As the evening progressed, and Flora saw some colour return to her sister’s cheeks, she let herself relax.
‘So, tell me, how was your future home? From all I have heard, it is quite magnificent.’ Aurelia looked askance at her sister.
‘It is indeed. And no doubt will be a challenge to me.’
‘Marriage is a challenge we all must face.’
‘Yes.’
‘And Freddie seems so devoted to you already. That’s all a wife can ask for really, isn’t it?’ Aurelia turned to Archie and beamed at him.
Flora watched quietly as Aurelia’s untouched trifle was cleared away and Arabella suggested they move through to the drawing room for coffee.
‘Would you mind if I retired now? I am feeling so very much better, but I don’t wish to overdo it. Perhaps you would accompany me upstairs, Flora?’
‘Of course.’ Flora rose as Aurelia bade her husband goodnight and they left the room together.
Aurelia was silent on the way upstairs. Sarah bustled along the corridor towards them as Aurelia opened the door to her bedroom.
‘Shall I help you into your nightgown, Miss Aurelia?’
‘No thank you, Sarah. I am sure that Flora can help me tonight. You go to bed.’
‘Anything you need, you know where I am. Sleep well, miss.’
‘Isn’t it funny, the way she still calls me “miss”? Even though I am a married woman – and, in fact, a “lady” for some months now,’ Aurelia commented as she shut the bedroom door firmly behind them.
‘Shall I help you unbutton your gown?’
‘Thank you.’ Aurelia sat down on the stool in front of the dressing table, and Flora stood behind her, regarding her sister’s reflection in the mirror.
‘It is interesting, isn’t it, how things can be so very different from how one perceives them?’
‘How do you mean?’ Flora asked nervously as she began to undo the buttons on Aurelia’s gown.
‘For example, the fact that I was convinced you and Archie loathed the sight of each other. But then I discover that you had, in fact, spent three whole days together at Esthwaite when I was in London last summer.’
‘As I said, Archie was simply on his way down from Scotland and thought he’d call in.’ Flora forced her hands to continue, popping the buttons through one by one.
‘Yes.’ Aurelia stood up so that Flora could remove her dress from her shoulders. ‘That is what you told me a few days ago, and what I believed,’ she said, as Flora began to loosen the stays on her sister’s corset. ‘Until I began to think.’
‘About what?’
‘Oh, this and that. Pass me my nightgown, sister dear. It is chilly in here.’
Numbly, Flora picked up the silken nightgown that had been laid out on the bed and Aurelia put her arms in the air to enable the gown free passage over her body and the tiny bump that protruded from her stomach.
‘It was something that Freddie said to me on my wedding night, just after he’d announced your betrothal,’ Aurelia continued.
‘And what was that?’ Flora pulled back the covers so Aurelia could slip into bed.
‘He kissed me and wished me congratulations on my own marriage, and I returned the compliment on his forthcoming nuptials to you. He then laughed and whispered that we had both better take care of our respective husband and wife in future, as they seemed to be extremely fond of each other. I, of course, corrected him, saying he couldn’t be more wrong and that, if anything, I had worried about the fact my sister and my husband had disliked each other since they were children. “Oh, but you’re wrong,” he whispered as he led me out on the dance floor. And I was, wasn’t I, Flora?’
Two pink spots of colour had appeared high on Aurelia’s pale cheeks and her eyes glinted as she lay back on the pillows.
‘Aurelia, I hardly think so. Freddie was very drunk that night.’
‘That’s what I thought at the time, and I forgot all about it. Until I discovered Archie’s visit to the Lake District.’
‘Forgive me for not telling you about it. It was simply an oversight, I—’
‘Hardly an oversight, sister dear. When I saw you in London shortly afterwards, and questioned you on Archie’s state of mind, I asked you why you thought he hadn’t proposed. You said you had no idea, and yet you had spent three days in his company just a few weeks previously. If anyone could have known his thoughts, it would have been you.’
‘We didn’t discuss it . . . truly, all we talked of was plants—’
‘Yes!’ Aurelia gave a tight little smile. ‘A shared interest in botany. But even if his future intentions towards me were not spoken of, you must understand why it strikes me as odd that you never mentioned my husband’s visit once.’
‘Yes . . . yes, in retrospect, I do. But I had just arrived in London, and was rather overwhelmed. Forgive me, Aurelia. It truly was an oversight.’
‘Perhaps, even given what Freddie had said to me the night of my wedding, I could have continued to overlook it. Sadly, it has played on my mind. So, today, while Sarah thought I was sleeping and I knew Archie was outside in the gardens, I went to his dressing room. And look what I found, stuffed into the pocket of the coat that he’d returned from London in yesterday?’
Aurelia reached under the pillow, pulled out a letter and handed it to Flora.
‘I believe that is your writing, sister dear?’
Flora read it swiftly – it was the letter she’d written to Archie, warning him that Aurelia knew of their time together in Esthwaite.
‘That isn’t evidence of anything! I was simply worried that you might view it as such. Which is exactly what you have done.’
‘Please, don’t patronise me!’ Aurelia’s voice shook with latent fury. ‘This letter alone indicates an obvious intimacy, a relationship between the two of you, of which I had no idea. And if that wasn’t enough, as I stood reading it in the light from the bedroom window, I saw you together in the garden. Flora, my husband was holding your hand.’
‘I . . .’ Flora shook her head; she had no more words with which to defend herself. ‘Forgive me, sister dear. I can only swear to you that, even though the evidence is damning, nothing . . . untoward has ever taken place between Archie and me.’
‘And there was me believing the two of you couldn’t stand each other.’ Aurelia gave a grim chuckle. ‘Well, many a wise poet has said that there is a thin line between love and hate. It seems that stands true for the state of affairs between my husband and my sister. Good God, you must both have laughed at my stupidity!’
‘Never! All I ever wanted Archie to do was to marry you.’
‘Out of pity!’ Aurelia spat at her. Flora took a step back from the bed. ‘Perhaps, he wanted to marry you all along, but you begged him not to after you’d seen me so distraught in London. Well, sister dear? Did you arrange it with him to assuage your own guilt?’