John Casey - Compass Rose

“I’m glad to hear that, glad to hear they’re all being so modern. And I must say for a girl born with what used to be something of a stigma, our Rose seems to be everyone’s darling. I think that says something about the community we have here.”

Mary twisted against the arms of her chair. She thought she’d made a straight statement, but Jack was impenetrable in his — what? Oblivion? In his sense that his approval or disapproval was what everyone needed to go on living?

Jack said, “And I’m trying to do what’s best for the community in general. Highest and best use of the Pierce property, and for that matter the old Hazard property. I’m not insensible to the needs of the Pierce family. I’ll see they’re made right. Among other things, I’m bringing Tom Pierce along in an enterprise of ours. That’s on the one hand. On the other hand, there’s Rose. I made sure she got a scholarship at the Perryville School. I’ve done one or two things for Elsie’s financial security, and now I’m trying to chart the best course for Rose.”

“The Hazard property?” Mary said. “You mean that old barn where Mr. Hazard stored his books?”

“A bit more to it than that. That’s in the offing. I’m keeping in touch with the daughter. As it is now, it’s landlocked, but as part of Sawtooth it’ll have access to Sawtooth Pond and our bit of beach. And presto — it’s vastly more valuable. The same thing applies to the Pierce property. That’s on a creek, but it hardly counts as waterfront — you can’t take anything bigger than a skiff up it. The new Sawtooth members will be able to moor their sailboats here. We have a ketch in here now, forty-two feet length overall, seven-foot draft.” He swiveled his chair to look over Sawtooth Pond.

Mary was glad he’d appended his boat footnote. It gave her time to recover from the news that Jack considered himself still in the hunt for the old Hazard place. It also let her begin to consider her own wishes without Jack’s exhalations fogging up the room.

She said, “It’s time I got back to the kitchen. I’ll be having another talk with Rose in any case, and I’ll tell her about your college notions, but I won’t be your agent. I’ve already told her what I think.”

“And what do you think?”

“I love her singing.”

“And I hope you have some feeling of obligation to Sawtooth.”

Mary kept herself from saying, “That’s apples and oranges.” She said, “As soon as we get this evening’s meal on the table, I’ll be thinking of ways to make things come out right.”

Halfway down the stairs she thought, Dear God, at the very end there I might as well have bobbed and curtsied. It was that sliver of shame that pricked her into examining her conscience. She hadn’t lied, but she’d prevaricated. “That old barn …” Odd — she’d started out no more than going along with JB, but now she’d become the hungrier one. And what difference was there between Jack’s land hunger and her own? She could say to herself that she wasn’t in it for money, but the priest lecturing her old confirmation class on the seven deadly sins would have made short work of that. Avarice wasn’t just about money. It was desire for the things of the world.

When she reached the swinging door from the dining room to the kitchen, she looked through the porthole and stepped out of the way of a waitress with a tray of napkins and silverware. And what if she went to Jack and said she’d give up her contract to buy the Hazard place if he’d let Dick and May stay where they were? She hadn’t examined her conscience this relentlessly for ages, but the sisters and priests had taught her well enough how to do it as painfully as possible. Now she pictured Rose in front of her asking her to save May and Dick’s house.

After Phoebe found out that the township was considering — or possibly already planning — to take May and Dick’s house and three acres by eminent domain, May and Dick went to see Phoebe and Eddie’s lawyer.

Dick asked right off what it would cost.

“Hard to tell,” the lawyer said. “It’s an interesting case. That’s not good news for a client. Now, if you were suing for damages, I could work on a contingency-fee basis. But you’ll be defending against a taking. If you win, you’ll end up with what you started with.”

“And your bill,” Dick said.

“Yes.”

“Can’t we sue Jack Aldrich? He’s the one behind all this. He’s the one aiming to end up with our land.”

“He hasn’t done anything. I mean, nothing actionable.”

“He’s pushing the township.”

“I know. It’s not right. But this is a troubling area of the law. Here’s what’s happened to the law concerning eminent domain—”

“This going to take a while?” Dick said. May put a hand on his arm.

“This is a preliminary consultation. No fee. Then we’ll see what you want to do. Okay, then — eminent domain used to be for things like public roads or parks. In 1954 the Supreme Court said that a project ‘need not actually be open to the public to constitute public use.’ ”

“Sounds like mumbo jumbo to me.”

“Yes. On its face it does sound self-contradictory. Anyway, that opened the door to what they said last year — eminent domain can be used so long as the project is ‘rationally related to a conceivable public purpose.’ It looks as though that means simply increasing a township’s tax base.”

“So any son of a bitch rich enough to build something fancier than what’s there can just grab it? That’s the goddamnedest thing I ever heard of.”

“I know, I know. I can see how you’d like to punch Jack Aldrich in the nose. If I thought that was the only satisfaction you could get, hell, I’d hold your coat.”

Dick gave a grunt. May turned and saw the side of his mouth twitch, as close to a laugh as she’d seen anyone get out of him since he lost Spartina .

The lawyer said, “I understand Jack Aldrich made you an offer—”

“I told him our place isn’t for sale.”

“If it looks to him as if this eminent-domain taking is going to drag on, he’s likely to get impatient. You ever hear that old song ‘I want what I want when I want it’? He’s that kind of guy. If you make it look like you’re going to fight—”

“He knows we can’t afford it.”

“I’m saying if it looks like a fight. As it happens I’ve asked around, tried to find some help. Unfortunately the groups that are fighting this sort of thing are stretched thin. But Jack Aldrich doesn’t have to know that. If we can make enough of a show, he’s likely to make you a better offer. You could end up with an equivalent house and something more toward a new boat.”

May was glad this lawyer was talking to Dick in a way that seemed to settle him down. Easier on her if Dick was mulling things over instead of stomping around. This lawyer said “new boat” and got Dick looking out to sea. She said, “Mr. Aldrich said something about a little house in Snug Harbor. It doesn’t have but a scrap of a yard, let alone a place for a garden.”

“Okay. Phoebe told me about your garden. I can see you’d miss that. What else would you miss?”

May squeezed her hands together and looked away from the men. The lawyer said, “Just give me some idea. It’ll help me if I have some sense of the place.”

“It’s where everything is. It’s where Charlie came to get better after he got hurt. It’s where I cook. I’m pretty much either in the kitchen or in the garden. It’s where someone like Phoebe comes to visit. It’s where Mary Scanlon used to bring Rose when she was little. It’s where Rose and Tom came to visit Charlie. And we were all there together when Charlie came to tell us Bom Sonho picked up Dick and his crew.” She stopped when Dick shifted in his chair and scraped his feet back. She said, “It’s where Dick keeps his logbooks and his accounts. And there’s his gear, some of his bait barrels and pots and harpoons. So it’s a workplace, too. I expect that has more to do with what you’re asking.”