“But you act like you are,” Evie countered. “I’m only eighteen months younger than you, yet you constantly still treat me as if I were a child.”
“Maybe I wouldn’ttreatyou like a child if you didn’tactlike a child. Lying in bed all day, complaining about pillows and mice! That’s something a child would do.”
Evie’s brows snapped together. “You know that I’ve been ill!”
“Which was why I took it upon myself to find us a private investigator.”
“I could have found one.”
“Hiding under the blankets? I highly doubt that. Ouch!” she cried when a pillow struck her on the shoulder.
Goodness.
Theywererather hard.
“I do not even know why you are upset.” Picking up the pillow, she tossed it back at her sister who managed to catch it right before it hit her on the side of the head.
“I am upset,” Evie said between gritted teeth, “because you always take it upon yourself to do things without consulting me. We came here together. We should make decisionstogether. You are not our mother, as much as you’d like to pretend you are!”
This time when the pillow came sailing towards her, Joanna managed to snatch it out of the air.
“I’ve never pretended anything of the sort!” As Joanna’s chest heaved with indignation, it occurred to her, somewhat belatedly, that perhaps Evie was right. Joanna did—very rarely—treat her sisters as if she were their superior instead of their equal. That included making decisions (like hiring Kincaid without giving Evie the opportunity to meet him) on their behalf. But shewasolder, if only by eighteen months. Surely that made her somewhat wiser, even if Evie didn’t think so.
“Why can’t we just get on?” she asked in frustration as she let the pillow drop. “We’ve traveled across an ocean, and we’restillfighting.”
“We can’t get on because we’re so different. We always have been.” Rising, Evie went to the wash basin and dipped a cloth into the lukewarm water. “You’ve never cared what others think about you, and I…”
“Care too much,” Joanna supplied when Evie trailed away.
“Yes,” said Evie, catching Joanna off guard with her honest admission. “I am well aware I’ve always put too much weight in other people’s opinions of me.”
“Then why don’t you stop?”
Evie met her gaze in the mirror’s silvery reflection. “Why don’tyoustart?”
“Point taken,” Joanna murmured. “I suppose we are who we are.”
“I suppose so.”
“That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for change. For improvement. I hate these little squabbles. I don’twantto fight with you,” Joanna said earnestly as she crossed to her bed and sat down on the edge of it. With an ominous creak and a groan, it sagged beneath her weight until she was nearly sitting on the floor. “In the moment, it feels like the right thing to do. But after…”
“You feel horrible?”
Joanna nodded.
“I do as well.”
“Then why do we do it?”
“As I said, we’re different.” After washing her face and neck, Evie laid the cloth on the edge of the basin and turned around. “If we weren’t sisters, I honestly don’t believe we’d be friends.”
It was painful, but true.
Evie adored clothes, and attending parties, and flirting with handsome men. Joanna liked reading, and going on walks through the countryside, and visiting new places regardless of how fashionable they were.
They had absolutely nothing in common.
But theyweresisters.
