“When a reporter tried to ask Rose a question, she had this cute little move she'd do where she'd duck her head and look at them from under those absolutely spectacular lashes—Rose had the shrinking violet thing locked up long before Princess Diana came up with her Shy Di routine—and she'd point to Lu and say, ‘She's the one you want to talk to. I'm not interesting at all.’ Then she'd run over and help Lu take off her coat or bring her a glass of champagne. And of course everyone ate it up. She was the humble little Cinderella who just happened to be drop-dead gorgeous.” He stopped rinsing the dish he was holding. “I always wondered if those eyelashes were fake.”

“Maybe it wasn't an act. Maybe she really was shy,” Carrie said.

George shrugged. “Maybe.”

“It sounds like you didn't like my mother very much.”

“I didn't know her. No one did. Certainly not Lu. After her grandmother died, I think Bobby Manning was the only person who ever really knew Rose. At least, he did in the beginning.”

Chapter 18 - New York 1962

AT TEN IN the morning, the skating rink at Rockefeller Center was pretty much deserted. Rose skated onto the ice and did a few laps around the rink to warm up, then headed to the empty space in the center. That was where the advanced skaters went to free skate—which was the term for spinning, jumping, and other fancy moves. The ordinary folks skating casually went in circles around them. How this bit of etiquette had come into being, Rose had no idea. She just knew that that was the way it was done on every rink—including the one in the New Haven Arena, where she had learned to skate when she was a kid.

Skating etiquette also decreed that when you were in the center you staked out a patch of ice and did your best to stay on it. This was a tricky proposition, because you had to give yourself enough room to work but you didn't want to be piggy about taking too much space. On this morning, Rose was the only skater in the privileged zone, so she could afford to spread out. She eyeballed a patch for herself, and then, as she had every Saturday morning of every winter when she was a child, she began working on her school figures—the training exercises that were the basis of figure skating technique. She always started with a figure eight. The goal was to make the two loops of the eight—which were skated on alternating legs—even in size, without any flat areas, wobbles, or bulges. It was tedious work, but it was the part of her skating routine Rose liked best.