The Tolling of Mercedes Bell: A Novel (22 page)

“I’ve brought Mercedes to meet you, Janine.” The old woman looked confused and her smile vanished. She looked up at the strange younger woman.

“You remember, last time I was here I told you about her?”

Janine nodded reluctantly.

“Well, last weekend I proposed to Mercedes, and she said yes!” His face was bright and expectant, like that of a young boy who had just done well and was waiting for praise. “I’ve been anxious for you to meet each other.”

Mercedes, who was glowing from the day’s events, leaned closer so the tiny old woman could see her more clearly.

“I’m very pleased to meet you, Miss Reneau. Jack has told me so many lovely things about you.”

Janine nodded, said nothing, and pointed to a nearby chair for Mercedes to sit. The old lady turned to Jack as if to say:
Next topic, please. We’ll pretend that never happened.

Jack explained that he’d come by to check her mail and to make sure she was staying out of trouble.

She replied with a jest, “The coppers haven’t come by to pick me up yet.” She observed Mercedes, who shifted in her seat.

“Is Enrique doing his job okay?” Jack inquired.

She nodded affirmatively. Enrique came in with a tea tray and set it down on the small table. He poured each of them a cup, mixed Janine’s the way she liked it, and brought it to her.

Jack excused himself, took his tea, and followed Enrique into the next room. The men spoke in soft voices for a few moments. Mercedes tried to engage Janine in small talk, but the old lady gazed vacantly forward, her eyes seemingly disconnected from the reality surrounding her.

Mercedes abandoned the effort, stood up, removed her coat, and walked around the room. On the wall was an old photograph of a severe-looking man in a stiff collar and dark coat. His dark hair was slicked down and parted in the middle. Beside him stood a fretful-looking little girl with pale eyes, possibly Janine as a child.

As she walked slowly around the room, Mercedes noticed that the old lady’s eyes were on her. She complimented Janine on the brooch she wore. The old lady touched it, muttering that it had been her mother’s. Mercedes volunteered that she had a young daughter to whom Jack would soon be a stepfather. Janine only squinted, and a worried look descended on her features.

Jack returned with his topcoat unbuttoned, holding a small stack of mail and a list. Janine brightened immediately. He sat beside her and took her hand. He said he’d come back to see her soon, before his trip to the Philippines, and bring her a Christmas present. She squeezed his hand.

“We just came from Shreve’s, and you’ll never guess what we bought there.”

“Oh, what?” asked Janine, wide-eyed.

“A big, beautiful sapphire engagement ring for Mercedes. Next time we come, she’ll have it on and you can see it.”

Janine looked a little crestfallen. He mentioned that they were going to be married within the next year, that they would make sure Enrique brought her to the wedding and that she had a new dress for the occasion. She responded with a faint smile and nod.

“There are loads of things we need to do before the wedding,” he said. Noting her lack of enthusiasm at the prospect, he added, “Janine, please don’t worry. You’re a very important part of our family. I’ll look after you as always—nothing about us is going to change. You’ll get to know Mercedes and her little girl, Germaine, who is a very well-mannered young lady. We’ll bring you to our home, and you can
enjoy Mercedes’s wonderful cooking. But right now we’ve got to go. I’ll pay these bills and bring you the items on your list.” He stooped over and kissed her forehead.

Mercedes stood and clasped Janine’s cold hand to say good-bye, thinking that Janine was only a few years younger than Elizabeth and fragile as an egg. Jack slipped the bills into his inside coat pocket and led Mercedes out of the building.

“Poor old thing,” he said. “I’m not sure she’s really fully aware of what’s going on. She’s losing her faculties a bit.”

“It’s natural that she’d be reticent. You’re the gallant knight, not someone she wants to share.”

“Janine was my refuge when I was a boy. She taught me many things. When I needed my mother the most, Janine was there.” Changing tone, he asked: “Is there time for you to come up to my place? We could do some wedding planning.” A mischievous grin on his face betrayed his motives instantly.

“You mean rehearse our wedding night. Very funny. Not until we get tested, my love.”

“And not until my lady has her ring.”
The ring.
The vivid image of it popped into her mind’s eye and a new rush of excitement filled her. She threw her arms around his neck, and he swept her off the ground.

“Next weekend,” he said.

“Next weekend,” she replied.

He drove her to the parking garage where her car was parked and pulled over to the curb.

“There’s something I’d like to show you and Germaine tomorrow. Are you doing anything in the afternoon? I’ll come over and pick you up.”

“Later in the afternoon we’ll have some time.”

“Okay, I’ll pick you up around four then.” His expression gave her no clues, nor did his lingering good-bye kiss.

T
HE NEXT AFTERNOON GERMAINE WAS
waiting by the window when Jack pulled up. She ran outside to greet him as if he had been gone for months. Mercedes watched from the doorway. Jack took Germaine’s hand, bowed, and kissed her fingertips.

“Mademoiselle,”
he said. She giggled. Behind his back he had a bouquet of flowers, which he presented to her.

“Perhaps you and your mother would like these.”

Germaine played along. “Perhaps. Won’t you come in,
Monsieur?”

He entered the house and hugged Mercedes. He kissed the top of her head and looked around the living room. He scrutinized the furnishings, as if sizing them up at a garage sale.

“What are you doing?” she asked pointedly.

“Nothing! Can’t a guy just admire your homey living room?”

“I know what you’re doing. Now that we’re engaged, you’re thinking about how we’re going to merge our households, in particular our sketchy furniture with your lovely things.”

“Not much gets by your mother,” he said to Germaine.

“No,
Monsieur
—nothing gets by her. Some things might get by her for a little while, but eventually she figures them out.”

“I see. Well then, I consider myself duly warned. And where are your pigtails when I need to yank on one of them?” Germaine scooted out of his reach.

Mercedes arranged the flowers in the vase she had pulled down from the shelf, then helped Germaine into her coat.

“Thank you for the flowers. They’re very beautiful,” she said to Jack.

“You’re welcome. And you’re very perceptive,” he said sheepishly. “I
was
sizing up your furniture, and soon you’ll see why.”

In a few minutes they were jetting down the freeway. They
turned up toward the hills of Oakland and into the beautiful Montclair district.

Mercedes knew the area well, for she and Germaine frequented the park in Montclair and the laundromat a few blocks away.

Jack had a sly smile on his face as he drove up past the shopping district, turned down a side street, and wound his way around the curves of the road. A canopy of trees overhung the road, and dense shrubbery partially concealed the homes.

He parked in front of a grand Mediterranean-style house with a red tile roof and white stucco exterior. There were hibiscus bushes on either side of a low wooden gate, which opened into a shaded courtyard with moss growing between the bricks. He unlocked the door of the house and ushered them into a spacious living room with a high open-beamed ceiling. The floor was polished wood covered with area rugs. A fireplace and brick hearth were in the center of one wall. Late-afternoon light flooded into the room from many leaded glass windows, which looked out onto a wild garden enclosed by an ivy-covered fence. The house was furnished and apparently inhabited, but no one was there.

“Welcome to one of my properties,” Jack said simply. “I’ve been thinking about where we should live and it occurred to me that this might be a nice place to begin our lives together.”

Germaine, whose eyes were filled with wonder, was silent. She clasped her mother’s hand and stood close to her. Mercedes looked admiringly around the room and curiously at Jack. So many surprises lately! She waited for him to explain further.

“I bought this house about ten years ago and lived here for a couple of years, but it was sort of lonely for a bachelor. I missed the energy of San Francisco. So I’ve been renting it out ever since. The tenants have given me permission to come in, so don’t worry. They know I’m deciding whether to renew the lease, which is up in April.”

He led them down a hallway to the master suite on the right and other bedrooms on the left, facing the backyard. Each room had French doors that opened onto a redwood deck. Mercedes noticed the beautiful woodwork of the house, the arched doorways between the living room and dining room and the hall leading to the bedrooms. Germaine let go of her hand and went in to inspect a large bathroom opposite the bedrooms. Then she walked carefully through one of the bedrooms, opened a French door, and stepped out onto the deck. Mercedes and Jack followed her as she explored, admiring the sylvan view and breathing in the moist, cool air.

In the corner of the deck was a hot tub, screened by wood lattice covered with ivy and wisteria. The house was on a downward-sloping lot that contained a yard carpeted with thick, soft grass surrounded by trees. The neighbors’ homes on either side were completely obscured by trees. It was like being in a tree house. Mercedes thought of her secret place in the woods as a child. She followed Germaine silently, like a doe with her fawn. Jack watched them both.

They proceeded along the deck to another pair of doors, which opened into the dining room. It would easily accommodate Jack’s dining table and chairs and even his chandelier, should he decide to bring it.

Next they walked into the spacious kitchen. There was a breakfast nook in the corner, with windows that looked out onto the deck and yard. There were plenty of cupboards, a big gas range, ample counters, and a pantry. Another door led downstairs into the basement. Jack flicked on the light and led them into the somewhat dank utility room. It had its own door to the backyard, and another internal door leading to a spacious unused room beneath the deck. Its exterior wall was also lined with windows facing the verdant yard.

“I’ve never quite figured out the logic of this room, but it would be great for storage, I suppose,” he said.

Germaine sprinted into the yard and was checking out the toolshed, blackberry bushes, and every tree within reach. One had a limb perfectly situated to hold the ropes of a long swing. There was a precipitous drop at the end of the yard, which was guarded by an eight-foot high wood fence.

“Be careful back there,” Jack warned. “We don’t want you to fall off the hill or get pestered by some varmint.” The warning only excited Germaine further. She picked up steam as she circled the yard and ran all the faster.

“What a beautiful house!” Mercedes exclaimed. “Do I dare ask about your other properties?”

“Well, let’s see, there’s a condo up in Lake Tahoe, a rental property in Huntington Beach, a share in an office building, a couple of lots, this and that.” He smiled like the Cheshire cat in
Alice in Wonderland.
“You see, we’ll be very comfortable.” He put his arm around her and pulled her close.

“I really don’t know what to say. It makes me wonder what else you’ve got up your sleeve.”

“I didn’t want to scare you off.”

He contemplated her pensive expression. They walked a turn around the yard and went back up the wooden steps to the deck.

“This patio furniture is ours too, as is the gas grill. And the hot tub works.” He shot her a look that needed no interpretation. Germaine came flying up the stairs and asked if she could go back into the house. She wiped her feet on the doormat and tiptoed into the dining room, followed by the adults. The heat kicked on. She walked over to a floor grate and stood over it to bask in the warm air.

“A couple of the kids in my class live up here,” she said cheerily. “Oh, it’s so pretty!” She scampered down the hall to look at the bedrooms again, and to speculate on which might become hers.

“So what do you think?” Jack asked Mercedes. “Should we move
in here? We don’t have to, you know. We can do whatever we want.”

“Such as?”

“We could buy another house and live somewhere else. We could even move down the peninsula if you like.”

“Your house is exquisite. I have no objections to moving here. How could I possibly?”

Even now she wondered if he had any idea what it had been like for her and Germaine the last three years. Perhaps it just was not possible to step into others’ shoes and imagine their lives—even when great love had bloomed. Even when two were taking each other as one flesh and one blood.

W
hen she hugged Germaine good-bye at Caroline’s house, she held her for an extra few seconds. Germaine had seen Mercedes’s overnight bag in the backseat next to her own. She knew her mother was meeting Jack.