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how’s Marvin and the kids?”
    â€œEverybody’s good. Tyrone is playing varsity this year, and Melody made the honor roll.” Martha beamed. “Marvin and I couldn’t be prouder.”
    â€œAnd deservedly so. That’s wonderful, Martha!” Alicia glanced toward the sweeping staircase. “I’d better get upstairs. We’ll talk later, huh?”
    â€œSure, go ahead.”
    Alicia picked up her duffel bag and raced up the stairs. The double doors of the master bedroom were open.
    Fletcher’s desire for the best also included his choice of a spouse. Caroline Pegram was the daughter of a family of undertakers who for generations had served African-American communities in five New England cities: Boston, Springfield, Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport. She’d been considered quite a catch, as beautiful as she was nice, with her high cheekbones and dark blue eyes. The up-and-coming Fletcher pursued her with steely determination, and he’d won her hand.
    Alicia placed her bag on the floor and tapped on the door as she entered. “Hi, it’s me.”
    Caroline sat not in her bed, but in the love seat near the window of the huge suite, dressed in a coral-colored nightgown and matching peignoir. Despite her too-thin body and almost grotesquely swollen ankles she looked beautiful, Alicia thought.
    â€œHello there!” Caroline exclaimed. “We saw your cab pull up. What took you so long to get upstairs?”
    Alicia bent to kiss the smooth, cool cheek. Her mother’s hair had gone completely silvery gray in recent years, and someone—either Martha or Daphne, or even the nurse—had brushed it back neatly and caught it with a coated rubber band at the rear crown, pinning up the ends against the back of her head. Caroline Timberlake had been blessed with remarkable good looks, but weight loss had made her almost gaunt. Her prominent cheekbones kept her facial skin from sagging. When Alicia placed a hand on her mother’s upper back she felt a prominent shoulder blade sticking through. It pained her to see her mother waste away before her eyes from heart disease.
    â€œI spent a few minutes chatting with Martha,” she explained.
    â€œThat figures,” Daphne said, speaking for the first time.
    â€œAnd what’s that supposed to mean, sister dear?” Alicia asked, not put off by Daphne’s droll tone. Her younger sister always had a complaint about this or that.
    â€œMartha is our employee, Alicia,” Daphne said. “It’s her job to clean up and look after Mom. It’s not up to you to inquire about her family, but it is up to her to take care of ours.”
    Alicia’s shoulders squared. Daphne had never warmed up to Martha the way she had, but she wasn’t about to be criticized for her good relationship with the woman who had worked for their parents since she was in college. “As far as I’m concerned, Martha is a member of this household who just happens to keep the house clean and organized. She’s practically like a sister to me. Besides,” she added, “I’m no snob.”
    â€œMeaning I am?”
    Alicia good-naturedly held up a hand and twisted it at the wrist.
    â€œSay what you want, but I don’t think it’s wrong to know one’s place,” Daphne said defensively. Then she turned to their mother and said, “Don’t you think so too, Mom?”
    Caroline sighed. “I think you both have valid points. But because Martha has worked for us for so long she’s much more than a housekeeper. The nurses who come in, I don’t have too much to say to them, or they to me. They’re just doing a job, and I’m just another patient. There’s no history between us, and besides, the agency keeps sending different ones. But Martha has been a wonderful friend and companion to me, all the while not stepping outside of her role as employee. After all, Daphne,