Chapter 22: Eleanor's Blessing

Jack's POV

I wore the better suit.

Eleanor's penthouse sat above the park, and the nurse who let me in was a new one with a kind face and a clipboard she never looked at.

Eleanor waited in the sunroom with her cane across her knees and a pot of tea she had not touched.

"Sit," she said.

I sat.

"You are in love with my granddaughter."

"Yes, ma'am."

"For two years."

"Yes."

"You did not say a word."

"No, ma'am."

"Why not?"

"She was my Chair," I said. "And she had been told for her whole life that people wanted her for something. I would not be one more of them."

"Good answer." She sipped her tea. "Wrong, but good."

"Wrong?"

"She did not need you to be careful. She needed you to be there." She set the cup down. "You were there. In the end, that was the same thing."

I did not know what to say, so I said nothing.

"My kindness cost Iris three years," Eleanor said. "I will not spend another of hers."

"You couldn't have known."

"I could have. I did not." She looked at me. "Do you know what I want for Iris?"

"Tell me."

"I want a man who will not make her smaller. Who will stand at her left, and let her be the Chair."

"I have never wanted anything else."

"Then you have my word."

I stood, and she lifted her hand.

I took it.

It was thin and cool, and her grip was stronger than mine.

"Do not wait another two years," she said. "I am seventy-nine."

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