“It will not open. I need air.”
“Then ask me to help you.”
“I can help myself.”
“Allow me.” He took the candelabra from her and placed it on the table, then tried pulling and shoving at the old window. “It is painted shut.”
Marie nodded, “Oui, monsieur.Zat is what I tell madame.”
“I am trapped in this old ruin of a place,” Lizette cried. “I need air!”
“Take hold of yourself! Calm down.”
“I am so sick of those words—that patronizing way you speak to me! You are not my father. Do not speak to me as if I were a child.”
“You are acting like one.”
“Non. Having a child is making me this way. I cannot stand it. I want out of this body ... this skin!”
He gave up on the window and took hold of his wife’s elbows, motioning the maid out of the room with a lift of his chin. “Lizette.”
“It is my life,non?”
“No,” he said gently, shaking his head. “You are not God.”
“Well, neither are you. Some great physician you are,DoctorTaylor. You cannot even heal your own wife.”
“I am trying. I am doing all I know to do.”
“It is not enough!” She pulled away, grabbed the candelabra and threw it across the room, shattering the gilt mirror over the fireplace mantel.
He froze.
Marie reappeared in the doorway and hesitated there, frowning at the broken mirror and then at him.
“Stay with her, please,” he instructed. Then he dashed from the room, leapt the stairs three at a time, and knocked on the nursery door. Sally opened it, white faced. She had obviously heard the commotion from below.
“Sally, please collect Anne and whatever things you need. I am taking you into the village. I want you to stay at the Red Lion. Here—” He pulled several bank notes from his wallet and handed them to her. “That should do for a night or two.”
“Yes, sir.”
After seeing Sally and Anne safely to the inn, he drove the carriage to Kendall’s office.
“Richard,” he began, hat in hand before his friend’s desk, “I do not know what to do. I am at my wits’ end. Lizette has begged me not to take her back to the Manor Home, but now with Anne to think of ... I may even have to find a more equipped asylum.”
“There are one or two I might recommend.”
“Please. Come one more time. See if there is anything I have left undone.”
“Of course.” Richard rose and followed him outside.
But the scene that greeted them was not at all what either gentleman expected. The cottage had been restored to rights. Although the mirror was missing, the glass shards had been taken down and discarded, and the late afternoon sun lit the room in a peaceful, golden glow. Lizette looked up at them from a pristine table laid with a full tea service, as well as plates of sandwiches and cakes. Lizette herself looked serene and lovely, dressed in a pink silk gown, her hair done up properly, her face powdered. She even had the strand of pearls around her neck that Daniel had long ago given her but she seldom wore.
She greeted them warmly. “Welcome, gentlemen.” Dumbly, Daniel stepped forward, Kendall close behind.
“Hello, darling.” She rose and smiled at him as he approached, eyes glowing, then reached up and kissed his cheek.
“Dr. Kendall, how pleased I am to see you again. Do sit down.”
