Page 54 of A Lady's Wicked Revenge
A soft knock came on the door, startling Diana.
“Diana, dear, are you dressed?” came a kindly voice.
Diana looked down and saw that she was still in her nightgown. She scurried to the tall folding Oriental screen on the side of the room by the wardrobe that contained the possessions brought over from the Leeson house. “Not yet, Missus Arnold, but you can come in if it’s only you.”
As she began to dress herself in a pretty if plain rose-coloured dress, Diana heard the door swing open and close again, then soft footsteps move decisively across the floor. “I’m sorry to bother you when you’re still just beginning your day, dear,” she heard Victoria Arnold call over the screen to her. “I was rather given to think you were something of a lark, you see.”
“I suppose I have been allowing myself to grow slothful since coming here, Missus Arnold. The problem must lie in this too-comfortable bed.” Diana laughed. Then she paused in her dressing and blinked in confusion.I have been sleeping quite late these days, indeed, and spending a great deal of time alone in this room even when awake. How does she know I am an early riser?
She dismissed this thought with a shake of her head and returned to the task at hand. “Please, take a seat, Missus Arnold. I won’t be a minute.”
She heard a soft grunt as Victoria sat in a chair by the window. What followed as Diana pulled the pink gown over her head was a long stretch of uncomfortable silence —something that was extremely unusual when in Victoria Arnold’s company, she had discovered.
“I’m very sorry Mister Arnold has been so absent of late,” Victoria said in a strange, uncertain voice. “I expect you must be tired of only having my blather to listen to each morning and evening.”
Diana stepped out from behind the screen, now fully dressed, and flashed Victoria a warm smile as she walked to her vanity. “Oh, not at all!” she said with a laugh. “I know that Mister Arnold has been hard at work setting right all the legal and financial matters. Even now that Missus Leeson has done her part to name you and Mister Arnold as my guardians, I understand it has taken a heroic effort to track down and recover all the money and other assets Uncle James took from my inheritance over the last several months.”
“Heroic, eh? I suppose you must have spoken to him once or twice, then, if that’s what you’ve been hearing.” Victoria snorted with laughter; then the room fell into another silence that Diana could not help feeling was meaningful somehow.Whatever could be on her mind, I wonder?
“Still, it must be terribly boring with only me to speak to for these last two weeks,” said Victoria casually. From her seat in front of the mirror, Diana could see the woman examining her nails coolly. “Well, and the staff, I suppose, but they are even poorer conversationalists than Mister Arnold. I hope you haven’t been too lonely, Diana.”
Diana’s breath caught in her throat, stopping her hairbrush in the middle of its first stroke.It has been awful,she thought, regarding the miserable-looking young woman in the mirror with the yellow-red curls.Even in my most despondent moments in Uncle James’ house, the notion that I always had Colin to talk to kept things from being too unbearable. But now, loving him as I do and being kept from him …
She forced herself to continue arranging her hair as she beat back tears.But I can hardly say such a thing to good Missus Arnold, especially when she and Mister Arnold have done so much to help me.Diana forced a tight smile onto her lips, seeing Victoria’s keen gaze reflected in the mirror. “Oh, no, Missus Arnold. I’ve been most happy here, thank you.”
Diana felt Missus Arnold blink sceptically, being too afraid to let the older woman see the uncertainty in her eyes. “Are you quite sure, my dear? There’s nothing you want for, nothing you feel is missing from your life?” Victoria asked softly.
She turned back to brushing her hair, this time twice as fiercely as before. “Nothing. Thank you.”
She could see Victoria’s reflection standing over her shoulder. The older woman put one thin hand on each of Diana’s shoulders and leaned forward with a conspiratorial look on her face. “Well, then, just in the event you do begin to feel lonely, how would you feel about potentially receiving a visit from a Mister Colin Mullens?”
Diana gasped, a hand instinctively flying over her mouth. Turning away from the mirror and looking up at Victoria, she could see the older woman’s eyes twinkle with laughter. “I … I would like that very much,” Diana said, wrestling with herself to stop blushing so terribly. “When?”
“Right now, if it’s convenient.” Victoria patted her gently on the shoulder, her narrow frame shaking with suppressed laughter. “And even if it isn’t, he’s downstairs with his mother this very minute.”
* * *
From the moment she stepped foot in the Arnolds’ humble parlour, Diana could scarcely bear to look at Colin. He and his mother were sat at a wide, round table as they waited for her, and as soon as Victoria Arnold escorted her to the room and discreetly excused herself, Diana felt herself grow flushed with nervous energy.
“Missus Leeson. Mister Mullens. So good to see you both,” she said with a polite curtsy, praying she did not collapse on the floor in front of them. Her eyes darted up to Colin, but the sight of those shimmering green eyes looking back at her made her knees grow still weaker. From the thick dark curls atop his head to the nervous smile on his lips to the broad, impressive angle of his shoulders, looking at Colin was like being revisited by a benevolent spirit that had once dominated Diana’s dreaming life.
“Diana,” said Priscilla warmly. She gestured to the empty chair. “Please, do join us.” Neither of the seated figures moved to rise from their chairs, though Colin seemed to squirm a bit more uncomfortably in his place.
As she sat at the table with Priscilla and Colin, Diana felt awash in a feeling of this whole experience being nothing more than a dream. Contributing to this sensation was a strange shaking that reverberated through the table, one that Diana eventually deduced was Colin’s leg jogging anxiously in place. She looked up at him, and their eyes lingered on one another’s in wonderment for no more than a breath before darting away awkwardly.
This is the most peculiar feeling,Diana thought, chewing her lip.It’s as though I have been lacking a part of myself, as an organ or a limb, and now that Colin is right here before me, I cannot imagine how I did without for the last two weeks.Among the strange sensations running through her body and mind was an inexplicable sense of fear that, coupled with Priscilla’s presence, kept Diana from acting on any of the thousand things she wanted to say or do with Colin.
Her attention was pulled back to Priscilla as the older woman drew in a long, heavy breath, then rested her hands on the table as she fixed Diana with an intense look. “I know there’s nothing I can say that will undo everything James did to you, Diana,” she said, her voice weighty with regret. “But I need to tell you how very, very sorry I am for everything you went through in our house. You were treated so terribly, and I am filled with shame that it happened at the hands of my own husband.”
Tears rushed to Diana’s eyes, unbidden. She struggled to keep from erupting into wordless sobs, saying in a soft voice as she looked down at the tablecloth, “I appreciate the sentiment, Missus Leeson. I truly do. But you have nothing to apologise for.”
She sucked in another breath, trying not to look at Colin, though she felt his eyes upon her. “I understand that you still mourn your first husband and that your marriage to Sir James was ultimately done for the good of your family. Knowing something of grief myself, I would never blame you for marrying him, considering what you were going through. Especially as there was no way you could have known what he was to do years later.”
“Thank you for your understanding. All the same …” Priscilla’s shoulders slumped, her hands reaching for a handkerchief as her cheeks were wetted with tears. Then she shook her head angrily and looked Diana in the eyes once more. “You deserved better from us, Diana.”
“From all of us,” Colin murmured, patting his mother on the hand comfortingly. Priscilla looked at him with gratitude shining in her pale eyes.
They really are both such remarkable people, aren’t they?thought Diana in wonder.I scarcely survived for six months in a house with James Leeson. To think that they lived with him for more than two decades and remain such kind, wonderful people …
