But even so, she found herself hurrying down the unknown hall to the closed door at the end. She hesitated, then knocked. It was true that this was her home now, and maybe it wasn’t necessary for her to knock before entering a room, but she felt it was better to err on the side of caution and politeness.
“Come in,” Thomas called. Now that she was closer, she was able to recognize the voice as belonging to him.
She pushed the door open and went inside.
He was sitting at a small table opposite Rachel, and the two of them each had playing cards in their hands. He looked up at her and smiled. “Come in,” he said. “I wondered if I would be seeing you today.”
“I didn’t know where anybody was,” Madeleine said awkwardly.
“You see!” Rachel exclaimed, throwing down her cards. “Didn’t I tell you we ought to go and find her this morning, Thomas? Didn’t I tell you she would be upset if she didn’t know where anyone was?”
“I’m not upset,” Madeleine said quickly.
“Of course you are,” Rachel corrected her. “Anybody would be. You must have thought nobody was thinking about you at all.”
Madeleine had thought exactly that, of course, but she would never have said it. “I assumed something more important was going on,” she said. “Perhaps you had all gone into town—something like that.”
“You hear that?” Rachel demanded. “She thought we went into town and left her behind! We have to include her more in what’s going on around her, or she’ll think we don’t want her!”
She got up from the table. “You sit down, Madeleine,” she said. “You can take over my hand for me.”
“Oh, no, I couldn’t,” Madeleine insisted. “I don’t know how to play this game.”
“Well, at least pull up a chair so you can watch. You can learn to play, and then you can play with us next time.”
Madeleine nodded—that seemed doable. She found a chair by the wall and drew it up to the table.
“I do apologize,” Thomas said, looking her in the eye. “I should have come for you, as Rachel says. But you went through so much yesterday, and I just thought you would be better served by having a day where no one expected anything from you.”
“Has your mother said anything about me yet?”
Thomas averted his eyes.
“She’s angry,” Rachel said, with no hint of sorrow about that in her voice. “She thinks you’re willful. She said so. She was surprised by the gown you wore to the wedding.”
“I’d like to apologize to her,” Madeleine said.
Now Thomas looked at her. “Would you really?” he asked. “Are you sorry you wore it?”
“Well—no,” she admitted. “No, I’m not sorry for doing that.”
“Then you shouldn’t apologize. It’s really that simple. Mother will accept what’s happened. She’ll come to understand why you made the decision you did. In the meantime, we won’t plead for her forgiveness when we’ve done nothing wrong. And it’s your turn, Rachel,” he added. “You look like you’re about to bounce right out of your chair, so I know you must have something good in your hand.”
Rachel laughed and played a card, and Thomas swore. Madeleine couldn’t help it—she laughed too.
“She’s very good at this game,” Thomas said. “She beats me every time.”
“Mother would hate it if she knew that Thomas had taught me to play,” Rachel said with a smile. “It’s not at all ladylike, playing cards.”
“What do you mean?” Madeleine asked. “Ladies play cards all the time. My mother did.”
“Mother has some odd ideas regarding how people perceive things,” Thomas explained. “Rachel is right. Shewouldhate the idea of a young lady in a card game. Though, to tell you the truth…” he hesitated, then continued. “I don’t think she would like to know I was playing either.”
Madeleine really didn’t understand that. “Why on Earth should that bother her?”
“It’s because of Father,” Rachel said.
“Your father? What about him?”
