Purpose
‘Oh my,’ Eliza whispered. ‘She’s in such a bad way, poor lamb. Couldn’t even eat all of her supper.’
‘Come away,’ Isaac whispered from the doorway. ‘You’ll wake her, and she might see you.’
Eliza ignored him. She stood by the bed and reached out to touch the girl’s dark blonde hair spread across the pillow like strands of seaweed.
Looked as if it was some time since she had washed it properly.
Hair was so important, Eliza thought. If your hair didn’t feel right, you didn’t feel right.
Their guest may have been a fully grown woman, but curled up on her side, her pale face full of sorrow even in sleep, she looked young and vulnerable.
Eliza allowed her hand to float away.
‘That’s not likely,’ she said. ‘The majority of people are completely unaware of our existence.’
‘But some are,’ Isaac said, ‘and as I keep trying to remind you, not all are amenable.’
Eliza looked back towards Jules.
‘If she is a friend of Carrie’s I can’t believe she would do us harm.’
‘Maybe not,’ Isaac mused, ‘but we would not want to alarm her. When people are afraid, they become unpredictable.’
‘She is so in need of comfort though, Isaac. It is worth the risk, isn’t it, to give her a little of that?’
Her husband stared at her for a moment in a way which she didn’t recognise. Then he shook his head.
‘Do as you will, Eliza,’ he huffed.
She stifled her indignation and summoned up her previous feelings of compassion before turning back towards the bed. Reaching for the duvet she pulled it up softly to cover Jules’s bare shoulder before blowing a kiss to settle on one of those pallid cheeks.
‘You do not have to worry, Isaac,’ she said, following him down the stairs and into the sitting room. ‘She didn’t stir, and she’ll sleep until morning now.’
Isaac settled himself into his favourite tall-backed chair by the old stone fireplace.
‘I had forgotten,’ he said, ‘how nerve-wracking it is to have a new visitor.’
Eliza wanted to go and perch on his lap as usual, but he was still out of sorts. His form was jagged.
Looking at him reminded her of the hedgehogs which resided at the bottom of the garden. Instead, she sank onto the sofa and tucked her legs beneath her.
‘We got used to Carrie,’ she said, fiddling with the frill on the hem of her dress. She did so love the way it ruffled against her ankles as she walked. ‘We shall become used to Jules, too.’
‘Unless she leaves,’ Isaac replied.
‘Why would you say that?’ Eliza gasped. ‘She has only just arrived.’
‘Something I discerned.’
‘How did you discern it? Did she say something to Carrie?’
‘You are not the only one with intuition, Eliza. Sometimes I, too, pick up on thoughts which escape into the ether.’
‘Oh!’
‘So all the more reason not to alarm her in any way.’
‘Absolutely not,’ Eliza said, shaking her head and allowing her hair to tumble over her shoulders. ‘If she leaves too soon the cottage won’t have the time required to work its magic.’
‘I believe Carrie knows that. She’ll try her best to keep her here.’
‘And if she can’t?’ Eliza fretted. ‘Oh, Isaac, is this my fault?’
‘Why would it be your fault, my love?’
‘I don’t know. Have I done something wrong? Has our brief marital disagreement tarnished the atmosphere in some way so that she can’t recognise the healing that she’ll find here?’
Isaac moved from the sofa and settled himself next to her. He kissed her softly on the lips.
‘There are some things, my love, even you can’t control.’
‘But I can’t bear all the pain in the world, Isaac. I can’t bear the way people treat one another with such, such…’
‘Heartlessness.’
‘Yes! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing earlier. The way that man treated Jules, duped her.’
‘But she is lucky because she has a friend like Carrie to help her. Some people do not even have that.’
‘And she has this house,’ Eliza added. ‘And us. We’re her friends, too, even if she doesn’t know it. And we will do whatever it takes to restore her faith in humankind.’
Isaac wrapped his arms around his wife and buried his face in her neck.
‘You,’ he whispered, ‘are the best of women.’
‘And you,’ she replied, ‘are the best of husbands and we’re stronger together.’
Isaac nodded.
‘Together,’ he repeated. ‘I’m sorry I left you, Eliza. I promise that it won’t happen again.’
She nodded. Of course he meant it, just as she meant it when she declared that she would refrain from meddling, but sometimes one just couldn’t help oneself. Sometimes promises had to be broken.