A Splendid Defiance by Riley Stella

Author:Riley, Stella [Riley, Stella]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2012-12-05T16:00:00+00:00

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FIFTEEN

‘Where on earth did you get to?’ asked Samuel as they walked home from the wedding. ‘You were gone ages.’ And then, looking curiously at her, ‘What’s the matter? Your eyes have gone awfully peculiar. What have you been up to?’

‘Nothing,’ said Abigail hazily. ‘I feel … strange.’ Her footsteps slowed and she put a hand against the wall to steady herself. ‘I’m so tired.’

She swayed and Samuel grabbed her about the waist.

‘Well, you can’t go to sleep here. Come on, lean on me. We’re nearly home now. It’s the wine, I suppose. You shouldn’t have touched it. You know you’re not used to it. How much did you have?’ And then, when she didn’t reply, ‘Oh Lord! I just hope Jonas isn’t back, that’s all.’

His prayer was answered and, with their mother in the kitchen, it was a relatively simple matter to get Abigail upstairs unseen. Panting a little, Samuel heaved her carelessly on to the bed and grinned provokingly down at her. ‘You’re remarkably heavy for such a little thing. Nothing to say to that?’

Abigail lay like a stone. Her face was white, her eyes closed and her breathing oddly noisy. Anxiety dawned on her brother’s face and, taking her hand, he began to slap it, saying, ‘Oh come on, Abby! You can’t possibly have had more than a couple of glasses so sit up and pull yourself together. You can’t appear at dinner like this and, if you don’t come down, Jonas will demand to know why. And I can hardly tell him you’re drunk, can I? Abby!’

Her eyelids fluttered open to disclose hugely dilated pupils and a complete absence of expression. Struggling with the words, she said, ‘I … I … only one glass.’

He stared at her, half exasperated and half alarmed. And then, making the only sensible decision, he limped quickly downstairs to find his mother.

The maid, Betty, was with her so he said carefully, ‘I think you ought to come and take a look at Abby.’

Alice put a pie sharply on the table.

‘Why? What’s wrong with her?’

‘I don’t know.’ And then, suddenly inspired, ‘But she may be contagious so Jonas and Rachel ought to be warned to keep away from her.’ He fixed his mother with a meaningful stare. ‘Well, we don’t want the baby to catch anything, do we?’

Alice dropped her apron on the settle.

‘No. You heard that Betty? If Mr Jonas returns while I’m upstairs, tell him on no account to come up.’ She followed Samuel through to the hall and then said, ‘Now – what’s all this about? Contagious, indeed!’

‘Well I had to say something to keep Jonas out of it.’ He ushered her up the stairs. ‘How good are you at sobering people up?’

‘What?’ gasped Alice. ‘Sam - are you being flippant?’

‘I wish I was. We slipped out to the Castle this afternoon so that Abby could see her precious wedding dress in its hour of glory and --’

‘You did what? Oh Sam!’

‘Yes, I know. But Abby wanted to go and I didn’t think it would do any harm.

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