Page 23 of The Tailor's Treasure

Vigils was well after dark – after most people had retired for the night, in fact.Any woman out at such hours would be assumed to be up to no good, especially by a mother already anxious about her daughter's future.Isabel had never met Matilda, but she found herself in sudden sympathy with the woman.She didn't know what she'd do if Walter ran out and didn't come back for hours.

"All right," Constance said gently."And what happened next?"

"Everyone was asleep when I came back," Margery said."And I slept late this morning and no one woke me.And then when I did get up, Mother said we were going to see the priest this afternoon, and I said no, and then we – quarreled again –" Isabel was quite certain that "quarreled again" was covering for a multitude of bitter things said on both sides, "- and I came here."She sniffled."I wasn't doing anything last night.I only walked around.She's no right to say I disgraced myself."

"She doesn't know what you were doing," Constance pointed out."And I'm sure she was frightened badly when you didn't come back until late.You said she was asleep when you did return?"

Another pause, which Isabel assumed encompassed further squirming on Margery's part."She was – asleep when I came back.But she was sitting up at the table."

I don't doubt it,Isabel thought.Up keeping watch until all hours, desperate to know where her daughter had gone but with no way of finding her in the darkened streets – the only thing that surprised her was that Matilda had been able to fall asleep at all.Poor woman.Even if she had driven her daughter off to begin with, she surely hadn't meant for any harm to come to her.The whole episode really did remind her forcefully of her quarrels with Matthew when he was younger – though at least he wouldn't have faced the same dangers, roaming abroad after dark.Was this what she had to look forward to with Walter, once he was a little older?She hoped not.But then, she herself had given her parents no such trouble while they lived: perhaps the difference between a compliant and a rebellious child was nothing more than luck.

"Mmm," Constance said."Well I would say that neither of you have much to boast about as regards how you've conducted yourself, but that's no reason to stay away from home forever.If she made some apology to you, would you accept it?"

Isabel glanced up to see Margery glowering again."She won't."

"She might," Constance said."If you apologized as well."

"I won't," Margery said in a flare of temper."Not if she still means to go and see the priest.I won't go with her, and I won't apologize, and I won't do as she says.Would you, if you hadn't done anything to be sorry for?"

"I don't know," Constance said, still gentle."Do you think you've done anything amiss?"

Isabel gave up on concentrating on her sewing – the seam was nearly finished anyhow – and looked up to see Margery chewing on her lower lip again."I," she started."I –miii-iii-iighthave said – that just because she's wasted her life cleaning up after stinking children and keeping Father's house for him doesn't mean I have to do the same thing.I suppose that – might have been unkind."

"It might, at that."Constance's voice was dry as dust."Was that all?"

"Yes," Margery said, and Isabel believed her.If she was willing to admit to that, it didn't follow that she would be reticent to confess anything further."And she calledmeunclean and a child and –"

"I know," Constance said."And it was wrong of her, and she ought to say as much.So will you go back and apologize?"

Margery's voice went hard again."Not if she's still set on speaking to the priest.Would you?"

Constance made no reply, and it took Isabel a moment to realize that Margery's question had been addressed to her."I –"

"Isabel needn't answer that," Constance said firmly."If she doesn't want to."

"No, it's all right."Isabel took a deep breath, smoothing a hand over her sewing.When she looked at Margery, the girl stared back, her expression mulish.

Just turned fifteen, Constance had said.At Margery's age, Isabel had been huddled under an eave with her brother, trying to decide where they would sleep that night.She'd been married within the year.It had never occurred to her to fight against her fate – what would be the use?She had a duty, and she did it.But now, looking at Margery and thinking of the long years that had followed her marriage, she wondered if she oughtn't have at least tried to find a different way.

"Where would you go?"she asked."If you did not return, how would you live?"

Margery's mouth set in a stubborn line."I'd find work.And lodging.Or –" She looked to Constance."I could live here, and help keep house –"

"No, you couldn't."Constance's tone was gentle, but her words were firm."I've Peter to care for and the shop to run – I can't look after you as well.There's no space, anyhow, but with Peter, Jack, and I all living under this roof."

It occurred to Isabel for the first time to wonder how they all fit into the house now.Peter slept upstairs, and Constance on the first floor – so what was left for Jack?Did he bed down in front of the hearth at night?Another thing that was none of her business, but still – she wondered.

"Then I'll find some other place," Margery went on, not dissuaded in the slightest."And sleep in their attic and do their cooking and cleaning and mending.I'll even watch their children, if I have to.Anything to keep from getting married."

"But you haven't got any such placenow," Isabel said."Have you?"From the look on Margery's face, the answer was clear."I should not leave my home until I knew where I was going.A safe place to stay is not a thing to be given up lightly."

Go, and be damned to you, Joanna Faintree had shouted at her the day she announced they were leaving.Bedevil some other woman, for I'll have no more beggars under my roof.It had only strengthened Isabel's resolve to leave.Surely, she'd thought at the time, nothing could be worse than life as an unwanted cuckoo in some other family's nest.Would she make the same choice now, knowing what she knew about what awaited her?

Hadn't shekeptmaking that same choice, over and over, every year since?She could have done as Margery was threatening to do and ran.She never had.She hadn't even thought of it.

Constance's foot nudged hers under the table.When she looked at Constance, she saw gratitude writ large on her face."There you go," she said to Margery, though she was still looking at Isabel."Give it awhile longer, at least.If you want to go out and work, then do it.But don't run off just yet."

Margery sniffed."And if Mother tries to take me to the priest?"