Page 79 of The Austen Escape
Iwoke to soft gray light. Heavy-cloud-cover light. There were no dresses strewn on the floor and Isabel was not already off on an adventure. I looked over to find dark curls spilling across her pillow and blue eyes fixed on me.
“Hello.” I crushed my pillow beneath me.
“I woke up a few minutes ago.” Isabel pushed herself upright. “Are you sure about all this?”
Late in the night I’d told her my plans. We stayed up until the black had shifted to gray outside the windows talking about all that had gone on—here, at home, and through the years.
She and Grant had gone for another long walk after ours and, upon recounting it, I let her quote one more line. She was bursting with excitement over its “perfect application.”
She’d actually held her hand to her heart while delivering it. “‘Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure... but where, as in this case, though the conduct is mistaken, the feelings are not... He could not impute to me a more relenting heart than I possessed, or a heart more disposed to accept his.’”
I had flopped back on my bed and moaned. “That’s all you’re going to tell me?”
She had perched on her elbows above me with a grin. “One more thing... That man can kiss.”
She also told me that Dr. Milton had agreed to daily calls and she planned to stay a few more days. Also, Nathan had spent most of the night searching for me. He had knocked on our bedroom door six times. I almost felt guilty for hiding until two a.m. in the canning room—almost.
I’d told her about our walk to Bath, about overhearing his call, and about my plans to move.
Are you sure about all this?I let her present question drift through me. “No.”
“Then send another e-mail.”
That was another thing I’d told her. In my haste, I’d sent Craig an e-mail resigning. Isabel’s shock had confirmed it hadn’t been my wisest move.
“And let Karen fire me? She’d love that.”
Isabel squished a pillow into her lap. “But you don’t know that. That sentence might not have been about you. And you said Nathan sounded like he was against it.”
“What about telling me Craig had been wrong all along?”
“So you’re the scapegoat. Nathan was probably frustrated that Craig dropped the ball and now you’re the scapegoat. Sounds like Karen needs one.”
After five years of stories and lots of Friday nights, Isabel knew WATT well.
“Having your ‘boyfriend’ stick up for you is no better.” I made the wordboyfriendsound ugly to make it easier to let go.
Isabel caught it and let out a long, slow breath. “I see... Then I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Everything. I didn’t know how much he really meant to you, and what I did plays into all this. Yes, it’s your job, but everything about Nathan and how you feel about all this, I’m in there too. You wouldn’t doubt him if it hadn’t been for me.”
“One has nothing to do with the other.” I climbed out of bed and headed to the bathroom.
“One has everything to do with the other,” Isabel called after me.
I ignored her and brushed my teeth and hair, dressed in jeans and a cream sweater, and dabbed on a little makeup.
She said nothing further as I darted around the room to finish my packing and slip on my ballet flats. I finally zipped up my suitcase and stood next to her bed. “Call me when you get back?”
She threw the covers back and jumped up to hug me. “You know I will. And if you’re serious about all this, I want to throw you a moving-away party. You know your dad will come into town for it. He’d want that.”
“You two... Don’t do that. It’s not going to feel like anything worth celebrating.” I looked toward the door as if I expected Nathan to knock for the seventh time. “All this got so messed up.”
“Not messed up.” Isabel slid her hands down my arms and captured my own. “It got real. So don’t... don’t do anything rash until you can see it clearly. Okay?”
Gertrude met me at the bottom of the stairs. “I was coming to get you. Your car is here.”
