Part 30 (1/2)
”Please do.” He paused. ”I love you.”
”We'll talk later,” she said quietly, and ended the call.
Hugh finished feeding Lizzie, but by the time she had burped, he was focused on what Dana had said. Mothers did play a special role. They were there when no one else was, seemingly bound by an unwritten contract with the child they had nurtured since birth.
Hugh had a mother. If she felt bound to him by such a contract, he needed to know. He picked up the phone.
Chapter 23.
Hugh figured that two hours had pa.s.sed since he had left Old Burgess Way. Lunch would be over. Larry Silverman would have left. Eaton would be in his library brooding, and Dorothy, as always, would answer the phone.
Her h.e.l.lo had none of its normal brightness.
”It's me,” he said.
There was a second's pause, then an indignant ”What did you say to your father, Hugh?”
”Didn't he tell you?”
”Not one word. He yelled out to us that there was an emergency, and proceeded to shut himself in the library. When I knocked and told him that Larry Silverman was leaving, he said he was on the phone. It was embarra.s.sing, Hugh. Very rude. He answers me each time I call him, but he won't come out. What did you say?”
Hugh couldn't tell her. It wasn't his place. Eaton would have to find a way-have to find the courage-to do that. He should have told Dorothy years ago. It boggled Hugh's mind that the man had let his wife go through two pregnancies without alerting her to those rumors. If the lawyer on the island had been one-half black, Eaton was one-quarter so.
That made Hugh one-eighth black. It was surreal.
But he wasn't telling his mother any of it. His father would have to do that.
”I have an emergency here, Mom. Dana's grandmother had a stroke.” Dorothy gasped. ”They're just now at the hospital, trying to figure out what caused it. I really need to be with Dana, but I don't know how long it'll be. I could take the baby with me, but the hospital isn't a good place for an infant. I need someone to stay with her here. Can you?”
”Uh...”
”I know you were here before.”
”Your father doesn't,” Dorothy said, sounding frightened. ”What will I say to him?”
”That I need you,” he suggested. ”That my baby needs you. I know I'm putting you in a difficult position, but there's no one else I trust.” They hadn't hired a baby nurse and didn't yet have a babysitter. He could call a service and hire a stranger. Or call David, or Tara. But Dorothy was his mother, and Lizzie was her flesh and blood. ”I need to be there for Dana. The last couple of weeks have been difficult. I haven't been as supportive as I should have been. I owe her.”
”Owe her? Is it an obligation?”
”I'll rephrase that. I've behaved badly and need to make amends.”
”Badly, how?” Dorothy asked.
”With the race thing. Mom, I can't go into this now, and as for Dad, he and I had a personal disagreement. You'll have to ask him the details.”
”He won't tell me. He's angry, and you're putting me in a difficult position. I don't know what to do.”
”Tell him about Ellie Jo,” Hugh said. ”Tell him that Dana's alone. He'll understand.”
”I don't think so.”
”Trust me. He will.”
Dorothy studied the library door. Crafted of solid mahogany, it had eight raised panels, each with a slight variant of grain. She ran her fingers over the texture of one, then knocked. ”Eaton? Open the door, please.”
His voice was muted. ”Not now, Dorothy.”
”There's a situation I need to discuss.”
”It can't be urgent.”
”It is,” she called, and flattened her hand on a panel. ”Dana's grandmother had a stroke. Dana is with her at the hospital. Hugh wants to join her there, but he doesn't want to take the baby with him. He asked if I'd sit with her while he's gone.”
From the other side of the eight-paneled door came silence.
”Eaton?” she called, jiggling the k.n.o.b. ”Please open this door. Please tell me what's wrong.” He said nothing. ”Eaton.”
”Go to Hugh's,” he called.
”I told him he was putting me in an untenable position, because you don't want me going there, but I do agree that he should be with his wife.”
”Go to Hugh's,” Eaton called, more insistent this time.
”Dana must be out of her mind with worry, because her grandmother has been everything to her, so I can understand why Hugh wants to be with her. If they'd known something like this might happen, I'm sure they'd have made other arrangements. It had to have been hard for Hugh to call and ask this favor of me, what with all that's been going on between us. But these things take you off-guard, and I am family, and what with their having a brand-new baby at home-”
”Dorothy! Go!”
”But you're my husband,” Dorothy said, bracing herself on yet another panel, ”and you're upset. I should be with you.”
There was silence. The door opened so quickly she jerked back in surprise.
”Dorothy.” He scowled at her. ”I told you to go.”
Dorothy was not rea.s.sured by Eaton's appearance. His hair was rumpled, his face pale, his eyes tired. ”Good Lord, you look like death warmed over.”
He sighed and pushed a hand through his hair, a gesture Hugh often made. The resemblance between the two had always been marked. ”I have things on my mind, Dot.”
”What things?”
”I think publication of this book should be postponed.”
She was appalled. ”But the book is already in print. The tour is set. We have several hundred people coming to a book party in the Sycamore Room at the University Club a week from Tuesday.”
”Some of the facts in it may be wrong.”
Dorothy let out a small breath. ”All right. This is normal. You're having last-minute jitters, like you always do on the eve of a book's publication, but I also know that you don't make mistakes when it comes to facts. You are a stickler for facts. Between Mark and you, everything is checked and double-checked.”