She nodded and stepped aside as I left the room, making sure I went ahead of her, as though she didn’t trust me to leave on my own. As soon as I was out in the corridor, she pulled the door closed tightly behind her.
We stood there for a moment, staring at one another, unsure how to proceed. Then, Camellia, lifted her chin, looking me directly in the eyes for the first time. “Perhaps, it would be more appropriate if you stayed in the public rooms of the house from now on.”
Then, without another word, she turned on her heel and walked into her own bedroom, closing the door behind her.
13
I stayed in my room for a long time, expecting someone to come and find me.
Either Nurse Gray because she was sent for by Camellia. Or Charles and Catherine because Camellia told them what I’d done.
I expected someone to come, but no one ever did.
When I heard laughter coming from outside, I opened my window but couldn’t see who was making the sound. So, I crept from my room to the top of the stairs and could catch a glimpse of my sister and her husband sitting on the front porch with Hazel standing on cloth-covered feet between them. Charles was holding her up, bouncing her until she giggled, and they all looked so happy together.
“You asked to see me, Nurse Gray?”
I recognized the voice of the housemaid, Florence, coming from downstairs, and then Nurse Gray stepped into view. She was standing in the entryway, her hands folded behind her back, her usual gray dress ironed flat and perfect.
I stepped away from the landing so I could only barely see them through the railing, hoping they wouldn’t see me.
“I did,” the nurse said sternly.
Florence tipped her head, and I couldn’t decide if her fear was obvious or if I was only projecting what I’d learned onto her. She seemed to cower in front of the woman. To shrink into herself more than usual.
“I wanted to remind you of our agreement that I would tend to my own room,” Nurse Gray said. “You are not to so much as make my bed, do you hear? It is my space.”
“I understand, Nurse Gray. Has there been a problem? Is there a reason you are—”
“You know very well the reason,” Nurse Gray said with more venom than I’d ever heard from the woman. “My room was not in the order in which I left it, and I do not appreciate you slipping in there the moment I left the house.”
“Nurse Gray, I didn’t—”
“And you won’t do it again,” the nurse said, cutting Florence off. “We are finished here.”
Nurse Gray stomped into the sitting room, and after a few quiet seconds, I leaned forward to see what had happened to Florence. As soon as I did, my eyes met the maid’s through the railing. She was looking up at where I stood, hurt and fear obvious on her face. She’d just confessed to me her fear of the woman, and now I’d made them enemies.
I wanted to rush down and apologize to her, but it wouldn’t do any good. Without setting the truth straight with Nurse Gray, I couldn’t assuage Florence’s fears, and I had no intention of doing that. Not until I knew what had happened to Catherine—and myself—out on the moors.
Afternoon turned to evening, and by the time dinner came, I was convinced Camellia had been waiting until the entire family was gathered to tell the news of my snooping. But, yet again, I was surprised.
She didn’t speak a word of it.
Honestly, no one spoke much of anything except for Catherine. She filled the evening with plans for her and Charles and Hazel in the coming months. Talk of travelling to London to see Mama and Papa, hiring a gardener to clean up some of the landscaping around the house, and picnics at the little park in town with bread from the nice baker they’d spoken with at church that morning.
Charles went along with all of it, clearly delighted to see his wife so full of energy. I had to admit it was nice, as well. After seeing Catherine exhausted and spent for most of the week, it felt good to see her smiling.
Still, my concerns wouldn’t abate.
When everyone was moving into the sitting room for after dinner conversation, which I expected to include more planning from Catherine and the same narrow-eyed stares from Camellia, I excused myself.
“I’m still feeling a bit tired,” I said, pressing a hand to the scratch over my eye. The cut had nothing to do with my exhaustion, but I wanted to remind the happy group of what I’d recently been through in hopes of making them more agreeable.
“Of course,” Catherine said, walking around the table to lay a hand on my back. “You need rest. Should I send Nurse Gray in to check on you?”
Catherine had been angry with me the day before, but that all seemed to be in the past now. As sisters, it was never uncommon for Catherine and me to scream our hatred in the morning and then be found giggling behind our hands at the dinner table. We could easily forgive one another for slights.
“No, that won’t be necessary,” I said, gripping the stair railing.
“Are you sure?”
“Alice knows where Nurse Gray’s room is if she needs anything,” Camellia said, walking from the dining room to the sitting room, but not before flashing a devious look in my direction. It was the closest she’d come to telling my secret, and I hoped it would be the closest she’d ever get.
“Indeed I do,” I agreed with a smile. I bid them all goodnight and went to my room.
Once there, I made
