Nora and Liz (34 page)

“That’s right, folks.” Roy put one arm briefly around Helen and the other around Louise. “We’re going to start clearing some of the woods here at
Tillot
Farm Estates, and we’ll continue as long as weather permits, but we’re going to wait till spring for Piney Haven.”

“You’ll be leaving some trees there, surely?” said Marie Hastings, resplendent in scarlet chiffon and her long-dead mother’s garnet earrings.

“Oh, yes, absolutely. Here, too, but more at Piney Haven. That’ll be the resort, after all. Boat house, tennis courts, restaurant, beach, small tourist cabins among the trees, but you town
folks’ll
be able to use it by day, too. I expect all of you to come to sun yourselves and relax as soon as we open. Target date,” Roy added, beckoning to a waitress bearing a tray of full champagne flutes, “is a year from July. Right, honey?” he added as Georgia appeared and snuggled under his arm.

“Right, darling,” she said.

“And when,” asked Helen, with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, “is the happy day for you two?”

“This coming June,” Roy said, beaming, “isn’t it, Reverend?”

“Yes, indeed.” Charles nodded to Dr. and Mrs. Cantor, who were passing in earnest conversation with Nora and Liz.

“Congratulations, my dear,” Dr. Cantor was saying, his thin, solemn mouth almost smiling; he gently held Nora’s hands. “I know everyone has been saying how hard all this must be, but I imagine you’re glad to put it all behind you, for this wasn’t a happy place for you, especially toward the end. And you’re doing a service to the town. You, too, Miss Hardy. ”

“Liz, please,” Liz murmured, wondering if she dared take Nora’s arm in public.

“Yes,” he said gravely; “thank you,
Liz—
a service to the town, broadening the tax base, bringing in much-needed money.”

“It’s sad about the land, though,” Nora said. “I’m sorry to see that go. Especially Liz’s. But it was the only solution to Father’s nursing home bills.”

“I can see why you sold the farm, Nora,” said Mrs. Cantor, a small, capable-looking woman, surprisingly cheerful, Liz thought, in comparison to her husband. “But”—she turned to Liz—“why the old cabin? If I’m not prying…”

You are a little, Liz thought, amused. Aloud, smoothly, she said, “Too many memories. At first we wanted to keep it, my brother and I, but in the end it was too hard for both of us.”

And that had turned out to be true, Liz thought, for when Jeff and Susan and Gus had visited, and she and Jeff had sat for most of one night down by the dock, Jeff had said, “I can’t do it; it’s like forcing me back into the past to be here,” and Liz had realized then that she felt the same way after all, and that she wanted to move forward into her new life with Nora and toward the new, more honest self she’d found with her.

“
Mmm
,” Mrs. Cantor was saying. “Yes, I can see that. Why I remember,” she said with a little silvery laugh, “a few years after my father died…”

Predictions, thought Liz much later that night, shivering with Nora on the land across from Piney Haven that they’d bought jointly and where they planned to build their house; I’m so bad at them! But perhaps this will work; I think at least we’ll try to be careful. Careful, honest, brave, trusting—not remote, not guarded…

A new life, thought Nora, standing as close to Liz as she could, is such a thing really possible? She thought of the lines she’d written soon after her mother’s death: “
a new person, whole but forged from fragments.”
Can I really do that, emerge from my solitude enough to be with Liz closely and still be me? Can we both heal enough to be together, and help each other go on healing?

“I promise,” Liz whispered softly into Nora’s hair as if they’d both spoken out loud, “to try.”

“So do I,” Nora answered, kissing her. “So do I.”

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