Page 12 of Ravishing Camille

“In my condition?” She opened one hand before her very large pregnant form. “I cannot bend down to dig in the earth. But if you must know…” She bristled and took to her dessert for a moment, then gave it up with a clank of her fork and knife to her plate. “I have stopped my weekly receptions.”

Pierce saw her statement as one meant as much to affirm Lily’s point, but also to assure the rest of the family that she was easing up on her schedule. “Your mama knows how to take care of all of you and takes special care of herself, I am certain. She learned long ago, you see, how important that is.”

Their father chuckled, a twinkle in his eye directed at Pierce. “You’ll tell the story of her escapade?”

“No!” Ada objected with a snort. “Don’t you dare!”

“Your mother is resourceful, Vivienne.” Pierce took his attention to his dessert, but only briefly. “I shall tell you later of how she decided one day to go to the wharves in Baltimore, looking for the taffy lady.”

Vivienne made a face. “Mama, you liked taffy? Ohhhh, no.”

“I was young, Viv. What did I know?”

“So what did she do, Uncle Pierce?” This came from Liam, who sat across the table.

Pierce picked up his port, took a sip and began. “We lived on a street not far from the docks in the center of town. Papa had his factory between the dock and the railroad tracks. Many afternoons after school, Lily and I would take Ada and walk to the water to buy fresh crabs and oysters from the fishmongers for supper. But the treat Ada loved most of all was taffy. And we bought it from an elderly lady who hoisted her tent there on Fridays. One day, Lily was sick.”

“I had a deep cough and Papa told me to stay in bed.” Lily added.

“Where was your mother?”

Pierce recalled the long debilitating illness of their mother who died soon after this incident. “She was in bed, very ill herself. So Lily and I were in charge of Ada.”

Vivienne looked appalled. “Didn’t you have a nanny?”

“No nanny. No maids,” he said. “We got on by ourselves.”

“And you could walk to the docks by yourselves?” Nate was agog, but obviously liking that idea.

“We could and did.”

Killian inhaled. “We were not wealthy. And I worked many hours a day.”

“I learned to cook,” Lily added with a smile full of pride. “So did Pierce.”

A general round of ouuus and ahhhs went up from the children.

“What did you cook, Uncle Pierce?” Garrett, Lily’s oldest, had to know.

“Fried fish. Potatoes.”

“Crab soup,” Ada said with a sparkle in her eyes. “Good too. Do you still cook, Pierce?”

“No. You’re delaying the story, Ada.” He chastised her as older brothers often did.

She tipped up her chin in defiance. “Hurry up then.”

“Our Ada ran away from home one Friday,” he said.

“It was Good Friday and we were to go to mass,” Lily said. “We usually went to the docks after church. But this Friday morning, we had only enough money to buy fish for our supper. Not enough to buy taffy and when we told Ada, she was mad.”

“I went to our bedroom in the attic and—”

“You didn’t have your own bedroom, Mama?” Vivienne was incredulous.

“No, Viv,” Ada replied. “We three slept together in the attic. Anyway, I was angry and sad. You see our mother was dying.”

Silence filled the room.