When Parnilla found out that Mortimer had invited Evangeline to dine with him at the restaurant in the Ipswich Grand Hotel, she immediately set a plan in motion to make sure that it was she who would dine with Mortimer. She sat at her vanity, in front of her mirror, because she liked to look at herself as she wrote.
"That should keep her occupied," thought Parnilla as she laughed with glee. "Now to send this by messenger and decide what I will wear when I meet Mortimer for dinner tonight!"
Meanwhile, at Barkley Manor, Evangeline was reading in the library, passing time before she was to meet Mortimer for dinner. She was dressed for an evening in Ipswich with the man whom she was hopelessly in love with.
She heard a noise in the hall. Was it the doorbell? It had been so long since it had rung that she couldn't even remember what it sounded like. Mouette came scurrying in with the letter from Parnilla. Evangeline took the letter and said, "A letter from Mortimer?"
She finished reading the letter and her heart just about jumped out of her chest. What could Mortimer have to ask her that he needed to meet in secret? There was only one thing she could think of. She was so happy she almost cried. How romantic! A proposal in the cemetery!
Evangeline got lost in a day dream. She would finally have the cemetery wedding that she had been dreaming of for years...
"No time for day dreams Mouette, I have to change my clothes. I must meet Mortimer by the lamp post at the far end of the cemetery. That's too far to walk. I will have to take Iago!"
She ran up to the attic and changed into her riding habit. She re-read the letter and again her heart filled with joy, a feeling she seldom knew but was strangely pleasant to her.
It was getting dark but she rode Iago to the cemetery. It was a very large cemetery, but she knew most of the residents. In fact, she was the last one to see most of them! The lamp post was in the oldest and loneliest, and farthest part of the cemetery.
At last she reached the lamp post and wondered who it was that came out here every night at dusk to light it. Whomever it was was no where to be found. She was totally alone.
Meanwhile, somewhere across town, Parnilla was sitting down to a dinner of partridge and peas at the Ipswich Grand. Mortimer looked confused at the excuse Parnilla gave him but he said only, "She changed her mind? Oh. I see."
Back in the cemetery, Evangeline got down from Iago to wait for Mortimer.
She should have heard his footseps by now but she heard only silence.
To Be Continued...
