Marrying Up (Part 5) — Nicole Jeffords

“Marrying Up” is a fictional story set in 1950s Manhattan revolving around Frances Riley, a difficult and ruthlessly ambitious young woman who moved from one social class to another—Irish immigrant off the boat to high WASP— when she married into the aristocratic Woolsey family.

THIS IS PART 5 of a FOURTEEN-PART STORY

Though Jack had his own business and wasn't dependent on his parents, he made a point of driving upstate to visit them at least one weekend a month. He would stay overnight — Saturday to Sunday — visits that after the first few times didn't include Frances, who was glad to be spared Helen’s unctuous inquiries, "Mother still tucked away in the country, dear?" Her way of lumping Frances in, by subtle gesture, with the small army of Irish maids that scurried about the place, all eager solicitude in their aprons and frilly white caps.

In the meantime, Frances built a new, wonderful life for herself. With plenty of money at her disposal, she bought and furnished a four-bedroom apartment on Park Avenue. "Four bedrooms?" Jack queried, a little worried by her fixity of purpose, the close, but short-lived attachments she seemed to form with realtors and decorators.

"We'll be having children."

"Yes, but not right away."

"Well, for when we do. I don't want to be moving all the time."

The question of when and how many children they would have had come up fairly often, with Jack growing evasive and Frances, who was eager to start soon, arguing that while she loved him dearly, it was only motherhood that would fulfill her.

She truly believed that, and began to obsess on her Catholic upbringing, to wonder if perhaps the church was right in its assertion that the practice of birth control was sinful. A month after they were settled in the new apartment, she misplaced her diaphragm and somehow couldn't bring herself to go to the doctor for a new one. In the next cycle she was pregnant.

Her first child, Harry, was an easy birth. She refused to breastfeed, wanting her figure back, and a nurse was hired to sleep in the same room as the baby and see to all his needs. Even so, Frances appeared to be an enthusiastic mother; when visitors came, there she was with the baby on her lap, and for a long time her conversations were about Harry this and Harry that, his first smile, first words, how adorable he looked in his little sailor suit, how smart he was, talking in sentences before the age of two. A month short of Harry's second birthday, another baby arrived, again a boy, and this time the delivery was not so easy, requiring forceps, the tearing of tender flesh. The baby was named Reynold, Roy for short. Frances was inordinately proud of having two sons. She beamed, her face glowed — but it was a glow that flickered off and on like a traffic light. Beneath the blue shimmer of her eyes was a muddy, low-tide flatness, and if she told the truth she would have had to admit that she associated Roy, who developed into a whiny, irritating child with damp little touch-everything-fingers, with feelings of pain and embarrassment that never quite seemed to go away.

Cover Image: Velizar Ivanov

Marrying Up - Part V

“Marrying Up” is a fictional story set in 1950s Manhattan revolving around Frances Riley, a difficult and ruthlessly ambitious young woman who moved from one social class to another—Irish immigrant off the boat to high WASP— when she married into the aristocratic Woolsey family.

The question of when and how many children they would have had come up fairly often, with Jack growing evasive and Frances, who was eager to start soon, arguing that while she loved him dearly, it was only motherhood that would fulfill her.

Next: Read Marrying Up Part 6 >>