Someone to watch over me

anything tactless.“
    “You wouldn’t anyway,“ Phoebe replied. “Susan Gasset works at the movie house, and her sister takes care of her children in the evenings. Susan’s my favorite of the group. Nina Pratt is a hairdresser; she has a shop at the back of her house. And you know Peggy Rismiller.“
    “The Episcopal minister’s wife,“ Lily said, with a nod.
    “Roxanne Anderson is also a part of the group.”
    “Mrs. Prinney mentions her often,“ Lily said, “but I don’t think I’ve met her.“
    “The newest member besides you is Ruby Heggan,“ Phoebe went on. “She’s also the youngest and has a darling baby. We better get moving. Edith doesn’t like us to be tardy.”

    “Phoebe,“ Edith White said, when the two young women from Grace and Favor arrived, “I’ve given you the loosest fabric, because I know you can handle it better than most.”
    Then she explained to Lily that within this meeting of the circle of women, they went by their first names. Though naturally they wouldn’t do so otherwise.
    “Phoebe already told me that, Mrs.—er, Edith.“ How social rules were changing, Lily thought. Her mother would be tossing fretfully in her grave if she could hear her well-brought-up daughter addressing an older woman by her first name.
    Edith assigned Lily, who admitted she wasn’t much of a needlewoman, some of the more sturdy cotton squares and showed her how to mark the sewing line with a pencil and ruler.
    The only other woman already present was Susan Gasset. She was small-boned and pretty, with short dark hair that curled appealingly around her face.
    Edith White introduced her to Lily. “Susan works at the movie house in the evening. She sells the tickets.”
    Susan smiled and said, “And I make the popcorn, in case you ever wonder why my hair smells of stale butter. I’ve seen you at church. You live up at the top of the hill in one of the mansions, don’t you?“ There wasn’t any resentment in her tone.
    “I’ve never noticed that about your hair,“ Edith said, with unusual tact.
    “That’s why I keep it so short,“ Susan replied. “So I can wash it every morning. It’s either popcorn or rabbit smell.“
    “Rabbit?“ Lily asked.
    Susan put down her squares of fabric for a moment. “My sister Bernadette lives with me and the children. She raises rabbits to eat and sells the fur when she can find a buyer. She takes care of my children while I work evenings. I share part of my salary with her, and she supplies us with rabbits to eat. I have, at last count, nineteen recipes for rabbit meat,“ she joked. “But none of them can disguise that it’s rabbit.”
    Lily laughed. “Please don’t let Mrs. Prinney know about this, or she’ll raise rabbits too.”
    Susan smiled. “No, she buys them from my sister.”
    Lily noticed there was no mention of a husband on the scene. She knew better than to ask. “How many children do you have?“ she inquired instead.
    “Three. All under eight years old. They’re in the kitchen with Edith’s maid, who’s giving them milk with bread-and-butter sandwiches. Bernadette is slaughtering rabbits this morning, and we never let the children know she does it.“ She said this quietly, so the children wouldn’t hear her. “We just tell them that a few of the rabbits ran away to live in the woods.”
    Edith White had the women working and was supervising in the kitchen when Nina Pratt, the next member of the club, was shown into the sewing parlor by the maid. As Lily remembered, Phoebe said Nina was the town hairdresser. Nina’s appearance surprised Lily. She was in her fifties. She looked tired. Her hands were red and chapped from the chemicals she used. Her own hair was thin, gray, and lank. And she was very quiet, introducing herself to Lily quite formally.
    “Aren’t your children with you today, Susan?“ Nina said, subsiding with a small groan of relief in an armchair with a side table and good light.
    “They’re in the kitchen, eating bread and butter,“ Susan said, without taking her eyes from her work on some dark fabric with a pinstripe.
    “Such quiet children,“ Nina said wearily, picking up a pile of colorful calico squares and looking them over. Lily learned later that Edith always gave her the prettiest fabric because Nina was the best at putting colors together attractively.
    The next arrival was Peggy Rismiller, the wife of the Episcopal minister in Voorburg. She, too, looked tired. She didn’t pretend to