AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Waring started, as if coming out of a daze, and bowed.
“Yes, my Lady.”
He turned, closed the front door, then hurried away to summon the footmen and send them on their way. His movement seemed to bring Lady Neelsham out of her shock, and she met Iris’ eyes for a moment, before speaking.
“You there,” she waved her hand at one of the maids, who was peeking out of a door down the hallway, “Bring some coverings – a large sheet, or the like.”
The maid nodded and scurried away.
“Thank you.”
Iris was grateful for the older woman’s assistance, for her own sense of shock was beginning to take hold.
“You’re shaking, my girl. Take a steadying breath now.”
Iris did, just as Waring reappeared, followed by two footmen and two of the maids – who promptly gave squeaks of horror at the sight of the body. Lady Neelsham fixed them with a stern glare.
“None of that fuss. Cover her with that sheet you’re carrying, and then prepare the small parlour for her laying out. And ask the cook to send a tea tray to the main parlour – we will all need some sustenance to get through this.”
Iris left Lady Neelsham to deal with the maids, and turned to the footmen.
“I must assume that you know where to find the physician, and the undertaker?”
“Yes, my Lady. But the physician is a distance away…”
“Then you must hurry. Each go for one of them, now, and ensure that they come immediately.”
“Yes, my Lady.”
They bowed, and with sidelong looks at the maids covering Maggie’s body, turned, and left. Iris assumed that suitable horses were available to them in the stables – they had said nothing, so she had to trust that all would happen as she needed it to.
The maids had finished laying out the sheet over Maggie, and Lady Neelsham spoke again.
“You – stay here and make sure that nothing is disturbed. You, go and arrange a tea tray, and then set things up in the small parlour.”
The maids curtsied, and set about doing as instructed. Iris was quietly impressed by the fact that they had not become hysterical. She went to where Leon stood, his mother sobbing into his shoulder, and gently touched his arm.
“Come into the parlour. Nothing is served by us standing here. The physician and the undertaker have been sent for.”
He looked at her, as if waking from some nightmare, only to find that the horror was real. Then he sighed.
“Mother, come to the parlour. Some tea will help settle you.”
The Dowager Lady Greenleigh gave a barely perceptible nod, tears still running down her face, and allowed herself to be led away from the stairs, and the silent, sheet-draped bundle which had once been her daughter.
Without anything else being said, Iris and Lady Neelsham followed them to the parlour. Inside, Iris was a riot of emotion – grief, that it had ended so, and that Leon and his mother were so deeply affected. Shock, that she had come so close, herself, to meeting Maggie’s fate. Relief, that the threat which had hung over her from shortly after her marriage was gone. Guilt, that she felt that relief. And a different kind of fear – that there might be things which she should do now, of which she was unaware.
But she would manage. And the presence of Lady Neelsham beside her was, unexpectedly, deeply reassuring.
>>>
Late that evening, they finally stepped into their rooms, both exhausted and overwhelmed by the events of the day. Automatically, Leon went as if to lock the door, then stopped, his hand upon it, and gave a bark of half bitter laughter.
“I suppose I need not do that, anymore.”
He turned away from it, and went to Iris, who leant against him and spoke softly.
“It seems still like a nightmare I will wake from, even though I know it is real. Part of my mind wants you to lock the door still, for it is as if she cannot be gone, as if she might come and pound on that door at any moment.”
