Page 59 of Trouble

Putting the house back together took days, and Emily was pulled in to help without anybody questioning if it was right for her to do so; they had long moved past such things, and Emily slightly missed the days when Meera would hesitate before asking her to muck in with some menial task.

She was helping Akia in the drawing room over luncheon when Meera burst into the room with such violence that Akia dropped her cloth.

‘I need to borrow one of you,’ she said, with the wide eyes and ragged breathing of somebody on the verge of a domestic-chores-related breakdown. ‘Now.’

‘AndIhave to finish scrubbing the Royal Navy from the rooms,’ Akia said, with an apologetic shrug. ‘They’re filthy. Unless we’ve decided we don’t care about rooms any more. I wouldn’t mind, but they are quite a key component of the house.’

‘No, no, you carry on .?.?. Amy? The captain did say you might be best suited.’

‘Well, I’m expecting the children.’ Emily was quite looking forward to an afternoon of doing next to nothing while Grace read her book and Aster painted abstract depictions of Emily’s own death, and was wary of being dragged into real work.

‘Can they get by on their own for a few hours?’

‘I suppose so.’

‘Excellent! Wonderful! Can you meet Captain Edwards downstairs? He’s bringing the gig out himself.’

‘Oh,’ said Emily. ‘Why? Where are we .?.?. Why can’t you go? Or Oliver?’

‘Oliver is at the horse doctor, I have to stay here to accept deliveries, and Joe is up to his eyes in soufflés and apparently must stand and watch them the entire time they cook or the world will end. And besides, Captain Edwards needs a woman.’

‘I’ll say,’ Akia muttered.

‘Akia—’

‘Is Oliver at the horse doctor because they couldn’t find a muzzle big enough to fit him at the regular doctor?’

‘He is at the horse doctor with a horse,’ said Meera. ‘As you well know.’

‘It seems more likely to me that he refused to be examined by a physician without his head stuck in a big bag of food to distract him,’ said Akia. ‘But if you say so.’

‘Amy,’ Meera said imploringly. ‘Downstairs.’

‘Fine,’ said Emily. ‘I’ll fetch my cloak.’

She had not imagined that she would be forced into close proximity with Captain Edwards so soon after their revelatory conversation about his misdemeanours in the Royal Navy, and even though she knew he would be waiting for her, it was still somewhat disconcerting to walk out of the door and find him standing there, offering a hand to help her climb up into the small carriage.

He didn’t say good afternoon, so Emily didn’t say good afternoon, and it led to an interesting silence as he urged the horse on – a silence that did not seem to be affecting him at all. They had been travelling for at least five minutes when he finally spoke.

‘I feel the urgency of this afternoon’s expedition has been overstated.’

Emily thought of Meera’s wild-eyed panic.

‘Oh?’

‘Grace has been requesting a new dress for some time,’ he said, sounding as if this concept was entirely foreign to him, ‘and as I am planning to host some people at the house soon, I thought it best to appease her. Apparently this requires the .?.?. acquisition of fabric.’

‘Yes,’ said Emily. ‘They do tend to be made of fabric.’

Captain Edwards glanced sharply at her. He seemed to be trying to ascertain whether she was making fun of him – which she was, a little. An urgent trip to buy fabric for a dress was not what she had expected based on Meera’s failing death grip on her own sanity – but then, Meera was a perfectionist to a fault, and was likely kicking herself for not having predicted through sorcery that Grace would soon require a new dress for a party.

‘When we arrive, if you could perhaps cease making me an object of mockery for a few moments, I would appreciate your help selecting something appropriate.’

‘What about Aster?’ asked Emily, thinking of the jealous little spats she’d had with Amy when they were children over things exactly like this. ‘Does she want a new dress? It only seems fair.’

‘Hmmm,’ said Captain Edwards. ‘No. I rather think not.’

‘All right. Well, what did Grace ask for?’ said Emily, trying to picture any of the dresses Grace had worn. They all blurred into a big cloud of pastel silk.