“What?” Mrs. Pine nearly shrieks, turning wide eyes on her daughter.
“Could you have used a little more tact?” Catherine mutters.
Rosalie sighs, looking among the three of them, all glaring at her now. “If we’re making them tell the truth, it’s only fair we do as well.”
“You could have prepared me,” Catherine shoots back.
“You thought we’d get through thiswithoutthat coming out?” Rosalie asks, incredulous.
“I thought we’d get through this first and it would come into the conversation more natur—”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Mrs.Pine shouts.
“I want you to open this door right now,” Mother insists.
“Mama, if you would just listen,” Catherine says, reaching out to touch her mother’s arm.
Mrs.Pine rears back. “Oh no. No, no, I want to know what the hell you’re doing colluding with... conspiring with—”
“I’d hardly say we’re conspiring,” Rosalie hears herself say.
“It certainly seems that way,” Mother puts in.
“Well, at least they agree on something,” Catherine says.
“Stop that!” Mrs.Pine says. “Stop talking to each other like we’re not here!”
“And let us out,” Mother adds.
Rosalie runs her hands down her face, her pulse starting to race with all the shouting. It’s warm in the water closet, and she’s getting tired of this. “Would everyone just be—”
The door wrenches open behind her. Rosalie spins around, heart in her throat, stomach at her toes—it’s not enough time. They can’t get interrupted, not now.
But it’s only Aunt Genevieve, looking a bit crazed. She turnsand snaps the door shut again. It groans against the wood, and she gives it an experimental tug. It doesn’t budge.
She turns back to them, wiping her hands down her green skirt. “So, where are we?”
They all stare at her, the four of them quiet in shock.
“Christopher squealed like a pig when I asked him where you’d gone,” Aunt Genevieve says with a shrug.
Rosalie huffs out an incredulous laugh and Catherine snorts quietly beside her. They are so in over their heads, but at least Aunt Genevieve is here too. Which... well, she doesn’t know how it might change the situation, but it’s another variable.
“Are you part of this? Did you agree to... to...” Mother starts.
“Capture you in a water closet? No, that was all their idea,” Aunt Genevieve says, gesturing to Rosalie and Catherine. “Though I agree that it’s high time the two of you talked, and if you won’t explain, Clara, I will.”
Mother glares at Aunt Genevieve. “It’s not—”
“Of the three of us, I rather think I have the most right to decide whether it is or isn’t Mrs.Pine’s business?”
“Would someone like to explain what in the hell you’re talking about?” Mrs.Pine demands, glaring at all of them.
Mother stands with her hands on her hips, staring daggers at Aunt Genevieve. “Well?”
“Coward,” Aunt Genevieve says coolly, before turning to look directly at Mrs.Pine. “I have come to apologize for the incredible wrong that was done to you twenty-five years ago. I didn’t know my brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law would go to such lengths to protect my reputation. Had I known, I would have put up a fight to make sure that your honor was equally protected. I’m sorry I didn’t.”
Mrs. Pine’s tight jaw slowly goes slack, her eyes widening. “I... don’t understand,” she says, her voice much softer. “What—what is she talking about?”
