Dreamland by Nancy Bilyeau

Author:Nancy Bilyeau [Bilyeau, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Endeavour Quill
Published: 2020-01-15T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Of all the distortions in time, none seemed greater than finding myself in Lydia’s hotel suite for the second time. It was exactly twenty-four hours later but felt as if weeks had passed, if not months; more than that, it was as if I, Peggy Batternberg, were a different person. To try to settle my mind, I was the one to sip black coffee this morning.

Lydia stood in the center of her spacious room, wearing her chemise and corset as Alice chose her dress. I assumed our maid’s presence was the reason my sister didn’t press me for details of my presumed romantic adventure. Or perhaps it was the thick heat, already so oppressive, that accounted for her lassitude. She twirled a strand of blonde hair, staring into space before saying, “I had the strangest dream last night.”

“Tell me.”

Instead of answering, Lydia lapsed into silence again. Apparently she didn’t want to share the details of her dream. As she stood there, waiting for the maid to dress her, I couldn’t help but say, “You are positively ethereal, Lydia.” It was a polite word for it. The truth was, the girl before me was bony, with frail arms and spindly legs. The corset she chose pushed her breasts toward her collarbone. Otherwise, she’d have no cleavage at all.

Her fine-lashed blue eyes drifted over me. “The fewer clothes I have on, the worse I look. But for you, it’s the opposite.”

“Lydia!”

An eyebrow arched, she said, “Do you deny you have a good figure?”

“Clothes hang better on you than they ever did on me – or ever will,” I pointed out.

Still twirling her hair, Lydia said, “Yes, but there comes a point in time when it’s no longer of importance how well the clothes hang, but what happens when they come off.”

I suppose it was inevitable that Lydia would contemplate her wedding night with Henry Taul now that the date was set, but there wasn’t enough coffee in the world for me to wish to picture that encounter. To my relief, Alice approached at that moment, holding the dress for the day, and there was no more talk along those lines. It was a sailor dress, one of my sister’s favorite styles. As Alice fussed with the light blue bow fixed on its neckline, it struck me how much of a beautiful child Lydia looked. Yet by the end of the year she’d be a married woman.

“Peggy, you have to go in the sea after lunch,” Lydia said. “It’s the only thing to do in this frightful heat.”

“I suppose it is.”

As she pinned Lydia’s hair, Alice said she’d heard that all over the city the parks were filled with people who slept on the ground, afraid that they’d suffocate if they spent the night inside their homes.

“Yes, people are actually dying of the weather,” said Lydia, and she yawned.

None of us were sleeping well at night in this heat spell, not even Batternbergs with top-floor hotel suites facing the sea, and ceiling fans.

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