"Have you heard any more on that Sir Charles?" Lorena asked Nora as they were riding Abraham and Eddy leisurely through the field filled with yellow and purple flowers.
"No, I don't think so, I've asked mother about him and she said that he is from Canada, he is one of father's close friend's son. Apparently, Sir Charles' father has passed just recently, and he felt that it would be more compassionate to come here to Andover to tell father himself, and not through letter." Nora explained. Lorena felt a sudden urge of sadness for Sir Charles, she had never lost a parent, and her grandmother -her mother's mother- had passed away when Lorena was just young, and grandmother had never been a very personal woman, not that she was mean, but she never had known her well. Mother had taken to be very ill after that, and father would say things of how she needed to eat more, and maybe sit outside with him and talk for a while, but that only lasted for three months or so.
"Oh my, that is so sad." Lorena said wistfully, looking down, maybe she shouldn't be so skeptical of him after all, he had just lost a loved one.
Nora nodded, "Yes it is." She said simply, "But father is having him over once more next week, and father is planning a trip with Sir Charles to Canada to attend the funeral, Sir Charles does not have very many family members, and father has always been close."
"Does he have no siblings? A mother?" Lorena asked looking up at Nora, they had come up the hill and could see down to the town, and the big willow in the front yard, the full vegetable garden in the back. The stable hand was cleaning the stable, pausing occasionally to wipe his brow.
"I don't think so, I think that his mother was gone before he can remember, and I heard nothing of siblings."
"Oh, I see." A fly or a bumble bee buzzed past Lorena's ear and she batted it away with a wave of her hand.
The heat of the sun was starting to get to her, and Nora being much more delicate then herself, her face had turned red a few minutes ago and her forehead seemed to be a bit damp.
"Are you looking forward to Sir Fredrick's arrival tomorrow?" Lorena asked her, leading Abraham back down the hill slowly.
"I am quite afraid that not everything is in order, but yes. I am looking forward to spending some time with him, he wrote me just the other day, saying that he was thrilled to be seeing me soon and that the first two days that he is here we need to set a date for the wedding, and he said of how understanding he was of me wanting to wait a while, but he told me that sometime next summer would work better with him, and that he knows if we do not have at least a year long engagement there will be some conflict."
Lorena was sad to see her sister get married but she knew that this would happen her whole life, and that they wouldn't always be thirteen and eleven, that they had to grow up sometime. Although it happened too soon for Lorena's liking.
"Do you think you'll move out of the country when you're married?" She asked her sister, who shrugged.
"I can never be sure, he had told me of some bungalow that his family owns, it's a nice three room home and a perfect place to live before we will have any children. Which is very odd to think of." Nora laughed, "But I'm sure that won't be for many years to come."
"Yes, you being a mother is even more strange then you being married." Lorena laughed and Nora shook her head smiling.
"I completely understand what you are saying." There wasn't much more that Nora had thought of to say on the subject that she was willing to share with anyone at the moment, so she decided to change the conversation towards Lorena and Aaron.
"I don't think that there is anything of importance in that situation." Lorena defended when she asked, saying it she looked down as if she was disappointed.
"I'm not so sure that I believe you, dear sister." Nora chuckled, "He hasn't been around very much since you went riding, but he was at church on Sunday and I noticed that you had a nice conversation for a few moments. What was that about?"
"Oh, not much of anything, I feel so foolish talking to him, because I clam up, and he carries the conversation until he gets bored of me standing there and nodding like a fool." Lorena shook her head, "I really do enjoy his company and I think that he is a very, very nice man, but I'm not sure if he feels the same way that I do." She said sadly.
"Thinking like that won't seem at all attractive, I don't think at least, but I think that you should act the way you feel, don't tell him that quite yet, wait till he tells you something." Nora pondered for a moment. "Or maybe that is terrible advice, who am I to know."
Lorena laughed, shrugging her shoulder, "I don't have any clue of what is going on so who am I to know about all of this?" She asked, they had come to the stables and they dismounted, leading Abraham and Eddy in, to unsaddle and brush down.
"Well this was pleasant, Lore." Nora said as they walked leisurely back to the house, the hollyhocks against the back, pink, red, and yellow, were all in full bloom.
"It was, it seems that we've been doing this quite a lot lately, I think that it is nice." They walked along the side to the porch and Nora went up the steps ahead of Lorena. Susan was sitting in a white whicker chair, her feet daintily tucked beneath it, and an embroidery in her lap.
"Hello, mother." Nora said, sitting in a matching chair to her left.
"Hello, dear, how was your girls' ride?" She asked them and Nora was telling her it was nice, Lorena left to go read and get a glass of water or lemonade, depending on if Mrs. Leery had lemonade made.
She should probably do something different, maybe help Mary with preparing dinner, by the sounds coming from her father's study it was likely he had someone that he was talking to and that he would invite to stay for dinner.
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Leery." She said as she stepped down into the kitchen, Mary was nowhere to be seen and Mrs. Leery was just looking over some papers, her glasses perched on her nose, she looked up at Lorena and smiled, the corners of her eyes crinkling.
"Good afternoon, Miss Lorena. Did you and Miss Nora have a nice ride? There is tea in that pitcher over there." She gestured to a cream colored pitcher on the counter by the sink, Lorena walked over and took a small juice glass.
"It was very enjoyable, it wasn't very long because it became a little bit too warm." She sipped the cold tea, "Do you know where Mary is?" She asked, and Mrs. Leery nodded.
"She is spending the day with her family today, there isn't all that much to do and her sister has just had a baby, so she wanted to go and meet him. David Wynton, lovely little baby her mother said, pretty pink skin."
"Well, I'll be sure to tell her my congratulations when I see her next." Lorena said smiling," Do you have anything for me to help you with today?" She asked, finished off her glass of tea, Mrs. Leery shook her head and looked through her paper once more.
"I don't think so dear, but in two days I'm sure Mary will need lots of help with the cleaning." She smiled up at Lorena, taking her glasses and putting them on the top of her head.
"Thank you, I'll be sure to assist her." Chuckling as she left the kitchen to get her book in her bedroom. The stairway was stifling as there were no windows, but the hall itself was airy, and since Lorena had her bedroom window opened, her bedroom was cool, she took the novel from her bedside table and went down the front steps, to the parlor.
It was dark and shady, but the windows too were open and there was a breeze, Lorena sat down in one of the purple armchairs and pulled her legs up to her chest. She opened to the page that she had stopped reading at last night. The time passed and the book started to bore Lorena, she was getting ready to put it back when there was running in the entryway, no one ever ran in their house and Lorena went out, confused.
She saw her father and Nora run out to the porch where Nora and her mother had been talking, she put her book on the table in the entry way and followed them, when she was in sight of the porch, there was Susan, it seemed as if she had fallen down, and she was sitting there now, Nora handing her a glass of water which she took gratefully, her cheeks were pale and her eyes bloodshot, there was a worry in her father's that she had never seen before.
"What happened?" Lorena asked, running over and kneeling beside her mother.
Nora shook her head, "I don't know, she said she was going to go and check on father and when she stood up, she just fell." Her voice was shaking and her own face was pale.
"I'm fine, really. You don't need to fuss over me, I had just been sitting to long, and when I stood my legs came out from under me, I'm alright, I promise." Susan said forcefully, Howard came over and helped her off the ground gingerly. Giving her a look all the while that told how much he did not believe what she was saying. "I think I'll just go lie down for a short while and I should be back to normal." She gave her husband a reassuring look, and then her daughters. When she walked into the house her back was straight and her head held high, if Lorena hadn't just seen her then she wouldn't have believed anything at all happened.
"I think that maybe we should have the doctor visit." Father suggested, Nora and Lorena shared a worried look.