Part Fifteen

The moment they left the gazebo, Blue was overcome with a strange feeling – like she knew what was coming. They followed Devon further into the garden, between topiaries and flowers. The path seemed random, but after several minutes they appeared at another gazebo.

“What?” said Blue, her arm around her sister. “I don’t understand. Did we just go in a circle?”

Devon turned around and faced the girls. “Of course not,” he said. “You should know better than that,” he said looking at Blue, and she was brought to her memories of finding Agathea’s room on accident and the door disappearing. She turned and looked behind her, and he said, “It’s all a matter of perspective.”

Looking back at him, she said, “But I don’t know how I found you the first time.”

“Well,” he smiled, “I hope this time you took notes.”

He waved them to the gazebo where they saw Agathea helping herself to a tray of food and drink. She looked at Devon – then the girls. Spying Georgeanne whose gaze was at nothing in particular before her, she said to him, “What’d you do to that one?”

“I didn’t do anything to her,” he answered. With her plate, she stepped closer to the girls. Blue still didn’t like her very much. The woman unsettled her, but she wasn’t going to leave Georgeanne alone to her… demeanor.

“Liar,” she said, staring at the girl. Then she turned and looked at him, her eyes narrowing to slits. “You told her something, didn’t you?” Devon said nothing. “Dammit boy! Their minds are fragile.”

“I bed your pardon!” declared Blue at the comment.

“Quiet you,” said Agathea. “Don’t act like you were all tea and roses when you stumbled into my room. And that was just by accident.” Blue said nothing. “A-ha!” said the woman waving a sandwich in the air before taking a bite.

“Must you always act like this?” asked Devon.

“Like what?” the woman asked, her mouth full of food. She didn’t bother waiting for an answer since something else had caught her attention. Her nose crinkled and she sniffed the air until her attention was brought back to Georgeanne and the journal she was clutching in her hands. “My word,” she said. “Is that-?”

“Yes,” answered Devon.

The awe and amazement stayed on her face for a moment longer before her face contorted back to its usual self and she grumbled, “How’d she get it?”

“We found it,” declared Blue.

When Agathea turned her attention to her, she slowly added, “Actually, Georgeanne found it.”

The woman stepped closer to the catatonic princess which worried Blue. Then the woman stopped and looked at the princess. She stood there just looking at her as if she were going to awake from a dream and was trying to remember every detail. Finally she said in the sweetest tone Blue had ever heard her use, “Georgie?”

To follow her eyes, the princess appeared to be staring at the woman’s apron. After a couple of minutes, Georgeanne’s eyes blinked and widened slightly as if seeing what was before her for the first time. Her gaze rose up until she met the woman’s eyes. It took a moment for the princess to find her voice, but her lips finally parted, and she said, her voice low, “Aggie?” The woman smiled. Blue’s eyes became as big as saucers. Agathea handed off her plate to Blue who took it blindly as the woman took Georgeanne’s hands and led her to the gazebo. Blue stood there alone, her mouth open, her mind reeling.

“They know each other,” said Devon stepping beside her.

“I gathered that,” she replied, “but how?”

“That’s not my story to tell,” he said, and she felt like throwing the plate of food at him.

“Oh,” she said, “and I suppose she’ll just tell me the story.”

“Maybe if you ask nicely dear,” said the woman. She and Georgeanne sat at table in the gazebo. Devon placed a hand on the small of Blue’s back and guided her forward. Once under the cover of the gazebo, they all sat at the table – the sisters opposite each other with Devon and Agathea taking the remaining seats. “Thanks poppet,” said Agathea taking her plate back. Ignoring the woman for a moment, she looked at her sister who was looking up at the woman as if trying to solve a riddle.

“Who is this woman, G?” she asked.

“This woman,” said Georgeanne. “She’s... she’s…”

“G?” asked Blue reaching across the table for her sister’s hand. The woman placed her hand on top of both of the princess’s hands causing Blue to look up at the woman.

“I knew your mother,” said Agathea.

“How?” asked Blue.

“Why,” answered the woman as if the answer were obvious, “I raised her dear.”

Blue looked at Georgeanne who said nothing and then back at the woman saying, “You were her nanny?”

“Dear, no,” said the woman. “I was her mother.”

“Mother?” said Blue coughing the word out. “But that would make you…” Words failed her. She couldn’t help but remember the first she’d met the lady - her odd behavior, her attitude, her rudeness.

“I’m your Grandmother, dear,” said Agathea patting the girls’ hands.