The Daughter's Walk - Jane Kirkpatrick [60]
“We didn’t make it on time,” I said. “I sprained my ankle and the sponsors wouldn’t pay. That added to Ole’s upset.”
“We never thought that was fair,” Louise said. “After all, a sprained ankle on a walking trip is certainly predictive of a consequence not unlike food poisoning, and we made an adjustment for that.”
I frowned. Had the newspaper articles covered my food poisoning?
“So we felt we ought to tell you …” Louise looked to Olea. “We were going to in time, but your request gives us the opening.”
“What?” I said. My heart started to pound, and my breath tried to disappear. “What do you have to tell me?”
“We, that is, we know about the sponsors, the ‘parties’ in New York. There were five sponsors,” Olea said. “Each put up two thousand dollars to make the wager. We hoped to raise awareness of new trends in the fashion industry. It was an investment. We were … two of those investors.”
My face burned at their betrayal. These very women had been the ones to victimize Mama and me? How could I have come to trust them, to think of them almost as family? I stood. I had to get out. “You … withheld the money? What kind of people would do that?”
“Please sit. Let us explain,” Olea said.
“No! You made us beg to get back home. You didn’t keep your part in the—”
“Please. Sit,” Olea said.
In my confusion I sank onto the divan, shaking. I nipped at my nails, then clutched my hands in my lap.
“Louise and I were in Europe when you arrived, and the other sponsors didn’t even advise us of the details until we returned in May, when the only thing in bargaining position by then was the book. We protested. It didn’t seem fair at all, but we were outvoted by the other three, and even that was after the fact. You were on your way back to Spokane, and there was this agreement about a book, which they said they wouldn’t honor if we gave you some of the money ahead of time for having reached New York at all.”
“There’d been a bit of a downturn in their resources,” Louise said. “Well, ours too. They were looking for an honorable way out. It got very confused. And didn’t feel right at all. We made the trip to Spokane that summer to get away from it, thinking a change of scenery would be good. And we knew Mary Latham, but she had no part in the decisions.”
“They did urge Mr. Depew to advance the ticket,” Olea said. “I’m sorry it took them so long to arrange for that.”
“It was an ugly business,” Louise said. “We consider it a gift that Olea met you and we saw what a fine young woman you are and that you had such hopes to finish the book. We hoped everything would work out, but then there was never any book.”
“Because of my stepfather.” I didn’t add that my mother’s sorrow might have prevented her from writing the book at all, but because of Ole, she wasn’t even allowed to try. And neither was I. “But you … I …” I ought to leave, have nothing to do with them, and yet they had been so kind. I was as torn as an old bed sheet.
“So, no. You cannot have the loan for fifteen hundred dollars,” Olea said.
I nodded. Of course not. These were wealthy people, and they played by their rules. I’d violated my own rule by trusting someone and then letting money become part of the equation. How foolish I’d been. Foolish and trusting, just like my mother.
I stood. “I’ll pack my things and be gone in the morning,” I said.
“What we will do is give you what we’d committed back then,” Olea said. “We’ll give you four thousand dollars, two thousand from each of us. You can give half to save the farm if that’s what you’d like, and we hope you’ll keep half for yourself to invest or to make your own start. No strings attached.”
“You’ll give it to me? But—” My words faltered. Such generosity was unheard of! Were there truly gifts without obligation?
“We won’t loan it; it’s yours. We’d consider it one of our best investments ever if you’d forgive us for the very long delay.”
TWENTY-SIX
For Family
I