O, Fortuna

Chapter 10

The rain had set in, just as Liam had told her it would but had been joined by the distant rolling of thunder a little before six when Grace left the bedroom to go find Rosa. She did not expect that the housekeeper would need any help but Grace was determined to do something useful and the older woman, sensing something was amiss, nodded and pointed her in the direction of the silverware to set the table with.

Any need to fill silence with self-conscious conversation was thankfully rendered obsolete by the music coming from a portable CD player on top of the fridge, piping out the sweet soulful voice of Sarah Vaughan singing Broken Hearted Melody, which Rosa hummed along to absently as she worked. Just as Grace had suspected, trouble had been gone to for the evening meal, three courses - Nicoise salad, Mediterranean-style roast chicken and then a dessert which Grace assumed to be to the cake that sat on the sideboard, a lemon meringue sponge, what Liam had been so keen to have again the previous afternoon.

"I forgot to say thank-you" Grace softly said, having completed the table setting and moving to stand beside Rosa at the bench. The housekeeper, pulling the dinner crockery from the cupboard, glanced up curiously "for putting me in one of the guest rooms and not the main bedroom. I should have thought to tell you I would not have been comfortable in June's room, pretty as it is." Rosa nodded, though was now clearly uncomfortable herself. "I don't know what is about the room that makes you so uneasy but I'm not going to force you spend time in there."

"It's a silly thing" Rosa swallowed, still attentive to the crockery "the boys say so anyway."

"What is it?" Grace enquired gently and after a long, embarrassed silence, Rosa admitted

"I cannot be in there and not feel like June is there too" the housekeeper immediately looked flushed "it is silly, I know." Grace did not see anything amusing in it and though she had no strong feelings on the subject of the supernatural, one way or another, she understood why others might be persuaded to believe or otherwise.

"I don't know if it's silly so much as..well, you and June had a different relationship than she had with the boys..and men perceiving things differently to women."

"Hmmm" Rosa responded, unsure of what Grace was trying to say. Grace had to add

"And I think everyone perceives death differently anyway, depending..well, on a lot of things. I'm sorry they seem to be in such a rush to dismiss to what is you're going through." Rosa stopped to look at Grace

"So you won't mind if I don't help you clear out her room, all her things...personal things. I cannot look through those things now anymore than I would have when she was alive." Grace considered her own misgivings earlier in the day, feeling like a fraud, wondering if that sensation would deepen when she began going through June's most intimate possessions. But she nodded across to the housekeeper as she set the water glasses down at the place settings

"I don't mind. It will be another way I can get to know her, after all."

Rosa smiled tenderly to this just as the front screen door opened down the hall and two male voices could be heard conversing as they moved down the hallway to the kitchen. Grace took a deep breath, wanting to seem a great deal more relaxed than she had earlier, eager to avoid further incivility with Liam, more especially in front of his father and Rosa and hoping he too would want to be polite. Just a little more polite would be enough, Grace thought to herself, if he could possibly manage it. The gentleman had almost reached the kitchen when she realised she was not at all confident on that score.

Thomas Phelps was slightly shorter than his son, shared the same bright blues eyes but was somewhat leaner, his features weathered by his many years of working outside. He politely nodded and shook Grace's hand as Liam made the introduction, made his apology for his absence the previous day before they sat down at the table, Rosa insistent that Grace sit and talk with them while she served up dinner. Grace took her seat, glancing briefly between the two Phelps men before asking of the elder.