to go,” Grace said. “And I can’t leave her. There’s so much work and she needs my help.”
“She can do without you for five or six days. And Mother will make sure she has help with the laundry and the mending while you’re gone.”
“I suppose I could ask,” Grace said.
“Now, there’s the tricky part. You must say it was my invitation, not my mother’s. Do you understand? That way, I’ll help to convince her. I will say it does you no good to study art history and then never visit a museum, or to study piano and never hear a great concert. It’s my wish that we have one last adventure before I go off to school. And she will agree.”
“Then let’s go ask her now,” Grace said anxiously.
Suddenly, the trip seemed so much more exciting. To explore a city as grand and as wonderful as London with his best friend would be an adventure to remember for a lifetime. He’d shown her all the pictures in the books, told her stories of his previous trips, the museums, the parks, the shops. But it wouldn’t be the same as experiencing it together.
When they reached the carriage house, they found Rose sitting near the window, darning stockings. She was hunched over her work, trying to see the tiny stitches through a pair of spectacles she’d purchased from a passing tinker. She looked up as Grace crossed the room. Edward waited by the door for an invitation to enter.
“Are you all right then?” A frown furrowed Rose’s brow. “You look as though the devil has been chasing you.”
“It’s the most wonderful news,” Grace said, trying to catch her breath. She glanced back at Edward and motioned him inside.
“What is it?”
“I’ve been invited to go to London. With Edward and Lady Porter. Isn’t that wonderful, Mama? I’m to see London.”
Rose’s expression turned cold and she stared down at her work, her fingers nervously toying with the needle and thread. “No,” she murmured. “I won’t have it.”
“But why?”
“I just won’t. You’ll not leave Ireland, not as long as I have breath in my body.”
Grace took a step back, as if stunned by the anger in her mother’s voice. “But why?”
Rose stood, tossing her darning to the floor, then crossed the room. She grabbed a linen towel and folded it smartly, then grabbed another. “You don’t think I know what Geneva Porter is about? She thinks she’s very clever, sending her son to convince me. But I see through her ways.”
“Mama, I don’t understand.”
“Tell her, Edward,” Rose said. “Tell her why your mother spends so much time and money on a servant girl.”
Edward shook his head. “I don’t know what you mean,” he replied, refusing to rise to her challenge. This battle for Grace’s soul had gone on since the very first day Geneva had held Grace. And it would continue until his mother or Grace’s departed this world.
“She has found a replacement for her dead daughter,” Rose continued. “And now, she’s decided to turn you into her daughter. The lessons and the clothes, the gifts. And now London. They’re all given at a price, Mary Grace.”
“She’s just generous,” Grace said. “It wouldn’t do to refuse. It would show that I have bad breeding.”
“Bad breeding?” She shook her head. “Tell me your name,” her mother demanded. “Say it. Say your name to me now.”
“Grace,” she replied. “I’m Grace Byrne.”
Tears flooded her mother’s eyes and she shook her head. “No. You’re Mary Grace Byrne. Mary is your given name. But because Lady Porter preferred Grace, I allowed you to be called that. But I won’t have her putting all these fancy ideas in your head. You’re a simple Irish girl who doesn’t need to be puffed up with silly dreams.”
“She doesn’t do that!” Grace shouted. “You’re lying.”
“I am your mother, Mary Grace. And you’d do well to remember that. Lady Porter isn’t interested in you. You remind her of her dead daughter and she’ll live off that fantasy for as long as she needs to grieve. When she’s finished, she’ll toss you aside.”
“Do you think I want to be a servant my whole life? Maybe I want something better. Lady Porter can give that to me.”
“You will be servant in this house, or some other house. Mark my words. If you think the Porters will ever accept you as their own, then you’re a bigger fool than I am, Mary Grace Byrne.”
“I’m going to London,” she said. “And you can’t stop me.”
Her mother stared at her for a long moment, then turned away. Edward watched as Rose’s shoulders slumped. For a moment, he thought she might collapse. But then she straightened her spine and lifted her chin. “Go then. You’ll make your own mistakes, you will. And when your heart is broken, then maybe you’ll finally know that I’m the only mother you’ll ever have.”
THE TRIP WAS MORE THAN Grace could have ever imagined. They’d taken the Lady Leinster, a night express steamer ship, across the Irish Sea from Dublin to Liverpool and then caught the train for London the morning of their arrival. She’d never thought to travel such a great distance. The farthest she’d ever been before had been an occasional trip to Dublin, a thirty-minute ride in the Porter’s motorcar. But this was a grand adventure and everything she saw was made more exciting because it was brand new.
She and Edward had stood on the stern of the ship and watched as Ireland faded into the misty evening horizon. Then, after a night in a comfortable cabin, they had breakfast as they watched England appear in the east, growing greener with each mile of water that the ship consumed.
A quick trip from the docks to the train station and they were soon onboard the London Midland Scotland line bound for London. Another comfortable compartment was waiting along with a light luncheon and a tea. Everything tasted so much better because she was eating on a boat or a train. The air seemed to vibrate with excitement and all the people she saw were wildly sophisticated. Grace knew, from that moment on, that she would always want to travel.
There was only one dark cloud hanging over the trip. She had left without apologizing to her mother. They’d barely spoken over the ten days between the invitation and her departure. Rose had waited for Grace to bend to her wishes and refuse the invitation, but Grace had been just as stubborn as her mother and was determined to go.
Grace hadn’t wanted to hurt her mother. And she knew her mother’s fears were not all imagined. But what harm would the trip do? And there was so much to be gained from it. Who was to care if it put grand ideas in her head or made her want more than she could ever have in life? Wasn’t it a greater sin to let such a wonderful opportunity pass by?
They took a small suite at the Savoy, a luxurious hotel with electric lights, gilt-adorned lifts and uniformed porters. Their room had a view of the Thames and the Waterloo Bridge. They took some time to get settled and after they’d unpacked, Edward invited Grace to take a stroll through the Embankment Gardens. Geneva begged off, deciding instead to have a cup of tea, then a short nap. They would have supper at five in the hotel dining
