The Fifth Avenue Artists Society (2 page)

S
taring at Alevia was pointless, but men always did. I snorted as this evening's gawker—a short fellow with a scraggly beard—gestured toward her so heartily he sloshed his punch down the corded silk collar of a golden-haired man in front of him. Forcing my eyes away from the shocked gentleman and the rest of the partygoers, I glanced at my younger sister's profile through the crack in the pocket door and prayed she hadn't heard me. The one time I'd mentioned a man noticing her, she'd blushed so severely I thought she'd literally burst into flames, and vowed never to play in public again. Thankfully, she was still playing her favorite piece,
Tristesse
by Chopin. Her deep brown eyes were closed to the music, a slight smile on her lips, oblivious to everything but the movement of her fingers on the piano keys. I looked out into the room and found the gawker still staring at Alevia, completely unaware that the gentleman he'd just doused had extracted his unbecoming silk flower from his buttonhole and was dabbing his collar with it.
Taking a step back from the door, I buried my face in the crook of my arm and laughed.

“What's so funny?”

I hadn't even heard the door to the library open, and didn't dare turn around lest I miss another effort by Alevia's admirer.

“One of your party guests has . . . noticed my sister.” I could feel him behind me and leaned back against his chest, crushing his bow tie. I nodded toward the slight view, watching as the short man's attention snapped to his friend's glare and the wilted fabric in his hand.

“Oh,” Charlie said, and laughed softly. “That's John Hopper—he's a writer, like you. Doesn't surprise me, he's painfully rakish when it comes to ladies. Perhaps I could use some of his nerve . . . Ginny, I have to ask you—”

“Why would you need it?” I cut him off, elbowing him in the ribs.

“In case I'm shamefully rejected by the object of my affection, of course.” He pulled away from me and looked down, brows furrowing. I rolled my eyes and laughed at his dramatics. Charlie was charismatic and handsome. He could attract anyone he wanted. Even me.

“Your drawing is getting better,” I noted, crossing the room. His sketchbook lay open on a table beneath the window, the only bit of wall unoccupied by ornate mahogany bookshelves. I looked down at the pencil sketch of my home, and then out the window to the real thing next door. “You got the color wash right this time, and the dimensions of the shed, though if the roof were drawn any steeper one could mistake it for Trinity Church.”

I could see his reflection in the window. He was still looking down at his shoes, likely absorbed by some image in his head. I didn't bother to ask him what it was; a similar haze came over me
when I wrote, so I ignored his silence and leaned down to grab my notebook and the old copy of Washington Irving's
A History of New York
from the arm of the leather sofa. Scanning the page I'd left off on, I shoved it back between the rows of other antique books lining the walls.

“Haven't you memorized that by now?” he asked. I stared at Charlie for a moment, past the sincerity of his smile to the green eyes holding a strange melancholy I couldn't place.

“Of course,” I said, glancing away. “But there's something about seeing our families' names on the page.” I didn't know how many times I'd read the book, though I knew it had to be over one hundred. Mother said I'd plucked it randomly from the shelves when we had first called on Charlie's family eighteen years ago, the day after our move into my father's childhood home. I'd been captivated by Irving's prose ever since—that, and his coincidental mention of both Charlie's and my family's ancestors, the Stuyvesants and Van Pelts, respectively, both old Dutch settlers who'd laid claim to the city long before the Vanderbilts or Astors built their palaces.

“Ginny, I tried to call on you earlier today, but you were still in the city. I need to speak with you.” He pulled at one of his sideburns.

“I suppose I can listen. So long as I can blame the dullness of this story I'm writing for
The Review
on your interruption.” A child's English primer read with more eloquence than the two paragraphs I'd penciled into the notebook I was holding. “Is everything all right?” His face paled, but he nodded. He was lying, clearly. “Tell me.”

“Everything's fine, Virginia,” he said. But Charlie's lips met my forehead and lingered there. Then his fingers clutched the back of my head, holding me as if it were the last time he'd ever see me up
close. The only time I'd ever seen Charlie this troubled was at his younger brother's funeral fifteen years before.

“Mr. Aldridge?” I jerked from his grasp to find an older man I didn't know in the doorway. I felt Charlie step away from me. “Excuse me. It's only . . .” The man coughed, looking from Charlie to me and back again. “Your mother asked me to summon you. It's time.” Charlie forced a smile and passed me without a glance.

“Yes,” he said, stumbling over the word. “I-I suppose it is.” What hadn't he told me? The last few days played out in my mind—our afternoon strolling on the High Bridge, my trek into the city this morning to purchase a notepad, seeing Mrs. Aldridge and Charlie deep in conversation on the front porch this afternoon. Mrs. Aldridge. She seemed in good health. Surely she hadn't taken ill. Not so soon after Mr. Aldridge's death. I followed after Charlie, despite my having planned to avoid the party tonight and enjoy the quiet company of the Aldridges' books.

Alevia was still playing. I could vaguely hear the slow notes of “Oh Promise Me,” and the guests' laughter as I shoved past feathered hats and black-jacketed arms to follow Charlie. He stopped in the middle of the room, brought his fingers to his mouth, and whistled. I heard my sister's hands lift from the piano, leaving notes hanging unfinished on the air. Everyone turned to look at him. I took a deep breath, inhaled the sweet scent of someone's lavender cologne, and looked around for anyone I knew. Finding no one beyond Rachel Kent, one of Charlie's distant cousins, over his shoulder, her locks pinned under a purple cap adorned with a stuffed hummingbird, I fleetingly wondered if it was one of my sister Bessie's creations. Miss Kent nodded at me and I grinned back, relieved to find a familiar face besides Alevia's. The reception had been held in Miss Kent's honor, a reunion of sorts with her family acquaintances that she'd lost touch with since moving from
the Bronx to White Plains years back. Mrs. Aldridge had begged Alevia to play for the party, and I'd come along hoping to write something profound. Ever since Charlie and I were young, the Aldridges' library had been one of our sanctuaries, the only place beyond our rooms where we could shut out the world and create.

“If I could have your attention,” Charlie shouted, silencing the party's rumble. He glanced at me for a moment before he turned his gaze to the rest of the guests. “For quite some time I've wanted to share something with all of you and now, it turns out, is precisely the time to do it.” Charlie cleared his throat and looked up, staring above the crowd to the windows in front of him. I followed his gaze, finding his mother looking the picture of health, grinning, hands clasped together in anticipation. I balked at my reflection in the glass and tucked a few unruly light brown strands back in their pins. “See, there's a particular woman I love and I cannot go on living without knowing she's mine,” he said. “I've known her for as long as I can remember. As a young boy I admired her poise and beauty, and as a man, though I still love her for those things, I think I find the most joy in her passion—in her love of the arts that have been so important to both of our families. She is, quite simply, a reflection of what I've always dreamed.” His words sounded in my ears, but I barely believed them. I'd longed for this moment for so many years. I glanced at the faces of the strangers around me, their smiles confirmation that they'd heard him, too, that this wasn't a delusion. He was finally going to ask me to marry him. My hands were sweating, balled in my skirt, and as his eyes scanned mine, I released the fabric abruptly, the striped gold and white satin falling back to the ground.

“Charlie,” I whispered, but he turned and dropped to his knees.

“Miss Rachel Kent, will you be my wife?”

I took a step back, but stumbled, unable to move.

“Come with me.” Alevia appeared from nowhere and pulled me through the crowd. Before I knew it, I was on the Aldridges' front porch, hearing the door click shut behind me. I couldn't register anything about the last minutes beyond Alevia's long fingers around my wrist and the faraway cheers of the guests.

Alevia turned right, toward our home. Her dress was a red blur, but I didn't follow. Nothing made sense. Surely I'd heard him wrong.

“I'm sorry,” Alevia's voice came quietly behind me, bringing me back to reality. I could feel his breath on my face, his arm wrapped around my body. I believed that he loved me. Yet he hadn't chosen me.

“He came to me in the library. He . . . he asked to speak with me and then he held me and kissed my forehead as though he'd never see me again. I suppose now he won't. I've never heard him mention her name, let alone insinuate love for her. How dare he! Doesn't he know how I feel?” I was trembling, hands jammed into fists at my sides.

“Perhaps he doesn't. Know, I mean.” Alevia's eyes were full of sorrow for me, and I stepped away from her, unwilling to see my pain reflected in her face. Less than an hour ago I'd leaned into his embrace as I had every time he'd ever reached for me. I'd never given him any reason to think me indifferent. If he didn't know I loved him, he was a fool. I suddenly yearned for Mae, my younger collected sister who always said the right thing, and cursed Hunter College for scheduling courses in the evening.

I kept walking in the wrong direction, past home after clapboard home, hearing the shuffle of Alevia's crimson brocade skirt behind me, but I didn't turn around. I couldn't go back home and face my family. The moon was round and bright red, appropriately hellish, and I shuddered as wind swept through the creaking trees.

“It's the money. You know her father inherited millions from his bachelor brother in Georgia and that the Aldridges are near penniless. Surely you recall Mrs. Aldridge asking Mother to loan her money last month.” Alevia's voice was strange and I turned around to find her arms clasped tightly across her chest, anger apparently conquering her timidity. I'd forgotten the conversation. Alevia and I had been reading in the drawing room—only a room over—when she'd come to speak to Mother. Even though Mrs. Aldridge had spoken in a whisper, we'd heard. It had been such a shocking, desperate request, that Alevia and I had promised each other we'd never speak of it. After all, Mother hadn't had the money to give Mrs. Aldridge.

Alevia cleared her throat. “Family name only goes so far. You know that. We're all well respected, sure—The Intellectuals, as they call us—and history demands that the wealthy see us as important and invite us to some of their soirees, but that's not enough if your mother can't afford to outfit herself or entertain at her home.” Her contempt was palpable.

“If that's the case, then he's spineless and I hope I never see him again,” I whispered, stunned to realize that I meant it.

“Mrs. Aldridge looked as if she were about to be showered in gold coins.” Alevia exhaled and tore her hat from her head, mashing the pluming black feather Bessie had spent weeks trying to find. “And he admires her passion. For what? Her paintings? Perhaps they've improved, but from what I remember they're poor at best.” Her lips were pursed in a way that reminded me of myself as a little girl, furious I hadn't gotten my way, but unable to do anything about it. I laughed at the recollection, and Alevia's eyes widened in shock. “How can you possibly laugh when your heart is broken?” she asked softly. Kneeling in the dusty street, palm pressed to forehead, I could still feel Charlie's lips on my skin and
finally started to cry. My sister's hand landed on my shoulder, her grip uncharacteristically strong.

“He . . . I should've known. I . . . I thought he was proposing to me,” I said. “I was naïve.” Standing up, I smoothed the lace overlay trimming the top of my skirt, and sniffed. “I had no reason to believe he loved me beyond what I felt. He never kissed me, never actually told me he was in love with me.” I closed my eyes, but all I could see was his face. “It was my fault. My mistake,” I whispered.

“No.” Alevia's small voice cut through the night and her willowy frame pitched toward me. “No,” she said again. “It wasn't. He needed you near him because you're his support, don't you see? It's not that he doesn't love you.” She sighed. “He wanted to watch you as he made the biggest mistake of his life so that when he's miserable, when he wishes he were dead, he can recall your broken face and know that at one point, someone he loved also loved him.”

I
t looks like everyone's asleep,” Alevia whispered. I pushed the picket fence back in place behind me and sighed, hoping she was right. I didn't want to talk to anyone. The branches of the old chestnut tree screeched back and forth against the side of the white house, the deep red leaves of the Virginia creeper vine swinging freely from its tips. Alevia started up the porch and I followed, barely aware that I was moving. My eyes drifted toward the moon and then down to Charlie's library window next door.

“Oh, my good lord!” Alevia screamed. Pitching my skirt, I ran up the stairs, through the front door, and grit my jaw to avoid screaming myself. The shadow of some sort of winged creature seemed to float toward us from the drawing room. My heart jumped in my chest and I pushed Alevia forward.

“Go,” I hissed, but she stood, frozen, as the shape loomed closer. “Alevia,
move
!” I shoved her, tripped over a bowed floorboard, and fell.

“That's not quite the reaction I was hoping for, but I suppose
it'll do,” Bessie said. I picked myself up and whirled around to find my older sister laughing, wearing a ridiculous hat adorned with white feathers and an enormous stuffed pelican.

“What in the world were you doing in the dark—” Alevia started.

“Are you serious, Bess?” I asked, unable to pry my eyes from the hat.

“Quite. It's Caroline Astor's. She wanted something dramatic for a celebration honoring some business accomplishment of Jack's. She's paying fifty dollars for it, so naturally I had to go all out.” Bessie's knack for millinery—though she'd been making hats for our family for as long as I could recall—had been discovered by mistake. She'd gone to pick up Alevia's music for the Astors' New Year's tea, only to find Mrs. Astor panicked because her hat hadn't been delivered in time. An avid student of
Harper's Bazaar
, Bess created a new headpiece from Mrs. Astor's old ones. From that evening on, she'd been one of the most requested milliners in the city.

“It's certainly . . . striking. I only hope people don't run screaming when they see her in it,” I said. Bessie rolled her eyes and carefully removed the hat, letting her waves fall loose, framing her face. She ran her hands through the end of her hair, fingertips lingering on her collar lined with cut jet beads. Bess had spent thirty dollars on the “Princess Louise” dress last month—an extravagance that nearly caused our family a deficit—but the profligacy wasn't at all uncommon. She'd been infatuated with fine clothes since before she could talk—a consequence of our late socialite great-aunt, Rose VanPelt, treating her as the granddaughter she never had—but her obsession had deepened since she'd begun purchasing all of her supplies from O'Neill's millinery department, conveniently located on the same floor as ladies' clothing.

Alevia had mentioned her increased spending months back, when money had been so tight we'd survived on buttered bread for a week, but Bess had only reproached her, saying that she deserved to buy fine things because she was the oldest, had worked the longest, and brought in nearly as much money with her millinery as my twin brother, Franklin, did working as a salesman for J. L. Mott Iron Works—a profession he'd valiantly accepted though the demands of it had whittled his previous occupation—painting portraits—down to a hobby. Never mind that there were only six years difference between all five of us—Bess's twenty-six years to Alevia's twenty—and that Alevia's playing contributed a significant amount to our well-being, bringing in ten dollars for luncheons or teas and fifteen for balls, enough to buy our groceries for the month. The truth really was that Bess bought fine things because she believed she belonged among the wealthy, among Great-aunt Rose's people, among my mother's, instead of the working class we'd been born into. She was tired of struggling. We all were.

Alevia continued to stare at the pelican's beady eyes, button nose scrunched in disgust.

“Princess Victoria wore something very similar last month. They'll all adore it. Caroline has invited me to stay on for the party after the fitting. Everyone will be there—the Goelets, the Delafields, the Roosevelts—so of course I accepted. I guarantee that I'll have over fifty requests for hats exactly like it afterward. Just wait. Adelaide Frick was already asking about the other ladies' hats when I took her measurements this evening.” Bess pursed her lips and smoothed the midnight blue silk evening dress hugging her figure. “Speaking of parties, Alevia, how was your playing tonight?”

“It was fine,” she mumbled, looking down. Reminded of the image of Charlie down on one knee, my insides felt hollow, and I
pinched my eyes together, praying when I opened them I would find the evening was just a nightmare.

“I understand it wasn't your ideal, Alevia,” Bess said, drawing out her name. “It wasn't Carnegie Hall . . . but, as a consolation, I'm sure your performance caught the eye of at least one attractive artist.” I could see the short man with the beard, feel Charlie's face against mine, and forced the thought from my mind. “Didn't it?” Bessie winked at me and nudged Alevia softly. She wasn't asking because she was interested. Bess had been jealous of Alevia ever since her playing had been noticed by New York's elite five years ago and had started landing her invitations to entertain at their parties at least three times each week. Bess was handsome, well respected, and sought after by the Astors and the Carnegies when it came to fashion, but it was Alevia, young, elegant, beautiful Alevia, who sat in their ballrooms, attracting the admiration of their men.

“Bess. Stop,” I said. It had been a little over a year since Alevia had rejected her most recent prospect, banker Robert Winthrop's son, Frederic. Though she hadn't fancied him in the slightest, she didn't like to be reminded of his attention. The courtship had been a short one. He caught sight of her while she played for a small dinner party of Caroline Astor's last fall and had written to her on several occasions before asking her to accompany him to the premiere of Joseph Arthur's play
Blue Jeans
. The critics had lauded the play, and Alevia had been quite keen to see it, but Mr. Winthrop had talked through the entire performance, outlining his requirements for a wife. At the conclusion of his soliloquy he'd told Alevia that if she was fortunate enough to wed him, she'd have to relinquish her playing to focus on his social calendar. It wasn't the first time an interested society man had voiced this requirement. Rather than explain her passion for music and vie for his understanding,
she returned home, swore she'd never marry, and never spoke to Mr. Winthrop again. I was glad she'd rejected him. I would have done the same given the ultimatum, but Bess had thought her an imbecile and told her so. Though Alevia had forgiven her, Bess's words had wounded their relationship.

“Tell me,” Bess prodded with the tenacity of a novice dressmaker's needle. “I know there was at least one.”

“Please. Not now, Bess,” Alevia whispered. She tucked a strand back into her waved side locks that swept upward into a Newport knot. I knew Alevia was being considerate, so I braced myself and came out with it.

“Charlie asked Rachel Kent to marry him tonight.” Bess's brows rose and she walked toward me, but I turned, starting down the dark hallway toward the light coming from the parlor. I could hear my mother laughing, followed by Mae's high-pitched voice, as I passed my late-father's portrait on the wall of the study. The warmth of the fire swirled around me and wood smoke filled my lungs. Mother and Mae were folded over a book in front of the hearth. “What're you still doing up?” I asked. Mother always retired by nine. It was well past eleven. She took one look at me, and stood from the longue.

“We were discussing Horace Mann's
On the Art of Teaching
. Mother was telling me old tales about her most challenging pupils—beyond us, of course—and warning me that my longing to become a mother might award me my most difficult trial as an educator as our children are often . . .” Mae stopped when she glanced up from the book.

“Ginny? What's wrong? What's happened?” Mother asked. Both of them stared at me, nearly identical blue eyes slanted in concern. I opened my mouth to reply, but found that I could neither answer nor cry.

“Charlie . . . he asked Rachel Kent to marry him tonight,” Alevia said quietly, materializing behind me. My mother's face paled for a moment, then turned an unearthly shade of red. Mae gathered me in a hug, and I wrapped my arms around her, suppressing the urge to run off to my room. Mae was my confidante, my best friend, but her sympathy made me feel pathetic, as though I'd been the only one to confuse Charlie's and my intimacy for love.

“I'll never speak to Ruth Aldridge again as long as I live,” Mother said evenly. “She's put him up to this match. How dare she.”

Bessie made a noise in the back of her throat and shook her head. I backed away from Mae to look at her. Bess skirted around Grandmother Loftin's Steinway grand piano to pluck a dead rose from a vase on the windowsill and twirl it between her fingers. The gold lining the green glass stone on her pinkie caught the moonlight. “Sorry,” she said, and shrugged. “I'm sorry for Ginny, I am, but can you blame Mrs. Aldridge, Mother? She lost her little girl at birth, George as a child of five, and Mr. Aldridge just last year, leaving only Charlie and his dismal inheritance. You know as well as I do that she can't possibly survive on what little Charlie has left. It's only the two of them. We've barely been able to keep our bills paid since pneumonia took Father and there are six of us to help with work. In any case, it's not as if Ginny's writing would've saved them. She hardly makes enough to pay the monthly ice charge.”

I froze, staring at my sister, who continued to twirl the dead rose between her fingers as dried petals fell to the floor. Bess and I had never been very close, but no one, not even she, had ever spoken of my dismal salary, or chastised me for my profession. I'd worked hard to earn a place at the
Review
, applying eight times before its publisher, Mr. Robert O'Neal, agreed to hire a woman. His selecting me had been mostly out of desperation—he'd run out of competent male applicants who would work for the minimal
wage he offered—but I didn't care. I immediately resigned my post as a ticket secretary at the Mott Haven Canal. My father had been proud of me, of all of us, and had made it clear when he was still alive that our talents weren't to be cast aside.

We were all artists of some kind, save Mae and Mother, though their fervor for teaching was an inspired endeavor in its own right. The Loftins, my father's family, had all been creative. They'd never been famous or renowned, only common Irish folk who wrote and played and sang and painted to carry on the heritage of their small village, Ennistymon, and to provide tutors for the castle's children. Like their ancestors before them, my grandparents and my father had never focused on one particular form of art and had thus never relied on their talents for their livelihood. Father had always said he regretted it, but his job at J. L. Mott had afforded our family a decent living of $2,500 each year—a living that we had yet to meet since his death three years ago. So perhaps his path was as it should've been. Perhaps the pursuit of art could only result in poverty and grief.

“That's enough, Bess,” Mother said. Her voice startled me. “Of course I blame Ruth. We've been friends and neighbors for eighteen years. We've shared everything—joys, disappointments, heartaches. We've watched all of you grow, and watched you and Charlie grow toward one another . . . I . . . I didn't think her capable of such selfishness.” Burying her hands in her brown tweed skirt, Mother closed her eyes, no doubt trying to make sense of it all. In spite of my pain, I was thankful I wasn't alone in my confusion.

“Bess, why would you . . . how could you say that?” Alevia picked up where Mother left off. Her eyes were wide as she looked from my wrecked face to Bessie's empty stare. Alevia and I shared the same ardor for our art. She knew how hard I'd worked to obtain a position at the
Review,
and though it only awarded me a
meager twenty-five dollars each month, it meant my writing had been given a chance.

“Because it's the truth,” she said. “If he'd chosen Ginny he would've thrown away everything—his reputation, his lifestyle, his mother's well-being.” My mind spun, unable to process her words. I'd never thought of writing as an obstruction to my happiness. I'd never considered anything beyond the fact that I loved Charlie, and I suddenly felt naïve, embarrassed that I'd ever thought it could be so simple. Mae squeezed my hand, then disappeared from my side, crossed the room, and snatched the stem from Bessie's fingers.

“You're a fool.” Mae's words were pointed, but her voice was calm. “Is love worth nothing? Does it count for nothing? Charlie's just as shallow as you are.”

“Girls!” Mother shouted, silencing Bessie's rebuttal.

“It's all right.” I closed my eyes and forced composure. They were all looking at me. I could feel their stares. “Really it is,” I said, wishing they would disappear. “It's not as if someone died.”

“I'm glad to hear it,” a deep voice muttered from the door behind me. “Now, let's have a glass of wine to celebrate the fact that I've finished traveling for a spell and don't have to work tomorrow.” I turned to find Franklin, clutching a bottle of Madeira under his arm, Grandmother's emerald green wineglasses strewn between his fingers. His hair was disheveled, sticking up in the front where he always ran his fingers through it. I was surprised to see him and wondered how long he'd been home. Though it wasn't uncommon for him to travel week after week, he'd been in and out of the house for nearly a month this time, traveling through Connecticut from iron plant to iron plant selling parts for J. L. Mott, like my father before him.