A scrape of a chair and then silence. Chang reached for the oilcloth, pausing as he heard footsteps.
“A cup of tea,” announced a clipped new voice. Another woman. Chang could hear the fatigue and impatience beneath her simple words. “One for each of you.”
“Thank you,” said the man, and at once he whimpered.
“It is hot,” the second woman snapped. “Take it by the handle! It is lemon verbena.” The woman sighed bitterly after a sip of her own. “Too weak.”
“It will do perfectly well,” said the first woman. Chang felt a spark on the back of his neck. He knew her. Why was she crying? And who was the man?
“I'm sure it will have to,” responded the other, tartly. “I am not used to making tea at all, of course—still less in such a pot, on such a fire. Any more than I am used to any of what has happened to my former existence! Though what has truly changed after all? Am I not still a shuttlecock batted back and forth by the more powerful?”
To this opinion the other two had no answer.
“I do not mean to compare my losses to yours,” the woman went on. “Whatever your losses might be, I'm sure I do not fully comprehend them—who comprehends anyone?—but from what you have told me and what I have in the meantime guessed—I am not wholly without deductive powers—I do not know why you find yourself still so distraught. Indeed, Elöise, it is most difficult to bear.”
“I am sorry.”
“It has been some time. No matter what you say about memory and forgetting, all of which you take so seriously—of course a measure of seriousness does credit to a person, but not an excess—yet here we are, flown from what seemed a perfectly fine cottage, because of you. It is nearly dark—I suppose we shall sleep here! I myself am enduring all manner of outright tiresome privations.”
“Of course you are.”
“I am. And yet you are the one in tears! They are pernicious!”
Elöise did not answer. It was obvious to Chang that the other woman was as terrified as she was arrogant.
“And who was he again? That fellow?”
“Doctor Svenson,” replied Elöise softly.
“O yes, the Prince's man. Lord above—”
“He has saved my life repeatedly.”
“So you intimated. Or,” the woman added dryly, “so you remember…”
“He saved my life from Francis.”
“Why would Francis hurt you?”
“Charlotte—”
“Why would Francis hurt any one of us? What nonsense!”
“Charlotte.” Elöise sighed with some forbearance. “Charlotte, that is not true.”
To Chang's astonishment, Charlotte Trapping laughed.
“Ah, well, there you have me.” She chuckled quite merrily. “Per haps I fathom one or two elements after all!”
“Charlotte—”
“Stop blubbering! Your dear friend—of, goodness, ten days?—is still alive. And left behind he will remain so, and there's an end to him. What did you want instead, Elöise? A romance to sweep you away? After all you've done?”
“What I've done for you—”
“You say that—so often that I nearly believe you. Do you believe her?”
This last was to the man.
“She is very pretty,” he answered gently. Charlotte Trapping huffed.
“Pretty! What girl isn't pretty? I was perfectly pretty, and look what happened! Come now, Elöise, did you really expect—and from a German—”
“He is very decent.”
“Decent!” Mrs. Trapping crowed. “A word to describe a churchman! Elöise, a woman cannot put her hope in a man she pities!”
“I do not pity him. Doctor Svenson—”
“He struck me as—O I don't know—rather weedy—”
“He was injured!”
“Not like Arthur. Arthur was a strapping man, with very broad shoulders. Even if you grant your Doctor his uniform—though it was extremely shabby—you cannot allow his shoulders are anywhere near as broad. What's more, your fellow's hair was unpleasantly fair—not like Arthur with his very thick whiskers. I do not believe this Doctor possessed any whiskers at all. You approved of Arthur's shoulders and his whiskers yourself, didn't you, Elöise? I am sure you said something very much like that—perhaps you did not know that I could hear you. I made a point to hear everything, you know.”
“Yes, Charlotte.”
“Arthur. My husband promised to save me, but he was always promising things he didn't understand.”
“I am sorry, Charlotte.”
“Everyone is always sorry for everything.”
“Not Francis,” said Elöise.
To this, Charlotte Trapping was silent.
“THE TEA is hot,” said the man, quietly, as if he had been waiting for some time to speak. Both women ignored him.
Chang eased two fingers to the oilcloth and edged it aside with glacial patience. Elöise sat on a broken-backed wood chair. She still wore her black dress, but had added a dark shawl. Her hair had become curled with the moisture of the woods and rough travel. There was a lost look in her eyes Chang had not, even in their determined struggles aboard the airship, seen before. The veil of kindness and care that had been so customary had gone, and a frank, bitter clarity had taken its place.
To her right, on a rotting upholstered bench, the still-steaming mug of tea held tight between his palms, sat Robert Vandaariff, hat-less, in a black topcoat with silk lapels and the muddy shoes and trouser cuffs of a sheep farmer. Like a child for whom an absent parent bears responsibility, the mindless magnate's hair was uncombed and his cravat had gone askew.
Charlotte Trapping sat with her back to Chang, in what was obviously the only whole chair in the ruined house. The widow's hair was pale with a touch of red (he would have taken it to be a henna wash had he not known her brother), silhouetted against the light of the glowing fire. She wore a well-cut jacket of blue wool over a warm straight dress. Next to her chair was a leather travel case, a hat, and long gloves, all spelling out that Mrs. Trapping had attired herself for travel and difficulty. A patterned velvet clutch bag had been looped around her wrist and hung heavily. When Mrs. Trapping raised her mug of tea, the bag clacked as if it were stuffed with Chinese ivory tiles. Near to Vandaariff lay another awkward bundle, wrapped in a blanket and bound with twine.
“SO YOU have seen Francis,” remarked Charlotte Trapping.