Beneath the letters, however, was a leather portfolio. Curious, Annie lifted the letters out to set them aside. As she did so, the ribbon shifted slightly, revealing part of Janet’s surname, which leapt out at her.
She moved the ribbon further aside, exposing the surname in its entirety, her benumbed brain unable to make sense of what her eyes were seeing. Using her thumb, she flicked through the bundle, seeing the same name, again and again.
Miss Janet Fairfax
Nor were they addressed to Ferndale Grange, but to an address in Chesterfield. Annie sat in bewildered silence.Fairfax? Is Janet a relative? If so, why not admit it? What does she have to hide?Certainly, Annie’s father had never mentioned her, or any other relative of his, come to that. The only relative she’d ever been aware of was her deceased aunt. But that was her mother’s sister, not her father’s. And he’d never spoken of her. He’drefusedto speak of her.
There had always been gaps in Annie’s childhood, but she’d long since learned not to ask about them. Questions remained unanswered, memories discouraged and unshared.
The soft chime of the hall clock drifted up the stairs, reminding Annie her time was rationed. She gave herself a mental shake, set the letters aside, and reached for the portfolio. As she gazed upon its pocked, leather surface, she had the impression she was standing, once again, on a precipice. Blindfolded.
She inhaled deeply, exhaled slowly, and opened the flap.
*
A while later,down in the kitchen, Annie stood back and surveyed her work. Having read the contents of the portfolio, her first task had been to rearrange the kitchen back to the way it was when she’d been here as a four-year-old child. It hadn’t taken very long. She’d simply moved the kitchen table and chairs to the center of the room, facing the window.
The table also served as the place to display her exhibit. A sorry exposé of the colossal lies and inconceivable deceit that had, since birth, been a part of Annie’s world. The soul-crushing evidence, discovered not a half an hour since, had torn the blindfold from Annie’s eyes and thrown her off the precipice, ending her life as she knew it.
“Eggcups,” she muttered, clambering onto a chair to remove them from the cupboard. “Mustn’t forget the eggcups, must we?”
Taking one eggcup at a time, she cradled them in the crook of her arm. As she stepped down, one of them slid from her tenuous grasp and shattered on the stone floor. Annie regarded the fragments for a moment, her eyes blurring with a sudden stab of remorse. It faded quickly, shoved aside by resentment, anguish, and the agony of betrayal.
Blinking the threat of tears away, Annie put the remaining three egg cups on the table beside the yellowed blanket and the documents from the portfolio. Then she stepped back and regarded her efforts once more. Satisfied, she pulled out the chair facing the courtyard door and sat down to wait. She wanted to see their reaction when they came through that door, their expressions when they saw the items on the table and realized what it meant.
She heard a noise at her feet and looked down to see Ruffy gazing up at her. As their eyes met, he whined and nuzzled her skirts. “Mind where you step, my friend,” she said, the dog’s simple display of affection threatening her fragile composure. “I didn’t clean up the mess.”
Once again, Annie thrust the threat of tears aside. Though her heart and soul begged for it, she refused to cry. She was determined to stay strong. To hold on. To face Hattie and Janet as she might a couple of strangers. For that is what they had become, after all. Strangers.
Whose veins ran with the same blood as her own.
Chapter Twenty-Three
It wasn’t longbefore familiar, tell-tale sounds found their way into the kitchen. The clip-clop of hooves and the rattle of wheels on stone. Familiar female voices, their words unclear, the tone light and congenial. Ruffy gave an excited bark and pressed his nose to the door, waiting. Several quiet minutes passed, undoubtedly used to unharness Tulip and put her back in the stable. Then came more conversation and some shared laughter, which had barely faded before the kitchen door opened. Tail wagging, Ruffy barked a brief welcome and then shot outside, as if escaping what was to come.
Annie shifted and straightened her spine.
Hattie entered first. “Ah, you’re up. Are you feeling better?” Her smile changed to a puzzled frown even as Janet followed her over the threshold. “Goodness, what on earth have you been doing? Why have you moved the table?” She looked down as her shoe crunched on a fragment of the shattered eggcup. “Did you break something?”
“I put the table back where it used to be,” Annie replied, her voice sounding distant to her ears. “And yes, I broke an eggcup. It was an accident.”
Janet closed the door and moved past Hattie, her face draining of color as she spied the items on the table. “Oh, Annie, what have you done.” She dropped onto the chair adjacent to Annie’s, her hand shaking as she reached over and touched the blanket. “Oh, love, it wasn’t supposed to be like this. I didn’t want it to be like this.”
“What are you…?” Hattie began, then gasped, her hands flying to her face as she noticed the collection on the table. “Oh, dear Lord.”
“How did you want it to be, Janet?” Annie replied, her throat tightening with suppressed anguish. “Forgive me if I don’t use your names. Since learning the truth of your identities, I’m no longer sure how to address either of you. ‘Mama’ and ‘Aunt Hattie’ are, I fear, quite beyond me at the moment.” She regarded Janet. “I was led to believe you were my mother’s sister. My Aunt Sybil, long dead. And as for you, Hattie, I am in complete awe of your ability to have been someone you are not for the past twenty-one years.”
Janet closed her eyes briefly. “Oh, Annie.”
Hattie, looking somewhat pallid as well, pulled a handkerchief from her coat pocket in apparent readiness as she also settled onto a chair. “What prompted this, pet?” She gestured toward the items. “Did you remember something from childhood?”
“From when I was here before, you mean?”Seek and ye shall find.Annie could almost hear Leo’s voice in her ear and feel the heat of his breath on her flesh. “Odd you should ask. Obviously, I remembered the eggcups and where the kitchen table used to be. The song I heard the other morning was familiar as well. Now I know why. But given the extent you’ve gone to in order to hide the truth of my parentage, I fail to understand why I was brought here all those years ago. It makes no sense. All those years, all those lies. Even your names falsified. I’m no longer sure of what is true and what is not. Did you ever mean to tell me the truth, either of you?”
“Of course we did,” Janet replied. “It was just a matter of choosing the right time, the right moment. I swear I did not want you to find out like this.”
Annie gasped. “I’ve been here for severalweeks. You’ve had plenty of time.”
“But the moment never presented itself.” Janet heaved a sigh. “We had other things to consider.”
