The Sins of the Fathers

Chapter Five

The Cartwright Residence

Boston

Massachusetts

"How are you finding Boston, Miss Stoddart?" Howard Procter asked as the soup course was served by four maids in long black dresses with white aprons. Dinner at the Cartwright's was a lavish affair, with no expense spared, and the servants were all part of the performance to impress their guests. "I believe you hail from Chicago, Ma'am?"

"My father lived in Chicago, Sir...I was actually born in France, to English parents...and I moved to the windy city to nurse my dear Papa, after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, almost thirty years ago?" Mena replied demurely, sticking to the backstory the Rosen Foundation had developed for her new identity. It mirrored the truth, because she had been born in France, although to a French mother and an English father, but she had never been to Chicago in her life. "I really like it here...the community is so welcoming...and my Boston family have made me feel very much at home."

"Olivia was devoted to my uncle...she did everything for him for almost thirty years...such a cruel disease?" Stuart Stoddart added, supporting Mena. "We are just delighted to have her staying with us...she deserves a little pampering?"

"How selfless, Miss Stoddart? You never married?" Pamela Cartwright asked, and Mena could not help blushing a little.

"She hardly left her father's side in all that time?" Mary Stoddart said as she watched Grace take a spoonful of vegetable soup, following all the lessons Miss Klein had been teaching her to perfection, and not getting involved in the conversation unless invited to do so.

"God guided me...I felt it was my duty...as a daughter...and my honour?" Mena said, and to save her blushes, Brett Stoddart asked Howard Procter how he was finding Boston, as he had been based in New York for some years.

"Good...Miss Stoddart is right, the community is so very welcoming...and thanks to your recommendation, Mrs Cartwright, I have found an excellent keeper to look after my girls...I think that has helped us all settle in rather well?"

"Such sweet girls...Mrs Palmer-Stoddart and I met them in the park, Mr Procter? I thought that they were just adorable?" Mena said, fondly remembering her little chat with Bailey and Emily.

"Oh, yes...I heard that you joined Mrs Palmer-Stoddart for some exercise...Miss Klein put you both through your paces, Miss Stoddart?" Pamela Cartwright asked with a twinkle in her eye, intending to embarrass both her and Grace, Mena thought, but unlike her friend, she was not so easily provoked.

"Gentlewomen like us who are fortunate enough to have keepers should be guided by them once in a while...don't you think so, Mrs Cartwright? My circumstances when I was Grace's age meant that my training was...minimal...and I was grateful to Miss Klein for giving me the benefit of her experience?" Mena suggested as if butter would never melt in her mouth in a million years. "And Grace and I are so very close...we love exercising together, don't we, dear cousin?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Grace replied politely, smiling at Mena, but behaving as a young wife in much older company should. She was on edge, full of nerves, and she was furious that Pamela Cartwright was still being horrid to her, not to mention Mena, but she thought that she had done well so far, and Brett had even smiled at her, showing her that he approved of her best endeavours.

"My Bailey told me about your conversation in the park, Miss Stoddart...she said that she was nervous about being leashed in front of her new school friends...and that you made her feel much more at ease?" Howard Procter, her immediate neighbour to her left said, resting his hand briefly on her arm. "I am delighted to have the chance to say thank you in person...I think it is at moments like that when my girls miss their mother the most?"