“Why are you sitting on the stoop like some servant?” Alice demanded.
“Iwashaving a pleasant conversation in the afternoon sun with Mr. MacGregor. What are you doing here?”
“I was at Mrs. Langdon’s hat shop and saw Thomas strolling through town with Sarah Marsten. Is your engagement to him at an end?”
“Yes. Did you come to commiserate with me?”
Alice ignored that. “I have been expecting it. Well, let me get by.”
“Why?” Clover did not move out of the way, determined to find out the reason for her callous sister’s visit before allowing her to take one more step.
“Since you obviously will not be moving in with Thomas Dillingsworth, you have no need for all that furniture.”
“No? It could provide ample firewood for whatever hovel we may find.” Clover dearly wanted to slap her sister’s sulky face but held back, not wishing to make an even bigger scene in front of Ballard.
“Do not be so absurd. However, before you doanything too foolish, I wish to rescue a few pieces. I am particularly interested in that little marble table in Mama’s bedchamber. It would look lovely in my sitting room.” When Alice tried to ascend the steps, Clover blocked her way. “Would you move?” Alice snapped.
“Take one step closer to that door and you certainly will get that little table—rammed right down your traitorous throat.” Clover clenched her hands into tight fists as she continued to fight the nearly overwhelming urge to inflict bodily harm on her sister. “Get out of here, Alice.”
“How dare you speak to me like that! I have every right to be here and to take anything I like after our father’s miserable failure.”
“I would burn every stick of furniture in that house before I would let you get your hands on it.”
“Alice! Why have you come here?”
When she heard her mother’s voice, Clover silently cursed. She allowed Alice to push past her, then turned to watch her sister greet their mother. There was no doubt in her mind that Alice was about to deliver yet another blow to their mother, and Clover dearly wished she could stop it.
“Really, Mama, you should have heard how Clover spoke to me,” Alice complained. “I have come to take some of the furniture off your hands. Now that you will not be going to live with Thomas, you will have no need of so many fine pieces. Clover simply refuses to understand that I have as much right to what little Papa left as anyone else in the family. After all, I am your daughter.”
“No.” A pale Agnes choked out the word. “No, you are no daughter of mine.” She shut the door in hereldest child’s face, and the sound of the bolt being shot home echoed with stark clarity in the sudden silence.
“I see,” Alice murmured as she turned to face Clover. “So none of you sees fit to understand my position.”
“We understand that you want nothing to do with us,” Clover answered. “We are simply paying that back in kind.”
Alice started down the steps, carefully holding her skirts so they would not brush against Clover. “I suppose I am to get no thanks at all for what I did for Papa.”
“You? What did you ever do for Papa?”
“If it was not for me, for my position in what meager society exists in this town, Papa would not have been buried in consecrated ground. I had a word with the preacher.”
“Do not wear out your lily-white hand patting yourself on the back, sister dear. You had absolutely nothing to do with that.”
“Nonsense. No one believed it was an accident. Why should the preacher go along with a lie unless he was prompted to it by me and my husband John’s influence?”
“Because I told him that if he did not do it I would see that everyone in Langleyville learned about his frequent trysts with Mrs. Patterson on Harbor Road.”
Alice gaped at Clover in utter horror. “You blackmailed a man of the cloth?”
“I did.”
“Well, I am very glad that I shall have no further association with someone who would act so dastardly.”
“Not nearly asdastardlyas kin who turn their back on their own in their time of need.”
“I cannot afford such charity. I have a position to uphold in this pathetic town.”
“Fine. Go uphold it somewhere else, please. You have hurt Mama for the last time.” Clover sighed as she watched Alice hurry into her carriage and ride away. She turned to Ballard and said in a quiet voice, “I am very sorry you had to witness that, Mr. MacGregor.”
