Alexander’s voice disrupted her silent survey. “I’ve taken the liberty of having dinner served at seven in the large dining hall. Until then, ladies.” He bowed and strode from the room, seemingly impressed with this one small success.
May-Jewel softly chuckled. “Rather nervous fellow, isn’t he?” She moved to stand before the floor-length mirror and repositioned the hair pins that had worked loose in her coiffure. She sighed contentedly, “So, this is Wistmere!”
The cheerfulness in May-Jewel’s voice aggravated Katherine. Her words were terse. “Yes, and a dreadful place it is, too.”
“Oh? You think so? Mind you, it’s a little dreary downstairs but I think it’s charming, absolutely charming.”
“Charming is hardly the word I’d use to describe it. Just look about you. The whole place is in a state of decay.” She flung her arms wide.
“Oh, well, we’ll change that, I’m sure. It takes money to keep estates in repair, just as Alexander said.”
Katherine raised her eyebrows in question. She looked about her again and took note of the wardrobe. It wasn’t large enough for all of May-Jewel’s clothing but she was contented that it was large enough for her apparel. Behind a floral printed screen next to the wardrobe, she spotted a large copper tub.
Uncomfortable in her sister’s silence, May-Jewel slowly moved over the thin carpet that barely covered the wide planked floor and shook her head at the bed and the two armchairs. “Why,” she asked, giving voice to a criticism, “do they have such massive chairs in this country? In Boston, peoples’ derriere’s fit what they sit upon. One could use these chairs for beds.” She frowned as she poked her finger in a tiny moth hole of a cushion.
Katherine said, “I shall never get used to the freedom of your tongue and your loose vernacular.” Then she sighed and added, “The whole place is almost unlivable. If Sir Robert had spent more time here instead of in some pub across the sea, he might have seen to the affairs of the estate. I can’t understand how a man of his breeding and position could allow his ancestral home to fall to pieces. He certainly had his priorities misplaced.”
May-Jewel snapped in Robbie’s defense. “We weren’t conversing about Robbie’s priorities. He’s dead. Don’t you think it’s time for you to stop hating him?”
“We weren’t conversing at all!” Katherine retorted. “And I shall never stop hating him.”
“Love thy neighbor as thyself,” May-Jewel said, sing-songy to admonish her sister.
Katherine ignored the sentiment and said, “Where did that come from? I wouldn’t have thought that you would know anything written in the Bible.”
May-Jewel glared at her. “And what gave you that impression?”
“Well, if I rightly understood Mr. Jameson, your mother was a-”
“Never mind my mother,” May-Jewel snapped. “For your information I know a lot about the Bible and religion. Many ministers came to visit Mama and me. They always tried to convert us like we were pagans or something.”
Katherine muttered, “I bet they did.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Ignoring Katherine, May-Jewel changed the course of the conversation. “Well, it’s our ancestral home and just imagine what I will do with this place now that I’m an owner.”
“Yes, half owner,” Katherine voice was toneless as she turned toward the window. She agreed with her sister, however. The manor needed a lot of attention. Folding her arms in front of her, her long fingers nervously pinching pleats in the sleeves of her blouse, she looked past the garden to the fields. Beyond the yellow and green patches of budding earth, stood a small thatched cottage, barely keeping itself from the wealth of weeds that pushed against it.
May-Jewel looked over at her sister’s back. “If Wistmere is too much for you,” she began saying softly, “and you’d rather be elsewhere, I could probably buy your share. Then you’d have enough money to set yourself up in a sweet little cottage in whatever county or country you chose.”
Katherine stiffened but remained silent.
“Perhaps you didn’t hear me,” May-Jewel said, moving closer to her and following her gaze across the field. Then suddenly feeling presumptuous, she continued, “I suppose, this isn’t the time to suggest…”
“No,” Katherine broke in sharply, “and it never shall be!”
May-Jewel bit her lip, and trying to repair the damage she may have caused, she asked, “Was that your cottage over there?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think anyone lives in it now?”
“You know, it isn’t necessary to converse just because we’re stuck sharing a room. I suppose we can be civil-tongued, but I see no need to feign a real friendship.”
“Well!” May-Jewel retreated across the room and, like a scolded child, lost herself in the large chair by the fireplace.
Suddenly the knock of a hefty fist on the door cracked through the silence. Pushing the door open, a tall, massive man unceremoniously carried a trunk in and dropped it in the middle of the floor. His glance fell on them in wordless greeting before leaving. Two wordless trips with baggage followed.
“My, but he’s not a bit friendly,” May-Jewel observed when he finally left for good.
“Why should he be? He knows who we are.”
A tiny frown settled between May-Jewel’s finely arched eyebrows. “What do you mean by that?”
“How naïve you are. We’re Sir Robert’s illegitimate daughters. If this were a few years ago, we wouldn’t be inheriting any of this property.” Katherine selected a gown from her travelling bag and shook the wrinkles free. She then opened one of her smaller cases and started to lay her toilet articles out on the
