Chapter 6 — She Kept Her Shift

ClaraI'm not taking it.

CharlesClara —

ClaraI don't want it. I want you to understand that I'm not saying it to be gracious. I don't want it.

CharlesIt isn't a gift. It was written nineteen years ago by a man who never met you.

ClaraHe knew where I was in 2004.

CharlesYes.

ClaraAnd he sent a lawyer instead of coming himself.

CharlesYes.

ClaraMy mother cleaned houses until she was sixty-two. She had one good coat.

CharlesI know.

ClaraYou don't, though. That's not an insult. You just don't.

CharlesTell me what you want, then.

ClaraI want to finish out my contract. There are three weeks on it.

CharlesYou want to keep working here.

ClaraI want to walk out of this house on a Friday because the job ended, not because she put me on the floor.

CharlesShe's not going to like that.

ClaraNo.

CharlesShe's downstairs now. She'll see you in the hall.

ClaraGood.

CharlesClara — the provision doesn't lapse because you don't want it. It sits there. Twenty years.

ClaraThen it can sit there.

CharlesAnd if you change your mind in ten?

ClaraThen I'll have changed my mind in ten.

Clara picked up the tray of glasses from the sideboard and went out through the hall, past Vivian, who was standing at the foot of the stairs.

VivianYou will not last a week in this house.

ClaraThree weeks, ma'am. It's on the contract.

VivianDo you imagine any of this makes you an Ashford?

ClaraNo, ma'am.

ClaraMy mother's name was Marchetti.