Elizabeth drew her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on top. Gregory was so strange, he seemed immune to any sort of conversational contact, or flirting. She mentally smacked herself repetitively. She was flirting with him, but she couldn't help it. She couldn't control if she flirted or not.
She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, she needed to get home, but she had no idea how. She felt like Alice in wonderland, except she knew this world. Just not its occupients.
She jumpped when she opened her eyes and saw that Gregory had returned, "they are not yet ready for us," he said.
I sighed, glancing at the wallclock. It was a wonder that my husband hadn't yet sent the carriage for me. "I really should be going." I muttered, hating to interupt. Elizabeth started. I doubted that she'd been aware of my presence.
I got to my feet, and, after bidding everyone goodnight and thanking them for the evening, I made my way for the door.
The carriage wasn't there, and rain was pouring from the heavens, but I didn't want to admit that I had been forgotten, and so, bracing myself, I stepped outside into the howling winds and was almost knocked backwards. Bowing my head, I pressed forward.
"Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise." -Maya Angelou
Gregory stoked the fire with the poker and then sat back down, relaxing deep into the armchair.
"Do you like music?" Gregory asked.
"Music?" Elizabeth echoed.
"Yes. I do like to hear the piano played. Have you heard Julian play? He has an ear for a good tune and my fair cousin sings most pleasantly. Do you play?"
Elizabeth blushed, she had taken lessons til she was sixteen, "yes."
"Would you play?"
"I suppose, but I warn you, I have not played in years."
She stood up and went to the piano, she pulled out a peice of music that she thought looked easy enough to sight read. Her fingers flew over the keys. She sensed Gregory watching her, listening to her play. The flirt rose up then, making her play even better.
When she struck the last note she sighed, she had forgotten why she had stopped playing.
"Dear sister, have you seen miss Abigail?" I asked.
"I believe she left."
"Then the carriage came for her?"
"I do not know. She did not mention it and I did not hear it..." Isabelle suddenly looked worried and I took her hand gently.
"I am sure all is well but just in case, I will take our carriage out and check along the road for her," I promised, making swift farewells and exiting the room. I hurried away and called to Thomas, our driver.
_______________________________
"You play well," Gregory complimented. "Now I will play and you will sing." He moved across to the piano and waited for Elizabeth to make room for him on the seat. She did so and then he settles his hands on the keys and began to play an introduction.
"Do you know this one?" Gregory asked, suddenly realising that he had not recognised the tune she had played.
Elizabeth sat next to him and looked at the music, "I do know this song, but it is a duet, which is why it seemed strange to me."
She started playing the part that he hadn't played, the part that she knew best. He joined in and she found herself smiling honestly for the first time in a long while.
"You play very well," Gregory commented.
"As do you," she responded, "care to play another?"
"You choose this time," Gregory instructed, watching as Elizabeth reached up and took the book. Such audacity, such bold behaviour.
"This one. Can you play it?" Gregory glanced at the page and smiled smugly.
"I can play any in that book." He placed his fingers on the keys and after the first bar, Elizabeth joined in. Both were consumed by the music, so lost in the intricate tune that they did not hear the door open.
"How pleasant!" Isabelle exclaimed, clapping her hands together softly. "If I may be so bold I would ask that you play again?" Now that, Gregory thought to himself, is behaviour that befits a woman.
"Of course, gentle cousin. What would you have us play?"
I smiled to myself as the two sang and played together. How lovely it would be if they fell in love and how wonderful if it were because of me. I knew how unsociable my cousin could be but I hoped that maybe he would entertain Elizabeth's attention.
"That was beautiful," I told them when they were finished. "And now I think it is time for us to retire. Come, I will personally show you to your rooms."
"That's very kind of you," Gregory replied, pressing the lid of the piano down and offering me his arm which I took reluctantly. Why could he not have offered it to her instead? We exited the room and ascended the stairs, at which point I instructed Elizabeth that her room was to be the first on the right.
"Do you have need of anything?" I asked as I opened the door.
"No, I am fine thank you," Elizabeth said and stepped through to close the door, "good night to you both." Then as gingerly and as gracefully as she could she shut the door.
The room was simple yet charming, and the bed called to her more than anything else. She laid down on the mattress and fell asleep.
She woke sometime later to the sound of seeminly panicked voices and a doctor urging them to calm down, that their panic wasn't helping her condition. She drifted back off to sleep again.
I led Gregory to his room and then went to my own and changed into a thin cotton night gown. I spent a half hour reading by the light of a single candle when I heard someone cry out. I snatched my night gown from the wardrobe door and hurried out into the hall.
"Oh Isabelle, miss Isabelle!" Martha called.
"What is it Martha? Come here, oh, how you tremble!" I exclaimed worriedly.
"It is the girl, miss Isabelle. She is terribly feverish. I went in to check on her and she looks so horrible ill."
"Oh, how awful! Go, send for the doctor, bid him return with haste." With that I hurried into the room where Milly was hovering awkwardly over the girl and took charge of the situation, sending her to fetch water, a towel and more blankets.
"What's going on?" Gregory asked from the doorway.
"Miss Elizabeth is ill. Come here and sit with her."
"Has the doctor been sent for?" Gregory asked, taking a seat on a chair some distance from the bed.
It wasn't long before the silly maid -- I think her name was Martha -- returned with the doctor and then set about dashing around the house, making silly exclamations. The kitchen girl and other staff reacted much in the same manor and I found myself severely irritated. I watched as my cousin followed the doctor's instructions, first laying the cloth against Elizabeth's head and then lifting it up again and drying her brow.
Then the doctor had her lighting a fire and I shifted uncomfortably as that was done and less than an hour later it was blown out again. Did the doctor know what he was doing? I had to hope that he did. How dismal it would be for the girl to die in my cousin's house.
"Gregory... Gregory!" I stirred from my daze and looked up. "Help me move her," my cousin urged. I nodded and took the girl by the shoulders.
"Is Julian not here to help?" I asked.
"He went forth some hours ago to see that dear Abigail found her way home safely. I do hope he returns soon."
