Page 95 of The Missing Pages
Ada felt caught between an invisible vise. She had not expected the conversation to go in this direction. Everything was accelerating far too quickly. Mrs. Widener had not yet had the chance to get to know her more deeply, to grow fond of her. Ada could feel Eleanor searching to make sense of every last moment she’d shared with Harry. He had left out the pieces of his puzzle, and Eleanor sensed it.
“Mr. Widener always spoke of you and his father with such affection,” she finally answered. “And it is true we did share a mutual love of books.” She looked up and as hard as she tried to stifle her emotions, she began to cry.
“I am so sorry,” she said, as she searched in her bag for a handkerchief. But she had forgotten one. “I don’t know what’s come over me.”
“I see I’ve upset you,” Eleanor said. “I apologize. My imagination seems to have gotten the better of me.”
Rosenbach took a square cloth from his breast pocket and gave it to Ada.
“All of us here knew how much Harry loved to surround himself with fellow book lovers, and we are all just that,” he said, trying to subdue the heightened emotion now flooding through the room.
Rosenbach took the paper from Ada’s lap. “We will secure these for you at once. And as always, Miss Lippoldt and I are here to assist you with any other future book purchases for Harry’s library at Harvard. I commend you on such a marvelous undertaking. I can think of no greater memorial to him.”
The next day a letter from Eleanor arrived for Rosenbach.
Dear Dr. Rosenbach,
I must apologize about my behavior yesterday. Grief is a peculiar monster. It can take over in the most unexpected—and unwelcome—ways. During our meeting, I became quite distressed imagining that Miss Lippoldt might have been the friend that Harry wanted to introduce me and his father to when we were on board theTitanic.While I have no evidence to support this suspicion, it has made me quite upset.
You see, I find myself suddenly imprisoned by thoughts of all “the nevers” that are now attached to Harry’s all-too-brief life. He will never marry. He will never have children. He will never grow old. And as a mother, the fact that he was robbed of all these joys is a terrible pill to swallow.
Through no fault of her own, your Miss Lippoldt seems to have spurred much of these ruminations. While I doubt there was ever a romance between her and my son—after all, they come from such different places in life—her presence, as a vibrant young womanwho loves books as much as my son did, is a painful reminder to me of the full life Harry never got to live.
I know it is unfair of me to ask this because she herself has done nothing whatsoever to offend me. But please do not have Miss Lippoldt come to Lynnewood Hall again. Let the two of us alone see each other to discuss the additions to his collection.
Cordially,
Eleanor Elkins Widener
He folded the letter and placed it in his desk drawer, then called out for Ada to come see him.
“I’ve just had a letter from Mrs. Widener,” he informed her. “I know you admired Harry and enjoyed a brief, but mutually respectful friendship with him.” He cleared his throat. “But, unfortunately, your presence seems to have upset Mrs. Widener.”
“Upset her?” Ada’s voice broke. “I don’t understand. What did I do, exactly?”
“It’s not what you did, Ada. It’s just that…” He pulled out the letter and read from a portion of Eleanor’s exact words. “She says your presence ‘is a painful reminder to me of the full life Harry never got to live.’”
Ada whitened. “So she never wishes to see me again?”
Rosenbach put the letter back in his drawer. “I’m sure it’s nothing personal, Ada.”
She blinked back tears. “How can you say that to me? Of course it is.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
“When can we go to Lynnewood Hall?” Violet asked after they’d left Lux and gotten back into the car. It was the first moment since that disastrous conversation with Madeline that she felt her spirits had truly lifted. “It’s just a twenty-minute drive from my parents’ house in Philly.” She pulled open the glove compartment and pulled out a map. “Do you think we can go today? Tomorrow?”
Adrenaline flooded through her. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this… and I am going to get my job back, too.”
“Slow down, Vi.” He put up his hand. “I think we have to wait until winter break. My parents would kill me if I only spent Thanksgiving Day with them this break. And we have to be back at school the day after tomorrow, anyway.”
Violet slumped down in her seat. “I don’t want to have to wait that long…”
“Besides, we don’t even have that key with us,” Theo pointed out.
Her face fell. “Jeez. I forgot all about that little detail.”
“So hear me out. We have just a couple of weeks left before school is out, and then we can figure out a day to go after Christmas. It’ll be a well-needed break from having to spend all our vacation studying for finals.”
