Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
In the wake of Uncle Everett’s offer to take her sailing, Nora was shivery with anxiety. She knew he was using the sailing as a bribe to keep her from telling Aunt Cynthia about seeing him kiss her best friend. She didn’t like to see herself as a pawn in their game.
But at the same time, the idea of telling Aunt Cynthia about Uncle Everett’s affair with Margo was an insanity Nora couldn’t carry.
How would that conversation go? Aunt Cynthia probably wouldn’t believe her, anyway.
And she’d kick her to the curb, regardless of whether Gwen could take her back in New Hampshire or not.
Nora was alone in a world filled with lying adults.
Maybe she needed to learn how to play their game.
And it was true what her uncle had said: she might need the connections his friends offered. To go to college. To get her magazine career going in the city.
Back in New Hampshire, the only connections her parents had were with the bakery owner, the librarian, and the guy who put gas in your car. Maybe they’d gotten free baked goods sometimes. But they’d never been able to connect Nora with anyone in the big city.
The problem was that if Nora was going sailing, she had to wrangle childcare for the kids. She knew that Aunt Cynthia wouldn’t figure that out herself.
The morning after the kissing incident, Nora was in the kitchen with Jan and Pam, packing a picnic basket with beach breakfasts, lunches, and snacks for the kids.
In a voice that quivered with anxiety, she said, “Is there anyone on the island that the Greenaways trust for babysitting? I need to take a day off, and I don’t know what to do. ”
Jan and Pam gave one another worried glances.
Nora wanted to remind them that this wasn’t even her “job.” She didn’t get paid.
Wasn’t she allowed a few days off now and again?
But they didn’t give her a hard time. Instead, they gave her the number of a girl around Nora’s age who turned out to be Pam’s niece.
“I imagine you don’t have money to pay her? ” Pam asked nervously.
Nora shrugged. How could she?
But Pam touched her shoulder. “I’ll ask her, okay? I’ll sweeten the deal to handle the jam-packed Greenaway pantry and fridge. Maybe that will be enough for her.”
Nora thanked Pam. But she lived in apprehension over the next day, waiting for Pam’s response.
It wasn’t for another two days—two before the sailing expedition—that Pam said that her niece would do it.
“She loves kids,” Pam said. “And I think, against all odds, the Greenaway kids are pretty lovable.”
“It won’t last,” Jan said, then snapped her hand over her mouth.
Nora and Pam laughed aloud, surprised.
“Jan!” Pam cried. “You need to watch your mouth.”
But Nora knew what she meant. The Greenaway kids were adorable, kind-hearted, and funny.
But growing up in the Greenaway world meant that all their goodness would one day be stripped away.
Nora wondered if that would happen to her, too, if going on this sailing adventure meant taking a first step into all that darkness.
But she was too curious to refuse.
That afternoon, Uncle Everett’s shadow draped over her and the kids at the beach. The kids were euphoric, leaping all over him. But Uncle Everett had come to ask Nora if she’d figured out a sitter for the kids. She said she had. He looked pleased.
“Wonderful. The day after tomorrow, meet me at the sailboat at nine thirty. I want to show you the ropes before we get started.”
Nora thanked him, then watched as he turned around and headed back toward the house. He walked with a swagger. She’d noticed Henry trying to imitate it.
The kids were terribly sad that their father had already left. But they were also high on his attention, tearing up and down the sand, screaming. The seagulls swept low overhead.
The morning of the sailing expedition, Nora dressed in a white sundress and a pair of tennis shoes.
She tied her hair into a messy bun on her head, then let it fall down her back.
She didn’t know what kind of person she was meant to be for this crew.
When Pam’s niece came to take over babysitting, Nora walked her through a few of the specific need-to-knows for the day, wished her good luck, and headed out for the dock.
She expected Aunt Cynthia to be down there, perhaps helping Uncle Everett.
But it was only her uncle, dressed in his sailing best: shorts, a polo shirt, and boat shoes with plenty of grip.
Nora told herself not to ask where Aunt Cynthia was. She guessed rightly that today, Aunt Cynthia wasn’t invited. Maybe she thought it was a guys-only trip.
After a brief tutorial and tour of the boat, Nora followed her uncle’s instructions and helped him sail the boat to the Nantucket Harbor, where five of his best male friends got aboard.
Four women boarded as well—women in their twenties who were absolutely not their wives.
Nora felt nauseous. On paper, she’d known that men cheated on their wives.
And she’d seen her uncle doing it in person.
But seeing so many men out in the open, flirting and drinking champagne with women who weren’t their wives, made Nora feel as though the world was in on a joke she’d never been privy to. It made her feel young and naive.
“This is my niece,” Uncle Everett informed everyone. “She wants to learn about sailing, and she wants to meet all of you. She has many goals and dreams for her future.” He smiled.
Nora felt embarrassed. She’d never told Uncle Everett any of her goals. But each of his male friends gave her a once-over, assessing her, and welcomed her aboard.
She’d never felt so exposed.
When they reached a beautiful cove that glinted turquoise, with the sunlight shimmering down from a cloudless sky, Uncle Everett dropped the anchor and said, “Pop the champagne, ladies.” He clapped his friends on their broad backs as they watched the women remove bottles of champagne from the coolers. Bubbles heaved out of the green glass.
Very soon, Uncle Everett handed Nora a glass of champagne. “This is the very best from Reims,” he said, his French accent perfect in Nora’s ears.
“She knows all about champagne regions,” teased one of his friends, a man named Ollie. “Don’t you, Nora?”
Nora tried on a smile and poured champagne into her mouth. Ollie sidled up to her and clinked his glass with hers. “Your uncle said you have big visions for your future. What are they?” he asked.
Nora was surprised at the attention. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the women on board refilling their glasses and murmuring in low tones, as though they didn’t want the men to overhear what they were saying. She wondered if they were talking about her.
“I want to work in some kind of writing. Maybe magazine writing,” Nora said.
Ollie nodded, his face growing serious. “It’s a very competitive field. Are you up for that?”
Nora hated that he doubted her without knowing her. “Of course.”
Ollie laughed. “I see that there’s a fire in you. Understood.” He turned to look at one of the other guys, saying, “Nora here is going to work in the big city. Magazines.”
“You want to live in Manhattan, Nora?” another guy asked.
Nora parted her lips, searching for a response that would put her on an even playing field with these guys. But she didn’t know what to say. They burst into laughter.
“Don’t worry about them,” Ollie said. “They laugh at everything, mostly because nothing makes sense to them and nothing matters to them, either. But I think your future is very bright, Nora.”
Nora thanked him because she didn’t know what else to do.
Eventually, the focus shifted away from Nora and to other conversation topics, things Nora couldn’t fully understand.
Nora hung out to the side, eating the fancy snacks and willing herself to enjoy what she could have the day.
For the first time since she’d come to Nantucket, she didn’t have to watch the kids.
She was free, sort of. But she was also trapped on a multimillion-dollar boat with a bunch of men who thought they ran the world. Maybe they really did run the world.
She remembered what Max had insinuated back at the party. She knew that Max wouldn’t be pleased that she’d agreed to join her uncle on this boat.
But maybe Max was wrong?
It was then that she tuned in to what her uncle and some of his friends were talking about.
“I asked him, you know, what his revenue was last year,” Ollie was saying. “And he broke down in tears. He knew that I had him. He knew that he had no leg to stand on.”
“Similar story,” another man said, “but the guy was going bankrupt. I managed to take not only his business but his house and his boat and his motorcycle, too.”
“Did you let him keep his family?” another guy joked.
Everyone cackled. Feeling terrified, angry, and confused, Nora let her glass be refilled by one of her girlfriends.
“You’re a little young to be dating one of them,” the woman said under her breath.
Nora flared her nostrils. “That’s my uncle,” she said.
The woman still looked worried.
“He wants to introduce me to people who could, um, help my career,” Nora said.
The woman smiled. “They do have connections. Unfortunately.”
Nora searched the woman’s face for understanding of why she was there. “Who is your boyfriend?” Nora asked.
The woman pointed at one of the men Nora hadn’t properly spoken to yet. “He pays for my apartment in the city and is putting me through school.” Under her breath, she added, “I hope he waits to dump me until after the final bill goes through.”
Nora widened her eyes. She’d never imagined that some of the mistresses of these “important” and wealthy men were getting something out of it. She’d always seen them as wanting to break up marriages and families. But maybe they didn’t want that at all.
Nora asked, just to know. “Are you in love with him?”
The woman threw her head back with laughter. “I have to tell the girls what you said,” she said, turning back to whisper to the others. They laughed along with her.
Obviously, Nora had asked a very funny question.
It was one of the strangest days of Nora’s life.
The expedition didn’t end till the sun sank into the ocean and sent them shivering home.
When they dropped off Uncle Everett’s friends and their make-believe girlfriends at the harbor, Uncle Everett was singing as he sailed them back to the Greenaway house.
Between songs, he asked if Nora had a good time.
“It was amazing,” Nora said, which wasn’t really a lie. She was amazed at their mean-spirited energy and a world she’d never understood.
“That’s the spirit. You should join us again. Everyone liked you,” Uncle Everett said. She expected him to ask her not to tell Aunt Cynthia about anything that had happened, and not about the kissing, either. But he seemed to think she was smart enough to get it.
When they reached home, Nora thanked her uncle three times before he waved her away and headed to his study, presumably to drink more scotch alone and listen to records.
Nora crept through the shadows of the house and eventually found Pam’s niece and the four kids upstairs, playing board games.
The babysitter looked exhausted, and her hair was filled with sand.
She ran out of there as fast as she could.
“I don’t know if I can do this again,” she murmured.
“They’re a handful. I think they hated me. ”
Nora couldn’t imagine that. Were the kids especially kind to her? It hadn’t occurred to her before.
But with Nora back in charge, the kids hopped to it, brushing their teeth and getting ready for bed.
Nora listened to the comforting sounds of the evening, standing in the window and watching as Pam’s niece sped off in her clunky car.
She laughed to herself although it was sad not to have her as an option for future babysitting.
It was only then that she saw her Aunt Cynthia, creeping around outside.
She was on the driveway, wearing a beautiful, elegant jacket that fluttered to her ankles.
Her hair shone in the moonlight, and she was fully made up.
Her lipstick was pink and bright. Before Nora could speculate about what she was up to, an iconic sports car appeared, paused for a second as Aunt Cynthia hurried around to leap into the passenger seat, then sped off, chasing Pam’s niece's junker before bypassing it.
Nora gaped after them both, then laughed at the absurdity of it all. Was it possible that Aunt Cynthia was having an affair as well? Was it possible that this was a part of the married couple’s elaborate game?