The tea is horrible and the taste is not improved even by the exquisite cups we drink it from. They have some kind of oriental motif on them as it is the fashion nowadays.
I sip the awful fluid and slowly regain my composure. My English placidity is taking reins from my Italian temper. I smile when I remember my parents, so different from each other but so compatible, like yin and yang. Always at ease, making jokes about their peculiar habits and tempers. Both were good, honest people and had a sense of humour which outraged most of polite society. My English mother and Italian father, I wonder what advice would they have given me, were they alive. I've missed them every single day since the day they died. Yet, thinking about them does not make me sad but gives me comfort and a warm feeling of love glowing inside.
'I can see you are already feeling better my dear' says Lucille putting her cup away 'I hope you were not too devastated at the first sight of the house'
'No, not at all' I answer and take another sip of tea to gain some time 'Naturally, Thomas has informed me about the state of the mansion . It does need a lot of work but it is grand indeed'
I look at Lucille's face like I used to look at my governess' after giving her an answer to a particularly vexing question. She rewards me with a smile so I think she likes what I said. Thomas relaxes a bit also.
It it true, Thomas told me everything about the house, hiding nothing. It was only me thinking he was exaggerating. He said there was only his sister and he living there, he told me about how the building was slowly being devastated because of the clay mines below, that they hardly had any money put aside. Poor boy. I can't punish him because of my own misconceptions. I give him a smile and swear to myself to be a good and supportive wife from now on. He smiles back and his eyes glow with inner warmth. Now I can recognize the man I met in Italy and fell in love with.
Lucille stands up abruptly and starts cleaning the cups from the table. I offer to help but she refuses sternly. Thomas stands up too looking from his sister to me, unsure. Finally he offers me a tour of Allerdale Hall.