Chapter 6 #2
At least the rain had waited until she was almost home.
The closest door led to the corridor next to the ballroom.
She entered, happy to see that a maid had had the good sense to put an old carpet down.
Likely out of habit. She and her brothers had forever been using the door to escape the out of doors after playing in the grove of natural trees that separated Kellmore from Leadon Hill.
Isabel sat at the bench and removed her tall-heeled boots.
It was better not to track the mud over the floors.
Their housekeeper made the request years ago.
If the children were to use that door, they must not track dirt through the house.
She left the boots for her maid to pick up later but carried her bonnet with her.
The door to the ballroom stood ajar, and the sound of a conversation drifted out. Isabel peeked in to find only Susanna.
“The curtains… such a color… must go… still of use…”
Just as she suspected, Susanna was determined to make over all of Leadon Hill.
Another set of curtains? None in the ball room were so old to be out of fashion or damaged.
Susanna had proved with the new parlor curtains that a cohesive color palette was not on her mind.
She hadn’t taken two steps down the corridor when she was grabbed by the elbow from behind.
“Why are you spying on me?” Susanna’s grip pinched.
Isabel tugged her arm away. “I wasn’t spying. I heard a voice and wondered who was in the ballroom.”
“Liar. You are sneaking around. See, you aren’t even wearing shoes! You thought I wouldn’t hear you!”
Isabel stepped back and pointed to her muddy boots near the bench. “I came in from the garden. My boots are muddy, so I removed them.”
“Ladies don’t remove their boots.” Susanna punctuated her words with an accusatory finger.
“They do when they don’t wish to cause the maids more work.” Why was her sister-in-law acting so irrationally? She knew full well that Morris and Nigel used the door. Even the Lightwood sisters had when they visited. Two years was more than enough for Susanna to learn the ways of the place.
“Liar!”
Isabel’s chest tightened at the unfounded accusation. What had she done to deserve such venom? This wasn’t about boots or doors—it never was with Susanna anymore.
The pounding of feet came from the opposite direction. A footman rushed into the corridor followed by David. The footman stepped back.
“Susanna? Izz?”
Tears formed and dripped down Susanna’s face, she rushed to her husband’s side. “She was spying on me.”
“Isabel?” Not a good thing when David used her real name, as if she were still a child who needed correcting.
“I was only passing by the room.” Isabel lifted her sodden skirt and bonnet. “As you can see, I just entered the house. I was on my way up to change.”
David jerked his head toward the main part of the house.
Isabel took the action as a dismissal and hurried to her room.
Heat pricked behind her eyes as she climbed the stairs.
Not tears. She would not cry over this. It was the feeling of being a stranger in the home that had been hers for twenty-two years.
Was this what kept Mamma hiding most of the day?
If only father had built the dower house he had spoken of.
Then she and her mother could retreat to a place of their own.
Once she was in a dry gown, she sought out Mamma, finding her in the west wing sitting room.
The blue parlor was the smallest of all the sitting rooms in the house.
During her childhood, the room received barely any use, especially in the summer when it became quite warm in the afternoons.
Now Mamma spent most of her days here, tucked away where Susanna rarely ventured.
Like a guest in her own home. The thought boiled.
Next time she had a run in with her sister-in-law, Isabel would yell back.
She crossed the room and greeted her mother with a kiss on the cheek.
“How was your meeting with Jane and Mr. Dalrymple?” Mamma set aside her stitching.
Isabel sat next to Mamma. “Jane barely spoke, which, considering she’d had a row with Rose, wasn’t unexpected.
I don’t believe Mr. Dalrymple thinks the harvest fair is important at all.
It would be so much easier if he had a wife.
” Someone who understood what the fair meant to the families who depended on it. Someone with sense.
“Women think of things differently. If he thought the fair unimportant, he would not have agreed to help.”
“I didn’t bring up the necessity of changing location this year.
Susanna has yet to say it could not be at Leadon Hill, but I think she might.
While Kellmore is large enough and has hosted before, I am quite afraid it would overwhelm Jane.
If only I could write her grandfather myself. Which leaves Pittsfield.”
“The Earl of Whitstone has his hands full right now with the new Lord Ryland. Whom as I hear it, is still quite overwhelmed.” Mamma directed her abigail who had been sitting in the corner, to fetch tea.
“How do you know so much when you have not entertained visitors?”
“I am not without friends who write me long, gossip-filled letters hoping to cheer me. I think I am better informed than I would be if I were at the center of London society.”
“Truly? What is the most delicious thing you have heard? I long for something diverting.”
“I have it from three different sources that the Duchess of Aylton is with child. The duke has whisked her off to an unknown location for her confinement. There is all sorts of speculation on the subject, but I think it is the cottage that he allowed Edward and Deborah to rent for a time. Not that I would tell anyone.”
“I heard about the anticipated child from Phil last month. I am sure I told you. I wonder if she knows where the duke and duchess are.”
Tea arrived and Isabel poured, Mamma gave the abigail her leave.
Mamma set down her cup. “Then I have it from four sources. I remember now that you were the one who told me that she wanted to have the child in Town and not at Redbridge House, as the Duke wished. I used to keep all of these things in order, you know. I have become so forgetful since your father’s death. ”
“I found it difficult to recall many things in those first weeks after Pappa died. I am sure you have had much the same, only you loved him more, so it must be twice as difficult. Perhaps if you left this room more often…”
“Susanna prefers my staying out of the way.”
“There is a difference between allowing her to be in charge of the house and becoming the hermit of the Blue Parlor. Part of her responsibility is to have us continue to live here. If she would allow us to help, it would be ever so much easier.” And if she would stop treating us like intruders in our own home.
Mamma took a slice of cake. “Hermit? Is that what you think of me? Is that what you two were fighting about earlier?”
“Who told you there was a fight?”
“I could hear your raised voices.”
Isabel grimaced. “I am not sure what the problem was. I came in the door next to the ballroom. I heard someone in the ballroom talking. The door was open. As soon as I realized Susanna was alone, I left. She thought I was spying on her.” Isabel held her opinion about Susanna’s increasing oddities.
But they were becoming harder to ignore.
The accusations. The way she’d look at Isabel sometimes as if she were a threat rather than a sister.
“She doesn’t like to be startled.”
“It is more than—”
Mamma held up her hand. “She is the lady of the house, you shouldn’t speak of her unkindly.”
“I am not. I am concerned. Her temperament has changed since the birth of Oliver.” Surely Mamma could see it too? The way Susanna had gone from merely overbearing to something much like a petulant child?
“She became lady of the house and a mother in quick succession. She will find her footing soon enough. If only your father and I had built the dower house we spoke of.” Regret filled Mamma’s voice. She and Pappa thought they had time.
“Will David build it?”
“Not soon. The poor harvest is forcing him to tighten the budget.”
Isabel ate a bite of her cake to keep her next comment in check.
If David wanted to save money he best inform Susanna she could not make over the house.
But saying so would only upset Mamma, who was already doing her best to keep the peace.
So Isabel bit her tongue, ate her cake, and wondered how long they could all continue pretending that all was well.