Lady Rose's Education (4 page)

”Mother? You wanted to see me,” Lady Rose said.

The Countess was standing by the window. The back of her hair looked like an intricate piece of crochet work with its overlapping loops and coils.

The aging beauty turned towards her daughter. Lady Rose suspected that she had purposely positioned herself by the window, since it offered her both a pretty backdrop of luscious foliage and a favourable lighting. The obliging beams of sun played on the Countess's face. Her waist was so small one could almost hear the original whale howling in pain.

”There is something that I urgently need to talk to you about,” the Countess said and paused for dramatic effect. ”It has been brought to my attention that your new maid may not be equal to her task.”

”Who was it that came to talk to you?” Lady Rose asked. She had a low tolerance for domestic injustices. ”Was it Nellie? I know she holds a grudge the size of Ireland against Norah.”

”With a good cause, I might add. By all measures she should have been the one to be promoted to be your personal maid. She was handling the job very well during the days after Elsie –”

”I value other things in my maid apart from her hairdressing skills, mother. Conversation is one of those things.”

”Is this Norah a great conversationalist?” the Countess asked and pursed her lips.

”She will be,” Lady Rose said. She would not take the bait. ”Please tell me, what exactly were Nellie's objections to Norah?”

”I have not stated that it was Nellie, whom my information is from.
Someone
came to me and said that Norah does not seem to have a skilled hand at sewing or doing hair. Even more astonishing is the fact that this is the girl's first post as a maid, in any house and of any description. A miraculous career advancement, indeed.”

Lady Rose was preparing Norah's defence in her head, but she hadn't opened her mouth yet when her mother continued.

”I bitterly regret the haphazard way her employment was handled. The only reason for it was our fear of prolonging the shock you had, witnessing that terrible incident. We allowed you to hire a girl who had no references and no skills, but I have since come to my senses.”

The Countess tapped on the mantelpiece to give her words more emphasis.

”When a young woman is about to be introduced to society, a skilled maid with a fine taste is a great asset. A remarkable asset. You like to pretend that these things are trivial, Rose, but they are not.”

The speech that followed was one that Lady Rose had heard many times before. The gist of it was that before long she would be presented at court and she had better to prepare herself well. The young debutante's opportunity to attract an appropriate suitor was but short. Soon – the Countess glanced unhappily at the dresser mirror – very soon the charm of a fresh face faded and the young lady's chances dwindled from few to none.

”So, my maid's aptitude with braids and buns will determine my entire future,” Lady Rose said. Her derisive tone was not lost on the Countess who said coldly, ”There is more truth to that than you know.”

”It is difficult to explain, but Norah has a very comforting presence,” Lady Rose said. ”When I saw her on the field after the incident, I was in a state of shock, precisely as you said. Her calm demeanour appealed to me enormously and now I require it. The ordeal has me thoroughly distressed.”

Lady Rose thought she might have more luck, if she appealed to her mother's sense rather than her sentiment.

”All I ask, mother, is that you give Norah a chance. She seems quick enough to learn. It may turn out that we both have reason to be pleased with her.”

The Countess was either convinced or weary of the conversation. She said, ”Very well, daughter, I will not dismiss Norah yet. She can stay for a trial period of sorts, and we will see whether she can grow with her tasks.”

***

The first order of business thus concluded, the Countess dropped the real bomb.

”I have some news for you. I have received a letter from your sister Letitia.”

”Oh, yes? What does she say?” Lady Rose asked.

”She has found a young man! A very suitable young man, I might add.”

Lady Rose kept her eyes steadily in her hands.

”Indeed? Who is the young man?”

”Lord Alderton, the eldest son of the Duke of Albany! She tells me that they are engaged.”

Lady Rose's body tensed.

”Just like that? How is it possible? You and father have not even met the man.”

”Not just like that, no. This is actually not the first time I hear of him. Letitia told us about him in her correspondence a few weeks ago, and Lord Alderton has written to your father, asking for Letitia's hand.”

”Why in the heavens did you not tell me?”

”I wanted to wait until the business was all settled, and now it is. Letitia and Lord Alderton are coming here, once the Easter term is done with, in two weeks' time. We are having a welcoming dinner for them, and I will invite some of our neighbours, too.”

Lady Rose looked at her suspiciously.

”Whom will you invite, mother?”

”Your aunt Agatha and Lady Merton.” Lady Agatha was the Countess's unmarried sister, and Lady Merton was the widow of Earl's late uncle George. ”And Lord Ashbury, you'll remember him. He is the son of Duke of Wharton.”

”The eldest son, isn't he?” Lady Rose asked. ”Set to inherit that enormous estate?”

”Oh yes! I always think we ought to make more of an effort to get to know our neighbours, and for once, your father agrees.”

The Countess was using the term ”neighbour” loosely, since the Wharton estate was located at least five miles from the Abbey, but Lady Rose was not in a quibbling mood.

”I hope you will take good care of the gentleman,” the Countess said, looking Lady Rose steadily in the eyes. ”He will be seated next to you, since you are closer to his age than me or Lady Merton.” So, the gentleman was in his forties and not in his fifties. It was a thin comfort.

Lady Rose wanted to say something more. She was not in the habit of speaking to her mother unguardedly, but she was getting a taste for it.

”Mother, I can't stop thinking about Elsie. Do you not find it so strange? Full of life one moment, gone forever the next.”

The Countess pressed her lips together.

”Such is life, nothing we can do about it.”

”But it makes me think it is foolish to put one's trust in the future. Do you never think there ought to be something more?”

”Something more in what regard?” the Countess asked suspiciously.

Lady Rose attempted to explain herself.

”This whole notion of an appropriate marriage. It makes me feel like I am being offered 40 years of tedium. Is it not our duty to live, to truly live, to grab life by the throat and say, 'I will make this day memorable, and the next one too'?” Lady Rose's voice faltered under the towering concepts.

The Countess said, ”When you say things like that, it really makes me worry. Do not let your passing anxiety make you do foolish things.”

Her eyes were piercing through Lady Rose, when she continued:

”I must impress one thing upon you, daughter. A young woman only possesses one truly valuable asset. Guard it with your life. Do
not
trifle with it and ruin yourself.”

Lady Rose felt blood rush to her cheeks.

”Mother, I do not know how I have deserved this scolding…”

”I am not scolding you, Rose. I am only reminding you of the facts.” The Countess sighed.

”For all these years Mrs. Motley has been saying that we should have hired a new governess after Miss Marion left. She may have been right. This kind of counsel would be much easier for a stranger to give than your own mother. Delicate subjects should be handled by disinterested professionals and not by those closest to you.”

Lady Rose had been closer with Miss Marion than ever with her mother, but she kept this thought to herself.

”Go on now, Rose. It is almost time to get dressed for dinner,” the Countess said and rang the bell which would bring her lady's maid to the room.

”Yes, mother,” Lady Rose said and left. The door groaned out of tune on her way out.

The next day, which was Friday, Norah was stitching a vagrant collar in its place on Lady Rose's dress. The defect had only been spotted after the garment had already been put on and the hooks and clasps laboriously attached. Therefore Norah sewed the collar on while Lady Rose sat more or less patiently on the vanity stool and pretended to read a book.

Lady Rose had not berated Norah for neglecting to check the garment properly when bringing it out, but Norah was annoyed with herself. She wanted eagerly to lead both of their thoughts into something else.

”Can I ask you something, My Lady?” Norah said.

”Of course. I always encourage you to speak freely. You can say whatever pops into your head, without having to ask permission.”

”You seem to have a way with words. Have you ever thought about writing poems yourself?”

Lady Rose didn't answer right away. Norah had asked like it was any ordinary question. It was not. It was a large parcel of a question. It contained the many mornings that Lady Rose had sat at her desk, dipped her pen in the ink-bottle and tried to pull words out of herself with tongs. They were firmly stuck.

”I have tried my hand at it,” she said, ”to not much avail.” She shook her head while she spoke, and her white neck twisted so near Norah's needle that it had to jump away so as not to scratch her.

”Please, My Lady, try to sit still,” Norah said. Lady Rose concentrated and fixed her eyes in the mirror.

The trouble with writing was that she demanded that her words bear an equal weight to those of the masters. She wanted her words to seem engraved, not merely written. Why else would one bother putting pen on paper?

”I suspect that the greatest poems are not
written
exactly,” she said. ”I think the process must rather be one of
discovery
. Maybe one should not aspire to greatness but just accept it, when it is handed to him or her as a gift.”

Norah felt doubtful. In any of the occupations she knew something about, greatness did not appear without practice.

”But I must keep trying,” Lady Rose said. ”If any part of it is a skill, a craft, I must master it. That is how I shall discover my true self.”

Norah had grown accustomed to Lady Rose's use of lofty words, so she let her needle fly without a comment.

”I do not have ample time to discover it, either. It became clear when I talked with my mother yesterday,” Lady Rose said.

”What do you mean, My Lady?” Norah said without raising her gaze from the stitches she was making.

Lady Rose stretched her arm towards the desk drawer as if to pull out a letter as proof. Norah was once again forced to pull her needle back and wait. Lady Rose checked herself and settled once again to sit still on the edge of the stool.

”It seems that my sister Letitia is engaged to be married.”

”That is wonderful news, My Lady,” Norah said.

”Well, for her, possibly,” Lady Rose said, ”but do you not see what it means?”

She was staring at Norah demandingly through the mirror. Norah didn't say anything.

”Letitia is so much less palatable than I am. If she has managed to find a beau, mother will have
me
married off in a jiffy.”

She made some effort to sit still, and Norah could make a few stitches.

”And it needs to be a grand marriage. I have to secure the family position. Affection is not important, not according to my mother. After all, she has survived without it.”

Norah did not want to be caught saying anything inappropriate, but her curiosity won. She said, ”Is Her Ladyship's marriage not an happy one?”

”You have not yet seen my father,” Lady Rose said, ”and there is a good reason for it. He spends almost all of his time in our town house in London. He is the sort of man that thinks two is a crowd.”

Norah smiled.

”And even before, when they still mainly lived in the same house, my parents have not shared a bedroom in about fifteen years,” Lady Rose said.

”My Lady!” Norah exclaimed.

”Don't worry, Norah, I am not entirely without social graces. I would not say such a thing in front of any other servant. But who can I talk to, if I can't talk to you?”

Norah kept her eyes in the collar and acknowledged the praise by blushing lightly.

”Still, My Lady, do you not believe that it is possible to have a happy marriage?”

”I believe in things that I can see with my own eyes, and I can't claim to have seen one. Can you?”

Norah thought for a moment and said, ”My aunt and uncle seem to do alright.”

”Yes, well – it is different. I suppose farmers and their wives need to be united in their effort to keep food on the table.”

Norah was not sure that limited means was the best guarantee for a happy union, but she only said, ”Do you not think that you and your husband could have some common interests, too?”

”What could they be? I love art and poetry. Suitable suitors are more likely to be advocates of king and country and their own stature, maybe with an added spice of stocks and bonds. And hunting. I know this to be true at least of Lord Ashbury who is my mother's preferred candidate.”

Hard as she tried, Lady Rose could only see one kind of image of herself and the dullard of a husband. In the picture they sat at the two ends of a long table and a fleet of servants flapped around them. The gentleman was supposedly thinking about his tenants and other important business, but in reality his mind was more pleasantly occupied with the brandy and cigar that awaited him after the dinner. The lady was supposedly thinking about hats and gloves and charity work, but in truth she only longed to be reading and writing in the privacy of her room.

”I do not want to base my life on conceit,” she said. She thought a while and added, ”But then, I do not want my life to be only long walks and musings either. A complete life,
a writer's life
requires events.”

Her eyes looked large and excited in the mirror, when she said to Norah, ”No, I do not wish to be married, but I think I should like to have a torrid love affair.”

Norah dismissed this as the lady's usual nonsense, and continued her work in peace.

Norah pierced the fabric for one last time with her needle and made a French knot. Then she cut the thread with the little sewing scissors. After hearing the snip of the scissors Lady Rose leapt up like a child after a haircut.

”Thank you, Norah! You are a treasure. I will not let anyone say that you are not a skilled seamstress.”

”Has someone said that?” Norah asked, surprised.

”No, of course not. Why would they?” Lady Rose said quickly, but Norah was left with a seed of doubt.

”How are they treating you downstairs?” Lady Rose asked. ”Are you making friends?”

”I am talking to people, but I wouldn't call them my friends yet,” Norah said.

Lady Rose didn't really believe her. On those occasions that she had had some urgent business for Mrs. Motley and had gone downstairs, she had felt the general atmosphere of comradeship among the servants. They always seemed to be eating together and laughing heartily in the flickering candle-light. It must be wonderful to be tired from the day's good labour.

”You are sharing a bedroom with Nellie, aren't you? How are you two getting along?”

Norah couldn't tell her the truth, so she just said, ”Fine. Usually we are so worn after the day that we don't say much.”

Lady Rose could see them now, sharing their secrets in the dark and giggling like little girls. She felt a sharp sting and changed the subject.

”Are you going to see your aunt and uncle, since it is your evening off?”

Norah nodded her head.

”Yes, My Lady. I'm terribly looking forward to seeing them again,” Norah said.

”I hope you don't have too monstrous a tale to tell them about how you are being treated here,” Lady Rose said.

”Of course not, My Lady,” Norah said. ”I have only received kindness from you, and that is what I'll tell them.”

Lady Rose smiled magnanimously. This was how one sealed a friendship, she thought to herself.

”Is there anything else, My Lady?” Norah asked.

Lady Rose had to admit she couldn't think of reason to delay Norah anymore, so she dismissed her.