She accepts the comfort. He is infuriating, but he is her brother, and that means something.
‘Mother managed to square things up when Father died – we can do it again now,’ he says.
When Father died and they lost all their money. The same time that Claudine’s engagement to George fell apart and she left for the Continent.
Wait.
It comes together so suddenly that Cecilia cannot believe she did not see it before.
Claudine went abroad the year Father died.
That is what Leo said before. That is the thought that caught in her mind.
Their father died while Penelope was pregnant with Cecilia – this is a fact she knows. Which means Claudine’s engagement was broken off while Penelope was pregnant. But Cecilia is onlya few months older than Odette – so Lydia must have been pregnant at the same time or very soon after.
Oh.Oh.
Claudine and George. Lydia and George.
How long has Claudine been planning her revenge?
The front door bangs in the hallway, and the parlour door opens to admit Penelope and Claudine, as if they have been summoned.
Penelope goes straight to her son. ‘Ah, there you are, Leo. We’d like a word with you.’
Cecilia freezes in her chair, rotten through with fear. Claudine looks so ordinary where she stands: a human face, human mouth quirked in impatience, human hand upon the doorframe.
‘Can it wait?’ asks Leo. ‘I’m overdue at the office.’
‘It cannot,’ says Claudine.
It is the first time Cecilia has seen Claudine look anything other than calm and controlled. She is pale with – anger? Fear? Cecilia is unsure – and moves in jerky, impatient movements.
‘I suppose if it’s urgent,’ says Leo.
Penelope rounds on her next. ‘Cecilia. Do you have some matters of your own to attend to?’
‘My own matters?’ Cecilia begins, but from her mother’s expression, she understands the meaning below the words.
Get out.
Cecilia leaves, and Penelope shuts the door behind her.
All glass, everywhere – porcelain so thin the light shines through.
Cecilia sits at the top of the stairs, folded into shadows. The voices in the parlour are low and constant. Only a few words reach her.
Erratic behaviour. A rest cure. Odette.
She was mistaken before. She had thought the world fragile but intact, and that, if she moved ever so gently, she might find away through it.
But it is too late. It is shattered, and she will cut herself whichever way she turns.
6
Odette
ODETTE DOES NOT SLEEP, but it feels better that way. To sleep is to be weak. If she loses the thread she is following, she may not find it again.
