In the City

Lacy came - it’s so good to see her again! She stayed for lunch and did her best to humour Mary, whose hypochondria flared up after all the time spent in the hospital in Lyme with Louisa.

I left the cottage and the lodge and headed back to the city today with a strange mixture of feelings - remembering the cozy warmth of the Musgrove family dinners, the pain of seeing Wentworth again, the hints of friendship with him starting again (maybe?). I know he can’t forgive me and we won’t ever be close, but it seemed he could perhaps reconcile to being acquaintances at least. Whatever small piece of friendship we could have would be better than nothing at all.

After the drive to her house, we sat down with some tea and discussed the accident in Lyme for a while. Lacy asked about Wentworth. I could tell she was worried about us meeting again, about how I would handle it. I found it easier to discuss everything after I mentioned that Wentworth and Louisa seemed to be a couple. Lacy repeated Lousia’s name with the snobby disdain that sometimes creeps into her speech. I suspect she thinks less of Wentworth for once admiring me and now admiring Louisa.

I realized, as Lacy and I were talking, that I had so completely immersed myself in life at the lodge that I had hardly given any thought to the things that had been so important to me before arriving - including Dad and Beth. I’m trying to decide if this makes me a bad person or is an admirable feature of being highly adaptable to wherever I find myself.

I relayed to Lacy what I had heard via email from Beth. She and Dad are very pleased with their townhouse in the new part of town at the top of the hill. They literally look down on everyone in town. I am pleased because the rent is quite a bit less than what we are getting for Elliot Hall. Beth sent me a bunch of photos of the place but I haven’t looked at them in detail. I’ll be there myself soon enough anyway.