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Chapter 4
“Isabel?”
Isabel didn’t look up from her book when she heard her mother’s voice. She simply turned the page and tried to concentrate on the words, but they were floating around and not really sinking in. Her head was hurting, and she had her spectacles on.
She heard her mother’s footsteps as the older woman crossed the orangery, and still she wouldn’t look up. Her composure was still not right, and Isabel could feel the anger lying dormant. She was exhausted from the crying and the screaming, but the rage hadn’t really left her. And she didn’t want to direct it at her mother. That was not fair on her.
“Has Mr Joyner left?”
“He has.”
“And what’s the plan now? What happens to us?”
Lady Dunley didn’t say anything to begin with. Her skirts rustled, and Isabel glanced up to see her mother leaning over the jar with the dormouse in. He was left in a patch of sunlight, curled up in a ball as he slept. After his dip in the water, the dormouse was looking quite content. Maybe she would be able to release him back into the wild in the morning.
Feels weird to realize that a tiny dormouse has more freedom than I do right now.
“You rescued another animal?” Lady Dunley glanced up at her daughter. “Do we really need another animal in this house?”
“He was drowning in the river. I wasn’t about to leave him there, was I?”
“At least that explains your disheveled and wet state when you came in.” Lady Dunley straightened up. “Mr Joyner actually asked if you were one of those girls who was a bit soft in the head.”
Isabel’s mouth fell open.
“He really said that?”
“I’m afraid he did.”
Isabel growled.
“If he were still here, he would be getting a piece of my soft head. How does he think speaking about a lady like that is acceptable?”
“I did scold him for his words, but I don’t think he was really listening.”
“From the way things are going, nobody’s listening to us.”
Isabel had known, in the back of her mind, that things were going to change after her father’s death. She knew about inheritance, and she knew she would consider herself lucky if anything was left to her, but she had been in some sort of denial that their lives would change too much. As the months had passed, and she and her mother hid away for their mourning period, wondering about their future had been the farthest thing from her mind.
She should have been more aware of it. Then maybe this wouldn’t be such a shock to them.
“Look, Isabel …” Lady Dunley sat in the chair next to her daughter, her hands shaking as she smoothed down her skirts. “I know this is something we weren’t prepared for, and I know you hate this position we’re in now …”
“You’re right about that, Mother!” Isabel closed her book with a sharp snap, making her mother jump. “This is our home. Daniel hates this part of the country. He should leave us here where we belong, and he should stay where he is.”
“We would still be needing an allowance from him. He controls what little finances there are now.”
“But he didn’t need to force us out!”
Lady Dunley looked pained.
“I know, dear. But he’s made a decision and, while we won’t like it, we’re going to have to make do with what we’ve got.”
“Where will we go? How can we afford anything?”
“Mr Joyner’s given us two weeks to find somewhere to live …”
“How charitable of him,” Isabel sneered.
