Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
“You have to do this,” Elizabeth told herself as she stepped down from the carriage in front of the Grisham townhouse.
Her gloved hands were in fists, and her jaw clenched as she prepared herself to see not only her sisters, but also Lady Grisham.
After a week at Marianne’s, she realized that she should let her whole family know what had been happening to her. It was only fair.
She told herself that she had gone through the worst of it all already: a week of silence. A week of Marianne hovering over her to see if she was all right. She was ashamed of it all, but she didn’t have a choice. Her whole body had felt like it could not move.
Trapped.
She was trapped within her own sadness. She’d heard of men and women who had gone through it before, but she and her sisters often scoffed at the idea. They were the Brightons of Grisham House. Their father’s reign of terror had made them resilient.
Earlier, before she left Marianne’s home, she hugged her older sister and her husband, full of gratitude.
“Marianne, Dominic, thank you for letting me stay. But I am a grown woman who should not be coddled. Still, you were patient. So patient,” she had said, her voice cracking.
“You are always welcome here,” Dominic had said. “That has to be clear. The moment I married Marianne, you became my sister, as well.”
“You are my blood, sister,” Marianne had come forth, “and nothing will ever change that. Not marriage, not distance, not old age. Nothing, you hear? I’ll always be right here for you.”
Armed with the kind words that she’d received earlier, she knocked at the door of the Grisham household.
She might have lost her husband to his other pursuits, but she still had sisters who needed her. Not quite sure when she’d finally be able to peel herself from the comfort of Marianne’s guest chamber, she didn’t send a message that she was coming.
“Your Grace,” the butler bowed down respectfully as she stepped into the foyer. “Apologies, w-we didn’t expect your arrival.”
“No matter. Is Lady Grisham home?” she asked coolly.
“She is in the drawing room, Your Grace,” the butler replied with a deferential nod.
Elizabeth returned it briskly and continued past him, her head held high. Alasdair might not be here with her, and he might not even want her back, but she would not let her stepmother strip her of her dignity. Not again.
As soon as she entered the drawing room, Lady Grisham, seated stiffly on the settee, paused mid-page and slipped her monocle between the folds of her book. She looked up slowly and frowned.
“Well,” she said, drawing out the word. “What are you doing here?”
Elizabeth steadied herself, refusing to shrink under that gaze. “This was once my home. I don’t require an invitation.”
Lady Grisham clicked her tongue. “Yes, yes, but your home is with the Duke now. The Redmoor residences are yours to haunt. Surely you’re not lost, are you?”
Elizabeth lifted her chin. “I’m not lost. I’d like to stay here. For a few days.”
There was a beat of silence as Lady Grisham took her in fully. Then, a slow, triumphant smile spread across her lips.
“Oh. Oh, I see,” she set her book aside with theatrical precision and folded her hands on her lap.
“Well, well, well. Haven’t I warned you about the Scottish brute of a duke?
I was wondering how long you’d let your little fantasy continue.
A rake is a rake, Elizabeth. Add being an uncouth man of the Highlands, and you have the perfect brew for a stormy marriage. ”
Elizabeth glared at her stepmother. Never again, she thought. She ignored the gloating and instead calmed herself down to smile at the older woman, one that she had practiced through the years.
“Good day to you, too, Lady Grisham. I am here to visit my sisters,” she said mock-cheerfully.
“Ah,” Lady Grisham said, raising an eyebrow. “Of course, you are. It seems you have been making the rounds. You are here after having stayed with Marianne for about a week, no? What was it like for two duchesses to exchange little stories about married life?”
“Marianne is generous with her time and assistance. As she always is,” Elizabeth said, keeping her calm and flat tone. “You may also remember that she had played a maternal figure for all of us when nobody else would.”
Lady Grisham knew the game well. She returned Elizabeth’s smile and sugary tone. “How fortunate, then, that some of our family members know how to marry wisely. Marianne is doing well.”
“I’m certainly glad for her. Meanwhile, some think that marrying is only for gaining wealth and social status, without caring for the products of the union,” Elizabeth replied.
Then, she turned on her heel and went up the staircase. She reminded herself that she was there to see her sisters and not argue with Lady Grisham. Some relationships had to be nurtured, and those that could never be forced.
She flung the door open to the twins’ room, and she was not disappointed by the welcome she received. The twins immediately shrieked as soon as they saw her.
“Lizzie!” It was Daphne who rushed to her first, clinging around her waist.
She embraced her back, happy for the first time in days.
“You came!” Victoria cried as she walked over to her hugging sisters. She was clutching a book to her chest.
Elizabeth suspected that Victoria would soon prove to be the smartest among her sisters. She had always been a little more shrewd, but she had also been feeding that cleverness with reading material.
Good for her.
She held Daphne close to her, burying her nose into her hair. Her little sister smelled of jam, fresh linen, and flowers. She would love to be innocent like them once more, but looking back, she and Marianne were never really given much of a chance.
“Do you have any sweets for us?” Daphne asked breathlessly, looking up at her with wide eyes.
“I am so sorry, darling. It’s just me today. Perhaps we can go shopping tomorrow, or the day after,” she suggested.
The truth was that she never thought of bringing them anything because she was not even sure she would have been able to rise from bed this morning. Just being here took a lot of effort.
“Ah. It’s just fine,” Victoria remarked. “We missed you. We can worry about shopping later.”
Elizabeth’s heart was full. One thing was sure now. She made the right choice to come here.
Soon, she was subjected to chatter from the twins. Some of the stories overlapped as each battled for a chance to be heard. They sat on the floor, cross-legged, just as they always did when they were all younger.
“I wish you were here when I was working on a piece of embroidery. Wilhelmina was no help!” Daphne complained. “I ended up making a mess of it.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, darling,” Elizabeth soothed her.
“Oh, it’s a good thing you stopped doing embroidery, Daphne. You were ignoring me the whole time!”
“Our new governess wants us to learn all manner of skills!”
“Are you going to embroider and sew for your husband?” Victoria asked.
“Oh, I don’t know. Are you required to do so for your husband, Lizzie?” Daphne asked innocently.
“Uh, no, love, but I imagine it’s a good skill to learn,” Elizabeth replied diplomatically.
“What you should know, Lizzie, is that Mother hired a tutor who didn’t last for long because she smelled of onions!” Victoria exclaimed.
“She did,” confirmed Daphne. “At first, Mother thought we were lying to escape some lessons, but she realized it when one day, we had our tutorial in the drawing room. It took a long time to scrub away the smell.”
“Of all the things!” Elizabeth laughed, covering her mouth with a hand.
“You have been gone so long that we have so many stories for you!” Daphne sounded like she was complaining.
“We tried to pet a squirrel,” Victoria added.
“No. That’s not it, Vicky. We tried to make it our pet. There’s a huge difference!”
“I’m guessing the poor squirrel didn’t like it?” Elizabeth asked, trying to imagine the twins running after a squirrel.
“She put a ribbon on it,” Victoria confided, pointing at her twin.
“The squirrel looked beautiful with a pink ribbon!” Daphne insisted.
“Animals do not like that, Daphne,” Elizabeth gently chided her sister.
Time with her sisters was the real cure. Marianne took care of her, but she also needed to take care of others.
The trio continued to chat about mundane things that made Elizabeth laugh.
They were so preoccupied that they didn’t notice the door creaking open, with Wilhelmina slipping in and closing it behind her. Elizabeth turned and met her sister’s eyes. They were in slits. She might be able to pretend among the twins, but not with Wilhelmina.
“You’re hiding something,” she remarked.
Elizabeth knew it would be the beginning of a conversation that she didn’t want the twins to hear.
“Daphne, Vicky, may I be excused? I think Mina wants to show me something in her room,” she said gently.
The two girls grumbled but agreed that their two sisters needed some time to catch up.
Wilhelmina closed the door to her room, but she didn’t lock it. It was an unspoken rule in the house.
“I am not hiding anything,” Elizabeth insisted, as she brushed a stray lock of hair from her face.
“You are, Lizzie,” Wilhelmina declared, her eyes unblinking. “Don’t insult my intelligence.”
“Mina,” she warned.
Wilhelmina took a deep breath and watched her solemnly. There was something both odd and humorous about her clasping her hands in front of her.
“You know I’ll be here for you no matter what, Lizzie. Did you get rid of him? Is he writhing in pain in one of Redmoor’s large rooms?”
“W-what?” Elizabeth spluttered.
“Among your sisters, I am the one most likely to help you move the body. Well, Vicky would volunteer, but she is still too small. We can say we buried a large fox, or a deer.”
“Mina!” Elizabeth laughed. She was shocked and delighted at her sister’s dark humor.
“Ah. I knew it,” Wilhelmina murmured, grinning. “There it is. You needed a laugh. It means you are not all right.”