“You are Matthew’s cousin?” Diana asked.
Isabelle nodded. “Yes. His father and my father are brothers. They were quite close for most of their lives. Until Matthew’s father died, that is.”
“From what I had learned, his father died quite some time ago…”
“Indeed,” Isabelle said. But there was something about the look on her face…
“What is it?”
“It is nothing… But I know that Matthew can be quite harsh. He can be abrupt and brash and… well, I know that he has quite a reputation.” Isabelle paused and looked at her, but Diana did not speak. “But there is much about Matthew that you do not know.” Her tone was almost pleading now, and it intrigued Diana even further.
“What is it that I do not know? Something about his father?”
“In a way. It’s just that… my uncle was…” Isabelle hesitated, but the grimace on her face revealed a great deal. “He was not a friendly man. Not to myself and John, and certainly not to Matthew. In fact, he was not friendly to anyone. He thought it a sign of weakness.”
“Friendliness?”
“Friendliness. Kindness. Compassion. Love. Any kind of positive emotion. He felt it showed weakness and… well, no son of his was going to be thought of as weak.”
“He taught Matthew to be this way.”
Suddenly, a great deal about Matthew’s behavior made sense. The way he was always so reserved and cold. The way that he refused to back down in an argument.
“He did. And I am sorry to say that when he died, my father did nothing to eradicate those tendencies. Rather, I believe he may have made them worse.”
“I see,” Diana replied, her mind whirling with all of this new information.
“So, you see,” Isabelle continued, “Matthew is not the way he is because it is his nature. In fact, it is certainly not his nature to be that way. I remember the countless times he was punished for being too emotional or for showing too much compassion. It was his father who taught him how to appear cold and heartless.”
“That may be the case, but when Matthew became an adult, he had the opportunity to change his ways and become a different person.”
“Yes,” Isabelle acknowledged, though she looked severely disappointed to have to do so. “But perhaps you could look pastsome of that and give him a chance. He will surprise you. Of that, I am sure.”
“I will give him a chance, of course. I have no interest in judging him falsely. But he will have to earn anything beyond that.”
“Of course,” Isabelle agreed, looking much happier at the prospect. “And now, let’s talk more about yourself. Come now, you have sisters, do you not? What is it like to have sisters? I’ve only ever had a brother, and it is most vexing.”
“Well, having sisters is certainly vexing as well,” Diana replied with a smile, thinking of some of the silliest things her sisters had done over the years.
“But you have fun together too, yes?”
“Oh yes, we had a great deal of fun together.”
“Tell me something about living with sisters,” Isabelle demanded.
Diana fell silent for a moment, trying to think of the best moment to capture her sisters’ spirits and the fun they’d had together.
“When we were younger, we used to vex our nanny to no end. We would get up early in the morning and sneak out of our rooms before the nanny even woke up. And then we would sneak down to the kitchen to see Cook. She would be up, making breakfast.And she would whip up some sugar biscuits for us to pack up. They were always our favorite.”
She smiled at the memory of those biscuits, and of the four of them gathering up all the biscuits in a sack and running out to hide in the stables, devouring one after the other.
“Would you ever go back inside?” Isabelle asked, her eyes sparkling at the mischief of it.
“Oh, eventually we would go back inside. Or we would be found hiding in the stalls. Father would be furious, of course. And our nanny as well. But that didn’t stop us from doing it again and again. We would have the best times together…” Diana trailed off, remembering that all of those times were gone now.
“It sounds lovely,” Isabelle said wistfully.
“And what about you? I’m sure you had a great many wonderful moments with your brother.”
