Mother takes the comb from Rosalie’s hand and stands behind her. Her pale face floats in the pocked mirror above Rosalie’s own. Rosalie’s hair is thick and combing it out requires patience. Mother’s being much gentler than Rosalie, untangling the knots at the ends first, only making the long strokes from the scalp when there is nothing left to snag on. “You know I’ll always take you with me, wherever I go,” Mother says. “You know that you’ll never be left alone and uncared for as long as I’m alive.”

Ever since the deaths of Mary Ann and Elizabeth, Rosalie has believed that her job was to care for Mother. Perhaps she’s been waiting all those years to hear just this, that Mother is caring for her. Now the tears come and this is not because she’s unhappy over the move, which she is, but because Mother is there, with a face full of love, combing out Rosalie’s hair as if she were just a little girl.

xi

Eleven years after Edwin first made the offer, John has finally agreed to be Henry, Earl of Richmond, to Edwin’s Richard III. They appear together, one night only, at Baltimore’s Holliday Street Theatre, recently bought by John T. Ford. Mother, Rosalie, and Asia are all in attendance. Joe makes a show of demanding their tickets.

A box has been reserved for them, with three rocking chairs threaded with ribbons and a good view down to the stage. They’ve dressed in their best—Asia in a violet silk and Rosalie in dove gray. Mother is sticking to her widow’s black, but has dabbed her wrists and neck. The powdery scent of Héliotrope Blanc, a gift from Edwin, floats through the air along with the hum of the audience settling into their seats.

All three are determined to love both performances in absolutely equal measure, but this is complicated by the fact that they must wait so long for John to arrive onstage while Edwin is everywhere, and playing Father’s old role. The more he deviates from Father’s delivery, the more Mother whispers that she can’t help but feel that he’s doing it wrong. She just knows Father’s version so well. She could do it herself. Pause here. Sweeping hand gesture.

Edwin falls to his knees. “ ‘Take up the sword again, or take up me.’ ”

Rosalie hears Asia whispering the answer along with Lady Anne. “ ‘No! Though I wish thy death, I will not be thy executioner.’ I did that scene in school once,” Asia says, “after the first time I ever saw Father perform. I got a spanking. At home, not at school.”

“I remember,” Mother says.