An Impossible Deception

Chapter One: Stay

Isabella got up and went out into the hall as Lady Garvey began to argue with Edwina about candles. When Isabella opened the front door, she interrupted a groom in the act of knocking. He gaped at her and then turned back to Arabella, who was coming sedately up the front steps with a silk shawl around her shoulders and a diamond pin at her breast. The groom looked from one sister to another. But for their dresses and the style of their hair, they were still as alike as the day they were born. Isabella might have been looking in a mirror.

Only as she smiled, Arabella narrowed her eyes in a scowl.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded, coming through the door and holding out her hands for a maid to deglove.

"Mrs Phillips's mother died. I came home."

The maid, after giving them a surprised ogle, took Arabella's gloves and bonnet away upstairs. Arabella went immediately to a mirror and began to straighten her hair. She glanced at Isabella through the reflection.

"Don't tell me you're staying in this backwater now."

"I don't know."

"Hmph." Arabella gave one last pat to her hair and seemed satisfied. "Where are they?"

"The breakfast room."

"Well I'm not going to watch Father chew his cud. Tell Mother I'm in the drawing room."

Arabella departed in a cloud of perfume, and Isabella went back to the breakfast room where her mother was sitting in stony silence while Edwina rooted candle stubs from a drawer in the sideboard. Her father was still mechanically making his way through the toast and conserves. Isabella told them where Arabella was and, when Edwina and her mother went out, hesitated only a moment before following them. Even if Arabella didn't seem particularly pleased to see her, she might warm up later. She had always cared more for Isabella, in her own caustic way, than anyone else ever had.

In the drawing room, Edwina and Lady Garvey set to giving Arabella the requisite kisses, and her mother inquired particularly after her health. Isabella sat down, unnoticed, on a settee. When the reunion was complete, there was a general settling down of bodies and conversation. Arabella looked around the room.

"That is rather a pretty wallpaper, Mother. I remember you writing to me about it. You cannot tell from this distance that it is not hand-painted. I shall have my library done up just the same — after Locke has left again, of course." She sighed heavily. "You would think the son of a merchant would appreciate fine things, but he begrudges every penny spent on me or the house."

Lady Garvey shook her head. "I cannot understand such an attitude — your father is always sympathetic to the efforts I make to keep up appearances."

"Locke doesn't care one whit about that!"

"But he does have the money, doesn't he?" Lady Garvey pressed.

"Of course he does! And he can go gadding off to Europe whenever he pleases, but if I so much as buy myself a new gown..." Arabella blinked, her eyes suddenly bright. "He is so cruel, Mama."

Lady Garvey launched into a flurry of comfort, patting her hands around Arabella's shoulders and uttering coos of sympathy. Arabella dabbed at her eyes with a lacy slip of a handkerchief. From across the room, Edwina met Isabella's eyes and rolled her own. At first, Isabella was shocked, but a moment later the lacy handkerchief was discarded, Lady Garvey's hands were pushed away, and Arabella launched once more into cheerful conversation.

"How do you like this dress?" she said. "Is it not magnificent?"

"It is a very fine print indeed." Lady Garvey pawed at the satiny fabric. "Why, look at the colours it shows in the light!"