Читать книгу Elements of Chance - Barbara Wilkins - Страница 17

12

“You’re very quiet today, dear,” said Lady Anne between sips of tea.

“I’m sorry, Your Ladyship,” Valerie murmured, as she gathered her courage to tell Lady Anne about her visit to the American embassy with Julian, to ask her if it would be all right if she went to a film with him one evening.

“You’re worried about your parents, of course,” Lady Anne mused. “Well, I’m sure Mr. Carrington will call us as soon as he hears from that public relations person at Penn International.”

“I went to the American embassy today,” Valerie blurted.

“You did what?” asked Lady Anne, horrified.

“Well, I was talking to Julian about it,” Valerie explained, “and he said I was an American citizen, and it seemed to him it would make sense if I went to the American embassy.”

“When did you go?” Lady Anne asked. “You were at the conservatory all morning, weren’t you?”

“It was all very spur-of-the-moment,” Valerie lied, her eyes averted as she concentrated on her cucumber and cream cheese sandwich. “Julian said, why didn’t we just go right then, and so we did. The man at the embassy thought it was kind of funny. He said that usually it was parents in America trying to find their kids.”

“You cut a class,” said Lady Anne, her voice like ice. “And you discussed a matter that concerns only the two of us with a stranger.”

Valerie looked imploringly at Lady Anne, trying to make her understand. “The man at the embassy said he would contact the State Department in Washington, D.C.,” she said. “He told me that they would know if my parents had applied for passports.”

“Valerie, I would like you to explain to me how you rationalize cutting a class,” said Lady Anne. “We won’t even go into what bad form it was for you to go to the American embassy without me. After all, I am responsible for you while you’re here in London.”

“I’m sorry, Lady Anne,” said Valerie, feeling the tears in her eyes. “I’m really sorry.”

“It would be best if you went to your room,” Lady Anne ordered in an awful, cold voice Valerie had never heard before.

Julian was waiting for her the next morning when Bernard dropped her off at the conservatory, and Valerie had to gather up her courage to tell him that she hadn’t asked Lady Anne if she could go out with him.

“Just do me a favor,” said Valerie, “and don’t pressure me.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and he looked so hurt that it made Valerie feel just awful.

Over the next few days, Julian was always waiting, with that same hurt look on his face, to walk her to class. Sometimes, they even held hands. After a few days, Julian seemed to realize that Valerie wasn’t going to ask Lady Anne if she could go out with him at night, so he started to push her about cutting class and just going to the little coffee bar in the next block where all the kids from the conservatory hung out.

Lady Anne didn’t even like it when Julian called her at home.

“You’re far too young for that sort of thing, dear,” Lady Anne would say vaguely.

The man from the American embassy called to report that no passport had ever been issued to Al or Vicki Hemion.

Valerie felt as if she were in limbo, right back where she started, which was nowhere. There was one lone flicker of hope, though, and that was Christmas. If she was ever going to hear from Vicki, decided Valerie, it would be at Christmas.

Bernard carried a tall, bushy tree into the drawing room, and when it was set up in front of one of the tall windows overlooking the street, Valerie helped Janet decorate it.

On Christmas morning, Valerie and Lady Anne opened presents before the roaring fireplace. Lady Anne’s special present to Valerie was genuine pearl earrings. The little package Julian had pressed into her hand just before the Christmas break was a sketch of her he had drawn, framed in silver filigree.

There was nothing from Vicki, though.

Lady Anne sat pensively in a wing chair in the drawing room. “I remember the first day you walked into this room. You were so pretty, as delicate as a little fawn.” She held her teacup with both hands as she smiled at Valerie, who sat in the matching chair across from her. “And oh so very frightened,” she continued. “My heart went out to you, dear. That’s why I told you I wanted you to think of me as your aunt, and to think of yourself as my little American niece. I wanted you to feel secure, loved.”

Valerie felt tears in her eyes.

“And, of course, I’ve been thinking about your dreadful predicament almost as much as you have.” Lady Anne put her teacup on the little Chippendale table next to her, and reached out her arms. “Come here, dear,” she said as she stood.

As Valerie moved into the circle of Lady Anne’s arms, she felt the older woman’s body trembling. “I’m going to make an appointment with my solicitor to see about becoming your legal guardian. This is our home now,” Lady Anne said, her voice husky with tears. “The two of us.”

She cares for me, Valerie realized. She really does. “Oh thank you, Lady Anne,” she whispered, tears of relief welling in her eyes. And then the anger, the bitterness again.

“How could they do this to me?” Valerie whispered, her own arms tentative around Lady Anne’s waist. “How could they leave me like this?”

“But we don’t know that, do we?” Lady Anne said. “We don’t know that they left you, dear. Something may have happened to them, something they couldn’t control.”

“Well, I don’t care,” said Valerie stubbornly. “I’ll never forgive them. Never.”

“You mustn’t say that,” Lady Anne admonished.

“But they’re my parents,” she sobbed, realizing she could never trust anyone, not even Lady Anne, to be there when she needed them.