the scent of her sweet jasmine and lavender perfume lingering long after her departure, Francine’s visit left Elizabeth confused about their newfound friendship. But it was the sight of her father returning a short while later that left her most bewildered. The face she had known since her first days on this earth was barely recognizable: drawn, eyes rimmed with shadow, his hair grayer than she recalled it that morning. He looked as though he had aged ten years in as many hours. Elizabeth took a seat in the chair alongside him, his gaze following her until she was still. His eyes were watery, his lip trembling.
“I’m so sorry I wasn’t here for you.” The melody of his voice was lost, little more than a single note left. The sweater he had been wearing since that morning smelled of ink and sweat. Hair was slicked to his forehead in ragged clumps.
“James was here,” she said, knowing her father would like that. “Daddy, what happened?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t know, Elizabeth. They think she took a boat and got confused. Perhaps tried to swim. I can’t believe she’s gone. Oh, Elizabeth,” he exclaimed, his head falling to her shoulder. His body shook against her, so she wrapped her arms around him and held him tight, rocking as a mother would a child in the hope to make right his wrongs. She too had aged in the last ten hours. Losing a parent did that, made you question your existence for the first time in your life. Human mortality paraded before you, utterly unavoidable, the world changed.
“I don’t understand,” Elizabeth finally said. “Why would she take a boat?”
“All that time I thought she was upstairs,” he said, not answering her question. “All that time she was gone. If only I’d known sooner, I could have raised the alarm. I could have saved her.”
“Dr. Davenport, please,” she heard James saying behind her. “You mustn’t think that way. You could never have known.”
“I still don’t understand why she was on the boat,” said Elizabeth again. She needed an answer. With it might come understanding.
The touch of James’s hands on her shoulders grounded her. “A terrible, tragic accident, Lizzy,” he said softly. His fingers needled at her skin. “I’m so sorry, really I am, for both of you. And to think of what people have said. How somebody can strike a family at their worst moment, I just don’t know. It goes to show the nature of some families.”
“It’s the drinking that does it,” her father replied. He sat up, the tears gone, a determined look on his face that seemed out of place.
Elizabeth didn’t understand. “What are you talking about?”
Her father and James shared a look. He nodded, gave James the all-clear to proceed. “Elizabeth, I’m afraid somebody told the police that they saw your father at the harbor this morning, along with your mother. That they were taking a boat out together.”
Before he said anything more, she knew who was responsible.
“Pat Hale,” James said, unable to maintain eye contact. “Tom’s father.”
What was it that Mr. Hale had said that morning, something about the Davenports, and about her father being down at the harbor? And then there was that story Tom had told her about the misunderstanding over the stupid flask, the possibility of her father jilting his mother, leaving her heartbroken. Was that what this was, a moment of vengeance? How could Pat Hale lie like that, at a time like this?
“The police might want to talk to you at some point, darling,” her father said, seemingly bolstered by his mounting sense of injustice. “Perhaps ask you if you saw your mother when you woke up this morning.” Did she appear as guilty as she felt? “Of course, it won’t have helped much that you were up and out so early, but perhaps you heard or saw her? Here or close to the water?” There was such hope in his eyes, which made her guilt run ten times deeper. “Anything at all?”
It took all she had to find words enough for the lie. “No, Daddy. I’m afraid I didn’t.” It was impossible to be sure, but she thought she recognized some level of understanding on James’s face. What would she do when the police asked her about that? Was it possible to skirt around the issue as she had now, or would she have to tell the truth? Tell them where she was when she awoke?