Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Remembrance May 1921

Memorial Day 1921

"Come say hello to our guests," Nucky instructed when Clara came out of her hallway. Dressed in a pale pink silk dress covered in white beaded embroidery, with white crocheted gloves, her best string of pearls, a white picture hat, stockings, and shoes, she looked pristine. She finally looked like his daughter, for the first time in a long time, he thought.

Getting her out of Atlantic City and away with her boarding school friends-her society friends-for Dorothy Grenville's wedding was obviously the correct course of action, he reflected. He hoped she would tell him later that she met a young man during her three weeks in Newport. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes bright, so he had hope. It was past time for Clara to marry and leave behind her childish dependence on James. He wanted her settled, and with everything going on he'd be happier if she settled down away from the Boardwalk.

"Ah, Attorney General Henry Daugherty. We met in Chicago," Clara said.

Nucky watched her charm Daugherty and Jess Smith. It appeared effortless. Good, he thought, it was past time she started behaving like herself again.

"Are we honoring any of your friends today, Miss Thompson?" Daugherty asked in the car as they drove to the Memorial.

"A boy I went to school with was killed at Argonne," Clara said simply.

"Well, we certainly appreciate the sacrifices all those fine young men made."

Clara nodded, and Nucky noticed her face clouded over. "Two of my closest friends were injured-seriously injured-during the war. Neither would have survived without modern field medicine, but..."

It took all of Nucky's self-control not to roll his eyes. Jesus Christ, was she incapable of letting James go for one second? "Harry, let me tell you about the golf course we're going to be playing today," Nucky cut in.

Owen pulled up to the Memorial, but Nucky grabbed Clara's wrist before she could exit the car. "At your age, do I really have to remind you how to speak to our guests?" he hissed at her from between gritted teeth when the other two men got out. "No one wants to hear about injured soldiers."

Clara's eyes flashed. "My apologies, I don't know what I was thinking, speaking about veterans on Memorial Day."

When the hell had she become so endlessly infuriating, he wondered. "Who is the other soldier that was injured?"

"Richard."

"Do I know him?" Nucky asked, wondering if somehow Clara had attracted some broken former Army officer at the wedding. At this point, a damaged society boy was fine, he thought. Anything to get her away from James.

"Harrow?" Clara responded in a tone of voice that made it clear she couldn't believe he needed to ask, what other Richard could she possibly be speaking about.

Nucky fought to control his temper. James was ridiculous enough. He'd been fine for a childhood friend, and if James had finished Princeton, met Clara's Bryn Mawr classmates, and they had both gone on to marry well he would have been happy for their friendship to continue. Hell, he wasn't even opposed to the Commodore's idea of marrying them off to each other if James had stuck to Nucky's plan for him. But now James was his enemy, and it was James's damn fault he was spending Memorial Day with Harry fucking Daughtery. But insisting Richard Harrow was her friend, oh no, that wasn't enough for Clara, insisting he was one of her closest friends when the freakshow sided with James?

She had gone too far. It was time to bring Clara back under control.

"Have you taken complete leave of your senses? He was your bodyguard, back when he worked for me. You wanted to be friendly to some maimed remnant of a man, fine. But he works for my enemy, Clara, and you best remember whose daughter you are. This is not a story with a happy ending for the vanquished."