It is the way of things."
"But why....." It seemed almost cruel to ask, but she had to. "Why the
charade of my being Anne's child? Why couldn't you and I have had each
other, at least?"
"Aye, that. Well." And for the first time that night, through all the
gruesome details, the woman found herself at a loss, as if this alone
still caused in her something akin to remorse. "At first it was the
family honor. It was as easy to cloister the two of us, as one. And
then.
"I tried to poison myself a short time after you were born, as only
your life inside me had prevented my doing before. As much as I wanted
to love and care for you, as the innocent babe you were.....
"It all became too much for me, Mary, and my brother's death was the
final blow. I just wanted it to end. They say I went quite mad for a
time, if endless loss, and a death-like sense of oppression be
madness.
"The surviving family, the Talberts, then considered me an unfit
guardian. And with the coming of dark times it was difficult to blame
them, or disagree..... And so I gave you up---"
She had to stop, because the girl had risen beside her in the bed, and
this time in deepest earnest, wrapped her arms about the withered
neck, weeping as if there were nothing left in all the world.
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