They sat on a bench by the lake and Hope went first. She was in love—and so desperately that she had even started doing crazy things at work like almost forgetting important meetings ! Faith realized this must be serious. Missing a meeting for Hope was tantamount to waking up one morning to find Tama Janowitz had taken over her body sometime in the night.
Hope and her beloved had met at the tie counter at Barney's, which further proved Faith 's adage, "Bergdorf's with your mother; Barney 's with a man." Hope had been selecting a tie for a co-worker 's birthday. Quentin (that really was his name) had been buying for himself. Advice was sought and given. Then lunch. Then dinner. The next day it was the squash court and now only a matter of time before they were head over heels in prenuptial agreements.
It was relaxing to sit in the cool October sun and listen to her sister outline their plans—not hopes and dreams, but plans. Faith was attending with part of her mind while the rest wandered foolishly around constructing names for the happy couple 's brokerage—Hope and Hopemore; Hopeful and Lee—when she realized that the child screaming was hers. Benjamin had grown tired of the entire contents of FAO Schwartz strung in and around his MacLaren Baby Lie-Back Buggy and wanted a new diversion. Hope picked him up and he rewarded her with a grin.
“ Quentin wants children, of course, and so do I ; but not immediately." She paused. “ And Fay, maybe we should wait until Benj is a little older before the two meet. Quentin hasn't actually seen many babies. He thinks Thirtysomething' is a figment of some fiendish television executive's imagination and it might be best if the whole thing were approached gradually."
“I 'd say Benjamin 's high school graduation should be soon enough if we want to be sure of halfway civilized behavior and even then we might be taking a chance," Faith replied and they laughed. But it wasn't unreasonable. The last thing you want a would-be spouse and father to observe is a screaming infant who will not be quiet no matter what the entire room full of intelligent loving adults do—an infant who carries some of the same genes as your own would.
Hope asked Faith some questions about the murder, but Faith was reluctant to think about recent events and regaled her sister instead with some of the funnier adventures she had been having as a minister 's wife, like Eleanor Whipple 's water and, last month, Mrs. Lawton 's Siamese cockfighter 's chair.
Mrs. Lawton was a globetrotter and had brought back numerous exotic souvenirs, which she had been proudly showing Faith. She had pulled forward an elaborately carved thronelike chair with a compartment underneath saying, "And here we have a cockfighter's chair, the man sits here," she sat, "and keeps his cock down here." She ducked her head down and slid the compartment open, leaving Faith gasping for a moment as she sought to stifle her hysterical laughter. She could give way to it now with Hope.
When Hope went back to work, Faith decided to sit a while longer. Benjamin was lying back in the lie-back and she thought he might go to sleep. She watched her sister walk purposefully across the park. A woman with a definite place to go and definite things to do. How could two children in one family be so different? They even looked different. Hope was tall and dark, like the Sibleys. She had rather exotic green eyes, which didn't come from anyone in the family. Faith had always thought they were some kind of attribute dreamed up by Hope herself. Faith wouldn 't have minded having those green eyes herself. She was sure Hope had been turning heads on Wall Street and not just rolling them, but Quentin was the first man her sister had ever been serious about. He'd better be good to her, Faith thought fiercely. If it took a BMW to make her little sister happy, then so be it.
Faith and Hope had one of those typical close sister relationships : love, hate ; defense, attack ; pride, jealousy. Today was a loving, protective, admiring day and Faith was happy. Someday she'd find a way to tell her sister how much she loathed being called " Fay." Fortunately, Hope was the only one who did so.
Benjamin was asleep. As Faith sat on the bench watching passersby, she mused about families. " For better or worse" should be on one's birth certificate as well as in one's wedding vows. All those inextricable—or was it inexplicable ?—bonds. "Family" brought her back to Aleford, where these ties were not only tight, but sacred. More than a birthright. Generation after generation defined by who you were: "One of the Appletons" or " I'm a Forbes, you know." Quiet pride, or in cases like Millicent's, something a bit more extreme. In Aleford even the skeletons in the closet were reverentially dusted, although usually years later. Faith realized she was feeling a slight twinge of nostalgia for the town's leisurely pace, which she quelled immediately by leaping to her feet and heading for Bloomingdale's.
That night she decided to call her Aunt Chat and see if she wanted visitors the next day. Charity Sibley was Lawrence's oldest sister and lived in Mendham, New Jersey. She had been divorced for so long that Faith couldn 't remember what her husband had been like. Chat had retired some years ago after a highly successful career on Madison Avenue, breaking in at a time when few women were working there. Eventually she had started her own agency, which she sold when she retired for Tom's veritable "beaucoup de bacon." Now, when she wasn't traveling, she lived in the country complete with horses, pond for swimming, and a tennis court she didn't use. "But people always want to play," she explained to Faith, who had been surprised to see it the first time she visited. Aunt Chat's idea of vigorous exercise was a stately breaststroke across and back some small body of water.
Charity said she would be delighted to see Faith and Benjamin the next day for lunch. Faith hung up and started to prepare dinner. Hope was coming and Faith had promised to get her out in time for her date with Quentin.
She began to deftly fill some wonton skins with a mixture of finely ground smoked turkey and scallions, which would serve as their first course, floating in a light broth with crème fraîche for those who wanted a dollop. As she worked, she began to think about Aleford, which had receded to the background these last few days, except for the feeling of unease with which she awoke each morning, not altogether explained by the absence of Tom's familiar warm body in the bed beside her. He called every night and there was nothing new to report. Dunne had been more interested in Millicent as a possibility than MacIsaac had, and planned to pay her a visit. Faith wondered where on earth he was going to sit, if he could even get in the house.
Faith planned to stay in New York until Sunday night or Monday morning. She didn 't want to miss seeing her Sibley grandmother and the whole family was going out there on Saturday. It was good to have had a break, but she was getting restless in exile. And she missed Tom.
The wontons were done and Faith took out the rack of lamb she had bought as a surprise for her father. It was his favorite and Faith was pretty sure he wasn't eating it every night for dinner, her mother 's idea of nourishment being a piece of fish and a nice salad.
As she rubbed the lamb with a clove of garlic, she wondered what Aunt Chat would have to say about everything tomorrow. Chats with Chat had been a childhood joke, but very important to Faith. Her aunt had also been one of her main supporters when she wanted to start Have Faith and everyone else thought she was crazy.
She washed some greens for her mother 's salad and made a gratinée of winter fruits with calvados to be whisked under the broiler at the last minute. There was still plenty of time before dinner to play with Benjamin and nibble at his tiny toes.
Faith had hoped her father might be free to go with her to Mendham, but at dinner he told her he couldn't get away, although if she stayed around and kept cooking the way she was, he might be unable to refuse her anything.