It wasn’t like Daddy to let her carry suitcases, but he gave in quickly.
“I’ll take one,” I said sharply.
“Okay,” Daddy said. “After you settle in, come to the den. We’ll talk and catch up. Unless you are too tired.”
“Oh, no, Daddy. I’m fine.”
“Good. See you soon,” he said, and hurried after Lucille.
Mrs. Dobson and I began to go up the stairway.
“How was your graduation ceremony?” Mrs. Dobson asked.
“Fine,” I said.
“Despite what you just told your father, I imagine you are tired,” she said, hearing the tenseness in my voice.
“No, no, I’m fine,” I said. It had been so long since Daddy and I had had any sort of face-to-face conversation, I was eager to get back downstairs.
Mrs. Dobson, however, had gotten to know me well over the years. She looked at me closely when we turned at the top and started toward my bedroom.
“I imagine there are a few surprises for you here now,” she said.
I paused and turned to her. “Yes, there are.”
She nodded, and we went to my bedroom. No matter how short or long the interval between my being here and somewhere else, I always felt a little numb when I first set foot in my bedroom again. Daddy tried to make changes for me after the date rape. He had replaced the carpeting with a darker color, bought new bedding and comforters, and redone the curtains and had the walls repainted, but when I looked at my room, I always saw the old room, the room in which Cassie had arranged for my pregnancy. It made it hard to take that initial step, but of course, I did. Daddy’s words resonated: “We must face our demons here.”
“I can unpack everything for you, Miss Semantha. Go ahead and shower and change if you want. I’m sure you want to join your father and Mrs. Bennet.”
“Is she here often?” I asked.
Mrs. Dobson paused. I knew it was against her nature to gossip, but my question apparently struck a deeper vein in her thinking. In fact, she looked surprised by it.
“Maybe you should let your father tell you, Miss Semantha.”
“Tell me what? If she’s here often? I don’t care. I just wondered why—”
“Miss Semantha, Mrs. Bennet’s moved into the Heaven-stone house,” she blurted. She put her hand over her mouth as if the words had escaped.
“Moved in? When?”
“About two weeks ago. Oh, dear me, dear me. I really wish your father had been the one to tell you this. I’m not sure he’ll like it that I’m the one telling you. Maybe they’re preparing to do just that right now. Oh, dear.”
“Don’t worry, Mrs. Dobson,” I said, squeezing her hand gently and leaning in to whisper. “When they do, I’ll act as if it is the first time I’m hearing it.”
She nodded and smiled. “Here we are like two conspirators in Buckingham Palace,” she quipped.
“Do you like her moving in, Mrs. Dobson?”
“Oh, it’s not my place to have an opinion about such a thing, Miss Semantha.”
“Nevertheless, I’m sure you do have an opinion,” I said.
She glanced at me, but she didn’t respond. It would be cruel to force an opinion about it out of her, I thought, and went to take a quick shower and change. When I looked at myself in the mirror just before going downstairs, I saw Cassie behind me.
She didn’t have to say a word.
We were sisters. From the look on her face, I knew exactly what she was thinking.