Someone to watch over me

longer. He felt guilty, of course. He really hadn’t had the right to move into her house. He knew that, even though his intentions were good. Or were they? They’d shared an extraordinarily awful experience and come through it. He assumed this made them at least friends. But she was a married woman. He’d known that all along.
    He went back to the boardinghouse. His cousin Ralph was lounging around on the porch in his undershirt and crummy old trousers.
    “You look a mess!“ Jack had said irritably. “Why aren’t you working on the house we’re supposed to be moving into?“
    “Why aren’t you?“ Ralph had thrown back. “And why’d you take my motorcycle?“
    “None of your damned business.”

    Lily decided on Monday that she really needed her hair done by someone who knew how to cut it well. She’d been hacking at it herself for the last few years with her manicure scissors. Besides, hairdressers knew everything about everyone. Nina Pratt, the woman from the Voorburg Ladies League, could tell her a lot about the other women in the group. And she would be an excellent prospect for passing along the knowledge that the Brewster brother and sister weren’t the rich heirs that everyone supposed them to be. Now that she and Robert had decided to tell the truth about their situation, they were gleefully spreading the news far and wide.
    She asked Robert to drive her to town and hit him with another thing that had been on her mind. “You need to teach me how to drive this monster. I can’t keep on asking you to be my chauffeur.”
    Robert, as expected, was seriously alarmed by this. “I don’t mind a bit, hauling you around.“
    “But I know sometimes it isn’t convenient for you.“
    “Well, maybe someday. But I’ll keep the keys, if you don’t mind.”
    Someday, she thought. It better be pretty soon. As much as she loved living in the mansion, there were times she simply wanted to get away and go for a drive and see something new all by herself.
    He left her at the hairdresser and said he’d be back in an hour.
    “Make it an hour and a half. I need a lot done.”
    She knocked at the door of the well-kept little house, and a young woman she assumed was Nina Pratt’s daughter Helga came to the door. Lily introduced herself and said, “I’m sorry I don’t have an appointment. But I’m at my wits’ end about my hair. I can wait until it’s convenient for your mother to get to me.“
    “She’s free right now,“ the girl said.
    Nina Pratt was glad to see Lily—at first. “I wondered when you’d get around to coming here,“ she said. “You really need help.“
    “I really can’t afford this,“ Lily simpered. “You know, I presume, that we really don’t own Uncle Horatio’s mansion or his other assets.”
    Nina’s smile faded. “No, I didn’t know. How is that?“
    “Well, he left it to us on the condition that we stay there for ten years and prove to Mr. Prinney that we deserve to have it. Otherwise everything he owned goes to various charities.”
    Nina’s eyes almost sparkled at the news. Lily knew that all the next customers would be told. Hairdressers, in her experience when her family was wealthy, were better and faster than the telegraph at spreading news.
    “Anyway,“ Lily added brightly, “I have a little money saved up and, as you say, I need help. But I won’t be able to afford it very often.”
    Nina seated her in a chair in front of a mirror on the enclosed back porch, which had been set up as a beauty shop, and ran a comb through her hair, frowning. “You need a good cut. Not a lot shorter, mind, just tidier. You’ve been doing this yourself, I suppose.“
    “I’m afraid I have. I wouldn’t mind it a bit shorter, but it doesn’t have much curl. I think I need a permanent wave as well.”
    This cheered Nina a bit. “An excellent idea.”
    While Nina was meticulously going through Lily’s hair, snipping off individual sections in tiny bits, Lily said, “I’m so glad I was invited to join the Voorburg Ladies League. Such nice women. But I feel like a stranger there, unfortunately. I don’t know much about any of them.”
    At this Nina smiled. “The things I could tell you!“ she said conspiratorially.
    “Do. Start with Mrs. White.“
    “Isn’t she a marvel?“ Nina said. “Such a good woman, but the bossiest in the world. You know those plates they raffle off at the movie theater every Friday night? She’s the one who provides them. She thinks