Chapter 4 – Sisterly Consolation

Anne departed the week before the new inhabitants of the house of The Great Elliot were to move in. It had already been established that they were to take their walk-through once the family moved out. Anne, herself, deemed it best not to be there. It was not her desire to be questioned about the house, nor did she like the thought of viewing her home through a stranger's eyes. She felt no animosity toward the new tenants, only a need for privacy in the sentiments she felt for the place.

Mrs. Russell was delighted to be able to drive Anne to Mary's home on her way to the airport. They parted once Mrs. Russell had been given Anne's promise that she would call her every day. Yet Anne knew that it was usually the busy Valeria who was remiss at returning calls.

Anne was met immediately by the boisterous cries of her two nephews, Charles and Walter. Walter was caked in mud, sprawled out in the foyer. When Anne took him by the hand to lead him into the bathroom, she came upon Mary lying on the sofa with a towel over her eyes.

"Is that you, Anne?" she asked weakly. "I thought you would never come. Really, I expected you last Thursday."

"You knew I was coming today. Didn't you get my email? Yes, I know you did. You responded with such a happy reply, it made my day."

"Oh, Anne. I really wasn't happy. I just didn't want to depress you." Mary had removed the towel by now and was speaking loudly to Anne as the older sister took Walter back to the bathtub.

"Where's Charles?" Anne asked her younger sister.

"Oh, Anne. You are so lucky not to be married. It really is the height of misery. He is out golfing…again." Charles Musgrove, Mary's husband, was a physician in his father's practice. His father, Richard Musgrove, had paved the way for his first-born, having established himself as a very talented plastic reconstructive surgeon. Colleagues the world over contacted him for his advice and expertise; he was well-known for his capabilities in the most serious of cases. The son enjoyed the rewards of his father's toil. Not that anyone believed Mary's husband to be a disreputable surgeon; Charles was just content with the niche his father had carved for him and did not aspire to more. And though Anne sometimes heaved a relieved sigh that she had declined Charles' proposal of marriage, she was glad that he had then become interested in Mary. She liked the easy-going manner of her brother-in-law and knew that he was a perfect match for her hypochondriacally-inclined sister.

Mary huffed about on the sofa for a few moments before following Anne to the bathroom, leaning her shoulder against the frame of the door. "I have been here all day, and no one has come to see how I'm getting on. Really! I could be dying and everyone would go about their day as if – 'Oh, Mary is fine. There's nothing wrong with her.' It's as though they want me to pretend that my head isn't going to explode with the pain I'm enduring. Well, I do try to pretend for their sakes. But, really! I can only endure so much." Mary pressed her back up to the doorpost and moaned. She let her body slide down until she was sitting on the floor; her legs sprawled out in the hallway.

"And Charles just left me here this morning. He left at 7 am – told me he was going golfing. And I said to him, 'What about me? You're not just going to leave me here with the boys while you go play?' Do you know what he said?" Anne directed Walter to tilt back his head so that she could rinse his sudsy hair.

Mary did not wait for a response. "He said, 'I'll only be out for a couple of hours.' And that was seven hours ago!" Mary continued to moan for a moment. Anne turned to find a towel for the clean, but dripping, Walter. Mary watched her sister search the closet. "They are all in the laundry room. Sheila won't be back 'til tomorrow, and I've been too sick to fold them myself." The younger sister did not bother to get up as Anne walked over her and headed to retrieve the missing towel.

"What happened to Jenny?" she asked as she came back with the towel.

"She had to take a day off today," Mary moaned again. "I tell you, she takes more days off than she works."

"Why don't you get someone else to help you with the boys, then?"

"Oh," Mary was picking crusted food off her t-shirt, "it doesn't matter who I hire, somebody over there doesn't like her." Mary motioned in the direction of the house of the Richard Musgroves. Charles and Mary's wedding gift had been the two-story residence they now inhabited which was approximately three acres in distance from his parents' house. While Charles did not make the income or live in the style of his parents, he would someday inherit from the wealthy surgeon.

The Grand Manor, as it was called jestingly by the younger ones, housed not only Dr. and Mrs. Musgrove but also Charles' two younger sisters, Louisa, 22, and Henrietta,19, who had returned from college for the summer.

"Do you know they never come to visit?" Mary began to pull herself up off the floor as Anne carried Walter up to his room. She stumbled up the steps behind them with a "you need a bath, too," to her older son still playing in the foyer.

"We never see them; it's like they run from me. And when my mother-in-law takes the boys, which is rare, they come back hyper from all the candy they've eaten! I'm very depressed, and it's very trying."

Two-year-old Walter was shouting over his mother. Once Anne calmed the boy, his mother continued.

"Anyway, I can't get any real help, and I'm cooped up in this house all the time!"

"Well, I'm here now and you can relax," soothed Anne.

"Hmm…his clean shirts are in the laundry room," she said as his aunt opened an empty drawer.

It was a whole two hours before Mary decided she was well enough to go with Anne and the boys to visit the Grand Manor. "Really! It is so rude for them not to have been here by now, and I know they know you are here because I told Charles to tell them when he went with his dad this morning."

"But, Mary, I'm not really company. I'm your sister."

"Oh, Anne. I am not one to complain about such silly insignificances generally; it's just the principle of it."

Both the Musgrove sisters and their mother were delighted to see Anne and within minutes had her seated in the music room to listen to Louisa's latest passion: the acquisition of a harp. Henrietta sat down at the piano and they played a lovely duet for their audience.

"Isn't it glorious?" gushed Louisa. "I told Dad he shouldn't have, but he knew I just had to have it when I saw it at the expo. It's too perfect," she said, plucking the strings lovingly, "and I'm going to practice until my fingers are nubs."

"And he also said I get to play it, too. So let me have a go." Henrietta was ready to show off her own skills when a loud commotion from the hall brought the playing to a halt. Shortly thereafter, Charles and his father entered.

"Ah, there you are. I knew if the boys were here, we might be entertaining visitors." Richard winked at Anne. "How are you, my dear?"

"I am well, thank you." She got up to embrace the patriarch of the family while her sister pretended to ignore her husband. Anne felt a deep regard for the Musgroves, and they treated her like she was their own.

"Sorry we're late getting back," Charles spoke to the group as a whole, but everyone knew the words were really meant for Mary. "Dad had an old client contact him, and we ended up going out for a late lunch with the man."

"Yes, so you see, it was all my fault," the older Musgrove stated, sitting down in a plush recliner. He didn't look the least bit sorry for it. His temperament was just as easy-going as his son's in many ways. "Play a little jig then, girl. I didn't buy that harp for you girls just to sit and look pretty with it." Dr. Musgrove did not take pains within his family circle to conceal that he was a man of humble beginnings.

"You don't 'jig' on a harp, Dad," Louisa admonished but played a few notes of a song on the piano, and Henrietta began her accompaniment. Charles came and sat down beside Anne for a moment. "You made it, then."

"Yes. And we are completely moved out."

For a moment Charles looked lost but then remembered. "Ah, yes. Your family is in New York?"

"Yes."

"I'm sure they are enjoying it." Charles still sat, and Anne listened to his sisters' music.

"I wish I could take Mary sometime. She would like to get away for a while." Anne had been prepared for his avenue of thought. Everyone in the Musgrove household looked to Anne to bring peace to the two houses.

"I suppose she told you she is sick." He looked over at Mary who was still sulking and looking in the direction where Henrietta was playing the harp. "I wish she wouldn't think she is sick all the time. Perhaps you could talk with her about it while you're here. She always listens to you, Anne."

Later it was Mrs. Musgrove's turn to relate some distress. "Anne, I love Mary. You know that. It's just…I'm having a problem with the boys, and I think it's because they are not being handled well at home. They fight and break things constantly when they come over. The only way I can keep them from destroying my rugs is to bribe them with sweets. Do you think you might give Mary some tips for controlling the boys? You are so good with them, you know."

Louisa, ever the talker, spoke with Anne at length about the situation between the Mrs. Musgroves. "You and I are close, so I don't think you will take it wrong when I tell you that your sister is not very nice to Mama. The other night at the Poole's party Mary mentioned to Mrs. Poole that she and Charles should have been sent their own invitation and not just invited as inclusive of Mama and Daddy's family. Then she said – right in front of Mama – 'my family has been known in this circle much longer anyway.' And you know how Mama already feels out of place here. I would appreciate it so much if you would just hint to Mary that she doesn't have to throw it in Mama's face about her upbringing, you know?"

There was little Anne could do about these remarks but listen and sympathize. She loved them all, including Mary.