Lady Rose's Education (11 page)

Lady Rose was up before the dawn. She had slept restlessly after returning to her room at midnight, not knowing what had happened and whether Norah had made it back to her room undetected after her mission.

Lady Rose put on her simple morning dress and slipped out of her room. She knew which train Mr. Cowley was going to take, so when he came down the stairs, she was already waiting for him in the foyer.

”Lady Rose!” Mr. Cowley said. ”Is something the matter?”

”No,” she said. ”I just... I wanted to wish you a good journey home. I hope you have enjoyed your stay with us.” She could have kicked herself. What was she – a concierge at the Savoy?

”I almost didn't recognise you with your hair...” he made a gesture towards her hair which had been tied into a long braid for the night.

”I only... I really wanted to say that I'm dreadfully sorry about your mother,” she said, flustered.

”Thank you,” he said and bowed his head, brushing his eyes and forehead with his hand. He looked exhausted. ”Do you happen to know if the car is ready?”

Mr. Cartwright appeared from the sidelines. ”Yes, sir, it is waiting for you now.”

”Thank you.” The gentleman took Lady Rose's hand briefly and looked straight into her eyes.

”Thank you for all of your kindness. I mean it.”

He turned to go out of the door Mr. Cartwright was holding open for him. Lady Rose stood there and breathed lightly, containing herself in one sharply defined piece.

Once the door had banged closed behind the two men, she could let out a long sigh of disappointment.

***

Lady Rose sat down in front of the dresser mirror and looked at herself in the gloomy morning light. So this was what a woman in love looked like.

There was a twice-folded piece of paper on the dresser, which hadn't been there when she left the room. She reached out her hand and opened it. Everything she knew was shattered.

Lady Rose looked at Norah sharply through the mirror.

”I think a summer storm is brewing. The air feels very confined, don't you think so, Norah?”

”Yes, My Lady.”

”Don't you think the air feels very confined?”

”Yes, I do, My Lady.”

”But would you say the air feels very confined or only moderately confined?”

”I am not sure what you are asking me, My Lady.”

”I am asking you to have an original opinion, instead of the eternal 'Yes, My Lady' and 'No, My Lady'.”

Norah looked startled. She didn't say anything.

”Sometimes one can be so full of polite humility, one comes across as sly,” Lady Rose said viciously.

”Have I done something to annoy you, My Lady?” Norah asked warily.

”You are probably yourself the best judge on what you may or may not have done,” Lady Rose said.

”Truly, I don't know what you mean,” Norah said.

”But as for my feelings – well, 'annoyed' is not the word I would use.”

Lady Rose opened the dresser drawer, produced the folded piece of paper and put it on top of the dresser. Norah recognised the note and stared at it in confusion.

”Have you opened it, My Lady?” she asked thinly.

”I found it right here, where I have placed it now,” Lady Rose said, ”and had no way of knowing it was not for me. Yes, I have read it.”

”How could it have gotten there?” Norah said.

”To be honest, Norah, I am more interested in the contents of the letter than its route to my room. In it, Mr. Cowley writes some very strange things.” Lady Rose looked at Norah straight into eyes. ”He says that when he saw you walking in the woods, your black hair was like 'a bouquet of ravens'.”

”It is a personal letter, addressed to me!” Norah said, appalled.

”At first I thought it was a peculiar thing to write,” Lady Rose said, ignoring Norah's protests. ”Almost like an insult. But then I came to the conclusion that the image is quite beautiful, fresh and original. I am convinced that it was meant as a compliment.”

Norah blushed violently. It was hard to tell from her expression whether Lady Rose's words angered or embarrassed her.

”The man thinks highly of ravens,” Lady Rose said. Her eyes met Norah's eyes in the looking glass. ”And of you, obviously.”

Norah was slowly recovering from her surprise and started to say, ”My Lady, it is not –”

”I can see clearly now why you wanted to slander him to me.”

”I have not slandered him –”

”What fun you have been having at my expense.”

The air quivered with hostility from Lady Rose's direction.

”Tell me exactly what happened last night, when you went to his room. At my request, no less.”

Norah got some of her dignity back. ”I don't want to talk about it. Nothing of
that
sort happened, I hope you would not think that ill of me.”

”Well, something must have happened, if he was inspired to write you a love letter right after it.”

”He didn't,” Norah muttered, looking at her feet.

”What?” Lady Rose asked.

”He didn't write it after last night,” Norah said. ”That is, he had already written it when I went to his room.”

Lady Rose stared silently ahead. She looked pale and languid. Even her breathing was not audible.

She slowly said, ”So, last night when I asked you to give him the note from me, you had already...” Again a perfect stillness took over. Then, ”Did you give him my note?”

”No, I didn't,” Norah said. ”Once he had said some things, I didn't think you would want me to give it to him. My Lady, I would not have gone into his room, if you hadn't – well, you practically shoved me in there.”

”That is neither here nor there,” Lady Rose said wearily. She rubbed her temples with her fingers. She was getting a headache.

Lady Rose stood up, walked to the window and stood in front of it for a seemingly interminable while.

Norah said, ”My Lady –”

”Give him up,” Lady Rose said forcefully. ”If you care for me at all, give him up!”

She pressed her hands against the windowsill and straightened her back. She took a deep breath, trying to compose herself. Then she said more calmly, ”If there is anything you hold dear: me, our secret society or your employment with me, this should not be a difficult decision for you.”

Now Norah was getting angry too. ”For all of your grand talk of freedom to love and –”

”That is no excuse to betray a friend.”

Norah bit her lip.

”Norah, he says he wants to see you with your hair down,” Lady Rose said. She glanced meaningfully at the note on the dresser. ”Do you understand that this is not how a gentleman courts a lady? He says things that are hardly
respectful
. You were correct the first time, he is a chancerer.”

”If you want to continue to be my maid and my friend, you will have to give him up,” Lady Rose said again, but this time she was calm and weighed her words carefully.

Norah was still holding the comb. She had her hand around it so tightly that her knuckles were turning white.

”My Lady, I believe it is you who have betrayed me. For all your grand talk of freedom and secret society, you only ever meant freedom for yourself.”

She took the note and put it in the pocket of her apron. Then she said the thing she might well regret within the same hour, ”I have to resign from my post, Lady Rose. I will pack my things and leave in the morning.”

Norah walked along the long corridor, for the last time, she thought. She wanted to have it out with Nellie. It had not been too hard to figure out how the slip of paper had wound up on Lady Rose's dresser. Nellie had seen her read the note, again and again, incredulous and stunned, and received no answer to her curious questions. Nellie had also been bitter about her post as a lady's maid, the entire time Norah had been in the house. She only wanted evil for Norah.

Nellie was not in the room they shared, so Norah went out to the corridor again. She had huffily talked about packing her things, but in truth it would take precisely five minutes to pack her few possessions. She had time.

Norah took her search to the servants' kitchen and servants' hall, but both were empty. She wanted to confront Nellie while she was still suitably outraged and not yet fully aware of her new situation. Nellie must still be doing beds upstairs in the family's bedrooms.

Norah went to the stairs and peeped out to the foyer. She had arrived just in time to see Lady Rose come and head out of the door. She was apparently going for a walk, wearing the black cape, the sister garment to Norah's green cape. Norah felt a sharp sting in her chest.

If Norah had still been Lady Rose's maid, she would certainly have advised against a walk. There really was a storm brewing, like the lady had said earlier. But then, Lady Rose had never taken heed of her cautions before, so why would she have done so this time?

Lady Rose went through the door and it banged shut, so Norah knew it was safe to go to upstairs bedrooms now. She would not run into the lady there.

Guiltily she skulked in the upstairs hallway and listened to sounds coming from the rooms. She had no reason to hide. She was not doing anything wrong and she couldn't be fired anymore, but she was very careful not to make unnecessary sounds.

When she passed Lord Charles's room, the door was open and Lord Charles was standing in the doorway. Norah recoiled from the unwelcome sight.

”Lord Charles, what do you want?” She spoke more boldly to him than she had before. Now that she was not a servant anymore, she was free to abandon the submissive attitude and she would.

”Elsie's replacement,” he said. ”Where are you going in such a hurry?”

”I have a name, you know,” she said. ”Not that you will need to learn it anymore. I am leaving today.” The information caused no visible reaction in him.

”I know your name,” he said, ”it's Norah.”

She wanted to leave the strange situation, but Lord Charles's intense stare had her locked in place.

”Was there something else you wanted?” she finally asked, and it appeared that he took this as an invitation. With two long strides he arrived in front of her and took her face between his hands.

”Lord Charles!” she said, her voice made loud and echoing by the rugless corridor. He bent his face closer, and Norah could smell something pungent in his breath. She knew it to be liquor, because she had smelled it before though never tasted.

Lord Charles gave Norah a rough kiss before she had a chance to push him away. She struggled away from his grasp and pushed him away, cramming her elbow in between their bodies, but now Lord Charles was not trying to hold her captive anymore.

He was crying.

”I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” he said drunkenly. ”I don't want to hurt you. See, you are free to go.” He spread his arms to demonstrate how free she was.

Norah took a few steps back. From the corner of her eye she saw something moving, and when she turned her head, Nellie was standing there.

”I miss her,” Lord Charles said, swaying in agony. ”I don't know what to do without her. I am guilty for everything.”

”But you didn't kill her, did you?” Norah asked. He looked up surprised, with red eyes.

”I couldn't save her. I should have saved her,” he said.

”It's not the same thing as killing her,” Norah said, as much for Nellie's benefit as for his. ”Maybe you should go and rest a bit.”

”I'm sorry,” Lord Charles mumbled again and went back to his room, closing the door very quietly behind him.

”He will soon sleep it off,” Nellie said.

”I'm leaving in the morning. I hope you are proud of yourself,” Norah said to Nellie.

Nellie looked unrepentant.

”I know you did it, Nellie,” Norah said.

”Looks like you will manage alright,” Nellie said brazenly. ”More than one man in hot pursuit.”

”Two more than you have,” Norah said, but then she turned away in sudden exhaustion. She had no more lashes in her to deliver. She was drained empty, but she was also free. She might go to bed and sleep for a week.

***

Lady Rose struggled ahead against the wind as fast as she could. The weather had aligned with her state of mind in a most satisfying manner. The wind ranted and raged around her and tried to sever her from her cape, the cursed cape.

She exposed her cheeks to it. She wished the wind would make her face coarse and raw. She wanted to feel chilled to the bone. It might cure her of her current state of hot humiliation.

She could hardly see where she was going, pacing ahead with her eyes fixed on the horizon. Every time she thought about the note she had written to Mr. Cowley, she felt a burning shame. Of course the gentleman hadn't actually received the note. That was a blessing, anyhow.

But Norah. Norah had been prepared to let her make a fool of herself, that was what stung her worst.

The gale gave little poplars a thorough shaking. They probably deserved it. They looked as flimsy and ignorant as she had been.

When she had finally made her way back to the Abbey, Lady Rose gave in to the fatigue that came over her. The second footman William took one look at her and called for Mrs. Motley.

”Goodness, Lady Rose, you look very ill. Almost as ill as His Lordship,” she said with nothing of her usual calm demeanour.

The influenza that Mr. Cowley had been running away from, when he came to the Abbey, had found its way there after all.

Mrs. Motley helped Lady Rose to her bed. She collapsed and slept like the dead.