‘If she is a friend of Carrie’s I can’t believe she would do us harm.’
‘Maybe not,’ Isaac mused, ‘but we would not want to alarm her. When people are afraid, they become unpredictable.’
‘She is so in need of comfort though, Isaac. It is worth the risk, isn’t it, to give her a little of that?’
Her husband stared at her for a moment in a way which she didn’t recognise. Then he shook his head.
‘Do as you will, Eliza,’ he huffed.
She stifled her indignation and summoned up her previous feelings of compassion before turning back towards the bed. Reaching for the duvet she pulled it up softly to cover Jules’s bare shoulder before blowing a kiss to settle on one of those pallid cheeks.
‘You do not have to worry, Isaac,’ she said, following him down the stairs and into the sitting room. ‘She didn’t stir, and she’ll sleep until morning now.’
Isaac settled himself into his favourite tall-backed chair by the old stone fireplace.
‘I had forgotten,’ he said, ‘how nerve-wracking it is to have a new visitor.’
Eliza wanted to go and perch on his lap as usual, but he was still out of sorts. His form was jagged.
Looking at him reminded her of the hedgehogs which resided at the bottom of the garden. Instead, she sank onto the sofa and tucked her legs beneath her.
‘We got used to Carrie,’ she said, fiddling with the frill on the hem of her dress. She did so love the way it ruffled against her ankles as she walked. ‘We shall become used to Jules, too.’
‘Unless she leaves,’ Isaac replied.
‘Why would you say that?’ Eliza gasped. ‘She has only just arrived.’
‘Something I discerned.’
‘How did you discern it? Did she say something to Carrie?’
‘You are not the only one with intuition, Eliza. Sometimes I, too, pick up on thoughts which escape into the ether.’
‘Oh!’
‘So all the more reason not to alarm her in any way.’
‘Absolutely not,’ Eliza said, shaking her head and allowing her hair to tumble over her shoulders. ‘If she leaves too soon the cottage won’t have the time required to work its magic.’
‘I believe Carrie knows that. She’ll try her best to keep her here.’
‘And if she can’t?’ Eliza fretted. ‘Oh, Isaac, is this my fault?’
‘Why would it be your fault, my love?’
‘I don’t know. Have I done something wrong? Has our brief marital disagreement tarnished the atmosphere in some way so that she can’t recognise the healing that she’ll find here?’
Isaac moved from the sofa and settled himself next to her. He kissed her softly on the lips.
‘There are some things, my love, even you can’t control.’
‘But I can’t bear all the pain in the world, Isaac. I can’t bear the way people treat one another with such, such…’
‘Heartlessness.’
‘Yes! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing earlier. The way that man treated Jules, duped her.’
‘But she is lucky because she has a friend like Carrie to help her. Some people do not even have that.’
