Love letters, she thought, and her curiosity sharpened. Mary smoothed her thumb across the aging ink. She dearly wanted to see what lay inside. But that, she knew, was far too grievous an invasion of Royce’s privacy. With reluctance, she put the bundle back in the trunk and closed the lid.
“Look!” Rose cried a few feet away from her. “Dresses! Maybe we’re getting back to Mama and the aunts.”
She and Camellia pulled out a couple of jackets, both velvet, one in brown and the other a dark green. They were cut along clean, even severe lines, with no frills or furbelows, and large metal buttons marched down the front of each. The collars and lapels had a mannish look, though the size and shape of the jackets clearly indicated that they had belonged to women. There were skirts in matching colors, full and trailing, as well as hats, small and saucy in style.
“They’re riding habits!” Lily pulled out a blue jacket, this one rather military, with a stand-up collar and a small shako-style hat.
The girls exchanged excited looks.
“We could wear these!” Camellia’s eyes shone. “Then that old fussbudget couldn’t keep us from learning to ride.”
“Even their boots are here at the bottom.” Lily dug out a pair of boots and bent over to compare them to her own feet. “Do you think they might fit us?”
“I’ll make them fit me,” Camellia retorted.
“We could alter the dresses—well, I mean Rose could.”
“Of course I could.” Rose examined the jacket in her hands. “The material is in good condition. And there are four of them.”
“Let’s take them downstairs,” Camellia urged. “We can start on them tonight. I’ll help you, Rose—pull out stitches or pin, whatever you need.”
The girls repacked the trunk and dragged it over to the door, then returned to open another one. A wedding dress was carefully packed between sheets of tissue and laid in it, along with a number of other articles of clothing, and the girls agreed that the wedding clothes clearly marked it as one of the aunts’ possessions since their own mother had eloped. But when they opened the next trunk, the familiar scent of attar of roses wafted up. Mary’s throat closed, and tears started in her eyes.
“Mama!”
“It has to be.” Reverently, Rose reached into the trunk and took out a folded dress. “Look! It’s a child’s dress.”
Pink embroidered roses dotted the white cotton dress, matching the pink ribbon sash, both faded over the years. Rose turned to lay it aside, then stopped, glancing around. “No. Mrs. Merriwether was right. We shouldn’t take the things out up here—they’ll get dirty.”
Mary nodded. “We’ll set it aside to be taken downstairs, too.”
They had just dragged this trunk over to the door when it opened to reveal Junie, who had come to remind them that it was drawing close to time for dinner. Mary and her sisters would have liked to continue hunting, but as it was obvious the light was fading, they abandoned the project for the day, requesting that a footman fetch the two trunks they’d selected down to their rooms. There would be ample time, after all, to explore the rest of the attic.
That evening after supper, they excused themselves early and went upstairs to work on the riding habits. They found, much to their relief, that little needed to be done. The habits were not a perfect fit, but they were close enough; and though all the boots were a trifle small, the girls were able to cram their feet into them, which they thought would do well enough since they would be riding, not walking.
The next day they began their riding lessons. Camellia quickly established herself as the best pupil on horseback, though all of them found it easy to learn under Royce’s relaxed tutelage. As Mary had thought when Royce suggested the plan, it was wonderful to get out of the house—not only to get away from Miss Dalrymple, but also simply to be outside. Mary realized how very cooped up she had been feeling only when they were outside doing something active.#p#分页标题#e#
After a beginning session in the stable yard, they rode out, skirting the gardens, and crossed a meadow. All the while, Royce kept an eye on their riding form, but Mary noticed that he also managed to maintain a careful watch on the area around them. They made their way through a stand of trees and emerged on an old track running alongside a low stone wall.
Lily pointed toward a hill in the distance that dominated the countryside around it. “What is that?”
Atop the hill stood some sort of structure, though it was difficult at this distance to tell exactly what it was.