stepped onto the floor. Since she and Julie had started sleeping together, Isobel had refused to allow the mannequin into their bed. Cordelia spent the nights in a sleeping bag on the floor, just a stretch-down hand reach away from Julie.
Isobel’s fear reflected back at her from the dressing table mirror as she walked past it. The mirror was angled in three sections of glass and another full-length mirror was attached to the door of the wardrobe behind her. She was trapped in glass, framed in multiple images that grew smaller and smaller, like Russian dolls that fitted inside each other until there was nothing left except a tiny figurine, almost a dot. A dot that was ready to explode every time she thought about her father and how he had changed their lives with the toss of a coin.
Julie was kneeling on the floor beside Cordelia when she returned from the bathroom.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked.
‘Cordelia’s lonely and scared.’ Julie’s voice shook as she tried to slide into the sleeping bag beside the mannequin. ‘I’m keeping her safe from The Recluse.’
One part of Isobel wanted to leave her sister there. It would serve her right for preferring to sleep with a stupid shop dummy. But another part of her was ashamed of being jealous of Cordelia. That was the part that made her persuade Julie to climb back into bed – and to bring Cordelia with her.
Chapter Six
Sophy
Victor was correct when he told Sophy that his uncle would not be an easy man to nurse. Charlie had installed a monitoring system that linked Jack’s rooms to the downstairs floor but his usual summons when he needed Sophy was to bang his walking stick on the floor. His monosyllabic replies and occasional outbursts of impatience were upsetting but she could cope with them. What she found most distressing was his lack of expression. What must it be like to be unable to convey emotion, to live with a face that was stretched, frozen and immobile? His eyes, one saved and one blinded by the fire, were hidden behind dark glasses. She understood what he was saying, his yes’s and no’s, the wave of his hand, the lift of his shoulders. Even the curve of his finger conveyed meaning to her. What she was unable to decipher were his outbursts when his frustration turned his words to babble.
Physically, he was growing stronger, though he moved with difficulty. If he was capable of expressing pain, it would have been etched on his face, yet his determination forced one foot in front of the other as they walked together around the courtyard.
Outwardly, he was so damaged by the fire that it was difficult to believe he was capable of such willpower and determination. She had been conscious of his inner strength from the first time she sat down at his bedside with his medical team to discuss his future care. None of those present, including Sophy, could doubt Victor’s concern for his uncle but Jack had overruled and upended the health plan that had been organised for him.
At times, Sophy was overwhelmed by the responsibility of caring for him. Ellie came three times a week to tidy the house but Sophy, Charlie and Victor were the only people he allowed to look upon his blemished features. Sophy never knew when to expect Charlie but each time he came he was ready to tackle an outdoor chore like fixing the leaking roof on one of the outhouses or cutting back the overgrown bushes in the courtyard. Sometimes he just sat with Jack and talked to him about old times.
In his own gruff way, Jack was anxious for Sophy to settle into his home. He suggested they call each other by their first names. His difficulty with words gave his questions an abruptness she found unsettling yet as she began to relax in his company, she was happy to talk to him about her life before she came to Hyland Hall. She was selective about the information she shared with him. He knew her mother had died when she was six years old and that she had lived with her father above his greengrocery shop until she married Luke. She told him about her experiences working in the accident and emergency department of a city hospital and how she had given up nursing when she was expecting Julie.
It had been a stressful pregnancy that occurred just before her father suffered a fatal heart attack.