Tapestry by Belva Plain

Author:Belva Plain [Plain, Belva]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8041-5254-9
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2014-05-28T04:00:00+00:00

She was upstairs, feeding the baby, when she heard Alfie calling to her. He was coming up.

“In here,” she answered. “In the baby’s room.”

He had been downstairs for over an hour with Donal, and she dreaded seeing him.

“Well, Meg,” he said, pausing in the doorway. The greeting came out like a chuckle, like joy gurgling in his throat.

“Well, Meg.” He bent to kiss first her and then the baby, who continued undisturbed to slurp mashed banana. “He’s a prince, your husband. So easy, he made it. Considerate, didn’t press me for a thousand details, just took my word as a gentleman in the old-fashioned way. We shook hands on everything only a minute ago.”

She was bewildered and incredulous. “You mean that he lent you enough to cover everything?”

“No loan. He bought everything. Seven properties. Not Laurel Hill. I’m keeping Laurel Hill. It’s going to be our all-year home. You know, that was the thing that would have killed me, Meg. I swear I can stand a lot of loss, but Laurel Hill is in my blood. It’s like a living thing.” His eyes filled. “God, I don’t know how I could ever have walked away from the place.”

Donal had paid for the New York properties exactly what Alfie had paid for them, so that Alfie had broken even, and now had a small amount of cash, not much, because there had been little equity in any of the properties. In addition, Donal agreed to pay Alfie a modest salary to manage the properties. So, by being careful about expenditures and living very quietly in the country, he and Emily had come out of a debacle and were safe, thanks to the unbelievable generosity of Donal Powers.

“I can’t believe it! I hardly hoped—” Alfie paused for breath. He put on a shamefaced expression. “He was the last man in the world we wanted you to marry. I’m sorry to say I wasn’t nice to him in the beginning. When you think about it, he’s a pretty large-minded man to overlook that now.” He sighed. “However, I suppose it was understandable. I know it was. We all thought his business was scandalous. But after all, when you think about it, some of the fanciest families in this country got their start a hundred years ago in the slave trade, or bringing opium to China. That’s true, isn’t it?” Alfie’s tone was almost hopeful.

She was thinking that she was now forever in Donal’s debt.…

“Oh, I know you worry about what he does, Meg; you never say, you have pride, and I’m proud that you have, but I know all the same. Let me tell you, though”—and here Alfie leaned forward as if he were implanting a secret—“listen to me, that fellow Hoover is finished. The Democrats will be in with the next election, Prohibition will go, and Donal will be aboveboard. He can either stay in the liquor business or take his cash and go into any other thing he’s a mind to. An enviable position.

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