Grandmama was momentarily lost. Zachary was Agnes’s husband. She would dearly like to let this go. She heard pain in Agnes’s voice, and old griefs were none of her affair. But Maude was dead. She could not feel the sting of salt in the air or see the wild flight of seabirds skittering down the wind and whirling back up again, high and wide, wheeling far out over the land.
“Mrs. Harcourt is very beautiful, even now,” she tested the verbal knife. “She must have been quite breathtaking then. I have a distant relative who was like that.”
“Yes.” Agnes’s hands were tight on the reins, the leather of her gloves strained. “Half the young men in the county were in love with her.”
“And she chose Mr. Harcourt?” It was a stupid question, and probably entirely irrelevant to Maude’s death, but she had nothing better to pursue.
“Yes.” For a moment it seemed as if Agnes was going to say no more. Then she drew in her breath, wanting to speak after all. “Although it was not so simple as that.”
“Really? I suppose things seldom are,” Grandmama said sympathetically. “And even less often are they what they seem to be on the surface. People make very hasty judgments, sometimes.”
“They are the easiest,” Agnes agreed. She negotiated a sharp turn in the lane and Grandmama saw the village of Snargate ahead. This was proving very difficult indeed. They were almost at the village green. The inn, the church with ancient yew trees and graveyard, and the lych-gate covered with the bare vines of honeysuckle lay beyond.
They made their first delivery of Christmas fare, and the second, and then left Snargate and continued the short distance to Appledore.
“I suppose there is always speculation where there are sisters, and one is as beautiful as Bedelia,” Grandmama said as soon as they were on their way again, blankets carefully tucked around shivering knees. The sky cleared a little and banners of blue appeared bright between the clouds.
As if deliberately hurting herself, Agnes told the story. “Maude didn’t know about it, not really. She was away that Christmas. Aunt Josephine was ill and alone, and Maude went to look after her. Zachary was courting Bedelia. He was so in love with her. They went everywhere together, to the balls and the dinners and the theater in Dover, even through the snow. That was when the Queen was young and happy, and Prince Albert was so dashing. We saw drawings of them in the newspapers. It was before the Crimean War. I expect you remember?”
“I do.” It had been a nightmare time. Her own husband had been alive, charming, persuasive, privately brutal, demanding things no decent woman ever imagined. She could still taste the wool of the carpet in her mouth and remember his weight on top of her, forcing her down. In public it had been all contentment, the glamour of endless crinoline skirts on a figure unrecognizable now in her too ample waist and hips. And at home a hell she could not think of without a hot shame making her feel sick. How could she, of all people, criticize anyone’s cowardice? It stirred in her rage and pity, and a hunger to avenge it so sharp she could feel it. The bitter wind was almost a comfort.
But Agnes was lost in her own passions and did not even glance to see if her companion was with her mentally. “Then Arthur Harcourt arrived,” she went on. “I think it was early March. The beginning of spring. The days were getting longer and everything was coming into bud. Arthur was not only handsome but charming and funny and kind. He could make us all laugh so hard we were embarrassed to be caught at it. One did not enjoy things so openly then. It was thought to be unladylike. He didn’t care. And he could dance like an angel. Everything seemed worth doing when he was with us.”
Grandmama thought she could guess the rest. Bedelia fell out of love with Zachary and in love with Arthur, who was a much better catch. A far better catch. Poor Zachary was cast aside, and in time took second best, the duller, plainer Agnes. And Agnes accepted.
Without thinking, Grandmama reached across and put her hand on Agnes’s where it rested above the edge of the rug, holding the reins tightly. She did not say anything. It was a silent understanding, a pity without words.
For a few moments they rode through the lanes toward Appledore in silence.
Then suddenly Agnes spoke again. “Of course we thought then that Bedelia and Arthur would marry. It seemed inevitable.”
“Yes, it would,” Grandmama agreed.
“But Aunt Josephine died, and Maude came back home. Everything changed,” Agnes said.
“Indeed?” Grandmama had almost forgotten about Maude. “How?”
“Arthur and Maude just…” Agnes gave a tiny shrug. “Just seemed to…to fall so in love it was as if Bedelia ceased to exist. It didn’t seem like a flirtation. Bedelia was…unable to believe it at first. I mean Maude, of all people? Goodness knows what she told him!”
“Told him?” Grandmama said before she could stop herself.
“Well, she must have told him something terrible about Bedelia to have caused him to abandon her like that! And of course untrue. Jealousy is…a very unkind thing. It eats the heart out of you, if you allow it to.”
“Oh, that is true,” Grandmama agreed sincerely. “It can be an instant passion, or a slow-growing one, but it is certainly deadly. But it seems as if Arthur saw through it, whatever it was.” She hated saying that because it blamed Maude, and she was far from prepared to do that, but she must keep Agnes telling the story.
“Oh, yes,” Agnes agreed. “It lasted perhaps a month, then Arthur came to his senses. He realized that he truly loved Bedelia. He broke off the silly business with Maude, and asked Bedelia to marry him. Of course she forgave him, and accepted.”
“I see.” She did not see at all.
Three sisters, two men. Someone had to have lost. Grandmama resented that it should have been Maude. Or had it really been all of them, no one truly finding what they hungered for? “And Maude?” she said quietly.
“Maude was heartbroken,” Agnes replied, her voice catching in her throat. She turned away as if there were something on the other side of the pony trap that required her attention, although there was nothing but the grasses and the sea wind and the marsh stretching out to the horizon. “She simply ran away. God knows where she went, but about a month later we received a postcard from Granada, in the south of Spain. There were only a few words on it. I remember. ‘Going to Africa. Will probably stay. Maude.’”
And Bedelia had said she never wrote again. Was that true? “Until she returned a few days ago?” Grandmama asked aloud.
“That’s right.”
“Why did she come back, now, after all these years?”
Agnes shook her head and rubbed her hand over her eyes. “Perhaps she knew she was dying? Maybe she wanted to be buried here. People do. Want to be buried in their own land, I mean, their own earth.”
“Did she say anything like that?”
“She did say something about death. I can’t recall exactly what it was. But she was sad, that much was clear. I…I wish I had listened. My mind was on Lord Woollard’s visit, and how anxious we all were that it should go well.” Guilt was heavy in her voice and the misery of her face. “Arthur really does deserve recognition, you know. And the amount of good he could do with it would be enormous.”
“And you were concerned that Maude’s behavior would be inappropriate?”
Agnes glanced at Grandmama then away again, a mixture of impatience and shame in her face. “She had been living in extraordinary places for the last forty years, Mrs. Ellison. Places where people eat with their fingers, have no running water, where women do things that…I would rather not even think of, let alone speak about.”