The Ruby in the Storm

Chapter 19: Alea Iacta Est

Chapter 19: Alea Iacta Est

Although it had only been a year since her fateful trip to Lanfore and beyond, the moment Lucy stepped out of the carriage and turned to face her mother's London home, she felt as though she had been gone for a lifetime. Everything was so familiar yet different. It was gray and bland, but still lively with memories... Memories of a time before everything had happened.

Simpler times. Happier times.

Lucy had thought over what she would do upon seeing her mother again. She contemplated rage, but that was what she wanted to do a year ago, and she liked to think she had evolved since then. But if not rage then what else? Forgiveness? Was she ready for that?

No... Not until she knew everything her mother did. Only then would she consider forgiveness.

Gathering her skirts, Lucy stepped forward and breathed in and out slowly. Some said that it helped, but she didn't see how. Still, she did it and kept doing it until she reached the door and, on impulse, reached forward and knocked three times before stepping back.

Lucy thought eternally felt heavy, but really it was light, like a feather. It was like a wisp of a second, a breath of a very fleeting moment. She knew this because she thought it would be overwhelming to wait for the door to open, but the swift, fluid movement last one heartbeat, and there it was wide open, and the footman stood there with a welcoming smile.

"Ms. Quincy!" The footman beamed. He was a younger man that was hired a few months before Lucy had left London for Lanfore. Jack was his name, if she remembered correctly.

"Hello," Lucy smiled. "Jack, is it?" The footman nodded and stood aside to let her in. "Is my mother here?" She asked while he removed her wrap.

"Yes, ma'am, she is," he replied. "She was with the physician but I believe she is resting now in her room upstairs."

"Take me to her, please," Lucy said, surprised that such a request came so easily to her when a year ago she would have sooner shot her own two feet than see her mother again.

She remembered the house well, but still allowed the footman to lead the way. She wanted to take the journey slow, but stalling was not something that would help her case. When they arrived at the door to her mother's room, in fact, she dismissed the footman and opened the door herself. The world was still moving by the breath of a second, as if the universe had decided to finally be on her side and move things along.

The first thing Lucy saw when she stepped into her mother's suite was the wide window with the curtains drawn back. It was the only source of light in the room, as far as she could tell, and despite the gray outside world it seemed to be enough. Lucy shut the door behind her and stepped inside, feeling her heart beat a thousand miles a minute. She thought she wouldn't be nervous, but that was foolish, of course she was. She was facing a past she didn't even know she had, that was enough to send the most virile of Homeric warriors down in a tailspin.

"Mother?" She called into the suite. It was large and spacious, just like how her mother had wanted when she first came to the house all those years ago. Her mother had wanted enough space so not to feel enclosed and trapped. Perhaps that had a metaphorical connotation that Lucy was missing, but then again perhaps not. Her mother was a complicated woman in many, many ways but hardly poetic.

"Mother, are you here?" Lucy stepped in further and glanced around. There was a small sitting room with a fire lit, and a tiny bookshelf as well. Lucy went in further towards the bedroom, the door of which was ajar, and she pushed it open.

At first she didn't see her, but then when her vision focused she saw the small, frail women lying on the vast bed with her eyes to the ceiling. Lucy had not been expecting a warm reception, honestly she hadn't known what exactly to expect at all, but certainly not what her mother said next.