Widow in White

Chapter Fifteen: Unbelonging

Neil's house was smaller than Laura had expected, a very prim and proper country manor of red-brick with two windows to each side of the entry door and five windows on the floor above, and then a set of leering little garrets in the roof. Once they were inside, she found that it was bigger than it looked, running deceptively deep rather than wide. They weren't standing in the hall more than a moment when there came the sound of footsteps pounding on the mezzanine above and someone — very small — came half-running half-tumbling down the stairs.

"Oof!" grunted Richard, as he caught the child in his arms and swung her up high. "You've gotten so big, Annie!"

"Uncle Wichard," she said coyly, clutching his shoulders. "I'm going to be six foot tall."

Laura laughed, and Annie turned inquisitive green eyes towards her.

"Who's she?" she asked.

"This is my wife, your Auntie Laura," Richard said, repositioning her a little. "You're too heavy to carry, darling. Can I put you down?"

"I'm going to be tenty stone," Annie said, sliding down his leg and landing with a thump on the floor. She looked up at Laura. "Hello. How many stone are you?"

"I'm not sure," Laura said, leaning down and holding out her hand. "What's your name?"

"Annie," she said, shaking Laura's hand with pompous self-sureness. "It's nice to meet you too. Mama told me you were coming. Why did you make Papa so mad?"

"I didn't make him mad." Laura felt a twinge of guilt. "We're very good friends."

"Then why does his face go—" Annie screwed up her lips tight and frowned "—when Mama talks about you?"

"Now, Annie dear," Richard said gently, but a sharp voice from the landing above interrupted him.

"Annie! Get back here!"

Then Neil came running down the stairs, and Annie, casting one glance at him, waddled hastily off the other way. She ducked between the legs of a groom who was carrying in a trunk and out the open front door. Neil completely ignored Richard and Laura in his pursuit of her. He burst through the front door, almost running into another groom. Laura turned, bemused, as the sound of a childish scream and then sobs came from outside. A moment later, Neil marched back in, Annie prostrate and wailing in his arms.

"You have this to look forward to," he said savagely to Richard as he marched past them.

Annie only screamed louder. Neil marched onwards, up the stairs, and disappeared somewhere over the landing. The screaming faded away.

Laura turned to Richard, bewildered. He looked back at her and shrugged.

"I'll go see if I can find Verity. Neil seems preoccupied."

Richard disappeared through a door. Laura sighed and sat down on a bench. Around her, the menservants continued to move their trunks into the hall and up the stairs. After several minutes, Richard didn't return, and the hall cleared of servants. The front doors shut. All was still. Laura looked around rather uneasily, feeling suddenly out of place and unbelonging. She got up again and set off up the stairs, thinking that a more likely place to find people than wherever Richard had gone. Above, a long hallway stretched dimly down towards a distant window, with doors on each side. Laura heard voices coming from further along and followed them. Going through a door, she found Neil sitting at a dressing table hugging a tear-stained Annie.

"I told you it would be alright," he said, his earlier impatience vanished. "It doesn't hurt."

"But I want them to grow," she sobbed. "I want to be a tiger."