The Now Former Lady Deveroux Ch. 02

"Undoubtedly," the Sister teases. She holds eye contact with Samantha until the former noble defuses her hostility, meeting Esther's gentleness with resigned calm. "Oh, don't be so cross. I do not, for a singular moment, believe that all you are is vanity. Underneath the veneer, underneath the manufactured immutability, I believe there lies in you a sincere, sweet woman who you have been, for some unknowable reason, trying to rid yourself of. If we are to be friends, I would much rather befriend that woman."

A little pathetically, Samantha crosses her arms over her chest and looks away. "I thought you lot were supposed to practice unconditional love."

"In what way is this perspective not loving?" Esther scoots her chair in and places her head into the palm of her hand, elbow on the table. She looks at Samantha with kindly eyes, adding, "Your beliefs are making you miserable, and all I am saying is, 'Samantha, dear, you are making yourself miserable. Please stop doing that to my friend.'"

It takes a long moment for Samantha to make any reply, and in the time until she does, the inner workings of herself do everything they can to reject her perspective. The defenses of her mind attempt to rebuttal the challenge, only to find that the loneliness of her last quarter year and the monument of her fall from grace add a profound potency to Esther's argument. It was difficult to deny that she'd shut herself away in this home not only because of the shame of her plummet, but also because she felt much of her newfound status to be beneath her.

And yet, it had not been beneath her mother. Susanna Holm, her endlessly kind and considerate mother, enjoyed the position she found herself in. She and Cordelia's mother had been fast friends, quickly moving past the dynamic of servant and master in favor of an equality of the home, and they'd been delighted that Cordelia and Samantha got along so well. True, they never know exactly how well the two of them were, but it was a life she'd found purpose in. When she passed... perhaps Samantha had allowed that life to pass with her.

With as pained of a whisper as was willing to leave her lips, Samantha rises from the table and towards the kitchen to fetch more food, uttering a weary and defeated, "You're right."

Esther laughs, calling after her, "Apology accepted!" A moment later, she adds, "My favorite color is green, should you have interest!"