Iridescent

Chapter 7

What was I late for? Bitter wine and square shaped meat in small serving sizes? It's no party.

"Meredith," I argued, but, she quickly slipped the remains of the dress on me and planted me in the heels before shoving me out the door. Her gaze moved everywhere but mine, and it only seemed to make a certain tension rise in my chest.

Why was she acting like this?

"Mer," I turned, but she continued to trudge along, pushing me out the door, asking for Irina to escort me to the dining hall. Irina even widened her eyes at Meredith's behavior, startled by Meredith's desperation to put her in charge.

If Irina was put in charge of me, she would have a nervous breakdown.

Irina trembled in shock as Meredith locked the door behind her, shouting through the wood, "Get to dinner or your mother is going to come looking for you."

She probably intended to make her voice sound strong, but as soon as she reached 'your mother', a certain crack hammered at her throat—deafening her words. Either she had moved from the door, or something else had robbed her of her voice. I didn't hear any steps.

I reached to pound on the door and demanded that she let me back in, but the shock at her behavior numbed my hand. Meredith had never locked me out before—mentally or physically. If anything, she broke the door down herself. The amount of confusion only mixed with the frustration that dwelled in the pits of my mind, filling the gaps that I did not even know were there.

Irina turned to me and I glanced towards her as her small voice suggested, "Perhaps, we should go."

"Do you have a key, Irina?" I asked, moving my eyes towards the lock on the door.

She shook her head and it looked like she was swallowing a rock.

"Irina, I'm not going to lock you away if you say that you don't," I reassured her, noticing that her hands trembled in the folds of her skirt. Her young face seemed to weight down in fear, and I hadn't realized that she was so scared of me.

She folded her tiny hands together and pursed her lips for a moment before she worked up the nerve to say, "Perhaps, you should get to dinner. I could talk to her for you...maybe, she will be more willing to talk of it when we are preparing you for bed."

I knew very well that Meredith was the most stubborn person that ever stepped on this soil. The only person that could get Meredith to bend at her will was my mother, but the two haven't looked each other in the eye for quite some time, so, I had no chance to take notes and see how it was done.

Instead, I turned and made my way towards the dining hall with Irina trailing behind me, barely touching the floor with any noise, her steps were so brisk. Meredith most likely hoped that this was the end of this conversation, but I was going to make sure it wasn't.

I could not keep it from my mind during dinner—although, I did not try too hard.

Nikolai and Father's monologues about hunting trips went through one ear and out of the other and Mother pushed her food around her plate more than ate it. We both seemed to have minds drifting from the table, as I was still trying to make sense of Meredith.

It was clear as day that she knew something. But why not tell me? What was the harm in it?

Meredith was always honest with me—she has never lied about anything and that was one of the things I most appreciated about her. Astonishingly, she used to be my mother's trusted right hand before Lady Walsh came into the picture. Meredith protected me, but she never strayed from the reality of the world that I lived in. While mother dressed me up and made me product enough for father's tastes, Meredith taught me the ways to see through the bachelors that walked through the door. Sometimes, she would even have Lyall or some of the maids spy on them to provide more insight.