She listened and waited until she heard Henry’s shoes hit the tiled floor of the kitchen below before she put the glass back up to the wall. The girls had finished the conversation about Sylvia Emerich and now Vera was talking about the ring. But Vivian wanted to know the other reason Sylvia Emerich had to leave school.

“It’s Irish,” Vera explained to the cousins, who weren’t. “They call it a claddagh ring. It’s gold and—”

“Our mama has a gold ring, too,” Opal interrupted.

“Yes,” Vera said patiently, in the way she always did when she spoke to Opal, who wasn’t the brightest of the Cutter sisters. “But it’s probably her wedding ring, isn’t it? This is different. It’s gold—”

“She has other gold rings, too, you know,” Ruby said, quick to defend her sister and the contents of their mother’s jewelry box. Vivian could almost hear her crossing her arms over her chest.

“Fine, but I’m telling you about this ring. We can talk about yours after.”

Vivian recognized Vera’s irritated tone. It was two steps from her shouting tone.

“Anyway, there’s a heart in the center, with a crown on top of it, and then two hands that look like they’re holding the heart.”

There was a pause, to let the cousins picture the claddagh ring in their heads, or maybe Vera was miming with her own hands what the ring looked like, then she continued.

“If you’re still a spinster, you wear it right-side up, and then if you’re married you wear it upside down.”

No, Vivian thought. That was what was annoying about a know-it-all. They sometimes got things wrong, but didn’t know it. They never really knew it all.

“And my Aunt Catharine has one that’s been in our family for about a hundred years, and she’s going to give it to the first one of us girls who gets married.”

“Ah,” both Opal and Ruby said together.

“Since I’m oldest, it’s going to be me.”

“Positutely,” Ruby agreed.

Vivian thought that if Vera was going to get Aunt Catharine’s claddagh ring, she should at least know how to wear it properly. You wore it with the point of the heart facing up if you were still a spinster, but you wanted the point facing down, pointing at your wrist, if you were married. Vera was always so busy talking and telling everyone what they didn’t know, she never listened to anything. Vivian listened.

She took the glass from the wall and collapsed back onto the bed, the springs creaking again.

“Vivian!” Vera shouted through the wall. “Is that you? What are you doing in there?”

None of your beeswax.

“I’m resting!” Vivian shouted back.

She thought about what her wedding would be like, and pictured herself in a beautiful white dress with a lace veil that went all the way to the floor. Her husband was going to be so rich, he’d buy her all the gold claddagh rings she wanted. Maybe she’d get one for each finger, although you were really only supposed to wear them on your fourth finger, but Vera didn’t know the rules. She’d just see all those rings. How would Vera like that?