Mistaken Consequences

Chapter 11: Twenty-three weeks

"Why didn't you just hire a moving company?" Bitsy growled as she struggled to manoeuvre the queen-sized mattress out into the hall. It had taken Vera a couple of weeks, plus the promise of several bottles of her best wine, to convince Bitsy to help her begin clearing out her spare bedroom so she could start moving the boxes from her study.

"I'm not paying a company to move a few pieces of furniture and some boxes from one room in the house to another," Vera told her.

"Some?" Bitsy questioned incredulously.

Okay, so there were more than a few boxes. Vera had collected a lot of stuff in her years with the Order. No doubt Bitsy had accumulated just as much clutter and probably more since Bitsy had always been more prone to travel.

"I'm not expecting you to carry them all by yourself."

"Oh? Because I don't see anyone else here helping," the older woman grumbled.

Vera rolled her eyes. "I'm not an invalid. I can lift a few boxes." She stepped forward, intending to grab one side of the mattress to help it turn the corner.

"I've got it!" Bitsy snapped and with a final shove, the bed cleared the corner and began to wobble precariously.

\Vera steadied it with one hand and gave her old tutor an unimpressed look.

Bitsy glared back, then huffed in defeat. "Just don't try to lift it. Now, which bedroom are we moving this to?"

"On the left," Vera said, shifting her end of the mattress.

"Don't-"

"Lift it, I know. I didn't. I slid it."

If she'd known Bitsy would be so aggravating about what Vera could and could not help with, she might have put more thought into Bitsy's demand that Vera just order some of her disciples to move her. And she could see the logic in the idea, it was just...her house was her house. It was her sanctuary away from Belgrave and the Order and she wasn't sure she liked the idea of showing them into her home. It was too personal.

Vera released her hold on the mattress so she could open the door and flip on the lights. She frowned as she took in all the boxes, stacked from floor to ceiling in some places.

"What?" Bitsy snapped.

"Nothing, I just...it's more crowded than I remembered."

Bitsy grumbled and let the mattress rest against the wall so she could walk around to see. Her scowl deepened. "Why are we breaking down furniture when there's an empty room right here?"

"Empty?" Vera scoffed.

"It's boxes, put them in the attic or something. Or get rid of it, if you're not going to use it. What's even in these?"

Vera stopped her before she could start to open one of the boxes. "It's my mom's stuff."

"Then send it to her. I know she was always trying to send you stuff after graduation, but you're not her personal storage unit."

"She died," Vera said shortly.

Bitsy went silent. "...oh."

"I didn't want to talk about it at the time."

She walked into the room and began moving boxes aside to make room for the mattress to rest against the inside wall. Bitsy started to try to take the first from her but quickly gave up when Vera held firm. The boxes here weren't that heavy. Her pregnancy was progressing smoothly. There was no reason she couldn't help shift a few boxes from one stack to another.