A Song Across the Sea (21 page)

On Sunday afternoons, the mighty, vibrant city had a pleasant, lazy feel to it. She turned down a broad thoroughfare and kept up a steady pace, feeling slightly ashamed for what she’d been thinking earlier. Sheila was so excited to be here. It wasn’t her fault that Tara had expected to welcome a child, and instead, had been greeted by a disconcerting child-woman. The overt leers that had come their way as she and Sheila walked to the boarding house merely reinforced the impression. Even Sheila’s manner was older than her years, a curious combination of slyly playful, coquettish innocence that Tara knew must have set the tongues to wagging back home. Sheila couldn’t help it, surely, that the way she walked tended to emphasize her considerable physical gifts, or that her habit of tossing her hair back over her shoulder and pursing her full lips into a teasing pout might give men the wrong idea.

Tara wondered, for the hundredth time, if she was up to the responsibility of looking after this girl. She was not that much older than Sheila, after all.

Sheila wasn’t a bad girl, surely. Perhaps Tara would be able to steer her in the right directions. She’d enroll Sheila in school, of course, then…secretarial training? She was determined that Sheila avoid the kind of unpleasant, low-paying factory work she herself had had to take when she’d first come to this country. Sheila had confided to her that she was not, in fact, a very good student, but Tara thought she seemed bright enough. Maybe she just needed to learn how to apply herself to her lessons. Under Tara’s guidance, Sheila would work hard at her classes and then get a respectable job. Something in an office. Sure and she hadn’t shown any real enthusiasm for Tara’s suggestions, but she was a young girl with her head in the clouds. She’d come around.

Tara had taken another room at the boarding house for Sheila, but it wouldn’t be ready until this evening. It would be less expensive to have Sheila share her room, but it was so tiny, with just one narrow bed. The extra cost made her a bit anxious, but she knew from hints dropped by Mr. Glass that her increasing popularity with audiences made her a likely candidate for a raise.

Tara looked forward to introducing Sheila to Hap, Delores, Kathleen and the rest of the boarders at dinner. What would they think of her?

It was almost time to turn back. She’d awaken Sheila and they could freshen up before dinner.

Tara chided herself for worrying so much. Sheila probably didn’t mean to seem so…mature. Actions were what counted, anyway, and Tara’s own actions didn’t exactly give her the right to sit in judgment on another. Hadn’t she fallen into Reece’s arms without a moment’s hesitation? Who was she to be suspicious of someone who—as yet—hadn’t done anything wrong?

•  •  •

The trouble started exactly one week after Sheila’s arrival. It was a small matter, at first, but grew so quickly that before long, Tara found herself torn between friend and relation.

Sheila was duly enrolled in school and outfitted in some new dresses that Tara made sure were conservative in cut. Tara assumed that Sheila’s reluctance to attend school was due to first week jitters, and wasn’t that natural enough? The girl was not only new to the school, she was new to the city and, indeed, new to the country! Who wouldn’t feel a bit apprehensive and exhibit a certain lack of enthusiasm for all this newness?

Tara felt terribly guilty that her strenuous performance schedule gave her little time to spend with Sheila, but she did make it a point to drop in on her cousin often at bedtime and inquire as to how she was getting along. These conversations did not always yield the satisfying answers for which she hoped.

“And your teachers. How do you think you’ll get on with them, Sheila?”

Sheila rolled her eyes expressively and sighed. “Ah, they’re a stuffy lot, Tara. As dull as dirt. And I’ve no head for the work, anyway. I told you as much when I got here, Tara. Why can’t I just be done with schoolin’ and go to work right now? After all, you didn’t finish school, and look how well you’re doin’.”

“I’d no choice. And I’ve gotten lucky, with the way things worked out for me. But I’m more than a little ashamed at havin’ so little education. I wish I could have continued with me schoolin’. But Sheila, things are different for you. And in this country, an education’s the only way to make somethin’ of yourself. Without it, all you’ll be able to get are nasty, dirty jobs that pay next to nothin’.”

“You don’t have a nasty, dirty job.”

Tara suppressed a rising sense of exasperation. “I told you. I was lucky.” And talented, she thought to herself. Immodest though her reflection was, it was true that her talent had provided her with the means of earning a reasonable living. “Do you sing or dance?” she asked. “Because if you do, I’ll ask Mr. Glass to give you an audition.”

Sheila smiled, the sultry gray eyes narrowing in amusement. “Not one speck of talent do I have, cousin, and you well know it. But why do you keep talkin’ on and on of work? There are other ways for a resourceful girl to make her way in the world. Maybe I’ll work just long enough to meet a rich American who’ll marry me and keep me in a lovely home, and I’ll have nothin’ to do all day but take care of the babies.”

“Sure, and you can’t wait for some man to come along and take care of you, Sheila.”

Sheila stared at her curiously. “What about you, Tara? Are there no young men in your life? I think they’d be fallin’ all over themselves to get to you.”

And I keep them at arm’s length. Tara bit her tongue to keep from explaining herself to Sheila. She didn’t want to admit to the painful tear Reece Waldron had left in her heart.

“I’m simply too busy for romance right now,” she said, trying—and failing—to not sound prim. “There’ll be plenty of time for that later.”

Let Sheila think she was on her way to becoming a proper spinster. It wasn’t far from the truth. The men who approached her were miserably inadequate compared to Reece. She didn’t encourage their tentative advances. It didn’t take long for each would-be suitor to get the unspoken message that she was not interested.

“I don’t know how you can say that,” remarked Sheila, gazing at herself in the mirror. “I think of the lads all the time.”

Hap, Delores and Kathleen had warmly welcomed Sheila into the fold. That friendliness and goodwill evaporated on Sunday, however, when Kathleen tarried a little too long in dressing for an outing with James, and kept him waiting in the parlor downstairs.

“I just happened to see him standing there,” Sheila told Tara later. “The poor lad looked bored, so I thought I’d speak to him while Kathleen got ready. I was after doin’ her a favor, is all. And look at the thanks I got!”

The version Tara got from Kathleen was remarkably different.

“I came into the parlor and what did I see but herself battin’ those long eyelashes at me James! Leanin’ so close to him—pressin’ up against him, really—that the poor lad’s face was flamin’ red with embarrassment.” Kathleen’s account was tinged with fury. “And she
knows
he’s my beau, Tara! I showed her his picture, in me gold locket. I was after boxin’ her ears when I saw the wicked way she smiled at him. And then, when James and I were walkin’ in the park, wasn’t he askin’ all sorts of questions about her? How old was she, when did she come over? He tried to pretend that it was merely idle curiosity, but I knew better. That hussy has bewitched him, Tara. I know she’s your cousin, but that’s what she is—a brazen hussy!”

Angry tears dampened Kathleen’s face. Tara handed her a clean handkerchief, and she noisily blew her nose into it.

“Sure and I know you’re upset, but I don’t think Sheila meant any harm. She’s just a silly young girl with no sense in her head. James is a grown man. I’m sure she was just after tryin’ to impress him.”

“But he kept askin’ about her!” Kathleen wailed.

“You’re hardly givin’ James any credit at all. Why, he’s mad about you. Brings you lovely gifts, takes you here and there. And haven’t you two been keepin’ company for some time now? A few minutes’ conversation with another girl isn’t going to change all that.”

“For two years he’s been my beau,” Kathleen sniffed.

“You see? Two years! You’re practically married. James is not likely to forget what you two have and allow himself to be swayed by a simple country girl like Sheila.”

“She’s not all that simple, Tara. You just don’t see it, because she’s your cousin.”

“I’m tellin’ you, you’re worryin’ over nothin.’ Someday I’ll be dancin’ at your weddin’ and we’ll have a good laugh over this.”

Tara thought that ended it. Kathleen continued to see James, although he no longer came to the boarding house to pick her up. Instead, they met elsewhere: at church, at the penny arcade or the park.

Tara made it a point to take Sheila to a vaudeville performance one evening soon after her arrival, so she was surprised to find her cousin backstage a few weeks later after an early afternoon performance.

“James arranged it,” Sheila explained vaguely. “Thought I’d enjoy seein’ another of your shows, and I certainly did.”

“And where did you see James?”

“I met him yesterday on me way home from school. When he told me the time of the show today, I knew it wouldn’t be any trouble to leave me classes a little early.”

“You…met him? Just…on the street?”

“By accident.” Sheila looked wounded. “Honestly, Tara, you act as if there was somethin’ wrong with it. I happened to take a different way home, and there he was, walkin’ down the street! I was as surprised to see him as you are to hear of it, but what could I do? Ignore him? That would have been rude. And then when we were talkin’, and I was askin’ about his work, and he happened to invite me to a show. He was just bein’ kind.”

Kind, indeed.

“And your teachers don’t mind your absence from school this afternoon?”

Sheila smiled indulgently. “Sure and you sound more like me mother than me cousin. How could I sit in a stuffy classroom when I’d a chance to come and hear you sing again? You were grand, Tara. Really grand. I’m prouder of you than I can even say.”

The conversation ended with Tara once again feeling cast in the role of the stern, disapproving spinster aunt, opposite Sheila’s self-assured, fun-loving ingénue. Could she, like Kathleen, be reading too much into Sheila’s behavior?

But her doubts reemerged when she passed a soda fountain a few days later and saw Sheila and James sitting on stools inside. Their backs were to her but there was no mistaking James’ ears, or the saucy way Sheila tossed her head. That night, Tara paid a visit to Sheila’s room.

“I saw you and James today. At the soda fountain.”

“Really?” Sheila seemed unconcerned. Dressed in a long, white cotton nightgown, she sat on her bed and brushed her hair in low, slow strokes. “Why didn’t you come in?”

Tara thought carefully about what she would say next. Sheila was only fifteen. Far too young to be out unescorted with a lad. She wasn’t Sheila’s mother, but she knew Aunt Bridey would not approve. That the lad in question was James made the situation even more delicate.

“Sheila, you haven’t been here very long, so you don’t know the way things are.”

Sheila arched an eyebrow. “And how
are
things, Cousin Tara?”

“James and Kathleen are quite serious about each other. They plan to marry some day.”

“That’s odd. He didn’t mention it to me.”

“I know what I’m talkin’ about.”

Sheila put her brush down and got into bed. “Maybe James has changed his mind about Kathleen.”

“You’re after makin’ a fool of yourself.”

“We’ll see.” With a smug little smile, Sheila turned onto her side, facing the wall, so that her back was to Tara. “I’m awfully tired. If you’ve got more lecturing to do, can it wait until tomorrow? I’ll be happy to listen then, although I think you’re bein’ overly concerned. James and I are just friends, is all. What harm could there be in that?”

Frustrated, Tara turned down the gas light to darken the room. “What puzzles me most is
why
you’re doin’ this. I don’t see James as bein’ to your likin’ at all. Is it that you’re simply practicin’ up for the other men who’ll come your way?”

There was no answer. Tara went to her own room, deeply troubled.

She found it difficult to look Kathleen in the eye the next morning at breakfast, especially since her friend talked happily about the glorious birthday gift she’d bought for James.

“It took me forever to save the money for it, Tara, but I know he’ll adore it. It’s a bicycle with two seats. We can ride it together!”

Tara tried to be enthusiastic, but she was secretly miserable. Should she tell Kathleen that all might not be quite right between herself and her beloved James? What if there’d only been those two meetings between James and Sheila? Tara’s speaking out might create a problem where there was none.

“I do hope he’ll be able to find the time,” Kathleen fretted. “James has been so busy workin’ lately, I’ve hardly seen him these last two weeks.”

But not too busy to take a certain girl to a soda fountain for refreshments. Tara looked down the table at Sheila, getting only a blank, noncommittal stare in return.

The tandem bicycle was presented to James, but Kathleen’s report on his reaction was oddly hollow. Then, even James’ Sundays became unaccountably too busy for dalliances with Kathleen and Sheila took to disappearing on Sunday afternoons and reappearing at bedtime with little explanation of where she’d been.

Kathleen confronted Tara about her fears regarding Sheila.

“I love him, Tara, and she doesn’t! I’d such plans for meself and James. I know he’s not the handsomest man, but he’s kind and good and would make such a good husband. He was so shy when I met him he’d barely speak to me. Now, he’s obviously got enough confidence, doesn’t he? Feels that he can step out with another girl. That hussy!”

Tara let the insult go unanswered. In truth, she almost agreed with Kathleen. What other name could there be for the kind of girl Sheila had evidently become?

In the days that followed, Kathleen sat red-eyed and stone-faced at the dinner table, brooding in silence and eating very little. She never looked Sheila’s way, and Tara noticed that when the two passed in the hallway or the parlor Kathleen averted her head.