seat and wrapped her arms around her knees. I did the same on the other end, our toes touching. How many times had she and I sat here together over the years?
There was a soft knock on the door, followed by Mama coming into the room. I held my breath, waiting to see what she had to say.
“Lena’s going to be fine,” Mama said. “Between the tea and Theo’s medical skills, they got most of the poison out of her.”
“Thank God,” Delphia said.
“Mr. Masters is with her now,” Mama said.
“Does he know?” I asked. “That James and Lena won’t marry?”
“James told them everything,” Mama said. “He told them about you, Addie. About his feelings for you.”
“Oh,” I breathed.
“What happened then?” Delphia asked.
“Mr. West didn’t take it well. Your papa asked him to leave. Apparently, it was quite a scene. James belongs to us now.”
To us? To me? Dare I hope?
“What about Mr. Masters?” Delphia asked. “Is he going to disown Lena? Will she have to live with us now?”
“He’s come around,” Mama said. “Your father gave him some good advice, and the man isn’t too prideful to see that if he wants Lena in his life, he needs to accept her as she is. Including the baby and the man she’s in love with.”
“I can’t believe it,” Delphia said. “I didn’t think he’d see reason.”
“I have to say, I agree.” Mama smiled. “Sometimes people astound me with their cruelty. Sometimes they surprise me with their capacity for forgiveness.”
“A happy ending for Lena after all.” Delphia spoke softly, without the sharpness that usually accompanied anything to do with Lena Masters. “Will she marry this man? The father of her baby?”
Mama nodded. “I’m assuming so, but that’s for her to work out.”
“Mama, what do I do now?” I asked. “About James, I mean?”
She came to sit between us on the window seat and patted my knee with her small white hand. “I know you didn’t expect this and would never have asked James to do so, but he did the one thing he didn’t think he could ever do. He chose his own happiness over saving his father. He chose you, dearest. It’s a great responsibility—some might even say a burden.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” I said. “James isn’t a burden. I love him.”
“I suppose I mean that he gave up something important to him so that he could have you. And it might feel like too much responsibility, as if you have to be perfect to make sure he doesn’t ever regret his choice.”
I laughed. “I never thought of that. I’ll never feel that way. Standing up to his father had to be done, regardless of how he feels about me or even Lena. James could not be free until he did so.”
