were divided. She didn’t approve of her aunt’s drinking or of the way she occasionally treated Uncle Jeff Henry so cruelly. But Ella loved her mother’s younger sister because Aunt Cybil adored her so unabashedly. Her aunt had been the one who’d bought her her first bra; the one who’d explained about menstruation; the person she’d turned to when she wanted to know the facts of life. Often Ella felt as if she had two mothers, each performing different functions in her life. Carolyn was her moral center, the one who taught her good manners and lectured her on the art of being a lady. But it was Cybil who had made mud pies with her and pushed her high into the sky on her backyard swing and taught her how to drive a car.
Whenever a family evening ended badly, Ella knew that it was her job to console her mother, while it was her father’s job – when he was in town – to help Uncle Jeff Henry control Cybil. How was it possible, Ella wondered for the millionth time, that two sisters whose physical appearances were almost identical could have personalities that were poles apart?
She lifted her hand and knocked. Viola opened the door, her expression void of any emotion.
‘She’s been waiting for you,’ Viola said. ‘I’ve changed her into her gown and helped her into bed. I don’t know why she puts up with it. Family or no family—’
‘Why don’t you go on to bed, Viola? I’ll stay with Mother until Daddy returns.’
Her mother’s nurse huffed. ‘Very well, Miss Ella. But if you need me—’
‘I’ll call you if I need you.’
Viola plodded over to Carolyn’s bed, fluffed the pillows around her and asked if she needed anything. Ella watched how caring and attentive the nurse was, and once again she chastised herself for disliking the woman. Viola Mull looked like Mrs Potato Head, with thin legs and a rotund body. She kept her gray hair cut in a short, straight bob that made her head look as round as her figure.
‘Ella, darling, is that you?’ Carolyn’s voice contained just a hint of weakness, as if she was exceedingly weary.
‘Yes, Mother.’
‘Come sit with me.’ Carolyn patted the bed. ‘Talk to me until your father comes home.’
Wearing pale-yellow satin pajamas, Carolyn sat perched in the middle of the massive, canopied mahogany four-poster with white lace trailing down the posts and pooling on the hardwood floor beneath. Pristine white sheets edged with lace perfectly matched the white down coverlet that lay folded at the foot of the bed. White pillows, stacked three deep, rested behind Carolyn’s thin body.
‘Let my hair down for me and brush it, would you?’ Carolyn smiled at Ella. Ever since she’d been a child, Ella would do anything to be rewarded with one of her mother’s smiles. She had spent a lifetime trying to please Carolyn, hoping that in some small way she could repay this lovely woman for having adopted her and for giving her a family and a life that others could only dream of having.
Ella went into the adjoining all-white bathroom and gathered up her mother’s silver brush and comb along with the matching hand mirror. When she sat down on the side of the bed she laid the items in her lap, then scooted up in the bed so that she sat beside Carolyn. Brushing her mother’s hair had become a ceremony over the years, and to this day she loved the feeling of closeness that this simple act generated between them. One at a time, Ella loosened the pins that held Carolyn’s hair in the loose bun. When she removed the last pin, her mother’s shimmery black hair fell down her back, stopping just inches above her waist. Only a few strands of gray glistened when the lamplight struck Carolyn just right.
Ella began brushing, slowly, carefully, making sure she didn’t pull too hard and cause Carolyn any discomfort. As she had so many times before, Ella marveled at her mother’s beauty: alabaster skin, silky black hair and striking silver-gray eyes. How often had Ella wished this woman were her biological mother? If she were, then maybe Ella would be prettier. Even though people often mentioned that she actually resembled both her parents, Ella found it hard to believe that she looked anything like the stunning Carolyn. She did have the same color hair, but there the resemblance ended. Carolyn was thin and petite, classically beautiful and feminine in an old-fashioned, ladylike way.
Ella sighed as she continued brushing her mother’s hair. When she finished the task – one hundred strokes – she held up the mirror so that Carolyn could inspect herself.
‘Lovely, darling. Thank you.’ Carolyn leaned over and kissed Ella’s cheek. ‘You’re such a good daughter. I’m going to miss having you here with me when you and Dan get married.’
Ella tensed. She’d been dreading this conversation. As a child her parents had chosen her playmates, and as a teenager they had often picked her dates. She was well aware of the fact that Dan Gilmore’s parents were part of the old-money set in Spring Creek – people whose ancestors had been a part of this town since before the War Between the States. Carolyn had telephoned Dan’s mother shortly after Dan’s divorce had become final last year and insisted on getting their children together.
‘Mother … I … I don’t think Dan and I will be getting married.’
‘Has that young rascal not even hinted about marriage?’
‘He’s hinted, but … I don’t love Dan.’
Carolyn lifted her eyebrows and rounded her mouth as she sighed. ‘I see. And is there someone else?’
‘No, there’s no one else.’
‘Dan is quite a catch, you know. If you let him get away, some other lucky girl will be wearing his ring by this time next year. His mother has told me that he wants to get married again. His son needs a mother, and a man in his position needs a suitable wife.’
‘And I’m suitable?’
‘Of course you are.’ Carolyn laughed softly. ‘You have all the right credentials. You’re bright and charming and very successful. And you’re Webb Porter’s daughter – and my only child.’
Never once had her mother told her that she was pretty. She knew she wasn’t, but didn’t mothers lie to their little girls and tell even the ugliest duckling that she was the fairest of them all? Carolyn had told her she was smart, clever, charming, loyal, devoted and even sweet, but never pretty.
‘I don’t want to marry a man just because he finds me suitable.’
Carolyn took Ella’s hands in hers and rested them in her lap atop the spotless white sheets. ‘People marry for many different reasons. I’m sure Dan loves you. Why wouldn’t he? But Ella, my dear child, you’re already thirty and you’ve never been exactly popular with men. It’s not as if there’s some white knight out there waiting to sweep you off your feet.’
‘Daddy swept you off your feet, didn’t he?’
Carolyn’s smile wavered ever so slightly. ‘Yes, of course he did. But love like Webb’s and mine doesn’t happen for everyone. What we share is very rare. Naturally, I wish you could find someone like your father, but—’
‘But girls like me don’t end up with hunks like Daddy, do they?’
‘Eleanor Grace Porter! What a thing to say.’ Carolyn couldn’t keep the stern look on her face and soon burst into soft giggles. ‘Webb is a hunk, isn’t he?’
Ella hugged her mother. ‘Yes,
