Pandora fed Esme and then took a nap. When she woke, it was nighttime. The sky was dark, and the maid had lit the fire in the bedroom fireplace.
While she was sleeping, Harley had called. He was waiting for Milton to finish a dinner engagement, and they would drive up together.
Willie appeared in the doorway. He held a bunch of daffodils in one hand and a small container in the other.
“It’s so late you could have waited until tomorrow,” she said, her eyes alight with pleasure.
Willie strode over to the bed and kissed Pandora.
“I wouldn’t have slept a wink,” he answered. “The daffodils are from Maude Van Luyen, and Esther made strawberry gelatin.”
He glanced around the room eagerly. “Can I see her?”
Willie picked Esme up without waiting for a reply. He held her expertly, cooing to her while pacing around the room.
“Do you remember before Harley proposed? I said marriage isn’t anything without love,” her father began. “I was wrong. Holding Esme reminds me of when I first held you. Marriage can give you the one thing that will bring you joy your whole life: a child.”
“Harley and I are in love,” Pandora assured him. “We’re very happy.”
Willie placed Esme in the bassinet.
“I know. I saw it in the way you looked at each other at the ceremony.” Her father nodded. “I mean you have everything now; no one can take it away.”
The last visitor was Harley. He arrived just after she finished feeding Esme before bed.
“I wanted to stop and get flowers, but I was already so late. I ordered them to be delivered instead.” Harley kissed her.
It felt good to see Harley. She had missed him during the birth.
“I have flowers.” Pandora waved at the vase of daffodils. “I’m just glad you’re here.”
Harley was too choked up to answer. He stood at the bassinet and gazed at the tiny blond head wrapped in a pink blanket. When he turned around, his eyes were wet.
“She’s perfect. There’s nowhere I’d rather be than here with my beautiful wife and daughter.”
Her father was right. Pandora and Harley had everything they wanted: a beautiful house, each other, a child, the means to open her boutique. Their lives were about Esme now. Pandora wouldn’t let Porter Merrill or anyone else destroy their family.
Chapter Fifteen
February 1929, Hyde Park, New York
The day of Esme’s first birthday party was an unusually sunny day for February. A few hours before the party, Harley still hadn’t arrived. He hadn’t called, and when Pandora rang the townhouse in New York, no one answered.
Pandora tried not to get upset. She figured that Harley had probably taken clients to dinner, and it was so late when they finished, he went straight to bed. Perhaps he drove up this morning and stopped to buy Esme a present. He’d appear any minute, and she would have worried for nothing.
After Esme was born, Pandora had debated for weeks if she should mention seeing him with Porter the day she went into labor. At first, the image of them on the townhouse steps haunted her, and she could think of nothing else. But it wouldn’t do any good to confront him. At best, Harley would make up an excuse: they were discussing Porter’s political campaign or Harley happened to be in the neighborhood and they caught up over a late lunch.
Or what if Harley didn’t try to cover it up? What if instead he proclaimed he couldn’t live without Porter and was leaving her. Pandora still loved Harley. She couldn’t imagine life without him.
Over time, Pandora convinced herself that whatever happened between Harley and Porter was in the past. Harley had made a promise; he wouldn’t risk everything by being involved in a scandal. He was a doting husband and father. On the weekends, he couldn’t tear himself away from Esme. He read her picture books and took her for long walks in her pram. Monday mornings before he left, he kissed Pandora deeply. During the week, he sent flowers and chocolates, and he was always happy to see her on Friday evenings.
Pandora was happier than she had imagined she could be. Esme grew from a serene baby to an energetic toddler who walked at eleven months and loved to sing. She adored her parents equally, and even though she was spoiled by a succession of adults: Adele and Milton, Willie, Virginia, and Archie, who sent presents from England, she never had tantrums and was sunny and good natured.
Pandora set aside her guilty secret and concentrated on being the best wife and mother. If sometimes she caught herself looking at Esme and wondering whom she would look like when she was older or if she had inherited her happy disposition from Archie, she quickly thought about something else. In time, Esme would develop her own looks and personality.
Esme wasn’t the only thing that made Pandora happy. Summerhill became lovelier every day. During the winter, every room had a roaring fire, and Pandora loved nothing more than sitting in the morning room with the pale sun streaming onto the geometric-patterned rugs, sketching dresses in her notepad. They planned to build a pool house that summer, and Pandora was busy furnishing the guest wing.
Even more exciting, next week was the grand opening of her boutique. Instead of Hyde Park, she’d chosen to open the boutique in New York. Pandora couldn’t be more thrilled. It was everything she dreamed of. It had been Vivian Clarkson’s idea. Pandora told her about wanting to open a dress shop, and Vivian advised that she’d find a bigger clientele in Manhattan, so why not start there?
Vivian showed her the perfect space a few blocks from the Bergdorf Goodman building on Fifth Avenue and Fifty-Eighth Street. Pandora worried that it was too far uptown for the clientele she wanted to attract, but Vivian assured her that Bergdorf’s was the most elegant department store in New York.
Pandora took the shop on the spot. When she wasn’t with Esme, she spent every waking moment over the next few months choosing the decor for the boutique. Thick white carpet so that women’s heels didn’t click-clack on the wood floor. Pale blue velvet chairs for the sitting area, textured wallpaper that was elegant but wouldn’t upstage the clothes.
At the same time, she worked tirelessly on her designs. She wanted to keep her first collection small, so every piece had to be perfect. She bought the most expensive fabrics, buttons, and threads. She made smart day dresses for women’s lunches at Hotel Astor and the St. Regis, sumptuous evening gowns for the ballet and the opera. When she finally hung the garments on the store’s satin hangers, they shimmered like peacocks under the chandelier, and she knew that she had achieved her vision.
She also started a scholarship to send girls to college. Millie’s children inspired the idea. Millie’s son Thomas hoped to win a baseball scholarship to Columbia, like his idol, Lou Gehrig. Millie’s daughter, Daisy, was a fast runner, but no one encouraged her to compete, and there were no sports scholarships available for girls. Besides a few female tennis stars, like Willie’s pupil Suzanne Lenglen, women didn’t pursue careers in sports. The scholarship would be called the Willie Carmichael Scholarship for Women in Athletics and Academics, and Pandora was searching for the first recipients.
She had been busy this last year, but so very happy. She couldn’t let her doubts about Harley spoil Esme’s birthday. He’d be home soon, and she would have worried for nothing.