Paperquake (29 page)

Violet turned the page and read the next diary entry aloud:

 

"
April 5, 1906

"
Dear Diary,

"
Verity is so weak and listless most of the time now that it came as a great shock when she perked up today and said she wanted to see Hal and that I must help her. Most of the time she sleeps or tries to work her needlepoint portrait. But her fingers aren't so nimble anymore, and only last night she asked me to pick out nearly all the stitches she'd put in this week.

"
We had to let the twins in on the plan because I needed to get a message to Hal. Jane and Rachel promised to deliver it to him at the newspaper office if we would let them come along to Kauffman's—the restaurant down the street. It wasn't the best way to arrange a secret rendezvous, I know, but it was the easiest and quickest.

"
We set the time for four o'clock because I knew Mr. Stowe would be out of the shop on deliveries, and Mrs. Stowe would be busy with a fitting.

"
The twins and I sat near the door, leaving Verity to slip away alone to a table in the back. I plied the younger girls with cakes and hot chocolate, and, of course, Jane spilled hers and Rachel had a coughing fit over some crumbs. At last, from the window I saw my darling Hal's approach. He
cut a handsome figure, indeed, in his jacket and bowler, and looked every inch a gendeman. Yet I felt a heavy sadness despite my pleasure—for though his face lights with joy, his smile dazzles, and his eyes crinkle at the corners, none of this is for me. It is all for Verity.

"
He acted as if he did not see me and went quickly to sit with his beloved. They had their heads close together for SO long, I considered taking the twins home. But Verity had made me promise to remain—for propriety's sake as much as for safety's. She needs my assistance throughout the day and depends on me to be at her side.

"
I tried to keep the twins occupied by playing guessing games about the other customers. We decided the man with the walrus mustache, sitting alone and reading the newspaper, was a spy; the two fine ladies drinking tea were his
contacts
from the other side. We also thought the ladies would do well to order their next hats from Stowe's, as the ones they wore were clearly inferior and unfashionable.

"
Soon the girls tired of this game and left their seats, giggling. Before I could stop them, they were in the back of the restaurant, confronting their sister and Hal. 'Buy us some ice cream or I'll tell Papa you're here,' cried Jane. 'I think I shall tell him whether you get us ice cream or not!' added Rachel. Two more obnoxious girls I've never seen.

"
Verity's face grew alarmingly pale. I endeavored to reach her, but Hal was faster and gripped her shoulders. He turned to scold the twins, but Verity, to all our surprise, spoke first. And a rare scene was witnessed by the patrons of Kauffinan's restaurant as Verity shouted for the girls to leave her in peace, pronounced them horrible brats, and vowed that if they even once mentioned Hal to their fathe. or mother, she would personally cut off all their hair while they slept and throw it in the fire!

"
It was a thrilling scene. Walrus Mustache called out 'Hear, hear!' and The Unfashionable Hats tittered behind their hands. Some men would have been put off by such unseemly behavior, but I could see the admiration in Hal's eyes as he took V's arm and spoke soothingly. I dragged the girls home; they seemed mortified by all the commotion. But it was no less than they deserved!

"
From my window I could see the restaurant, and I watched as Hal kissed V good-bye.

"
Diary, I confess, I wept.
"

 

"Poor Laela," murmured Jasmine.

"That must be what Hal meant in the first letter I found," Violet pointed out matter-of-factly, "when he said Verity was 'wonderfully vibrant' after a quarrel with her sisters in a restaurant." She wasn't sure whether she felt sorrier for Laela or Verity.

"Good for Verity!" Rose approved.

"Yeah, but poor Laela," repeated Jasmine. "What's the next one say?"

 

"
April 7, 1906

"
Dear Diary,

"
The strange dreams have begun again and keep me awake at night. V tosses and twitches and cries out about disaster. She moans about bridges—Bridges! of all things!—and makes me promise to help the children...

"
Help? It seems all I do these days is try to help, but nothing makes V any better or affords her any peace of mind. She has not seen Hal again since the scene in the restaurant nor has she spoken of him.

"
Mr. and Mrs. Stowe sat with her a long time this
afternoon, and then after supper they had the doctor here once again. They do not tell me what is going on.

"
Even the twins are subdued now. I wonder if they, too, feel the coldness of the shadow of death? We all know, I think, it hovers very near.

 

"Bridges again," murmured Violet, quickly turning to the next entry.

 

"
April 11, 1906

"
Dear Diary,

"
Today on my afternoon off I went to the newspaper office and waited till Hal had his break, just long enough for us to take a walk, and I could deliver to him another of the letters from Verity. She dictated this most recent one to me in a voice so weak it was no more than a whisper. But she says she adores Hal, and I know if she were stronger, she would climb out of bed and go to him. But she cannot, so I continue to be her messenger. When she reads a letter from Hal her eyes shine with joy—much as I suppose my own eyes shine when I read the letter later and hide it away. I can't help it, Diary; I still pretend his notes are for me!

"
I know it is childish to do so, but I cannot help myself. And who will ever know?

"
Today when Hal read the note I'd brought, he began talking of his plans for their married life together, and oh, I could bear it no longer. I felt he must be made to understand how sick she is, how she won't recover, how their married life is nothing but a sad fancy. I wanted him to acknowledge that she is dying so that he can loosen the ties between his heart and hers. A little voice inside me
wonders whether I might not also want to hurt him—to punish him for loving her.

"
I hope not, dear Diary. I want my love for him to be purer than that.

"
Hal swears that if Death prevents him from marrying V, he will never marry at all.

"
We walked along, and he reminisced about how he and Verity had met last summer. Of course I've heard the story a million times from both of them, but I had no choice except to listen.

"
The first time he saw her was at an Exhibition of Art that he himself was covering for the newspaper. Verity had become separated from her family and Hal found her, nearly weeping, behind some potted palms. He was able to restore her to her family—not that they were particularly gracious at seeing her in a strange man's company! They hardly exchanged two words, but that was when he fell in love with her, head over heels, as they say.

"
The next time he saw her he was covering a burglary at the shop for the newspaper, and Verity had just fallen down the stats and injured her ankle. She may have been desperately ill already but didn't look poorly yet, and I guess it was easy, when he interviewed her about the burglary, for his love to increase to desperate passion.

"
I interrupted to tell him how she looks like
a
skeleton now, all wasted and bony with her long black hair spread on the pillow like an ink stain. I told him that she is now so weak she barely lifts her head for the broth I give her on a spoon.

"
He grew angry, Diary! He grabbed my arm and swore to me he will convince her father to let them marry even though her father maintains she is far too ill for suitors. Hal is convinced that her weak heart is only an excuse contrived by her parents to keep him away because he is a lowly
reporter instead of an editor at the paper. Yet I see with my own eyes that Air. and Mrs. Stowe are dreadfully worried about their oldest daughter and would give anything to have her healthy enough to be courted.

"
Hal's big plan now is to take her away with him somehow, and he begs my help in arranging her escape. If I care for him at all, he says, I will help them. My own heart boils with love for him, but oh, what good does my love do? I nearly weep when I watch his eyes and listen as he talks about
her,
his Poor Baby, his beautiful darling V held prisoner by her evil parents. She's no prisoner, I tell him, except of her own ill health. And she's no beauty, I told him today as we walked, and she's desperately sick, and you'll probably kill her if you take her away. Her parents are right about this—she's too ill to see him and too weak to climb from her bed, much less out the window...
"

 

Violet looked up from the page. Her sisters waited for more. "That's it," Violet told them. "That's the end." She leafed through the last few blank pages at the back of the ledger, then stopped. "No, wait a minute, there's one more entry. It's a letter to Hal! But it's really hard to read because it's got all these crossed-out words and scribbles in the margins."

"Let me see," said Rose, and Violet handed her the journal. "It looks like a draft, like something Laela was trying to get just perfect."

"Like what we do with our essays for school," Jasmine added. "You know how Ms. Martuscelli goes on about
revision
all the time."

"Let me read it," demanded Violet, and she took the ledger back from Rose. "I'll just try to work in all the corrections."

The handwriting was definitely Laela's, but the many crossed-out words made reading aloud hard. Violet motioned for her sisters to read silently along with her.

 

 

"Hey, wait a minute." Violet lowered the ledger, frowning. She checked the signature at the end of the letter. "This is the same letter that Verity wrote to Hal. The one that Mr. Koch gave me!"

"How can it be?" asked Rose. "It's in
Laela's
handwriting!"

"Maybe—maybe Verity was dictating it to Laela?" Jasmine suggested.

"No, it says right here that Verity is writing this herself." Violet pointed to the page. "But we know Verity
isn't
writing it—because this is definitely Laela's handwriting!" Violet stared at her sisters. "It's a rough draft."

"Read out some more," ordered Rose. "Let's see if it's exactly the same."

"I've got Mr. Koch's version right here," said Violet, opening the drawer to her desk. She removed the packet of letters and diary entries and sifted through the pages until she found Verity's letter to Hal. She spread it out on the bed next to the open ledger. "Okay. This is from Laela's diary: