“Jane did you a favor, really. I’m sure word must have spread about what happened after he chose her—you heard about the fire, and his first wife?” At Blanche’s nod of confirmation, Aurelia went on. “And you still wish he’d chosen you over Jane?”
“Obviously not. He can have her, the little mouse of a thing. Well, more like a rat.”
“And yet you couldn’t manage to catch his eye instead of her?” shot Mrs. Jamieson.
“A clever, conniving rat,” Blanche amended, her face growing hot.
“Sounds like sour grapes to me,” said Mrs. Jamieson. “My story was much more tragic.”
“Tragic?”
Aurelia meant it as a challenge, but Mrs. Jamieson clearly took it as an invitation to continue.
“You might not be able to understand this given your lack of familial connections, but when one’s family, raised to a certain standard, stoops so low as to marry below them, it comes as a veritable shock.”
“Do you mean your relative marrying a surgeon?” Aurelia asked.
“Your relative married a surgeon, Mrs. Jamieson? Why that is practically a tradesman,” scoffed Blanche. “Are you telling us you have a tradesman in the family?”
“What a suggestion!” Mrs. Jamieson hissed. “You apologize this instant!”
The women’s voices rose as they began squabbling, and Aurelia’s efforts to quiet them were entirely ineffective until she turned to Kitty.
“What about you, Kitty? What are you unhappy about in your story?”
Mrs. Jamieson and Blanche stilled for a moment to listen.
“My sister, Lydia, is younger than me and is already married, and Jane and Lizzy are married, too, which leaves me at home with boring Mary, and I just know I shall never make a match as good as Lizzy and Jane, or one as handsome as Lydia.”
Kitty paused to catch her breath.
“Thatis your sad story? That hardly qualifies, my dear,” Mrs. Jamieson said.
“Yes, do let us know when something truly dreadful happens to you,” Blanche added with a smirk.
That threw Kitty into a deluge of tears and angry shouting, and now all three women were arguing with one another. Aurelia looked on, exasperated, and it dawned on her that she’d never met a group of characters that she didn’t like. They were always eager to share their stories, to learn about her life, and to get to know the other characters. But these three women were difficult, angry, and willful. They had no interest in Aurelia or each other. How was it that her first encounter with a character she didn’t like involved three of them, all at the same time?
“Aunt Aurelia?”
Aurelia’s head whipped up to see Julia standing on the mezzanine, looking down at them.
“I’m pinching myself and not waking up, so don’t try telling me this is another dream,” Julia said, holding out her arm and pinching it dramatically as she climbed down the stairs.
Aurelia had been distracted by her own thoughts, forgetting for a moment that she needed to keep the women from shouting and waking her niece.
“Oh… damn it,” Aurelia said under her breath.
At a gasp from the ladies, she turned toward them.
“Blasphemy!” exclaimed Mrs. Jamieson.
Blanche rolled her eyes, while Kitty looked unsure about who she should side with.
“Right. Okay… In my time it’s not really an issue to say that, but I get it. I’m sorry.”
“What do you mean, ‘in your time’?” Julia asked.
“No, never mind,” Aurelia said quickly, turning back to Julia. “I’m sorry we woke you. If you just run back upstairs, I’ll be there in a minute.”
