The canvas stood before her, but all she’d managed to create was a brief outline of the manor house and the over-large moon hanging ominously above. A noise on the ladder caught her attention, and she was glad when she saw Georgina climb up. Georgina took a seat and stared thoughtfully at the canvas. ‘So many of the Manor,’ she observed, ‘You paint little else.’ ‘That’s not true,’ Penelope argued. ‘There are just as many of the parsonage.’ Georgina’s eyes swept over the paintings around the room. An odd and uneasy silence hung between the two of them, and Penelope waited for Georgina to begin. She didn’t have to wait long. ‘We haven’t seen you for a few days. I thought you might be unwell still?’ Penelope flushed guiltily. She’d sent a note to Georgina the day after the dance saying she was ill and wouldn’t be visiting as planned. Since then she’d avoided the Manor, wanting to stay away not from the house, which she adored, but from Sebastian, who still loitered there.
