Abby Grahame - Wentworth Hall

“Not a thing,” Nora insisted, gathering the nightgown Lila had allowed to drop to the floor.

“It means something,” Lila insisted.

“I like to reserve my judgments until I meet a person.”

“Oh, he’s going to be wonderful, Nora!” Lila said assuredly. “I can tell just by looking at him.” Lila bounded toward the door. “Why am I standing here? I have to greet them.”

Lila heard Nora say something about Percival the butler admitting them as she rushed into the hall. Her mother and Maggie were already ahead of her, both deep in conversation. Lila fell back, not wanting to join them, her enthusiasm deflated by the fact that her sister looked spectacular in a silk floral dress that followed her womanly figure, not exactly hugging her body but certainly accentuating its form. Her abundant hair was gathered in a loose knot at the top of her head. A vision of effortless elegance.

How could she ever compete with that?

Teddy Fitzhugh would be swept off his feet—just like every other young man Maggie deigned to look upon.

But maybe not! This was a fresh start with new people. Lila resolved to assert herself, make her presence known.

Picking up her pace, Lila caught up to her mother and sister. “Isn’t it exciting?” she said.

Her mother glanced over her shoulder and nodded. Maggie, as usual, didn’t even acknowledge Lila’s presence.

“It is indeed,” Lady Darlington agreed. “I was just telling your sister that she should make every effort to get to know Teddy Fitzhugh. She’s ready for marriage and the longer she waits the dimmer her prospects will become.”

“Marriage?” Lila gasped. Teddy Fitzhugh wasn’t even in the door yet and they were already plotting to marry him to Maggie. “Surely you can’t be serious.”

“Have no doubt, I am most serious,” Lady Darlington said.

“I saw him from my window. He’s not terrible-looking,” Maggie said, her voice flat with the new, put-on maturity she’d acquired over the last year. It was so affected it made Lila want to scream. Only one year earlier they’d tickled, poked, and teased each other, racing down the halls of the manor laughing like lunatics. But now, since her return, Lila hardly recognized her sister. It was as if Maggie had had her heart surgically removed while in France. The change in Maggie was mystifying and depressing—and insufferable.

“I’d say he was rather handsome,” Lila grumbled.

Maggie shrugged as if already bored.

Lila fought the urge to choke her sister as they hurried down the staircase. At the bottom of the stairs, Percival was admitting the twins. “Welcome! Welcome!” Lady Darlington exclaimed, hurrying into the foyer, her arms outstretched in an embracing gesture of charm and warmth. “Welcome to Wentworth Hall. We’re so delighted you’re both here.”

Teddy Fitzhugh reached back and lifted something from atop one of his suitcases. Turning forward, he offered Lady Darlington a lavishly abundant bouquet of mixed-color roses. “We are so grateful for your kindness to us, Lady Darlington,” he said as he presented them.

“Most grateful,” Jessica Fitzhugh echoed with less sincere warmth than her brother.

Lila hoped her face didn’t reveal how overwhelmed she felt by the mere sight of Teddy. She had never seen any man like him. For one thing, he was tan. Set against his sun-lightened hair and eyes it spoke to her of outdoor adventure and highlighted his pearly teeth in a way that gave his smile a thrillingly dangerous charm.

“Thank you. They’re exquisite,” Lady Darlington gushed over the roses.

Lila opened her mouth to agree with her mother but closed it again when Lady Darlington added, “Aren’t they stunning, Maggie?”

“Beautiful,” Maggie concurred without much enthusiasm.

“Yes, beautiful,” Teddy Fitzhugh murmured. Lila followed the direction of his gaze and immediately realized it was fixed on Maggie. It was as if he could see nothing else.

For Lila, it was a kick in the gut.

It took only two days for Lila to conclude that there was absolutely no hope of distracting Teddy Fitzhugh from his fascination with Maggie. Teddy was polite to Lila, of course. During dinner he responded to her questions about South Africa. He encouraged her to play the piano for them at tea. But Lila knew this attention was out of courtesy, not genuine interest. When Lila’s older sister was in the room he did nothing but hang on her every word, laughing uproariously at her every pale witticism, scowling with concern whenever she voiced the mildest of complaints. To borrow an expression she’d heard Nora use: He was hooked. There was nothing Lila could think of that could possibly make him notice her. Unless, of course, she had an ally.

It couldn’t be just any ally, either. It had to be someone who knew him well and whom he trusted completely. Lila came up with a plan.

Jessica Fitzhugh was, in her own way, as strikingly attractive as her brother. She too had the light tan her brother sported, laid over with a spray of freckles across her high cheekbones and delicate nose. With her fashionable finger-curls and chignon combined with a graceful yet athletic gait, Jessica Fitzhugh seemed to Lila to be the height of modern womanhood. And as such, Lila found the more sophisticated and somewhat older Jessica to be utterly intimidating and dauntingly unapproachable. It didn’t help matters that Jessica mostly kept to herself. Lila thought she must be homesick and also missing her father terribly. Nora confided that she thought Jessica was simply a snob—pointing to Jessica’s constant sour expression as proof. But Lila didn’t want to believe it. Maybe that was just how Jessica’s face looked in repose. She couldn’t help that.

But if Lila could befriend Jessica she would have the inside track on Teddy. She’d never seen a brother and sister who were closer, probably because they were also twins. Besides that, it would be nice to have a friend at Wentworth Hall, someone to fill the void Maggie had left since deciding she was too grownup to bother with Lila any longer.

There didn’t seem any way into Jessica’s world, though. She spent all her time with Teddy and if he was off trailing after Maggie, she busied herself in her room either reading or scribbling in a red notebook she seemed to carry with her everywhere. But one afternoon Lila came upon Jessica studying the oil portraits that lined the upstairs hallway.

“That’s my brother Wesley,” Lila said, sidling up beside Jessica, who was standing below the portrait of the oldest Darlington sibling and gazing up at it.

“Really,” Jessica remarked without turning toward Lila but continuing to inspect the painting.

“I call him Wes, for short. He studies at Oxford University, though right now he’s in the states with a school chum. I miss him terribly. He dotes on me. We’re very close, just like you and Teddy.”

Jessica turned to look at Lila, her face twisted into a disdainful smile. “I doubt it.”

Lila hadn’t been prepared for such a condescending response. “What do you doubt?” she asked, surprised.

“That your relationship resembles my bond with Teddy in any way. We’re twins.”

“Well, of course,” Lila agreed, feeling horribly foolish and hoping her face wasn’t turning red. “I suppose one can’t ever understand what it’s like to be a twin unless one is, oneself, a twin.”

“Exactly,” Jessica said, returning her gaze to the portrait of Wesley. “I must say he’s not bad-looking.”

“Who, Wes? Oh, no, Wes is very handsome. All the girls think so.”

“How do you know? Do they confide in you?” Jessica scoffed.

“Sometimes,” Lila insisted, her voice rising a bit. This was not going as planned. Why was Jessica being so disagreeable? She hoped Jessica wouldn’t press her for an instance of this happening because she couldn’t think of one. Even if no girl had ever actually told Lila she admired Wes, Lila could tell that girls liked her older brother. It was obvious from the coy and giggly way they acted in his presence. “You can see from his portrait that he’s handsome, can’t you?” Lila added. What more proof did she need?