I must categorically forbid you to go riding tomorrow…I stand as Father’s representative here.
Oh, it was intolerable.
Finally even Tramp was tired of playing. He came and lay at her feet as she threw his stick once more, and then rested his chin on his paws.
“Ingrate!” she said. “You might at least have fetched it one more time before making your wishes known. It was a perfectly decent stick. Now I will have to search for another the next time you insist upon this game.”
He heaved a sigh of unrepentant boredom.
“We had better go back inside, then,” she said. “I have been avoiding the inevitable. Why did I have to marry into such a horrid family, Tramp? No, don’t answer. I know why. It was because of the fatal combination of scarlet regimentals and a handsome face. He wasveryhandsome, you know, and very dashing. You were not acquainted with him in those days. And it was not his fault his family is so horrid.”
She thought of avoiding the sitting room when they went back inside and taking her outdoor things up to her room, where she would find something to keep her busy. But there was no avoiding Matilda forever, and she was not going to start hiding inside her own home. She left her outdoor things in the hall and opened the sitting room door, prepared somehow to make peace.
The room was empty.
She breathed a sigh of relief and crossed the room to pull the bell rope.
“Bring a tray of tea, will you, please, Rose?” she said when a maid answered her summons. “Do you know if Lady Matilda was feeling unwell again? Did she go back up to her room?”
Rose flushed and looked uncomfortable.
“I think she is up there, ma’am,” she said, “but not to rest. She sent Randall down to the cellar to fetch her trunk and her big valise, and she sent for her maid to pack them.”
Samantha stared at her. “Right. Thank you, Rose,” she said. “Never mind about the tray for a while. I shall call for it later.”
The maid scurried from the room.
All was bustle and activity in Matilda’s room. Her trunk, two valises, and three hat boxes were open on the floor, and it seemed that every garment she possessed was piled either on her bed or on chairs—except the chair on which Matilda herself sat, her back ramrod straight, her lips set in a thin, straight line.
“What is this, Matilda?” Samantha asked. It was a rather foolish question, of course. It was perfectly obvious whatthiswas.
“I shall be leaving for Leyland tomorrow morning,” Matilda said without looking at her. “I shall take the traveling carriage and some servants.”
Samantha walked farther into the room. “I am sorry it has come to this,” she said. “Are you sure you are well enough to travel?”
“I will not remain here,” Matilda said. “I know what is due my family and the memory of my brother, Samantha, and I will not sully either by remaining with someone who does not.”
“And this is all because I choose to return the calls of my neighbors?” Samantha asked her.
“I hardly call riding out with a single gentleman who is staying with one of your neighborsvisiting, Samantha,” Matilda said. “Even if you were not in deep mourning I would call it both vulgar and scandalous.”
“Vulgar and scandalous.” Samantha sighed. “Did I neglect to mention that Lady Gramley will be riding with us?”
“That fact makes no difference,” Matilda said. “I hope your conscience will persuade you to remain at home tomorrow, Samantha. But whether it does or does not, the intention was there and the determination to persist even after I had spoken to you quite sternly on behalf of my father. I will not remain after such an insult—an insult not to me, you will understand, but to the Earl of Heathmoor, your husband’s father.”
“Very well,” Samantha said. “I see there is no point in my saying anything further. I shall make arrangements for the carriage and the coachman and a few other servants to be ready in the morning.”
“It is already done,” Matilda said. “I beg you not to exert yourself on my behalf.”
And the thing was, Samantha thought a short while later when she was back in the sitting room, prowling about as though there was no comfortable chair upon which to sit—the thing was that she had been left feeling guilty, as if she really had behaved quite outrageously enough to be shunned by all decent folk.
Vulgar and scandalous—good heavens!
Oh, she was very angry again. Quite furious, in fact. For two pins she would hurl every ugly ornament on the mantelpiece onto the hearth and shatter them into a million pieces. But she doubted she would feel any better afterward.
Surely—oh,surely, other newly bereaved widows were not expected to stay in a darkened home for a whole year, discouraging visitors and never returning any calls they did receive. Surely they did not cut themselves off from all exercise and social activity, even if theydidavoid more frivolous entertainments, like assemblies and picnics.
Surely the way she had been living here with Matilda was notnormal.
