Chapter 9: THE PROMISE AND THE BATTLE

The mattress beneath protested Lily’s constant tossing and turning. She threw the pillow over her face and growled into it, frustrated. Life, Raymond, fate and poverty frustrated her. The thought of being stuck in a marriage with a man who found the very sight of her distressing, frustrated her most of all, that she couldn’t leave frustrated her.

It didn’t matter how much she wanted to pack her bags and head back to New York, she couldn’t. After Raymond told her, without mincing words, that she wasn’t a part of his family, she had stormed up the stairs and dug into her bag for her little savings. Devastated, she found that her savings did not pay for her trip back to New York. Worse than that was her not having a family member left in New York, except for a great aunt, whose existence she only knew about, and whose face she never got the privilege of seeing. She didn’t know the address of her great aunt, and even if she did, she wasn’t certain she’d be welcome in her home.

She was doomed! The thought seeped into her consciousness, bringing tears to her eyes. She was doomed to remain in a loveless marriage with no way of escape.

She turned over to her side, the mattress feeling uncomfortable beneath her body. She tried to think of a happier time, days spent with her parents before her father died in a coach accident and her mother followed the suit, pneumonia killing her. A time when she lived in a home with servants to see to her every need, a home with vibrant wall colors and beautiful flowers surrounding the building. A home with warm baths and warm meals. A city inhabited by beautiful, high-class women and respectable gentlemen, one of whom, Lily had imagined, she would marry.

A soft sigh escaped her lips as a tear slipped down the side of her face, sinking into the white sheet. It shouldn’t have turned out so badly; she wasn’t meant to have married a farmer who could barely feed his family, or act like a husband. But fate had played a cruel game on her, and whether she liked it, she was stuck on a farm, and married to that farmer.

The sound of movement caught her attention. Partly believing she was imagining the sound, she laid still for a while until she heard it again. It was faint, and for the silence of the night, she wouldn’t have heard it. But she heard it again—the distinct sound of the floorboards creaking beneath someone’s weight.

Rising to a sitting position, she placed one foot after the other on the floor and rose to her feet. Her night coat sat on the chair by the fireplace. Grabbing it with one hand and shrugging it on, she turned the doorknob and made her way out of the room.

She stood in the small hallway, darkness clouding her vision for a while until her eyes adjusted to it. Slowly, she began making her way to the stairs, when the sight before her forced her to pause.

Scarlet!

Soaking wet with water dripping to the floorboards, Scarlet stood trembling before her.

For a while, Lily just stood there, her eyes running from Scarlet’s messy brown hair to her extremely dirty nightdress to her muddy shoes and back to her face.

“Scarlet?” Lily whispered, covering the distance between them, concerned. She didn’t think about the purpose for which the child had been out in the rain in the middle of the night. All she thought of was the child’s safety. “Are you alright, darling?” She touched her face, examining her intently.

Scarlet glanced down, visibly nervous.

Lily leaned down, kneeling before Scarlet. She thought of her mother, killed by pneumonia, and fear immediately washed over her as she shrugged off her night coat and placed it on the floor. Reaching for Scarlet’s wet nightdress, she began taking it off.

Scarlet stood still as she worked, surprising Lily when she didn’t protest her actions. She flung the wet nightdress to the side and picked her night coat from the floor, helping Scarlet into it.

“There, that should keep you warm,” she declared, rising to her feet.

Scarlet nodded, eyes planted on the floorboards.

“Are you alright, darling?” She frowned, concerned as she nudged Scarlet’s chin until she was gazing into her eyes. She didn’t have to search for too long, for written plain as day in Scarlet’s eyes, was the answer Lily sought.

Bending to her knees, she reached out with both hands and pulled Scarlet’s rigid body into her arms. She heard Scarlet’s broken sobs as she leaned into her embrace and buried her face in her neck.

“I’m sorry,” Scarlet murmured, speaking after a few seconds.

“It’s alright.” A small smile settled on her face. “When my mother died, I went to that graveside for many weeks.” 

“You will not tell Papa what I did?”

Lily sighed, understanding Scarlet’s question, but unwilling to be held bound by such a promise. If her suspicions were right and Scarlet was sneaking out every night to go to the lakeside where the Apple tree was planted—and also where Lily suspected their mother was buried—then it was her duty to alert Raymond to his daughter’s nightly journeys. Not only was it risky for a young lady to be out in the middle of the night alone, it also showed the level of Scarlet’s grief, and Lily knew how important it was for Raymond to step in and help her, and his other children, through it.

Suddenly, everything made sense to Lily—Scarlet was the one keeping the area around the tree cleared, and Raymond had been furious when she picked the apples because it was where he had buried his wife.

“Perhaps you need to go to bed now, we’ll discuss this tomorrow.”

“Papa will be furious, Miss Austin.” Scarlet shook her head, her eyes pleading. “He forbids us from going near Mama and I need to…”

“You need to rest.” Lily nodded.

“Promise, promise you won’t tell.”

“I—” Lily opened her mouth to say no, but Scarlet’s eyes pleaded with her. “Alright.”

Scarlet threw herself on Lily, wrapping her arms around her waist. “Thank you, Miss Austin!”

Lily made helped Scarlet settle in her cot, before making her way down the stairs, where she checked the front door, making certain to secure the latch. Thinking it best to get proper locks for the door, perhaps to keep Scarlet locked in, she made her way to the back door and reached for the locks.

Her hand froze by the door, something in her protesting her actions. For a second, she thought of Raymond. Perhaps he would sleep indoors tonight, considering the heavy downpour. She didn’t wish to lock him out if he did.

She unlocked the door, turning to make her way up the stairs. She was halfway through the kitchen when something caught her attention. Freezing in her tracks, she turned to the closed door once more, brow raised. She stood still for a long while, staring at the closed door, before deciding she wouldn’t ignore the sound. She turned and made her way back to the door and pulled it open.

A loud gasp escaped her lips as she jumped back in fear. Raymond laid still on the back porch, soaked from head to toe.

Horrified, she forced her legs forward until she was dropping to her knees beside him. Heart pounding, she touched his neck in search of a pulse. A loud sigh of relief escaped her lips the second she found one.

Choking back a cry, she grabbed his arms and began dragging his unconscious body into the building, pausing in her tracks the second her eyes caught sight of it.

She released Raymond then, her lungs constricting as realization settled in, forcing her feet forward until she was stepping into the heavy downpour.

She was about to engage in a battle with fire, a battle she wasn’t the least bit prepared for.