Season of Gifts (Neighborly Affection #8)

77. Henry

Chapter seventy-seven

Henry

W affles had proved an exceedingly popular breakfast choice. Henry sat down to his at last, having produced nearly two dozen crisp golden disks since he poured the first scoop of batter onto the griddle.

Jay, as his assistant, had encouraged their nephews to ferry plates and toppings to the table, a task they had little familiarity with but took to readily after watching Jay play the role of formal waiter for Mother. Once home, they would return to having such chores carried out by the housekeeper and cook Robert and Constance employed.

Mother, for her part, positively radiated joy this morning. He’d asked Alice to help her prepare for the day. Her hair curled in soft waves, washing ashore like whitecaps on the mulberry beach of her cable-knit sweater, and she serenely sipped her tea as the conversation flowed. She appeared healthy, with more color in her cheeks and fewer shadows beneath her eyes. Her appetite had improved as well—two waffles had disappeared from her plate one forkful at a time.

He speared his own and savored the richness of the blueberry compote. After breakfast would be an appropriate time to discuss the long-term plans he and Robert had settled upon yesterday in the study. Mother would be able to choose the particulars herself, but compromising her health and safety would not be an option.

Darting in smoothly, Jay filled his teacup before he need ask. He delivered a low-toned thank-you that curled Jay’s mouth in a sinfully sweet smile.

To his left, Alice contemplated the remaining half of a third waffle on her plate and pushed back slightly from the table. “Sweetheart, I might need a rescue from my greedy eyes.”

“Oh, I can finish that for you. No problem.” Jay circled back and dropped a kiss on Alice’s cheek as he reached for her plate. “All part of the personal service at Henry’s House of Waffles.”

The last few days had been the steadiness they needed to find their footing once more. The crucible had tested them—tested him, in particular—but what had melted away were the misconceptions and the false fronts.

A soft chime sounded, and Mother lifted her phone from her lap. Cupping it in both hands, she issued a trill of girlish glee. “Oh, how delightful!”

As she swiped and typed, Robert stared across the rim of his coffee cup. “Really, Mother? I hardly expected you to be the example of improper social etiquette for the boys.”

Mother waved her hand in dismissal. “There are far more important things in this world that will influence your boys than whether their grandmother checks her phone at the breakfast table. As it happens, I am ascertaining the disposition of a gift that will affect you as well.”

Constance touched her napkin to her lips. “The boys have more than enough gifts already, Helen, truly.”

“You needn’t worry, dear. This one isn’t for them. I’m sure they are well pleased with their gifts”—Mother raised an eyebrow and gazed across the table, and both boys nodded—“though I daresay Henry won the gift-giving prize this year by bringing a new uncle to entertain them.”

Jay preened with imaginary suspenders before delivering a simultaneous high-five to Eddie and low five to Gabe. A flutter of cheers erupted.

Constance pushed back her seat and stood, her impeccable posture the natural outcome of a prep school education. “Boys, have you finished your breakfasts?”

Eddie checked his brother’s plate and nodded. “Yes, Mother, we’ve finished.”

“Upstairs, then, please. We’ll need to pack before we visit your other grandparents.” Patting Robert’s shoulder as she passed, she added more quietly, “I’ll keep them on task, dear. We’ll be ready to depart when you are.”

As the door to the kitchen swung shut behind the three of them, Jay gathered their plates and added them to Alice’s now-empty one on his way to the sink. “You don’t stay the whole week?”

Jay’s clear tenor rang with surprise, but neither hurt nor panic colored his voice. At the Kress farm, Jay might have expected days yet of wrangling a horde of children. Here, the crowd was small and the employment brief, at least until they began adding to the numbers themselves.

Robert ceased staring into his coffee. “Us? No, it’s not feasible. We’ve Constance’s parents yet to visit today. They drop hints every year—well, that’s neither here nor there.” He crossed his knife and fork atop his plate and removed his napkin from his lap, the subtle twist of his wrist almost certainly a glance at his watch. “First, however, there is the matter of Mother’s care to arrange. Henry has developed an excellent proposal, Mother, and I suggest you follow it. He has my full support.”

More of a blunt conversational entry than Henry would have made, but sufficient. They couldn’t defer the discussion indefinitely. “Thank you, Robert. If you’re ready to consider the specifics, Mother? Have you finished arranging your gift?”

Mother laid her phone on the table and rested her hands across it. Her eyes gleamed; her Cheshire smile promised mischief, like the nights they’d tiptoed downstairs and eaten ice cream straight from the carton after story time instead of turning out the light. “I have indeed. I do hope you’re pleased. While I truly appreciate that you boys have worked together on this, you may dispense with your plans. The matter is solved.”

The matter couldn’t possibly be solved; Mother hadn’t so much as asked for the contact information to engage the home health service.

Alice inhaled softly; gripping the table edge, she leaned forward. “So Lina said yes?”

“Oh, you darling clever girl!” Mother bounced gently in her seat, her fingers tapping the table. “Henry, I just love her.”

“As do I.” He rested his hand against Alice’s back, more for his steadiness than hers. “Though I confess I’ve missed something. You’ve hired Lina? I recognize that she is a dear, dear friend, but she is not a trained medical professional.”

“I haven’t precisely hired her, darling. I’ve invited her to move in, and she has accepted.”

“Good for you!” Alice undoubtedly loved Mother’s solution because she’d proposed the same one herself to Henry earlier in the week. Though not, so far as he knew, suggested it to Mother. “That’s a great idea.”

He ought not be surprised that the two most important women in his life had come to the same conclusion; he should perhaps inquire of himself why he had not. He’d rejected the thought without much consideration, despite Mother’s established comfort with Lina and a friendship going back decades.

“Mother, really.” Robert rubbed his forehead. “I apologize for my bluntness, but time is short. You may be underestimating the seriousness of your health condition. A trained nurse will be far safer at this juncture.”

Robert voiced the same thoughts that had kept Henry from endorsing such a plan.

Mother sat at her full height, her shoulders back, her chin raised. “Do you believe this heart trouble has addled my mind? Do you think me incapable of assessing a problem and determining the solution that best fits my needs?”

Henry winced, though her chiding tone was aimed squarely at Robert. She might as well have targeted Henry in her chastisement; he was the one who’d first denied her participation in decisions surrounding her care.

“What are your needs, Mother?” Henry folded his hands on the table. Her plan might indeed be more suitable, and were it not, modifications could be negotiated. His control wasn’t needed here, only his love. A lesson he might take to his marriage. “I apologize for not centering your experience during this difficult time. I was unnecessarily overbearing.”

Mother clasped her hand over his, her fingers slender but her grip once again strong. “Fear drives us in strange ways, darling. I know your intent was pure. That both of you”—she included Robert in her gaze—“have been acting as you felt best.”

“The fear has driven me a bit mad these past weeks.” The shame he anticipated failed to materialize. Alice wrapped her arm around his waist, and Jay inched his chair closer on the other side and leaned his head on Henry’s shoulder. They regulated him as much as he did them; their presence held his course steady, his goals fixed.

He’d been a fool to face this crisis alone. He hadn’t lost their love, not one bit, by exposing his vulnerability. “But I am now eager to listen.”

“You’ve always been good at that.” Mother smiled softly, laugh lines adding definition to her eyes. “I would have mentioned this sooner, but I didn’t want to put the cart before the horse. Lina delivered the news to her daughter yesterday as a Christmas gift, and they needed time to discuss the possibility as a family.”

That left the flaw he had already used to discount Alice’s suggestion.

“I doubt poaching Lina from minding her grandchildren would be a gift in her daughter’s eyes.” He’d rarely seen Brooke since his visits home from college, when she was a skinny child in play clothes in the garden. The garden apartment did contain two bedrooms; she’d grown up there, in the space Mother’s studio now occupied. The door stood just past the end of the kitchen, beyond the butler’s pantry. The house might be as familiar a refuge to her as it was to him. And a suitable place to raise her daughters. “Ah. But you aren’t proposing that, are you?”

“I would never.” Mother held her hands to her heart and breathed deeply, as deep as he’d seen in days. “Lina, Brooke, and the girls will be coming to live here. I have more rooms than I know what to do with, and she is my dearest friend.”

Two adults in the house with Mother would be a vast improvement over her living alone, although two rambunctious children could prompt her to overexert herself. And become a tripping hazard. How old were they? Still crawling? Mother would need—she would need him to trust her judgment. He carefully relaxed tense shoulders, recognizing the light caress of Jay’s hand on his forearm and Alice’s across his back. “That seems a reasonable beginning.”

The pinch of Mother’s lips and the roundness of her cheeks betrayed her amusement. “Thank you, darling. I realize that wasn’t an easy thing to say. And you may employ the nurse we spoke to.” Mother lifted her teacup. “The second one, not that awful first one. Regular visits, you understand, not round-the-clock care.”

“Of course,” he murmured, as Mother sipped. Regular visits would be daily to begin with; they could taper off as Mother’s health improved. “I assume you have thoughts on other challenges as well?”

“I do indeed.” Her no-nonsense tone yet held a hint of eagerness, the excitement of beginning a new project. “Lina will go with me to my appointments, and I shall engage a car service for anything that conflicts with the children’s schedule. I’ll increase the cleaning service to weekly and follow the medical staff’s instructions for safety features in the home.” She shrugged with a genteel shiver. “I don’t suppose that elder-proofing a home and child-proofing one are all that different.”

“Your plan sounds about as detailed as something Henry would have come up with.” Alice’s warm approval prodded him to respond, to acknowledge how little his mother needed from him. He had overestimated his importance in this portrait.

“It does.” Robert stood and pushed in his chair. He’d dressed as formally as Father, the casual joy of Christmas pajamas and a robe left in the past. “Please forgive my haste, but if that’s settled, I ought to begin loading the car. We mustn’t be late for lunch with Constance’s parents.” He glanced at Mother in short bursts as he spoke, his eyes flickering, his tongue touching his upper lip. “I had hoped we might have time—” Clearing his throat, he scanned the rest of the table, where Alice and Jay suddenly found their plates immensely fascinating. “Henry suggested a conversation I should very much like to have with you, Mother. Perhaps we could have tea next month, just the two of us.”

At least one of his encouragements would bear fruit.

“I would love that, my darling boy.” Mother stretched both arms up to Robert, wordlessly demanding a hug.

Robert awkwardly hunched in front of her, accepting her embrace around his shoulders. “Yes, well. I’ll call you to arrange a time.”

“I know you’ve a schedule to keep.” Mother rubbed his back, smiling with her eyes shut tightly as she pressed her cheek to his. “Thank you, Robert.” Her voice dipped toward a whisper, though the silence otherwise obscured nothing. “Having the eve and the day with you boys and your children every year is the only gift I need. It hasn’t been easy on you to be torn between two families’ traditions. You keeping this one is an act of love, and well do I know it. I love you, darling.”

A ripple ran through Robert’s shoulders; Mother smoothed his suit before patting him gently. “As I love you, Mother.” He drew back slowly, straightening his tie as he stood, and clasped the chairback behind Mother. “Henry.” The sharp nod was pure Father, but Robert’s soft gaze spoke of love. “My thanks. For your excellence with breakfast and with advice.”

Robert strode to the door and stepped through faster than Henry’s wits recovered to respond. Moments ago, he’d been castigating himself for his mishandling of Mother’s illness; now he held new pieces in the puzzle of forging a closer relationship for himself, his brother, and their mother.

“Henry?” Mother studied him with clear eyes. “Once the kitchen is put to rights and we’ve said our goodbyes to Robert’s family, will you walk with me? I’ve something to show you.”

“Certainly.” He cleared his throat to firm up his voice. “Anything you need.”