“WHEN BOBBY CAME to Lu's apartment that morning and played the score for The Lady, I knew I was listening to history being made,” George said. “I still get goose bumps thinking about it.” He and Carrie were still sitting in his living room. By now the sun was setting. George stood up and lit a lamp that resembled a Victorian streetlight.

“It wasn't just that The Lady was a whole new direction for Lu,” he went on. “Bobby was playing around with staging and orchestrations in a way no one had before.” He smiled. “I put my own money in that show—the first and last time I ever did that. But I knew it was going to make a fortune. That's how I was able to buy the Taj Mahal here.” He yawned. It was getting late and Carrie had kept him talking for the better part of the day. She knew she should offer to leave, but she still hadn't heard what she'd come for.

“So Bobby sold his musical, and Lu Lawson got the career boost she'd been needing,” she said.

“What happened was a lot more intense than that. When Lu read The Lady one of those once-in-a-lifetime partnerships happened—that's the only way I know how to say it. She and Bobby had a kind of chemistry; they completed each other in some way that I don't think even they understood. Bobby had six hits, but his best shows were the two he wrote for Lu. And she did her best work in them.”

“What about my mother? How did she fit into that partnership?”

“Bobby married her.” George shrugged as if to say, Wasn't that enough? But of course it wasn't.

“Did he love her?”

“Sure.” George shrugged again.

“Why wasn't the wedding written up in any of the newspapers? You'd think when Lu Lawson's daughter got married it would be big news, but there wasn't a word about it. I did some research.”

“That was because they went down to City Hall to tie the knot.”

“Mother didn't get married in a church?”

“Nope.”

“No altar, no Mass?”

“Just quick and dirty.”

Rose tried to imagine her mother getting married without all the liturgical bells and whistles. “Why did they do it that way?”

“I don't think Rose wanted to make a big deal out of it. I don't think she dared.” George got up and walked over to a sideboard to fix himself a drink. He offered her one, but Carrie shook her head. “Bobby wasn't exactly a white-picket-fence-and-pet-dog kind of guy.”

“Then why did he get married?’

George took a deep breath. “Well, your mother was gorgeous. And she was smart and she was very well connected. And I think he did love her …”

“But?”

“Lu always thought Bobby got married because he was scared.”

Chapter 26 - New York 1962