he was expected to follow Dad’s example. Tom hesitated and then dug his fork into the potatoes. Before he could talk himself out of it, he gulped a mouthful and swallowed.
Not bad, if he didn’t let the food settle in his mouth.
He picked up another spoonful, shoveled it in, and forced it down quickly. Now he understood why his dad was eating so fast. So that he didn’t have to taste it. Maybe there was hope after all.
After the third mouthful, his dad cocked his head toward Victoria. The look told Tom it was time to pay the compliment.
When she’d suggested hiring a housekeeper, he’d been so irritated by her helplessness and the way it reminded him of his mother, that he’d worked right through lunch without a break. As the day had passed, his irritation had spent itself in the heat and the hard work of repairing the tower. He’d been left with a dull ache in his chest, knowing that Victoria wasn’t to blame for her desire to have a maid. That kind of lifestyle was all she’d ever known, and he couldn’t expect her to want anything different. Besides, she’d return to her opulent way of living after a month. In fact, the hard labor was a change for him as well. He was accustomed to a life of ease now too.
The real truth was that he was angry at himself. It was his fault Mom needed the help in the first place. If he hadn’t failed in his scouting duties that fateful day in ’64, she wouldn’t have had to trek through the wintery weather to rescue him and Ike from the Confederates. She would have stayed home, safe and dry.
Now, seeing her only made him loathe himself all over again.
His dad paused in his eating and stared at Tom. Waiting.
Tom swallowed another burnt bite and cleared his throat. None of this was Victoria’s fault. In fact, he gave her credit for spending the afternoon in the kitchen and attempting a meal. At least she’d made an effort to help, even if the results were awful. He could compliment her for that, couldn’t he?
“I can tell you worked hard today, Victoria,” he said.
At his quiet statement, a sob broke from her lips. She cupped her hand quickly over her mouth and scooted back from the table. She rose to her feet, her eyes brimming with unshed tears.
Startled, Tom pushed back too. Before he could stand, she rushed across the room, and he stared at her retreating back in confusion. She ran out of the dining room to the stairway. Then she clomped up all twenty steps, ran down the hallway, entered their bedroom, and slammed the door.
So much for paying her compliment.
Her footsteps crossed the bedroom, and from the squeak of the bedsprings, he guessed she’d lain down.
Maybe she was just tired.
He sighed and began to scoot his chair back, only to stop at the ominous silence in the room. He glanced across the table to find that both Mom and Dad were staring at him. Reproach was written all over their faces.
“What?” he asked.
“You worked hard?” Dad said in a low voice. “That’s the best you could come up with?”
“Well, she did.”
“You couldn’t find something praiseworthy about the meal?”
Tom glanced at the blackened fish and the mushy burnt potatoes. “No.”
“Then you didn’t dig deep enough.” Dad tossed his napkin onto the table and pushed away, his eyes full of fire.
Mom laid a steadying hand on Dad’s arm. “It’s my fault everything burned. I got so busy instructing her on how to make a pie that I forgot to have her flip the fish and potatoes.”
He dreaded to see the pie, but instead of making another remark that would anger Dad, he kept silent.
Dad was quiet for a moment too, as though trying to rein in his anger. Finally, he spoke. “The key to a good marriage is to do all you can to uplift your wife and treasure her—even in her worst moments.”
Tom wanted to blurt out that it wouldn’t matter if he had a good marriage to Victoria, because it would end in a month anyway. But he nodded respectfully. “You’re right.”
“You should go up and apologize to her,” Mom said gently.
Apologize for a compliment? Tom started to protest.
“Your mom’s right,” Dad said. “She usually is.”
Mom smiled and leaned toward him, lifting her face for a kiss. He eagerly obliged, kissing her with the same fervor he always had.
Tom shifted in his chair and