I remembered the note Matthew had written on board the Franconia, the one I’d found so charming: The thought of giving up our lively conversations is enough to send me jumping off the deck at the earliest opportunity, so your answer must be yes. No please or if you like. I wasn’t given a choice.
“The men in this family were raised to believe they should get whatever they wanted,” Hannah said. “Henri’s son George was utterly ruthless, from what I’ve heard, and Obadiah . . . there was a man you wouldn’t dare cross. He could ruin a man’s business with one word to his bankers. Berthe Palmer and her society friends might have turned up their noses at Lakecrest’s garishness, but they never refused an invitation from Obadiah. The Lemonts’ wealth has always protected them.
“It’s strange, when you come to think of it, that the only two people who defied Obadiah’s orders were women. His daughter and his wife.”
“Leticia,” I said. “I always wondered why no one talked about her.”
“She killed herself.”
I knew Leticia only as a face in a portrait, but I felt a twinge of grief all the same. Another poor, lost Lemont.
“Jasper was the one who told me. Said his mother had taken the coward’s way out. You’d think a loss like that would have left a mark, but he said it with absolutely no expression. She was Obadiah’s first cousin, you know. A Lemont by birth. I couldn’t stop thinking about Leticia and Obadiah, blood relations, and how both their children had turned out so strange. That’s part of the reason I was so anxious that Matthew marry wisely. The Lemonts needed fresh stock. People like you and me.”
I already felt somewhat less than human, sprawled on the bed, at the mercy of my body. Now Hannah was comparing me to livestock?
“Obadiah understood,” she went on. “It’s the only reason he favored my marriage to Jasper. Believe me, I wasn’t at all what he’d planned for his son. I was only a few steps above the household help! But he recognized my father’s ambition. And mine. How it might be useful to his family.
“I’ve never told you how I first met Cecily, have I? It was at Father’s clinic, when I was fifteen years old. She had bandages on her wrists to cover the slashes she’d made in her skin. There was dried blood all over her arms before Mother washed it off. Cecily was only three years older than me, but it might as well have been twenty. She had such a style and elegance to her, even with matted hair and dark circles under her eyes. Her nightgown looked more expensive than my best Sunday dress, and her voice . . . well, she had a manner of speaking you simply couldn’t ignore. It took me years and years to talk like a Lemont, but for Cecily it was a birthright. I didn’t even mind her ordering me around and complaining about Mother’s food. It made me feel special to have her attention.
“You’d never believe how nervous I was when Obadiah and Jasper made their first visit. Beauty can be quite blinding, can’t it? Jasper took hold of my hands and thanked me for my kindness to his sister, and I fell in love with him right then and there. You’d never have thought it of me, would you? Mooning over a man like a sentimental fool?”
Hannah’s lips twisted into a rueful smile, mocking her former self.
“Cecily stayed in Father’s care nearly a month,” she continued. “He tried all his modern treatments, but do you know what cured her? Poetry. I can see you don’t believe me, but it’s true. She asked Father about a book he was carrying, and before you know it, he was offering to teach her ancient Greek. Father understood that her mind needed to be challenged so it wouldn’t wander down self-destructive paths. Cecily became his star student and his proudest achievement.”
I could hear the subtext from the brightly bitter way Hannah said the words: He loved her more than he loved me.
“The triumphant tour to England was a mistake. Cecily simply wasn’t strong enough. She failed the exam at Oxford and came back despondent. Tried to drown herself at Lakecrest. Obadiah realized she needed round-the-clock care, so Father sent me to stay with her. And Jasper was always there, checking on his sister and talking to me. When he proposed, I felt like the luckiest girl in the world, even though I suspected—correctly—that Obadiah had pushed his son into doing it. He’d been at Jasper for years to get married, and he thought I’d be a good influence, just as my Father had helped poor Cecily. Still, I didn’t think Jasper would have agreed if he wasn’t fond of me to some degree. It wasn’t until our wedding night that Jasper made the terms of our marriage clear. Very matter-of-fact, as if it were perfectly natural, he told me he wouldn’t be held to the same rules as other men. I’d have a comfortable life as long as I ignored his infidelity. Would you have accepted such a bargain, Kate?”
I shook my head. A tightening sensation snaked around my stomach and back. Uncomfortable, but not severe. Not yet.
“I hesitate to discuss what should remain behind closed doors,” Hannah continued. “I only speak of this because it has bearing on what happened later. Jasper drank to excess and stayed out all hours. I turned my mind to dinner parties and the latest fashion in hats to keep from brooding. And I avoided the north end of the estate. That was Cecily’s domain.
“The first time I entered the Labyrinth was on the night of the summer fête, some years after I was married. Those affairs put today’s parties to shame—five hundred guests, a six-course dinner laid out in the Arabian Room, a full orchestra in the ballroom. We had the staff to do that sort of thing back then. As the last guests were leaving, I saw Cecily and her latest cohort of girls sneak off across the lawn. There’d been something odd about her manner all night, a certain devilish anticipation. I decided to follow them.”
Just as I’d followed Matthew and Marjorie. Only to discover something I wish I’d never seen.
“They were chanting some nonsense in the Temple. Drinking wine out of silver goblets, though most were already showing the effects of too much punch. There was a certain beauty to the scene, I will admit. The white gowns and columns gleaming in the moonlight. Then they began shouting—shrieking, really—and ran off into the Labyrinth. I went after them. Sometimes we’re too curious for our own good, aren’t we? I heard their footsteps, leading the way. When I reached the center, I kept my body hidden behind a wall and peeked around the edge.
“It was bedlam. The girls were flinging themselves about, tearing at their clothes, working themselves into an absolute frenzy. Cecily was at the center. She’d ripped her dress right down the center, and she was pouring wine from a jug over her face and chest. She drenched the rest of them in wine as well, and they pawed at each other like animals. Practically howling! And then, to my horror, the Minotaur stepped forward.”