Chapter Five #4
She was cut off when the door to the chamber suddenly swung open, revealing Ellice in the doorway.
Isadora gasped with fright at the unexpected sight of her aunt, who looked damp and disheveled, as if she had been running all night long.
Her eyes had an edgy gleam to them. Courtly, however, did nothing more than meet the woman’s gaze.
She was in no mood for the woman’s games, now appearing as if Lazarus had just returned from the dead, when she had been missing all night.
“Greetings, Auntie,” she said without enthusiasm. “We missed you last eve.”
Ellice eyed her niece. “I was told you cooked the meal,” she said. “Is this true?”
Courtly looked away. “I had little choice,” she said. “You ran off and took your servants with you, including the cook. We could only find one girl to help. I suppose she was the one who told you that I cooked.”
Ellice remained in the doorway, the stench of moldering leaves wafting into the room, so much so that Isadora actually put her fingers to her nose. Ellice smelled as terrible as she looked.
“There were others,” Ellice said vaguely. “I will commend you for doing what needed to be done. I did not know you had such strength in you.”
It was as close to a compliment as Ellice had ever come, a surprising comment, but Courtly was unimpressed.
“It does not matter,” she said. “Papa wants to send us home so you will not have to worry over us any longer. I am sure Papa will leave Kennington, too, so you can return to your normal life without all of us underfoot.”
Ellice was only interested in a small part of that statement. “Why is he sending you home?”
Courtly simply shook her head. She had no intention of telling the woman the truth, but Isadora, being unable to keep her mouth shut, spoke.
“Because Papa does not like that Maximus de Shera paid attention to Courtly,” she told her aunt. “Sir Maximus was our guest last night at the feast. He is the one who helped save us from the fire. Papa wants to send us home so Sir Maximus will forget about my sister.”
Ellice stared at the girl. At that moment, something shifted in her eyes.
A twinkle, a glimmer, perhaps an inkling of remembrance came to the woman’s expression.
Her pale, damp face seemed to change also and her cheeks began to grow pink.
Flushed, even. Coming into the room, she slammed the door behind her and focused on Courtly.
“Tell me everything,” she demanded quietly. “What did my brother do?”
Courtly wasn’t sure why her aunt was asking such questions, questions she surely didn’t want to answer. She glanced at the woman but made no real move to respond.
“He did not do anything,” she said, looking away. “Papa simply said he wants to send us home.”
Isadora jumped into the conversation because Courtly didn’t seem apt to tell their aunt what she knew. She didn’t stop to think that it was because Courtly didn’t want the woman to know.
“Papa does not like it when men pay attention to Courtly,” she said. “He has sent away six suitors already and last night, Sir Maximus was very kind to my sister. Papa does not like that and he wants to send us both home.”
Ellice digested what Isadora told her. “Did he say anything to your guest? To Sir Maximus?”
Isadora shook her head. “I do not think so,” he said. “Papa spoke with Sir Maximus’ brother all night long. I do not think he spoke to Sir Maximus at all.”
“What is this to you?” Courtly asked, interrupting Isadora. Her gaze was both pleading and frustrated upon her aunt. “This is not your business, Auntie. This is between Papa and me. You do not need to know these things. Surely you do not care.”
Ellice gazed steadily at her niece, her lips twitching with a shade of a snarl. She was very good at snarling when provoked, something that was both intimidating and frightening. But instead of snapping off a bitter retort, she abruptly turned for the door, muttering to herself as she moved.
“He will not do this again,” she hissed. “Not again. I will not let him do this again.”
With that, she was gone, leaving Courtly and Isadora looking rather perplexed by her abrupt departure.
But the mumbling had Courtly on edge and she stood up, going to the door and watching as her aunt disappeared through the doorway that led out into the ward.
She could still hear the woman muttering.
“What is wrong with Auntie?” Isadora wanted to know.
Courtly shook her head, puzzled. “I do not know,” she said. “But mayhap I should follow her and find out.”
Leaving Isadora still upon the bed, Courtly followed her aunt’s trail, pursuing the woman out of the building and into the ward of Kennington.
The day was deepening and the sun had risen, casting its golden rays across the land.
The mud, which had been so heavy in the early morning, was starting to dry up a little.
Smoke, heavy from the cooking fires, blanketed the complex.
As Courtly looked around for her aunt, she began to hear yelling.
Following the sounds, she came to the northwest corner of the two-storied building, noting her aunt and father several feet away.
Ellice was clearly livid as she spoke to her brother.
“Will you do this again, Kellen?” Ellice was saying. “First with me and now with your own daughter? Will you be the one to drive men away from her so that she grows up embittered and lonely? You cannot do this to her.”
Kellen’s back was to Courtly as he angrily waved his sister off. “You speak of things long past,” he said. “You are speaking of things that happened twenty years ago.”
Ellice was nearly shrieking. “Twenty years, aye!” she cried.
“But to me, it was yesterday. It was yesterday when you sent my love away and he never came back. Don’t you realize what that did to me and to my life?
I had to hear that he married another and I wanted to die from the sorrow I felt.
And now you will do the same thing to your own daughter?
I cannot allow it. You are a selfish, cruel man to want to keep the womenfolk in your family alone and unattached and utterly dependent upon you.
Still, I am dependent upon you and ever will be. I hate you for it!”
Kellen shook his head, trying to move away from her. “I will not discuss this with you.”
Ellice followed. “If you do not, I will follow you around and speak of terrible and private things until you listen to me. Do you want your men to hear how you chased off every suitor I ever had until no one came? Do you want them to hear how you controlled me and used money to either reward or punish me, so long as I did what you wanted?”
Kellen whirled on her, bellowing. “You are chattel,” he roared. “You are my responsibility and I did what I felt best for you. I will do it for my daughters as well and you will not question me, you ungrateful cow.”
Ellice had that snarling expression upon her lips again as she watched her brother yell at her but, at this point, Courtly stopped listening.
She’d heard far too much already. It was shocking to hear how her father had treated his sister, how he had chased away the man she loved.
Now, so much was clear as to why Ellice behaved the way she did.
If what she said was true, and Kellen’s answers seemed to support it, then Ellice’s manner was a direct result of Kellen’s control over every aspect of her life, even suitors.
It was little wonder why Ellice was the way she was.
Now, it was all starting to make some sense.
And that thought scared Courtly to death.
I do not want to be like my aunt, she thought to herself as she scurried back for the door that would lead back inside the structure.
Is it really true? Did Papa chase off all of Auntie’s marital prospects?
But even as she thought it, she knew it was true because her father behaved the same way with her.
Old patterns repeating themselves, now with his own daughters.
But if Courtly had anything to say about it, the pattern would not be the same.
She intended to destroy it for her sake as well as for Isadora’s sake.
She couldn’t let the man deliberately turn them into spinsters. The mere thought was sickening.
As she headed back to the house and to her sister, she heard commotion at the gate but she didn’t pay any attention.
Soldiers were calling to one another and somewhere in the middle of it she heard St. Héver’s distinctive bellow.
But she entered the building after that and heard no more, moving into the small bedchamber where Isadora was pulling on her stockings and shoes.
The girl looked up from her right foot when her sister entered the room.
“Where did you go?” Isadora asked. “What is Auntie doing?”
Courtly was lost in thought, mulling over what she had just heard and the implications of it. She looked at Isadora, shock and confusion on her face.
“She is talking to Papa,” she said. “Oh, Issie, you would not believe what they are speaking of. Auntie said… she said that Papa chased away all of her suitors and that is why she is so unhappy and nasty. She said she is lonely and bitter and that Papa is the cause.”
Isadora’s brow furrowed. “Papa chased men away from her, too?”
Courtly nodded. “That is what she said,” she replied. “He is doing the same thing to me and will do the same thing to you. I do not want to end up like Auntie, old and alone and mean.”
Isadora was still a bit too young to fully grasp what Courtly was saying. Suitors and men had no real meaning in her world. But she knew that someday, they would mean a great deal.
“What will you do?” she asked, concerned.