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“I came directly from a meeting,” she said,taking a seat in an armchair. “I assume you weren’t able to leaveuntil your guest’s school day was over?”
“Charlotte, this is my sister Catherine,”Matt began with facetious politeness. “Catherine, this is mygirlfriend, Charlotte. Charlotte, Catherine is a massivebitch—”
Catherine glared at him, but that was heronly reaction.
“—and she ‘works’ for her… What was the nameof your foundation again?” he asked, dropping the hands he’d usedto make air quotes around “work.”
“You know very well that I’m on the board ofdirectors of the Warner-Dudley Preservation Society.” She seemedannoyed to have to explain to me, “We raise funds for thepreservation of artifacts from the Gilded Age.”
“Ah,” I said, but what I wanted to say was,you preserve the legacy of rich assholes like yourself.
How could Matt be so warm and loving, andhis sister so cold and outright hostile? Had he ruined her BarbieDream House or something in their childhood?
“The Gilded Age was—” Catherine began.
I cut her off. “The period in Americanhistory between the end of Reconstruction and the election ofPresident McKinley. I know.”
Matt chuckled.
“And I’m not in high school,” I added.
Catherine pursed her lips and saidnothing.
The silence ticked by endlessly, until thehuge pocket door slid fully open, and an older, friendlier-lookingversion of Catherine entered. The woman was dressed in a flowery,flowing caftan, with strings of pearls that hung nearly to herwaist. Her dark hair was twisted up, revealing her long, elegantneck. She looked like royalty.
Matt got to his feet. So did Catherine. Ifollowed suit.
“Mother,” Catherine said stiffly, leaningdown to kiss the shorter woman’s cheek.
“Where are the children?” The womanasked.
“In the nursery, getting changed for dinner.They needed baths if they were going to sit at the table with us.”Catherine sounded horrified by the very notion of dinner with herown kids. I couldn’t imagine, looking at her, that any of heroffspring would be allowed to get dirty in the first place.
“Mom,” Matt said, stepping forward.
With a motherly “tch,” she waved for him tostop. “I’ll come to you, dearest. Still using the cane?”
“That’s what it’s here for,” he said, hismouth a tight line as he went in for a hug. Stepping back, heextended an arm to motion me forward. “This is Charlotte.”
“Charlotte,” she said, her eyes narrowing asshe visibly tried to recall. Then, recognition lit her face.“Scott’s sister?”
“That’s me,” I said softly. “It’s very niceto meet you, Mrs. Ashe.”
“Call me Elizabeth, please.”
To my surprise, she hugged me. She actuallyhugged me.
That answered my question about where Mattgot his humanity from. Somehow, it had missed his sister.
Elizabeth checked the slenderdiamond-studded watch at her wrist. “Oh, good. We have time for achat before we have to go get changed.”
“Mother, I’d like a chance to freshen up.”Caroline turned to us. “If you’ll excuse me, Matthew?Charlotte?”
I would love nothing more than for you toleave.Had I ever met anyone as instantly unpleasant as Matt’ssister? Maybe while working in retail. But at least then, I didn’thave to worry about seeing them again.
If things stayed good between Matt and I, Iwould have to interact with Catherine indefinitely.
Unless Catherine not liking you resultsin you and Matt not working out.I didn’t get the vibe fromtheir interactions so far that he valued her opinions all thatmuch. Still, family strife was a cause of breakups, wasn’t it?