“I am going to bed!”
And he was gone, the door slamming behind him.
“Mama,” Francesca breathed in amazement, “I have never seen him so angry. What did you say?”
Amy looked shaken. “I don’t know.”
“I thought he might throw us out into the street.”
“I underestimated how much work it is going to take to restore ourselves to my brother’s good graces.”
Francesca rose and slipped an arm about her. “Poor Mama. I don’t envy you.”
“He is family, I’m afraid, and it is a terrible thing to fall out with one’s family. Speaking of which…Francesca, now don’t bite my head off like William, but you really should visit Aphrodite.”
Francesca stiffened. “No,” she said. “I will enjoy seeing Aunt Helen again, despite Toby’s awfulness, but I do not wish to see Aphrodite. I have nothing to say to her, nor she to me.”
Amy patted her hand. “Very well, Francesca, I won’t make you go. But it would be polite to send a note and give her the chance to call on you. She is your mother.”
“No, she isn’t,” Francesca retorted. “You’re my mother. I don’t need two. I don’t want two. Now I think I will retire. Good night, Mama.”
Francesca closed the door, relieved to escape further probing and questioning. If Vivianna and Marietta were here, they’d pester her to see Aphrodite, but she was determined to stand firm. From the moment they discovered Aphrodite was their true mother, Francesca refused to have any sort of relationship with her, and over the years nothing had changed.
Soft footsteps sounded from the head of the staircase. Francesca looked up and saw Lil, cloaked and ready to go out. The maid obviously hadn’t realized she was there, because when she saw Francesca she froze, her expression full of guilt and dismay.
“Lil? Where are you going?”
“Nowhere,” Lil said quickly. “I…It’s nothing.”
There was something odd about her. Beneath the neat, respectable Lil she knew so well, there was a person Francesca had never seen before.
“What is the matter, Lil?” she said impulsively, climbing the stairs toward her.
Lil’s blue eyes met her own, and to Francesca’s surprise they filled with tears. The maid looked away and bit her lip.
“Lil,” Francesca said gently, “do tell me what’s the matter. You know I’ll help you if I can.”
“Oh, miss,” Lil breathed. “I don’ know what’s wrong with me. Ever since we got here, I’ve been thinkin’ about things.”
“Things?”
“It’s like the past has risen up to swallow me whole, and I can’t escape it.”
“You never speak about your past, Lil,” Francesca said gently. “I know you’re from London, of course I do, but other than that you’ve never confided in me.”
“They ain’t…aren’t the sort of memories a respectable woman confides in anyone, miss.”
“Come, Lil, you know me better than that!”
Lil sighed. “I had a family once. I haven’t seen them in twenty years, miss. I don’t suppose they’re still living in the same street as they was. Perhaps they’re dead. So many folk who die in London are buried in paupers’ graves, without names.”
“Oh Lil, is that where you’re going now? To find them?”
Lil nodded, and her tears overflowed. “I—I know it’s stupid, miss. You don’t have to tell me. But ever since Jacob died, and I’ve been alone again, I’ve been thinking of my family and wondering…”
“It must be difficult, being all alone in the world, Lil. But you know we think of you as part of our family.”
Lil looked as if she was going to dissolve completely, but then she took a deep breath and gave a sniff, and pulled herself together. “I know that, miss,” she said huskily.