Setting for Three

Catherine answered the door beaming.

"Alex! And what's this? A pretty, young girl on your arm? I shouldn't be surprised. Come in! Both of you, come in!"

The young couple stepped into a large foyer. Lamps hung from the vaulted ceiling spilled yellow light into pools on the marble floor and cast shadows into arched doorways. Catherine leaned her thin frame into the heavy front door, forcing it shut with a muffled thump. She turned to her guests, face crinkled by her grin, and looked them up and down, appraising them with eyes of palest blue, like buttons leeched to the last of their color.

Alex rubbed his hands at his sides, in and out of his pockets. April grabbed at one hand and held it in her own to stop its fidgeting.

"This is April," stammered Alex. "My friend, April." A sheepish smile flashed onto his face as April gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Pleased to meet you, April," Catherine inclined her head to the younger lady. "And so pleased you could come, Alex." She turned and stepped towards an opening on the right of the entry hall.

"Come inside and sit." She herded her guests up two worn marble steps and into a spacious living room. Sunlight slanting in from long windows at the front of the house fell in dusty shafts on antique furniture. The shadowed corners of the high ceiling brooded over hardwood floors darkened by age. A piano stood aloof in one corner, covered and quiet. Huge portraits of pale subjects in dark clothing hung from a wall, but there was no life to them, and their eyes seemed not to touch upon anything in the room.

Alex and April followed their host to an oasis of relative warmth and comfort in the midst of the big room. A pair of tall brass lamps shared their light with a coffee table flanked by a sofa and chairs.

"Sit, sit," Catherine urged. She picked up an embroidery hoop and laid it aside before settling into a old padded rocker beneath one of the lamps.

The other lamp stood over a high-backed leather chair the color of old, dried blood. Below it lay a disk of carpet, dark like a spreading stain on the hardwood. Alex and April took their seats on the more inviting sofa. Its knit throws layered over swollen cushions welcomed them like children to the lap of a plump, shawl-wrapped mother.

A table filled with photographs stood beside Catherine's chair, their frames glowing warmly in the lamplight. In contrast to the oversized wall portraits, these showed scenes of vibrant, captured life. A smiling family gathered at Catherine's right hand. Above and behind them, a little away from the lamp, a small birdcage hung from a brass stand. The tiny yellow bird inside opened and closed its beak but the only sound was a faint scratching when it shifted on its perch.

"Oh my," clucked Catherine. "We're three now aren't we? But set for two." She frowned at the plates and cups of china on the coffee table. She rocked herself to the edge of her seat an then with a second effort pushed up to her feet. "Alex, I dare say you know your way around a kitchen and dishes, though that may change now, eh?" Her eyes twinkled. "Come to the kitchen, see if you can't find another setting while I bring out some pie, hmm?"

Alex trailed behind Catherine to the back of the house, passing closed doors and stairs leading up or down to shadowed landings. The smell of fresh baking pulled them by the nose into a kitchen large enough to accommodate a small staff of cooks and sporting utensils enough to arm them to the teeth. Catherine made her way over to a pie resting on a cooling rack in the window.

"Where...?" Alex stood lost, confronted by a legion of cabinetry.

"I can't help you." Catherine laughed, the pie clutched in her hands. "I've a girl who comes in to help with the cooking and the cleaning. But she's out for the day. It's your guess where she keeps the good china."

Alex twisted his lip in a frown. He scanned the rows of doors from one end to the other. He hesitated, then strode to a butler's niche where a case with french doors faced a small wine rack. He pulled open the doors and sure enough, he found a collection of flowered china..., two places missing.

wc: 752/1912