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Her words echoed his own feelings precisely.
“I agree – it does seem impossible, even though I know it is real. It is hard to countenance, I think more from the manner of it than the fact. After all, despite my dearest wishes to the contrary, we have known for some time that her death was inevitable – but I did not expect it like this. That it came as a result of her trying to harm you makes it worse. Iris – when I saw you teetering, about to fall as she flailed at you, my heart near stopped – all I could think of was saving you, that I could not bear to lose you. But… in saving you, I made her fall a certainty, even though that was not my intent. That weighs heavily upon me.”
Iris slid her arms around him, holding him tightly, and turned her face up to his.
“You must not blame yourself in any way, Leon. She made her own choices, however irrational they were at the end. Had she not thrown herself at me like that, neither of us would have been at risk. You could not have predicted her actions. And… I am very grateful that you saved me.”
He bent and kissed her, the terrible emotional intensity of the day suddenly demanding release in a most physical demonstration of his feelings. After a few minutes, they drew apart.
“Come to bed, Iris, and let us make better memories.”
Chapter Fourteen
The graveyard was full of small summer flowers – daisies determinedly pushing their way up beside age-old headstones, to accompany those flowers left by relatives of the deceased. Overhead, the sky was a clear blue, with a light drift of clouds, and birds circled, singing. It was altogether too beautiful a day for the sadness of the occasion.
There were few mourners at the graveside as Maggie’s coffin was lowered into the ground - a simple coffin, draped with a plain green cloth. The coffin was lined with green, also – let her go to God surrounded by the colour she had loved so well. Leon stood with his family, Mrs Withercombe, and most of the staff from Greenleigh Park, and held back the impulse to weep. If he did so, his mother would lose all composure, and she had fought hard to get through the day so far.
That the bright sister he remembered from his childhood had come to this was a travesty, an unreasonable cruelness which made him, at times, doubt God’s plan.
But all he could do now was go on, help his mother go on, and make a life with Iris. And perhaps they would be blessed with children, which would give his mother something to step back into life for, after the long years of Maggie’s illness draining her vitality too.
The vicar’s voice was sonorous, steady, sending Maggie on her way, underlaid by the percussion of the soil landing on the coffin, as the gravediggers shovelled it in, closing her off from the light forever. And then it was done. Silence surrounded them, broken only by the cry of a bird.
Lady Neelsham was the first to move, gently herding everyone towards the carriages which stood waiting in front of the old village church. For three centuries the Atherton family, the Marquesses and Marchionesses of Greenleigh, had been buried here – perhaps half of the gravestones marked the memory of those Leon could count as relatives and ancestors. At least, the thought came, Maggie went to her maker in company of family.
The servants bundled into carriages, and set off up the road, even as he, his mother, Iris, Lady Neelsham and Mrs Withercombe stepped up into their own conveyance.
As they rolled away from the church, Lady Neelsham spoke, her voice soft, and pensive.
“I loved her once, when she was a child. I wish I could have truly maintained that love as the madness took her. I regret that failing on my part. Perhaps, if she has, in heaven, regained her sanity, she will hear me, and forgive me.”
Lady Greenleigh shattered at those words, sobs of grief racking her, and Leon slipped his arm around his mother to comfort her, as Iris reached out to place her hand on Lady Neelsham’s.
“I am sure that she forgives you, Lady Neelsham.”
They lapsed into silence, Mrs Withercombe sniffling into a handkerchief, and Lady Greenleigh’s sobs dying away after a while. Soon, the house came into sight, and then Lady Greenleigh spoke.
“Leon, can we remove every trace of green from the house? I have already done so at the Dower House – I had to do so for my own sanity – but now, I would ask you to do that in the main house as well. I would keep the memories of her childhood, not the ones after the madness began.”
“Mother, I am more than happy to do so. Indeed, I had intended that very thing. I will arrange for the work to begin tomorrow. Of a certainty, the house will feel lighter and brighter, with that oppressive colour gone. The more Maggie became obsessed with it, the more I came to hate it, for it was as if the colour had stolen her from me.”
Mrs Withercombe looked up at that point, and for a moment, Leon wondered if she would object, but then she smiled.
“I am so very happy to hear that. I have seen enough of green to last a lifetime, and over the last few years, since that wallpaper was last replaced, I have not felt at my best – indeed, I worried at times that my own mind was suffering by some contagion. And it was so hard to keep the rooms clean – that paper seemed to shed a dusting of green on everything, at least at first.”
Leon nodded, for he had noticed that issue too.
“I thank you, Mrs Withercombe, for your devoted care of Maggie. Will you help us redecorate those rooms, and others in the house? Will you stay with us?”
A tension which he had not noticed until now left Mrs Withercombe’s frame.
“I will, and gladly. I had wondered if I would still have a place, now…”
Opposite him, Iris met his eyes, then spoke.
“Mrs Withercombe, of course you have a place. And… if Leon and I are blessed with children, will you be nanny to them, as you were to Leon?”
Mrs Withercombe burst into tears again, but these were happy tears, and Leon felt his heart swell at Iris’ words. Children… he had thought that perhaps he would never have children, and now… how much everything had changed in just a few days.
