Chapter 29

"We are our mothers' daughters, are we not?" Corey Ann Haydu, The Careful Undressing of Love

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Chapter Twenty – Nine

She could never have imagined that so many fine things could be owned by one person.

Annaliese had pulled half a dozen gowns from her trunk and had laid them all out across the large, impossibly inviting bed.

The room had practically dazed her as she had followed her sisters inside. It was a large, square room and she immediately noticed the intricately carved mahogany bed situated against the far wall.

The fireplace, made with the same marble that featured throughout the house, was made cosy by the white and gold settees surrounding it. It crackled away, filling the room with comfortable warmth.

The dresser was covered in scent bottles and jars, all perfectly aligned, although they did not look like they had been touched. Perhaps they belonged to the owner of the house. Annaliese did not seem like the type of person to sit in front of a mirror primping herself while her sister lay in a hospital bed.

The writing desk, on the other hand, looked thoroughly occupied. It was covered in papers, letters, pots of inks and quills. Annaliese seemed to have a lot of correspondence.

Annaliese noticed her eyes on the untidy writing desk and said, "I try to keep it organised but something new arrives from the children every other day," she explained. "They send me their schoolwork, and every odd thought that seems to pop into their heads." She laughed lightly.

Annaliese was a good mother, she decided.

"Isabella, do you really not remember anything?" asked Eleanor.

She turned at the sound of her name, which was a very odd feeling. She still did not feel as though it belonged to her, yet she answered to it.

"Eleanor!" hissed Annaliese.

She shook her head. "No, no. It is alright. I suppose it is natural to be curious, is it not? I know I am. But I do not remember anything. I do not know why. Perhaps my memories fell out of my head when my doctor drilled into my head." She wondered if that were possible.

"I hope not," Eleanor said sincerely.

"Helena packed these for me," Annaliese said, gesturing to the gowns on the bed. "I was not in the right mindset when we were racing against time to get you help."

She could hear the echo of terror in Annaliese's voice. How she must have frightened them.

"Who is Helena?" she asked, wanting to change the subject.

"Matthew and Luke's mother," replied Annaliese. "Our mother-in-law."

Her eyes widened. The woman who loved her sons fiercely. "Luke tells me she likes me." It was more of a question.

"Oh, yes," confirmed Annaliese. "She cried happy tears every time a letter arrived for you from across the sea. All she wanted was for Luke to have someone that he loved enough to warrant his being careful while he was away."

Both Luke and Annaliese had now confirmed it. She smiled.

All three girls turned to the door as someone lightly knocked.

"Yes?" called Annaliese.

The door opened without the person announcing themselves. Her mother entered the room and closed the door behind her.

"Get out," snapped Annaliese coldly.

Jane merely arched an eyebrow and pressed her lips into a firm line. Clearly the animosity between them had not diminished any. "I have come to help Isabella change," she said calmly. She then crossed the room to stand beside the bed to peruse the gowns.

"Isabella does not need your help," Annaliese insisted.

"Isabella is still my child," retorted Jane.

"Isabella can speak for herself," she interjected as she seized the first dress she could get her hands on to end the argument. The burgundy fabric in her hand felt like butter it was so soft. It was heavy, too, as they layers of fabric underneath the dress had deceived her. "Help me, Eleanor."

Eleanor was quick to take the dress from her, and together they walked towards the privacy screen.

"Mother, really, what are you still doing here?" Annaliese asked exasperatedly. "You have already conned Luke into clearing your debt, just as Matthew did once before. You are free to do whatever you want with your life! Why do you insist on making ours complicated?"

She and Eleanor discarded the gown on the floor and pressed their ears to the privacy screen.

"Is that all you think that I care about, Annaliese? Money?" asked Jane in disbelief.

"Yes," scoffed Annaliese. "You married me off for money. You would have done the same to Isabella and Eleanor if I had not taken them in."

She exchanged a look with Eleanor, and the sadness in Eleanor's brown eyes told her it was the truth.

"And look at the life it gave you!" exclaimed Jane. "You have beautiful things! A beautiful home! Money, security! Things that the poverty stricken people in this country would give their right arm for!"

"And it breaks my heart to know that things are what you value, Mother," Annaliese said sadly. "I do not need my things. And it breaks my heart that you do."

"I suppose you will never understand, Annaliese," huffed Jane. "You never knew what it was like to go without, even when you were a child. I always made sure you and your sisters had everything. I even found you a rich husband!"

"But I did not need that, Mother!" exclaimed Annaliese. "All we needed was for you to be happy with us, and to love us. Not to slap us into submission whenever we did not comply with your rules."

She instinctively reached up to touch her own cheek. Was that true? Had her mother beaten her?

Jane did not reply.

"Does it make you sad, Mother?" asked Annaliese. "Does it make you sad that you do not know your children anymore? Your grandchildren?"

"Of course it makes me sad, Annaliese," Jane said quietly.

Eleanor brought her hand to her mouth. "I cannot believe those words came out of her mouth," she whispered.

Jane and Annaliese were quiet for what felt like hours. During the silence, Eleanor grabbed her hand and squeezed tightly. She did not have any memory of the animosity between her mother and sister, but even she felt nervous and apprehensive.

This exchange was important.

"Everything I did, I did to ensure that you did not have the life I had," Jane said finally.

"Was your life really so awful, Mother?" asked Annaliese.

Jane sighed. "It was not what I had envisioned for myself," she replied. "I wanted to raise my position in society and I am not ashamed of it. Every girl that attends the season in London desires the exact same thing, Annaliese.

"I did everything in power to ensure that you had a safe and secure future, Annaliese, and by extension, your family. While I realise the morals of the situation were a little hazy, all I wanted was for you and your sisters to live comfortably."

"You wanted me to steal from my husband for you, Mother," snapped Annaliese.

Her eyes widened at that comment, and Eleanor's grimace told her the truth of it.

"And that was wrong," admitted Jane.

"I beg your pardon?" Annaliese asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Do not be petulant," scolded Jane. "What I asked of you was wrong."

"It was."

There was silence again, and a pain in her back began to creep its way into her awareness. She had been leaning awkwardly against the privacy screen for some time now. Eleanor had to be experiencing a similar pain.

"I know it is too late for you and I to have any semblance of a nice relationship, Annaliese, but do not deny me the opportunity to spend time with your sisters. I have spent the last few years sending every penny I have earned to a debtor's prison!" She huffed, frustrated. "I had to read about my daughter's life threatening condition in the newspaper." Her tone had changed dramatically. "I met my grandson for the first time when he was half dead with fever." Jane sighed again. "Do you have children?" she asked. "Do I have another grandchild I do not know about?"

"Yes," Annaliese murmured. "I have a daughter. Her name is Julianna."

"Julianna," repeated Jane. "And another one on the way. It was hard not to hear the vomiting."

Annaliese sighed, exasperated. "It is not too late for you to mend our relationship, Mother! Do you think I want to be this bitter about my own mother?"

"It is not too late?"

"You are my mother. The only one I have."

"I am sorry, Annaliese," Jane said sincerely. "I was wrong. But in spite of that, you have become a good person. You clearly are a better mother than I ever was."

"You are sincerely sorry?" Annaliese asked softly.

"More than you know."

"One chance," Annaliese stated. "That is it. That is all I am prepared to offer. Julianna turns four in October. You and Father could visit if you like."

"I am looking forward to it already," Jane said peacefully.

"I am glad," Annaliese replied before shouting, "Eleanor, how long does it take to help Isabella into a dress?"

Both she and Eleanor jumped so suddenly that they knocked the privacy screen over. The large, screen fell forward and made a huge noise, clattering on the ground between the two parties.

Annaliese and Jane were sitting next to each other on the bed. She knew that both she and Eleanor were wearing the guiltiest expressions on their faces, like they were naughty, eavesdropping children.

Annaliese and Jane both burst into laughter just as Eleanor threw the burgundy dress over her head.

She struggled to feed her arms through the sleeves as quickly as Eleanor was pulling the skirt down over her waist.

"We were just ... pressing it ... with our hands. Lots of creases from the trunk," stammered Eleanor, quickly throwing her a glare, encouraging her to speak.

"Yes, pressing," she lied with a puzzled expression. Sisterly deception. She enjoyed it.

"Well," Annaliese said, placing her hands on her hips, "it kills me to say it but my gown is much too big for you. But it will do until we can take in your gowns at home."

Gowns? She wondered if Isabella had a similar wardrobe to Annaliese.

"I was always good with hair," mentioned Jane. "I could do your hair, if you like, Isabella?"

"That is true. Mother has a particular talent with braids," confirmed Annaliese.

Her mother and sisters spent an hour combing, braiding, and pinning her hair into place. Annaliese had even found some dress pins to take in the waist and arms of the gown to allow it to fit her better.

"What do you think?" asked Jane once they had finished.

She did not know what to say. The person in the mirror looked completely foreign to her. Just as she had in the hospital, she reached up to touch her face just to make sure that the person in the reflection was actually her.

She looked pretty. Her hair was pulled, pinned, and fixed just so. It no longer looked tangled and untidy. With her hair pulled away from her face, she was able to see her delicate features. They did not look so gaunt with her hair the way it was. Her eyes were big and brown, and her skin was pale and smooth. She smiled slightly.

This is what Isabella looked like.

As if on cue, Jamie wandered into the bedroom and sprinted straight for his mama. Luke appeared in the doorway as well, lingering before entering. As soon as he saw her, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

Jamie knelt down at her feet and laid his head down on her lap. "Mama," he said wistfully, "what are clouds made of?"

She closed her eyes and smiled. She was Isabella. This was her life. Even if she never remembered Isabella's past, that did not mean that Isabella could not have a future.

Isabella looked opened her eyes and looked up at Luke. He was staring at her, a smile on his face, and love in his eyes. "I love you," he mouthed.

Isabella blushed, before returning her attention to Jamie. "Well, Jamie, I do not know, but I am sure we can find out."

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Next chapter will be the epilogue! I will hopefully get that up tomorrow. And I will aim to give you the synopsis of my new story too!

This story will be the last for this series. Everything will be tied up in the epilogue, I promise. Some of you were hoping for an Eleanor story, but I go where the inspiration goes - and the inspiration is taking me to my two new characters! I'm hoping you will love them and this story. I'm so excited about it.

So the weirdest thing happened to me on Sunday. I woke up, got up, went to the bathroom (as you do!) and carried on with my morning. Got a drink, got some breakfast, turned on the TV etc. Then I realised that I had perfect vision! Usually I'm so half asleep in the morning that I have to go all the way back to my room to get my glasses because I realise I can't see anything.

But I could see fine! For a split second I'm like - MIRACLE OVERNIGHT VISION CURE - then I realised I'd fallen asleep with my contacts in :( Usually when I fall asleep with my contacts in they dry out and I wake up and they're crusty and they hurt like a bitch to get them out but they stayed okay.

Look after your eyes guys. I can't tell you what I would give to wake up with 20/20 vision and to never have to worry about glasses or contacts again. I'm going to look into laser eye surgery, but I can't at the moment because my vision is still deteriorating. Apparently when I'm 25 it should steady.

My vision suffered for you guys, I hope you realise!!! The summer of 2011 I joined Wattpad and started writing. I went back to school to start Year 12 in January 2012 and all of a sudden I couldn't see the whiteboard. So staring at my laptop all summer wrecked my eyes lol. I kid I kid! But seriously, you don't know what you have till it's gone. Look after yourselves!!

I'll get the epilogue up tomorrow. I only have one errand to run tomorrow so I should have time to write.

Have a lovely day/night.

Vote and comment xxxxxx