Slightly Married Read Free Page B

will remain there until tomorrow, ma'am. The next time I call here you will inform me how I may be of service to you. But at the moment you need the assistance of people who are familiar to you. You are in shock.”
    He stepped to one side and pulled on the bell rope beside the door.
Was
she in shock? She felt perfectly in command of herself. She even wondered if that bell still worked since she could not recall the last time it had been used. She also realized that if it
did
work and if Agnes
did
answer it, she was going to have to move. She was still standing against the door, her hands clinging to the handle as if for very life. She did not believe she would be able to move if she tried. The universe would shatter into a billion fragments. Perhaps she really was not quite herself.
    Percy was dead.
    Agnes answered the summons almost immediately. The colonel grasped Eve firmly by the upper arm just in time to move her to one side as the door opened.
    “Is there someone you can summon to Miss Morris's assistance?” he asked, though in truth his words sounded far more like a crisp command than a courteous request. “If so, do it immediately.”
    Agnes, in true Agnes fashion, merely turned her head and bellowed. “Charlie? Char-
lie,
do you hear me? Set down that chair and run back for Mrs. Pritchard. Tell her to hurry. Miss Morris needs her.
Now!
”
    “You must sit before you faint,” the colonel said. “Even your lips are colorless.”
    Eve sank obediently onto the closest chair and sat there, very upright, her spine not quite touching the back, her hands clasped tightly, painfully, in her lap. Poor Aunt Mari, she thought—
tell her to hurry.
Then she heard the echo of something the colonel had said a minute or two ago.
    . . . you will inform me how I may be of service to you.
    “There is nothing you can do for me, Colonel,” she said. “There is little point in subjecting yourself to the discomforts of a country inn. But I do thank you for your offer. And for coming all this way. You are very kind.”
    How was it possible, she wondered, watching Agnes pick up her hat from the floor and hold it against her chest, frowning ferociously the while, to mouth mundane courtesies when
Percy was dead
? She felt the sharp pain of her fingernails digging into her palms.
    “The amenities of even the humblest of country inns seem like the lap of luxury to a man newly returned from a military campaign, ma'am,” he said. “You need not concern yourself about my comfort.”
    She had not offered him refreshments, she thought in the minute or two of silence that followed while Agnes stared at her and Colonel Bedwyn did not. He had taken up his stand before the hearth again, his back to it. She had not even offered him a seat.
    Aunt Mari, still wearing her hat, came hobbling into the room before any conversation could resume, her cane tapping out an urgent tattoo on the floor, her eyes wide with dismay, as if she already understood what this was all about. Charlie must have outdone himself in conveying a sense of doom. Eve swayed to her feet.
    “Miss Morris has need of you, ma'am,” Colonel Bedwyn said without waiting for any introductions to be made. “I have been the bearer of sad tidings concerning Captain Percival Morris, her brother, I am afraid.”
    “Oh, my poor love.” Aunt Mari came straight toward her and gathered her into her arms. Her cane clattered to the floor. Eve rested her forehead on her aunt's bony shoulder for a weary spell, drawing comfort from the human touch of someone familiar, someone who loved her, someone who would make all better if she possibly could. But no one could make this better. No one could bring Percy back. Wretchedness enveloped her like a dark cloud.
    When she lifted her head again, her aunt's eyes were filled with tears and her lips were wobbling in an effort to control her emotions. Muffin was standing at her feet, wagging his bit of a tail, looking soulful. Agnes still hovered just