“You must consider these things now,” Isabella insisted. “Don’t you want your daughter to be well educated? To marry well?”
Henry’s eyes widened. “Marry?We’re far from that.”
“This is where you show your shortsightedness, Henry. By the time you were Abigail’s age, your father and I already knew what families you might marry into. So many of our decisions toward your education weren’t just ensuring you were prepared to inherit the family business. It was also about attracting the right families.”
She looked right at Monica when she said that.
Henry changed the subject as soon as his cheeks stopped flushing red. Monica rightfully kept quiet for the remainder of the evening, until her in-laws decided to turn in for the night. After more cheek kisses and derisive sniffs, Monica was free to release the tension from her shoulders and march into herbedroom, where she promptly changed into her nightgown and furiously brushed her hair. Henry waited to say anything until they were both in bed, a book in Monica’s hand.
It remained unread.
“I know this isn’t ideal, Princess.” Henry rolled onto his side, elbow propped on his squishing pillow. “If I had known they’d be flying in a day early, I would have warned you. But they had just arrived when you were already on your way home.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Monica’s eyes were fixated on the words in her book, but she absorbed none of them. She didn’t even remember what the title was. “We would have done the same thing in their shoes.”
He must have sensed that she was not totally placated, for he said, “I’ll do most of the entertaining this weekend. You focus on what you need to do to keep your sanity.”
“Is that the same thing you say to your sister?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “At any rate, I must oversee dinner both nights this weekend.”
“We’re going out tomorrow. The big family dinner here at home isn’t until Sunday, as is tradition.”
“I’m the one responsible for the reservation and relaying all instructions to the staff.” They were already prepared to dine at the most exclusive Italian restaurant in the city.All of us.Including Abigail. Including Eva and her wife Nadia, who would put in appearances for dinners but otherwise made it clear she was spending as little time around Isabella as possible. Monica didn’t blame her but wished for more camaraderie with one of her sisters-in-law.Nadia’s good for having a level head that understands the non-wealthy life. Not so much for dealing with Isabella and Gerald.If they were still having children in the future, though… Nadia would have to learn many of the same hard lessons that Monica had.
Especially since Monica knew where the paternal DNA was coming from.
“What?” Henry asked.
“Hmph. Just thinking about your future children, and how that gives your mother the ‘right’ to rule their lives too.”
He furrowed his brows in confusion.
“Eva’s future kids. Have you already forgotten?”
“No… just confused as to why you’re bringing that up right now.Whatis on your mind, Princess? Know something about my sister’s imminent plans that I don’t?”
Monica absentmindedly turned a page, her reading glasses slipping down her nose. “You don’t want to know.” She sighed. “What’s on my mind, I mean. I have no idea what Eva and Nadia are up to.”
“That can’t be true. You know everything going on in this house.” Henry pushed his face closer. “Every affair between the staff, every intimate conversation between my sister and her wife, andeverystep my mother takes.”
A calculating smile curled on Monica’s face. “That I do.”
Nothing got by Monica. Nothing happened in her house without her knowing about it first. She read minds at the Château, and she read minds among her extended family.
Which was why she knew what her husband was thinking about now.
“Not tonight,” she said, her safe word on the tip of her tongue if it came to it. “Between my period and your mother’s sudden appearance, it’s going to be a long week, Henry.”
He flopped back into the bed, the covers rustling around his half-naked body. “Don’t I know it.”
Sleep settled over him in the next ten minutes. Monica continued to stare at the words in her book without comprehending them. Her mind was nothing but anticipating her mother-in-law’s next move.
Chapter 4
Strange Ambitions
Monica soldiered through the weekend, taking care of her in-laws’ needs before they anticipated them. That included what Isabella would find unsavory at the Saturday night restaurant or how bored Gerald might be at the country club Sunday afternoon. Although they weren’t a “church” family, Isabella liked to put on airs now that Abigail was old enough to understand Sunday school. So when the two of them returned from the Presbyterian church where Isabella had married Gerald, Abigail was excited to show her mother the activity page she had colored in about Joseph’s Coat of Many Colors.
“I don’t remember that!” Henry hissed to his wife over lunch at the country club. Monica had folded the Crayon-laden paper in her purse to show him once they were settled. “I thought Joseph was Jesus’s father?”
