Chapter 17
David Kingman and his family stopped overnight at Louisville, resting in an hotel, whilst Eulalia slept in David�s car. They rose very early the following morning, and reached Baltimore that evening, in a long haul that stopped at numerous small country stations for passengers and freight. But they travelled in reasonable comfort, riding in David�s own personal carriage, with its upholstered armchairs and table lamps lighting a couple of small tables, and a coloured attendant to serve them with coffee and bowls of hot soup. The girls played guessing games to help pass the time, whilst Evelyn busied herself knitting a black woollen jacket she thought she might present to Iris after Franny�s funeral, and David worked on a pile of railroad papers.
Joshua Kingman
met them at Baltimore�s Pennsylvania station. Iris and Eulalia gazed around
with awe both at the station�s huge wrought iron pillars and arching roof
supports, and at the bustle and hubbub of people distantly scurrying to and
fro, though the three little Kingman girls, who knew the station well, carried
themselves with great aplomb. David had arranged for the two final cars on the
train � his own, and a box car containing Franny�s coffin � to be attached to
the end of the train, so that it could be shunted directly to a side platform.
Joshua was waiting for them. He was a tall, slim young man, very similar to David in appearance, sporting an elegant pair of side whiskers. He was dressed in deep mourning, and carrying a tall stovepipe hat draped in black. He greeted his brother gravely.
�Brother, I grieve to hear of your loss.�
David sighed. �Everyone loved Franny.� He swallowed hard, and took a moment to regain his composure. �But she was in great pain towards the end.�
They were both silent for a moment. The two brothers were very close, and had been throughout their lives, and what pained one brought equal pain to the other.
Then Joshua held out his hand to Evelyn, who was just stepping down from David�s car. �My deepest sympathies, ma�am.�
Evelyn had lowered her veil. But she lifted it for a moment as she shook hands. �Thank you, Joshua.� She paused for a moment as Iris came down from the car, followed by the three little Kingman girls and Eulalia. They were all dressed in black. She beckoned Iris forward, but paused as David held out his hand, to take Iris� fingers in his own. It was a statement of intent, and a moment for assessment and judgment.
��Iris, I should like you to meet my brother Joshua.�
Joshua took Iris in at a glance, and held out his hand without a moment of hesitation, and both David and Evelyn felt relief surge through them. �Welcome to Baltimore, ma�am.� He paused, as though searching for the right words to use. �I know that we are here to say farewell to Franny, but I hope my brother and Franny�s mother will allow me to say that I think you will make him a very happy man.�
Iris blushed slightly, and looked down. She would have curtseyed, had she known how.
Joshua smiled at the three little girls and Eulalia. He reached into his hat, to come out with three small packages. �I have brought some candies for you girls.�
Harriet knew how to curtsey, and duly obliged, with Jemma and Ellen following, though in rather ragged fashion. Ten year olds possess social graces that younger siblings have yet to acquire.
�Right.� Joshua was suddenly very business-like. �A hearse is waiting to take Franny to the cathedral, and we can follow it in my carriage. I think we should pray briefly, and then return to your house, ma�am.� He looked at Evelyn. �Your cousin has a good meal waiting, and the funeral is set for tomorrow afternoon. The archbishop will conduct the service in person.�
Evelyn looked a little taken aback. �Archbishop Austin?�
�I think he has heard something of your loss, and wants to show his sympathy.� Joshua did not add that all Baltimore had been talking of Franny�s decision to appoint the young nanny to her children as her successor and bride-elect, and that all Baltimore planned to attend Franny�s funeral to take Iris� measure.
�But heavens, we will need to be elegant.� Evelyn understood immediately, and felt a wave of panic rise in her. �What are we going to do about dresses, and hats, and shoes and gloves and so on?�
Joshua smiled slightly. �Your Cousin Stephanie has everything in hand. She has spoken to old Rudolph Hutzler, and the store is closing off its Ladies� Wear Department for two hours. I understand that Stephanie will take all the costs on her own account.�
Evelyn put her hand to her veil � for a moment she felt almost faint with all this excitement. �God bless Stephanie.� She knew that her words could not have been truer.
One of the canons came down the steps to greet the hearse when they arrived at the cathedral, and four strong undertakers took Franny�s coffin on a kind of stretcher and bore it inside. Iris looked around, even more in awe than she had been at the station. She had never seen any building like this in her life, and she never imagined that men could raise such an edifice. She watched David and his brother, Evelyn and the three little girls kneel on big leather pads, and only hesitated for a moment before joining them. She had heard chapel folk rant at the ways of what they called Papists and their kin, but she knew that David was kneeling to show reverence for the Almighty, and if the man she loved did such a thing, then she would kneel at his side. She felt a hand touch hers, and David pressed her fingers, and she knew that he was showing his gratitude, and she was content.
Cousin Stephanie was what some in Baltimore society called a �grand old lady.� She had never married, though it was said that she had once loved a young sea captain, only to see him lose his life in a wreck, staying on his bridge as his vessel sank beneath the waves. She had devoted her life to good works after this loss, founding a school for girls and an orphanage. She was wealthy, and her wealth had grown during the boom years, to remain with her through a stock market crash, for she had invested wisely in land and manufacturing, and more recently in oil exploration in the Middle West. Many said that she possessed a better brain for business than many of the richest men on the Eastern Seaboard. But she had contented herself with living modestly, close to Evelyn�s house, though once a year she hosted a magnificent musical evening in the grounds of the Kingman�s summer home in Roland Park, for the Kingmans and the Iversons and the Clouets were close � Evelyn had been a Clouet before marriage � united both in their business dealings and a common love for music.
She was a strong, and capable woman. But she felt unaccustomedly uncertain as she waited at Evelyn�s house for her cousin to come home. She had read and re-read letters that Franny had sent her in her last days, and other letters from Evelyn, and had been mightily impressed by their picture of Iris. But a dying woman needing to ensure a good home for her children might conceivably mislead herself in judging a potential successor � it is sometimes possible to reach a mistaken conclusion when time is fast running short � and a mother can also be deceived.
She tapped nervously on her bureau with the tips of her fingers. She had papers to read, and business decisions to make. But nothing ranking as crucial as this. She ran all her preparations through her mind. She had chosen a simple black woolen dress for the day, with only a small jet brooch that Franny had once given her, because she wanted to keep her best black silk full-bottomed dress for the funeral � she would wear a matching black silk cloak over the dress, and a wide-brimmed black hat with a full veil, long black gloves, and perhaps a simple little silver crucifix on a box chain that a dear young man had once given her, many years before. Evangelina, the cook, was already waiting down in the kitchen with a small mountain of provisions to feed up hungry mouths � for Stephanie had no doubt that Evelyn, David, the children and Franny�s successor-designate would arrive hungry. She had spoken to Rudy Hutzler, and profited from a long-standing friendship to persuade him into allowing Evelyn to dress Iris and three little girls both suitably and privately. She had entertained the archbishop to lunch.
Suddenly she head a carriage halt on the cobblestones outside the house, and felt her heart rise quite into her mouth. She got to her feet and walked to the door leading out into the hallway. She would put on her best smile, open the front door herself, and hope that Franny and Evelyn had been good judges.
She stood in the doorway, waiting for the carriage door to open, and saw Evelyn get out. For a moment her heart fluttered again. Then she hurried down the marble steps, holding her arms wide. �Welcome home, my dear.�
The two women embraced, holding each other close in silence for a moment, for heartfelt sympathy is a precious healing balm. Then Evelyn rolled her veil up onto the brim of her hat, and Stephanie looked into her cousin�s eyes, and learned something from what she saw there of the difficult days and torments Evelyn had been through. For a kind of cloud shadowed her eyes, and she had the look of a woman who has travelled through a vale of great pain. Stephanie kissed her gently. But Stephanie was also a woman, with a woman�s inborn curiosity, and she glanced quickly over her cousin�s shoulder as they held each other to see who would follow her out of the carriage.
It was a moment of inspection, and curiosity and possibly a little uncertainty, for she found herself looking at a slim girl in black, aged somewhere under twenty, with good features and a pleasant demeanor. The girl held herself well, but also seemed somehow reserved, as though closed in on herself. Stephanie smiled at her, but the girl�s expression did not change. It was as though she were also assessing and judging.
Evelyn turned towards her, and then looked at her cousin. �Stephanie, this is Iris.�
Stephanie heard Evelyn speak. But for the first time in her life she felt a little discomposed. A pair of violet blue eyes, wild iris eyes, fixed her own. She judged them friendly, but could not say. She judged them wise, but they seemed too young. She felt she should sweep the newcomer into her arms, but held out her hand.
�Welcome to Baltimore.�
Iris felt again that she should curtsey. But she would not imitate Harriet � someone would have to show her.
David and his three little girls had now joined them, and he broke the impasse. �I think Franny told you about Iris.�
�She did.� Stephanie felt Iris� hand in her own, and sensed a kind of vibrant, questing energy. She sensed that an offer of friendship now might pave a way to much closer future friendship, and bent forward quickly to kiss Iris on the cheek. She judged the girl surprised at her gesture. But suddenly the wild iris eyes seemed to blossom, and Iris smiled, and Stephanie shed all her doubts. Then she realized that Harriet was staring up at her.
�You look hungry.�
Harriet felt ravenous. But she was too polite to say it.
Stephanie took a moment to collect herself, and then made a sweeping gesture with her arms towards the house. �We�ll all eat together.�
Dinner was a noisy, and at times almost greedy affair. Franny�s three girls demolished platefuls of oyster stew in less time than it might have taken a shark to swallow a whale, or perhaps the reverse. But the four adults ate rather more politely. Iris thought that she must be in a dream. She had never eaten in such surroundings, for the Baltimore house was far grander than the one David had rented in Coates, and a coloured butler stood behind Miss Stephanie, and took her plate when she had finished her stew. She noted with something akin to awe that they were all expected to unfold starched linen napkins and spread them out on their knees, and that each person had a choice of forks and knives and spoons and glasses. She watched carefully to see the order in which the others would choose them, and noted that the others tilted their deep plates away from them when they were nearly emptied, to avoid any risk of� stains on their clothing, and accordingly tilted her own plate.
The butler poured a pale golden green liquid into a tall, slim fancy� glass for her, and she tasted it doubtfully. It tasted of fruit perhaps, with a flavor something like the wild grapes she had sometimes gathered around Coates, or cherries, or possibly blackberries. But she sensed something heady about it, and only allowed herself a few sips, for she intended conducting herself soberly.
Then the butler served each of them with small dishes that seemed crusted with burnt sugar. The three little girls pounced on them with cries of delight, breaking their sugar crusts with their spoons, and she copied them experimentally, to find that her crust hid a sweet yellow cream, and she smiled as she ate it, for she found it really very pleasant indeed.
Stephanie and Evelyn meanwhile monopolized the conversation, for David spoke very little, and the three girls chattered amongst themselves � it was though their arrival in Baltimore had untied their tongues. Iris said nothing. She judged that it was not her place to be forward � she knew that was being measured, and could only hope that she came through well.
Evelyn looked across the table at her at the end of the meal, and Iris stiffened a little inside herself. But Franny�s mother was smiling. �You look tired, my dear. I think it may be time for you and the children to go to bed.� She hesitated.� �Oh, dear. I suppose I am already talking to you like a daughter.�
Stephanie stood up. �I think we will both put Iris and the children to bed.� She glanced at David. �I imagine you, sir, will want to enjoy a cigar.�
David looked a little sheepish. �I promised to step over to Joshua.�
�Who will no doubt give you something to keep your cigar company?� Stephanie smiled at him archly. She was very fond of her niece�s husband, and had already decided that Franny could not have chosen a more fitting successor. �Be off with you, sir, and mind you come back able to walk a straight line.�
Iris could not help yawning as she followed the two women and three girls upstairs. But fatigue could not close her eyes to her surroundings. Evelyn�s house seemed to grow with every step she took. She had spent her whole life in single room cabins in Tennessee, before moving to the Kingman home in Coates, and that would have impressed her mightily, had she not been in too much pain during her first days in the house to take much notice of it.
But this house seemed to dwarf the house in Coates, with its impressive approach up marble steps into a hall with walls hung with paintings of men and women in old-fashioned dress and a floor paved in polished black and white diamonds, a flight of elegant stairs leading away to some upper level, and a diningroom with a great gleaming suspension of lights above the dining table set with a myriad glittering crystals.
She momentarily glimpsed a second room across the hall from the dining room, furnished with big comfortable armchairs and a sofa, and what looked like the end of a piano, for she had seen one once when delivering a pie she had baked to a Ladies Night at the Commercial Hotel, though Woodrow had insisted that she only left the pie with the hotel kitchen, and refrained from stepping inside, describing the Commercial Hotel as a cesspit of sin.
�Come on, my dear. You look properly tuckered.�
Stephanie was standing at the top of the stairs, holding out her hand. She realized that Iris limped up the last couple of steps, and reached out to take her arm. �Are you still in pain?�
Iris nodded a little awkwardly. She had learned to suppress her feelings during her youth days with Woodrow, and her marriage to Uriah; to avoid thinking of herself, because she knew that any expressions of concern would only trigger irritation, and possibly worse. �I�ll get by.�
Stephanie stopped, to put both her hands on her shoulders, and look straight into her eyes. �You won�t have to get by any more. Franny wrote, in the last letter she sent me, that she wanted us all to look after you, and take you into our hearts. I think you have captured us already.�
Next morning passed in a burst of activity. Iris helped Eulalia make sure the three girls washed themselves properly and cleaned their teeth with diligence, and then shepherded them down to breakfast. But all four of them were too excited to eat very much, even though Eulalia, who was now appointed nursemaid for the duration of their stay in Baltimore, chided them sternly.
�We�re going to a big store, to get new dresses to say goodbye to Mama.� Ellen spoke in a rush, for she desperately wanted to be allowed to get down from table and on her way, and then realized with a flush of guilt what she had said.
Eulalia wagged a fat black finger. �Yo�re gwine to see her cross over into the Promised Land. Thet ain�t no cause for ornery rejoicin�.�
Ellen blushed, and Iris stood up to turn the situation. �I�m the same way, �Lalia.� She smiled a little shyly. �It ain�t ev�ry day a girl gets a new dress.�
Eulalia looked mollified. �Well, thet�s right. Thet�s fer sho�, �n I cain�t speak �gainst thet.�
Harriet got down from her chair with dignity. �I am going to choose something very grown-up.� She eyed Iris. �And you will have to make all eyes turn.� It was another expression she had learned from her father.
Jemma looked sage. �She must also curtsey if we are presented to Archbishop Austin. Grandma says he�s really frightfully important.�
The three Kingman girls stared at Iris.
�I�m not sure I can.� Iris lifted the front of her billowing black skirt, and made to put her left knee forward. The movement made her wince, but not as much as she had feared.
Harriet shook her head firmly. �No, Iris, not like that.� She took two handfuls of her skirt and bent her left knee forward, bending her right knee towards the ground.� �This is a proper curtsey.�
Iris tried again, but attempting to bend her right knee so low sent a sharp pain ripping through her groin. �I don�t think I can.�
Evelyn pushed the diningroom door open, and stopped short. �What on earth is going on?�
She had been out with Stephanie, taking the morning air, and also exchanging a few confidences and making plans for the day ahead.
�We�re teaching Iris how to curtsey for the Archbishop.�
�How ridiculous.� Evelyn took her own skirt in her hands and performed a quick little bob. �She only has to dip a little.�
Harriet looked mutinous. �I�m going to curtsey.�
�Iris is a grown-up, and you�re only a girl.� Evelyn spoke firmly. �Archbishop Austin will expect you to curtsey. But Iris will only be expected to dip.�
Both Stephanie and Evelyn accompanied Iris and the girls to Hutzler Brothers, undoubtedly Baltimore�s biggest and smartest emporium. Stephanie had already dressed for the funeral, and they traveled with Joshua and David in Joshua�s carriage, with the two men riding up alongside the coachman, though it was still quite a tight fit inside.
�� They arrived at the store at nine-thirty sharp, and found that a wide red carpet had been laid across the sidewalk for them. An elderly man in a black swallow-tailed coat and striped pants stood in the store doorway, flanked on either side by two respectful women dressed in black, but with white aprons like pinafores. He came out across the sidewalk to greet Stephanie as she stepped out of the carriage. He was bald, but with big waxed moustachios and reddish sideburns. Two small crowds began to gather either side of the red carpet. Baltimore rarely witnessed such commercial ceremony.
Stephanie presented them each in turn, and the three children curtseyed very prettily. Iris would have followed, to the best of her ability, but Stephanie put her hand on her arm. �You�re a grown-up.�
The man with the waxed moustachios bowed.
�Iris, I would like you to meet Mr. Rudolf Hutzler.�
Iris smiled cautiously.
�You do me a great honor, Miss Clouet and Mrs. Iverson.� The man bowed again, and looked hard at Iris as he straightened up. She lowered her eyes, avoiding his stare. She was sure nobody had ever stared at her so.
�I have two of my best ladies who will give you their very best attention.� He raised his hand, snapping his fingers, and the two women came forward. �I have told Miss Grant and Miss Fraser that they must make you the center of attention at your reception.� He stared at Iris again. �And you, I think, ma�am, will turn all eyes.�
Iris knew that she would remember every minute of the next two hours to her dying day. She was measured, and corseted quite tightly, with careful instructions that she should not try to bend overmuch, because whalebone stays can be cruelly unforgiving, and fitted into a whole variety of black dresses and coats and hats and boots, before the two women, Evelyn and Stephanie pronounced themselves satisfied.
Then she was taken in front of a tall mirror, and she gasped. The young woman looking out at her might have some resemblance to an Iris she had once known, but the resemblance seemed very tenuous, for the figure looking out at her from the glass was tall, and elegant, with a serious, almost severe look about her, and even a kind of grandeur. The two Hutzler Brother employees had clothed her in a fine watered black silk dress with an open neckline filled out with a panel of plain matt black silk, puffed up shoulders and tight sleeves, and a long skirt. She was wearing fine black crepe gloves, and long boots for the first time in her life - fashionable creations finishing half way up her calves, and a large black picture hat with a veil draped along the forward brim, whilst the two salesladies had added a high-necked black woolen coat and a sable fur pelisse for her neck, lest the cathedral prove chilly.
Evelyn had also found a new dress, matching Iris� in length, and rather similar in style. But it was simply cut from a plain black silk, and she had chosen a simple wide-brimmed hat and a long black coat with a fur collar, for she would not have thought to outshine Iris for all the world.
Stephanie looked at her, and beamed. �Well, you both look pretty good.� But she was plainly more impressed by Iris. �I think this young lady�s going to take the measure of Baltimore.�
Evelyn looked at Stephanie, and beamed. �The whole town will be talking about her for the next ten years.�
The three little Kingman girls joined them. They were now also in black silk, wearing plain matt dresses with inset panels of black brocade, sleeves puffed to the wrists, and flared skirts. They also looked very smart, but Harriet could not take her eyes off Iris.
�You are beautiful, Iris. Really beautiful.� Her voice was wistful, because she knew she would have to wait something like seven years before being allowed to attain the same kind of elegance. Iris bent to kiss her.
Jemma and Ellen pulled at her dress to collect kisses of their own, and Ellen smiled up at Evelyn shyly. �I think Mama is smiling down on her from heaven.�
Joshua�s carriage collected them when they were ready to leave the store, for David and his brother were already at the cathedral making final preparations.
Both Evelyn and Stephanie insisted on Iris entering through the great front door completely veiled. �I want you to surprise David.� Evelyn spoke in a whisper. �Stephanie and I will tell him you are here. You must walk very straight, and raise your veil with your right hand in one sweeping movement.� She sketched a gesture, watched Iris essay it a couple of times until she was satisfied, and then led the way up the cathedral steps.
Iris followed, filled with a kind of alarm tempered with something close, almost, to excitement. She knew that her knees felt weak under her, and she was sure that she must be walking in a most peculiar manner. Her veil obscured her sight, and she seemed to be traveling through a kind of mist. She heard a voice whisper �now!� and swept up her veil.
David and his brother were both staring at her open-mouthed. Evelyn and Stephanie were smiling the happy smiles of women who have engineered a magic transformation. Joshua ushered forward a pleasant looking woman in a long black dress and coat and picture hat, and two small teenage boys in black knickerbocker suits, introducing them as his wife and sons, and the two boys stared at Iris as though at a princess.
A great organ boomed from above and behind them, and David signed to Iris to accompany him, supporting her on his arm. She realized that the cathedral seemed full of silent figures, both men and women, standing in rows, but this gathering was far larger than any she had seen in Baptist chapels in which she had worshipped, and the building might have comfortably housed any number of chapels stacked side by side and piled on top of each other. She wrinkled her nose at a strange sweetish smell, and guessed that it must be incense, for she had heard many a preacher rant against such a practice. But she was a girl who believed that heaven might manifest itself in many different ways to different people, and she knew that this place, and these practices, embodied David�s beliefs. She had chosen her man, and would believe as he believed.
A choir began to sing, and Iris was dimly able to make out the shape of a coffin draped in black velvet supported on a bier. A man�s voice chanted, and the choir took up his chant. Then they sat on hard wooden benches, and a deep voice spoke of� the suffering Franny had been forced to endure on her path to heaven and wished David well, and then they were filing out of the cathedral towards a line of carriages. The carriages began to move, taking them perhaps a couple of miles to a large cemetery, and they clambered out into the cold fall air, grouping around a deep grave.
The same deep-voiced man began to pray as men lowered Franny�s coffin into her grave, and Iris saw that he was bare-headed, dressed in a kind of long black cloak and reading from a small prayer book, with a white scarf embroidered with large crosses at its ends laid around his neck and hanging down over his dress. He finished praying, and was silent for a moment, and then two gravediggers with long-handled shovels began to cover Franny�s coffin with earth. Earth covered the coffin, and rose slowly in the grave to form a small mound above the ground.
The man closed his prayer book and made a sign with his right hand over the grave in the form of a cross, and for a moment the cemetery was still. Then he covered his head with a broad-brimmed beaver hat and walked towards them to shake hands with David.
�Archbishop, I�d like to introduce you to Iris.�
The man did not greet her, but raised his right hand as they came face to face, and again made a sign in the form of a cross. �Love dies, and is born anew.� He spoke gravely, as though setting out a future.
David bowed slightly. �Thank you. I hope you will grace our little reception.�
�I could not miss it, David.� Now the man�s voice no longer grave, but amused. �I don�t think anybody wants to miss it.�
Iris had expected a smallish gathering, perhaps the size of the crowd who had turned up to bid Uriah farewell. But the attendance at Franny�s wake seemed to run comfortably to more than a thousand, rather a matter of fifty or sixty souls. She had perforce to smile perhaps a thousand times, and shake a thousand hands, as men and women filed past her � all the women staring at her as though they might eat her away with their eyes. Evelyn brought her a plate of small sandwiches, all cut with the crusts removed, and a glass of hot black tea in a metal holder, whilst Stephanie sallied off on numerous small sorties to test Baltimore opinion. But then, eventually, it was over, and they were all back at the house in Mount Vernon. Iris was quite exhausted, and had great difficulty staying awake in a corner of the drawingroom sofa. But Evelyn and Stephanie were euphoric.
�I heard old Mrs. Dressler telling someone she was sure Iris was a Lafayette. She swore he went on an expedition out into Tennessee. She said it was the aristocratic air she had.� Stephanie beamed. Nobody could better the Lafayette name in Baltimore. �I imagine they�ll all start calling tomorrow.�
Evelyn glanced over at Iris and then put her forefinger to her lips, for Iris was fast asleep.