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“Tell Lady Plummer that we shall attend them there.” When Jefford had left, he added, “It seems that I shall have my meeting with Miss Isabella sooner than anticipated. Shall we join the ladies?”
Despite the warmth from the fire, there was a distinctly frosty air about the parlour. The ladies were sitting bolt upright, stiff with disapproval, their faces blank, although to be fair to Patricia, that was her habitual expression, so she could hardly be blamed for it. Charles stood near the door, as if waiting for an opportunity to escape. Michael huddled miserably by the window, as far from everyone as he could contrive. Uncle Morgan cradled a brandy glass, looking amused.
Side by side on the sofa reserved for guests, Mr Fletcher and Miss Crabtree sat either side of Isabella. Fletcher was in the middle of recounting some detail of a meal — perhaps last night’s dinner — but he broke off as they entered, and rose to his feet.
“Ah, Sir Owen, Mr James, there you are. I’ve brought Bella to meet you, so that you and Lady Plummer can see for yourselves how she is. At least, it was her idea to come, not mine. She wants to explain a few things to you all.”
“I am very pleased to meet you, Miss Fletcher,” Sir Owen said with a courteous bow. “Please be seated, Fletcher. Have you been offered refreshments?”
“They have,” Lady Plummer said in frigid tones. “They declined.”
“Aye, we’ll not take up much of your time,” Fletcher said. “Away you go, Bella. Say your piece.”
She looked calmly around the room at them, utterly composed. “I am the youngest daughter in the family — the youngest child, in fact. Angie is only four years older than me, but it always seemed an insuperable gap to me. I was often ill as a child, too, so the others were always off doing exciting things while I was stuck at home, recovering from one thing or another.”
“Aye, that’s true enough,” Fletcher said. “She was born early, so she was a sickly babe, and a sickly child.”
“I grew out of that in time, but by then my four sisters were far advanced in education, and had become as close as any sisters could be. They shared two bedrooms, one big group. And I was alone. I slept alone, I was often alone in the schoolroom when they were taking lessons with the masters, or shopping with Mama. Even in a large family like ours, I was always alone. I badly wanted a sister of my own age… or a friend, perhaps. And so I invented Dorothea to keep me company — someone to talk to, to share my life with.”
“Little one, I had no idea you were so lonely,” Fletcher said, his voice wavering. “My poor child!”
“It is of no consequence, Pa. I solved the problem for myself, you see. Everyone was very understanding, and accepted Dorothea as a part of the family. Probably they suspected that I thought she was real, but that would be foolish. I know perfectly well that she is an artefact of my imagination. In Yorkshire, where people have known me all my life, no one thought anything about it. Oh, I expect they talked about me behind my back, but no one ever mentioned it so I imagined that people everywhere would be the same. Now, of course, I can see how odd it must look to you, and how it must worry you, now that Julia is joining your family. I should be mortified if my thoughtless actions were to harm her or any of my family. So I have come here to explain it to you, so that you will understand that I am not a madwoman. Dorothea does not exist, and you will hear nothing more of her, I promise you.”
James listened with growing respect. Bella was but fourteen, but she was a sensible and articulate girl, a little solemn, perhaps, but clearly as normal as anyone in the room. Perhaps more normal than some, he conceded, as his glance passed over Letitia and then Patricia, before wandering to Uncle Morgan and Michael.
“Thank you, Miss Fletcher,” Sir Owen said. “That is a very lucid explanation, and we are pleased to know more of your situation.”
It was a dismissal, and Fletcher knew it. “Then we understand one another, sir, and need trouble you no longer. Come, Bella, Miss Crabtree.”
They all rose, and James was struck with how at ease Mr Fletcher was, neither prideful nor unduly humble. There was no artifice about him at all, despite his roots in trade. He was a man who knew his own worth and was not cowed by the very different society in which he now found himself. And Julia was just the same, he thought with a flash of pride. His Julia! She was her father’s daughter, and the equal of any woman in England.
James and his father both saw the visitors out, then returned to the parlour.
“Well, Lady Plummer?” Sir Owen said gently. “Are you reassured?”
“Certainly not,” she said tartly. “The creature has been well rehearsed, and she speaks her lines with conviction, but that is as much as one can say. In fact, I would go so far as to suggest that this little performance makes her even more suspect in my eyes. She is clearly a conniving, slippery, deceptive chit of a girl, and the fact that her father is part of the deception makes it even worse. He clearly is incapable of recognising her insanity, and therefore the whole family is tainted. I wish we had never been forced into the acquaintance.”
“Oh, this is ridiculous!” James cried. “She was perfectly sensible. Father, you agree, surely? You said her explanation was lucid.”
“So it was. Too lucid, perhaps, for a child of that age to have dreamt up,” Sir Owen said. “I must agree with Lady Plummer on one point, at least, that she was told what to say. She spoke her lines very competently, I grant you that, but that is hardly relevant.”
James paced across the room, too angry to be still. He found himself gazing at Michael’s anxious face. “Brother, you will support me, will you not? Did she not appear to you as the very picture of rationality?”
Michael leaned back against the wall, as if he wished it would swallow him up and relieve him of the necessity of answering. “James, how can I judge? If Father and Mother think—”
With an exclamation of disgust, James spun round and strode away from him. “Father, tell me once and for all, will you now give me your blessing to marry Miss Fletcher?”
“I cannot, not yet. If Michael were married, it would be a different matter, but—”
James groaned in exasperation. “Do you not see what you are doing? Michael feels all the weight of his obligation to marry and continue the line, and now you are burdening him with the responsibility formymarriage, too! It is grossly unfair! He has suffered enough for this family, God knows. If I marry Julia, we can provide you with sons and Michael can take his time and find the wife of his heart, as I have done… as you did, Father. This nonsense about Bella is just an excuse, and you know it. Mother willneveraccept Julia, because her father was once in trade. She despises the whole family. Is it not so, Mother? Deny it if you dare.”
“Why should I deny it? They are unworthy to mingle with good society.”
“You see, Father? Well, I have had enough. I will not be subject to your whims any longer, and I absolutely willnotbe party to any scheme which increases the heavy load that Michael has to bear. I shall marry Julia in my own time, and you will just have to accept that. Good day.”
He stormed out of the room, collected his greatcoat and was away down the drive and half way home to the rectory before his rage had even begun to cool. It was insupportable! How dare his father hold him to ransom in this irrational way? Bella was no more insane than he was, and possibly less so. Which of them could honestly be called normal, anyway? Every man, woman and child on earth was different from every other, each with his own quirks and oddities. He would marry Julia at once, before she changed her mind.
His footsteps slowed as relief surged through him. He wanted to dance for joy, to shriek to the heavens that she was his… would very soon be entirely his, and what more could any man want? He stood, grinning from ear to ear, then laughing out loud.She would be his!There was no longer any obstacle, for he was as free as the air. High above him a pigeon clattered into flight with a shiver of leaves, and James laughed again. He was as free as that bird, and he knew precisely what he would do. He would go to the Park and find Julia, and settle a date for their wedding at once. Before she changed her mind.
