“It’s nice to meet you, Sally,” Amber said. “I’m glad you could make it tonight.”
“Jenna and I have been promising to get together for ages, but we’ve been so busy with work that we haven’t had time. I’m glad we finally made it happen.” Amber wondered what these two could possibly have in common besides living on the same street.
“I’m starving. Do you two know what you want?” Jenna said.
Sally picked up her menu and quickly scanned it.
“The grilled salmon with spinach sounds good,” Amber said, and Jenna wrinkled her nose.
“Yes, I think I’ll have the same.” Sally put down the menu.
“Yuck. How can you choose salmon instead of a hot turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy? That’s what I’m getting. And no spinach.”
The waitress took their orders, and Amber ordered a bottle of the house red. She wanted everyone relaxed and loose-tongued tonight.
“Here,” she said, and poured the wine into their glasses. “Let’s sit back and enjoy. So tell me, Sally, where do you work?”
“I’m a special education teacher at a private school, St. Gregory’s in Greenwich.”
“That’s great. Jenna told me that you had been a nanny. You must love kids.”
“Oh, I do.”
“How many years did you nanny?”
“Six years. I only worked for two families. The last one was here in town.”
“Who was that?” Amber asked.
“Geez, Amber, did you forget? The day you had lunch with Mrs. Parrish, I told you Sally used to work for her,” Jenna said.
Amber gave her a hate-filled look. “Yes, I did forget.” She turned back to Sally. “What was it like—working there, I mean?”
“I loved it. And Mr. and Mrs. Parrish were great to work for.”
Amber wasn’t interested in a fairy tale of how perfect the Parrish family was. She decided to take another tack. “Nannying must be a tough job at times. What were the hardest parts, do you think?”
“Hmm. When Tallulah was born, it was sort of tiring. She was small—only weighed five pounds at birth—so she had to eat every two hours. Of course the nurse took the night feedings, but I would get there at seven in the morning and stay till she came back at night.”
“So the nurse fed her through the night? Mrs. Parrish didn’t nurse the baby?”
“No, it was sad, really. Mr. Parrish told me she tried at first, but her milk wouldn’t come in. He asked me not to say anything because it made her cry, so we never talked about it.” Sally took a forkful of salmon. “I sometimes wondered about it.”
“What do you mean?”
Amber detected discomfort in Sally, who seemed to be trying for nonchalance. “Oh, nothing, really.”
“It doesn’t sound like nothing,” Amber pressed.
“Well, I guess I’m not telling you something everybody doesn’t already know.”
Amber leaned in closer and waited.
“A while after Tallulah was born, Mrs. Parrish went away. To a sort of hospital where you rest and get help.”
“You mean a sanitarium?”
“Something like that.”
“Did she have postpartum depression?”
“I’m really not sure. There was a lot of gossip at the time, but I tried not to listen to it. I don’t know. There were police involved somehow. I remember that. There were rumors that she was a danger to the baby, that she shouldn’t be alone with her.”
Amber tried to hide her fascination. “Was she? A danger?”
Sally shook her head. “I had a hard time believing that. But I never really saw her again. Mr. Parrish let me go right before she came home. He said they wanted someone to speak French to Tallulah, and I had been thinking about going back to school full-time anyhow. Later, they did end up hiring my friend Surrey for the weekends. She never mentioned anything strange.”
Amber was wondering what had happened to make Daphne require hospitalization. Her mind was miles away when she realized Sally was still talking.
“I’m sorry. What were you saying?” Amber asked her.
“It was Mrs. Parrish who encouraged me to continue and get my master’s degree. She said the most important thing was for a woman to be independent and know what she wanted. Especially before she considers marriage.” Sally took a sip of her wine. “Good advice, I think.”
“I suppose. But she was pretty young when she married Mr. Parrish, wasn’t she?”
Sally smiled. “In her twenties. It seems like they have a perfect marriage, so I guess it was a good decision.”
What a load of crap, Amber thought as she divided the last of the wine between their glasses. “Jenna told me that Mrs. Parrish’s mother was thinking about moving here at one time. Did you ever meet her?”
“I met her a few times. She didn’t visit that often. She mentioned that she ran a B&B up north, but it still seemed odd that she wasn’t there more, you know, to see the baby and all.”
“Do you know why she decided not to move to Bishops Harbor?”
“I’m not sure exactly, but she seemed put off by all the help the Parrishes had. Maybe she thought she’d be in the way,” Sally said, then sipped her wine. “You know, Mrs. Parrish has an extremely well ordered and tightly scheduled life. Precision is a hallmark in her house—nothing out of place, every room spotless, and every item perfectly placed. Maybe it was a little too regimented for Mrs. Bennett.”
“Wow, it sure sounds like it.” Amber had not failed to notice the very same thing every time she visited Daphne, which was more and more often lately. The house looked as if no one lived in it. The moment you finished drinking from a glass or emptied your plate, it was whisked away and disappeared. There was never a misplaced thing, which was hard to achieve with two young kids around. Even the girls’ bedrooms were immaculate. Amber had looked into the rooms the morning after she’d spent the night and was astounded at the meticulous placement of books and toys. Nothing was out of order.
As she drank more wine, Sally seemed to be warming to her subject. “I heard from Surrey that Tallulah and Bella never get to watch cartoons or kid shows. They have to watch documentaries or educational DVDs.” She waved her hand. “I mean, not that that’s bad, but it is sad that they can’t watch anything just for fun or entertainment.”
“I guess Mrs. Parrish values education,” Amber said.
Sally looked at her watch. “Speaking of which, I really should get going. School in the morning.” She turned to Jenna. “If you’re ready to go, I can give you a ride home.”
“That’d be good.” Jenna clapped her hands together. “What a fun night it’s been. We should do this again.”
They settled the check, and Jenna and Sally left. Amber finished her wine and sat back in her seat, reviewing the nuggets of information she’d gathered.
When she got home, the first thing she did was look up Daphne’s mother. After a bit of searching, she found that Ruth Bennett owned and ran a B&B in New Hampshire. It was a quaint inn with lovely grounds. Nothing extravagant, but very nice nonetheless. The picture of her on the website showed her to be an older, not quite as beautiful version of her daughter. Amber wondered what it was between them, why Daphne’d been reluctant to have her mother move near her.