Chapter 16: Sit Where You Like

I wound my father's watch on Friday morning, and it ran.

I put it on my wrist before Ingrid arrived and hoped she wouldn't notice.

She noticed before she had taken her coat off.

"New watch?" she said.

"Old watch."

"Where did it come from?"

"Adeline brought it back."

Ingrid hung up her coat very slowly.

"She came here," she said. "While I was out getting coffee again."

"Thursday night. After you left."

"You told her to go?"

"I told her to go."

"Good for you," she said, and then, after a moment, "Did she?"

"She left the watch."

"That's irritating too," Ingrid said, and sat down at the table.

She opened her laptop and then shut it again.

"Newton called," she said. "The dentists' group wants to push our presentation to the week after next."

"Why?"

"Because their chairwoman has a gala to go to on Saturday, and she says she's too busy to look at carpets."

I put down my pencil.

"Whose gala?"

"Mrs. Prescott's." Ingrid took a cream-colored envelope from her bag.

"A courier left this on the mat downstairs. Black tie, Brookline, Saturday night."

"It honors the family's most beloved creation."

"Larkspur."

"She calls it that in the program. Look."

She slid the envelope across the table.

Inside was a printed card with a gold border.

It named the evening A Celebration of the Prescott Family's Larkspur.

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