My throat grew thick with emotion at her words, but I managed to mutter, “Would you like me to pour?”
“Please, child. Allegria must think you look hungry. She knows not to bring out that much food for me now. I don’t have the appetite I did when I was younger.” There was no self-pity on her face, if anything, it felt like she’d accepted her fate. “Eat away, child. It’ll all go to waste otherwise.”
My eyes widened at the blasé comment and quickly, I stared at the tray. Even though the Ramsdens, and before them the Majors, had always fed me well, between Nanny dying and the Majors? I knew what it was to be hungry.
I hated waste.
Loathed it.
So her words were my version of, ‘Open, Sesame.’
The wooden tray was packed, but because the topic was emotional, I wasn’t exactly hungry.
I’d come here straight after the meet, needing to fit in this visit before we headed back home early in the morning.
A few of the team were going out for a meal before settling down at our hotel—the intention was to set off at four AM to get to the airport for our ridiculously early flight.
But, to be fair, the food in front of me looked better than anything a restaurant might serve.
The standard tray was packed with delights. A white china teapot dotted with red flowers matched two teacups that were tilted on their sides on saucers. There were other matching plates that housed thick crusted sandwiches that Nanny had served me when I was a kid.
How had I only just remembered that I loved egg salad with cress?
There were three slices of different cake, and a ball of something that had me eying it with suspicion.
Lavinia clucked her tongue. “Long time since you’ve eaten the good stuff if you don’t recognize a Scotch Egg.” She smirked at me. “That’s Leggy’s recipe. Passed it to me, she did,” she continued proudly. “Then I gave it to my girl, because I wanted her to cook it for me.” She raised her hands, and I saw they were misshaped. “The arthritis stopped my baking, but Allegria, though she’s a bore, is a good girl, and although I’m being mean, I wouldn’t be without her.”
“How do you take your tea?” I inquired huskily, wishing that things had been different for my family where Nanny could have had both her girls with her until the end.
“Two sugars. That’s why there’s no milk. If you want some, I can holler for Allegria—”
“No, it’s fine. Thank you.” I set about serving us, then when I passed her the cup and saucer, knowing she’d want both, I eyed her gnarled hands and delicate china warily. When I saw she was okay, I served myself some of the cake, deciding today merited dessert first.
As I forked some up, I moaned at the rich flavor of carrot cake. “Wow, this is gorgeous.”
Lavinia looked smug. “She gets that from me. Spent half my life with a weight problem because of it.” She rolled her eyes. “The irony is, of course, that I’d have killed to be this skinny when I was younger.” She wagged her finger at me. “There’s a lesson there, child. I’m not sure what it is, but take from it what you will.”
I snorted. “I’ll think on it.”
“Do.” Lavinia perused me again, then she asked, “Why’s your hair wet?”
“I just came from—well, I swim.”
“You swim,” she echoed flatly. “You live around here?”
I shook my head. “No. I live near Boston.”
That had her arching a brow. “Interesting.”
“Why?”
“She said she’d never visit her, but she moved to be close.”
“Close to her?” I repeated. “Close to who?”
“Why, your mother, child. Who else? That was where she was the last time I heard, anyway.”
I paused, and the hand holding the fork dropped to my lap. “Momma’s buried near Boston? How did I never know that?”
Lavinia shook her head. “No, child. That’s where your momma was imprisoned. She isn’t dead. Least, not as far as I know.”
My mouth worked for a handful of seconds, but I didn’t know what I was trying to say.
God, I didn’t know what I was even thinking, never mind trying to communicate.
“She didn’t tell you?”
I stared at her a little blankly. “No. She didn’t.”
Lavinia pulled a face. “Well, horseshit.”
My eyes flared. “Horseshit?”
“Yes. Horseshit. Leggy didn’t tell you for a reason, and I’ve just gone and blown it with my big mouth.”
“She should have told me. I had a right to know! I came here wondering