Breaking Up With Barrett, The English Brothers #1

Chapter 4 (2/2)

Barrett looked over at Emily, shadowed in the dim light of the backseat. He hadn't been alone with her in a car for a long time. Not since he was twenty and she was twelve, and he found her walking into town on a Saturday afternoon to pick up a few groceries for her mother. He'd pulled over and offered her a lift and though she'd seemed surprised at first, she'd opened the door and let him drive her to the store. Even though he had a pool party to attend in the neighboring town, he'd strolled the aisles with her, asking her about school, smiling when she called herself a "history dork." Half an hour later, he'd driven her home and Susannah had invited him to stay for hamburgers and hot dogs. He'd accepted the invitation, marveling at their use of paper plates and enjoying Susannah's excellent potato salad. Hours later, as they toasted s'mores with Felix and watched the fireflies, he'd remembered the pool party, which was long over by then.

Felix and Susannah had been an important part of Barrett's childhood and adolescence. He never remembered a day of his life when they weren't somewhere on the grounds of his parents' estate tending the gardens, fixing one of the fountains, serving at an elegant dinner or hustling up the stairs with a pile of fresh towels. Haverford Park, his parents' thirty-acre, ten-bedroom estate in tony Haverford, had more staff than Felix and Susannah, of course, but there was something special about the Edwards, and all of the English children knew it.

Emily's great-grandfather, Stuart Edwards, had been the gardener for Barrett's great-grandfather back in the 1920s, brought along from Canada when the English family first emigrated to Philadelphia. Her grandfather had taken over the position in the 1950s and her father had stepped up in the 1980s. For as long as the English family had lived at Haverford Park, the Edwards family had lived there too.

Except for Boxing Day, which the Englishes and Edwardses celebrated together every year, the annual Summer Party, to which the Edwards were always invited, and very occasional impromptu gatherings—like Barrett staying for hamburgers and hot dogs on an odd Saturday afternoon after helping Emily run an errand to the store—the two families didn't socialize, but co-existed peacefully, respecting the differences in their incomes and stations.

But for Barrett, Felix Edwards was more than just the third generation of Edwards men who had tended the gardens at Haverford Park. He and Susannah—and Emily, for that matter—had provided a sense of quiet stability at Haverford Park while Barrett's parents attended a multitude of business and social engagements throughout Barrett's childhood. Susannah often minded the five English brothers when his parents went out for the evening, telling them bedtime stories over hot cocoa and kissing them all goodnight. She would tousle Barrett's hair affectionately when the five boys waited for the Catholic school bus that picked them up outside the gatehouse every weekday morning. Felix fixed up many a skinned knee with the Band-Aids he kept in the greenhouse. There was something terribly comforting about the constant presence of the Edwards family at Haverford Park, and Barrett was genuinely concerned about Emily's mother.

People didn't just fall down stairs. It was a symptom of something. Sitting beside Emily as the town car moved swiftly toward Haverford, Barrett took his phone out of his pocket and dialed a number.

"Victoria? Barrett English here. Yes, of course. Tell him we'll set something up next week. I need a favor."

He glanced over to see Emily still looking out the window despondently, the streetlights highlighting her worried features as they made good time leaving the city.

"You're still on the board at Kindred Hospital, I presume? Who's the best neurologist there?"

Emily's back straightened, and her neck turned slowly to look at him, her expression unreadable.

"I need you to call him. Tonight. Yes, now, I'm afraid. If he's not on duty, I need him to get dressed and head over there anyway. Yes. I need him to check on an important friend of our family, Susannah Edwards. Right."