Under An English Moon by Bess McBride

Author:Bess McBride [McBride, Bess]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bess McBride
Published: 2012-12-31T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Phoebe looked over her shoulder to see Reggie follow William into a room down the hallway. Reggie caught her eye and nodded with a reassuring smile. And Phoebe was reassured.

She followed Mattie into a large bedroom that looked remarkably like one of those photographs she’d seen on historical architecture. Mattie used her candle to light several candelabras in the room.

“This was the bedroom I first stayed in when I got here, so I thought I’d bring you to this one.” Mattie grinned and opened her arms expansively as if to display the bedroom. “So, what do you think? Feels like a fairytale, huh?” She laughed, surveying the room as if with fresh eyes.

A high-ceilinged room, the walls were painted pale green. Dark green velvet drapes covered the windows. The coverlet of the velvet-curtained, four-poster bed was white, mirroring a lighter color found in the rose and moss green Oriental carpet. A green velvet settee and several chairs flanked the fireplace.

“It’s stunning,” Phoebe breathed.

“I can’t tell you how frightened I was when I got here, but you seem to be handling it pretty well.”

“Am I?” Phoebe mused. “Maybe because I came with Reggie. You must have felt very alone.”

Mattie shrugged and led Phoebe to the settee. “Sometimes, but only when William wasn’t there. I fell in love with him the moment I met him. It sounds hokey, I know, but I felt like I already knew him when I met him. It’s a long story.”

“I’d be interested to hear it sometime while I’m here.”

Phoebe, now better able to focus than when she first arrived, studied Mattie’s empire-waisted silk gown of brown. The colors accented the brown specks in her hazel eyes. Small ballet-like slippers peeped out from beneath her skirt. Mattie’s auburn hair was pulled up behind her head into a chignon, with curls allowed to escape around her forehead and cheeks.

“While you’re here,” Mattie repeated. “What are your thoughts on that?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I can’t really say ‘what are your plans,’ because I don’t know if you really have control over your future right now, but what are your expectations? I could probably sit here and tell you my experiences, what I’ve learned and haven’t learned about living here, whether I had to stay here, if I could return, but it would probably be easier if you told me what you want to see happen.”

Phoebe closed her eyes and tried to imagine her apartment in New York. She bit her lips as she thought of Annie’s frantic search for her.

“My cousin, who was staying in the apartment for a few days, will call the police. She’ll worry about what happened to me.”

Mattie nodded. “Yep, I’ll bet she does.”

“I feel bad about that.”

“I know. I had a friend from work who called the police the first time I disappeared, but I was able to leave her a message the second time I went back, so I’m hoping she didn’t that time.”

Phoebe nodded. “About this going back thing...” She waited hopefully.

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