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Chapter Fifteen
For days Beatrice had been beset by what had happened at the park. By how badly Briggs had hurt William, even if unintentionally. She knew it had been unintentional. But William had been... Different since it happened. Quieter.
She wanted him to chatter again.
She had a feeling if it had only been those boys that had said those things to him, he would not have been cowed at all, but his own father had told him not to speak of those things, and that was what had silenced him.
She understood why Briggs had done it. She understood it was not out of any desire to hurt him or alter him in any way. ‘William,’ she said. ‘Would you like to take a walk today?’
‘No,’ he said.
It made her chest hurt.
‘What would you like to do?’
‘Nothing,’ he said.
‘Come, let’s go to the garden,’ she said.
She found herself the focus of his irritation, but she did manage to cajole him outside to the garden, where he at the very least seemed contented by the presence of the statues. She had not spent much time outside since coming to London, other than when they had gone touring. She hadn’t been out in the garden in full daylight, she realise
d. And for the first time she noticed that there was a large glass building out in the corner.
‘What is that?’ she asked William.
‘Oh,’ William said, looking where she was gesturing. ‘I don’t know.’
It occurred to her then that the boy had never been here before. So asking him that question was silly at best.
‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I forgot that you have not been here before either.’
‘It looks rather like the one at Maynard Park,’ William said. ‘It is a greenhouse. It is where the flowers are kept.’
‘Flowers?’
‘Yes. Orchids.’
She did not realise there was a greenhouse at Maynard Park. Briggs hadn’t mentioned. Then she had not had a chance to explore the grounds thoroughly.
‘Let’s go look,’ she said.
William was uninterested. But she considered it a mark of progress that she was able to extract him from the statues, and convince him to come with her. They went down the path and peered through the glass windows.
It was filled with flowers. Beautiful flowers.
She cracked open the door and walked inside, and looked around the room.
She did not know the name for all of these blooms. They were exotic and rare, brightly coloured.
‘I’m not supposed to be in here,’ William said.
‘Why?’
‘It is a rule.’
‘How do you know you’re not supposed to be in here if you’ve never been to the town house before?’
‘It is the rule about the greenhouse in Maynard Park.’
